Volunteers: The key to life

Thank you for your prayers as I enjoyed a month off. My wife Jennifer and I had a lovely time in South Australia. Kati Thanda Lake Eyre was wonderful, though the pelicans hadn’t yet arrived. The Cooper Creek, having cut the Birdsville Track, has just reached a clay saltpan called the Cooper Inlet. This saltpan will soon become part of Lake Eyre. The water from the Cooper Creek will eventually cause the Goyder Channel to drain water into Lake Eyre South. That is currently a huge, multicoloured saltpan. I can recommend the Facebook site Arid Air if you’d like to see some photos – as well as joining them for a flight if you’re able to do that!

I made a surprising discovery at an abandoned town named Farina. This was once a major stop on the (old) Ghan Railway some 600km north of Adelaide. At its peak it had 600 residents. What surprised me was that the place was packed! Farina has a restored bakery, and a large shop that sells all manner of baked goods. The vanilla slice was delicious. Travellers from all over the world come to Farina for three months every year. Why just three months? Because everyone who works at the bakery and shop are volunteers! It began with a vision from two bakers, Tom Harding and Peter Harris, in 2009. They wanted to restore the Farina ruins, starting with the bakery. Their vision soon ignited more than the ovens. It ignited hundreds of people to help. I spoke with a baker who volunteers for 8 weeks a year. We saw his high-top loaves come out of the oven. The poppy-seed loaves look like they has been burnt, but they were cooked to perfection. The smell was divine. All of the funds raised from the bakery are being used at Farina.

What surprised me was that in the middle of nowhere there was a fully functioning bakery staffed entirely by volunteers! The vision of two bakers, and the sacrifice of many volunteers, has given Farina new life – as well as bread for hungry travellers.

That’s a great analogy for the Church. Jesus is the bread of life. Through God-given vision and personal sacrifice, the Church has spread from a small part of the Middle East to the ends of the earth. In large part that has been accomplished by volunteers. Having tasted of the bread of life, with hearts ignited by the Spirit, they – YOU – have shared Jesus with others. Life has come from death. That’s the Good News.

With hope and joy,

Rev. Frank (Van Der Korput), Supply Minister