Salvos the heartbeat of the Bega Valley
Salvos the heartbeat of the Bega Valley
12 December 2022
Captain Deb Parsons with some of the many toys and games donated to the Salvation Army.
It has been a challenging few years in the beautiful Bega Valley on the NSW Sapphire Coast – an area popular with tourists and home to dairy farmers, oyster farmers, fishers, those living ‘off-grid’, surfers, business owners, young families, retirees and more.
Captains Deb and Rod Parsons are the Corps Officers at Bega, and over the past six years they have forged close connections with the community through the adversity of drought, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic, but also through their vibrant Christmas Cheer season.
“We actually felt when we were appointed, we were appointed to the whole Bega Valley, not just our local Salvos church and centre. That is some 34,000 people. We really believe that they’re all our community, and they’re the people we minister to,” Rod says.
Captains Rod and Deb Parsons have had quite an eventful few years as Bega Corps Officers.
After several years of debilitating drought, the Black Summer fires hit the valley with a vengeance just after Christmas 2019, forcing locals to shelter on beaches, destroying the main street of the nearby town of Cobargo, claiming lives, stock, native animals and outbuildings and destroying more than 450 homes.
The Parsons were at the helm of the Salvos’ response and recovery and worked with more than 100 other local service agencies to support the Bega Valley community.
Then COVID arrived, with all its restrictions, and the tourism industry took another hit.
Rod says, “Lack of housing and general homelessness is (now) an enormous issue here, and rental prices and demand is through the roof. As soon as houses come on the market, people buy them sight unseen from the cities as a by-product of the COVID pandemic.
“I also act as a local juvenile supervisor, so when kids get arrested, I go and sit with them through the arrest process. A lot of those kids have to be taken to a juvenile detention centre because, sadly, they’re homeless.”
Busy festive season
Last Christmas, Bega Corps experienced its greatest demand ever for support. However, Rod says the season was also one of the best because community support was very strong.
“We had to order extra Christmas hampers last year to cover the demand, and we ended up giving out around 240 food hampers – [that covered about 230 families] and toy hampers for 364 children,” Rod says. “But it was also one of the most exciting and happy Christmases we’d had because we had so many people come on board, donating food and gifts and wanting to volunteer. So many people wanted to help their community, using the Salvos as an avenue to do that. That was very special.”
The Bega Corps Christmas Cheer team setting up their ‘pop-up shop’ last year.
That Christmas support also includes an annual Christmas Eve carols family event on the lawn of Bega Corps.
For Rod, pastoral care is the most important aspect of the Christmas season, and he says the Christian faith is integral to that depth of care.
He says: “So often everyone focuses on the action – such as toys and gifts – but what’s driving us is serving Jesus our Lord in our community. That’s the motivation behind what we do as The Salvation Army.
“I come from a reasonably privileged background, even though we weren’t a rich family. Christmas, for me, was always family time. I could never have imagined being more excited than I was at Christmas as a kid. But since coming to know the Lord and becoming a minister for Jesus in the Salvos, the joy I now feel far outweighs any of that. It’s a spiritual joy far more exciting and far deeper than I could ever have imagined as a youngster.”
Making Christmas special
Deb says there are many beautiful moments each year stemming from Christmas. “We have what looks like a ‘pop-up shop’ at Christmas, so we have all our toys set up in our hall, and we roster people to come in and do their ‘shopping’ – which, of course, is all free,” she says.
“We have a helper for each person and have no more than two people at a time in the space, so it is quiet. “We had a lady come in before Christmas who was struggling and had never come to us before. She went in the door, looked at the room full of toys, and just burst into tears. She said, ‘I can’t believe I can go shopping.’ And then we explained everything about how it works and how many toys she could get, and she burst into tears again. She came out with a big bag of toys, and she broke down again and said, ‘No one has ever, ever done this for me.’
“When you’re struggling, and you haven’t had any high points, then we want to make Christmas at least one high point. Many people see God as far away, looking out over the whole universe, but when you see Jesus at work through members of your community, and you have received love and gifts you weren’t expecting, it brings God closer. As we get together with the community and all look after each other as a family. I truly believe God is at the very heart of that.
“And, really, that is the heart of the Christmas story – God coming close.”
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