Living in Someone Else’s Home

Right now, the backyard of 75 Blake street is reaching its prime. As I return to the garden after a weekend away, new flowers have opened. The tomatoes ripening on their vines are two shades darker, the grass stands an inch taller. I have walked and lived in this space for over a year now, but for the past two months I have also been working for Act Five as a property caretaker. Instead of striding through the yard on my way to the back alley or the shed, I get to linger- to notice the small changes. As I venture into the yard every day, something is always different. Sometimes it is obvious like a branch that fell in a storm, or a new radiant bloom in the garden. Often, though, the day to day changes are more subtle. 

“…the four floors were each filled with names of people and places I had yet to meet.”

When I first moved into this house just over a year ago, it felt impossible to take in all the details. After six years of programs and summer tenants, the house and the yard were saturated with other people’s lives. Art – beautiful,varied, and sometimes weird- covered the walls – each attached to a story and a name. So many students had “left one thing”,  and the four floors were each filled with names of people and places I had yet to meet. While these details made for a vibrant and exciting place to live, they felt separate from me, a backdrop to my life before the next destination. 

Shaping and Being Shaped by Home

Now, some of these details are mine. In my two summers as a tenant and my time as a resident, I have laughed and cried and loved in this house. During a full year, the seasons shift and blur into one another. It can be easy to look ahead and forget how much has changed. But a lot has. The staff offices have jumped floors twice in the year. A big part of summer residency has been lived alongside renovations that have brightened hallways and completely changed the bathrooms. 

These are larger, seasonal shifts, but there are so many smaller ones. There were canning jars on the chandelier where games of basketball shattered the original light fixtures. There is fresh paint on the walls from the Year Six gap year students. The recycling bins now live in a different corner of the kitchen. I know how to change a fuse. And so many of the names I only knew scrawled on the door frame or in pictures have become people I know and care about. 

At Act Five, we often talk about how the summer brings a different pace of life. I get to spend my last months at Blake St. with a smaller group and a simpler schedule. As I cook spaghetti for Wednesdays, explore Hamilton, spend my days in the garden and my evenings perched by AC units, I’ve had time to walk the floors and see physical evidence of how the time I have spent here has shaped me and this whole community.

“…the house and the yard are saturated with other people’s lives.”

Caring for the property at 75 Blake St. has allowed me to slow down and consider that change up close. In the course of a week, Act Five’s backyard might not look all that different, especially if you’re just passing through. An inch of growth here, a new leaf there. But compared to last month, last season, or last year, the changes are undeniable. 

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Summer in the Act Five Office – Alyssa Zilney

Summer at Act Five doesn’t usually make the highlight reel—but it’s quietly essential. The house feels quieter without students, and the weekly rhythms of meals, classes, and community life. Yet, the summer months hold space for something just as important: rest, reflection, and preparation. On the back-end of our organization, lots is happening, but it’s a different kind of happening than the rest of the year.

For me, this season is about perspective. We take on different projects, fresh to-do lists, and find our way to things we haven’t had time for—like cleaning our desks and organizing our filing cabinets. Summer is also when we begin dreaming again. We pull up from the action of the past 10 months to gain insight and take time to wonder and imagine.

“Summer is when we begin dreaming again.”

We hold some rhythms together as a staff team, too. Twice a week, our mornings begin with prayer on the porch, centred around a psalm we’ve selected for that week. On Wednesday afternoons, a few staff members garden together in the backyard. We join for Spaghetti Wednesday every other week. During this time, our external team visits camps and youth groups. They meets with partners and builds relationships over coffee, teaching lessons and talking about the good and the real aspects of Act Five. Then, at some point each of us takes vacation. 

The summer should feel spacious. At its best, this time of year holds for us a slow rhythm of rest and repeat. Like Sabbath, it’s not empty, but full in a different kind of way. A season to lay things down for a while so we’re ready to pick them up again in August—with clarity, intention, and joy.

We’re reading books, too! Here are our staff picks this summer:

• Sapiens by Yuval Harari
• Presence in the Modern World by Jacques Ellul
• Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen
• Try Softer by Aundi Kolber
• Run with the Horses by Eugene Peterson

Summer at 75 Blake Street – Erin Steckley

The Act Five staff are not the only ones practising rhythms of slowness and paying attention. So too are the residents living at 75 Blake St this summer. With fewer people in the home, there is a quietness that looks and feels different than what you might observe during the rest of the year. In this quietness though, there is still a community of young adults engaging in the discipline of “showing up.” In between summer jobs and other commitments that take us to different places throughout the day and week, there are meaningful opportunities to gather together. Together we enjoy the season, and engage in rhythms and practices that reflect the values and vision of Act Five. 

An important gathering point for the summer community is Sunday Evensong. This remains a time and place to end our weekend and begin our new week together in prayer and worship. Throughout the week, we have other prayer touchpoints: sitting together on the porch in the cool of the early morning. We recite the familiar daybreak liturgy from Every Moment Holy as we watch our Blakeley neighbours walk their dogs, head out to work, or glance excitedly at new additions to our Little Library. 

Our neighbours matter to us—both those we already know, and those we don’t know as well. Wednesday night dinners are also an essential part of the summer community’s life. Twice a month, we share spaghetti and stories from our week with new and old friends. The other two weeks are for catching up over a meal with our neighbours down the road at Micah House. In a world where resources and time feel scarce, Wednesdays remind us of God’s abundance.

“Summer at Blake St is a space to savour…”

In between the anchors of scheduled meals and prayer times, we find ourselves practising rhythms of spontaneity and delight—everything from catching up on the porch to watching a show together to trying out new ice cream flavours at Willard’s. Summer at Blake St is a space to savour—time, friendships, and the berries in our garden.

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The Way to Home

February 2024, the Act Five staff and board gathered in the prayer room hosted by the Greater Ontario House of Prayer (GOHOP) here in Hamilton. With GOHOP partners joining our circle, we moved through a time of prayer to grieve, pray and let go of Act Five’s home at 75 Blake St.

We had walked a road with the owner of this home – a man who purchased the home for Act Five’s use prior to its first program year in 2019 – but could not come to a reasonable agreement to be able to purchase the home. Between what an appraisal deemed as the value of the home and the asking price of the owner lay a $1 million difference. 

The lack of being able to purchase the home meant we could not viably renovate the space and could not afford to continue under our current rental agreement. It was clear that the decision was to actively pursue a new home for Act Five. Staff members continued to pray, wait and plead with God for a way to open at Blake St, but the work began to move on and move out.

Fast forward 9 months. December 2024. Act Five had completed a Strategic Planning process to organize the priorities for Act Five in the years ahead. This process made clear 3 themes for our organization and community:

Establish Home
Rooting Act Five in a sustainable home base unlocks all that Act Five might grow into in the years to come.

Open Doors
Prioritizing financial accessibility for all who desire to join Act Five and leading program that allows more people to be formed here.

Tell Our Story
Through communication and recruitment development, along with strong partnerships and new initiatives, we must tell our story widely and clearly.

It was clear that, for us to know which doors we were opening and what story we were to tell, our first priority – establishing home – was an immediate priority.

As executive director of Act Five, and as a foolishly hopeful person at times, I wrote to the owner one more time in December 2024. I articulated again our longings to remain at 75 Blake St and offered a price, only $50,000 more than we had offered back in January 2024. I pressed send and let go. This was it. A last shot. 

One Last Knock

I had pursued many other options in Hamilton at this point, each place landing as a clear no for various reasons. 75 Blake St was our home. Until the door was shut entirely, I could not imagine anything else. This email represented a final knock on the door.

A day later, the owner replied – “I want to work with you…” followed by an offer within reason of ours. Something had changed. The winds had turned.

One month later, on January 17, 2025, the owner signed an offer sheet to sell 75 Blake St to Act Five. We met in the middle of our previous offers, and he requested a quick process – we had only 2.5 months to secure necessary funding which was, to put it mildly, an optimistic goal.

Yet, we had prayed. A door had opened. So we stepped through.

By March 23, 2025, a week before our deadline, we crossed the funding minimum needed to secure the purchase of 75 Blake St – a huge day of celebration. Two months later, on May 30th, we closed on the property and took over ownership of the home that has already welcomed and been central in the shaping of over 135 young adults. 

Plans for the Future

We have only begun to know and love our neighbours and neighbourhood. Our gardens remain in their early years. Our kitchens and living spaces are not yet what we imagine they might be. The dreams of all those who now get to come through these doors, hear stories in this basement, sing and dance and share meals around these tables… these dreams are now allowed to grow to become something real.

“Act Five has established our home.”

As I write, plans are in place to begin renovations this summer – drainage improvements, electrical upgrades, new windows and bathrooms – and those plans ramp up in 2027. God’s grace through the generosity of many has been humbling to witness these past months and we are hopeful that this might continue. There remains another $1.3 million to raise for us to complete our plans to renovate and pay back short-term loans that helped us get where we are today.

For now though, this is a good story. If you agree, will you share it with others? Invite your community into the story of what God is doing here and join with us as we hope toward what God might do here in the years to come. (Consider requesting copies of our Spring 2025 issue of “Life on the Porch” to get onto more coffee tables!)

Act Five is committed to stewarding this home at 75 Blake St. We are committed to being a faithful presence in the Blakely neighbourhood and city of Hamilton; in this place, we look forward to welcoming more students, residents, staff, community members and guests that they might be welcomed, shaped and inspired.

Thank you for being on this road with us.

Sincerely,

Jon Berends, Executive Director

If you are interested in learning more about Act Five’s ongoing Capital Project: “Establishing Home”, visit www.actfive.ca/EstablishingHome. We would love for you to be part of the story in the year ahead.

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The Story

I’m standing around the kitchen island with a fellow Act Five resident on a Wednesday evening. We are debriefing the dinner we just shared at Micah House. Micah House is a home in our neighbourhood that houses refugee claimants until they find permanent housing, and assists them in navigating the sea of initial paperwork that’s required upon their arrival in Canada. We at Act Five decided about a year ago that we’d commit to bringing dinner to their home every other Wednesday evening – and eat with them. 

Now imagine it: 10-20 people squished in a small dining room, and up to four languages being spoken around the table. Food is shared, and laughter rings out as people try to tell stories and get to know one another. It can be easy to take for granted simple life necessities like communication, that is until you have to figure out how to communicate without your default tool – English! (I remember one day I was at a table where English, Spanish, Arabic, and Sign Language were all being used!) It can be an uncomfortable place; it can even cause anxiety and feelings of embarrassment or exposure. However, none of that is a bad thing – I’d argue it’s a very good thing. 

On this particular evening it was just myself and one resident who went. The Christmas holidays made it so most students and residents were away with their families. And, there was only one family at Micah House for dinner that night – so it was a much smaller group than usual. As we headed out the door with a steaming hot dinner packed up, I tossed some Uno cards in the bag. I had interacted with this family multiple times over the past month, and the two teenage boys clearly had lots of energy and nowhere to put it. I wondered if a simple card game would bring a few minutes of fun for them (and us) that evening. 

We arrived and sat around the table together, sometimes stumbling through conversation, other times hitting a groove and laughing together. I’ve learned that it’s all part of the process – being uncomfortable, hoping and praying for a creative spark in conversation, and finding comfort together. And the cycle continues all throughout the meal. It’s a process that, as you show up each week, you get used to. 

After the meal, we cleared the table and brought out the cards. The boys have decent English, so we explained the game pretty quickly and jumped right in. For the next half hour, we bonded over our shared trait – competition. I know it’s just Uno, but there were some sneaky plays happening!

When we got back to Blake Street later, the two of us talked about the evening standing around the kitchen island. While it was only an hour, we ebbed through moments of ease and moments of dis-ease. It was uncomfortable at times! We talked about how it’s easier to live in comfort, and we tend to seek it without conscious thought. That night, we were reminded that ease starts to come more easily through shared moments together. The whole room felt it strongly during that game of Uno.

Comfortable with being Uncomfortable

At Act Five, we want to practice being comfortable with being uncomfortable (within reason, obviously). In the practice of discomfort, we become less afraid. We start to realize that there’s beauty to be found in and on the other side of it.

This rhythm, dinner at Micah House, is one of my favourite rhythms at Act Five. We commit to showing up in places that aren’t naturally easy. We sit around a table when English isn’t the dominant language. It is hard, but the more we show up, the more it feels okay – it becomes life-giving, even.

To put it in perspective, too, we show up for about two hours each month. Those we meet at Micah House live this kind of discomfort each and every day as they adjust to living in a new place with different expectations and cultural realities. It seems like the least we can do is to enter into the couple hours of brain gymnastics required to broaden our compassion. 

Shared Hospitality

Hospitality is a value we hold in Act Five. But it’s not just an act we do. Hospitality is a heart posture – it’s a giving and receiving of one another. It’s easier to be kind and offer welcome to people we know, but practicing true hospitality to a stranger takes intentionality and is very necessary to our own transformation as those who are learning to follow Jesus. We bring a meal to Micah House, sure, but there’s a mutual hospitality that’s required. As they host us and we engage together, we feel uncomfortable and exposed. In this, we learn to let our egos go and receive their hospitality towards us – for we are strangers to them, too. 

One of my highlights of 2023 was when one of the families staying at Micah House made a whole Mexican dinner for us and brought it to our house to share in the backyard. They did this out of their own generosity and heart’s desire to give to us – and Act Five is no small group of people! We gladly received their gift. It was a moment when I realized we, the folks at Act Five, and Micah House are neighbours. And to be a neighbour in the truest sense means shared hospitality, and pushing through the uncomfortable moments to find comfort together.

To learn more about our friends at Micah House, visit https://www.micahhouse.ca/.

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We want to do more of this at Act Five – more learning, growing, and imagining with other people in partnership and community. We sense that Act Five is being invited to grow and go deeper in our work. Yet we can’t do this without resources. Will you partner with us to keep us going and growing? We appreciate any and all financial support. Consider donating a one-time or monthly financial gift.

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