Bread, masks and serving seniors

Couple connects with community carefully

April 22, 2020 | News | Volume 24 Issue 9
Amy Rinner Waddell | B.C. Correspondent
Sewing machines have become a friendly weapon in the fight against COVID-19. Tim and Sandra Kuepfer display the homemade masks they now use as they serve their Vancouver neighbourhood. (Photo courtesy of Tim Kuepfer)

Tim and Sandra Kuepfer of Vancouver are among those doing their part to keep themselves and those in their neighbourhood safe during the current pandemic. 

Sandra works at Swiss Bakery and routinely brings home extra artisanal bread loaves. Tim, who is the English pastor of Chinatown Peace Church in Vancouver, then takes the bread to the eight senior residents living in a single-occupancy residence near the church. The church purchased the building earlier this year as a place for housing and connecting with the neighbourhood in what they call a “living room for Chinatown.” 

Masks are now required at the bakery, so Sandra sewed masks for Tim and herself. 

“We didn’t buy any before the huge demand emptied the shelves, so now that wearing them is tentatively encouraged in more public settings, we also wear them to go grocery shopping,” she says.

Tim also thought it would be good to wear a mask for his brief trips into the seniors residence, to protect the vulnerable there. 

“Things are on hold as a result of COVID-19, but we are trying to care for the eight seniors who live on the second floor of the building,” he says. “We are in the process of trying to repair the leaky roof, add security to the front door and improve the cleanliness of the building. But we are also trying not to enter the building at this time more than absolutely necessary, in order to protect the residents from infection.” 

The church plans to make the property not only a building where the congregation can meet on Sundays, but that can also be used on the other six days of the week as what Tim describes as “a Christian building for housing and connecting that’s much more focused outwardly on what Chinatown needs than on what we might think Chinatown Peace Church needs.” 

Do you have a story idea about Mennonites in B.C.? Send it to Amy Rinner Waddell at bc@canadianmennonite.org.

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Sewing machines have become a friendly weapon in the fight against COVID-19. Tim and Sandra Kuepfer display the homemade masks they now use as they serve their Vancouver neighbourhood. (Photo courtesy of Tim Kuepfer)

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