‘God has always been with me’ – Dillon finds a family at Project 614
Dillon Resetar is a regular at Melbourne’s Project 614 Corps. He counts the faith community as his family. He shared his story recently with Salvos Online journalist LAUREN MARTIN.
I started coming here because I utilised this place when I was in my younger teens, back when I was 18 and living on the streets in the city here. I’ve come so far now.
Project 614 has a church service on Sundays, and they have other supports here, which is great too – like NDIS, Centrelink and all these services that are provided, even like counselling.
Brendan [Major Brendan Nottle, Corps Officer] is a really good friend who supports me and encourages many people to come here and use this venue. It’s great to see.
Jesus has always been with me – all my life – but when I went through my rebellious teens, I sort of lost direction and got off on the wrong path.
As I got older, in my late 30s, I remembered about God, and it sort of hit me for six and put me in the right place. I had a choice – which way do I want to go? On the path of destruction? Or towards him?
So, I chose the right way, thank God. He means a lot to me. He has always been there supporting me ... always there, like I said.
I do a lot of study. I study eschatology [study of the End Times]. I’m a King James Version Bible reader, and I do a lot of studies on YouTube and things like that. I also help people understand the real meaning of the parables in the Gospels and stuff like that. It’s great.
We have great functions here at Project 614 – like the Magpies AFL footy team that comes here and the NRL Melbourne Storm. And they have really great Christmas luncheons at Christmas, for people like me who have been abandoned or who have got no family supports – and so like it’s like a little family. Everyone supports everyone.
You get to meet people here, too, so it’s a good place of connecting. I like that, people that come through the place.
I’d like to leave you with a parable from God from Scripture, as it’s one of my favourites:
“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me” (Romans 15:1-3 KJV).
