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Abide with me

By Cath Pfeiffer-Smith

‘I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ Jeremiah 29:11

On 20 September, 2011, Edna Vonow sat at this remote railway line waiting for a train to go through the crossing. The driver waved at her and she waved back. What happened after that is nothing short of a miracle. You see, God was right there with her, waiting for that train too. Crystal Brook is a charming town some 200 kilometres north of Adelaide, just off the main highway. I drive down the main street and see clusters of people chatting, a friendly wave of a hand out the window, a tractor bumping through town. I catch the waft of freshly baked pasties as I snail-pace it past the bakery.

It’s a town that Edna Vonow and her extended family have called home forever. Its unhurried pace and welcoming ambience is engaging. But as much as Edna loves this place, for some time she had been praying that the town would be given a shake to its bones, to make it sit up and take more notice of God. Little did she know how God was going to answer her prayer.

The day started out like any other. Edna carefully arranged chairs in her lounge room for the church ladies to meet, prepared food and looked forward to the afternoon with her friends. The day went well, although she can’t remember any of it any more.
Then she headed out to her son’s place on the farm, some 12 kilometres out of town, the place she called home when she was younger. A road she had travelled many, many times and a crossing where Edna had stopped too many times to remember.

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From Jerusalem with love

By Rosie Schefe

What does it really mean to love your neighbour, when the world is intent on building walls to separate you?

12.30pm, Monday, 30 September,  2013: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. I walk past the camera operator who has been projecting Bishop Munib Younan’s image onto screens high above the 1000-strong audience at the Australian Conference on Lutheran Education (ACLE).

‘So what did you think of that?’ I ask, acknowledging his role during the keynote address. ‘That was amazing! I only wish we were recording it. When that guy wins the Nobel Peace Prize we’ll all be sorry that wasn’t on tape!’ the operator says, going on to describe how rare it was for him to become so engaged by a conference speaker.

It is a reaction that typifies much of my experience over six days of following Bishop Younan from Adelaide to Brisbane. The people he meets are captivated, not just by this small, unassuming man with the wide smile and subtle sense of humour, but, more importantly, by the powerful message of peace, reconciliation and love which he brings.

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Jordanians open their homes to strangers from Syria

by Rosie Schefe

As autumn gives way to winter on the plains surrounding the Za’atri refugee camp in Jordan, living conditions are worsening for almost 140,000 refugees from the conflict in Syria.

‘This is now the second-largest refugee camp in the world; it overwhelms the town of Za’atri itself’, Australian aid-worker Stephen McDonald told ABC reporter James Bennett on 20 October.

The United Nations estimates that more than 480,000 Syrian refugees are now in Jordan, from a total of two million Syrians fleeing the fighting. One million refugees are children.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) has appealed to the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand to support efforts towards peace in the region. Practical help is also urgently needed to assist the many Syrians living in refugee camps and in Jordanian homes.

Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) launched an appeal in September to raise an initial $50,000 to begin assisting Syrian refugees in Jordan who are living in the Za’atri camp or with Jordanian families. By 20 October a total of $204,937.66 had been raised.

The money will be used to provide thermal underwear and winter clothing (particularly for children) and gas heaters for families living in tents or tarpaulin shelters and to help repair Jordanian homes where Syrian refugees are being hosted …

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From Yirara with love

by Rebecka Colldunberg

Early in the morning of 8 April, 2012, fire ravaged a 16-classroom Indonesian school. It was Easter Sunday.

The Banua Niha Keriso Protestan (BNKP) Senior High School in Gunungsitoli is part of the greater BNKP community in the Nias Islands of Indonesia. It is a community which has an impressive membership of 456,000 people, spread out between 1078 congregations over 58 districts, and is a partner of the Lutheran Church of Australia. It is because of this partnership that the Board of BNKP Educational Foundation sent a letter to Lutheran Education Australia (LEA), pleading for help with the monumental task of reconstructing the school (almost AU$700,000 estimated for the rebuild alone).

It didn’t take long for LEA to forward the letter around Australian Lutheran schools, and very quickly it found its way to the inbox of Neville Doecke, chaplain at Yirara College.

Situated in Alice Springs and administered by Finke River Mission in the Northern Territory, Yirara College is a boarding school for Indigenous students from remote communities. With fewer than 50 students it is a small community. But what it lacks in numbers it more than makes up for in heart.

‘We have Yirara Church three times per term’, Neville explained. ‘This is when all students stay on campus for Sunday “church”. It’s a normal Lutheran worship service with Holy Communion, led by Pastor Simon Dixon. Each term we allocate our offering money to a particular worthy cause. I visited North Sumatra a few years ago, and I have always had a mind for helping Lutheran schools in Indonesia.

‘Hearing of the disaster on Nias Island really affected me and prompted me to discuss with LCA Mission International ways of supporting the cause’, Neville said. ‘Students at Yirara were told their offerings were to go to assist the Nias High School to rebuild and provide school materials. We were sent some photos of the damaged school buildings and these were shown to the students. Those pictures definitely helped the kids to see and understand what they were supporting. As a result, student giving was more than it usually was.’

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Lighting the darkness

by Hans Martin Wuerth

Among the many narratives about the Holocaust is the memoir of Max Krakauer, Lichter im Dunkel (Lights in Darkness). Published in 1947, this small book is one of the first autobiographical accounts by a German Jew who, with his wife Karoline, managed to escape detection and capture inside Nazi Germany between 29 January, 1943 and their liberation 27 months later on 23 April, 1945.

Lights in Darkness describes a unique survival story. Immediately after they were warned by a neighbour of their imminent arrest, this Jewish couple were on the run for more than two years, without staying longer than a month in the home of any rescuer. As they fled from one home to another, over hundreds of miles, they were temporarily sheltered in 66 homes across northern and southern Germany. The majority of their rescuers were Protestant pastors, their wives and other family members.

Krakauer’s memoir is a very personal recollection of how, where and why he and his wife were able to endure being pursued relentlessly by Nazi government officials and to stay alive in a climate of anti-Semitism, segregation, hatred, persecution, war and genocide. The Krakauers’ survival was due to their perseverance, the remarkable assistance of their Christian helpers, and, as Krakauer never failed to add, God’s protection.

Lights in Darkness describes Max Krakauer’s futile attempts to emigrate from Nazi Germany. In January 1939 the Krakauers’ daughter, Inge, left for safety in England, while Max and Karoline were subjected to hard, dehumanising forced labour (Zwangsarbeit). This continued until both went underground in January 1943, literally a few steps ahead of the Gestapo …

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Wise Up! ACLE brings Lutheran educators northwards

By Rosie Schefe and Serena Williams

Approximately 1000 participants gathered in the humid embrace of spring in Brisbane for the fourth Australian Conference on Lutheran Education (ACLE) from 30 September to 2 October.

The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre main hall was transformed into an auditorium for worship and keynote addresses, while a nearby exhibition space provided room for sponsors and exhibitors to talk to participants during breaks or less formal parts of the program.

The strong elective program included a ‘mini-conference’ on Tuesday afternoon: an extended opportunity to try something new, visit the Brisbane cultural precinct or meet with colleagues to discuss mutual areas of responsibility.

Meeting under the theme ’Wise Up! Transforming Mind, Body and Heart in Lutheran Education’, the conference drew not only teachers and other educators, but also pastors, people in non-teaching roles and international guests from Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the United States.

But it wasn’t just about professional and spiritual development: ACLE has always been about meeting old and new colleagues from around Australia, reconnecting with old friends and making new ones, as people share their experiences and memories of service in Lutheran schools.

On the stage were 16-year-old Amy DeMartino and 17-year-old Tom Smith, bringing tears to the eyes of some of the 900 assembled teachers as they sang How Great is our God in opening worship on the final morning of ACLE … 

 

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Where charity begins

by Beverley Wilson

A young woman comes into the shop, looking for a book on printing or calligraphy.

‘I’m getting married soon and we don’t have much money, so I want to print the place cards myself’, she tells the assistant. As she is leaving, she is obviously attracted by a decorative, antique-style telephone, priced at $45.

A female customer notices. ‘Well, buy it!’ she tells the girl. Laughing, the young woman says, ‘I can’t afford it. I’m getting married.’ ‘Then I’ll buy it for you!’ says the customer—and she does! One happy bride-to-be, and smiles all round.

Welcome to This’N’That Community Store, an op shop in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, which has become an integral part of its community and an opportunity to engage in mission with its people. It is also a highly effective fundraiser for ministries of the LCA Victoria/Tasmania District.

While these ministries have changed over time, This’N’That Community Store has remained true to its original vision for supporting families and individuals in need, whether their needs are physical, emotional, practical or spiritual.

On 14 September This’N’That celebrates 20 years in business at Brentford Square shopping centre, Forest Hill. It currently employs a manager—Barbara Franklin-Browne— two part-time assistant managers and an army of willing volunteers donating time and professional expertise. Over time there have been five managers and five assistant managers, each contributing new ideas and innovations. A management committee meets regularly to monitor the store’s operation, plan and distribute funds.

Volunteers are at its heart, each bringing their special talents and skills—dedicated volunteers like Freda Miles, aged 95. Freda still works in the store four days each week and walks…

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Serving the least of these

by Rosie Schefe

Having a choice is something that Australians take for granted, but for many people choice is limited—or even absent.

‘We are so beyond blessed in this country. In Egypt, getting involved in politics can get you killed. In Australia we can have a “bloody political coup” without any blood!’ Tom Brennen said.

Tom spoke to The Lutheran on 4 July, the day that the Egyptian Army removed elected President Mohammed Morsi and installed interim President Adli Mansour, suspending the country’s constitution
for 30 days.

Tom and Robyn Brennen returned to Australia from Egypt in mid-June, after 18 months living in a Cairo neighbourhood and working to support refugees who find themselves in Cairo fleeing various situations.

I always wanted to do aid work out of an understanding that the command to love your neighbour includes everyone in the world.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has a processing station in Cairo which acts as a gateway to the rest of the world for refugees from African nations.

In 1951 the Egyptian government signed the Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and allowed the UNHCR to process refugees on its territory. But they have still not put any Egyptian domestic asylum procedures in place, effectively assuming no responsibility for refugees transiting through their country.

Estimates of refugee numbers in Egypt vary between 500,000 and 3 million people. People who have no access to healthcare, education, or employment. Many of them are from South Sudan, but they also come from other parts of Africa and the Middle East, including Libya and Syria.

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To kiss—or not …

by Reid Matthias

After worship I take up my regular spot at the back of the church. Like a smiling sentinel, it’s my responsibility to greet worshippers as they exit the building. I wait, listening for the swarm to reach me, their voices humming—most assuredly talking about how wonderful the sermon was.

As they approach me, I always have a niggling thought wriggling through my mind: ‘How am I supposed to greet them?’

Let’s be honest. For the most part, Australians are kissers. When I first met my mother-in-law, she greeted me with a kiss. I wasn’t prepared for it. She just leaned in and there it was—lipstick on the young American’s cheek.

I really don’t know how it’s supposed to work. Are there rules for ‘greeting each other with a holy kiss’, as Paul tells us in Romans 16:16? Is there a specific cheek? What about actual lip contact? Some of the women who kiss kind of go through the motion of kissing and then just make the sound of kissing somewhere in the vicinity of my whiskered jaw. I’m awkward and clumsy when it comes to fulfilling Paul’s greeting.

The swarm reaches me. The guys are easy. These farmers with their great big, meaty hands swallowing mine; they clap me on the back, talk about the weather and get out the door.

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Pointing the way

by Julie Hahn

The Upside Down Circus was born in 2010—an opportunity for families living in the northern suburbs of Adelaide to discover that Jesus turns our upside-down world the right way up.

It grew out of a group of church leaders meeting regularly for lunch and prayer, led by the Rev Lindsay Mayes of Elizabeth Church of Christ. They felt that there was a need for somewhere for families to go that would cost very little (if anything), where the safety of children was a priority and, most importantly, where they could hear of Jesus’ love for them.

In 2011, a handful of members of The Ark, Salisbury Lutheran Church, attended the first afternoon of Upside Down Circus 2, representing Mainly Music and Toolbox Parenting groups. We arrived early to set up our tents and were astonished to see hundreds of people queuing patiently outside the gates almost an hour before the event began.

The Upside Down Circus was held on the reserve where big circuses set up for the holidays. But this circus was different. It was free. It was child-safe:  all adults needed to be accompanied by a child (though unattended children were welcome), and it was put on by about 20 local churches.

At the end of our first day we telephoned other members of The Ark asking for help for the next afternoon. Child-safe clearances made their registration as volunteers so easy! When we returned to church that weekend, we were all eager to tell of the good news: how thousands of children and their families had come to hear about Jesus. And how we believed our congregation could make a great contribution by joining with other churches in our area. It was an opportunity too good to miss.

So, at the debriefing meeting for Upside Down Circus 2 our team representing Salisbury Lutheran Church apologised for being a bit slow in joining, but affirmed that we were keen to be involved for UDC3.

The 2011 budget of about $15,000 barely covered costs.  The organising team and volunteers were exhausted. But stories reached local churches in the next few weeks of teachers at government schools being asked about ‘this Jesus guy who we heard about at the circus’.

We jumped in whole-heartedly for 2012. What a privilege! More than 50 of us joined as volunteers. Some went to the circus and helped out on craft stalls, by making balloon animals, face-painting, handing out ‘toolkits’ for parents,  clowning, supervising …

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