One of the greatest resources we have available to us is the Book of Psalms. Psalms touch every kind of human emotion bringing comfort, peace, strength, healing and courage.

The best known is the remarkably powerful Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd… He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul. Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” Other Psalms that bring special strength in these times include Psalms 34 and 91.

The season of Easter brings great hope to all people. Jesus so identified with us, with our deepest needs, that he was fully acquainted with our grief, he bore our sorrows, our anxieties and our sins “and by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53).

The great hope of Easter is Christ’s resurrection. Increasingly putting our trust in Jesus, asking forgiveness for our sins, removes all fear, especially the fear of death.

Experiencing God’s love frees us from all anxiety so that we are released to help others in times of crisis. Reach out to others while diligently keeping social distancing and hygiene rules. Show acts of kindness, especially to the needy and those in the high risk group. Ring people, use old fashioned letter and card writing.

If you are unwell or have a prayer need, please contact your minister or any one of your church leaders. Please stay in touch. For those with internet access, please check your church’s webpage or Facebook page.

Please pray for all on the frontline, especially those in authority, our police, emergency services, media, school and daycare staff and our very precious medical workers. Pray the Covid-19 curve will flatten quickly.

CMOC-Northparkes Mines this week introduced measures to ensure the health and safety of employees, contractors, their families and the local community.

“We have taken a proactive approach and implemented precautionary and preventative measures where possible,” said Northparkes Managing Director Hubert Lehman. “These measures include, but are not limited to, screening of temperatures for all workers on entry to site, reiterating the importance of respiratory and hand hygiene, restricting site access to all non-essential visitors, cancelling all business travel and as of this week, we have now transitioned all non-operational employees to work from home to reduce unnecessary human to human contact.”

“Whilst there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 within our workplace, we will continue to put measures in place to respond to the increased risks. COVID-19 is a global situation that is moving fast, and we are and will continue to do everything we can to prevent the spread in our local community.”

From an operational perspective, Northparkes continues to operate in line with production plans for 2020.

“The NSW Minerals Council is working tirelessly with their members, governments, regulators and other industry associations to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on the mining sector. We want to ensure we are able to continue contributing to the local economy during this pandemic, this includes providing job opportunities for our local community members,” Hubert said.

Our beloved sales executive Sylvie Everingham-Potts is very creative when it comes to changing the game plan. Over the past year she has managed to keep the advertising sales of The Parkes Phoenix afloat in an environment that has become more challenging by the day as the drought intensified, the summer’s horrific bushfires scorched the country and lately the Coronavirus rewrote the rules for all of us. This week we farewelled her for her biggest challenge yet: motherhood! We wish you everything that is amazing and beautiful for the next chapter in your life. You could not have imagined a more dramatic start for this story, but we know you will play it calm and collected as you always do!

A Country Fair has to have a fresh produce stall. Annette Orr and Pat Cooke were happy to look after the popular stall.

It was a perfect autumn day and Middleton Public School celebrated a few days of soaking rain with a very successful Country Fair earlier this month.

Plenty of stalls offered a range of activities, while the food stalls included real coffee, pulled pork burgers, sausage sizzle, popcorn and an amazing cake stall that sold out very quickly.

One of the busiest stalls was the school’s very own produce stall. Parents, carers and grandparents donated all kinds of fresh produce and plants, as well as handmade goodies.

The kids had lots of fun with the games including Ring Toss, Knock the Blocks and Bat the Rat. The NRL footy throwing competition proved very popular, as well as a ninja course competition. The students loved throwing wet sponges at their teachers, especially when they were successful in hitting their target.

The Country Fair raffle had ten outstanding prizes, all of which were drawn on the day.

Sam Hunt and Armani Reidy won the best dressed cowboy and cowgirl competition receiving winning ribbons and a gift voucher each.

The Middleton community would like to thank everyone for their generous support, especially the generous donations from local and out of town businesses.

It was wonderful to see the so many families having fun.

By Judy Fisher