Dear Friends,
We had an amazing couple of days in Sydney as part of the Sydney Mission Trip! The group were buzzing after visiting the different mission expressions and having different conversations.
The week reminded me that we are not just called to serve our neighbours because it is our Christian duty, but that we are called to love our neighbours!
As I mentioned on Sunday, Northside Baptist Church (Executive Pastor, Josh Dowton, is pictured here) started off with a small vision of wanting to support Australian journalist, Julia Baird, following the backlash she received after writing about the prevalence of domestic violence in the church – https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-23/when-women-are-believed-the-church-will-change/9782184. They invited Julia to speak and hired a hall in Crow’s Nest and several hundred people attended the event.
But then they wanted to do more. The vision grew. So, they met with agencies, working in this space, to come up with a suburb-wide response to addressing domestic violence.
What the group decided they needed was a way to reach women before those women presented at the police station or at a women’s shelter. Together they came up with a creative idea – that if they could train people like hairdressers and nail technicians to recognise signs of DV and know how to have helpful conversations, and be able to make personal recommendations, they would be able to disrupt patterns of DV earlier. So – thanks to Covid – hairdressers and nail technicians were suddenly not working and were willing to sign up for this training. They also arranged for these people to meet some of the counsellors and women’s refuge staff, so they could say to their clients, “I’ve met ‘Angie’ at ___________ service and she’s lovely! You should go talk to her.” This personal recommendation turned out to be one of the keys to the program’s success.
And it has been successful in significantly disputing the impact of DV in this area of Sydney. It was an incredible story! Firstly, about the love that Northside Baptist Church had for their neighbours – their desire to see human flourishing in their neighbourhood. Secondly, that they joined with others who had the same goal. And thirdly, that they were able to devise together a program that was innovative and effective in bringing life and health to others – and to their local community.
It starts with the love for our neighbours. That is where we want to start too. You might like to pray the prayer below for our neighbourhoods.
Grace and peace,
Belinda
We pray for our communities –
that snapshot of humanity
with all ages, backgrounds,
education, employment status,
politics and religious viewpoint
who are our neighbours
in the streets where we live.
We pray for all of them;
not only those we know by name
and chat to through the day,
but also less familiar faces
about whom we know so little
and pass by with just a smile.
Bless their homes and families,
and let your love and peace
so shine within this community
that smiles turn to conversations,
and strangers become friends.
We pray this through Jesus Christ,
the Prince of Peace. Amen.
(Prayer by John Birch, 2019, www.faithandworship.com)