Professionals Gather in Young

As a response to the disastrous cereal and fruit season in the Young district, an initial meeting of concerned community stakeholders was called late in 2010. From this meeting it was decided that a good way forward would be to invite service providers and professionals working in the Young district so that they might know what government and non government assistance might be available to the Young community.

This meeting was held last Thursday at the Uniting Church Hall in Young. The meeting was well attended by a diverse group of professional such as bankers, health workers, religious groups, farmers, NSW Farmers members and service clubs.

Greg Paul a Rural Financial Counsellor working in the Young district spoke of the various grants and loans available from a wide source of government agencies. Paul McMahon and Jeanette Lloyd from Centrelink spoke of the financial and counselling services available through their organisation.

John Harper a great champion of farmer's mental health offered useful strategies in supporting those who the professionals might come across as presenting with mental health issues.

I hope this is the beginning of an effective network in Young so that we might care for each other in helpful ways.

Congratulations to the Young UCA congregation and Rotary for hosting a great breakfast meeting.

Kel Hodge

Christmas Greetings

I think that at this time of the year we make a special effort to greet, thank and wish well those that we spend our lives with throughout the year.

There are some people that we are able to say Merry Christmas to, and pass on well wishes for the coming year. There are others who have left our physical lives and live away. We may send them a good old fashioned Christmas card with a note about what's happening for us and our families. Or, we may be up to date and email, text, twitter or send greetings on Facebook.

I am choosing this blog to send my wishes to the many people who make my life interesting, varied, hopeful, challenging, colorful, worthwhile and fulfilling.

The people I am talking about could be the person who lives next door to you. I think that the Christmas story illustrates for us that our God chose the every day situation to be with us and I believe still does. Our Lord is with us in the ordinary, the mundane and the every day. So it is at this Christmas time in the special time we celebrate the presence of Jesus in our lives in the ordinary times to come.

Last but not least I wish to send my love and best wishes for Christmas and the year to come to Julie my colleague. I give you thanks for your patience, understanding, graciousness and the new ways you continue to inspire myself and others. Merry Christmas Julie.

The photos I have chosen are of my friends in Corowa, the Burrowes. Merry Christmas. Kel Hodge

How many different ways can Santa arrive?

Forget reindeer!

Flooding across the Riverina

A meeting was help in Wagga Wagga last week with a large variety of service providers and community members to look at what assistance was available for Primary Producers who had been impacted by floods a wet weather. Over the last couple of months there have been thousands of hectares flooded and tens of thousands with rain damaged crops.

Government assistance tends to concentrate on Local Government infrastructure and there is virtually no assistance with agricultural losses. This can be a problem for those farmers who have lost all their crop and need to money to get through Christmas and buy food, let alone repay loans, plant next years crop etc. Kel and I are experiencing a marked increase in the number of requests for welfare help. The Riverina Presbytery has also asked Fred and Anne Humphrey, who did pastoral visiting in the drought, to return and work with flood affected farmers.

The group that gathered in Wagga Wagga expressed concern at the situation and also the potential for increased levels of stress and depression in Jan when farmers are able to see how their harvested ended up and how much they don't have. I suspect there will be an increase in calls for pastoral support.

As you will have read on this blog the Uniting Church as launched it's Rural Appeal. any support you can give will be gratefully received. It will provide food vouchers for families and also help to pay some of the Humphries expenses as they visit people.

Julie

Young producers

Last week both Kel and I went to Young at the invitation of the local Uniting church there to see how the church might respond to the devastation of the cherry harvest in the area. The cherry growers in the area have lost between 60%-70% of their crop. Of course this also has implications for the local economy with less money coming in from casual labour employed, and from the producers themselves.

The local congregation was keen to see how they might help, so after their Sunday morning service Kel and I had a great planning meeting with them.

On the Monday we organised, with  the Primary Industries section of Industry & Investment NSW, a meeting with service providers in the area to talk about what sort of support could be offered. It was agreed that most primary producers in the area were very busy harvesting what fruit or crops they could and were too busy for much else, but some meetings were planned for Jan.

How can you help - wherever you can buy cherries and other stone fruit from Young or Orange. The growers are finding that their markets for the fruit they have picked  is drying up because of the public perception that it's all spoilt. This is not the case so please support growers by purchasing their fruit when you can.

My thanks to Young church for not only wanting to do something useful but also with helping to organise all this.

Julie

A travelling companion

Julie: The following was written by Jane Schrader who recently spent a few days travelling around with me. I'm always happy to have people from other Uniting Churches who want to see what this type of ministry is all about.

Jane:
When I think of my time spent with Julie, recently, I think of vast distances travelled, friendly country people, connecting with small bush communities, coffee in the pub at Mt Hope on the way back from Nymagee.

A welcoming Sunday service at Hillston run capably by lay people and then lunch with the lay teacher Jenny and her husband Joe afterwards.

A trip 200klms down the track to Hay across the green Hay plains that would normally be red dust by now. A visit to Bishops Lodge there and viewing the dental implements a visiting clergy person carried with him in years goneby on his visits to the outback.

I remember very well our trip to Louth across muddy outback roads which were very wet and full of pot holes..I remember sinking in the red mud as we walked across a clay pan. We enjoyed wonderful hospitality there at the Old Post Office B and B.

The next day saw us in Bourke. Julie connected with some local workers in the areas of Aboriginal Affairs, rural outreach and the liaison person for the rural mental health project. I visited the local Bourke Outback centre which was very informative and enlightening . I have a better understanding of life as it was and is now.

We travel another couple of hours later in the day and stayed the night with Ian who is the minister for Cobar/Nyngan as well as part-time person with Frontier Services. Good to connect with someone from this wonderful service.

I travelled back to Oberon the next day. A 6-7 hour trip as the roads through Dubbo and Bathurst were show due to the rain and some of the local bridges being out of bounds.

Thankyou Julie for allowing me to spend time with you on your journey with people of the outback of N.S.W. I now have a better appreciation of the hardships and benefits of life, there.



Jane Schrader(Oberon Uniting Church- member)

Uniting Church Flood Appeal

The recent weather wet weather events in NSW have caused great economic and emotional damage across the state.

The Moderator of the NSW Uniting Church Synod Rev Nial Reid has launched an appeal as one of the responses of the church to the devastation.

I would urge those of you able to donate to go to the link http://www.insights.uca.org.au/news/2010/flood-appeal-10-12-2010.htm for information about how to donate.

Kel Hodge