*Sarifa was buzzing with excitement and could not wipe the smile off her face. The 17 year old had just shared her story with a group of 85 upper primary students. It was a daunting experience but so precious and important, given her incredible story. The students had sat in silence, spellbound, as she spoke [...]

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While every refugees story is different and their anguish personal, they all share a common thread of uncommon courage- the courage not only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their shattered lives – Antonio Guterres(U.N High commissioner for refugees, 2005) Over the last 5 years, Peter and I have felt incredibly privileged to be [...]

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The Newsletter of Gabriel and Catherine Hingley, June 2011 It was a joyous moment of celebration. About forty adults and children were gathered under a large tree in a park, throwing streamers, cracking coloured eggs, laughing and singing. But it wasn’t someone’s birthday – we were celebrating the fact that Jesus had risen!  Afterwards we [...]

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Easter: a time of hot cross buns, chocolate and hyperactive kids. Is that all? Well, for the mainstream of society that would seem to be it. We felt challenged as a team this year to make it more meaningful to the people who we do time with in our communities, people that have really struggled [...]

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The Newsletter of Gabriel and Catherine Hingley, August 2010 Open door, Open Heart It was 6 am, and Catherine and I were jolted awake by a man rushing into our bedroom and turning on the light. “Can you please come …come now!” It was Masoud, our housemate. He explained in broken English that his car [...]

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Dear friends, Hope you enjoy reading this ‘update’ style prayer email for the month of Oct. We recently returned from a very refreshing break overseas- in Malaysia/ Singapore with Sharm’s extended family. We celebrated Rani (Sharm’s mum’s) 60th bday with all of her family as well as a cousin’s wedding and a big family reunion. [...]

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Running to keep up! August 2010 Sometimes you can go along working on projects, investing in people and doing good, but you may not actually be able to put your finger on exactly where you’re headed with it all, and then suddenly, bam, something happens and it’s all opened up, suddenly all that time and [...]

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We have seen some big changes in the Springvale team over the last few months, and though at the moment our team is small, we feel very privileged to be involved in some exciting new ventures within our neighbourhood.  Many of you have heard about, and possibly experienced the Burmese food tent at Surrender earlier [...]

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We had just begun the hectic pre-Christmas preparations. It’s an annual event; every year the UNOH team and a host of volunteers and supporters hold a big Christmas bash for people in our communities who don’t have anywhere to go over Christmas. As it can be a dark and lonely time for people without family [...]

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