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July Newsletter 2008 PASTOR MAX WALKER SAYS... EDITORIAL: Winter months at Cornerstone have seen a significant increase in the number of people attending the variety of programs held in our buildings. Cornerstone is warm and a safe haven from the biting winds of winter. Escalating petrol costs, food prices and the cost of utilities are forcing more and more people to come in for food, to keep warm and to have some sort of social contact. Agencies across the district are being stretched to the limit as more and more people seek assistance. Accommodation is a major issue for many looking for affordable housing and rental properties. Unless this problem is solved there will be an escalation in the number of homeless. Despite this issue being highlighted in the City of Casey last year there has been minimal interest by government, local, state and federal. Mortgage stress and affordability are powerful forces stressing out our community and have the potential to cause an avalanche of welfare demands in the immediate future. This is the reality of where we are at at the moment as the haves flourish and the have not’s find it increasingly hard to survive. On a more positive note Cornerstone as a community has been able to keep food on the table and through its activities brought a smile to many a weary traveler who has sought peace, safety and sustenance within our walls. The generosity of our many donors large and small is testimony to a large section of our community who really care for the well being of those less fortunate that themselves. The dedication of our volunteers, often battlers themselves, who commit themselves diligently to come day after day to serve the participants in our programs. The noise, the laughter, the atmosphere of fellowship one with the other, the tolerance and understanding shown clearly demonstrates the compassion that Jesus encourages all His followers to demonstrate. Colossians 3:12 reminds us: Pastor Max Walker.
HAPPENINGS OVER THE PAST MONTH; Welfare Support for Cornerstone and the Dove from City of Casey Community Grants and Emergency Relief Grants. . Donation from Dandenong Rotary Club Retiring President for the installation of a video projector. Don Cameron nominated for an Australia Day award with a great article in the Dandenong Leader. The Avocare. Partnership continues to flourish with many local groups being assisted on a regular basis. Cornerstone Leaders attend Leadership Training at Dandenong Baptist Church. Cornerstone receives a clean bill of health when inspected recently by the representative of Greater Dandenong Health and Safety inspection team. For the second time this year vandals have blocked the toilets causing inconvenience but fortunately the programs were not disrupted. Pastor Max continues to represent Cornerstone on the Casey Healthy Families Tasksforce that looks at issues that impact on family life in the district. PASTOR LEVI AND THE DOVE. The last few weeks have been great at the Dove with 35 to 40 attending. Next week, Andrew Taylor will be sharing a devotional message. This week we met Steve Sutton, who is working for the City of Casey in the area of grants. He came along to meet us, see what we do and find out if he and the City can help in any way with the maintenance and expansion of the program. Currently we are looking at the options for 2009 and see exciting times ahead. Cornerstone Programs 2008 Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Sunday: Sunday Dates in September: 14th and 28th 1 – 4 pm. Sunday morning Christian interaction program: September 21st. 10.00 – 12.00 SIMON REEVES REPORTS: Simon Reeves is one of our Board Members and vitally involved in demonstrating the Social Action that Christians can take against injustice and exploitation. He leads the Jahwork community in Doveton and reports on Hiroshima Day Vigil (6th August 2008) On 6th August Jahwork held a small vigil to remember those whose lives were taken from them by the dropping of the most destructive weapon ever created – the atom bomb. Moved by the discovery of the extent of our own numbness and apathy towards our history of violence we decided as a community that we must remember the horror of the dropping of the first ever nuclear bomb. Last year we also remembered by holding a vigil outside a small Military Depot in Doveton, located on the Princess Highway. Partly swayed by the fact that our candles were blown out by every passing car in 2007 and partly swayed by our growing awareness of the contributions by Corporations towards violence and murder we decided to shift to hold our vigil out the front of Lockheed Martin (worlds number one weapons manufacturer) office in Dandenong. We are constantly amazed that the culture and business of war sits on our doorsteps as easily does the local Safeway or Coles. It also goes to show that there is so much we all can do in our communities, in our localities. We gathered around 7pm with some good friends of Jahwork. Placing our banner strategically over the corporate Lockheed sign, we begun with some sharing of the events of Hiroshima day and some sharing of the ongoing nuclear weapons industry as it is today. Krystal then appropriately sang us a song by Michael Franti – “You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can’t bomb it into peace”. While Sarah read out a reflection from Jesuit Priest Father John Dear who lives near Los Alamos – the birthplace of the bomb. After some prayers, we were invited to take some chalk and write our messages, our apologies, our yearnings and our prayers. These chalk prayers stretched all the way around the Lockheed building with some special emphasis on the driveway to which the employees would drive in the following day. Surprisingly security had remained silent all night, despite the heavy face set by the high fences, barbed wire, razor wire, floodlights, security cameras, and impenetrable gates. Yet, as we gathered to leave the Police arrived in convoy to ensure the peace wasn’t being disturbed (their words!). What a surprise! We were there for the same thing! Unfortunately a witty comment wasn’t produced by our crowd – but we did get to explain why we were there on that cold winters evening. And I thought to myself for perhaps the first time the people of Lockheed Martin in Dandenong felt in-secure. So from a night set apart to remember, it became a night to remember. As a few of us ordinary people gathered underneath the lights of a deadly corporation – that may have just lit another tiny spark towards a bright future without war. JAHWORK in Doveton www.simonreeves.blogspot.com Pastor Don reporting: The month of July saw numbers continuing to grow at most Cornerstone programs. The MIDDWAY Cobras played their final two home and away games for the season and have finished the year undefeated which surprised everyone, especially myself as I came out of retirement (again) to play a few games when we lacked players. We are looking forward to our Presentation night on Friday 12th September at the Reid Oval clubrooms. See Coach Gary Lambert for tickets 0425 763 072. Tuesday mornings at the Psychiatric hospital Church services have been challenging mostly because I broke a small bone in my hand playing football and I’ve been struggling to play guitar (‘Amazing Grace’ is a popular song but hard to play with a broken hand). The patients continue to enjoy the service and the gospel message each week. Boys Brigade has been busy with outings to ‘indoor rock climbing’ and ‘slot car racing’ proving very popular with boys who wouldn’t normally get a chance to take part in these activities. I’ve also spent plenty of time at McDonalds taking young people out to talk about how their lives are progressing and heard some good stories as well as challenging ones over the past month. I’m still impressed by one young boy who has really taken to reading the bible and applying it to his life. He is still in primary school but his actions have influenced positive changes in his life which we praise God for. Saturday nights at Cornerstone continue to grow as a new team from Rowville Baptist Church has begun leading the 2nd Saturday night program each month. Enoch Chan leads this team and we’re looking forward to seeing more people from Rowville Baptist Church coming down over the next few months. With other Christian groups from different places talking about using the Cornerstone building to run additional programs and we’re hoping to make an announcement about that next month. It’s good to have so many people interested in what is going on at Cornestone and considering adding their services to our small army of existing volunteers. More about this next month! I have been meeting with ‘Concern Australia’ who operate the ‘Values For Life School Seminars’ which Cornerstone has funded in local schools in recent years. The Federal government is allocating funding to address young people ‘Binge Drinking’ and if Concern Australia are successful in receiving this funding there will be forty free programs running in Secondary Schools throughout Dandenong and Casey over the next two years. Check out www.concernaustralia.org.au for more information on ‘Values For Life School Seminars’ as teachers and students alike highly recommend their seminars. Unfortunately sickness has hit a lot of our people including myself. I ended up in hospital with pneumonia (along with another MIDDWAY Cobras player) but I’m on the mend at home now and hoping to be back at Cornerstone by the end of the week. I’m still praying that people get hold of Jesus’ message and apply it to their lives. It’s a lot easier to prevent a problem than fix a problem and I’m convinced Jesus’ gospel has all the answers. MARANATHA! Pastor Don Cameron Work: 9794 5654 / 0415 888 528
For further details check out the website or contact us as indicated below. * All correspondence to CEO c/o PO Box 358 Dandenong. 3175.
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