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Walking the hard road to hope

Civil war has been a near-constant scourge for the people of Sudan in eastern Africa for many years. Mary Abuk Dau was still a child, living on her family’s farm in the country’s south, when bloody conflict flared up there in 1991. She walked for years in search of safety. Having been educated through Lutheran support in a Kenyan refugee camp, she’s since been an ambassador for peace. Jonathan Krause, Community Action Manager with Australian Lutheran World Service, met Mary in South Sudan and shares her story.

Mary Abuk Dau knew the horrors of war from a young age. People were killed in front of her when she was just 10. Growing up in what is now South Sudan, with civil war sweeping the country, Mary believes God saved her life. Thanks to help from Lutheran aid partnerships, she now has hope for the future – despite her country again being in crisis today.

‘The soldiers came and killed some people while I was looking’, Mary says of the civil war that came to her region in 1991. ‘Some of my relatives were killed. My uncle died. It is only to God that we are saved.’

Her elder siblings left Sudan for Ethiopia, while Mary stayed with the young children of her family. When the conflict became worse, they too set out on foot, with no shoes or clothes to protect them from the terrain and elements. People died of disease and hunger.

Even in some refugee camps along their journey, Mary and her companions were not safe to settle. ‘We were on foot for four years’, she says. ‘We may stay in a camp for one month, but then the attacks would come again, so we would move again. There was no food for us to survive, and we did not know where the water [was]. If a child got tired they must be left behind, and they die[d]. If a person die[d] we could not bury them because we did not have the time or strength.

‘But even though we had nothing, we knew God was there.’

They reached Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya in 1995. It was there Mary learnt about Lutheran World Federation (LWF), a partner of Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS).

ALWS has launched an emergency appeal to support the work of LWF in South Sudan.

You can donate by visiting alws.org.au or phoning FREECALL 1300 763 407.

It has also launched Walk My Way, a campaign to fund schooling for refugee children, including those from South Sudan. To be held on 4 July 2017, the 26 kilometre walk will go from Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills to Beaumont in the South Australian capital’s eastern suburbs, following in steps of Lutheran pioneer women.

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God’s deliverance: from war to peace

by Paul Kraus

For my parents, the 10 years before my birth in October 1944 were indeed uncertain ones. Both were Hungarian Jews. My mother, Clara, came from Budapest and my father, Emery (Jim), was from Banska Bystrica, a village originally in Hungary but belonging to Slovakia after World War I.

From 1935 onwards, it was clear that the net of Nazism was slowly closing in around them. My parents tried to migrate to New Zealand, Australia, the United States and South America but they were unsuccessful as they could not raise the money required.

Their lives were directly threatened on Palm Sunday in 1943, when Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital where they were living and working, was badly bombed. They escaped to a town my father had lived in as a child – Subotica in Central Slovakia – where they again began to re-establish their lives.

Within 12 months the men were taken for forced labour and, by the end of 1944, were transported to the infamous Mauthausen Concentration Camp. In the middle of 1944 my pregnant mother, together with my two-year-old brother Peter, was forced into a ghetto reserved for Jews who were destined for Auschwitz, an inescapable death sentence for both of them.

An incident that belied coincidence, but had all the hallmarks of divine intervention, resulted in my mother being called to jump from one line of prisoners to another, along with my brother. The first line was headed for Auschwitz, the second to an Austrian labour camp. She arrived in the labour camp in July 1944 after spending an unbearable and stifling three days in a cattle train, during which a number of people died.

Once in the camp she was unable to work because of her pregnancy. The Nazi elite corps, known as the SS, made regular visits but she hid whenever they came to the camp. The story of her survival is nothing short of miraculous.

Shortly after my birth in late October she had a vision of Jesus while in her cell and accepted him as her Messiah. She had become a believer in Jesus and promised Almighty God that whether or not she had a future, she and her sons would be his followers. She fervently prayed for survival for herself and her family and promised Jesus she would always follow him.

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Shining through diversity

Sunshine Christian School in the western suburbs of Melbourne is different from others in the Lutheran Education Australia family. It started out life as a Uniting Church school in 1982. Facing closure in 2004, the school asked to join the Lutheran system, with nearby St Matthew’s Lutheran Church taking on the role of supporting congregation. It is a deliberately small school and has an extremely high percentage of students from non-English speaking backgrounds and a significant refugee population. As of 2015 more than 80 per cent of Sunshine’s students had English as a second, third or fourth language and the school population spoke more than 20 different languages.

by Paolo Familari

Sunshine Christian School serves the multi-cultural community of Sunshine in Melbourne’s western suburbs.

From humble beginnings more than 30 years ago, our school has grown into a Christian community united by a desire to bring up young people to love God, love each other and love learning. The school is capped at 100 students and simply has no physical room to grow. Our small size has enabled us to provide a harmonious learning environment in which we know each student.

We have wonderful support from our parents who are very loyal to the school and its mission. We believe in the development of the whole child, and provide high quality physical education, arts and camping/excursion programs alongside our wide-ranging curriculum and rigorous academic study.

Our school is known for its strong Christian foundations, excellent pastoral care, sound academic record, vibrant curriculum and being ‘a big family’. The school places an emphasis on tolerance and celebrating our cultural diversity.

Our staff also come from diverse backgrounds, which has enriched the school community. Some of the benefits of having such a multi-cultural community are living the Christian values of tolerance, kindness and patience.

Our community provides opportunities to spread the gospel, particularly through our actions.

Paolo Familari is Principal of Sunshine Christian School.

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Called to do more than a good job

Called to do more than a good job 

We don’t hear the word ‘vocation’ much these days, but for a Christian it is an everyday concern. And that’s not just for those who work for the church in a formal capacity. We are all called to live – and work – for Christ. We asked four people to share their stories about the way in which their faith underpins their daily work.

 

Farming takes faith
by Katy Kucks

When I attended Lutheran Youth of Queensland camps more than 25 years ago and met farmers for the first time, little did I know I would marry one and leave Brisbane behind for rural central Queensland and the farming life.

It’s been a great adventure and learning journey. Faith has also been central and critical throughout.

These days, the once naïve suburban girl is a wiser farmer’s wife – and company director! And working the land has changed as technology has advanced. Now we have ‘agribusiness’ and it is big business.

Yet the timeless constant is the struggle of coaxing food from the land on the driest, harshest habited continent. This is where our faith is a vibrant, living thing that sees us through.

………………………………………………………………………………………

Katy Kucks is a member at Theodore Lutheran Church, Queensland.

 

Glorifying God at home
by Sarah Joy Fandrich 

I am a pastor’s wife and stay-at-home, homeschooling mum to seven children. This is my career and calling, and in a way I view myself as a CEO.

As Christian parents, our greatest desire is that our children know Christ as their Saviour. Teaching our children about how God works in their world when things are not easy is the most important part of how I serve God.

Faith in God is what keeps me sane.

As a pastor’s wife I serve our church by supporting my husband in his work. Pastoral ministry is a lot like housework in that there’s always more to be done. It’s a lot like raising kids in that there are often challenging behaviours to work with.

Being a career mum is tiring. I seek a home glorifying God in all we do with fun and service. I love it when that happens.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

Sarah Joy Fandrich is a member of Burrumbuttock Lutheran Parish NSW.

  

Seeking his purpose
by Bob Thiele

Two years ago I received a letter from my superannuation fund. ‘Dear Mr Thiele, this is to inform you that your pension scheme has matured and you will no longer be required to pay into the scheme’.

Most people work to retire. I had to make a conscious decision to work when I didn’t need to. Why work when you could live a life of leisure?

For me the answer is purpose. I do still feel called to be in the same vocation I believe God called me to at six years of age when I decided to become a teacher.

Now as a principal of more than 20 years, I try to take God into every class, every meeting and every situation.

I trust he is using me to make a positive difference in the lives of the children and families with whom I work, serving his purpose.

……………………………………………………………………………………..

Bob Thiele is a member at Seaford Lutheran Church, South Australia.

 

 

Seeing beyond the labels
by Greg Spann 

My journey to my current job (as a pharmacist) started at school. I was good at science and, unimaginatively, thought I’d do a science degree.

Fortunately my father and my chemistry teacher suggested pharmacy. My first thought was what most people think of pharmacy – white coats behind a counter. But a lady at church commended the simple role of a pharmacist as an educator. ‘Great’, I thought, ‘I can help people’.

I know that aspiration is very clichéd but, even now, after years of working, I still need to be reminded of it every day. ‘God’, I pray as I drive to work, ‘let me serve my patients today’.

A few years into my career I found that space working in mental health.

Every day I am able to meet people at their worst, discuss with them what’s brought them here and try to assist them to manage their medication
to get them back on track.

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Greg Spann is a member at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Rochedale, Queensland.

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Taking up the call in 2017

These six pastoral ministry graduates from ALC come from a wide variety of backgrounds and are stepping out in faith to begin their first assignments.

Dan Mueller

Age: 35
Family: Wife Jenny; Eli, Hannah and Zara
Assigned to: Walla Walla Parish NSW
What did you do before you went to ALC? I worked as a computer engineer and research scientist.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Peter Klemm

Age: 42
Family: Wife Jody; Lily and Ciarna.
Home congregation: Brinkworth SA
Assigned to: Cummins Parish SA
What did you do before you went to ALC? I worked on the family farm before heading to Hermannsburg NT, to work in the Finke River Mission store. I then worked in a mixed retail and hardware business in Clare (SA).

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Michael Prenzler

Age: 40
Family: Wife Gertraud; Gabriel and Rebecca
Home congregation: Immanuel Gawler SA
Assigned to: Magill & Adelaide Deaf Community Church SA
Who were the most influential people as you were growing up? My immediate family, particularly my parents.
Who are the most influential people in your life now? My family. My lecturers have also had a big impact on my personal and spiritual development.
What did you do before you went to ALC? I was a mechanical engineer, working in technical and managerial roles in Australia and overseas.

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Valdis Andersons

Age: 64
Family: Wife Sylvia; Ilze and Markus
Home congregation: Unley SA
Assigned to: SA/NT District – locum at Lyndoch & Rowland Flat
What did you do before you went to ALC? I worked in the SA/NT District as Communications Coordinator. Prior to that I worked in radio (as on-air announcer and copywriter), acting, promotions, and sales, and as a secondary school teacher.

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Ryan Norris

Age: 32
Family: Wife Priscilla; Riikka, Caius, Kelsie and Sakari
Home congregation: Rochedale Qld
Assigned to: Tarrington Parish Vic
What did you do before you went to ALC? I have had a number of short-term jobs since high school, (including) an 18-month stint in outdoor education, followed by six years working with Youth With A Mission.

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David Haak

Age: 29
Family: Wife Rebecca; Isaac, Isabella
Home congregation: Mt Gravatt Qld
Assigned to: Beenleigh Qld
Who were the most influential people as you were growing up? My parents handed me the Bible I had been given at my baptism when I was going through a tough time. This had a profound impact on me.
What did you do before you went to ALC? Before ALC I worked in cold storage. During a break in my study, I worked in IT, fixing self-checkouts and ATMs.

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The Lutheran turns 50

by Lisa McIntosh

This year your magazine, The Lutheran, celebrates 50 years of service to our church.

Everyone who is blessed with five decades on this earth has changed dramatically since their birth (at least physically, even if inside we feel virtually the same at 48 as we did at 18). And The Lutheran is no different. It is almost unrecognisable today from the very first issue published on 21 January 1967 under the interim joint editorship of Pastor T W Koch and Dr M Lohe.

However, casting a discerning eye over a full 50 years of the masthead also shows what has never swayed – The Lutheran’s commitment to serve and build up the church.

When the first full-time editor, Pastor E W Wiebusch, took charge in April 1967, he explained the scope of the publication in his first editorial: ‘THE LUTHERAN should be a teaching agency of the Church’.

The Lutheran started life as the ‘official organ’ of the fledgling LCA, a term never clearly defined. As then editor, now executive editor and LCA Communications manager Linda Macqueen wrote on the occasion of The Lutheran’s 40th birthday: ‘In 1967 the burden of being “the organ” of the LCA seemed to weigh heavily on The Lutheran’s shoulders. It was formal, unsmiling and austere. Later it became the church’s “official publication” and then in September 2001, without anyone noticing, it became the LCA’s “national magazine”.’

While some critics would see this transition as a gradual ‘watering down’ of the role of the magazine, others believe it has taken the shackles off, opening The Lutheran up to the voices of the whole church, rather than just its leaders and other pastors. It has allowed us also to exercise our God-given sense of humour.

The fact The Lutheran’s looks and content have been regularly altered across its life is nothing unusual in comparison with mainstream publications. In this case it perhaps reflects mostly the shift in its prescribed function, the diverse styles of those at the helm, the resources and production technology available and the changing face of the church it strives to serve.

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How love came to life in a Fanta cake

by Jonathan Krause

To make a Fanta cake you need:

  • 1kg plain flour
  • yeast
  • sugar
  • cooking oil
  • coconut cream
  • a little water …
  • … and, of course, the secret ingredient, Fanta, for flavour.

How much Fanta? That’s Kiso’s trade secret. Along with how long you bake the cake in the ‘oven’ your husband has built from an old oil drum, and half-buried in the dirt, with space underneath for a fire to heat the oven.

Kiso lives in Pamalabus Village, Mumeng, in the mountains outside Lae in Papua New Guinea.

Here, through the support of the Lutheran family in Australia and New Zealand through Australian Lutheran World Service, Kiso – also a Lutheran – is bringing love to life using another secret ingredient – SALT. SALT is a special approach to talking with people in order to help them identify their strengths, and gain the skills and confidence to solve their problems and build a better life for their families. The acronym works as follows:

S – stimulate

A – appreciate

L – listen, learn, link

T – team-up, transfer 

It’s part of the Mat Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG (ELC-PNG).

Kiso is a Team Leader for the Mat Ministry in her community, and explains it’s all about following the example of Jesus from Matthew 5, where he went to the mountain and then sat down with people to talk:

‘We sit down together. There is no big man or small man. We can talk freely because there is no boss’, she says. ‘In this ministry we want to help one another as we can have a satisfying life for everyone. I visit one family each week, but if I am in an area I can sometimes visit four or five families.’

Kiso does this work as a volunteer for her church, as an outworking of her faith. She says the SALT approach is having a real impact in helping the Lutheran church effectively support people in their daily lives.

Through ALWS Christmas Action this year, you can support the Lutheran church in PNG grow the Mat Ministry and SALT approach, support adult literacy and train young women to be community workers. Your donation is matched with the generous support of the Australian Government, and complements the evangelism work of LCA International Mission. Working together, this is how God can use us to bring love to live. Use the pack you receive at church this Christmas to donate or contact ALWS at alws@alws.org.au or on 1300 763 407. www.alws.org.au

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Sharing the true Christmas spirit

The season of Christmas can offer unique opportunities to reach out to and serve the community beyond our church doors.

But what’s the best way to get the message of the real gift of Christmas to those around us? Every situation and place is different, so we asked some congregations and parishes to share their stories.

St John’s Lutheran Church, Wilsonton, Queensland

Christmas boxes

As we are located in a farming area on the outskirts of Toowoomba, St John’s Wilsonton aims to help local families and country people affected by crises such as droughts and floods.

We do this by covering shoeboxes with Christmas wrap, filling them with goodies for children at Christmas, and donating them to Lifeline for distribution.

As I write this, we have about 200 boxes ready to fill with items collected during the year from members and those purchased with money donated toward the project, such as toys, books and school supplies. An appropriate Lutheran tract is added and the boxes are labelled to identify them according to age groups. This year is our best effort yet. Last year we presented approximately 140 boxes to Lifeline’s local CEO, Derrick Tuffield, while the year before we presented 100. Derrick attends the service at which one of the Sunday school children presents the gifts to him for distribution.

We don’t hear from recipients personally, nor do we look for responses. It is enough to know from Lifeline personnel of the joy and thanks expressed by those receiving the gifts.

– Trevor Becker

Some congregations, including Lobethal and Aberfoyle Park  in South Australia, and Corinda in Queensland, reach out with the good news of Christmas by putting on plays, musicals and living nativities, while others host innovative festivals, fairs and markets. Members of St James, Moorabbin, in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, host a Christmas tree festival, with decorated trees, craft, home baking and Devonshire teas to connect with their community.

What does your congregation or parish do to share the true gift of Christmas with others? We’d love to hear from you at lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au

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Generosity brings gratitude

by Peter Ziersch

Good on you, Australian Lutherans!!

That’s the sentiment of people you have been

able to help through your generosity in responding to the appeal for those affected by the Western Australian fires and, in particular, the Pinery fire in South Australia.

It has been a privilege and a joy to represent all of you who so generously donated, as I have handed over cheques and vouchers which have brought so much happiness to so many.

The appeal raised more than $300,000 from around Australia, a marvellous effort from people, who, by and large, are not wealthy. In all I was able to distribute more than $130,000, which you so generously gave in response to this appeal.

St Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:6-11: ‘Remember this: … God loves a cheerful giver … and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work … You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God’.

That has been the hope that, as Paul says, ‘your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God’, through your donations to this appeal. With this in mind, I have been hand-delivering the cheques and vouchers in most cases, to show the ‘human face’ of the church to those devastated by this fire who may not be Lutheran, or even active church attenders.

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‘Mum, Dad, I’m gay’

Having a son or daughter ‘come out’ as homosexual is not something many parents expect or are prepared for – especially within the church. How would you respond if this happened to you? One family shares the story of their journey since that day 20 years ago.

What do you say when your child tells you, ‘I’m gay’?

I still remember that day and the words I spoke; how I wish I could take them back, but their angry barbs found their mark. I remember that face marked by fear, those hurting eyes, and the fragile heart placed in my hands by someone I love. This is the one I wept for joy for when born; the one I taught to ride a bike, whose scraped knee I kissed, and whose trembling hand I held while getting stitches. How quickly the years pass. Now we stand face-to-face and my child’s sense of peace, identity and acceptance needs a response in real-time; in a moment my opportunity is gone.

What do you say? That’s a question my family faced 20 years ago. We are not alone. That’s a question many congregational families have faced and will continue to face in future. That’s a question the LCA faces beyond public statements made by bishops and theologians.

This is my story. I tell it not because it is unique or particularly special, but because it gives voice to the unspoken; makes visible what we choose to keep invisible. My story is typical of Christian parents who respond to the news that the child they love and admire is gay. Maybe it will help other stories to be told, and memories to be healed, as we as church look for ways to stand together in face of a reality that will not go away.

I told my son I didn’t believe him; I didn’t want to believe him. Much of what I knew about homosexuality I had read in books, or seen in movies. Then there was what I had learned in church: that God created people male and female for the purpose of reproducing the human race and established marriage as the proper setting; same-sex relations are to be seen as a distortion of nature and prohibited by God.

This was not my son. He didn’t fit that image of a homosexual. He was bright, talented, funny, caring, honest, ethical, a person of faith. If he thought he was gay, there must be a reason for his confused state. ‘When the right girl comes along’, I thought, ‘he will resolve it; he will be alright.’

As my denials continued, so did my efforts to explain it. Was it some recent trauma and depression that were the reason for his confused state? Or had he deliberately chosen to rebel against nature and God’s will? Or, as parents, had my wife and I unknowingly contributed to some perverted development of his sexuality? But we couldn’t realistically see where that had been the case. So we continued to search for explanations.

We learned that there is more than one theory about the causes of homosexuality: genetic, hormonal, environmental, social. Each of these factors may contribute in varying degrees to the sexual orientation of a particular individual. Unfortunately, none of the theories agree sufficiently with each other to form anything that looks like a consensus on the subject – except, perhaps, that sexuality is a ‘given’ rather than a choice.

So where do you go when you cannot deny it or explain it away? The next steps in our journey involved prayer and psychotherapy. As my son grew in awareness and acceptance of his sexual identity, as a Christian he also was acutely aware that in the church homosexuality was seen as something unacceptable to God.

He believed he was acceptable to God through baptism on account of Christ, but felt marginalised in the life of the church and denied at the altar. He believed that God loves people unconditionally and offers change and renewal to those who come to him with humble and penitent hearts. But God did not change him. Neither did God’s people welcome him. So what did this experience do to his mind, heart, and spirit?

In the face of social shame and personal pain, impulses for acting out and the dark urges of suicide, we encouraged our son to seek counselling and psychological support. Yet, as we were soon to discover, counselling services and psychotherapy have long since been convinced that homosexuality is not an illness and there is no known treatment to change it. Certainly, behaviour can be changed or constrained towards celibacy, but the basic affective orientation and makeup of homosexuals is not changed. There is no fix. So therapy helped my son come to accept the reality of his being, thankfully, before the social shame and his growing inner alienation climaxed in any threatened premature death.

As parents, we faced two choices at this point, both involving some form of loss – if not death. One choice was to reject and separate from our child: treat him as an outcast, as if he were dead to us. That’s the sad choice many parents have taken and many congregations approve in relation to gay and lesbian members.

However, this is not the choice we have taken. Ours was another choice: to die to our ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstandings. It’s a choice that has cost us in grief and loss. Gone is our nice tidy worldview, with black and white answers to complex human realities. Lost is a level of openness, support, and comfort within our church community. Lost is our security in a handful of Bible verses to justify our actions. Lost are some hopes and dreams we held for our son’s ‘ordinary’ happiness in church and society. A final form of grief and loss has been the realisation that our pain and suffering were secondary to our son’s experiences. Now we choose to be supporters of the life God blessed us to bring into the world.

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