“I like the isolation, but I also am a social person,” shares 76-year-old Alison Gray. “I have the radio on most of the time – on my phone. I just have it in the background, and it helps, it encourages me – lifts my spirits up.”
In this episode of Helping Hands, we join Alison on her property in outback Queensland to see how Vision Radio provides authentic and meaningful connection for those who keep our country running in some of the most isolated places.
Alison is a self-confessed Grazi-Her. She lives on 7,000 acres of rugged, mountainous country one and a quarter hours by car inland from Bundaberg. She approaches the daily responsibilities of her rural Queensland life with the easy-going nature typical of anyone who calls the Aussie outback home.
“I look after the cattle, horses and property while my husband works away. I’ve been here twenty-six, going on twenty-seven years,” shares Alison.
Alison’s early morning starts are made easier with the company of Fel and Andy, the hosts of the breakfast radio show, Rise & Shine.
Whether Alison is on a horse mustering cattle, breaking in a young fille, training one of her thirteen kelpies, or taking a break with a well-deserved cuppa, Vision is a trusted companion, a source of entertainment, and a spiritual inspiration.
Vision’s heart is to bring hope and encouragement to people like Alison across Australia, and does this through the content it produces on radio, in print, online and through the Vision app.
Broadcasting to more than seven hundred locations around Australia, Vision is a lifeline connecting people in rural and remote areas who may not be able to experience community or companionship in the ways most Australians can.
For Alison, her husband, John, participating in hobby groups, church services and other community gatherings is difficult. Vision helps to fill this void by providing reliable and consistent connection all year round.
“I like 20Twenty because it’s informative and entertaining at times and they have really interesting guests … It also has the “The WORD for TODAY” – one of Vision’s publications … One day you might read something and say, ‘Wow, that’s just what we’ve been going through.’ It’s amazing and it encourages us.”
To call rural Australia home often means trying to carry on through exceptionally tough times. For Alison, it's these times during which Vision's existence becomes even more essential to daily survival.
“We do experience times when we feel really down and depressed and think, Oh, this is terrible, what are we going to do?” Alison admits. “As soon as I’m locking into Vision radio or Vision Worship … I’m part of a bigger community ... they really do treat us like family.”
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