When waters rise

What would you do if you were confronted with a natural disaster that threatens your livelihood?

In 2022, devastating floods caused levees to break in South Australia’s Murraylands region, causing mass flooding. For Alex, a local farmer, this meant her family farm was immersed in deep floodwater, threatening their crops and livestock and jeopardising their livelihood.

Two years later, Lutheran Media visited Alex’s farm. You can still see the devastation and loss Alex and her family experienced. Where tall green trees once flourished, you see barren ghosts of depleted gums. The immense hours that must have been put into rebuilding fences are phenomenal. It’s taken months for their farm to resemble the fertile land it once was, but the land itself was not the only thing impacted.

‘Life doesn’t stop for anything, even a natural disaster,’ says Alex. ‘You can become pretty naive to think it won’t happen to you. And when it did actually happen, the devastation was beyond our comprehension. And we’ve been dealing with that for the last two years.’

Water gives life – but it can also take it

Water can be life-giving, but it can also suffocate. When the levee broke, the floodplains were inundated with water, drenching crops to depths of three to four metres. With acres of crops completely wiped out and feed stores depleted, Alex and her husband Mark had to rely on outside sources to help. ‘It was the isolation and the hardships that came, not because our house was flooded, but because everything around us was,’ says Alex.

Facing the new challenge of keeping livestock alive and not knowing the future of their farm, Alex was presented daily with the challenges of just getting by. As a young mum with a baby, keeping the household together was challenging for Alex. ‘It was exhausting,’ she says. ‘You also have to still live life, put food on the table, care for those you need to care for and pay your bills.’

Calm in the storm

There’s a certain sense of calm about Alex as she tells her story of resilience.

‘I didn’t need to ask, “Where are you, God?” But I did ask, “Where are you in this?”’ she says. ‘There isn’t enough human strength to be able to deal with these pressures and issues alone.’

She reflects on God’s power through nature: ‘God speaks about himself in nature and creation and in thunder and in water and the power of water.

‘I sit in that space, especially in our time through the flood, and think, “Wow, this is a time of renewal where God is literally just flooding us with the weight of his glory, and he’s going to be bringing us out the other side.”’

The necessity of community

Often, when faced with disaster, we can only see what’s in front of us. Not only were Alex and her family cut off from access roads, but they were also cut off from their community.

One of the most challenging parts of the experience, Alex says, was the isolation. ‘There was a lack of understanding of what my family was going through,’ she says. ‘The closest people to me didn’t fully understand the weight of what it meant to have your farm, livelihood and life suffocated by water. It’s very hard for others to understand that.’

As Alex recalls the isolation through the hard days, she also shares how this disaster has inspired people in the community to proactively support each other so that no one needs to feel that isolation and hopelessness. It takes a crisis to bring awareness and rally people to create change. And it’s through stories like Alex’s that we find hope in times of crisis and how faith can be the one thing that holds us together when life seems to be falling apart.

Her story is not isolated. Many have recently witnessed the devastation of extensive flooding in Queensland and other natural disasters throughout Australia. We can relate to the crippling impact that natural disasters can have on households, businesses and communities. So many lives have been impacted, but this is only the beginning. Seldom do we realise that it can take years to recover. It’s not just the infrastructure, finances and livelihood that are impacted. For some, the emotional impact is devastating.

A message of hope

We pray for the families and communities recovering and rebuilding after natural disasters. May God provide them with a sense of hope and resilience and very real and practical help in the coming months. May his words of comfort reassure those who feel destitute, just as he comforted those whose lives were ripped apart as they fled from Jerusalem to Babylon:

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ (Jeremiah 29:11).

Hear Alex’s full story at www.messagesofhope.org.au/when-waters-rise

Find hope in times of crisis

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May you be blessed with hope as you face your own challenges in the world today.

Joanne Chamberlain is the Communication Coordinator at Lutheran Media – Messages of hope.