Conversations in rural areas often turn to the state of the drought and the pain it’s causing farmers at the moment.

Following a church council meeting for St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Kootingal, the conversation turned to the drought and how they could help out their parishioners and farmers across the region and beyond.

“The issues that people are facing are not just in our church,” Reverend Beaven said.

“We don’t have many material resources, but the one thing we can do is provide the opportunity for people to come together to pray – we take that seriously.

“We wanted to open it to the community and people who don’t normally come to the church are welcome to come.”

Reverend Beaven said the church wanted to do something, and this was something significant.

“We wanted to do what we could to respond,” he said.

“We have tried to provide a small amount of assistance.”

Reverend Beaven said they hated to see farmers taking their lives because of the dire drought situation they were in.

“We can’t answer as to why our prayers aren’t answered straight away, but persistence in prayer shows our dependence on God,” he said.

“We want to give people the chance to do that.”

The prayer meeting starts at 4pm at St Andrew’s Anglican Church on Gate St followed by a free sausage sizzle with everyone welcome to join the congregation.

“The free sausage sizzle is for people who want to hang around and talk to each other,” Reverend Beaven said.

“People need to do that, especially farmers who can be isolated and feel a bit alone.”