"I can't believe we haven't been forgotten"

Pamper packs with Sharon and the Principal standing at the back

"Oh goodness - just look at all these. I can't believe people haven't forgotten about us" was the comment from one of the women at Yenda Primary School when she saw the pamper packs organised by Rev Sharon Cutts, the Uniting Church Pastoral Visitor. The packs had come from Sharon's church in Wentworthville and were all themed - "A night Out"; "Cooking up a storm"; "After sport" were some - for both men and women. It was obvious how much care and thought had gone into them, and they were being distributed at the local school's Mothers Day assembly.

So what does this have to do with Rural Chaplaincy? Well one of my roles is to help rural communities recover after disaster and I've been keeping my eye on Yenda, near Griffith, that was flooded two years ago. Using some of the funds from the Moderator's Disaster Appeal we have now had two lots of Pastoral Visitors, given out quite a few IGA vouchers and helped organise community events. Recovery from a very wide spread event such as this flood takes a long time, and there are still people not back in their homes, but Sharon found that on the whole people are getting to the point where they feel like "things are normal again". But the overwhelming emotion on receiving that packs was that they hadn't been forgotten and that people did understand how hard and long the road to recovery had been. It was a great example of a congregation showing care for those who had been through a tough time.

In her four weeks in Yenda Sharon talked with 95 people and spent many hours just listening to the story of their journey. It is important that response to disaster does not all happen at the time of crisis but is on-going for a number of years, as recovery takes that long. The Uniting Church is quite unique in making some of its

And packs for the kids

disaster funds available for things like Pastoral Visiting in impacted communities and our current Moderator, Brian Brown, has been very passionate about making sure the funds get out on the ground.

So thanks Sharon for the great job you did and I look forward to seeing Yenda growing and strengthening.

Julie Greig