Local community outreach
St Paul’s Local Community Outreach team is called ‘The Blue Army’ and works to support the wider community of the Hills District. The Blue Army are a hands- on ministry that delivers labor-intensive care to individual people, families, organisations, and community events. They aim to share the love of Jesus through sacrificial action that has ‘no strings attached’ for people receiving their help.
The Blue Army serve in the local community in 2 ways: Help At Home provides labor-intensive care to individual people, families, and organisations. This includes house maintenance, gardening, car washes, and meeting the personal needs of members in our community. The other way The Blue Army is serving the community is through Local Events like: Christmas in the Hills, ANZAC Day, Ride for Refugees, Relay for Life.
Social justice
In God’s word we are told to “loose the chains of injustice” and “set the oppressed free” (Isaiah 58:6). St Paul’s Social Justice Group aims to do this through education and opportunities to service those in need both here in Sydney and throughout the world.
Our events include the Hills Fair Trade Market (in collaboration with the Hills Justice Network), riding and volunteering at the Ride for Refugees, Information sessions, including International Teams Justice and Transformation workshops and helping to coordinate the larger Help at Home Days (in collaboration with the Blue Army). Another event we have started is the St Paul’s Christmas Market which provides the Church with the opportunity to support our global mission partners including the Kibera Card Project, Compassion and a Women’s Ministry project in Loas.
We would like to see social justice become part of the everyday culture at St Pauls and would love to work more collaboratively with other groups within the Church to make this a reality.
Compassion
Since 2009 the congregation at St Paul’s has changed the lives of over 1000 children in Kenya, Africa through child sponsorship. The Compassion program ensures that children are healthy, educated, engage in Christian teaching, vocational training, and given a hand up out of poverty. If you would like to sponsor a child please email compassion@spch.org.au.
Critical Interventions Projects
In 2010/2011 St Paul’s raised $80,000 and provided a rural Massai community in Kenya, Africa with a clean water source. In 2013 St Paul’s raised funds to build 48 homes for families in critical need in Kenya. Now St Paul’s aims is to raise $AUD100,000 to help LifeSpring Chapel build a Child Development Centre. This eight classroom, multiple washroom facility will directly benefit the 289 Compassion sponsored children (many of whom are sponsored by members of St Paul’s).
Kenyan Mission Trips
From 2009 St Paul’s has been sending teams to Kenya to engage in the Justice Ministries of St Paul’s. Whilst team members have been a blessing to many living in Poverty, they inturn have been blessed by those they have met. We will be commissioning a new team at some point in the near future.