Young Champions - Bill Sweeting
Serving suffering humanity in the bush
By Lauren Martin
From its earliest years The Salvation Army has reached far into rural areas through the work of special collectors and field units. In more recent years it has sought to serve those in rural Australia suffering the effects of drought with dedicated rural chaplains.
Beginnings
It was 1994 and the then-North and West NSW Divisional Public Relations Secretary Major Peter Pearson was visiting the far west community of Bourke when he met a man whose words he’ll never forget. He was an old wartime digger who every year would donate $600 to The Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal. When Major Pearson asked Why?, the digger thought for a moment before responding: Because you were there.
At the time, Australia was going through one of its worst droughts on record. We just have to be there, thought Pearson as he proceeded to lobby The Salvation Army to introduce a rural chaplaincy service.
Around the same time, Channel Nine’s Farm Hand Appeal beamed the plight of hurting farmers into the living rooms of town and city dwellers and generated a huge response. More than $19 million was raised and The Salvation Army helped in its distribution. It was during that distribution period when territorial headquarters responded to Pearson’s proposal and appointed the Australia Eastern Territory’s first rural chaplain.
The right man for the job
With 51 years experience as a farmer, 18 years of that also running The Salvation Army’s corps at Young, Envoy Bill Sweeting hit the ground running when appointed rural chaplain to the entire state of NSW in 1995. He immediately felt an affinity with farmers. He’d been through what they were going through. I really wondered why I was going through that much suffering, he says when recalling the heart-wrenching experience of having to shoot sheep that weren’t worth selling and of watching bills pile up knowing he was unable to pay them. Years later when ministering to thousands of farmers on the brink of disaster, he saw how God was using his experience to help others.
Many of them were driving around in cars that were unregistered and uninsured because they just had to do it. They had to get to town somehow, recalls Sweeting. Or they just weren’t going to town at all – they were shooting wildlife and eating it. It was extremely desperate.
Despite the overwhelming need, The Salvation Army did not quickly expand its rural chaplaincy ministry. Envoy John Manley was appointed to the northern half of NSW in late 1995 and Captain Allan Kerr became the first Queensland rural chaplain in 1998. But it wasn’t until 2002 that a steady stream of rural chaplains began to be appointed throughout the territory, each eventually coming under divisional command. Now the Australia Eastern Territory has the largest rural chaplaincy network in the country.
In 2005, the Australia Southern Territory rediscovered rural chaplaincy when its Northern Victoria Division of the Australia Southern Territory set up Operation Living Waters, a team of workers with a mandate to help support rural communities through the drought. It consists of a rural chaplain, two youth drought support workers and a team supervisor. Rural Chaplain John Cartwright says his role originally began as a pastoral one but as the drought worsened and more funds were raised within The Salvation Army, the chaplain was able to support farmers in crisis with emergency funding as well as a listening ear.
Unfortunately in this area we’ve had a lot of suicides because of the financial problems, Cartwright says. Also there’s a lot of marriage break-ups and it hasn’t been like they’ve gone off with other partners; it’s just been the pressure of the farm – the financial pressure.
Braver, Stronger, Wiser
At the height of the drought in the mid 2000s it was estimated that every four days, somewhere in rural Australia, a farmer would take his own life. When these figures were revealed, The Salvation Army decided to act. The Australia Eastern Territory, in partnership with the Beyond Blue National Depression Initiative, produced a DVD called Braver, Stronger, Wiser in an effort to educate farming families about depression.
How bad did it get? Farmer Mark Pickford asks at the opening of the documentary: Not wanting to go out, not wanting to mix with my friends, just wanting to curl up and shut yourself away.
After its release in November 2008, 500,000 copies were distributed free of charge in rural and regional Australia. Thousands more are still being given out with rural chaplains at the forefront. We’ve got some terrific reports back from people who have said how great the DVD is and how much it helped, says Major Bob Strong, rural chaplain in Newcastle and Central NSW Division since 2007. When they sit down and look at that they think: Gee, there are other people in the same situation as me.
Dangerous times
With a job description as vast as the area they covered, rural chaplains have also been at risk of burnout since the ministry’s inception. Neville Radecker says of his and wife Lorraine’s six years based in Longreach: It was incredibly difficult – we were constantly on the point of burnout. In 2007, Majors Peter and Jean Ridley racked up more than 100,000 kilometres on the road in their first year as rural chaplains in the north of NSW. That first 12 months was just an absolute nightmare in terms of going here and there, says Peter. While the Radeckers and Ridleys managed to avoid a breakdown, others weren’t so fortunate.
In 2005, The Salvation Army made a deliberate decision to appoint couples rather than lone operators to the role. This allowed chaplains to debrief with each other in the car between visits. It also protected them from a number of other potential dangers:
Firstly, the vast distances and time spent driving is much safer when there are two people to share driving and guard against fatigue. When chaplains visit stations/homesteads they are often seeing individuals alone and in isolated situations – e.g. calling at a homestead where the wife is home alone. This potentially puts a single chaplain in a situation that could be difficult or perceived wrongly.
However, there are some appointments in the Australia Eastern Territory that are still a one-man-band so to speak. Roma in southern Queensland is one where, since his appointment there in 2007, Major Ron McMellon has expressed serious concerns that the situation puts himself and whoever comes after him at risk.
The hardest thing I find is the fact that you’re with people all day listening to their hang-ups, their problems etc. and you get back to the caravan at night and you’re all on your lonesome … there’s no one to sit and debrief with.
The introduction of caravans was another major structural change in the Australia Eastern Territory in 2008. Previously chaplains routinely travelled six to eight hours per day in order to visit one family, then return home for the night, or stayed in expensive and often substandard accommodation or stayed in their own camping equipment. Caravans were purchased in 2009 and many chaplains implemented a new routine of setting up and integrating themselves in a community for weeks at a time before moving on.
Rebuilding community
Community building is also a key goal of the Australia Southern Territory’s Rural Services team, Operation Living Waters.
The team has a Mobile Outreach Vehicle – a huge truck equipped with computers, large screens and sporting equipment – which is taken to community events such as shows and expos. The team also organises its own events to bring the community together such as silent-movie nights.
Jean Ridley said: We discovered [in NSW] that there was no social life whatsoever out there with our farmers and they weren’t getting together in any way. In 2007, the Ridleys were in their first year of rural chaplaincy. They were expecting to find farmers in physical isolation but were surprised by the amount of social isolation being experienced. Drought had taken its toll. Farming families had neither the money to socialise nor the inclination. The Ridleys decided to take action and the annual Christmas Mission to the Bush was born. Since then the idea has spread and by 2010 nearly all rural chaplains across both Australian territories operated a similar event.
The Christmas Mission was a two-fold initiative – to rebuild community in the bush and to inspire city people to minister in the outback. And what has happened each year, says Peter Ridley, is that somebody has put up their hand and said: We want to be rural chaplains.
We were both born and bred at Kempsey on the NSW north coast, says Envoy Lloyd Graham. I didn’t want to go out there [on the bush mission] in the heat and the dust but … the day that I got to Bourke I knew exactly that that’s where God wanted me to be.
Called to Serve
Rural chaplaincy has always been an individual ministry in that each chaplain or chaplain couple goes about the task in a unique way. Different opinions are held on various aspects of the ministry such as whether or not to cold-call on farmers, the level of financial versus spiritual help offered and so on. But they have one thing in common: every chaplain has been called by God to bring hope to the farmers they serve.
From Envoy Neville Radecker, who said Yes! to God in his sick bed and experienced three healing miracles before being able to take up his calling, to Les Barrass (rural chaplain, ACT and South NSW Division) who answered the call 17 years before he’d even heard about The Salvation Army’s rural work, it is clear that the one pre-requisite to becoming a rural chaplain is an anointing by God.
In Western Australia where the drought still has a grip, former rural chaplain Norman Targett feels so strongly called by God that he is continuing to serve farming families even though The Salvation Army discontinued his position in May 2010 due to a lack of funding. For two years Targett built up relationships with 200 farming families, providing them with financial help through the federal government’s Exceptional Circumstances grants and offering emotional and prayer support in difficult times. One or two of the single male farmers basically had been living off rabbits and kangaroo for ages, he says. They were doing it very tough.
Not alone
Despite being individual in their style, every rural chaplain knows the importance of working alongside others to achieve the mission. In the beginning, Bill Sweeting recognised the importance of networking and quickly established contacts with a range of government agencies, community services and church groups. With such a vast area to cover, he also relied on a team of volunteers in different communities: Even if I didn’t leave home … I’d have people ringing me up saying, ‘Hey, I’ve heard of someone who needs help’.
Over the years these networks have strengthened to the point where The Salvation Army and the various service providers in the bush meet regularly and work together to meet farmers’ needs. According to Les Barrass, rural chaplains act as the facilitator in the process of a farming family’s recovery, pointing them to other services when needed, supporting them financially and emotionally and above all else being there to share the journey with them.
Combining corps and chaplaincy
Both Australian territories have experimented with combining corps and rural chaplaincy ministries. Stephen Miller – corps officer at Moonah, Tasmania – took over from a full-time rural chaplain but works only one day a week in the southern midlands region. He’s hopeful that the chaplaincy ministry will be expanded to cover both farmers and those suffering in the wake of Tasmania’s timber and mining downturns. When we talk about rural support, it’s not just farmers, he says.
Longreach in central north Queensland has long been a corps and rural chaplaincy base. Current officer/chaplain Captain Mervyn Dovey is brutally honest when he says, The reality is, it doesn’t work. You can’t be a rural chaplain and a corps officer. The two roles are in conflict. You want to be out and about as a chaplain but then you have to leave the corps to its own devices.
The future
After the 2010 cliffhanger federal election, Australians woke to the realisation that three regional independents could be deciding the fate of the nation. Suddenly rural issues were back in the spotlight. Australia Eastern Territorial Consultant Rural Support Services Pam Wilkes says for too long rural needs were put in the too hard basket by politicians of both major parties. But Wilkes, along with most Salvation Army rural chaplains was buoyed by the election outcome: It gives me a great deal of hope that rural needs will be on the agenda and will be brought before the attention of the parliament.
With the big drought officially over in 2010 rural chaplaincy services are starting to wind down in some parts of Australia. One of those laid off, Western Australian rural chaplain Norman Targett is hoping and praying the ministry will be funded again by The Salvation Army in the future. Farmers need someone to talk to and to remind them that the rain does come from God.
Northern Victorian rural chaplain John Cartwright says things are slowing down as a result of farmers becoming more optimistic about their future.The Western Victoria Division’s rural drought relief worker based at Horsham for the Wimmera region from 2007 ceased operation in mid 2010 Leaving the Australia Southern Territory with seven drought relief workers in addition to several officers involved in providing rural assistance.
But Australia Eastern Territory leadership is adamant it will not scale back rural chaplaincy services. Assistant Territorial Mission and Resource Director – Social, Susan Reese says, With the closure of so many other community and service organisations in the bush, including many corps and churches, the rural chaplains represent the ongoing commitment of The Salvation Army to people who often feel abandoned by the rest of the nation.
Chaplains on the ground say the need is greater than ever. They’re pointing to an increase in bankruptcy proceedings in the bush, with banks and creditors demanding payment now that the rains have fallen. A lot of these people who are on properties owe millions of dollars that they’ve now got to try and pay off, says Ron McMellon. And so whilst there may be rain around, cash flow is going to be their biggest problem … a lot of them don’t have the money to be able to buy in new stock … to get the business working again.
Rural chaplains are also expecting a rise in marriage breakdowns and depression now that the high intensity stress of surviving the drought is over and people start to take stock of their lives.
Reaping the Harvest
According to the founder of the contemporary rural chaplaincy service in the Australia Eastern Territory, retired Envoy Bill Sweeting, now is an opportune time to reap the harvest that has been sown during the intense time of crisis support during the drought. He says now that relationships have been built, chaplains need to make the most of the opportunities for further ministry.
North NSW rural chaplains Peter and Jean Ridley feel particularly called in this area. Recently they held a Christianity Explained course in the small rural community of Gwabegar during which 18 of the 23 participants accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour. As Peter says, What we need to do I think is to come up with some way of marrying together rural corps and rural chaplaincy so that we can get on with the work of God and do it really well for the bush.
This article first appeared in The Salvation Army's Hallelujah! magazine.