On the 12th, 19th & 26th September 2011 the Sydney members were able to hold another series of cooking demonstrations.
These cooking demonstrations have previously been held in a community center about twenty minutes away from the Union office at Schofields. Now we decided to try something different; to run them at Schofield’s function Hall with the seats facing towards the Kitchen to make it easier for the demonstrators.
Since we were holding these at our church property, we had some concerns that this might deter some people from coming, but as it turned out we had no reason to worry, as many people attended, even beyond my expectation. At the first evening there were 30 visitors and for the first time we saw this number increase to 46 by the last night. I mention this because in all previous events we noted a decrease in number as the time progressed, but here we see the opposite; in fact an increase of over 50% of the initial attendees. One of the contributing factors was that we utilized the contact list from prior demonstrations, contacting them by phone, email and text. This proved to be very efficient and effective. We also distributed about 2000-3000 flyers within the local area. This also proved to be a great success, with many local people registering to attend. This was not only very convenient for the demonstrators but exposed our church to the people who came.
Prior to each demonstration, Br Charles Sas took a half hour segment on some health topics. With the help of Br Bruce Powell we were able to record the cooking demonstrations and the talks by Br Charles; these are available on the Schofield’s web site www.schofieldschurch.org.au
Taking the Next Step.
About a year ago I was talking with Br A Pow about how to take the next step from a 15-20 min health lecture prior to the cooking demonstrations to introducing them to Christ and the church. We found that some of the visitors that came to these events were interested in the Health shop at Schofield’s, through this we have increased the number of customers to the shop, but that is where their interest stopped. As I was talking with Br A Pow he told me that he had some ideas about running a lecture along the lines of “Mind, Body and Spirit” here he expressed the thought that we could tie in the Spiritual with the physical, and through this take the next step, the only problem was that it was still only ideas, and we had nothing yet to try out. After this discussion we ran a few more cooking demos, by this time we had a contact list of over 100 visitors that had attended these cooking demonstrations.
As we were planning the Vegetarian Way cooking demonstrations for this year I again discussed the issue of taking the next step with Br A Pow, and he agreed to put the ideas on power point and present them in a three part lecture starting seven weeks after the last night of the Cooking Demonstration, this was a first for all as this had not been carried out in this way before and praise God it was a great success.
“A Healthy Mind” was the title of the lectures, the theme was how to recognize and find solutions to Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Guilt. Throughout the three evenings A Pow presented the importance of a holistic approach to health and how the mental, physical and spiritual (the heart or emotions) are all connected. The last night of the three began on the first Sabbath of December at 5:30pm followed by a Vegan Vegetarian buffet meal. All thoroughly enjoyed the food prepared by the sisters of Schofields church and many are eagerly waiting for the next series of cooking demonstrations which are planned for some time in May 2012.
We thank God so much for His help and trust that He will give us the wisdom we so much need to continue working for Him in helping a physically and spiritually sick world.
—Luke Kneebone