The Benwerren Story

When God called Olive and Howard McDonald to birth a women's ministry called Benwerren, beginning in 1951, they heeded the call. While their ministry commenced in 1951, it formally became an organization thirty years later.
The Benwerren Story investigates the vision and spiritual development of its founders, tracing both the life-process and spiritual vision formation of the founders in their journey toward the birth of an effective ministry to women and children on the margins of society.
For almost 70 years, hundreds of women and children have come to Benwerren for help, having experienced family dysfunction, broken trust, violent abuse, stress and trauma. Benwerren today is a not-for-profit charitable organization run by volunteers and its guests are given time out to rest, retreat and recover. Seventy years on, its ministry is needed more now than ever.
The author articulates the heartbeat of the founder's convictions and the 'why' of their passion and vision for women and children in need; a small but significant work in Melbourne's early evangelical history and mission to broken families, in need of Christ's love.