,

Still spreading the same gospel message

When people filled Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide to listen to the launch of The Lutheran Hour radio program in Australia on 2 September 1945, they could not have known what that event would set in motion.

That broadcast effectively was the birth of an enduring and life-changing outreach ministry, which today, 80 years on, we know (and love) as Lutheran Media.

Of course, it was a very different time. World War II had barely ended in the Pacific, with considerable rationing still in place. A fair percentage of households owned a ‘wireless’ for news and entertainment, but television was still more than a decade away in this part of the world.

None of the people listening to Dr Walter Maier’s message from those stately wooden pews – nor anyone tuning into 36 stations in capital cities and rural centres around the nation – could have known what forms gospel outreach through media would take in 2025.

Lutheran Media is now far more than a radio ministry. While radio spots (played across more than 1200 frequencies) still have a vital role in sharing messages of life and hope in Christ, there are also videos, podcasts and social media posts, as well as booklets and other resources, both for children and adults.

Today, Lutheran Media reaches millions of people through its flagship Messages of hope ministry across this wide array of platforms.

We thank God for his gift of 80 years of Lutheran Media. Truly, the greatest blessing of this gospel outreach is that while the media and ministry names may have changed over eight decades, the life-giving message they share has not.

– Lisa McIntosh

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

LCANZ Church House move nears

The refurbishment of the new LCANZ Church House in Adelaide’s CBD is progressing steadily, with the project now in the final stages of building services replacement and interior fit-out. Staff are expected to move into the new premises at 139 Frome Street by no later than November.

The five-storey building will also include space available for use by other Lutheran entities, which the LCA’s Executive Director of Church Operations, Brett Hausler, said ‘reinforces Church House’s role as a shared resource for the wider church community’.

He also welcomed the progress in relocating the Churchwide Office and Australian Lutheran College (ALC) after the sale of the ALC campus and LCANZ Churchwide Office (CWO) buildings last year.

‘This milestone marks a significant step forward in delivering a modern and purpose-built facility for the LCA,’ he said.

Church House’s key operational areas – levels 2 and 3 – are designated for staff from the CWO, ALC, Lutheran Media, LCA International Mission, Australian Lutheran World Service, Lutheran Education Australia and Finke River Mission, and will include workspace for visitors.

Designed for collaboration and flexibility, level 3 will feature versatile spaces including a boardroom, workshop areas and multiple meeting rooms. At the heart of this level is the staff hub, a multipurpose area designed to support both day-to-day operations and informal staff engagement.

‘A standout feature of this level is the use of operable walls, allowing the space to be reconfigured for a variety of events and functions,’ Brett said. ‘This flexibility enables multiple room combinations, making it ideal for workshops, training sessions and collaborative gatherings. Importantly, this space will also be available for use by other Lutheran entities on a booking basis.’

The ground floor will house the CWO reception and a new events and exhibition space, which will serve as a flexible venue for educational displays showcasing Lutheran heritage and future directions.

‘Designed to support both the wider church and community outreach initiatives, this exciting addition will foster engagement, learning and connection,’ Brett said. ‘This area is designed to welcome both internal and external visitors, supporting community engagement and outreach.’

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

Answering the call: ‘Lord, what should I do?’

by Helen Brinkman

Learning to see God’s messages in the simple, everyday things of life has enabled 81-year-old Bernie Dewar to share God’s love on the airwaves.

Through a weekly radio program produced by her local St Peter’s Elizabeth Lutheran congregation and broadcast on a northern Adelaide community radio station, Bernie writes, presents and shares short devotional messages that connect everyday life matters with God’s word.

Bernie honed her skill of devotion-writing during her 23 years as a school assistant at St Paul Lutheran School at Blair Athol in suburban Adelaide, where staff took turns to write devotions for a weekly newsletter.

‘God enabled me to see messages from him in the simple everyday things of life,’ Bernie says.

A contributor to St Peter’s past monthly newsletters, Bernie was approached by Geoff Burls – a veteran of the congregation’s 40-year community radio program and Lutheran Media supporter – about using her devotional material on the church’s radio show. Bernie countered with a much more generous offer of writing and presenting several new three-to-six-minute devotional segments per year as time permitted. Her first segments were first broadcast in November 2009, and they’re still going in 2025!

This has been the latest of many activities Bernie has put her hand to throughout her adventurous life. It’s an approach to living forged from a lifelong love of learning and teaching.

‘My confirmation text was Paul’s words on the road to Damascus: “Lord, what will you have me to do?” And it was obviously teaching,’ Bernie says.

At 16, she passed her Leaving Certificate at Clare High School in SA’s Mid North. She had planned to attend Adelaide Teachers College, but first spent a year as a classroom assistant at Hermannsburg (Ntaria) Lutheran mission, approximately 120 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

‘I loved it! I loved and was loved in return by the Aboriginal people,’ she says. ‘I got to play the old pedal organ for church, supervised the School of the Air kids, worked in the store and, of course, at the school. The next year I did come back to Adelaide, went to teachers’ college, and then my life really began!’

Bernie began her teaching career schooling children of English migrants at Smithfield, in Adelaide’s north, followed by roles at a school at Quorn in the Flinders Ranges, and at the Koonibba Mission near Ceduna in South Australia’s west in 1964.

From there, she went to Papua New Guinea (PNG) to teach at Menyamya, a school accessible only by plane from the eastern port city of Lae. Local people mostly still wore grass skirts and capes of beaten bark to ward off the cold.

Bernie’s first class in PNG consisted of 46 students, including little ones, teenagers and young men and four girls, and by the second week she was asked to take chapel in Pidgin English.

‘It’s amazing what God and the help of a good Pidgin dictionary could do,’ she says.

‘It was at Menyamya that I met my husband-to-be Tony,’ recalls Bernie. ‘On my second day there, a red Suzuki twin motorbike roared up the hill to the mission, off hopped a skinny little bloke – who’d been ill with some unknown tropical disease and weighed 6 stone 12 oz when I met him – and his first words were, “You’re the girl I’m going to marry!”. Says I, arms folded in typical teacher pose, “Well, I don’t think so!!”.’

Her attitude changed several months later after Tony, who ran an outstation hospital with indigenous staff, nursed Bernie back to health after she suffered pneumonia. ‘That was when I discovered he was a truly loving, caring, funny Christian man,’ says Bernie of her late husband.

The pair were married in Clare two years later in February 1967, before returning to PNG for working stints in the capital Port Moresby, Kainantu in the Eastern Highlands, and Madang on the north coast, where they survived experiencing an 8.3-magnitude earthquake.

Their son Steven was born in 1971, and as he approached school age, they were advised to leave. The family departed for Adelaide just after PNG celebrated its independence in September 1975, settling back in Adelaide’s north and joining St Peter’s Lutheran Church.

It was there Bernie regained her piano skills – ‘having a go’ – playing for Sunday evening services. She’s now the congregation’s only pianist, but stresses, ‘I’m not gifted, but an ordinary pianist totally guided by God.’

It’s that guidance from God, affirmed in her confirmation text, that she reflects in her busy life, which is filled with her love of hospitality, a lifelong love of gardening, and her leadership of weekly Bible studies.

And it’s God’s messages of love, revealed in our everyday lives, that Bernie continues to share with the community across Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

Learning to make a difference

by Celia Fielke

ALWS has a rich history of working in partnership with Lutheran schools, a collaboration evolving from the close connection that has always existed between our church and its schools.

The work of ALWS, grounded in the same Christian beliefs and values which underpin Lutheran Education Australia, means that together we can help grow relational and adventurous students who have hearts of compassion and purpose.

In an increasingly inward-looking world, it is more vital than ever for our church to give our young people authentic opportunities to develop empathy and understanding, especially toward those whom the world has forgotten, marginalised or ignored. We encourage our young people to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, serving and meeting the needs of communities, both locally and globally.

ALWS seeks to inspire and equip more than 44,000 students and their families by providing resources, presentations, activities and fundraising events to support schools to bring love to life through action.

This work is not done in isolation. ALWS values all our partnerships and collaborations, aiming to build a greater sense of shared ministry. This is not only with schools, but also with many churchwide and educational organisations that enable us to serve.

ALWS seeks to support the work of our amazing Lutheran school staff by running professional development workshops and providing resources. Examples of this are the Ambassador Bootcamps (ABCs), which are designed to empower staff to inspire their students, and training in some of our curriculum unit offerings.

Felicity Hampel, Lutheran school teacher and ALWS ABC participant, says the bootcamp was ‘like an answer to a prayer I didn’t know I was asking’. She says: ‘I have been seeking the next step in my teaching journey, and when I attended the ALWS bootcamp and reflected on it, it’s like two worlds collided … my love for teaching and developing empathy in my students + service learning/serving God = my calling and vocation in life.’

Working more closely in partnership with schools has been an important focus in recent times for ALWS. Having a deeper understanding of ALWS, as well as empowering advocacy and action, means students feel they can make a difference. Fostering a sense of service to others with no expectation of reciprocity is an important learning. When students hear stories and develop empathy, they are inspired to act.

One of the most effective events that schools have embraced is Walk My Way. Schools can adapt this to their context, timing and community. The creativity and excitement this can generate for schools has been inspirational. When schools take this initiative, it allows ALWS to engage with not only the students but also their families and the broader Lutheran community. These are opportunities to highlight how the parts of the church body are working together to bring love to life.

Immanuel Lutheran Primary School at Gawler in South Australia partners closely with ALWS, with staff members seeing opportunities to nurture compassion in students and develop empathy, through presentations offered by ALWS, connected curriculum units and fundraising opportunities to support the world’s most vulnerable.

In 2024, the school supported a Burundi farm partnership costing $5,200 and a school kitchen garden ($756). The school has run a successful kitchen garden program as an integral part of the curriculum for many years. Students connected with farmers’ experiences, as they understand the challenges of growing food and preparing it for eating or selling. This allowed students to more easily imagine how difficult these activities would be without the necessary equipment, training, appliances or favourable weather. Connecting their experiences with a family in Burundi, who relies on these activities for their survival, became a real empathy driver for students to want to take action.

Some students became so motivated that they organised pop-up markets. Their fundraising activities culminated in a 13-kilometre Walk My Way event. Also supported by the local church community, the school raised approximately $14,000.

Immanuel Lutheran School Principal Daryl Trigg says connecting with ALWS over this time gave the community a focus. ‘Learning went much deeper, and service was more authentic as time was given to develop connections and understanding,’ he says.

This year, Immanuel was part of the Barossa and Regions Lutheran Education (BARLE) schools. About 360 Year 5/6 students from six Lutheran primary schools, plus some Year 8s from Faith Lutheran College Tanunda, came together for an event to support the ALWS 75th anniversary goal to give 75,000 children what they need for a healthy life. After shared worship, this event involved students participating in a loop walk, as well as interacting with peers to tackle a series of group challenges, based around life’s essentials. They built a shelter, fed farm animals, planted seeds, collected water, collected items needed for health and hygiene and made a soccer ball. These tasks gave a glimpse into some of the challenges faced when impacted by poverty. ALWS provided support through student workshops, teaching and learning materials and staff development.

Year 5/6 students from St John’s Lutheran School at Jindera in New South Wales completed the ALWS ‘What’s my Business?’ curriculum unit that empowers students to put their faith into action while growing empathy and social justice awareness.

Students explored how charitable giving can build more resilient communities and create lasting change. They then became young entrepreneurs, using a $25 loan from the school to develop a small business idea (e.g. scrunchies, handmade cards, toy cars and keyrings). The unit finished with a Christmas market day, at which students sold their products to the wider school community. More than $1300 was raised, and funds were used to buy ALWS Gifts of Grace.

Principal Anna-Marie Bothe and teachers Gabrielle Cotter and Dominic Boddy say the unit was ‘very impactful’, and that it brought the school community together and ‘grew compassion in our students’.

Celia Fielke is a Schools Community Engagement Officer for ALWS.

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

ALC leaves campus, new library opens

Australian Lutheran College’s (ALC) library has reopened at its new Adelaide CBD premises at 22 Pulteney Street.

The relocation of the huge ALC collection is a result of the sale of the North Adelaide ALC campus and LCANZ Churchwide Office (CWO) buildings.

College and CWO staff will relocate to the new Church House at 139 Frome Street, Adelaide, this year. However, the Frome Street building, like most in the Adelaide CBD, is not constructed to carry the weight of large library collections, which necessitated finding an alternative site for the library.

Moving the library to the new premises began in May and was completed by the end of June. The new site, located above Target on the corner of Pulteney and Rundle streets, opened to visitors on 1 July. Information on how to find the library, opening times, public transport and parking options for visitors is available from the ALC website and at https://alc.edu.au/assets/library/ALC-library-flyer.pdf

Sadly, ALC’s Director of Library Services over the past 10 years, Shaun Lancaster, did not have the chance to be part of the reopening, as he died suddenly on 24 June.

Meanwhile, following months of planning and preparation, ALC staff have completed their move off of the North Adelaide campus, handing the property encompassing Hebart Hall, Graebner Hall, Hamann Hall and the Lohe Memorial Library back to the LCANZ on 30 June, in preparation for its change to new private ownership on 1 July.

After a century of Lutheran theological education at the North Adelaide site, ALC staff ramped up the clearing out of campus offices and rooms in May. Surplus items were collected and taken away for repurposing, with many church groups benefitting from ALC’s need to downsize.

A small group of current and former ALC staff gathered on the ‘Sacred Lawn’ at the North Adelaide campus, on 26 June, for a final time of reflection and a brief service of thanksgiving for the years at the site, led by ALC Principal, Rev Dr Tim Stringer.

ALC staff will work remotely until the fit-out of Church House is complete, with the new library being used as a temporary ‘home base’ to supplement working-from-home arrangements.

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

Weaving compassion into beautiful gifts

by Helen Brinkman

The community of the Albury and Wodonga ‘twin’ cities area, which straddles Australia’s Murray River and the New South Wales-Victoria border, has a history of being big-hearted.

Albury is today home to Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS), while the settlement of Bonegilla, fewer than 15 kilometres from Wodonga, was the birthplace of the LCANZ overseas aid agency. So, with humanitarian service seemingly woven into residents’ DNA, it’s no surprise that the region boasts a special team of people with nimble fingers, willing hands and hearts for helping others.

The members of the craft group of St Luke’s Lutheran Church, Albury, are quietly supporting the work of ALWS by sharing their sewing skills to create beautiful tote bags from bright Kenyan fabrics. These unique creations are gifted to ALWS ambassadors as part of the organisation’s Ambassador Boot Camp (ABC) training workshops for Lutheran school teachers, says ALWS Community Engagement Officer Celia Fielke.

‘The ABC is where we equip our teachers with a deep understanding of ALWS, humanitarian aid and service learning in schools,’ she says. ‘We seek to inspire them to be the drivers in their school communities to create awareness and encourage their students to have an impact in the world.

‘The bags are a reminder for the ABC participants – with their beautiful, authentic African colours and material – of the importance of understanding, compassion and action. We are all unique creations of God, and we all deserve opportunity, dignity and love.’

Craft group member Leigh Caldwell was excited to join fellow members in delivering their first batch of 59 bags to the local ALWS headquarters in May. ‘We think they look marvellous, even if we do say so ourselves! That glorious fabric sews up beautifully,’ she says.

Age is no barrier for the craft group, which ranges from 65 years old to the mid-90s, and varies between eight and 12 members each session, depending on the day.

‘We love meeting with each other and sharing our lives,’ says Leigh. ‘It is such a great little community. We enjoy doing our own crafts, and we love working together on projects like the ALWS bags and birthing kits for [women in] Papua New Guinea.’

Another member, Christine Nicholson, says being involved in the project has given her such a sense of achievement to know it will benefit others here and overseas. ‘It is also important in our society to have connections with others,’ she says. ‘People can feel isolated these days. Helping others definitely feels wonderful. Having a coffee, a chat and working together for a common cause is so uplifting.’

Fellow volunteer Patricia O’Brien agrees. She was delighted to join the craft group’s latest project. ‘I am a sewer and have been all my life, so it was a pleasure to help out ALWS and get to know fellow sewers over a cup of tea,’ she says.

And teamwork makes the dream work, according to Sandra Parry, who says the group collaborated on all aspects of the project. ‘To work as a team was very rewarding and satisfying,’ she says. ‘We had a “conveyor belt” system that worked so well! It’s a joy to be part of such a wonderful group of ladies.’

Group member Olive Severin shared her joy at being involved with such an enthusiastic group of women who share many craft skills and love to help others. ‘There is such a sense of achievement to complete a project like the bags, and sharing the chat, the laughter and the many cuppas and food during the journey,’ she says.

St Luke’s craft group has been going for more than 20 years, starting in the early 2000s with making aprons for the annual church fete and cushions for the church pews. The ALWS team asked the local group to sew the tote bags after COVID stopped an Adelaide sewing group from helping out.

Longstanding member Dorothy Dunkerton, also a pastoral carer at St Luke’s, recalls the days when the group first came together to support each other, learn new skills, and share company over coffee, cake and shared recipes. ‘We choose what we want to achieve for ourselves, knitting, crochet, card-making, beading, and joining in group projects,’ says octogenarian Dorothy.

‘We give crocheted and knitted knee rugs to our members who are experiencing difficulties or going into care. We love our coming together to socialise, to share our love for each other, to help solve our problems, and laugh together. I wouldn’t miss it.’

The colourful bags have also been used as thankyous to people who support ALWS and are sometimes gifted to Lutheran World Federation teams overseas.

And, as St Luke’s congregation heads toward its centenary next year, its craft group continues to reflect the legacy of love, compassion and action in its community. And they are also looking forward to another ALWS sewing project next year.

– with thanks to ALWS Supporter Care Officer Amanda Lustig

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

What a great way to farewell an ‘old friend’!

While every Walk My Way event is a special chance to show practical support through Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) for children whose lives are impacted by war and poverty, there was another reason this year’s Adelaide event was extra special.

The 3 May event doubled as the public farewell to the North Adelaide site of Australian Lutheran College (ALC), which will relocate to the LCANZ’s new Church House in the Adelaide CBD this year, along with the Churchwide Office.

The site has been home to Lutheran theological education since 1923, when Immanuel College and Immanuel Seminary began operating on the property bounded by Jeffcott and Ward streets, North Adelaide. In subsequent iterations, it has been known as Luther Seminary, Luther Campus (also incorporating Lutheran Teachers College and the Lutheran School of Theology) and, since 2004, ALC.

Along with two walks, a giant ALC garage sale, Lutheran ministry stalls and the launch of Dr Brian Neldner’s memoirs detailing the founding of ALWS, the Adelaide Walk My Way event included tours of the heritage-listed Hebart House, which dates back to the early 1880s and has housed seminary student accommodation and living facilities, lecture theatres, chapel spaces and faculty offices over the past century.

ALC Principal Dr Tim Stringer says it was a fitting way for the Lutheran community to say ‘goodbye’ to a site that has an important place in the history of the church. ‘This event not only supported the work of ALWS but provided an opportunity for those who have been connected with the campus over the past century to visit, reminisce and say their farewells,’ he says.

ALWS Community Action Manager Jonathan Krause says it was ‘a privilege for the LCA’s overseas aid and development agency to bring together so many Lutheran ministries, each of us standing on the shoulders of our shared history but looking forward to what we are called to be in today’s world’.

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

Ordinations bring joy across the LCANZ

Joyful praise has rung out among Lutheran communities across Australia and in New Zealand in recent months, as the LCANZ has welcomed seven new pastors – bringing to eight the total of ordinations so far this year.

Seven people joined the LCANZ’s ordained ministry ranks within six weeks in April and May, including three women in what has been a first for the church.

Following the decision by the Convention of General Synod in October last year to remove from the church’s teaching a paragraph that previously prohibited women from being ordained, Maria Rudolph, Sue Westhorp and Tanya Wittwer were determined by Australian Lutheran College and the College of Bishops as properly prepared for the rite of ordination and became the church’s first female pastors.

The octet, who are now serving in five of the church’s six districts, also includes a Mandarin-language pastor and two First Nations pastors.

Following the ordination of General Ministry Pastor (GMP) Sean Hotinski by LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith at Blair Athol, South Australia, on 16 February, Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) Mark Tung and GMPs Maria Rudolph and Sue Westhorp were ordained in April.

Pastor Sean has begun an assignment serving Queensland’s Goombungee/Maclagan Parish, while Pastor Mark has been installed to serve Botany Lutheran Church, Auckland, in Aotearoa – New Zealand, a predominantly Mandarin language-speaking community. He was ordained in Auckland on 6 April. Pastor Maria was ordained on Palm Sunday, 13 April, at Concordia College, Highgate, in South Australia. The church’s first female pastor, she has been assigned to serve St John’s Lutheran Church Perth, alongside Western Australia District Bishop Peter Hage. She and her husband, Pastor Michael Rudolph, who serves at Duncraig in suburban Perth, are the first pastor couple in the LCANZ. Two weeks after Pastor Maria’s ordination, Sue Westhorp joined the Roll of Pastors through her ordination on 27 April at Luther College Croydon in Victoria. Pastor Sue has been assigned to serve St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Box Hill, in suburban Melbourne, alongside Pastor Neville Otto.

In the following fortnight, four more pastors were welcomed by the church. Justin Allen was ordained as Pastor to the Papunya community in the Northern Territory on 3 May at Papunya NT, while Abraham Poulson was ordained as Pastor to the Utju community NT on 4 May at Areyonga NT.

Dr Tanya Wittwer was next to be ordained as a GMP on 10 May at St Stephen’s Adelaide, where she also has been assigned to serve; while Adam Morris was ordained on 11 May at Aberfoyle Park SA, where he will serve as Specific Ministry Pastor.

All eight candidates were ordained by LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith, who encouraged the church to pray for the new pastors.

‘In our Lutheran Confessions, we declare that those who bear these offices stand in the stead of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ he said. ‘Please pray for these newly ordained pastors that they would faithfully nourish God’s people with the gospel.’

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

Planting for God’s harvest

by Helen Brinkman

For more than 60 years, retired teachers Trevor and Liz Winderlich have been working together to plant and grow schools in Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG), sowing seeds of faith for God to harvest.

It was a match made in heaven when the pair met in 1959 while studying teaching at the then Concordia Seminary, at Highgate, in suburban Adelaide. Trevor still recalls their first date – a night at the movies to see Darby O’ Gill and the Little People, starring Sean Connery.

After their graduations in 1961, Trevor was unexpectedly called to a teaching post in PNG. Liz had been awaiting a teaching position with the SA Education Department, but once she heard Trevor’s news, she changed her plans. ‘I had always wanted to go there,’ Liz says, because her father, Pastor Fred Noack, had been a missionary there.

So, in 1962, they went to Melbourne to study at the Wycliffe Institute of Linguistics, before marrying. Three weeks later, they flew out to PNG.

Their five-year adventure began at Gelem school on Rooke Island, where Liz taught Grade 2 students and the school’s student teachers, while Trevor taught Grades 7 and 9 students. After they arrived in PNG, the Winderlichs overcame their language barrier with Pidgin English, and within weeks, they were using Pidgin to write Maths books for the students.

Only when the first pay cheque arrived did they realise that although Liz and Trevor both worked full-time, they received only a single wage. Church policy at that time meant that wives of married teaching couples did not receive a wage! However, that didn’t dint their enthusiasm, and the couple went on to work in Menyamya District, in the PNG Highlands southwest of Lae, where Liz supervised indigenous teachers and Trevor became a teaching principal and taught Year 4s. Beyond teaching, they loved being part of the community, helping to develop local gardens and expand dietary options by bringing in vegetable seeds and building a dam to support local aquaculture.

They even developed a travelling Christmas slideshow for surrounding villages featuring their students in the costumes of the Nativity, narrating the Christmas story in their native tongue. To power the projector on their journeys, they carried a battery in a wheelbarrow, with a borrowed sheet for the screen. ‘The good Lord had so many ideas for us,’ says Trevor.

One of the students who featured in the nativity play, Jesse Tanggwo, joined the family on a visit back to Australia. He later became a Lutheran pastor, and Trevor and Liz also supported his son Nicholas through PNG’s Martin Luther Seminary to become a pastor.

Their own son James was born in Lae in May 1964, followed two years later by their first daughter Kathy, now Matuschka. James, pastor of St Johns Southgate Lutheran congregation in Melbourne, was Australian Lutheran College principal from 2014 to 2023.

In 1967, the family left their peaceful Highlands life and headed to Tanunda in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, where Trevor became the teaching principal of Tanunda Lutheran School. ‘What a culture shock,’ Liz says about having to reacclimatise to a more structured life. Along with the birth of their youngest child, Christine, in 1969, another highlight for Liz of their new base was playing pipe organs at their Langmeil church and other surrounding Lutheran congregations.

Over the following decades, Trevor and Liz were called to establish three new Lutheran schools. Starting with Murray Bridge from 1978 to 1987, Trevor remembers visiting a dusty plot on the edge of town, which would soon become the primary school, where he became a teaching principal, and Liz established the library and later taught.

In 1988, both Trevor and Liz were called to establish Golden Grove Lutheran Primary School, co-located with the Wynn Vale state primary school. In their first year, the Winderlichs were the only school staff until a secretary joined them that October to help with administration. They established their classes in a large composite room, which, on the weekends, became the worship area. That required the weekly stacking of school furniture to make room for Sunday services!

By 1995, their three children had grown up and headed to Queensland, so Trevor and Liz moved north and set about expanding the Caboolture Lutheran Primary School on the Sunshine Coast. The Sunshine Coast remains their community following their retirement in late 2004.

As well as being active members of Living Faith Lutheran Church, Murrumba Downs, for the past two decades Liz has been a part of the Streams in the Desert network of Lutherans, which supports women’s contributions to God’s ministry.

After retirement, relief teaching over the next few years supported their next adventure, volunteering for Finke River Mission and travelling around Queensland congregations to promote and fundraise for the Central Australian LCA ministry.

Today, their hall walls reflect their pride in their six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. They are also honorary grandparents to their young neighbour, Hugo, whose father, Glen, suffered burns to 70 per cent of his body in a road accident in 2020, underwent approximately 20 surgeries and lost his lower legs. Trevor and Liz have stepped in to co-parent Hugo, now 6, and continue to support his mum, Roni, while Glen recovers.

Trevor and Liz’s wedding text from Psalm 37:5, ‘Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act’, reflects God’s continued grace as they tend to his earthly garden.

‘We’ll always have people in our sphere who just need someone to talk to and who just need to be loved,’ Trevor says. ‘I think God’s not finished with us yet. I’m tipping I’ll be around ‘til I’m 120. I’ve got so much left to do.’

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by
,

Grass-roots mission: Sharing the message of the cross

by Jodi Brook

After the first year of a new LCANZ grants fund designed to nurture a missional culture across the church, 10 congregations have begun a journey to bring their local mission dreams into being.

You can read about their inspiring grass-roots outreach and service endeavours in the April-May 2025 edition of The Lutheran. However, the story doesn’t end there – the Local Mission Fund and Seed Project funding will return this year.

So, if your congregation has a local mission idea that needs financial support to become a reality, these grants might be the answer you have been praying for.

A total of $400,000 is being made available annually with Local Mission Fund major project grants of up to $100,000 each, and Local Mission Seed Project funding grants of up to $10,000 each. Inaugural grants were awarded in 2025 for missional projects, including cross-cultural ministry and church planting, a regional learning hub, and mission and ministry activities that enhance school-church connections and outreach.

Ministry Coordinator Lisa Enever, from Wodonga Lutheran Parish in Victoria, which plans to better engage with co-located Victory Lutheran College, says members were thrilled that their funding application was approved.

‘After watching the Friday livestream of the Convention of General Synod, which focused on the mission work of the LCANZ, I felt incredibly excited and inspired by the direction the church is heading in’, Lisa said. ‘It was so uplifting to see the amazing mission efforts other parishes are making in their communities. I’m truly grateful and blessed that the LCANZ approved the funding grant for our parish, allowing us to extend our reach and connect with even more people in our community.’

College Chaplain Tala Aufai, from Queensland’s Trinity Ashmore Lutheran School Church Plant, says the school is ‘so grateful for the positive response from our alumni’. ‘Three students who graduated last year (have come) on board as part of our team of volunteer leaders for Encounter Youth – praise God’, he says.

Each of the 2025 successful local mission grants was awarded to a congregation whose project supports local mission innovation and efforts that might be applied more broadly across the church.

The LCANZ Local Mission Fund application process for 2026 grants opens on 1 July 2025.

HOW TO START PREPARING NOW TO APPLY FOR A GRANT

  • Place the 2026 Local Mission Fund on your church committee meeting agendas.
  • Read the application criteria available at www.lca.org.au/local-mission-fund
  • Invite your members to start thinking and praying about the local mission opportunity God might be placing before your congregation.

Jodi Brook is the LCANZ’s Local Mission Coordinator. As part of her role, Jodi mentors and supports groups that receive funding.

 

Subscribe here to receive stories & upcoming issues in full

/by