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Soul Food regular, Jean, was invited to cut the birthday cake at the faith community’s first birthday celebrations.

Birthday parties are a time when friends and family gather in a spirit of celebration and enjoyment of each other’s company. That was the atmosphere earlier this month, when community members gathered at Shire Salvos Miranda for the one-year anniversary of the weekly ‘Soul Food’ faith community.

‘Soul Food’ offers community members who access food relief at the centre ‘food for your stomach, hope for your soul, and truth that sets you free!’

It was started as a result of strong friendships being formed between community members who regularly attend the centre in search of hope and relief from food poverty, loneliness and isolation and other hardships.

There was a sense that Shire Salvos Miranda was a space for community members to connect with each other, and that they had a desire to connect at a deeper level with The Salvation Army’s core values.

Shire Salvos Miranda Mission Leader, Lieutenant-Colonel David Godkin, speaks at the first birthday celebration of the Soul Food faith community.

A year on, and most of the same people are still attending (with some new additions!) Many of them consider Soul Food their church. Corps members from Shire Salvos Menai regularly attend and support in terms of offering friendship and practical assistance.

Shire Salvos Miranda Mission Leader, Lieutenant-Colonel David Godkin said the week before the first birthday event, the community spoke about ‘values’ and wrote down the values they identified in the Soul Food Faith Community. They were: honesty, forgiveness, unconditional love without judgement, never giving up, trusting each other, helping each other, encouragement, respect, equality and belief. “These values have developed over the past 12 months in our soul food faith community and I believe God has even greater things in store for us, we’ve only just begun,” he said.

Christine, Claire and Scott volunteer at the Soul Food faith community.

At the birthday party, David talked about the meaning of a ‘celebration’ asked those gathered to identify the good things in their life that they could celebrate. Many people took to the open microphone to share, with contributions like “not having to cook!” generating laughter and some going deeper with one man sharing how he loves and appreciates everyone at the Soul Food faith community, which is a big part of his life.

One community member who has been attending from the beginning, Jean, was given the honour of cutting the cake, which everyone – especially the children gathered – was excited to eat for dessert!

- Article written by Lauren Martin