Hope

Hope is a very powerful thing.

When you have hope you can face almost any obstacle, and life is so much more liveable when you have hope.

In our little drought stricken town we are just beginning to see some flutters of hope.

Our paddocks have gone from looking like this (below) where there was no feed for the sheep, and they were being fed hay by us every day. We have very little hay left now, so the prospect of having enough oats to cut and bale for hay this year gives us hope.

To this. Doesn't that look so much better? Our soil is moist (and actually a little water logged at present!). There is plenty of green feed for the sheep. The sides of the roads are green. Everything looks fresh and beautiful.

Of course we have had this hope before, at this time of year. It's hard to not still be pessimistic when we remember than in the past few years things have looked pretty good in July, only to be dried up and withering by September.

But the past few weeks have been REALLY wet. Wetter than we have had for many years. And that means that the soil is getting moisture down deep, and the crops will send roots down there when the surface moisture dries out.

So, we have hope. And people in the town are smiling.

Lord, thankyou for this wonderful rain. Thankyou that it has fallen so evenly across the whole of Eyre Peninsula. I pray that it will bring renewed hope to our community. I pray for continued rain throughout winter and into spring to ensure our crops have the best chance.

On another subject; It's Jase's funeral today. Please pray for his family and friends as we say goodbye.

Mud

Ok, getting away from teeth for a while.

But just in case you are wondering the temporary filling seems to have helped, it only hurts when I eat which you would think would be doing wonders for my diet....but no.

Below is a picture of a road, a wet, muddy, slippery road. It is very similar to the road that I drive on to go to work each day. It's not the actual road I drive on because that would have meant that I had to get out of the car and take a photo, and that could have ruined my shoes, and that is just not something I was prepared to do! Not even for my bloggy friends! There are just some lines that you do not cross!

Our roads have a pretty high proportion of clay in them, which means that when they get wet like this you have to drive veeerrry slowly and veeerrry carefully. Of course you only have to drive slowly and carefully if you wish to stay on the road, and that is purely up to you! Although I can tell you from experience if you run off the road, hit a fence, scratch your car and get a flat tyre in the process you are forced to get out of the car, and that brings about the shoe issue again.

So, what's my point in all this? My point is that we are in the last week of August and it is STILL raining! Our crops are looking like this:

This is wheat, although don't ask me what variety. I had to ask Kym whether it was wheat or barley because I can't tell the difference until it comes out in head. At this time last year our crops were looking sad, and yellow, and just plain unhealthy. But look at this! Praise the Lord!

We are having the best finish to a growing season in five long years. Five bad years can be pretty tough on a community, family, relationship, and we certainly aren't counting our chickens yet.

.....but there is just the faintest glimmer of hope and air of optimism about the community at the moment.

Lord, thankyou for the continued rain throughout August. Our crops are growing strong and healthy and we are so grateful to you for providing the rain to sustain them. I pray now for finishing rain when the crops come out in head to allow the grains to form fully.