News Release

Volunteers Provide Saving Grace for Shelter

 

On Saturday 4th November, over 100 volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints descended on Sheltered by Grace at Waterford, Queensland; a charity organisation which helps the homeless.

During the annual  Mormon Helping Hands weekend, the Coomera Stake (Diocese) spent hours helping to improve the Sheltered by Grace Facilities.

Members assisted with high pressure cleaning of the accommodation roof and gutters, weeding, planting vegetables and mulching. Mowing and raking grass and sorting through clothing to be sold in a charity shop to raise funds.

Sheltered by Grace is a homeless shelter, with the aim of helping people turn their lives around. Currently, the organisation is able to house 12 people. Unfortunately, the shelter is in high demand and they are currently turning away many more people than they can accommodate with only 12 beds on site.

Thanks to community donations and proceeds from their charity shop in Beenleigh, Sheltered by Grace is expanding to 48 bedrooms with the addition of three new 12-bedroom houses.

Jason, founder of Sheltered by Grace, expressed his gratitude stating, “We are really excited, and I have a bit more faith in God again today. It has been a while since we have had anyone from the community step up and help us, and today was a great day. There was so much work and maintenance done on this place, I am just ecstatic. I am so glad that I can help people as well.”

This event was an amazing opportunity for families to work together on a common project. Husband and wife team James and Lyndell Stone worked side by side with their children.. Both expressed their gratitude to be working in the community.

James, a member of The Church, also commented, “We are here today helping Sheltered by Grace’s great cause. We are helping a husband and wife who are the founders of Sheltered by Grace. They basically sold their home just to provide this to the community. I couldn’t think of a better thing to do than to be here with our Mormon Helping Hands to help this charity. It is good.”

Lyndell spent most of her time in the garden. “The vegetable garden was so overgrown with weeds, so we cleaned all that out. Many hands made light work. We’ve got all the plants planted, and we also planted a herb garden. There are chillies, rosemary, basil, and parsley. We planted rockmelon, carrots, heaps of tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber and watermelon. Hopefully they will all grow up nicely and be great for the people who come here”.

The members of the Coomera Stake have adopted Sheltered by Grace and intend to provide them with ongoing support and assistance as needed.

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