Christmas is fast approaching, it’s a tough time of year for so many of our clients who struggle to provide for their families. We have spent a long time preparing for what we know will likely be an increase in demand for support and we hope we have enough resources in place to cover the increase in need.
We are blessed by many volunteers and supporters that enable us to serve our community through our various projects. Thank you for your amazing support, we couldn’t do it without you.
For me, Christmas is a reminder of a key word that we’ve been thinking about a lot recently in connection with our aim to build a consistently caring and compassionate community – Grace. In the Christian sense, Grace is an undeserved favour from God; it cannot be earned and is freely given. I often find myself saying if we just had more Grace in the situation, we could see so much more happen. Grace can make such an impact in so many different spaces, here are two that affect our work.
First, is that organisations are locked in their structures, with a ‘one type fits all’ model and yet we are all unique individuals. If we could look to adapt a little in order to work together better, then we could see a system that provides a better safety net for people who are spiralling into poverty.
Second, is when people have opinions that are rigid – and don’t appreciate the uniqueness of us all and the richness that diversity creates. It’s important for us to be open-minded about the potential that every person has to contribute to our community.
As we move into 2024 the challenge is how can we, as an organisation, take Grace into how we live, how can we really hear the comments and feedback, genuinely make changes, appreciating that we are all different and allow Grace to run freely in all we do?
What difference will it make? I hope that it will make us more genuine, creative, engaging and compassionate as we try to create a poverty-free future for all in our community.
Happy Christmas and a Grace-filled New Year,
Jonathan (Founder and Managing Director)