Safety and dignity can be hard to find for unhoused people, especially when it comes to matters of personal hygiene. And while shelters and public bathrooms offer space to clean up, stigma and distance keep many people away. With COVID and lockdowns making the situation even harder for many in the Greater Sydney area, local church groups are looking for ways to help those who need it most.
In April 2021, Pastor Warwick Sawyer of the Mount Druitt Seventh-day Adventist Church (NSW) received an email passed along by GSC President Terry Johnson from Aaron, a pastor in Western Australia and CEO of One Voice, a nonprofit organisation that provides mobile showers to give a hand up to people experiencing homelessness.
“It was an exciting email asking for a church to be a leading service provider for a shower van in Sydney,” Pr Sawyer says. The van was sitting at another Mount Druitt church, where organizers had struggled to get it out into the community, but Pr Sawyer’s congregation saw their chance to serve their unhoused neighbors.
“We were finding a need in the local area for homeless people to have showers,” he says. So, the church agreed to host the shower van so nearby individuals could have a safe place to shower and access other support services with dignity. “Lockdown hit us hard, but it has hit the homeless harder,” Pr Sawyer acknowledges, “so we are working with NSW health and police to do it safely so we can help people get some sense of normality.”
Shutdowns have so far prevented the van from traveling into the community, but that’s not stopping the ministry from moving forward. “We have had about 10 homeless people a week come here for a shower,” Pr Sawyer shares. Guests are also treated to donated meals, drinks, and desserts. “It’s been a blessing to be able to offer this by just word of mouth, and we are waiting with baited anticipation for shutdown to finish [so we can] get out to partner with Blacktown, Parramatta and Macquarie Fields.”
Pr Sawyer says that his group is also seeking additional churches and organizations to be local service providers. “One Voice is an amazing charity that not only provides the truck but also all the costs of servicing, washing the towels and supplying toiletries,” he says. “We love working with them and [are] really looking forward to what the future holds.”
What does the future hold for Mount Druitt Seventh-day Adventist Church’s mobile shower van ministry? “We are hoping for this to be a long-term service that helps the church build relationships with the less fortunate in our community,” Pr Sawyer says. “We know that the shower truck is only a shower, and the best thing we can give the community is a connection and a relationship with Jesus. Matthew 25 tells us that when we do this to the least in our community, we do it for Jesus, so [we see] every person that uses the shower van as Jesus.”
To learn more about One Voice and its mobile shower program or to get involved by donating, driving, or operating a mobile shower van, visit https://onevoice.org.au/mobile-showers.
