30 August 2026 Pentecost 14 Frontier Service Sunday

Romans 12:13  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

 

Image that there is only one grocery store in the town that you live in.  You will know what day of the week the fresh food comes in.  You will also know if a shelf is empty that it will be many days before that item can be restocked.

Then image that you need shoes, clothes, children or dog toys which are not available in the town that you live in.  Your options – go to a big town and have a shopping spree or order online –without seeing, feeling or fitting the item first.

Then image a helicopter coming into town at night and leaving half an hour later. You know that someone is sick or hurt and has to be taken hundreds of kilometres away for treatment.  By morning the entire town will know who the person was and what happened.  The person concerned is now far away from family and friends and eventually will  have to work out how to get back home.

Then image a mail run of about 100 kilometres with 10 letterboxes which closes every time there is even a shower of rain on it or a mail run that takes all day in a small plane visiting a small number of homesteads.  Both of these runs happen weekly only.

Then image the local airport.  There may be a commercial flight in a couple of times a week.  The planes landing at the airport are more likely to be small planes from homesteads where it is quicker and easier to hop into a plane and come to town for supplies and mail than to drive.  Something that they may only do weekly or fortnightly.

This is the reality for rural Australia.  It is a very different world to the one that we live in where we are in or near a major town.  Today is a time to celebrate and reflect on the work of Frontier Services – a branch of the Uniting Church in Australia – that assists people in rural Australia.  Their work is not about leading worship services or providing care and leadership to one or a couple of congregations.  The Patrol Ministers of Frontier Services travel hundreds of kilometres , they walk beside people during droughts, floods, fire and personal crises.  The patrol Minister maybe the only person that they see in many days.  For these Ministers it is not about converting more people to be Uniting Church members, it is about showing and providing care and support to all that they meet.

My invitation is that as you attend a service of celebration and reflect on the work of Frontier Services today, perhaps take some time to consider how very different the life of a rural person is to the lives that we lead.

Shirley Bowers

Lay Preacher