More than 250 folks filled the parking lot of St. Matthias and St. Luke church in south Vancouver’s Oakridge neighbourhood between 10 am and 2 am on Saturday, September 7th, 2013.
The occasion was the Second Annual Parking Lot Sale and Neighbourhood Barbecue presented by the parish as an intentional way of connecting with the residential area in which the church is situated.
There were 27 tables set up in the lot comprising 20 vendors from outside the parish community who had booked the space, with the remainder made up of the 33rd Kerrisdale Scout troop who meet in the Parish Hall at St. Matthias and St. Luke and display/sales tables either fundraising for, or representing various ministry groups in the parish.The more senior Scouts, Ventures and the troop leader helped not only with the grilling of the food (the food was free for all those who attended), but also with the early morning set-up, tear-down and general clean-up.
St. Matthias and St. Luke were grateful for the support from other Anglican churches with St. Faith’s supplying a BBQ grill and Holy Cross lending extra tables.
There was significant support from the greater community as well, Engene Inc., a local commercial biotechnology laboratory donated lots of office furniture for sale and the Maui Ribs were donated by Dollar Food Manufacturing Ltd.
As of this writing there had not yet been a total tabulated for the sale but as St. Matthias and St. Luke incumbent, the Rev. Vivian Lam said “ it was not meant to be a revenue generator, but rather an outreach to the neighbourhood.” And that it certainly was. Congratulations to the St. Matthias and St. Luke community on their success.
Images: Top, Lots of variety available. middle right, 33rd Kerrisdale Scout leader and senior Scouts grilling Maui Ribs. Lower left and homepage, "How much do you want for this?" Below, a view of the event facing North.