Coffs Harbour Heroes - Matthew
Matt is one of the 12 soldiers to come out of WOW (Worship on Wednesdays) at The Coffs Harbour Salvation Army. After attending the second-ever WOW service, Matt has become a regular.
About four years ago, Matt hit an all-time low after years of taking drugs, drinking and breaking-in to houses and was finally admitted to the Coffs Harbour Adele recovery program. Throughout his eight months at Adele, he attended WOW every Wednesday night and operated the sound desk. When he graduated from Adele, Matt continued to go along.
“When I was in rehab I was doing meetings and doing church. It was working and Coffs Harbour was the only place I could associate that clean time with. So when I got out of rehab, I just kept doing what I was doing when I was in rehab.”
Matt is employed as the Community Youth Outreach Worker at Coffs Harbour Corps. “My job’s relational. I go about meeting as many kids as I can and develop relationships with them before they’re in trouble,” he says.
Matt’s role started out through his own initiative. Every Friday night Matt ran a free barbeque at the skate park in Woolgoogla, north of Coffs Harbour, for young people. The youth barbeque is still running and often attracts up to 50 young people.
Matt says he is particularly passionate about young people due to his own troubling experiences as a teenager.
“I’d like to think if someone had picked up that I was going down the wrong path earlier, I could have been saved a whole lot of pain. I want to save at least one person the pain I went through.”
Along with ministering to young people, Matt helped save the life of 49-year-old alcoholic, Chris. Meeting Chris at an AA meeting, Matt discovered that Chris was living in his car. So he invited Chris to WOW.
Having been unemployed for 15 years and having an uncontrollable compulsion to drink, Chris thought nobody could save him. Accepting Matt’s invitation, Chris turned up to WOW intoxicated.
“I came here [WOW] on 6 May 2009, blind drunk and Major Steve (Metcher) prayed for me. I thought, this guy has genuine compassion and he said, ‘You’re a good bloke ... why don’t you pour your grog out’. So I poured my grog out on the [corps] stairs over there.”
Chris was also in trouble with the law at that time and was sentenced to six months in jail. However, with permission from the court judge, Chris only spent three months in jail and Major Steve helped Chris finish out his term at the Adele rehab program.
Chris says he owes his life to God and his life has completely altered since attending WOW.
“It’s the love and peace that I feel when I’m here,” he says. “I just feel like I fit in. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’ve got good people around me at church. There’s so much support at The Salvation Army. They saved my life. I know that.”
Like Matt, Chris’ job evolved out of volunteer work. Chris has been running a free barbeque for homeless people at their local park.
“It’s called the ‘acts of kindness’ barbeque. It’s just going down and doing fellowship with people in the park, listening to their stories, praying for them if they ask. We give them blankets and try to get them to come up to worship on Wednesday and Tuesday because it worked for me.”
Matt helped put together a tender and now Chris is being paid to continue the work at the park. “I didn’t know there was going to be a job come out of it. It’s not until it all happens that you look back and I know it was a bigger picture that God had for me. I know now that my life has direction.”
Both Chris and Matt graduated from solidership classes on the same day.