Richard and Lesley have always had a heart to serve God by loving others. When they heard in the early 90’s that the conditions in Mozambique were so bad that people were literally using tree bark to try and make clothes, they knew they had to help. Richard sourced funding, made connections overseas, sorted out the legal side and requested donations from the community. A local church provided a space and Lesley mended, washed, ironed and carefully packed good quality clothing with the help of a team of volunteers. God provided everything they needed and they saw many miracles through the process. Hundreds of thousands of lives were changed.
After this first experience, God gave Richard more ideas on how to take this idea further and Church 4 Life Charities was born. He created a sustainable process, where people from the community could donate to support people in need, not only clothes, but also items that raise funds, create jobs and feed back into the local community, across Australia and around the world.
“I thought it would be easy, but after a lot of hard work and many, many miracles from God, we can see that this charity serves and blesses so many people in so many more ways than we knew when we sent that first shipping container,” Richard explains.
Lesley describes the joy she has when she picks beautiful, useful and quality items to go into our op shops. “I love finding just the right thing for just the right spot!” Her creative side is expressed in all her work and the staff often remark about the difference she has made through the kind way she trains them and shows them how to do an excellent job, and make a difference in the lives of the people we connect with in the stores.
“We know that God wants to make a difference in the life of every individual the Church and Charity reaches. He wants to connect with them, He loves them, and we want to show them that through every area of what we do. Together, we have seen so very many lives changed.”
Richard is the Senior Pastor of Church 4 Life. Services are held at 32 Sixth Street, Boolaroo, Sundays at 10.30am or you can watch online on Facebook or YouTube under Church 4 Life Australia.