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When I first arrived at Ashfield Uniting Church in 1986 to basically a congregation of ten Edwardian  elderly ladies, it would be true to say that they had never thought much about those to whom Christmas loomed as a nightmare. All these ladies had homes to go to and naturally thought everyone else did, too. So when I said to them I wanted to put on a Christmas day lunch for the poor, lonely and needy, their response was “Why? everyone spends Christmas Day with their families, don’t they?”

Anyway, one Church Elder made me a plate of sandwiches and two people turned up and we sat and ate in our church hall. The next year we thought things were happening as 13 people came and we had prepared a proper meal. Then, horror!  The next year only 11 dropped by and we thought we were on the skids.

No we weren’t!  The next year over 400 arrived and we realised we were on to a good thing. We sure were! We’ve never, to this day had less.

Nowadays, at Ashfield we cater for about 2,000 to 3,000 ‘guests’ and each year the numbers hover around 2,000 give or take a few.

This year’s free  Christmas Day lunch was tremendous! The atmosphere was wonderful and, given the stress on poor and needy people today, remarkably up beat. Everybody gets a free hot traditional Christmas  lunch with all the trimmings . Santa arrives with presents and everybody goes home feeling happy and looked after. Now for many of the poor and needy who come that’s the most we can wish for but, as you can imagine miracles abound.

This year, for me it was what happened to ‘George’ (not his real name). George is a real regular here at Exodus and suffers from a debilitating depression. Every now and then he has to be hospitalised as it all gets too much for him and he wants to end it all. In the run up to Christmas George began to help us by taking the donations of food and presents from our generous donors who just turn up here with stuff to donate and helped  to store them in our warehouse. What a change in that man!  He’s a lovely person anyway but the change has been humungous. George has come right out of his shell and this man who once  needed so much help and time had now become  a significant contributeer to this place. Let’s all pray it lasts beyond this Christmas season.

Even if it doesn’t it’s been worth it.

This year, we had an country singer who really rocked the place. I saw guests and volunteers swaying and jiggling body parts I think they’d forgotten they had and, he had everybody smiling from ear to ear. Top, top entertainment!

But… wait, there’s more. For a long time I’d been wanting to put on a free hot traditional lunch in Melbourne and this year I got it happening. It was one of those things that, if you go out and look for, just fall into your lap! I happened to drop in on this church organisation in Melbourne and asked them if they were interested. Well I came  away, dejected  thinking they weren’t, only to be contacted be their CEO, Ben a few days later to say they were. Then what happened was that as Ben began to ask around his South Melbourne  neighbourhood, he found that a free Christmas day lunch had, every year been put on in the South Melbourne Town Hall but,  last years christmas day  was the last time they were doing it. That meant 400 people were going without this year. It just fell into our lap!

So South Melbourne got it’s free hot traditional christmas Day lunch!

Of course, it wasn’t quite that easy and there were hiccups allong the way, but we got it up and running! By Christmas Day there were more people than expected and next year we may need a bigger venue, but it happened.

At this point, I have to digress a bit because as well as in Australia, I am involved in welfare programs overseas as many people from many different countries beat a path to my door here in Ashfield and I find myself getting caught up in many things.  Some of these are  a Homeless kids shelter in Thailand, an Orphanage/school in Ghana, a homeless kids project in Zimbabwe, an Orphanage in Burma and a program for needy  kids and women in Pakistan.

A few weeks ago, with Melbourne Christmas day problems in the forefront of my brain, I happened to say to Michael, who works in Thailand, “How about putting on a Christmas day lunch for our needy kids there?’

“Great idea.” he said. And it was on!

I contacted my friend Sekai holland in Zimbabwe and it was on there, too.  Joseph Owusu in Ghana also said “yes”, as did David Boehm re. Burma. Pakistan was a bit more difficult as we didn’t want to create religious controversy re. Christianity and Islam so  Rachael there suggested we support  a special meal for the Muslim festival of Eid….done!!!!

On Christmas night I went with our mobile food van to the inner city of Sydney where we gave out a  Christnmas Day meal plus a gift to Sydney’s inner city rough sleepers. Poor Devils! if anyone needs real help it’s them and even a few minutes of Christmas cheer is really appreciated. It’s sobering to witness a young boy so high on crack cocaine he can’t light his cigarette! Probably 2-300 people, male and female lined up for a meal and gift.

So that was my Christmas day. By the end of it well over 5,500 people from six different countries shared in the spirit of Christmas.

Sydney, two locations, 2,000 people in total; Melbourne, 500 people; Ghana, hundreds,;Zimbabwe, thousands; Burma 150; Thailand, 100 and Pakistan,100.

All this from a plate of sandwiches for two people in Ashfield in 1986

Just as an example, here’s what happened in Zimbabwe:-

“We held the two Christmas parties in Mabvuku/Tafara and Epworth respectively on Wednesday and Thursday last week.  Arrangements were touch and go until the last minute, but amazingly everything important fell into place.  We finally planned on 400 children at the first party and 600 at the second. However after finding 550 attended the first we increased our catering arrangements for the second to 800 children, only to find over a thousand turned up.  Fortunately we had spare food in both cases so it all worked out very well.The basic plan for each party was: clowns, jumping castle, music, food, drinks, ice cream and simple toys, with many of the children having their faces painted in imaginative ways for their entertainment, and a Christmas tree with decorations.  That all worked out in both cases, and the children all really enjoyed themselves.  We arranged for two photographers for each party, in case of disaster.  Just as well, as the second photographer’s video has been affected by viruses!  However we do have the rushes from the other photographer covering both parties and Sekai will bring those when she comes to Sydney at the end of the month.

The City Council donated a cow that was slaughtered to provide the main meat (we had chicken as well) but otherwise we covered the costs with your generous contribution plus our own money (which also came in right at the last minute).  The children all ate well, and that is so important in the area where we held the functions.  One visitor commented that they had asked one group of children when they had last eaten chicken and rice (which is a festive meal in Zimbabwe). “We can’t remember” was the reply.  I felt so sad and yet happy at the same time that we could provide something special for them.

There were so many things that could have gone wrong, and many that did (eg the Church that was going to provide the marquee for us at the second party telling us on the morning that we couldn’t have it after all).  But nothing too serious.  It was just amazing that it all fell into place so well at the last minute.  I even found a restaurant that was happy to keep all the ice cream (100 litres of it) in their deep freeze for us at no cost until it was ready to be collected.

The Australian Ambassador, Matthew Neuhaus, and his wife Angela were the official guests at the second party.  The Mayor of Harare, Muchadei Masunda, was unfortunately booked for multiple prior engagements so could not attend.  However in the aftermath he says that the feedback was so positive that he wants this to be an annual event, and next time he will organise corporate sponsorship so we can cater for even more children and provide a wider range of events.

So thank you all very, very much for your idea and generous contribution.  It made so many children really happy!”

In a few days I hope to have photos of all the events. Joseph Owuso has sent me hundreds from Ghana but I don’t have the skills to attach them to this blog. they’re of little African kids having a wow of a time.

You know, I think Christmas is the one day of the year we all, no matter whether we have a faith or none at all, have permission to be good to one another and I don’t think we appreciate that enough. It’s one day when the common-ness, or one-ness of all humanity shines through. It’s the one day when we are all0wed to think of a lonely, homeless person or kid in Australia , Africa, Asia or anywhere and do something about it.

I remember once, a group of homeless kids I was then looking after made a giant Christmas Poster which said “Jesus was a homeless kid, too.” It really annoyed many of the middle class people who drove by in their expensive cars as they made plain. One kid did another poster. It was basically all black. It was of a very black hill in front of a slightly lighter black sky,. And just coming up from behind the hill was this tiny, tiny yellow dot of sunlight. Hope out of the blackness.

In all the troubles of this divided world, there is hope, you know, you just have to look for it.

So, next Christmas we can do it all again. Hopefully better and with more people from more countries involved. Not just to say bigger is better but to say “We’re all one, mate. We might look different. We might eat different food but we all bleed the same red blood and all expect do die before our children do and everyone  deserves a chance in life. So lets give one another a hand along the way.”

 Maybe then in, in some way what we do  will help  contribute to a better world.

Well, that’s my prayer, anyway.

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