Nature, creativity and song – faith pathways flourish at Port Stephens
- deansimpson7
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Three hours north of Sydney, there’s a Salvation Army Corps quite different from most others. Nestled on a large property, five minutes from the beach and across the road from a nature reserve, the corps is home to a lush community garden where chickens roam free. The sound of music and children playing filters through the breeze from the playground and the church hall, as parents enjoy barista-made coffee from the pop-up coffee van. Welcome to Port Stephens Corps!
BY LAUREN MARTIN
When Envoys Angela and Lucas Cairns and their family arrived at this Salvation Army paradise in 2022, it was perfect timing. Lucas was just two years into his recovery from a heart transplant, and two of their children had also undergone life-saving heart transplants in the years prior.
“This place is in such a beautiful location. Currently, Jacaranda trees are in full bloom, and the mango trees planted by previous officers are covered in blossoms,” Lucas described. “We prayed when we first arrived and felt we had a strong direction from God that this was going to be a place of healing and restoration.”
Lucas and Angela felt God had given them the verse for this place from Lamentations 3:21-23: “But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope, because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness oh God.” (This verse now adorns the office wall with a large mural of sunflowers).
As they got to know the congregation and the community, they began implementing programs that work together to allow God to heal and restore.
“Everything works together as a village here,” says Lucas. “Every program that we do links in with the overarching vision.”
A year or so into their journey, God provided them with helpers – Josh and Sophie Annesley.
When the Annesleys moved back to Australia from the UK last year, they didn’t expect to return to ministry positions. “We had left London because we wanted to run a play café ministry, and the door to the opportunity closed,” Sophie says.
When they arrived in Port Stephens and met Angela and Lucas Cairns, they couldn’t believe their eyes as they toured the Port Stephens Salvation Army site, seeing the children’s playground right next to the main building.
“At the first meeting, we said, ‘We really feel like there should be a play café here’.”
Angela and Lucas were amazed at how God works, just as they had been discussing in the months before Sophie and Josh's arrival, that very same thing.
Fast forward to now, and Sophie is a Ministry Assistant and Josh is the corps barista. “But he’s so much more than a barista!” says Lucas, “Both Sophie and Josh are a God-given gift to this place.”
Angela no longer works for The Salvation Army, having taken up a position with Transplant Australia, but remains an active member of the corps and on its leadership team.
Every week, more than 100 families access the site for ‘Joyful Noise’, a relaxed playgroup, and enjoy a coffee at the Hope Village Café. Community members also tend to the community garden and have access to the fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers that grow there.
On Tuesday nights, an existing community meal has been revamped to include people from all walks of life. “We just invite anyone! We say, ‘If you just want to have a meal, or you can’t be bothered cooking, come along!’” says Angela. “We have had families join us out of Joyful Noise, and people in the community who are in need will also come, and it mixes everyone beautifully.”
The meal includes a short chat about a Bible verse, and as attendees sit and eat around a big table, decorated with vases of flowers from the onsite community garden, conversation naturally flows.
“Everything that we do here has a faith pathway,” says Lucas. “We find that with evangelism – relationship works best.”
Friendship is a big part of the corps’ Conversation and Craft group that meets every Tuesday. “It’s a really inclusive space,” says Angela. “Some people have been coming for over 30 years, and some have just started recently, looking for community as they have faced difficulties like loss of their partners or hard things within their family.”
The team has found that through authentic relationships, spiritual conversations happen naturally, and three families have started attending the Port Stephens Sunday service as a result.
“We have never been big believers of the concept that ‘church is just a Sunday service’. As this church has remained faithful through varied seasons, God has been faithful too. Just like our garden, we are starting to grow,” says Lucas.
Music program
A new initiative that’s just kicked off at Port Stephens Salvos is a Creative School. It’s a music tuition program, targeted at families who wouldn’t be able to afford it for their children. “We wanted to take the Just Brass model somewhat, but use different instruments,” says Lucas. “We have focused on guitar and vocals.”
The Red Shield Appeal Initiative-funded program has seen the corps work with local schools to identify eligible families who might be interested, with 12 families registered. The Creative School is a trial and a way for the corps to reach more families and invite them into the beautiful space that God has created at Port Stephens Salvos.
There’s a sense of the ‘organic’ at Port Stephens Salvos, where corps life is “less program” and “more people” oriented. There are people who volunteer their time every week to look after the community garden, and those who look after the property by mowing and doing small maintenance projects. “It really is a village here,” says Angela.
Maybe it’s the presence of chickens roaming free or the fact that everywhere you look, you see a vista of trees that creates the peaceful, relaxed pace that permeates even the crowded playgroup hubbub. More likely, it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit moving in and through the space that creates that warm invitation for people to meet Jesus.
Please pray for Port Stephens Corps, its new Creative School, and its future plans to create an on-site retreat for people experiencing grief, loss, or complex medical situations.
Some of the free-range chickens that roam throughout the property at Port Stephens Corps in the New South Wales Hunter region.
