Prayer & Praise

CRISIS CENTRE

Pendle Hill Crisis Centre has taught quilting and craft classes at no cost to ladies from our crisis centre for the last 4 years. This year we held our 3^rd Annual Craft show in Sept and it was wonderful to see the quality of work that our ladies displayed.

Our groups on a Monday morning and first wed of the month are a wonderful group of ladies.  Most are all from our crisis centre and ladies living in the local community. Many of our ladies have never sewn before so when they come to class they start on a small chicken pin cushion and then progress to more complicated wall hangings. Some of our ladies even after leaving the refuge keep coming back to craft class!!!

During the year we held a "making a quilt top in a day" where we made a bigger bed quilt. We would not be able to run these classes for free if it were not for the generous donations of materials and cash donations to help us buy our craft materials. A special thank you to Chatswood Church of Christ who donate regularly craft bits and pieces for us to use.  Chatswood Church friendship group over the last 15 years has been very supportive of our program donating food and craft materials for our families. Last year Chatswood congregation decided to make regular food donations throughout the year. This enables our cupboards to be fully stocked to be able to give our families food when they come into the refuge.

Our new community meal on a Thursday night has been running now for 8 months and has grown from a small group of ladies to 80 people coming for a free meal, from our short term and medium term houses. People who also come include local families who struggle financially in our local community. As most of our families are single parent mums it has been great to have so many positive male role models for our children.

Please pray for our team that we will be able to find secure housing for our families& help us to be more than a worker& help us to be a friend and neighbour helping in practical ways to enable positive directions for our families.

THE STEPPING STONE

A free internet Caf￩ opened up second term for 2 days per week. This was intended to reach out to the local community and give web access to people from drop-in, ladies from the crisis centre, and people from the retirement village, as well as providing computer lessons for the above mentioned. We have been discussing opening up longer hours or more days as this project has been very successful, incorporating a time for after school use for teenagers as well as homework classes, this would depend on funding, yet would be an exciting way of reaching out into the community.

We continue feeding the homeless at Prince Alfred Park for dinner Wednesday and lunch on Sunday. This is done in partnership with Parramatta Baptist who prepare and serve the Sunday meal. We are providing ongoing training for the volunteers, and have many churches interested in helping. It has been wonderful to see the volunteers shift from wanting to 'feed people' in the park to wanting to 'feed them Jesus'.

We give out food parcels to people in need on a monthly basis or at the discretion of the workers. Recently we have implemented a process of an interview, incorporating the filling in of a financial form. This is done as a way of better assessing if the person needs further assistance such as budgeting, although more often than not their money is spent on addiction. Food parcels contain enough for 1-2 days supply as they are intended for an emergency purpose only.

Please continue to pray for this ministry. It has been a real blessing to see people move from living in the park to finding accommodation and making a life for themselves. There are many stories of triumphs and sadness along the way and we are blessed that there are others in the community who help and support us through donations and volunteering of their time.

BREAD OF LIFE MINISTRIES

Bread of Life Ministries is in the process of setting up a Ministry Centre and Op Shop. The concept is to provide opportunities to meet people, to form relationships and gain permission to speak Christ into their lives.

The shed we are renting is very old and run down. Much work needs to be done to bring it up to a suitable standard. We anticipate opening an Op Shop to provide cheap clothing to those in need. A large room is to be set aside as a 'sacred space' to be used as a chapel/meeting room. This room will be used for Friday 'no frill' church called Life Centre. Life Centre was meeting in a house but needs a larger space.

We are going to set up a food bank which will run differently to most. To hand out food is one thing. But if we do not take the opportunity to build relationships with people to earn the right to speak into their lives then we are missing kingdom opportunities. We also desire to set out a workshop to facilitate a 'men's shed'.