Sunday, January 16, 2011

Big Hearted Australia

This afternoon we hosted a Combined Churches prayer meeting for the floods in Queensland and other parts of Australia. At the time of writing this, it seems that widespread flooding is now happening in Victoria.

About 40 people turned up which was great for such little notice in the middle of the summer holiday season. It was great to hear the heart-felt prayers of so many people.

I have been really impressed over the last week or so with a number of things I have seen in the TV coverage:

  • The leadership of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh who clearly loves the people of Queensland and is now rising to a huge long-term rebuilding project.
  • The heroism of many ordinary people- some in uniform but many not
  • The generosity of the people of Australia in their support for the relief funds
  • Traffic jams caused by people volunteering to help clean out houses in Brisbane
  • The lack of looting and other opportunistic crimes- sure there was some but it has been minor


There are many other things that could be said about these floods, but I think that they have brought out the true sense of generous good-heartedness or "mateship" that has always been a part of Australian culture- it gets hidden in the good times but rises to the surface when things get tough.

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