The Mother I Most Admire
On one of the walls of our home, where Beverley does her sewing and ironing, hangs a magnificent wall hanging made by one of Australia’s top artists. It is easy to see that this is a professionally made and expensive piece of art. It did not cost us a cent. Beverley has been my girlfriend since she and I were both thirteen. She is my wife, the mother of our children and my partner in full time ministry for fifty years.
No other woman has raised so much money anywhere in Australia using only traditional methods and volunteers to aid the poor than Beverley. Today thousands of Sydney’s poor, needy, homeless, derelict and ill have been helped by Beverley and her remarkable band of volunteers. When we shifted to Sydney in 1979, Beverley was appalled at the plight of the homeless in inner Sydney, especially the more than 100 derelict men who slept in deplorable conditions in squalid dormitories in Francis Street’s “Night Refuge for Men”.
While I worked to complete a new high-rise for them in Bourke Street, she realised that second-hand clothes, food and companionship were not enough, but that large sums of money were required to provide decent accommodation and basic care. A quiet and reserved person, she did not find it easy to mix with the men nor to start raising money. Her four teenage children needed all of her attention. It would have been easy to forget the needs of the inner city. She started immediately to care for them and to raise funds to improve their conditions.
Then in November 1980, several boats with Vietnamese refugees landed on the north coast of Western Australia including 30 children whose parents had been raped and shot by pirates in the China Sea. They were orphans. Wesley Mission was asked by the Commonwealth Government to care for them. However the Government provided only $5000 as a one-off grant for their care. Beverley decided to help provide care for the 30 boys. Wesley Mission had a huge residence with 30 bedrooms waiting for sale in the inner city. In five days it was cleaned, painted and renovated.
Beverley purchased hundreds of plastic bags the size of a pillowslip which she labelled “VIET-KITS”. Each included a list of requirements either for hygiene, educational, medical, or clothing needs for one boy. Over one weekend they were distributed to hundreds of church members who each filled one bag with specific requirements for one boy.
From appeals on television and radio I was offered 120 truckloads of bedding, furniture, books, sporting equipment and school requisites. Health-care, cooking, language interpreters, staff and volunteers, all had to be recruited and organised, and with the help of others from Wesley Mission the children were all adequately provided for. Over the next six years each boy completed the Higher School Certificate, and every one went to university, or institutes of technology, except three, one of which commenced a motor engine repair business and the other two opened their own restaurant. Beverley became a foster mother to orphan boys in the grief of their own loss and the difficulties of establishing themselves in a strange land with a different language and culture.
Beverley saw how much could be done by organizing volunteers and in 1980 accepted the task of raising money to help provide for Sydney’s homeless, the Vietnam orphans, aged people, and children in care. Working with a group of mainly elderly ladies, she organised craft stalls, cake stalls, dinner parties, and the like and raised in her first year $72,000. When she saw what that money did in providing personal comforts, buses, furniture, holidays for the under privileged, relief for inner city families and the like, she commenced working full-time in an unpaid task of raising money. She has organised concerts, garage sales, book fairs, garden parties, dinners, dances, hundreds of stalls to sell cakes, food, and hand-crafts, organized radio and TV ads, distributed handbills, obtained the presence of personalities from the media, political and ceremonial life including Hazel Hawke, Lady Stephen, Lady Rowland, Lady Cutler and a host of others. The leading celebrities in Australia accepted her invitation to open special events.
The personal pressure was enormous. It has been a united family effort with each of her children helping their mum. Apart from this, she has supported me in all of my work as head of Australia’s largest Christian welfare organisation, and as minister’s wife in Australia’s largest church where she works as an Elder. Beverley used her own home to type letters, sew bedspreads, cushions, and aprons, bake cakes, and made floral arrangements. She constantly soaked tens of thousands of used postage stamps and packaged them. She organized letters to hundreds of companies requesting donations of outdated stock, off-cuts and factory seconds, which she distributed to others who made goods for sale.
At the same time over 400 volunteers were recruited and organised through monthly meetings, which she chaired. Soon help was being provided to fourteen children’s homes, a sheltered workshop, nine aged care centres, two hospitals and sixteen homes for the intellectually handicapped, mostly in the inner suburbs of Sydney – a total of 122 centres of care. A retired lady jeweller offered to repair fashion jewellery so Beverley set up in George Street on the footpath, a stall where she personally sold the jewellery each week. While organising hundreds of other volunteers, she led by example, becoming involved in all areas of fundraising.
In all of this practical Christianity, Beverley maintained an enthusiasm even when fulfilling tasks that were taxing and against her natural inclinations. She would not accept methods of fundraising that would violate the Christian conscience of some, and so no form of gambling, raffles, bingo or alcohol was used. Yet without these she had raised as clear profit after expenses a total of over three and a quarter million dollars. Beverley worked voluntarily and never claimed any expenses. Beverley Moyes (nee Vernon) was born in Mont Albert, Victoria. She was educated at Mont Albert Central School and Camberwell High School. After secretarial studies she worked for seven years with an English textile-importing firm. Beverley attended the Box Hill Church of Christ and was a member there for eight years until her marriage. During her time with the Box Hill Church of Christ she taught Sunday School, led a junior girl’s Club, and held leadership positions in the Box Hill Church and in various youth organisations.
Beverley and I met at the Box Hill Church of Christ at the age of 13, and we have been together ever since. We married in 1959, and now have four married children and their spouses and ten grandchildren. In 1966 we commenced ministry at the Cheltenham Victoria, Church of Christ, where we ministered for thirteen years. During our first three ministries, Beverley taught Sunday School, led youth groups, taught Scripture in school, led women’s groups, was a member of two choirs as the accompanist, played organ or piano for weddings, funerals, and church services and performed all the other tasks necessary in a minister’s home.
During our Wesley Mission ministry, Beverley was more than a voluntary fundraiser. Beverley’s activities have been many and varied. Whilst still seeing herself as a minister’s wife and all that entailed, she has led prayer groups, a home Bible Study group, spent much time counselling and giving pastoral care to Wesley Mission church members and the thousands of paid staff at Wesley Mission. She counselled troubled people, provided food for transients and took into our home an elderly lady who needed nursing, and a young drug addict.
In recognition of Beverley’s voluntary work, both in fund raising and in other areas of work at Wesley Mission, in 1988 Beverley was honoured by the Bi-Centennial Women 88 Awards, as one of the twenty outstanding women achievers in Australia, and was listed as one of the ten major award recipients. Thousands of women were nominated through Australia’s premier women’s magazine, “The Australian Women’s Weekly” and to be judged one of the Nation’s ten most outstanding women was a great achievement.
Marjorie Jackson became a friend when Beverley was elected as one of Australia’s ten outstanding women, and Marjorie was also in the final selection. In 1989 Beverley was the recipient of an Australia Day Citizenship Award given by the Sydney City Council for voluntary service to people of the city of Sydney. In the 1989 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, Beverley was appointed a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM). At this time we were the only couple in Australia to be separately honoured. In recognition of Beverley’s work as a volunteer amongst the people of Sydney, the Rotary Club of Sydney awarded her a Paul Harris Fellowship, one of Rotary’s highest honours.
Family life has always been of greatest importance to Beverley, and has always been and remains her top priority, along with her strong commitment to God and service to Him. She was an elder in the Church at Wesley Mission, and actively worked in a caring and counselling role to the hundreds of people involved with Wesley Mission. She led in public prayer and for years led a good home Bible study group in her home.
The program of the Australian Bicentennial Authority was really a wonderful one. They called for nominations for Australia’s most outstanding women in every part of the nation, and 1200 women were nominated for their outstanding permanent achievement to Australian society including Sallyanne Atkinson then the Lord Mayor of Brisbane; General Eva Burrows, then the world leader of the Salvation Army; Joan Carden, Opera Singer; Nancy Kato, author; June Dally-Watkins, famous model; Caroline Jones, media presenter; Eileen Joyce, the great international pianist; Dame Leonie Kramer, the university professor who served as Chancellor of Sydney University; Senator Jean Melzer of Victoria; the athletes Shirley Strickland and Marjorie Jackson; Margaret Noffs of the Wayside Chapel, Nancy Bird-Walton the famous aviatrix, Professor Di Yerbury – then Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University and so many others. Every famous woman in Australia of the time was on the nomination list.
The aim of the Bicentennial year was to recognize the achievements of Australian women and to give public recognition of women who have a high personal quality that has been translated to significant achievement in their personal and community lives. Beverley had been nominated by some men on our Church Board. The Australian Bicentennial Authority were looking for “Australian women who have consistently shown such qualities as courage, tenacity, leadership, compassion, humanity, determination, and creativity in the work in which they were involved.” Beverley was told she had been a chosen among 20 such women to be the final representatives from across Australia. She and I were flown to a special dinner of honour to be attended by hundreds of people in the Melbourne Hilton.
At the Melbourne Hilton, there were more than 500 of Australia’s outstanding women. There were ten chosen as the outstanding achievers in Australia. There was Dr Patricia Brennen, doctor, missionary, reformer, leader of the movement to ordain women priests in the Anglican Church; Dr Helen Caldicott, medical doctor and leader of the powerful U.S.A. based group Doctors for Social Responsibility and well known anti-nuclear campaigner; there was Kay Cottee the solo yachtswoman who was the first woman to solo circumnavigate the world in a sailing vessel; there was Dr Jocelyn Scutt Australia’s most academically qualified lawyer including 4 masters degrees in two different fields and her doctorate was done in the work of rape and prostitution, and non-sexist law. There was Christine Milne a remarkable member of the Tasmanian Parliament, now Senator; Marjorie Silver Weiss, the founder of Australia’s Flying Nurses Service, which pre-dated even the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and who has given a long life time of serving the Far West Children’s Hospital Scheme and outback nursing; Joan Winch, outback health worker of Western Australia, who was named the Aboriginal of the Year, 1987. Among these top ten was Beverley Moyes, for “a life time of support to people in need, using her own home and organising church women in raising millions of dollars for charity, the most successful in Australian history, using traditional women’s methods of crafts, cooking, concerts and the like.”
The judges said of Beverley, “She rarely receives recognition for her extraordinary community service. This modest self effacing woman is truly typical of Australia’s quiet achievers.” For us as a family, it was not new that wife and mother should be elected as one of the ten most significant women in Australia. We all knew she deserved this honour. Beverley stood before those 500 outstanding Australian women being chosen in the top ten. It was such an honour but more was to come. Beverley was asked to speak on behalf of all of the women of Australia. Hers was the only speech given by the ten award winners.
Beverley acknowledged her faith in God and what a privilege it was to help those people who can’t help themselves. She thanked church members and others who motivated and inspired her and indicated that she wanted to go on helping others in the community as long as she was able. It was a beautiful speech and strongly applauded by the ten fellow awardees and the 500 guests. The ten top awardees each received a gold, ebony and silver broach and $2000 worth of crafts of her own choosing made by outstanding Australian craftswomen. Beverley chose a magnificent quilted wall hanging, which hangs in our house to this day and a hand-crafted leather handbag and some jewellery. At our table was Marjorie Jackson. Marjorie received a special commendation for her work, as not only an all Australian great athlete but for her work in raising more than $1 million for the Leukaemia Foundation.
Because of a number of press conferences and media events in which they were both involved they spent some quality time together. We never lost contact with this remarkable lady. Now in her late 60’s, Marjorie still lives in Adelaide where she has been the greatly loved and respected Governor of South Australia. In all of this Beverley was a busy wife and mother. Each of the children got married and grandchildren began arriving and she saw her role increasingly as being mother, not only to her family, but also to the many hundreds of people within the life of Wesley Mission. As an active Elder of the church she is busy caring and counselling people in the life of the worshipping congregations, and was elected for this work “Mother Of The Year” in 2002.
That part of her life has evolved and changed leaving her a very experienced public speaker and mature leader. One aspect of Beverley’s life and ministry in Sydney has been the exercise of a gift of hospitality. Hundreds of people have appreciated the meals that she has prepared and served in our Roseville home. The dining room table seats 12 so consequently dinner parties always have 12 present. She has cooked and prepared for hundreds of people over the years in these dinner parties. New staff, donors to Wesley Mission, members, visitors to this country have all been welcomed as guests to our table. She has also presided at meals or functions in which more than a dozen Governors General, Prime Ministers, Premiers and their wives have been present, as well as visiting dignitaries from overseas such as Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York. In turn Beverley has been a guest at many functions for distinguished and royal visitors. She has had conversations with the Queen and Prince Philip and other members of the Royal family.
In all of this Beverley remains a very humble person, loving her garden, always growing flowers and giving them every Sunday to other people or a carton of eggs from our hens or a parcel of vegetables from her extensive vegetable garden. Her gifts and talents in ministry did not come naturally; they have been acquired by hard work, careful preparation and a willingness to be uncomfortable as she tackles something new.
That is why she is the mother I admire most of all. The beautiful wall hanging surrounded by frames and certificates bearing her Order of Australia citations and medals, along with the other prestigious medals give testimony to the fact. As the Bible says, “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” Proverbs 31:29.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C.
