It was in Peterborough, Ontario, while attending college, that I met Shawn.  He wasn’t a teacher, or another student.  He was a seven year old boy who frequented a teen drop in center in the heart of the city.  I noticed him immediately.  He wore a tiny, worn out leather jacket and his tread worn shoes were missing nearly all the laces.  It all fit together to give the impression of someone who had lived longer and experienced more than the age on his birth certificate would indicate.

I don’t really remember how it happened, it just happened.  We started playing together at the centre.  We played cards, made crafts and watched movies.  I would walk him home at the end of each day, wondering why a seven year old spent so much time by himself.  He never came with others his age, just alone.  When I met his parents, it became clear why Shawn spent so much time away.  It seemed it didn’t matter whether he came or went.  No one seemed to ever notice him, unless they were yelling at him for leaving his shoes in the way, or not picking up his coat.

I spent four months with Shawn and during that time I realized that all he needed was someone in his life who noticed he existed, someone who cared.  Over the four months we went on many bike rides, played pool, cards, and ate together in the college cafeteria, along with several other kids I had picked up along the way.  Then on a cold December evening as I was walking Shawn home from the college where he had spent most of the day, something happened that changed my life forever.  We were walking along the railway tracks that ran behind the college.  Shawn was cold so I gave him my jean jacket which I had been wearing under my trench coat.  He looked a little like those circus hobo clowns, the jacket was four times as big as he was so the sleeves dragged on the ground as he walked. We chatted for a bit, mostly to ward off the cold.  Somewhere along the way he had reached up to grab my hand, and that’s when it occurred to me.  We were two people from very different worlds.  Just a few months ago neither of us knew the other existed and now it was as though my only purpose in life was to show a little boy love.

I remember looking up at the clear night sky.  Despite the cold it was a beautiful night.  That’s the moment it happened.  My purpose had become clear.  More than anything else in my life I knew why I was created, why the events that I experienced in my own childhood had all led me to this point. I knew how Shawn felt, and so naturally when I saw this little boy walk through the door of the drop-in centre, I knew instinctively what he needed.  It was that moment I knew what I must do.  It would become the moment that would define my life, my purpose.

So here I am 17 years later, in Hamilton.  It’s here that I founded City Kidz.  Or maybe it found me.  My days continue to be spent searching for children just like Shawn.  Some need to be rescued, others just need a friend.  Each week thousands of children receive personal home visits from one of our faithful staff or volunteers.  Each Saturday over 900 children attend a dynamic kids program that teaches them about God’s unyielding love and the greatness that is within each of them.

I’ve learned a great many things over the past decade and a half.  I am not who I was when I began this journey and tomorrow I won’t be who I am today.  I still believe.  I believe that my life can count for something, and that one person’s actions can change the world.

I’m an ordained minister with Gospel Crusade of Canada.  I’m a husband to my beautiful wife Tina, and I have the privilege to be a dad to four amazing kids, Madelyn, Cassidy, Mackenzie and Noah.

Canada is my mission, but Hamilton is my home, it’s where I live and serve and as often as I say it, I mean it, as long as one child remains who needs to know that someone cares, that God loves them and has a plan for their life, I will be here, continually searching.

I don’t need much, but what I want, what I seek after and what I desire most, is this:

• I want every child to know that they matter to someone.  That they are loved, significant, and created by God with a purpose and a destiny.  Unique and one of kind.
• I want every child to know that they can achieve greatness. That they are more than the sum of their environment, experiences or circumstances.
• I want every child to know that they never have to face their fears alone.
• I want every child to experience the amazing unconditional love of Jesus Christ.

My name is Todd, my battleground is Canada, and my home is Hamilton.