The heavy downpour in the past couple of weeks had led to some devastating situations to people in northern NSW, particularly those in the areas in and around Lismore. Some places were flooded worst than they had even been - with waters reaching up to 15meters deep even in rural areas. It is unfortunate and heart-breaking to say the least. So to us, members of the Christ of Church, it opens up another opportunity to extend help to our fellowmen.
We had already gone to Lismore in 2017 to help them clean up after a big flood. It was a great opportunity for us and for the kids to experience a massive charity effort. So when we were asked if we wanted to small contingent going to Lismore again this time, we didn't hesitate to volunteer.
As the rains hasn't completely stopped yet, and there was a bit of uncertainty in road closures, blockades, traffic, accomodation, and even petrol around Lismore, we decided it was best to station ourselves in Coff's Harbour, a buzzling town 5hours north of Sydney, then take the 2-hour drive to Lismore on the day of the cleanup.
Saturday, 12 March
After helping out with the setup of worship services at church, we quickly got ourselves ready and left Sydney towards Coffs Harbour. We reach the town at around 5pm, which gave us a bit of time to do some groceries for our next 2 days. At around 6pm, we were checked in at IBIS Budget in Coffs and got ourselves ready of worship services online. After performing our duties, we went out for take out from a nearby Thai restaurant.
Sunday, 13 March
We left the hotel at 6am onwards our 2.5hour journey to Lismore. About 30mins before reaching our destination, we went past the town of Woodburn. It was very sad to see the state of the town. Literally every house had all their stuff reduced to nothing but a pile of debris waiting outside their homes, waiting for the garbage trucks to pick them up. Beds, Mattresses, blankets, cabinets, tables, TVs, washing machines, dryers, lounges, picture frames, everything. Everything was going to waste. In every house. It was really terrible.
And upon entering Lismore, we see the exact same thing - except this time it's not just the residential houses. Even businesses lost everything. There was a fitness gym that had dozens of treadmills and other machines lined up on the kerb waiting for garbage trucks. Bakeries with all their oven ready to be thrown out.
We headed to our homebase for the day, the premises of Scouts of Lismore. There were maybe 100 of us from the church gathered there to help, and some bringing boxes of stuff to donate as well.
Our family joined the group that cleaned the premise, while others spread out to other establishments including the Civic hotel. Ethan and Erin helped clean tables, toys, picnic tools.
After a full day's work, drenched both in rain and water from pressure hoses, we packed up and headed back to Coffs.
We arrived just before 5pm after passing up drive through Hungry Jacks. The kids were to tired to do anything else so we all agreed to just stay in the room and rest.
Monday, 14 March
With the day free for ourselves, we decided to go to Big Banana and enjoy ourselves on the giant slide, the water play area, 4D theatre, and a round of mini golf. However, the weather wasn't clearing up, so at around 2pm, we decided to head back home to Sydney.
It was a tiring yet very fulfilling experience, knowing that in a small way you have helped others in need.
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