Then in January 1969, having completed training for ministry and having filled an appointment in Toowoomba, we moved to the Isis district. It was a drought year and the harvest only went for fifteen weeks. The drought continued and the next year's harvest lasted just five weeks. The Monduran Dam was being built, but none of its water would go to the fertile red hilly slopes of Childers. Most cane assignments were being transferred to the flatter (but more clayey) soil near the Elliot River. Now when we drive through, we mainly see trees where the cane had been.
Cane farming has been more certain here in the Burdekin. We have a secret - a vast underground lake, reputed to be forty times the capacity of Sydney Harbour. The Burdekin district, as the tourist information tells people, is "built on liquid gold."
With a harvest soon to begin, our underground water is a resource for which to give thanks to God. The combination of water and sunshine are ideal growing conditions for our crop. The "liquid gold" comes to us at a cost - too much, we often think. But… driving north and south from here, we realise how fortunate we are - how blessed we are!
Yet our thankfulness is clouded with a touch of uncertainty this year. The price of sugar is down, and a rising Australian dollar is taking value out of our exports. Some businesses are already feeling the pinch, and various social problems are on the increase.
The blessing of God for the Burdekin district isn't just the underground water - the "liquid gold." We're missing out if we think only of our farming potential. God's blessing for us is "more than liquid gold."
A woman of Samaria came to draw water at the village well. A bucket had to be lowered on a rope to receive its fill of precious water so that the woman's jar could be filled and taken back to the village. She had a bad reputation. That's why she came alone in the heat of the day.
With a simple request for a drink of water, Jesus engaged her in conversation, finally saying to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water" (Jn 4.10). Can it be that there is something better, more long-lasting, more satisfying than this water I continually come to draw? "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (vv. 13,14).
Of course, water is necessary - for our physical life, as well as for our sugar cane! But there is something more than our "liquid gold" - a life and quality of living that we can only know by trusting Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord.
It's just about harvest time. Our Bible reading tells of the compassionate love of Jesus when he saw the crowds "harassed and helpless." He had been healing their disease and sickness, but they needed far more than that.
He said, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" (Mt. 9.37-38).
We are here tonight to celebrate God's love and to pray for a safe and profitable cane harvest. We are here to offer our prayerful support to all families in the district who feel "harassed and helpless" in the present circumstances.
But God is offering us far more than the water we draw from the underground with our powerful pumps. We need to hear and respond to his gracious call as he offers us "more than liquid gold." He is offering us forgiveness and healing and love. He offers us the water of life. It is his harvest time too. Let's receive his word of life ourselves and then pass it on to others.
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