A special day in court

I just wanted to write and let those that read this blog know about an experience I had in the Ringwood Court (outer Eastern Melbourne) recently.
One of the guys we have been supporting and journeying with for many years now, had to attend court once again for breaching his parole and re offending.  His last 7 times in court had resulted in 7 custody sentences, and his Lawyer did all he could to show the Magistrate that this young man is making every effort to break this cycle and find another way of doing life.

Over the past 12 months or so, it has been amazing to watch this young man, begin to connect with the guys in elishacare, and our time spent on the streets in Croydon really helped this man feel accepted and apart of this community.  He then started coming to a regular meal we have together every Tuesday night, and listened to us sitting around after the meal sharing our life, our faith and how Jesus invites us deep into this relationship with him.  The more he came, the more he embraced this love and you could see his walls coming down week by week.
His next massive step was to come on his first ever camp with this community, and again priceless to watch the guys love this man unconditionally.

Back to court to finish this story......

What really touched my heart this day, eight of the guys that have become friends with this man turned up to court, not because they were asked to, or felt some sort of obligation, but because they had become apart of his journey, and really wanted to do all that they could to show support and love.
I had a chance to take the witness box, and talk about how he had made some incredible steps towards this new life, about how he had so many new friends, friends that believed in him, friends that have turned up in court today to show their support, and even had a chance to say how many of these new friends had come from destructive lifestyles themselves and that had found freedom.

It was so moving to listen to the Magistrate wind up this hearing, saying how the support shown by the guys today, and the community of elishacare, had really touched him and that he encouraged this man to continue this journey.  He then went on to say that he would normally have to give a 15 month sentence for this re offending, but would today only give him two months, and again he thanked those that had given of their time to support.

He was led away, we all gathered our emotions and thanked Jesus for what had just taken place.

Some of you may be saying "but he still had to go to prison", and that is where we will continue this journey with him.

 Love you to be praying for him, and us, as we share the privilege of loving one another.

Geoff

April Camp Photos

 Getting ready to leave "The Lounge" in Croydon

 It was so good to have Ben on camp with us and even more exciting to see what is taking shape in his life at the moment.

Go Benny

 From left, Nick, Simon, Rey and Matty having a Jam or at least I think you can call it that.  

 Some of the crew just chilling on the porch, we have had so many camps down here at Torquay and love these times so much

Dougy and Benny having a burn off, and this is Doug in his element

I just wanted to say a huge thanks to all those that came on camp and made this such a special time.  

As we continue to develop relationships with each other and keep Jesus in the centre of all we do, he continues to build us into the community He wants us to be......

Geoff 

Backyard Blitz @ Dan's

Another of those real special moments, a bunch of the elishacare guys using their talents to transform Dan & Alyna's backyard.  Dan (my son) in the blue adidas loved having the guys over and looked after us so well.

Geoff

Danny (above) is usually sitting under the Palm Trees drinking Latte's, but this time is cutting them down.

Getting our supply of fire wood

We don't all dress like these two

Danny and Jase, in one of their better moments.

Another great Community Day

They do work sometime, above the boys just chillin.

It was a bit of a comp to see who could put down the most scones and cream, Jase the rumour is you have the title.

Has anyone seen James?

It was another amazing day hanging out at Jay & Beth's house, a little work, lots of play and heaps of food.

Thanks Jay & Beth for flooding us with your hospitality....

Geoff

Food Bank

Here are some pictures of how it looks in The Sharpies lounge as the team share around all the food from Food Bank. It is a lot of fun, but also pretty crazy sometimes.......

So many families are so touched as they receive these parcels.

Geoff