By: Helana Mulder | March 8, 2019
By: Helana Mulder, senior reporter
Hamilton has become familiar and famous for many things. It’s the city where you can walk from one coffee shop to another, experience art crawls throughout the year, and explore a bigger city that’s only a bus ride away from Redeemer.
This past weekend, March 1st and 2nd, Hamilton hosted their 15th annual TrueCity conference. This conference is organized by TrueCity, “a network of congregations in Hamilton,” and seeks to understand how churches and cities collaborate to better each other.
David Schuurman, a fourth-year student, went to TrueCity this year with a group of friends. He states, “TrueCity is so important. I don’t think a lot of people realize that we live in a city where the church is united in a way that is almost unparalleled everywhere else in the world. It is so special, and the conference is amazing—not just because of the worship and speakers, but because of the concept of what is happening as we gather.”
The conference’s keynote speaker was Pastor and Coach Lane Fusilier. Several other presenters, including Curtis Sheen, Jess Brand, and Tracy Upham, also took to the stage to share their thoughts on “what it means to persevere on a path of long obedience” (see TrueCity.ca for more).
Along with the conference itself, TrueCity and GOHOP (Greater Ontario House of Prayer) put together a prayer room where people could take shifts to pray. This time of constant prayer allows people to take the time to reflect and hear God’s voice through devotion.
Renessa Visser, a first year student at Redeemer, also attended the TrueCity conference and the 24/7 prayer room. She saw this conference and prayer opportunity as a way of joining “Hamilton’s wider Christian community, practicing unity, and learning the practices of long obedience.” She reflected on how easy it is to be distracted in the hustle of daily life and how taking time in the prayer room to “remove any extraneous diversion” is so important. Visser continues, “it allows me to refocus on God’s voice and presence for an extended length of time, reminding me of the importance of constant prayer.”
TrueCity’s website states that “the theme of the prayer room is determined by the topic of the conference. With that theme in hand, a team of artists prayerfully inquires of the Lord how the room should be designed and who else should be brought in to help build the main prayer stations.” The room is open for people to take prayer shifts and is on from now until March 15 at 78 Vine St.