It was a cheery bunch of friends who gathered Monday night at Cagney's Restaurant in the heart of Streetsville, as the snow swirled outside, to break bread and chat.
Not all minds were on the current moment, however.
"Two weeks from now, we'll be in Malawi," said Rebecca Truman, as the others laughed at the reminder of what several years of hard work have accomplished.
Gathered in fellowship were most of the 15 or so members of the Malawi committee at Streetsville's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.
Many of them were thinking about how far their little team has come, from the grain of a small idea planted by a speaker at their church a few years ago, to the immediate prospect of having five of their congregation, including Rev. Douglas McQuaid, visit the seven child care sites in the African country that the church has been supporting for several years.
At the centres, some of the 1.3 million orphans in Malawi come during the day to attend school, get a good meal, play with other children and give a respite to their older siblings, so they can go to school or make some money labouring in the fields. Many grandparents, who have seen their own children die of AIDS, drop off the grandchildren they are now raising in their second round of parenthood.
The first year, explained Nancy Simpson, who has spearheaded the effort, the aim was to raise $5,000. The thought of generating that kind of money was plain scary, but they did it, even though the congregation numbers just 150 families. The second year, they again set the bar at $5,000 and raised considerably more. Last year they raised $10,000.
"It has been just inspirational the way people have responded," said Simpson, who has been thinking a lot about the orphans in light of the three grandchildren who have recently entered her life. "This is just such a human tragedy," she said.
The effort by the Malawi stalwarts is proof positive that you don't have to be a big agency, like World Vision or the Canadian Red Cross, to make a difference.
St. Andrew's, which was established in 1821 on land donated by Timothy Street for a Scottish burial ground and church, works through Presbyterian World Service and Development, a special arm of the church set up to do international projects.
"We're not World Vision (which has partnered with Mayor Hazel McCallion to provide assistance to Tanzania) which is talking about raising millions," said Rev. McQuaig, whose about to celebrate his 15th year at St. Andrews. "What we'd like to do is broaden the base by involving more and more churches on a ongoing basis."
Towards that end, Simpson attended the speech last week at Mentor College in Port Credit by Stephen Lewis, whose eloquence is surpassed only by his passion for waking the West up to the African crisis it is trying so hard to sleep through.
Afterwards, the St. Andrew's folks talked to Lewis about the possibility of partnering with the many other Streetsville and Meadowvale churches who have similar African projects. Would he be the guest speaker at a big fundraiser for them so they could expand their support?
The special UN ambassador said if they got it organized, he'd be there.
What a great idea. Unifying the efforts of a lot of dedicated church committees like the one at St. Andrew's under the banner of a man who knows more about the fight against AIDS on the ground in Africa than any living man.
Thank goodness for the handfuls of dedicated people, within churches and without, who remind us that Malawi and Mississauga might be a lot closer together than we think they are.