"I’ve been everywhere......"

Remember that old song?

Well, that has been my theme song the last month. I’ve been to Dubbo, Taree, Wauchope, Urunga, Tamworth, Bourke and Wanaaring- oh, yes and home at Narrabri. It was a good trip as I caught up with many friends and along the way I made some new ones.

The view from the driver's seat.

 I drove out to Wanaaring today as part of a planned 4 day Drought workshop but due to an influx of people there was “no room at the inn” so plans changed slightly but the workshop still went on. This program was pulled together by a group of services providers including the Uniting Church Moderators Bush Fire appeal. We called on the skills of a writer to facilitate the workshops.
It was great to sit in the groups hearing their initial nervousness but then Stephanie,our facilitator, drew on our stories and made us aware of the blocks we build or which others built, and helped people find their voice. It was good to hear the negatives turn to positives by lunch time; celebrating their wonderful town, on the edge of the unincorporated land and Bourke Shire, a town on the cut line where the line goes through town.

David Shrimpton 

Pastor David Shrimpton of the Flying Patrol flew in and was happy to join in with the groups. It was a great chance to meet a number of the Wanaaring locals in one place. I also introduced him to Chris, the principal from the school and Chris’s family.  It was a worthwhile day! An earlier plan to spend longer with these people, would have been great but plans change and we can’t always do everything. How we deal with that is crucial. We can stress, wish it wasn’t so or we can move on and see what God has next.

 David's flying patrol plane, a perfect symbol for Phill's words-
"we can move on and see what God has next."

As I am heading down to Albury this weekend for the Murray Darling Tour, I can take time to catch up with some people or have a rest, write this blog and send it in.  Being busy is what we do but Godspots like this are not for us to jump in and fill up but to find time to reflect on what we have been doing, spend time recharging but also to be open for whatever HE has planned. As a church and as people we measure how well we doing by how much we have done. Working with the services I do with drought work at present we see lots of $$ have been given but the sad part is it’s often about doing a heap of short term one offs. These are quality, in most cases but the key people are  having constantly to reapply for their positions and this means that come the end of the year these positions will be gone. People wonder if that work will continue in any way or does it all start over from scratch again. Time spent on reflection instead of jumping in would be very helpful in dealing with situations like those which exist in rural NSW.

Hopefully, these remote rural areas will have follow up rains soon but for many they still will be dealing with life coming out of a drought. Our prayers are that programs like this one in Wanaaring will give them another tool to draw on in that recovery as they rebuild and work on their stories.  

Shalom,

Phill Matthews.