HEARTFRIENDS COMMUNITY SERVICES

~ sharing a friendship that helps

BASC	Learning Ark	Drop-in-Centre
After School Care for children between 7 &13 years of age	Literacy Programme for children every Saturday (except public and school holidays)	A place to hang out and play games or do homework or both every wednesday

Community Caregiving	Recycling	Be-Engaged
Visitation to the Dover Community to give emotional / financial / needful support to the needy	Redistributing household items through organised activity or ad hoc requests	Empowering the needy through creative work opportunities.

Games & Chat	Colors	Community Welfare Fund
Sports, play & chat on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-6.30pm in Dover.	Single Parent Ministry	Financial aid to the needy to tide them over difficult times.

OUR JOURNEY

As early as 1991, SJSM has been involved in social actions such as running a Tuition Programme for the community kids and a programme for Moms and Tots. From 1993, the scope of our social services was enlarged to include the Boys Brigade (BB) Ministry (1993), Single Parenting Ministry (1997), Community Health Screening (May 1998) and Dover Befrienders (Aug 1998). By 1997, a Community Service Steering Committee, chaired by the Vicar and comprising laity and full time staff, was formed to coordinate the growing ministries to the community.

In late 1998, Heartfriends, the community service arm of SJSM, was conceptualised to signal to the church and community that community services, especially to the hidden needy, is our God-given responsibility and mission. The church leadership felt strongly that we need to do something concrete to "re-member" those living around our parish.

Hence, 1999 marked the start of a journey to educate our Church and engage the wider community (namely Dover) with several important firsts:

Heartfriends' logo and philosophy of ministry were made public;
Heartfriends had its first full time director in Kim Chin;
Heartfriends Before & After School Care (BASC) at Block 3 in Dover started its operation;
A Good Neighbour's Carnival was organised to invite Dover residents into our premises; and Moon cakes were distribution to Dover residents.

Over the years, Heartfriends has organised many activities like the English Conversational Classes, Good Friday Dover, Sweet Memories and Yum Cha for the Dover residents. While some of these activities had ceased, others have evolved to become part of SJSM's mainstream activities, e.g. the annual Christmas Cake and Chinese New Year Orange Distribution, weekly Learning Ark and Kopi-Stop, and the biennial Dover Celebrates Christmas. Besides Dover, Heartfriends also extended the presence of SJSM into Henderson Secondary School through new initiatives such as counselling services and BB Ministry for their students. All these activities and services give SJSM additional avenues for outreach to children, youths, elderly, and families, especially those at risk or displaced.

Throughout this journey, the Lord has faithfully led and blessed SJSM with favours and good relationships with the grassroots' leaders and people. With His Spirit moving ahead of us, doors – both physical and spiritual – have been opened to the Church and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Families and individuals have been brought near to know God and His people. Today, Heartfriends focuses on four main movements, namely, the Literacy Movement for children, spearheaded by the BASC and Learning Ark; the Games & Chat Movement for children and families; the Community Visitation Movement by our Care Givers; and the Be-Engaged Movement which seeks to provide meaningful activities or work referral for residents who need them.

So as we continue this journey as a Church, the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1:2ff are apt for this 10th Anniversary Celebration of Heartfriends, i.e. "We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." May the Lord's message ring out from us not only in Dover but everywhere as we let our light shine before men, that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven (Mt 5:16).

Back to the top

Our Principles

Our MISSION To serve the community, irrespective of race and religion with relevant community and welfare services, programmes and initiatives marked by Christian service and love so as to provide practical and professional care.

Our SLOGAN Sharing a friendship that helps.

Our CORE VALUES - HEARTS

We serve with HONEST & HUMBLE HEART
We ENJOY as we ENGAGE
We ADORE God with Loving ACTIONS :
We RESPOND REGULARLY
We TOTALLY TRUST God

Our MOTIVATION

To love our neighbour is our way of Loving and Worshipping God (Luke 10:27, Isa 58)
To work out our Christian vocation of being the salt of the earth and light of the world (Matt 5: 13-14)
To imitate Jesus' servanthood (Matt 20:28) and calling towards the poor, brokenhearted, captives, blind and the oppressed (LK 4: 18-19)  To obey God by pursing justice, mercy, faith and love (Matt 23:23, Mic 6:8-9) thus reflecting God's character.
To affirm the inestimable worth of each individual because everyone bears the image of God
To join the Faith community in proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom primarily through who we are, what we do and what we say Our

OPERATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

We are committed to serve both with our HEARTS & HANDS (Ps 78:72 ) with the inspiration of the HOLY SPIRIT.
We serve with sanctified and anointed HEARTS, embracing godly values, attitudes and character while reflecting God's Heart.
We serve with skillful HANDS, acquiring the necessary knowledge and technical skills while acting with HOLY SPIRIT-filled wisdom and sensitivity

Our WORKING METAPHORS

We are SOWERs working with real lives that need love, care, nurturing, accompaniment, encouragement, etc (Mt 13:3ff)
We are CO-WORKERS with God; we water but God ultimately makes the plant grow (Mk 4:26; 1 Cor 3:5-9)
We are MUSTARD SEEDS; something small can grow into something that provides shelter and beauty (Mk 4:30-32)

Our MINISTRY PHILOSOPHY

We focus on Community transformation not merely being a service provider.
We focus on Hidden needy and poor.  We focus on Relationships not merely programmes.
We focus on Integration with faith community  We focus on Sustainability

Back to the top