QUEBEC CITY (BP) — Churches from six states sent members to Quebec City to help people move from one residence to another on June 30 and July 1.

Together with 74 Canadian Christians, the 140 volunteers moved 54 families over the two days. Each team moved between four and six families.

“The Moving Day ministry is an incredible opportunity to embody the good news of Jesus in a tangible way for our city,” David Chouinard told Baptist Press. He’s the founding pastor of Eglise Urbaine 180, the church that started the church and the ministry in 2013. “It allows us not only to be a real solution to the housing crisis and to help newcomers integrate, but above all, it helps rebuild trust between Québécois people and the church.”

A non-Protestant religion “abused the population for decades, which left a deep sense of mistrust,” the pastor continued. “Today, seeing Christians serve freely without expecting anything in return surprises and deeply moves people.”

Moving Day is a uniquely Quebec event that started with a French law fixing the date of annual residential leases. Formerly in May, it was moved to July 1 in 1973 so children could continue in one school through the end of the term, and because the weather normally is good on July 1, although this year it rained.

July 1 also is “Canada Day,” a federal patriotic holiday akin to the Fourth of July in the U.S.

Renters move for a variety of reasons: evictions, lower rent, better residence and more. About 7% of the province’s nine million residents are estimated to move on Moving Day each year.

Word about the Eglise 180’s Moving Day ministry spreads by word of mouth and the church’s connections.

“We start by offering our service to social workers so we can reach people in the most difficult situations first: health problems, isolation, poverty,” Chouinard said.

 “Then, by mid-May, we open a second time slot directly to the general public, often at the very last minute, to reach people in extreme situations who have no other options left.

“These moves are rarely easy,” the pastor continued. “Our teams often carry furniture up or down five or six floors in old, narrow apartment buildings, but that’s exactly where we want to be.”

The French province’s traditional architecture includes exterior curved metal stairways in multistory apartment buildings to maximize interior space and lower heating costs in the frigid winters.

“It wasn’t the hardest work it could have been, but it definitely wasn’t easy,” Tyler Penalber of Calvary Baptist Church in Idaho Falls, Idaho, said of his team’s assignment for the week. “We had a mindset of reaching the people where they are, so with that (mindset) there would be no task too hard for the sake of the gospel.”

The churches involved this year, assisting Église 180: First Baptist Church, Athens, Tenn.; First Baptist Church, Kingston, Tenn.; First Baptist Church, North Augusta, S.C.; Mountain View Baptist Church, Layton, Utah; Calvary Baptist Church, Idaho Falls, Idaho; Southside Baptist Church, Tampa, Fla.; and Memorial Baptist Church, Sterling Heights, Mich.

“We went there to serve alongside Eglise 180 in helping people move who might not have friends, family or the money to move,” Ron Jones of Mountain View Baptist Church in Layton, Utah, told Baptist Press. “This included low-income families and recent immigrants to the city. 

“This is a huge witness to the community,” Jones continued. “They don’t understand why Americans would come all this way to help Quebecois’ move.”

Quebec City is a mostly French-speaking city of about 500,000 people, and fewer than 1% of them are evangelical Christian.

“Moving is often a turning point in a person’s life, sometimes joyful, sometimes painful,” said Chouinard of Eglise 180. “Being there with families in those moments leaves an impression for the whole year. What’s amazing is that even social workers and other professionals now reach out to us directly to connect us with families, even though in Québec, people usually insist on strictly separating civil and religious spheres. By opening that door, they know we care not only for their clients but for them too, by easing their workload.

“We see God’s hand clearly at work through this ministry, which is why we want to stretch our capacity year after year,” Chouinard said. “The need is huge, and we’re still the only ones in Québec City doing this kind of work. My hope is that we’ll double our reach again next year.”

Karen Villalpando from Memorial Sterling Heights took three Acteens as part of her eight-person team.

“People need to know God loves them, and helping people move is a great way to do that,” Villalpando told Baptist Press. “It showed the team they can make a immediate difference in the lives of lost and vulnerable people.”

Though she’s been taking a team to Quebec City since 2019, this was the first year she took teens and found it a perfect international trip for them and for the team, since they were young, strong and as eager as everyone was to help.

“There were outside winding staircases, and we moved some people on the fourth and fifth floors, and one day it rained, so we were walking in puddles,” Villalpando continued. “We helped immigrants, elderly, disabled, single women and people who have no people to help them, and some asked where this church was that was helping them.”

A wheelchair-bound woman who lived in a run-down neighborhood hit a pothole this year, and the wheelchair fell over. One of the team members called 911, two others went to the hospital to be with the woman, whose leg was broken, and the rest of the team continued moving her belongings to her new home.

Chouinard was part of that team.

“A street worker told me how grateful he was for what we do in his community. After the ambulance left, he actually came back over an hour later just to thank me again and tell me how much our presence had been an unexpected support to him that day. That moment really struck me.

“But the truth is, this is just one story out of dozens,” Chouinard continued. “The real highlight this year is the sum of all these moments of gratitude, prayer, tears and smiles. All across the city, our teams witnessed little glimpses of what God is doing, and that’s why we keep going.”