The Usual Unusual

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Dear Inner Circle,

One evening this week, I waited back to meet a young couple to sign forms prior to their wedding. Before they arrived, I did a quick walk around our building. The ground floor was busy, with a steady stream of people coming through the door in various states of crisis. One of our volunteers said, “There must be something odd in the air today”. The showers were busy with a queue of people waiting. The chapel had been turned into a pop-up café, while the much anticipated renovations are taking place in our regular café. It was rush hour for our volunteers, who were doing their best to serve quality food to an impatient crowd. To top off a busy floor, a game of bingo was being conducted by our Twilight Team. Diana, the team leader of our Twilight Team is nothing short of a miracle worker. The evening hours used to be our toughest time of day and thanks to Diana and her team, these same hours are often the highlight of our day.

On the first floor was a team from Credit Suisse holding a Community Dinner. These bankers really know how to engage with people. Under the guidance of the one-in-a-million Rob Holt, this team don’t just serve food, they share a meal with homeless people. If my memory is right, Credit Suisse have been sending a team here once a month for well over ten years! The dinner was noisy, but it also was buzzing with life.

The third floor was heaving with a group of homeless people who’ve formed something of a band. This activity is led by Julian, who is such a good musician and such a patient, humble man. He sees this group through times when there are people with talent who pump out some good tunes and other times when it’s more about enthusiasm.[vc_row columns_on_tablet=”keep” padding_top=”0″ padding_bottom=”0″][vc_column h_text_align=”left” h_text_align_mobile=”left” v_align=”v-align-middle” use_background=”” width=”1/1″][tm_image image_id=”661″ link_image=”none” textarea_html_bkg_color=”#ffffff” caption_type=””][/tm_image][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row columns_on_tablet=”keep” padding_top=”50″ padding_bottom=”50″][vc_column h_text_align=”left” h_text_align_mobile=”left” v_align=”v-align-middle” use_background=”” width=”1/1″][tm_textblock textarea_html_bkg_color=”#ffffff”]The fourth floor had our commercial kitchen running at full tilt. All the noise that was coming out gave me the impression that we must have been preparing for a large event the following day. Guy Cooper, our Head of Community Development, was holding a meeting in our boardroom. He had two senior Kings Cross police members and a handful of concerned neighbours, discussing our new extended hours. Wayside is now open to 11pm to support people in desperate need of help. We’re doing this as a trial, gauging a need until March. We work very hard to be good neighbours and this is one of the areas for which Guy is our champion. As these folks came through our front door, they would have passed twenty or so people on the footpath and once inside, they would observe over a hundred people engaged in all sorts of ways.

Also on the fourth floor was a female-only meeting of Narcotics Anonymous. A young woman stepped out of the lift to head into that meeting and she recognised me. I was both surprised and overjoyed. About ten years ago, I conducted the funeral of this young woman’s partner. This artistically clever, intelligent woman was in the grip of a heroin addiction and just devastated with grief. The very day after the funeral, she was visited by the Department of Community Services, who removed her four-year-old child from her care. There are times when I go in to bat for people when I’m not at all sure if I’m doing the right thing. This was such an occasion. Nevertheless, I fought hard for this child to be returned to the care of her mother and just days later, the child was returned. The child today is thriving, nearly as tall as her mother and doing fabulously well at school. The young woman threw her arms around me and as she headed into the meeting said, “I’m six years clean now”. Just WOW!

In the other part of our building I knew we had people still working, because this was the time of the year where auditors keep everyone on their toes. Although our Youth area was closed, I knew that we had two Youth workers doing street outreach somewhere between Woolloomooloo and Kings Cross.

Just another night at Wayside!

Thanks for the overwhelming number of messages last week. I’ve still got 15 fun-filled months ahead in this role and after that, I’m sure I’ll be supporting in one way or another. It’s not in me to retire into a rocking chair.

Thanks for being part of our inner circle. I’m taking a short break so the next two notes will come to you from our beautiful Assistant Pastor Jon Owen.Graham

Rev Graham Long AM
CEO & Pastor
The Wayside Chapel

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