Thirty children in Ottawa will be getting a surprise delivery this Christmas, though it won’t be Santa knocking on their door.
Peace Tower Church on Bronson Avenue will be working this year with the Angel Tree Program this year, an initiative that provides gifts to children on behalf of their incarcerated parents. The church has grown from supporting seven children four years ago, to 30 this year.
“We feel that it’s a great way to connect with families in the community and show support, in kind of a big way,” says Aysha Ali, administrative assistant at Peace Tower and facilitator of the program.
Angel Tree was founded by Prison Fellowships Canada, based in Toronto, which encourages families to stay in contact while a parent is incarcerated. Parents apply for the program from prison, permission is asked from the children’s caregivers and then churches can sponsor the families.
This year there were 53 applications from detention centres across Canada, and Ali says they hope other churches will volunteer to sponsor the remaining 23 children in Ottawa.
Rev. John Raymer, pastor at Peace Tower, says he leads a team from the church each year with Angel Tree distributing the donated gifts.
“Children have the right to have an expression of love and care at Christmas, they look for that,” says Raymer.
The church sees the program as a way to show Jesus’ love to the community, according to Raymer.
He says the church’s role is to serve, because what’s important is who the gifts are coming from – the child’s mother or father.
“When I rang the doorbell, it was the child who came to the door, and he knew what it was. He didn’t know who I was, but he knew that this is a gift being delivered, by me, from Mommy,” Raymer pauses, choking up. “That was one of those moments when I said, ‘This is a good thing, this is a good thing.’ ”
Judith Laus, director of Angel Tree programs in Canada who works out of Prison Fellowships base in Toronto, says each Christmas they serve approximately 1,000 children in Canada and there is always need for more sponsors.
Laus adds that this year she is worried because inmate applications are more numerous and not as many churches have signed up to the program.
“I don’t want this year to be the first year we turn away kids,” says Laus. “I really don’t want that to ever happen.”
At Peace Tower, Raymer says even if more churches in Ottawa don’t support Angel Tree, they are confident the remaining children will be supported.