Annual Pentecost Walk Goes Online

The annual Walk for Faith, Hope & Love, an event supporting Indigenous Christian Fellowship in Regina, Sask., is usually a 5K event for participants. But this year, organizers hope supporters will walk clear across the country.

On Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2020, Indigenous Christian Fellowship (ICF) will hold its eighth annual Walk for Faith, Hope & Love. The event is a fundraising initiative as well as a way to bring people together in support of the ministry from a variety of churches and backgrounds.

Most years, participants walk a five-kilometer route through the North Central Regina neighborhood around the ministry. ICF executive director Bert Adema noted, “Participating walkers [are] encouraged to demonstrate their hope for the ministry and the community by praying for a blessing of love as they walk the 5K route.” They often wrap up the walk with a barbecue shared with participants and supporting volunteers.

This year, to comply with regulations about physical distancing, organizers decided to take the walk online. Participants will still collect pledges, walk a certain distance, and support the ministry; however, they will do it in their own homes or neighborhoods — and cook on their own barbecue grilles.

Because walkers can participate anywhere, organizers Larry Fry and Dawn Rossignol hope to see friends of ICF from across Canada joining the virtual walk. Alongside the Indigenous Family Centre in Winnipeg and the Edmonton Native Healing Centre, ICF is one of three urban Indigenous Ministries of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

To join the walk, individuals and families can contact Fry ([email protected]), Rossignol ([email protected]), or Adema ([email protected]) for a registration and pledge form, fill it out, walk “somewhere in some fashion for some distance to raise some funds for the ministry,” and then send in the donations, along with the pledge form, to the ministry center in Regina. Contributions of $20.00 or more will be receipted for tax purposes.

Adema noted, “Participants are encouraged to take and submit photos showing their steps or strides of faith, hope, and love in support of ICF.”