Vision for Mission

“Be warned – doing this course may change your life,” said Christian Frost, a 23 year-old social work student from Indooroopilly (pictured right) about a new community orientation course.

The Waiters Union, a West End based small network of households committed to living out a Christ-centred approach to community development is partnering with the Uniting Church to provide the grass-roots, gentle-but-radical community development program.

“I had little knowledge of the course or its content and was surprised to find that it has revolutionised my understanding of living as a Christian with a vocation of caring for others,” said Mr Frost who attended a previous course as a prerequisite to his field placement. “The course provided discussions on community work theory and practice as well as knowledge and skills for living out Jesus in my life.”

The program will be delivered by people who are involved with Aborigines, migrants, refugees and others who are struggling with serious disadvantages and significant disabilities in inner-city Brisbane.

“The course has whetted my appetite to learn more and reinvigorated my spirit to follow Jesus.”

The Waiters Union network began in 1985 when Dave and Ange Andrews returned from India to Australia and expressed interest in doing the same kind of faith based community work in West End as they had done in New Delhi.

Together with two other couples they formed the “West End Waiters Union”, so named because they wanted to be like waiters, available to help to develop a sense of hospitality in the locality, so that all people, especially people who are usually displaced in areas like theirs, could begin to feel at home in the community.

Synod Vision for Mission Advocate Rev Duncan Macleod said the Uniting Church through the Vision for Mission project has entered into a three year partnership with the Waiters Union Training Team.

“We are resourcing seven part-time workers to share in the ongoing development of faith-based community development training in Queensland.”

Key leader with The Waiters Union Dave Andrews is the author of Compassionate Community Work, a textbook on community development being used throughout world.

The next course will be based in West End, Brisbane from 9-22 December.

To learn more about the Waiters Union and training opportunities, visit the web site, www.waitersunion.org and contact Dave Andrews, 3844 1043.

Download the Live-In Registration and Information form (1 mb pdf)