Some nice donations have come in of late. $2500 from one foundation today and $1000 from another yesterday. The Philanthropy Club of Melbourne High raised over $1300 from their recently held Talent Quest. Hawthorn Community Chest recently raised inxs of $5000 for the Narrative book at their Cocktail party. Team Servants ’14 donations are starting to trickle in – with 2 days this week seeing inxs of $250 donated – these daily totals should/will rise considerably as we get close to the event date of Sunday 27th July.

We are now ready to sign the Option 2 amended HPF Lease which will take us from 30/6/14 thru 31/12/14. Amanda has been doing some considerable work ensuring we are Option 2 compliant. We are entering a brave new world of managing our own responsive, emergency and cyclical maintenance.

The first 2 vacancies have occurred at Romana – and have been immediately filled. We will almost certainly end the fin year with all 89 rooms tenanted and rents in a terrific position. There continues to be a huge number, nay, an overwhelming number of folks looking for Servants type accommodation.

I will be working on 2 grant applications, both due mid-July – one for further Narrative funding and one for a quite unique, one winner only grant, that I have begun talking with Tim and Connie about. Far too complex to enter into in detail within this missive – yet to whet your appetites I have given it the working title of The Buckminster Fuller Theory.

Narrative continues to progress nicely. I have recently brought on-board a 4th school, MLC, as the demand to have stories told is significant within our resident population.

All things Team Servants ’14 are ramping up nicely. Bar Ristretto (the café preferred by all at Servants!) has become Servants Central in the past couple of weeks as advertising for the Team (not to mention the free coffees they provide for our resos) reaches new heights. As a result of this a potentially very beneficial relationship with Amcor has developed. Watch this space …….

All things financial are in shape for the end of the fin year. This year’s audit will be towards the end of July. Matrix are helping us out in a few areas and this newly reinstated relationship appears to be progressing well.

A date for you diaries here: Servants will be hosting Carols @ Carrical on the evening of Monday 22nd December. The venue, not surprisingly, will be Carrical. This event will be staged to raise funds and profile for our friends from Hawthorn Community Chest.

I have spent more time talking in schools these past few weeks than ever before – I am forging terrific relationships with both Strathcona campuses, developing nicely at Melbourne High, continuing pleasingly at Trinity, Xavier and Carey and have just started to infiltrate the masses at MLC.

I cannot remember a couple of weeks when I have give away soooooooooooo many copies of Anthology – literally hundreds of copies. Anthology continues to be represent Servants in a powerful way.

Last night Servants hosted this year’s Leadership Victoria Williamson year at Carrical and then Hawthorn West Baptist Church. we have enjoyed many wonderful evenings with LV – but last night’s gathering was stunning. Just stunning. We have several other LV evenings established for the remainder of the year.

I have just started talking with Mike Cutter in regards to the creation of my first ebook – a leadership number entitled Ripple. I look forward to sharing this with you over the next few weeks.

Development with Boroondara Cares/Servants/Boroondara Council re a housing development for Servants remain very positive – of course, at this stage, there is very little that Warren and I can say about this as we are currently bound by an NDA. I am not quite sure at this stage as to when the NDA will be lifted.

The folks of the Carey Grammar community recently provided the resos with a HUGE amount of clothing. Other material gifts continue to be received – bicycles, ridiculously expensive TVs, food ……. the list goes on!

Last Sunday I preached at Kew Baptist Church – talking re homelessness and the work of Servants. It was very well received.

All relationships with major stakeholders appear to be strong at the present time.

I am developing a positive way forward with LV for 2015 for the Schools Leadership Project. There is no lack of interest from local high schools.

On a personal level I am pleased to report that Isabel will be discharged from hospital tomorrow (Friday) morning. This adds up to a 5 week hospitalization for her. She is doing well and the time is now right for her to continue to heal at home. I am greatly appreciative of all the support I have received from both the Servants and Hawthorn West Baptist families.

Romana is occupied by 23 residents. It becomes full Tuesday 3rd June when the final reso moves in. Hamer and Carrical remain full. This means all 89 of our rooms will be full and the trick now is to find the next few resos to move in when vacancies occur. Fin year to date empty room night figures are 2 for Hamer and 22 for Carrical. Romana stats will only be recorded once the house is full for the first time. To date nobody has left Romana.

Some donations came in last week – nothing enormous but they added up to several hundred dollars. I am speaking this Friday at Melbourne High School where they are hosting a fundraising talent contest for Servants. Melbourne Girls College and MacRob girls are also involved – so a great opportunity to spread the word about Servants.

Other speaking opps and events for Servants continue to roll in.

This morning I picked up a donation of 2 new filing cabinets and 2 as new printers.

We have locked in the audit date for late July. Talks with Matrix of late have been productive.

Amanda and I are currently working on issues pertaining to us transferring onto the Option 2 (did it yourself maintenance) HPF lease ahead of signing the General Lease later this year for Carrical. To date all progress has been positive.

On a personal level Isabel remains in hospital and is slowly but surely starting to mend.

Most of you will know by this stage that Isabel is very unwell. Friday and Saturday were very traumatic days. Isabel is currently being nursed in St Vincent’s psych. She is, sadly, an involuntary patient. The good news is that she is now safe and has the expert care around her that she very much needs at this moment in time. My hope is that within the next few days she will show signs of being on the road to recovery and will be able to be transferred into the private system.

In terms of my Servants workload I am imaging it will be very much business as usual – perhaps with a slightly reduced number of hours for the next few days.

All in the Wonderful World of Servants appears to be in a good place right now; Romana is filing beautifully; the other 2 houses are full 100% of the time; donations have just started coming in for those participating in Team Servants 14; speaking opportunities at schools and other places continue to come in; work on Narrative becomes still more exciting; I am starting to ‘own’ the finances more than I ever done have previously; we are becoming more and more known within the community and so on and so on …………………

The biggest help you can all be to my family at this time is to hold us all in your prayers. Thank you.

I had a very interesting morning/early arvo today at Swinburne Uni’s Festival of Ideas. It was cold and rainy and the stage was outside! I talked to perhaps only 20 people – but this included some of the top brass from Swinburne who were very interested in talking about how they could partner with Servants in various capacities. They also took 100 copies of Anthology to distribute to various students/connections. I guess one of the things about a morning like this is that you just do not know what might come from it!

A Community Dinner was held at Carrical on Saturday evening. 11 guests from 2 church groups were in attendance. It was as spectacular as usual; I expect several speaking opportunities to arise as a consequence of this Dinner.

We will be welcoming our first residents into Romana on Monday 5th May. Work at the house continues at pace. It is a veritable hive of activity!

One of Carrical’s favorite sons, David Northcombe, is currently in hospital – his first psychiatric admission in 14 years. Please pray for David’s healing. It has been touching  to see the number of staff/committee members and residents who have visited him.

The week ahead in Servants is looking quite enormous as we prepare to welcome residents to Romana a week tomorrow.