Being an Urban Seed resident can be a rewarding and life changing experience.

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Nathan was part of the Urban Seed residential community for a year in 2006. Check out his reflections, after returning  to Central House to catch up for a few days recently…

I don't know about you, but the city for all it's glamour, glitz and parties, for all it's culture and couture, can seem a starkly empty and hollow place to me; tall, high-rise buildings towering above people rushing from one place to another, in the struggle to stay afloat and keep up in a rat race that relentlessly gets faster and faster. But right in the midst of the all the meaningless striving, there's a place that's different; a place hidden deep in the recesses of a dingy laneway. Perhaps apt, as I've always contended that Melbourne's true treasures are found down laneways (or at the end of two). For the last two days of my self-imposed sabbatical of sorts, I've been @ Urban Seed helping out with some IT stuff. I'm still a little puzzled at how a place can still feel so much like home, even after four months removed and so much movement in my own life since. I found myself walking down the laneway, pressing buzzers and walking stairs so familiarly; but surely it was more than the stones and improperly-attached-to-the-wall elevator doors that beckoned once again. I don't think it's normal to leave somewhere for that long, and to be included again so seamlessly and effortlessly; conversations picking up right in the middle, without the hint of the 4 months of blank space between. Not a slick, well-oiled machine producing off-handed polite remarks, but rather the gathering of unlikely and seemingly divergent people... how could I even describe the personality pot that is that space?! I can't. Perhaps it's because so much of me is still there, is there in the '06 resies that still call Central House home, the huge part of my heart that will belong always to christop-'nomes-ray (and bio-diesel ali), always. A newspaper once used the term for the open-lunches of "soul food" (would that be what edith sprigg eats?); I left today, until who knows again, walked out of the heart-place of the laneway into the comparatively desolate city, but restored incredibly in soul and resolve.

 

Meg Weightman was a resident with Urban Seed for 2 years from 2001. Upon finishing up as a resident, she reflected on her experience for the Urban Seed journal…

“I came to Central House at the beginning of 2001 with views on my faith and what Christ expected me to do but I soon learnt that these were not grounded in anything except idealism. So for me, this has been a very difficult time where I’ve seen that expectations are just that and are not necessarily realistic.

     I remember growing up through youth group and hearing people’s conversion stories and feeling ‘jealous’ that I didn’t have a similar experience. Well, I’ve realised that my time here has been my conversion experience – and it’s been really difficult – I’m not jealous any more. There have been months of personal darkness and at times anguish; times when I’ve felt unable to interact with anyone, not even myself.

     I feel as though my faith has been not only knocked back to the bare essentials of Christianity but that I’ve had to work out what those essentials are.

     This might sound like I’ve had a negative experience here; but the exact opposite is true – this has been an incredible rich and defining time in my life. I have never known acceptance, support and real friendship like what I’ve found here among the Credo community and the residents; these are people that I will hold in my heart, everywhere I go, for the rest of my life.

     It’s been a year of ups and downs, as most are. We have the Credo mascot now, in the form of Koos and Emma’s son, Jackson, who will turn 1 in January, we’ve seen friends go through rehab and be changed forever, although we’ve had to watch some of them start drinking again; we’ve had visitors to our building attached and stabbed in a couple of incidents that affected the church, Credo and street communities as well as the wider public; Moriah Hurst came and shared three months of her life with us and, of course, we started the year with the Credo cricket team winning the Rec Link grand final at the MCG.

     Leaving is a very big, very personal thing. Change is not my friend. But living here has shown me that there are so many worthy things to be involved in and so many great people to know. So I’m excited to be moving into new things and seeing what God might have in store for me and I can only hope that it will be even half as good as the past two years.”

Take a sneak peak at a couple of Ali Turnbull’s journal entries as a 2006 resident …

Friday 7th April 2007,

What a day. Stewy came over, smashed, and took the last $100 of the $230 he'd got me to hold for accomodation for him. My cousin was over when he stumbled into level 7. He said "He was doing it all tonight", referring to the visit he would later make to the gay bar on Flinders Street. My cousin felt quite awkward, understandably. She said after he left, that she doesn't know how I do it. For me it's more the question of I don't know why I do it. I hope God installs a new hope in me for Stewy over the weekend. At this stage I don't know what to think of him and what he wants to do with himself. Tonight, like so may others recently, Stewy is "Off the show darling!".

Sunday 30th April 2007,

Kat doesn't feel safe around Troy anymore. Fair enough. Pete and Kat were downstairs chatting to him while he was quite intoxicated and he threw a cigarrette bin at the door while they were closing it on him. We decided not to let him sleep over at Central House any more.

Troy was being denial Troy. You know, pretending everything was okay and that things would be fine. He said he was going to Sydney tomorrow for a fresh start and to sort out some stuff with friends and family. "Troy's on the run again Ali, Troy's on the run."

So I got him a couple of blankets, beanies etc. because he was with his uncle and they were spending the night on the street before going to Sydney. The blankets were knitted by Brighton Baptist Ladies. The label on the blanket and beanie bag said "Knitted by the Brighton Baptist Ladies for the Homeless". And I thought... I can't give these to Troy, he's not homeless. Then in a mind reeling instant, I realised that Troy truely was homeless. I felt the love that those ladies had put into the material flow throught me and it made me feel a sense of wonder. Wonder that I was the person in the middle, in touch with this "homeless" guy, that they must have envisaged during the long knitting process. Wonder because Troy probably wasn't what they envisaged. And wonder at the fact that this very night, Troy would lie somewhere in the shitty gritty city and that the blanket would do what it was knitted together in the womb to do.

 

Mark Beckwith lived at Central House in 2004. He stayed with Urban Seed for a year on a mission placement from England

My story at Urban Seed is both the same and yet very different from other residents who have gone before. The main difference was that I had never seen Credo café or Urban Seed until I arrived. This was due to the fact that I had come all the way from England to spend a year helping out. I came with so many ideas about Urban Seed and myself and left with many questions. I can’t really explain my thoughts of what I’d expect to find when I got there, but very soon, that ideology was being challenged and so was I. I’m quite an introvert and working in the café with all different types of people, getting to know them and learning all about their lives involved stepping out of my comfort zone and engaging. I kept on insisting that I couldn’t do it and I was just happy standing behind the counter cooking the meals. Then when I look back, I can see that I did interact with our friends in Credo. I learned so much from those who came in each day for a meal and a chat, they were open to talk about what had happened to them to bring them to our door. It really opened my eyes to those who struggle and see how easy it is for anyone to end up on the street or just lonely. It really changed my outlook on life so that after returning back home after my year there, I found that my passions had changed course, so much so that I am now training at All Nations Christian College doing a Diploma in Biblical and Intercultural Studies. The idea of this course is for me to get some background knowledge of the Bible and Mission to then follow God to wherever in the world he sends me to do his work. I am continually stepping out of my comfort zone and pushing my boundaries further and further. If it wasn’t for the challenges and experience of Urban Seed, along with the loving support from all the staff and volunteers, I would never be where I am now – following God’s plan for my life.