News From Down Under
The Online Newsletter of Australian Parents Without Partners, Inc.

BUSH FIRES IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA

BLACK SATURDAY – 7^TH FEBRUARY 2009

          After the start of the horrendous bush fires in Victoria, a Church Minister in suburban Melbourne took his Sunday School children into his back yard at the church.  He showed them the fallen gum leaves and bark from his gum trees and explained how these items became fire hazards if not removed from the ground.

          As a result of this talk, the children made a display board to commemorate the victims of the fires and to remember the heroic fire fighters who helped fight the fires.  The display board contained small branches and leaves of a gum tree and some bark from the trees.  The children, (one as young as three) wrote messages on the bark.  The display board is now in the church for all its parishioners to view and reflect upon.

          Here are some of the writings from the children:

          1.       Prayers for the bush fire victims.

          2.       Dear Lord, help stop the fires.

          3.       Dear lord, help some sense get into the arsonist.

4.       Lord, give peace, comfort, patience and faith to all of those who have
been through this terrible ordeal of the bush fires.  Be a rock to them.  Be a pillar of strength in your heavenly name.  AMEN.

          The display board is shown below.