About Us

Overview

WCC had its beginnings at the end of 1996 when a few volunteers from Springfield Christian Family considered how they could meet some of the practical needs within the community.

This started with a weekly bread run, and then grew to include emergency food vouchers, meals for struggling families, and Foodbank. We started organising community events in order build our community closer together, aid the community and help raise funds for our community projects and other charity organisations. Some of the events we helped organise and participate in the early days have now become some largest events in our community today The Greater Springfield Run for Life, QT Family Funday, Orion Christmas Carols and have generated hundreds of thousands for charity and community groups. The Garage giveaway conducted in co-operation with the Springfield Christian Family has become an amazing event where tens of thousands of dollars of goods are given away each year on one day – the Saturday before Easter. “For God so loved the world that he gave” Pay God’s love forward to those in need is the motive behind the event, which reflects closely what we believe WCC is all about. In 2004 a horrific event happened in Springfield, a baby died in a car fire which launched WCC with a further expansion into our into the community in both reaching out to help and in reaching out to gather help. (see Director’s story below) This ended up with months of meals being supplied to the family, much friendship and support and a brand new KIA Carnival being presented to the family from the Community. In the last 5 years 3 more vehicles, wheel chairs, a training dog, a kitchen washing machines, fridges and thousands of goods have been given by the community to the community and our community care email network for communicating needs, giveaways, community building events and opportunities has grown

In the last few years WCC has also been given the opportunity to manage both the Camira Springfield Community Centre and the Spring Lake Community Centre. This has multiplied our community service opportunities enormously.In 2010 hope to help launch a local counseling service in cooperation with Quest Care and a prayer healing ministry

Today, the small staff and a growing network of volunteers from our growing local community, Churches, businesses, etc all share a common desire to reach out to those who really do need a helping hand. “Our goal is to spread God’s love in practical ways throughout the community in whatever way we can.”

A Story that Changed my Life

WCC Director Phil Cutcliffe’s Story

A big step ahead in Phil’s journey to love our community

BABY Kylie Priggins Dies in Car Fire

Police Report: 11th June 2004, Fatal accident, Springfield: Police are investigating a fatal accident in which a 13-month-old baby girl died in Springfield just after 6pm last night. The vehicle was being driven north on the Springfield Parkway by a 28-year-old woman when it clipped another car and burst into flames. The driver managed to escape and has since been discharged from hospital.

10th JUNE 2004 The driver and mother, had passed out from smoky fumes in her burning car, a passerby motorist stopped and rescued her. When she revived she saw her car engulfed in flames and asked about her baby.

Sadly the baby was still inside the car, the rescuers had not seen the baby and it was all too late… News of the tragedy quickly spread around the community and so did care and concern.

The baby’s name was Kylie, the pregnant driver, her mum Ann-Marie Priggins. The family lived in Springfield Lakes, no local support network, no insurance on their car… This accident occurred only 700 metres from my home.

Things like this had happened before in Springfield but this seemed so close the home, for the next weeks I could see the burn mark on the road and roadside. Also, ever since, even until today, a cross laden with flowers marks that spot..

This tragedy being so close to home, I felt I should venture out and do something.

We somehow obtained Ann-Marie's details. I rang her and expressed sympathy and support and asked if it would be OK to pray with her and organise a meal roster to support her and her family. We emailed this around far and wide and were swamped by responses, enough to feed the family a meal each night for around 3 months. Many from the local Churches were able to meet Ann- Marie and Brad and family, to share with them, pray with them and provide the meals which really did take the pressure off them as they dealt with their loss and the mandatory police investigation that was going on..

I remember a conversation with Cr David Morrison during this time where David Commented, “The community should rally together and buy the family a new car” (not a second hand car but a new car!).

I agreed verbally but silently thought to myself. “That is a bit big of a project isn't it I don' want to commit to that. Then I had this thought: What if the family came to your Church, or they were a friend, would you make the effort to organise something special?? As I thought about it, I realised that if I only loved those that loved me, then that was just conditional love. This was not the unconditional love that God wants us all to have.

I thought of Jesus love and how He would love the person regardless of who they are, such is His great compassion and care for all people. " God showed His love for us in this, While we were still sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. The good Samaritan didn't ask the man beaten up on the side of the road, if they were friends, whether he went to the same Church, or how good he was? In fact he already knew that the injured man was a Jew and probably wouldn’t be returning the favour, if the shoe was on the other foot. He helped him anyway...

Anyway, over the next week or two the meal roster continued and lots of loving contact was made with the Priggins family, but nothing about the fund for a new car for the family. I was hoping someone else might do it or perhaps it would be one of those good ideas that just fades away. However, a conviction started growing in me that we had to do something about fundraising for the car.

I rang Ross Llewellyn Motors who soon got back to me and said that KIA would reduce the price of a new KIA Carnival about $10000 and RLM would chip in to help put the car on the road. That would mean we had to raise $25,500.

I was reluctant to take the challenge but I bit the bullet to do my little part to keep the ball rolling. I put out an email around my Network and the media and a few stories were reported in the papers stating that the community were raising funds for a car to see who would like to donate and reasonably quickly collected $3-$4000. I thought we were doing well until a local builder, Mark Hancock, rang out of the blue and wanted to know how much had been raised. When I said $3 or $4000 he commented how that wasn’t very much and indicated that he could help raise around $20,000 from his business contacts in the community, which he did over the next week. Before we knew it, the community had purchased the KIA and Brisbane Extra were coming out to do a good news story on the family receiving the KIA from RLM. WOW, this was one of the little miracles that came out of that tragedy.

The family received amazing signs that they weren’t alone in their crisis – that God was real, that he loved them and their community loved them. Straight away they started paying the love forward. Even in the midst of the crises Ann-Marie donated a washing machine to a single mum, and then later the neighbour directly across the road lost their young child in a swimming pool accident. Ann-Marie helped cook them meals and from her pain came healing love for this other family.

Through this I believe God started teaching me more about love and community teamwork, about stretching and asking others stretch with you, to love not just those we know, not just we you think can return the love, but loving people regardless of whether we know them or not, whether or not they go to church, will ever go to Church or ever come into our circle of friends. Unconditional love is powerful. Unconditional love in teamwork is even more powerful. So much of the time when we love we have a hidden agenda that we might not even be aware of. We need to rid ourselves of that agenda and love our neighbours as ourselves.

I know God did something special in me through this sad set of circumstances and I have seen many more miracles that have come out of that special learning.

Today I met with Ann-Marie at the Cross on Springfield Parkway to reflect and remember Kylie, the loss, the lessons learnt and to pray with Ann-Marie...

As you read this I want to thankyou for your love and for playing a part in the past and/or in the future is sharing God’s love team for our community.

I pray that you can learn from this sad story too and that together we can be an even stronger team to spread God’s love to each other and the community.