DONATING TO FLOOD VICTIMS IN AUSTRALIA

HERE IS THE LATEST FROM WENDY BELL AT MOUNT ALFORD IN BOONAH,
AUSTRALIA, THE ALMI TRAINING CENTRE.  PHOTOS FOLLOW THIS POST!
THIS NOTE TELLS WHERE OUR DONATIONS WOULD LAND!  ANYONE’S
DESIGNATED DONATION SENT TO ALMI TO ASSIST IN AID FOR THE AUSTRALIANS
AFFECTED BY THE FLOODING WILL GO DIRECTLY TO MT. ALFORD FOR
DISTRIBUTION TO THE CHURCHES AND PEOPLE
IN COMMUNITIES DEVASTATED BY THE FLOODWATERS.
PLEASE READ ON.

Hi Betty,
Well.. where do  we go from here?? At the moment the whole thing seems so
unreal. All you hear is people say ‘we knew it could happen but we didn’t
believe it would’.here at the Lodge we are fine. High and not so dry but at
least not under! We have had mind blowing rain, especially after 10 long years
of cruel drought. We can get more rain in an hour some days that what we had all
year a few years back. We have had a lot of local flash flooding as the ground
and creeks just cannot take anymore, but what happened in Toowoomba on Monday
which sent a wave of water through the valley towards Brisbane has just left
Queensland numb. Initially the shock, damage and destruction is massive but with
more than 75% of Queensland in flood it has serious long term effects on our
state. I guess the farmers are already thinking of the lack of fresh produce,
the area hardest hit is known as ‘the salad bowl’ for Qld and after many fought
drought for so long many farmers will not recover from this.
We are asking ourselves ‘What can we do??’ We have been able to accommodate some
people here earlier when they got caught in flood waters, but at this point in
time evacuation  centres close to the cities have been set up and most people
want to stay close to their houses so they can get in to see the damage asap. i
have spoken to people I know involved in co ordinating these places to see how
we can help them there and at the moment they are saying they have hundreds of
people to help, they have asked us to wait, as the hype dies down the volunteers
fade away even thought the problem still remains. One problem though i did talk
about is the pressure and trauma coordinators, councillors , state of emergency
personal, salvation army officers, ministers etc, all those dealing with the
grieving public will experience. We spoke about the need to nurture these people
as they exhaust themselves nurturing others. We have contacted some heads of
these sorts of organisations and will contact more over the next few days to
offer them a place to retreat to. where they can attempt to forget it all for a
while or they can download and talk through what they have been through
themselves if this is what they need to do. of course we can take in those who
have nowhere else to go but once when Mike was leaving here he said to me ‘its
so important to minister to the ministers’ and we feel this is a time we can
really do this.

if you guys feel you want to assist in raising funds- great! And thank you in
advance for this. we will certainly pass it on. We feel that the tiny town of
Grantham, the hardest hit by the inland tsunami would be a great place to take
the money to. Maybe directly to a church/ families  there. All eyes are on the
city and its the tiny towns that have no voice. we know people in this town that
can give us the heads up on where to start. What to you think??
I will attach some photos, some are general flood photos, others a closer to
home and the showing you the mess Phil and Warren are in on the farm. They are
thinking 12 months at least until they will replant on the Lockrose farm. At
least 7 feet of soil has been washed away.

Thanks again for your offer to help, we will do what we can to help them.

Take care
Wxx