Miracle On Centre Street
"Marilyn is one of several thousand people who every day go hungry in Calgary, a city regularly and loudly trumpeted as a city blessed with abundant riches..." - (Calgary Herald, December 15, 2002)
Call it what you will, the homeless and street people of Calgary have been marginalized, ghettoized, victimized and rejected by our society. The reasons for their suffering are complex, and more often than not, the fault is not theirs. Whoever they are and whatever their plight, The Mustard Seed opens its doors to them and offers food, a warm and safe place to stay and, if requested, a helping hand to make a fresh start.
About the Author - Dr. Gerald W. Hankins
Gerald W. Hankins, a mountain-lover living in Canmore and more or less retired, has been fortunate enough to publish four biographies of distinguished Canadians. Writing about Calgary's Mustard Seed Street Ministry is a new venture for him, but he considers it a privilege to have written about this fine organization that has changed the lives of so many homeless and street people.
During the course of researching for and writing the book, the author admits he was changed. As a child, he and his family knew extreme poverty. During a total of 19 years living outside Canada, 12 of which he worked as a doctor in a mission hospital in Nepal, he saw far too many people struggling to keep alive. But only in the past two or three years while study and writing about the work of The Mustard Seed has he been able to understand reasons for the burgeoning problem of homelessness in prosperous Canada.
