The City of Logan is filled with many wonderful organisations that do great work to help the community and put others before themselves.
Many times these groups work alone and power on day after day doing what they do best. Sometimes though these groups find a common goal and while still working to achieve their objectives, come together to ensure the people are first.
Three organisations that do this are Touch of Hope, Nightlight and Logan House Fire Support Network. With the help of the Bethania Community Centre as a base of operations for the collective, these three groups help many people every day.
Nightlight Outreach Inc. aims to provide a vital ministry of compassion and caring in the area of homelessness, which is solidly based on a Christian foundation. They work with the whole community but especially those who are less fortunate, regardless of reason, age, gender, ethnicity or religion.
Johnny and Michaela Porter head the team based in Beenleigh and not only do street feeds during the week but also help in any way they can. From finding accommodation to getting people’s lives back on track by offering support and a shoulder when needed.
Touch of Hope is a non-denominational charity that is based in Springwood, yet does their work all over the City of Logan. With weekly street feeds and free clothing, Touch of Hope also work with domestic violence victims, homeless and the needy to ensure they are not left alone.
Founders Anita, Grant and Kirstin Anderson are supported by a strong volunteer base that all have big hearts and do many hours of unpaid work giving back to the community. The team source furniture, clothing, food and so much more for people doing it tough and don’t charge for these services.
One of the more recognisable names in this list is Logan House Fire Support Network (LHFSN). Louie and Christine set the organisation up to help get fire victims get back on their feet after devastating house fires. A service that is an unfortunate necessity, LHFSN attends hundreds of fires each year and is the only service of its kind.
Day or night when a house fire takes place in South-East Queensland, the chances of seeing the LHFSN bus onsite is high. The team also helped in the Logan floods and have worked tirelessly on fixing the out dated fire safety legislation in Queensland and are ambassadors for fire safety in the home.
Come Christmas time, these three organisations are busy doing what they can to make sure people have food and gifts for Christmas day and are also not alone while others are celebrating with family and friends.
Every Tuesday night for most of the year at the Bethania Community Centre, either Touch of Hope or Nightlight joins LHFSN for a street dinner. A BBQ and other tasty goodies are put on at no cost to the locals and everyone is welcome.
On December 18, the trio joined together to host a special Christmas dinner at Bethania for the local community. There were all kinds of delightful food and drinks and plenty of Christmas joy and cheer.
A heap of gifts were given out to children and even the adults were given something special to make sure everyone had a present this year.
Johnny Porter from Nightlight said how great it was at the Christmas BBQ in Bethania.
“We had an awesome night celebrating Christmas with our friends and our family and we just want to say thank you for being a part of what we did this year.
“Merry Christmas and hope to see you soon,” he said.
Christmas reminds us that we need to come together with friends and family and enjoy the time together. Life is a precious gift and time is short. Everyone that comes to any of the events put on by these organisations is made to feel like a friend, even if it is their first visit. It doesn’t cost anything to be kind to someone else.
If you would like to support any of these organisations you can find them all on Facebook.
