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*** * MARKET DAY for EXODUS * ***

Our MARKET DAY for EXODUS has become an annual event that continues to grow in size each year. It is usually held on the second Saturday in October, and has become quite a community event.

Saturday 12th October 2002 was a lovely Spring morning. But while it was still dark, the people of Denistone East Uniting Church were working on their eleventh Market Day for the Exodus Foundation, setting up tables and tressles, laying out, with loving care to detail, the goods that were available for sale and hoping and praying that it would be a nice day.

The Denistone East folk had been working for several weeks on collecting books and all manner of things for the Market Day, sorting, collating, pricing, and organising under the direction of our Market Day Co-Ordinator, Robert Dive. The items collected have come from many very generous people who have been keen to support a good cause.

As 8 o’clock drew near, the workers took their places behind their chosen stalls and waited for the early rush. Many people, indeed, arrived before 8 a.m. and wanted special treatment. They had been to these market days before and knew that there were lots of good things on offer, and didn’t want to miss out. However, we managed to hold the fort fairly well until the stroke of 8 o’clock when the masses charged forward searching for their special treasures.

Our departments include Books & Records, Devonshire Teas, Jams & Cakes, Craft, Flowers, Toys & Games, Electrical & Hardware, Plants, Barbecue, White Elephant, and Stamps. Our people had done it all before, they knew what was expected of them, new workers quickly caught on to the procedures, and at the close of the Market Day at 1 p.m. it was a matter of all hands on deck to pack things away, to make a couple of trips to the tip, to return some tressles that had been borrowed from our sister churches Eastwood and Marsden Road and also from the local Anglicans, and then to wend our weary way home for a well-earned rest.

The cash result for the day was around $12,500 but this will grow to more like $17,000 when all the figures are in including some money made from a mini-fete held earlier in the year. The proceeds are all for the Exodus Foundation, an arm of the Ashfield Uniting Church under he leadership of Rev. Bill Crews. Bill had arrived at the Market Day during the morning and met all the workers. There also arrived an Exodus bus full of Ashfield people who came along for a morning’s outing, and enjoyed touring the stalls and sitting down for scones, cream and jam and tea or coffee from the Devonshire Tea people.

This year’s Market Day was the eleventh one we have held since they were started in 1992 in the time of Rev. Geoff and Mrs Fran Cummins. When Geoff and Fran moved on, some thought the Market Days would not be able to continue, but they have in fact carried on under the leadership of our Co-Ordinator, Robert and with the encouragement of our minister, Rev. David Reichardt. The Market even seems to get bigger each year.

The total amount raised and sent off to Exodus over these years has been in the order of $120,000.

The Day has become a real community event. People enquire from several months before, as to the date our Exodus Market Day is being held. The support from our people and their families is marvellous All sorts of people come out in support of the effort. One of our families, working in the kitchen preparing Devonshire Teas, even covers four generations! Oftentimes, at the end of a hot day, we say we can’t do it again as we’re getting too old. But we all seem to summon up the energy when required, and there are always younger ones to help and do the heavy work.

One of the keys to the success of the Market Day is that it is all done for someone else. We don’t keep any of the money given. It all goes to the Exodus Foundation at Ashfield whose work includes:

-...The Exodus Loaves and Fishes Restaurant, open six days a week, serving at no
charge hot, nutritious meals to anyone who is hungry

-...The Exodus Tutorial Centre, established in 1996 and since then over 300 students
aged between 12 and 14 have achieved literary skills and graduated from the
Centre

-...Exodus House, opened in 2002 provides a one year non-residential education
program for up to 15 Refuge based youths aged 14 to 17

-...In addition, food parcels are distributed three days a week to means-tested people,
and Counselling, Chaplaincy, Welfare and Pastoral Care staff are available to
people who need them

Denistone East’s annual Market Day for Exodus has become a landmark for this church. People recognise us for what we do and for what we are. They know about Exodus and Bill Crews, and there’s plenty of information available at the stalls in case they don’t. We also distribute information about our own church. It is a form of mission, of outreach into the community, of showing to the community of which we are a part that we, in our residential suburb and setting, can do something to help an organisation that helps to feed the hungry, and assists the disadvantaged of our society in so many ways.
And in doing what we do, we do it in the name of Christ.
“Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me.”

CRAFT is always a very popular stall at the Market Day.