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The inspiring disability housing project completed by the congregation at St John's Tea Tree Gully, SA, now has a name – LYNAY Homes.
The LYNAY acronym that stands for 'Love Your Neighbour As Yourself' (Mark 12:31 NIV) was chosen after a congregation-wide process that included a new logo design for the three wonderful Lutheran Disability Services homes.
The bible verse beautifully captures the community spirit that has underpinned the project from the start.
The specially designed houses, built on an unused piece of church land with the support of an LLL Loan, were officially opened and blessed by Pastor Rolly Stahl at a ceremony in September 2024.
The congregation has welcomed their new neighbours with open arms, with a barbecue the first of many social events to come.
"This is a chance to get to know each other a bit better, which was the whole idea of the project," Stephen Pfeiffer, co-leader of the project, said.
"We've had some interaction before now, but this is the first organised event, which we're hopeful will become a regular thing."
Each new neighbour was offered a wall hanging as a housewarming gift, featuring stunning photography of locations including the Kimberley region by congregation member Jenny Kraft.
The project, which had its origins back in 2014, faced its share of challenges along the way, but co-leader Carey Noack couldn't be happier with the outcome.
"It's just very satisfying because it's turning out to be how we hoped it would," Carey said.
"The vision is real now, it's happening right in front of us, so I'm really happy.
"We started out as a congregation with differing opinions about what should happen.
"And what we found was that this project brought the whole congregation together.
"I've talked to another congregation and said that that was one of the big positives – once we'd decided on what the project was going to be, everyone got right behind it.
"If a congregation has spare property they don't know what to do with, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, even though it took a lot of work and time, everything was positive along the way."
If your congregation has a project, large or small, that would benefit from a partnership with LLL, we'd love to hear about it.
We are actively seeking opportunities to support grassroots projects that make a difference in local communities through our Grants, Sponsorships and missional Loans.
We invite a conversation via email at [email protected] or phone 1800 556 457.
Photos: The St John's congregation welcomed new neighbours at a barbecue in the church hall (above). LLL has proudly partnered with St John's every step of the way on the journey to project completion (below).
