Joining MoveIn

The beginning of 2019 marked a new chapter in my life as I finished my bachelor's degree. Near the end of the year, I was fortunate enough to get a job offer at a hospital in Toronto. There was a part of me that was excited to live alone in the city, to sequester myself and restrict my social circle. On the other hand, I also realized that I wanted to take advantage of the city’s density and integrate myself within a community—the latter of which would involve my stepping outside social boundaries. Ultimately, after reflecting on the life of Jesus Christ, I decided to put myself in a place where I could bear my fellow neighbour and love them intentionally. When I heard of a ministry called MoveIn, it felt like the perfect way for me to do this.

MoveIn is a Christian organization that forms groups in specific low-income, high-density neighbourhoods to live and pray there while engaging with neighbours intentionally. For example, my friend and I contacted the Toronto representative for MoveIn and she connected us to the St. James Town group, where I was able to meet other “MoveIners” at their weekly prayer meeting. From there, we submitted an application for an apartment and we moved into St. James Town at the beginning of this year. We started to attend the weekly prayer meetings and began meeting new neighbours and building relationships. MoveIn recognizes how Christ came down from heaven and onto this earth to make his dwelling among us (John 1:14). Those who are a part of MoveIn have a variety of day jobs such as teaching, working in a hospital, running a business, or studying in school – it is simply a group of like-minded people who want to see more of Christ’s love in the city.

Joining MoveIn challenged me to imitate Christ’s character and to embrace what living in community is truly like. When I tried to explain my interest in joining this ministry to my friends a year ago, many were confused as to why I had to move into a neighbourhood through this organization. They said that we can pray and get to know our neighbours anywhere, which is absolutely right! However, MoveIn is one specific way to do this as it brings you in contact with other Christians who want to show Christ-like love through long-term friendships. My fellow MoveIn friends have stayed in touch with some neighbours for years and they are regularly a part of each other’s lives.  

Some of us enjoy helping children learn English because they are recent immigrants, others teach them guitar chords and stories from the Bible. Some lend a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on because a neighbour has been given devastating medical news. These are the kinds of simple yet powerful actions that Christ did when he was on this earth. Even in seemingly dire situations when Christ was urgently asked to help a household, he stopped to listen to another woman who had been bleeding in misery for years and grant her relief from her chronic pain (Luke 8:43-48). In another instance, John 11:17-24 tells of how Jesus took time to listen to a grieving woman named Martha and wept with her. Refreshingly, these actions of stopping to be with our neighbours goes against the grain of society, especially in a city like Toronto where there is pressure to constantly be busy and productive. 

One of the great joys for me during this tumultuous year has been the community that I found within our core prayer team, including two other people in my apartment and also our larger St. James Town prayer group. To be able to bear one another, encourage one another during difficult times, and also to celebrate together has been a great privilege. It is powerful to acknowledge that we all have flaws, but we continually persevere in small acts to show kindness and patience in our relationships. It’s possible that one week I’ll meet a neighbour, and another week I’ll get the opportunity to help a friend with an errand, but there will also be weeks where I feel like nothing has really happened. Regardless, it is encouraging to still come together weekly with our core prayer team and be able to share stories about reaching out to our neighbours.

I feel very comfortable knowing that I have brothers and sisters who are there for me and provide a safe space for me to be able to come back to weekly (through Zoom) to uplift one another. I also see that people get close to each other because we all have the same vision and mission to see the gospel message of Jesus Christ influence St. James Town. We eat together, cry together, laugh together, worship together, pray together and share stories of our neighbours together. This is a community that is invaluable to me. 

For all these reasons and more, MoveIn is a positive vehicle to exemplify Christ’s love in the city. One of the things that has become very clear to me during COVID-19 is that we are not merely individual units, rather we are all nodes in a multi-layered, interconnected network. The things we do matter and it shows in big decisions, such as moving to the city, and also daily activities, such as asking how your neighbour’s day was. In light of the tumultuous time we live in right now, I found that one antidote was the type of love that people who are a part of MoveIn strive for in the St. James Town patch. I began to see that some of our neighbours did not have very much interaction and were grateful for friends checking in on them. Even during the present pandemic, my MoveIn community has remained steadfast in our regular virtual meetings, and we have encouraged one another to continue being in our neighbours’ lives through phone calls and sending letters. This has been time well spent learning to imitate Christ’s loving character more by being in the presence of a loving community. 

I believe that intentional community, even in a small neighbourhood, can have a ripple effect on the broader city. It recognizes the small but significant part an individual has to play, and when more of us are part of devoted communities, it can enable us to look to the needs of those around us more readily. 

Out of the abundance of the love we receive, we are able to share it more abundantly with others. 

Text: Jonathan Jin