After Corinne’s husband passed away, she found hope, purpose (and unexpectedly, LOVE) again at Church 4 Life Charities.
“Church 4 life made such a difference in my life… for a while my purpose was just supporting my husband (who had cancer) but once I’d lost my husband, what was I going to do?… so I come to Church 4 Life and my whole life changed”
Corinne had moved to a new town where she knew no one except her sister. She was ready to go back to church and her sister mentioned there was a church nearby. She started attending and eventually got involved through helping at the beginning and end of the Church Service
“At first I started helping with the little things…I’d help get the meal ready and clean up afterwards. Then I found out Lesley needed help with the Op Shop”
Although Corinne hadn’t had any experience working in a shop before, she lent a helping hand by bringing the Op Shop fruit and vegetable order in and added labels to them. She unpacked and displayed the items, cut and wrapped other fruits and then her job tasks progressed into an administration role.
“I found out they needed help in the office and I said ‘Well, I can do that!”
She started with printing, guillotining, attaching flyers to blue bags and eventually moved on to designing the flyers.
Corinne was most impressed with the charity when she realised the amount of work and effort that Church 4 Life Charities was putting in to proving the local community with help. She explains her surprise when she heard about Pete’s Kitchen.
“Pete’s kitchen was a free community meal that the church prepared every week for up to 60 people… and they got a 3 course meal for free! What amazed me was that they had nice bright red tablecloths, the tables were prepared like you were going to a restaurant and side plates with serviettes placed on them. It amazed me because I knew the church was only small… and yet they did this… and they ran the clothing collectors.”
Corinne spoke of how she witnessed those who were struggling financially and how the charity would try their best to place that person into a paid job to help them out, even if it were only a few hours a week or a day a week , it would help them support their family and get by.
“So it gave me community, it gave me a sense of belonging, it gave me people who later became my friends and family, and it gave me a sense of wellbeing that I hadn’t had for quite a while”
Another huge way that Corinne’s life was positively impacted was that she met a gentleman named Alan while they were both working for the charity. Although Corinne had no intention of finding love again after her husband had passed, she eventually could not deny their connection, his kind and comedic charms, and so they eventually married!!
The biggest impact for Corinne came when she was working in the charities administration department doing jobs she had never done before.
“I got to supervise a couple of different groups, the distributors, the drivers, plus I got to be with some beautiful people in the office. It was challenging, the tasks were new, my confidence was being built up but I was really enjoying having this group of people and looking out for them and trying my best to help them so they could be the best people they could be”
Corinne has been an absolute blessing to all the teams she supervised. Her kind and gentle demeanour, words of wisdom and encouragement and prayers has helped people overcome anxiety, helped people to see that God cares deeply about them and their life.
“There is a gammit of things you can do… but if you be yourself… and trust God and allow him to work through you… you have no idea what he’s going to do. It amazes me what he can do with little old me… at the end of my years, and having the impact that I’ve always wanted to have on people. It is just so amazing to me, and I am just so grateful!!”
Corinne retired in 2021 after years of helping, implementing organisational procedures and supervising multiple teams in a fast paced environment. She has helped build the charity and its teams with her skills, time and a lot of hard work. It is clear to see from hearing Corinnes story that being a part of the Church 4 Life community has impacted her life positively in several ways, and we are so pleased to hear that.
