Ram Sale

One of the things that I really love about being a pastor is being able to have the opportunity to share in people’s lives and also the life of the community. And here in the country it seems community is a big thing. 

Last week I went with one of the local farmers from church to a ram sale at a local stud. I’ve never been to a ram sale before and so I didn’t know what to expect. For those of you who have never been to one either let me quickly explain what they are. 

Ram sales are held by people that breed rams. These rams are then bought in an auction by farmers who take them back to their own farm who in turn use them to, as I think is the technical term, “service their ewes” as part of their breeding program. 

The ram sale is held in a big shearing shed. At this sale there were 176 rams up for auction. Each Ram has it’s own pen, and all the pens are arranged in rows 15 pens long. Now if you are a farmer interested in buying a ram you arrive maybe 2 hours before the auction starts to peruse the auction items.  Judging which rams to buy by their size, their wool. In fact (and I am saying this not to be rude but merely from a technical point of view) even the size of the ram’s testicles gets a look in; the bigger they are the more “ewes they can service”. 

Then at the set time the auction starts. Hat’s off to the Auctioneer, he auction/speed talked his whole way through all 176 rams in what seemed a matter of minutes (in reality it was a few hours) without a break. I bet his throat was sore by the end of it though. Anyway all sold and from what I heard it was a great sale for both the buyers and sellers.

It was a win for me as well, did I mention that there was free gourmet food on offer. The ram sellers put on morning tea, afternoon tea, and lunch. And despite the large turnout no one went hungry. For lunch we had a roast lamb that was to die for along with homemade lamb pies. For both morning tea and afternoon tea there was cakes and slice also to die for.

Not bad for a days work.

Church Breakfast, more than a novel idea.

During the month of September Wagin Baptist has been having breakfast together. Breakfasts would start at 9am followed by the church service at 10:30am each Sunday morning. These breakfasts were put on by the leadership of the Church for everyone who came to church on a Sunday morning. 

Each week the turnout was great with practically everyone who was coming to church coming to the breakfasts as well. 

The Church made good use of the new BBQ over the month cooking sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Also to go with our cooked breakfasts we had toast, cereal, fruit salad, a lovely muesli mix, and breakfast muffins. 

The Church really enjoyed the breakfasts and there has even been the suggestion of making it more regular or at least a seasonal tradition. One of the great positives of these breakfasts has been the fellowship that has been enjoyed each Sunday. 

So often we rock up to church just before it starts, take our place in the pew, not really talking to anyone. And when the service starts we all sit not interacting, singing and listening in our own little box. And then when the service finishes we either quickly drink our cuppa and eat our biscuit or rush off and get church business sorted for the next week. 

What these breakfasts before the service have achieved is incredible. You can feel the real community spirit at these breakfasts and then that also overflows into the church service. I was leading the the first Sunday, and besides the fact that no one was late, the singing almost blew the roof off. Everyone was singing with one voice. 

It seems that church is more than a rock up, sit, listen, go home event. These breakfasts confirm the fact that Church is a community of people that live like a community, in community with each other and with our King Jesus. I think Jesus may have been onto something when he described the end of time as a feast. I think being a part of these breakfast here in Wagin has helped me better understand that grand feast that we will all sit down to when our Lord returns.

Mr Chef with the new bbq

Thanking God for the food

It's almost ready

Ok now time to line up and enjoy

Cereal anyone?

I forgot to mention we also had a communion feast as well

A great time to enjoy good food and great company