Canterbury

2023 Annual Canterbury College Christmas Appeal | St Mark’s Anglican Social Services & 4 Voices – DONATIONS KINDLY REQUESTED

2023 Annual Canterbury College Christmas Appeal | St Mark’s Anglican Social Services & 4 Voices – DONATIONS KINDLY REQUESTED

This year as part of our Christmas journey, we will be focusing on ways of reaching out to our wider community.

We want to support those people, who for Christmas – and for that matter, everyday life – can be a lot harder than our own.

With this focus, we are partnering with St Mark’s Anglican Social Services, to help with their food appeal – specifically their food parcel program and Christmas hampers.

We will also be joining up with a new organisation called 4 Voices.

St Mark’s Anglican Social Services has been working in Logan City for over 35 years, providing food parcels and financial assistance to Logan City families in need.

They are currently identifying families in financial crisis, so they can provide them with help during this year’s Christmas period.

St Mark’s Anglican Social Services is part of the Logan Anglican Parish and the work they do is based at St Mark’s Anglican Church in Daisy Hill.

It is open three mornings per week to offer assistance to people and the 'Monday Angels' are Jen, Sybil and Dawn (pictured here).

The 4 Voices organisation believes that connection is vital for all of us.

They see that everyone has a need for connection to others… But needs differ…

A connection can be social, digital, employment, or community-related.

They offer this connection face-to-face and/or over the phone.

Their phone support team are volunteers from all over Australia who reach out to provide a check-in for people in need.

They also have Connection Hubs, which are vehicles operated by volunteers, who provide empathy and support.

These ‘mobile hubs’ are outfitted with technology – like coffee and tea making facilities, mobile phones, laptops, printers/scanners/copiers, and smart TVs; and they feature their own WiFi.

A simple chat over a coffee can be of enormous comfort, and often that might be enough.

For others, they can provide access to mobile phones or laptop computers.

For those keen to enter the workforce or change jobs, they can help with writing resumes, preparing for job interviews, or simply searching for work.

For those who need other support like food, housing or medical advice, they can connect people to appropriate organisations or individuals.

Their work is a free service made possible by generous public donations and business sponsorships.

Their campaign that we will join them in this Christmas is called Seeds Of Change.

“It’s easy for anyone to see how the rising cost of living and the absence of affordable housing has exacerbated the problem of homelessness.

We are on the streets daily and see how men, women and children are forced to live.

Tent cities in parks and vacant blocks of land, women sleeping on trains and under staircases of buildings, and on church verandas.

It is confronting to say the least.

It’s hard to walk away from anyone in this predicament.

But walking away from a woman trying to stay safe on the streets is impossible.

We try to get her into boarding houses, emergency accommodation, DV shelters, and refuges to no avail.

Rather than leave her for the comfort of our own homes, we do what we can.

We offer a $25 food voucher, and a $50 Kmart voucher to buy a small tent and sleeping bag.

These are seemingly small things but we build trust this way.

If we build trust, the woman comes back for support, a coffee, a conversation, and we try again to get her to safety.

Eventually, we will have a breakthrough, and that’s the best feeling!

Our campaign is to help us provide more emergency support, more food vouchers, phones, tents, sleeping bags, and small things to provide hope.”

Jo Westh – 4 Voices Founder

So I invite us as the Canterbury Community to get behind both of these great organisations, who can extend our loving arms and reach out to the wider community.

This way, we are able to be good stewards of the many blessings that God bestows on us here at Canterbury.

To be part of this Canterbury Christmas Appeal, simply do one of the following:

To support St Mark’s Anglican Social Services and their work, please donate some long-life, ‘non-perishable’ style food items such as:

• Weet-Bix
• Long-Life Milk
• Pasta & Pasta Sauce
• Rice
• Baked Beans
• Tinned Vegetables & Fruits
• Christmas Puddings
• Long-Life Custard
• Fruit Mince Pies
• Lollies
• Tinned Ham

Please place them at the foot of the Christmas trees located in either the Junior or Secondary Administration Buildings.

To support 4 Voices and their work, please bring along a Coles or Woolworths voucher of whatever dollar amount you wish, and place it under the Christmas tree in either the Junior or Secondary Administration Buildings.

I pray that as we journey towards the manger this Christmas, we too might see the need around us and respond as God did, and give a gift that will change the world for others.

THANK YOU!

Father Dan Talbot
College Chaplain

by Canterbury