Making a Home for Churchill Christian Fellowship

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BACKGROUND

Churchill Christian Fellowship (CCF) is a small congregation of around 20 people in Churchill, Victoria, Australia. Although the church was started nearly 40 years ago, it had for some years declined to a point where it was being kept alive by just 3 people. In the last 4 to 5 years we have begun to rebuild, and had started having meetings in the local public hall, but then COVID restrictions came in and we were no longer able to use the hall unless we were prepared to tell unvaccinated people they couldn't come to church. We did not want to do that, so for about 6 months have been meeting in a home and livestreaming our services from there. Whilst this is better than nothing, and we are grateful for the use of that home, it is far from ideal especially as it means that one of our members cannot attend as his powered wheelchair cannot access the home.

CHURCHILL

Churchill is rural a town of around 5000 people, located in the Latrobe Valley in Victoria about 160km east of Melbourne. The home of a Federation University campus, it also has a large temporary population of students and university staff. Apart from CCF the only churches in the area are the Catholic Church and the Co-operating Churches (Anglican and Uniting.) The nearest larger town is Morwell. The Latrobe Valley as a whole has been in an economic downturn for some time, and many businesses and banks have been pulling out of Morwell to move to bigger towns, which also impacts Churchill.

THE HALL

Almost a year ago we started negotiations for a former Scout hall which has been unused for at least 10 years. We are now about to sign a licence for permanent use of that hall, but there is a large amount of repair work that needs to be done, for which we are responsible. This fundraiser is for finances to help with that project.

THE VISION

Even though we are only a tiny congregation, we have a big vision to reach this area for the Lord Jesus Christ, and also to impact the university students who can then take the message of the Gospel back to their home areas. Our outreach has been severely curtailed over the past few months, and we are very keen to again be able to freely invite people to our services, and also to start outreaches for children, youth, and other community needs.