New clothes for old

The "New Clothes For Old" campaign kicks off this Saturday at Westfield. If any Marionites haven't signed up to help yet, time is running out.

The principle is simple. Westfield are running a marketing campaign and The Salvation Army is the primary beneficiary. We provide volunteers for a day who stand at Westfield and hand out bags that can be returned to the shopping centre filled with clothes for redistribution to those in need or sale in one of our stores. The first 100 bags returned are rewarded with a gift voucher to go shopping in the mall. Everyone goes into the draw to win a styling session and a $250 Westfield voucher.

All of the goods brought in are collected by Greg's team. They are redistributed through our community support services or sold through our store. In Queensland, the charity partner of Westfield collected 698 bags of clothing, mostly top quality. This is a great partnership opportunity that could raise some significant money for The Salvation Army, give us great stock to help people and provide great presence in our community and PR. We thank God for these opportunities.

Prayer ministry

Prayer is vital. We say it often. Today we saw how vital it was in the way that Angela was able to pray with one of our playgroup mums. What a great ministry.

Thelma's care

It is great to be able to share good news stories.

On Friday, a man wandered into the shop. Drenched through from the rain, wearing only a singlet and jeans, he wound up in the shop where Thelma took him under her wing. He was clearly homeless and had nothing else but that which was on his person, and some food that had been given to him at reception. Greg and Thelma were able to completely re-clothe him and help him out. Thelma's perceptive care hasn't gone unnoticed.

Well done Thelma.

Catherine & Our Youth

Many of you would have caught up with the appointment of Catherine Smith-Ellis to our youth pastor position. Catherine has had a long connection with our church and is transferring back into Marion Salvos with her husband Craig and daughter Sarah.

Already, in her first week, Catherine has been catching up with the local school Christian Pastoral Support Workers. She has met many of our young people and is starting to touch base with previous volunteers.

Please pray for Catherine and support her as you can.

One of the CPSW teams that she has spent time with is Jo and Justin at Hamilton Secondary College. They have been boyed by the recent news that the Federal government have extended the school chaplaincy funding through to 2014, which is magnificent news for schools across the country. Justin and Jo are well embraced by the Hamilton community and are able to run a range of programs including a session for kids struggling to stay in the mainstream of the school. Please pray for them also!

Colin

Hi to all those prayer warriors - your prayers are being answered. Colin Wood has woken and is sitting up!! PRAISE GOD. He is still confused and still not speaking, but let's thank God and celebrate this progress with Mavis and the family.

Soldiership

Soldiership is not like membership of any other denomination. It is really an order. It is a group of people that have chosen distinctives in practice and lifestyle as a means of demonstrating their commitment to Christ's cause.

It is exciting when our congregation members start to investigate soldiership for themselves. I was proud as anything on Tuesday as I was overhearing our latest recruit starting her soldiership classes with Judith in the next office.

If joining the 'order' is something that interests you, please get in touch with us and we'll be pleased to start the process of introducing you to this journey of soldiership.

Glenelg Renovations

This week, the latest stage of the renovations at our Glenelg Centre took place. We have remodelled the kitchen this week to make room for the new oven, dishwasher and hotplates that have been donated. This wasn't as simple a task as you would think. After pulling out the old cupboards we found some interesting previous building and plumbing that we had to work around. Our carpenters are good, and once the new gear is installed we are going to have a great little kitchen in our centre by the bay.

In the meantime, the second to last lot of quotes went to the Divisional board on Tuesday. Hopefully we will soon hear a positive outcome to allow us to proceed with the rendering, painting and flooring throughout the centre. We've also this week had two large red shields given to us for the front of the building.

(PS If you know of someone driving over from Melbourne that can pick up and drive over two massive red shields - please let us know!!!)