Wantirna Seventh-day Adventist Church has partnered with other churches and community services in conjunction with Knox Council to provide Christmas food hampers and new toys for children from disadvantages families in the local community for the last 11 years.
Members from the church help to fundraise all year in the lead up to Christmas, and then the church is used as one of four hubs that people can visit to collect their Christmas gifts and toys. Our church family also donates gift cards, money for fresh produce, groceries, and toiletries. Over the past two years, it has been difficult to fundraise as more people have been struggling due to COVID-19. Our church family has stepped up and provided more funds so that our clients don’t miss out. This year our client appointments doubled with two clients coming in every 10 minutes for support and we had 18 families who live outside the Knox area. One of our clients from the weekly food pantry that we also run couldn’t make it to the program to pick up her Christmas hamper, as she had to look after her elderly mother who had just come home from hospital. She really wanted to give us a gift for helping her, so early in the morning before she left, she dropped two gifts off at out church for myself and another lady that she speaks to each week. I managed to arrange a Christmas hamper to be dropped off to her on the last day of the program. She was so excited to see me and expressed how much she appreciated our work, asking us to do more because we introduced the love of God into her life.
It’s such a privilege to work in our local community to make people’s lives better. There are no strings attached but people notice how we care and then are curious as to why we do what we do. My answer always is because Jesus first loved me, and I now get to show others this love in return.
We are blessed to have several clients who have now joined our church family and attend church regularly.
Liz Heath
