At CBWOQ’s September 2012 staff meeting, a tinge of sadness coloured the mood: it was Phyllis Ortiz’s last staff meeting. She had finished, with grace and careful prayer, this portion of the race God had set before her. Even though Phyllis would still be involved at Oasis, the community centre in Toronto she had founded 18 years earlier, it was time to say an official goodbye.

Erika Abele remembers when her mother was appointed as a Canadian missionary with CBWOQ (Baptist Women’s Missionary Society of Ontario and Quebec at the time) to serve as the director of the Oasis Dufferin Community Centre. “In my teenage years I saw mom dream about a place of welcome, a place where we could “walk” with newcomers as they settled into Canada. . . . What I have seen [from her] is that to put teeth into a vision, dedication is essential.”