“HELPING HAND” PROGRAMME

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30485, 6 July 1964, Page 18

“HELPING HAND” PROGRAMME

Baptist Church’s Project

Some 300 persons living within a half-mile radius of the Colombo Street Baptist Church will shortly receive a leaflet headed “Operation Helping Hand.” A meeting of church members on Saturday night adopted .this new programme whereby the church offers its help, without conditions or provisions, to anyone who requests it by returning the reply paid portion of the leaflet.

Help is offered for spiritual, physical, mental or other problems. The church through its members will either provide the help required or, in the case of specialised requirements, will arrange for the necessary, help. The programme originates from the “Outreach” scheme recommended to its member churches by the Baptist Union of New Zealand.

It is expected that if there is a ready response to this offer and if it is proved that there is a need for a service such as this, the Operation Helping Hand will be extended-

A spokesman for the church said that the recipients of the leaflets were not being asked to go to church but rather that the church might be able to help them. “Nobody in the vicinity will be able to say that the church does not care or that ‘the church has never done anything for me,’ ” he said.