Walking the walk

“A little child was standing in the yard holding a big bread stick. A pregnant woman walked out of the house and smiled and said thanks for the bread I had just given her. “I said: ‘God bless you.’ For the first time in my life, I really meant those words. I got into my car and I just cried my heart out …” – Karen Sagala.

More than five years ago, The Salvation Army Forest Lake church started a free bread delivery service to help those in need in the nearby suburb of Ellen Grove (formerly Carole Park). Located about 19 km south-west of the centre of Brisbane, the suburb has a high proportion of government housing.

Alona Sagala, a forklift operator, and wife Karen were happily living in nearby Forest Lake and attending their local Salvation Army church. But soon after volunteering to help deliver the bread on a regular basis, and seeing the tremendous social needs in Ellen Grove, they decided to put their Christian faith into action. They gave up their comfortable home, jobs and, with their three children, moved into the heart of the suburb.

“Many residents are wrestling with financial hardship, addictions, unemployment and poor education,” says Karen.

Today, Alona and Karen, together with a team of workers and volunteers, run the “Lifehouse” service, which includes positive living programs, community events and training courses as well as helping their neighbours wherever there is a need such as shopping and help with budgeting, driving people to and from hospital, mowing lawns and providing meals. Their aim is not to give handouts, but to help build a generous, healthy community.

Graham and Connie are one of many couples touched by the Sagalas’ care. After a failed investment, Graham says, “everything went except our bed”.

“My wife’s got a bad heart. She’s got emphysema. It’s hereditary in the family,” he says. “I nearly had to put my wife in hospital because of all of this. I had a nervous breakdown halfway through it.

“Karen and Alona have been great, they have been really good friends to us.”  Another Ellen Grove resident, Liz, chokes back tears as she describes Karen as one of the first real friends she’s had in many years.

“If it hadn’t been for her at different times, I’d have probably ended up in a mental home. I would ever have been working – I probably would have lost my house.”

Karen and Alona say they are thrilled to now see random acts of kindness starting to slowly “infect” the area. “What we are seeing is people who borrow the lawnmowers to mow their own yard, and are mowing their neighbour’s yards as well! It’s great.”

“These small elements we see over time are almost cultural changes in a community that has traditionally had a welfare mentality,” says Karen. The new sense of belonging to a caring community is “priceless” according to Karen.

“One local man had an accident and his finger was severed,” she says. “We went to the hospital to see how he was doing and the surgeons came in and asked him his occupation and he said, ‘Oh well, I work with these guys at The Salvation Army’.

“He didn’t have a job with us, but he found value because he had spent time with Alona clearing rubbish from someone’s yard or mowing someone’s lawn.

“He has no-one else but he’s building new support networks now. We see a beautiful community spirit developing.”