When Jasmine Chandra attended an ordination symposium at Wycliffe College she had just completed an undergraduate degree in religious education and counselling at a Bible college in Calgary, Alberta. Her core belief that outreach was a natural expression of one’s faith had been given shape and weight through her volunteer hours with Mustard Seed, a Christian downtown-Calgary organization that ministered to the homeless. She came to the symposium wondering about the relationship between theological study, mission, and social justice.
At the symposium, she felt a calling to enrol at Wycliffe. “What attracted me to Wycliffe was the intellectual pursuit of faith; not checking your brain at the door,” she says. “I realized that strong theological education could be a tool for ministry, and for reaching others for Jesus. All of this made me feel like Wycliffe could a good place for me.”
Wycliffe’s location in downtown Toronto meant that Chandra could worship and volunteer at Sanctuary Ministries, a Christian outreach to marginalized people in Toronto’s downtown core. Her experiences at Sanctuary, and the conversations she enjoyed with Terence, a fellow Wycliffe student, solidified both her belief in the necessity of outreach and her personal call to outreach ministry.
“Wycliffe gave me the assurance that I had, and have, the tools to base my ministry in orthodoxy. I have the tools to teach and preach Truth.” This is important when walking alongside and serving vulnerable populations. “I can explain Truth well,” she says.
In 2014, Chandra, with Terence, now her husband, began Pennies and Sparrows, a community outreach ministry in partnership with Stone Church, Saint John, New Brunswick. Pennies and Sparrows launched in response to the needs the Chendras saw in Saint John. “We wanted to reach beyond the walls of the church, and we were inspired by all the outreach work that had happened at Sanctuary in Toronto,” Chendra remembers.
In 2020, they began serving as priests-in-charge at Stone Church.
Chandra’s gratitude for God’s goodness is infectious. “If you open up your life to God, He will not disappoint you,” she affirms. Through the Pennies and Sparrows ministry, she has seen God work in incredible ways. “We fundraise 100 percent for this ministry, and it’s never gone without, and more than half of the millions needed for Stone Church’s restoration project has been raised.”
“I look at Terence; I look at our children, and they are gifts from God. Wycliffe was a gift
