Nils von Kalm writes
I love hearing and reading about stories of redemption.
A dear friend of mine sent me a clip this morning advertising the Lazarus Community Centre Geelong. It opened in 2017 as a place where homeless people and others doing it tough can find refuge, health facilities, and a place where they can belong and be part of community.
The centre is built on the site of the old Geelong Gaol. As the Geelong Community Foundation says, there’s something really powerful about the transformation of the space. Once associated with confinement and separation, it’s now a place of welcome for disadvantaged people.
Another place like it is in Collingwood, in Melbourne’s inner suburbs. STREAT Cafe is a place that helps young people who have experienced marginalisation, disadvantage and a range of barriers to employment. Like the Lazarus Community Centre, Streat’s aim is to provide a sense of connection, safety and belonging for young people. What you also find out when you go to Streat is that it used to be a brothel. A place where women were exploited is now a place where people are given hope.
I love stories like that. I see them as outbreaks of grace in a world where we need more and more of that. As the song goes, grace makes beauty out of ugly things. Grace finds goodness in everything.
Whether it’s places like the Lazarus Community Centre (and isn’t the name “Lazarus” so apt for that? A place of rising from death!) or Streat Cafe, or it’s ourselves who have left behind bad things we’ve done or that have been done to us, grace abounds. I need to hear that, and I hope you can receive it today too.
The Other Cheek checked out Lazarus’ Facebook and was not surprised to see a big thank you to Christ Church Geelong: “Huge thanks to Christ Church Geelong’s Community Meals Program for sharing the love (and the Vegemite) with us. We now have a year’s supply of Vegemite sitting in the Lazarus pantry.
And a big shoutout to VEGEMITE / Bega Cheese for the generous donation.
Image: From last month: “Missing Links Motorcycle Club has come through for Lazarus again, this time with a massive $2,000 donation.” Image credit: Lazarus FB