It was 4am on Saturday morning when John Flack and a team at Clovercrest Baptist Church in Modbury, in Adelaide’s northeast decided to open the church. Severe weather and temperatures of up to 44 degrees over the weekend had triggered bushfire emergency warnings throughout the night.
“We were up all night monitoring the situation. People in suburbs around us – Banksia Park, Fairview Park, Greenwith were being evacuated,” said John, who runs the Clovercrest Baptist Church’s community services program.
“We heard there were a lot of people who weren’t looked after with emergency accommodation and food. So we did what we could and opened up the church.”
Modbury is about 3-4 kilometres from the foot of the Adelaide Hills, where the Sampson Flat bushfire in the Mount Lofty ranges claimed at least 12 homes over and 13,000 hectares of bush and farmland over the weekend.
Fire conditions in the Adelaide Hills have been described as the worst in over 20 years.
“Right at this moment, residents in the Adelaide Hills are being confronted by a fire which hasn’t been seen in the hills since the 1983 bushfires of Ash Wednesday,” said South Australia Country Fire Service chief Greg Nettleton.
The Ash Wednesday bushfires saw 28 deaths in South Australia and 47 in Victoria. Thankfully, no deaths have been reported so far but bushfires continue to rage through South Australia and Victoria, and temperatures are set to rise again midweek.
On Saturday morning, a team of 20-30 volunteers from Clovercrest Baptist were ready to do anything they could to help out. On Facebook, the church had shared their availability to assist as an emergency relief centre.
“It’s certainly a tough 48 hours in our community,” said one member of Clovercrest Baptist on Facebook. “If you can come and help with food and assist us [to] care and support people please drop in… Let’s be Jesus’s hands and feet.”
John says the church acted as an overflow from other centres set up around the area. They saw about 50 people come through the church on Saturday who were looking to rest, pray or to receive a meal.
New facilities from a large building project just completed at Clovercrest were a blessing in the emergency, says John. As word spread quickly of the church’s willingness to serve the community, food donations began to pour in.
“The response from others across Adelaide has been overwhelming,” said John. “We’ve had people driving up to 60km to drop off their donations.”
Non-perishable food and water bottles are proving the most important and useful donations.
“It’s only two days in, but individuals from the local community have been so generous.”
Church yesterday at Clovercrest, a community of about 700 people, was not as a full as usual, but the church welcomed families coming together under Christ, sharing stories of things they’d seen, lives and houses saved and tales of courage and support.
“The fires are surrounding us,” said preacher Mike Hey in the church service yesterday.
“In the fire and any situation we recognise two important things: One is preparedness and training, and secondly a rapid response. I want to thank God for the preparedness of the authorities of this state, and this church, and their response to this crisis and a situation that is still ongoing.
“For those of you who are facing some personal distress and anxiety, even perhaps some personal loss… from Romans 8:38: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
John says that they’re expecting people to be allowed to return to their homes midweek. And they’ll need prayer to see them through.
Clovercrest is using its new building facilities to collect food and water donations for the bushfire-affected community.
“There are a number of churches throughout the Hills area – all of them will have people on properties who’ve lost stock, fences, farmland. The after-effects of this will be major. And the trauma when you’re evacuated is real, too. There will be a lot of people struggling to come to grips with just that trauma of having to leave their homes. When people are able to head back to their homes, there will be quite a mess. So you can pray for those people.”
Volunteers at Clovercrest will continue to deliver hampers of donated food throughout the week and say that non-perishable food and water bottles are still the most important donation items.
“The fire is horrible, but it’s brought out a tremendous ministry and community heart in the church.”
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