Crave Community

Report by Georgie Sutton.

“If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be … Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.” – Deuteronomy 15:7-11

Ryan, Brenton and I went into The Anchorage in Abbotsford on Monday night (the 26th), with Matt and Fiona from Box Hill Salvos.  We were armed with 3 batches of muffins – chocolate chip (baked by Cindy), blueberry (Amanda) and lemon and poppyseed (Connie) – and about 80 fruit skewers that we made at Matt and Fiona’s just before we left.

We arrived a bit after 6 and chatted to some of the staff, before starting to mingle with the guys.  They were really sweet guys, just so happy to have some new faces around and a few listening ears.

Ryan and Matt joined in a game of poker so Brenton, Fiona and I started serving the fruit, muffins and coffee, after Matt had said grace.  The guys loved the muffins and the fruit was surprisingly popular!  Ian and Shane (the staff guys) said they’d never seen the blokes eat that much fruit before!! There was one bloke, Randall, who came back about 9 times for fruit skewers.  We offered that he take 2 or 3, but he kept coming back and getting them one at a time.  I think Archie had about 6 of Amanda’s blueberry muffins.

I took over from Matt playing poker while he and Fiona were chatting to Jimmy & Paul, some of the guys.  Jimmy has been living at The Anchorage for nine years.  He was telling me that he is looking forward to the Melbourne Cup, where he works with a cleaning company.  Ryan and I were in the game til the last 4 or so, but I went out and then Ryan got thwarted by Craig, who got two full houses and a straight flush within about 4 hands!!

I really can’t emphasise enough what a privilege it was to serve these guys.  Once we got over our initial nerves, jitters and fears it was just lovely to hang out with these guys who just don’t see much love in their lives.  They were so chuffed that we were there with the food and our company, and many said “goodbye” and “thanks” as we walked through on our way out.  Thanks so much to Cindy, Connie and Amanda for making the muffins.

We are looking to do it again in a month and continue building positive relationships with the Anchorage boys, and I encourage you to get on board.

IMPACT the world for the sake of Jesus Christ

He has shown all you people what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8

Action Update and Prayer Communication:

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who has been praying for the work of the IMPACT ministry at Holy Trinity Doncaster. Over the past month, much has been done to get IMPACT doing things and we are pleased to announce a couple of great events upcoming on the IMPACT calendar:

>> Parish Praise & Prayer Night:

IMPACT is running HTD’s Parish Prayer and Praise night for this month. Please come along to pray for justice issues and join in worshipping God. It’s coming up really soon: Tuesday July 21st at 7.45 pm.

>> Offering of Letters

This is a Micah Challenge initiative whereby Christians hand-write letters to the Prime Minister seeking an increase in foreign aid to aim to reduce global poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals. More information on the Offering of Letters can be found at http://www.micahchallenge.org.au/offering-of-letters

IMPACT will be running an Offering of Letters after HTD’s Sunday services on 2nd August (6pm) and 9th August (10am). We encourage you to take the time to write a letter after these services, as we believe that advocating and lobbying on behalf of the poor and marginalised of the world is a great way to serve God.

>> The Cold Night Out

Friday 14th August, 8pm. In Jono & Renée Smith’s backyard (next door to church)

Sleeping out and raising money and awareness for homelessness and other justice issues. Hear from a speaker from Urban Seed on homelessness in our city.

Tag-team prayer all night (1 hour shifts)

$10 waged / $5 unwaged (all proceeds to Urban Seed)

RSVP is available via Facebook or by emailing (georgie.sutton@gmail.com).

>>Bushfire Relief

As part of the many projects to assist people effected by the horrific Black Saturday bushfires in February this year, IMPACT is sending a group of people to help with garden recovery and damaged fence removal.

Meet at the church at 8am on the 22nd of August and we will travel to Panton Hill and then onto a local property.

If you would like to attend, you MUST register by Friday 7th August either by phoning Linda in the church office (9840-2577) or by emailing Georgie Sutton (georgie.sutton@gmail.com).

As you can see, it’s an action-packed few months ahead! We hope you may be able to make it one of the events organised. They will be awesome opportunities to support God’s work through this ministry and stand for the disadvantaged and marginalised people in our community.

Your continued prayers for IMPACT are greatly appreciated. These are some prayer points for this month:

• for the 4 events coming up: that they will be safe and well-attended, and that God will be glorified through them
• for energy and enthusiasm in the Core Team for the busy weeks ahead
• for continued interest in and support of this ministry by people at HTD and in the community
• praise God for all that has already been achieved through Impact

Thank you for you all your support and prayer,

The IMPACT core team.

This Impact event is going to be HUGE!

Event Description:
Sleeping out and raising money and awareness for homelessness and other justice issues. Hear from a speaker from Urban Seed on homelessness in our city.
Tag-team prayer all night (1 hour shifts)

When:
8pm Friday August 14th – 8am Saturday August 15th

Where:
Jono & Renee Smith’s Backyard, 104 Church Rd, Doncaster. (Next door to HTD)

$$$:
$10 waged / $5 unwaged (all proceeds to Urban Seed)

RSVP here.

“IMPACT” social justice ministry has organised an opportunity to help landowners recover in the aftermath of the devastating Black Saturday bushfires.

On Saturday August 22nd we will meet at the church at 8am and travel together to Panton Hill and then on to a local property. The work will most likely be gardening related, and may involve some fence removal (Anyone with a moderate level of physical fitness should be fine).

Registrations ESSENTIAL — please email Georgie (georgie.sutton@gmail.com) or call Linda at the church office on 9840-2577.

Cheers,
Georgie

Dear IMPACT supporters,

The core team has now had two meetings to get started on Holy Trinity Doncaster’s new social justice ministry.

A number of exciting things are on IMPACT’s agenda including:

• A Parish Prayer and Praise night on the 21st of July to pray for our new ministry as well as local and global social justice issues.
• A city walk for the senior youth group around the Melbourne CBD learning about some of the hardships faced by Melbourne’s homeless and disadvantaged (through Urban Seed)
• The core team are hoping to attend a number of training workshops to gain skills and training to work in this unique ministry.
• We are still hoping to send a team of us from HTD up to assist with the ongoing recovery efforts from the Black Saturday bushfires.

Stay tuned at the 6pm service to find out how you could assist in HTD’s pastoral care ministry! IMPACT hopes to establish a skills inventory/database to better facilitate the involvement of young adults in this important work.

Please pray for:

• The forthcoming Parish Prayer and Praise night on the 21st of July, that this may be well attended and used as an opportunity to commit this ministry and its objectives to God.
• Pray for motivation and energy amongst members of the core team as we realise that achieving goals can often be a slow process.
• Praise God for those members of the core team who have already had the opportunity to be inspired and equipped by attending training workshops and pray there may be more opportunities like this.
• Pray for continued interest by the members of HTD in this new ministry.

Thankyou for your continued interest and prayers,

The IMPACT core team.