Meeting People Where They Are.

I spent a great day out at the Nyngan Field Day. 

We had subzero temp early on in the day but it was a fine sunny day as the day went on. Lots of locals, families and visitors filled the show ground. We had a constant flow to our little info table. 

 It was also a coming together of 3 Uniting Church services -Local Minister Jo Smalbil and Lou, her husband, who both fly the Frontier Services patrol flag in the Cobar and Nyngan area, visiting farmers on farm; Uniting Care Burnside Children & Family Councillors, Catherine Thompson and Natasha O’Neill from Dubbo Office and Kate Mudford from Interrelate, a service about building relationships, located at Dubbo too.

At back - Phill, Natasha and Catherine. Front row -Jo and Lou 

The goal of the day was to make connections and bring some light into the darkness of the day to day grind of the drought on their farm and in the communities. The question I am often asked is - “Do people talk to you at such events?” Answer “Yes, they do.” Not always at the stall but on a break people stop us and asked questions and have a conversation. We had many connections at both the table and wandering round.

The cleanest animals in Nyngan -until they leave the table!

As you can see on the table we had information and DVDs as well as our animals (?)/ Stress balls. We had two big storage tubs of the stock and all our stock went by 2 pm. Children would look sideways and we’d ask “Do you want one they’re free?!” A quick look to mum and or dad would bring them over, they’d pick the one they like, have a short yarn and look at the handouts.
 “Can I get a pen?”
  ”Sure.” 
 “I might take one of these too”…. and so info would be out there. 



We did not push, just listened and smiled and explained what our roles are.  Even the store holders would be interested. We found that the cool room for the bar was in the little room behind us, so we had this stream of cases of beer moving through our space and so had good relationship with “the Boys.” “Use the trolley.” We’d sing out as they carried their load. “ Last load, they used the trolley.” “Yeah?“

Meeting people at these events allows them to meet you, not at an office or a service. It was also good for the profile of the Uniting Church to been seen in the community offering a warm, friendly smile and information, reaching out together to all who stopped - families from the land, their children and young people, even grandparents . The team made all welcome and all could take the extra cow, sheep or pig for whoever.  The feedback was positive from the families but also from the Field Day organisers as they roamed around the sites all day.

I will be working with a number of services across the Western District in coming weeks, offering people time out, access to info and an ear to hear their story. Sadly though some areas are moving slowly forward there are still areas doing it tough and maybe doing it that way for some time to come. Much of the government funds have a use by date of December, so there are a host of activities for now but this may not be continued after that at this stage.

The Uniting Care Burnside team are building links so people will have resources in the coming months. Frontier Services will keep calling across the Nyngan- Cobar area and Dave Shrimpton, our Flying Patrol, goes into the far outback.  The Rural Chaplains? -  we will continue Uniting for the Common Good .

Where to next?  Wanaaring, Louth and then the MDB tour.

 Thank you all for your prayer support.  It is a great blessing for us.

                   Matthew 25:40 is the basis of the work we do as Rural Chaplains. 

                         “For as much as you do this for the least, you do it for me.”

Phill Matthews