By Mikayla van Loon
Mount Evelyn Christian Reformed Church celebrated its 70th birthday and decades of active service in the community last month.
Pastor Lukas Edwards said it was a wonderful get together of founding members, current members and those who have moved away on Sunday 22 October.
“It was good to have so many people that have moved over that time come back and celebrate, particularly with some of our still founding members the journey the church has been on over that time,” he said.
Established in 1953 by Dutch migrants, the church evolved from in-home to the still standing Birmingham Road brick building.
“There was a small collection of Dutch families who after the war moved over and established the church, initially as a home church, just meeting in someone’s house and then they had a few more arrivals,” Pastor Lukas said.
“Eventually, they started meeting in community buildings but decided they needed to establish a church for themselves and then very quickly moved from Dutch services to English services because they wanted to come and be a part of Australia and not be separate.
“They appreciated what they’d received in being able to move here and wanted to contribute back to the community that had accepted them so they started up a little church where it is now.”
Giving back to the community has been so ingrained in the church since its inception, it led to the building of two major facilities in the Mount Evelyn township.
“Once they had established themselves a little bit, they had a mind to start Mount Evelyn Christian School or MECS as it’s now known, and that was something they were very passionate about making sure that our community had education.
“They also started the Oasis camp site, just as you head out towards Monbulk.”
Since then, the church has been supporting the broader community by providing regular meals and groceries.
“Now every Thursday night we run a free meal for the community, whoever wants to come to that can and at the moment, we have about 70 people each Thursday coming to that,” Pastor Lukas said.
The meals started in 2010 with just three people attending but has grown exponentially, something Pastor Lukas put down to as people needing connection.
“There’s a lot of people who come with apprehensions, but what we find is there’s a great lack of community in current times and people are looking for a place where they can feel known and noticed and cared for and cared about.
“Sometimes people don’t have much family in their life or sometimes maybe they’ve lost their spouse and eating alone all the time is not maybe something they necessarily want to do.
“So it’s been a really good thing to be able to just provide a Thursday meal every week, so that people can come and experience some of that community that is sometimes hard to find.”
Heading into Christmas, Pastor Lukas said it will be a time of celebration yet again with Advent services leading up to Christmas day, which will be a “come one, come all”.
