Elspeth Kernebone
30 September 2024
Peter Sellars is kitchen coordinator for City on a Hill’s mercy ministry Many Rooms. Here he shares about his work with the ministry.
Tell me what many rooms is?
Many rooms is a mercy arm of City on a Hill Church. It was established about 15 years ago. We’ve got a sit-down meal at North Melbourne on Saturday with about 35 to 40 people coming, and we’ve also got our two meals we do at St Paul’s Cathedral on a Tuesday night and a Friday night.
And what’s your position with Many Rooms?
My title is kitchen coordinator, but I manage the kitchen program. I’ve been doing that for nearly five years. My wife and I have both been working with socially disadvantaged people since about 2000. Once it gets into your blood, that sort of stays.
I was working as a community pastor in Ringwood prior to here, and then when the job came up, I took it. I was volunteering with them when I was at Bible college, so I loved the program anyway, and the program has sort of seeped into my veins.
How do you see this work as fitting into the big picture of God’s work in the world?
We’re a very different organisation to just feeding people. I believe in sharing the gospel message with them as well. At North Melbourne I share a 15 minute mini sermon with them each week, which is a real blessing to be able to share with a room of people who are non-Christians, and they love it. Then we also run Alpha there too.
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It’s an opportunity for people to hear that Jesus loves them, and loves them no matter what they’ve done. I shared the story of the prodigal son with them, and I had a rough nut guy come up to me at the end of it. He said, “Do you really mean that this guy, Jesus, you’re talking about, would care about me, because I’ve burned a lot of bridges?” and he had tears rolling down his cheek. I said, “Yeah, He really died for you, and He cares about you as much as anyone else”, and that’s what the messages all betray each week.
The responses I’m getting back from people there is amazing. I’m seeing we have a real desire at City on a Hill to grow with the cathedral. We’ve got a lot of young professionals in our church, who are hearing about Jesus every week, and our mission is to know Jesus and make Jesus known. That’s what we’re really trying to do here with Many Rooms as well.
Each night at the cathedral we set up a marquee at five o’clock. By 5.30 we’re usually ready to go, and we usually have people waiting here to come and get food. We serve out hot meals. We have tea and coffee. We have pantry items laid out for them to take. We have blankets, care packs, so a one stop shop for things that they might need. That’s growing with them, now they’re starting to know that we’re here, which is wonderful.
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I’m very blessed to have 100 volunteers for my programs. So we have a team tonight who will actually walk the streets of Melbourne and hand out meals. We walk up Swanson Street, Elizabeth Street, and around Flinders Street Station and give out meals and invite them to come back here as well.
That happens on both Tuesday and Friday. Saturday, we do a full sit down lunch. These guys get into the dining room, they’ll sit down. We bless them with tea and coffee, biscuits, and then we serve them a nice meal with dessert, and then we run Alpha after the meal. I usually share a message just before the meal starts. It’s not like they’re trapped to listen to the message, they actually ask me what I’m going to share each week, which is quite amazing. So I’m very blessed.
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I had one gentleman, he was living on the streets behind or living behind a children’s hospital for many years in a tent. And one night he came to the meal, and he said to me, “Peter, can you find me a dentist? Because my teeth are killing me.” This young guy had been on heroin since about 12 or 13, and then he went on to methadone, so all these teeth were rotten from methadone. I said, “What about we sit around the table, and we pray about it?” So I prayed a simple prayer that, “Lord, let’s reveal a dentist we can find for this gentleman.” The next day, I went to my meal, and I was sharing with them that I did this last night, and one of the volunteers said, “I’ve got a young guy that I’ve just started going out with who’s a dentist. What about if I check him out and see if he’s a keeper? I’ll ask him the question whether he might be willing to help.”
And he actually did! He removed this gentleman’s teeth for nothing, in his private practice, and then also got him predentures. And this guy was blown away by that.
What fruit do you hope to see this context?
For me it’s like being an advocate for these guys. We’re someone out there who can actually be there for them and work with them. I’m very blessed, the church is very right behind the ministry. We’re looking down the track to maybe having our own building, where we can have a meal seven days a week, and open it up to them, where they can come and have a lounge, have a church service, a weekly, a midweek church service.
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I’d like to talk with the cathedral about having maybe a midweek service we could run here for them, and have a homeless service where they can come in, where they feel comfortable to come in and have that with music and a message. I’d like to see it grow to the point where we become part of working with this community, and they are a community which is quite diverse.
What is your dream for this ministry, which you sort of answered. But is there anything else you’d like to say on that?
My big dream to see if we can get our permanent venue so we don’t have to pack up and set up. So we have somewhere we can actually go each day, and have it laid out, so we can actually do that.
As you can see, we get a lot of food from Foodbank. Foodbank is great. So tonight you’ll see a variety of things laid out, everything from rice through to soups and all that sort of stuff.
When we went to get the van, I had a vision of the king who put on a banquet, and no one turned up. And he sent his servers out to the highways and byways and to bring people in. We’ve waited for people to come into our dining room. I like to go to them and be out on the street. That’s my vision of where I think that fits.
We’ve been really blessed with this van. The church bought it for us, and it’s been an amazing tool for us to go out there and be on the streets so we’re visible.
What encourages you in your work?
I think I’m just very lucky. There’s so many people within my church that back and support me and lift me up with that. But also just being here every week and seeing the different people that I get. I’m getting so many different individuals coming here since we’ve been here, each week, I find I get three or four new people I haven’t met before, and they’ve all got different stories. That encourages me. To know that they’re willing to come. It’s just such a blessing to be able to serve and do this, that’s what encourages me.
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What’s one thing you’d like Christians in Melbourne to know about your work?
The big thing is don’t look down on the people who are on the street. Some of them you may think are no hopers and lost causes, but they are someone that is really loved. When you get to know them and go below the surface, they’re a bit like an iceberg. You just see the outside, and you think you can judge them and say, “These guys are dirty. I don’t like them. They look bad. They’re drug addicts.” But when you get below the surface and you listen to these stories, it’s actually really beautiful, because they’ve got a lot to share. I think for us, in Melbourne, instead of just chucking them out, let’s just show them love.
This story forms part of a profile series on ministry workers taking part in God’s work in the world. If you know of someone with an encouraging story, let us know at tma@melbourneanglican.org.au.
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