"There was a wonderful and immediate response from Australians to help those affected by the devastating floods," said CTA CEO and the program's Producer/Director, Martin Johnson. "What we wanted to do in this program is look at the on-going support after the event given by Scripture Union Queensland (SUQLD), a non-profit youth and children's organisation, through their school chaplains," he said.
Program host Karl Faase travelled to Ipswich, Toowoomba and towns in the Lockyer Valley such as Grantham, Helidon and Hatton Vale. "We start in Toowoomba with David Jutsum whose footage of the flooding in Easts Creek, just outside his office window, was seen around the world. After uploading it to Youtube, so his friends in Brisbane could see what was happening, it went 'viral' and it has had almost seven million 'hits' on Youtube," Karl said.
"What David didn't know at the time was that in his role as South East Queensland regional manager for SU QLD, he would be heavily involved with his team of 75 chaplains in providing support to schools and the community as they dealt with the flood aftermath," he said.
The program looks at four chaplains in particular, Nyree Mannion at Grantham, Brad Lerch and Barry Hatton in the Lockyer Valley and Lisa Demedio at Jamboree Heights.
"Each of the chaplains work with their school principal and other school support staff to provide on-going pastoral care to students in need," said Karl. "After the floods, the chaplains discovered that some students were having difficulty coming to terms with what had happened. In some cases students had not only lost their home and all their belongings, they had also lost family members," Karl said.
The Mayor of Ipswich Paul Pisasale, who is interviewed in the program, is very supportive of the work of school chaplains. He recognises that as mayor, he can only do so much. "It's that spiritual guidance, of dealing with the emotions that I can't do but the chaplains can," said Mayor Pisasale. "In the school [the chaplains] have been able to engage with the young kids, get them to talk and that tells me they're being looked after emotionally," he added.
Hope in the Summer of Sorrow was produced by Olive Tree Media with support from SU QLD for Christian Television Australia.
The program also offers viewers a free copy of Nicky Gumbel's book 'Why Easter?' and will air at midday on Good Friday (April 22nd) on the Seven Network and at 3.30pm, Saturday (23rd) on the Australian Christian Channel.
A radio version of the program will also be available for use free of charge by Christian radio networks. This will be available from Friday, April 15th, 2011 at www.christiantelevision.org.au/radio