By Ivan Badcock
I grew up in a Methodist family and was baptised at the Bracknell Methodist Church in 1943, travelling there by horse and jinker.
Sunday School was attended from the age of five at the Little Hampton Methodist Church, about 1.5 miles from the family farm.
In the early years we reached Sunday School on dad’s bicycle, with my sister Yvonne standing on the bar and clutching Dad around his neck, and me sitting on a bag at the handlebars.
At its peak about 20 students attended, with Biblical stories given, text verses handed out to be memorised, hymns sung and prayers spoken.
The aim was to learn the best values for living life.
After finishing Sunday School, church life continued via attendance and involvement with youth groups, mostly at Longford and Bracknell.
Activities included games nights, car rallies and church camps at Turners Beach, near Ulverstone, and also at the Methodist Ladies College campus in Launceston.
The camps were organised by Methodist Youth Fellowship, with people attending from throughout Tasmania.
Ministers were in attendance and led Bible studies and fellowship times.
I commenced as a local preacher in 1965 and continued until 2020.
My official recognition was given on November 16, 1966 and recorded in the Bible presented to me by members of the Westbury Bracknell Methodist Circuit.
For a number of years I conducted 25 to 30 services a year, with the maximum being 35.
During that time I attended over 60 Methodist/Uniting churches, three Baptist, and five aged-care facilities.
Most services were in the north of Tasmania, stretching from Beauty Point at the entrance of the Tamar River, to Ross in the Midlands, and from Scottsdale in the northeast, to Somerset in the northwest.
On one occasion I conducted four services on the one Sunday, at Perth and Cressy in the morning, Campbell Town in the afternoon and Hagley in the evening.
Many of those 60-plus congregations have now closed but are remembered as being vibrant, faithful, dedicated and hard working.
Several services are still well remembered, including one at the Karingal Home for the Aged at Devonport.
At the service was 100-year-old Julia Kelly, who made a request for a large print Bible.
The request was carried back to the Latrobe Sunday School, which organised a fund-raising sock dance which was sufficient to purchase a Bible.
Once a year for about 10 years I would travel by air to Flinders Island to conduct worship.
Services at the large and historic Ross Church were, at times, interesting.
With the church advertised as a tourist attraction, people would wander in while a service was under way, with some just looking around while a few sat and listened for a time.
To preach the word of God has been a privilege and it has been a joy to join in worship with fellow sisters and brothers in Christ.
From 2001 to 2008, I worked as an administrator for the Launceston Benevolent Society.
It is the oldest of its kind in Australia, established in September 1834 to provide assistance to the destitute and poor in Launceston and other parts of Tasmania.
Assistance then, and still today, is to provide food and other life necessities.
In my last year, I conducted 3396 interviews, assisting 8109 people, which was a small increase on the 2007 year.
The people attending were a mixed group, some old and some young, and some with significant health problems, including mental health issues.
Drugs, alcohol, gambling, high rents and increasing food and medication costs were contributing factors.
Prisoners on release were among those attending, their payment being one week’s pension payment, which was not enough to get them re-established.
Besides conducting interviews I also had to attend to record keeping, government funding applications and reports, including financial matters, while I also gave talks to community groups on the work of the organisation.
Over the years the society has provided support during the city’s most testing times, such as in the depths of the Great Depression in 1931, when it issued 3911 coupons, representing 6750 rations to feed 5326 people.