It has been & continues to be an amazing, rewarding, faith affirming experience. Running the new Food Hub at Wantirna has been an incredibly busy time and I’ve had a huge learning curve as we definitely started running before we could crawl. The support that we have had from Sue (ADRA FTG) & BB (ADRA Casey) in particular has been incredible. We’ve just hit 30 families that we deliver to weekly. We’ve been very intentional in trying to develop relationships with our clients, through weekly phone calls & weekly deliveries by the same driver. We are trying to meet not just their physical needs but also their spiritual needs. Each week as they share some of their struggles with me, I ask if they would like us to pray for them. We pick 3 particular clients each week & start our packing day on a Thursday praying for them as a team & then we all pray for each of them all week. It’s been lovely to hear from our clients that we make them feel valued & cared for and that they’ve never been treated like this by a care agency. I have approximately 25 weekly volunteers from our Church & monetary support from other Church members who can’t help physically. One of our Church members donated money to buy a computer for one of our client’s child – a 13y.o boy with Aspergers. We ran a Winter Warmers Appeal for FTG and Sue almost cried when we delivered 12 bags of jackets, Fleecy track suits, wet weather jackets & 40 pairs of thick explorer socks – 90% of it was new & bought for some of her homeless clients in particular. I have just seen so much generosity and I have never felt God more present. Every week, sometimes every day, He provides for our client’s needs. Sometimes I’ve just started thinking – maybe I need someone to do a particular job & before I can ask somebody my phone will ring with someone offering to do anything I want. It’s absolutely magical. Another instance: I was in a KERN Meeting & so was a rep from Foodbank (this is the first meeting they’ve been at in over 12 months). Kate said, “Liz you’ve just put in application to get access to Foodbank?” I said yes & she asked if she could call me after the meeting, which she did. She proceeded to tell me they weren’t taking on any new partners because they can’t do a site inspection but she said she would make an exception for me as she has huge respect for you Bec & all of the ADRA sites. I was ecstatic. God just keeps providing. My Church just keeps providing more support & my new ADRA family just keep sharing & supporting us.
Liz Heath
Wantirna SDA Church
Project commenced May 2020