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381

Caring for families

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by Rachel Schilling

Congregational life has changed dramatically during the past two years. Perhaps the most noticeable shift has been the families and young people that once were a part of the community are now much less regular in their attendance, if present at all.

Acknowledging in the midst of this change, churches within Australia have all been affected by COVID-19. This has happened in varying degrees depending on which state mandates they fall under and whether they are city, regional or country congregations.

What is safe to say, is that some things are different especially for our families. The space and time that many families used to give to the local church may have diminished. But the need to care, encourage and support parents, children and families in their faith has not.

So how do we best support and encourage them at this time?

Here are some questions to consider:

  • What do you know about the families in your church?
  • Do they know you have noticed that they are not there?
  • Has the habit of regularly coming to church been filled by something else?
  • Are families enjoying the extra space not going to church has given them?
  • Did they ever feel connected, that they belonged, and were welcome and valued in the community?
  • How do our families want to be cared for?

We know that some families don’t want to come back. Others are enjoying the time to be more involved in their children’s spiritual development. Others are cautious, careful, and fearful of crowds and possible COVID infections. So many questions!

RELATIONSHIPS ARE KEY

Relationships are always the key and lead to deeper connection. We need to continue to build the bridge to be with our families.

  • Begin with prayer and let them know you care about them and pray for them. Rather than a phone call, send a text message, which may be less confronting. Ask what would they like prayer for?
  • Encourage their role as parents. Encourage the informal and ordinary conversations that happen at night in the home: for example, when tucking their children in at night, praying together, reading a psalm or a story. These questions and pondering together are precious gifts of time spent with God.
  • Who is supporting them as adults? Do they have people around them who care? Perhaps it’s practical support that busy families require, some time out, or a meal.
  • How can you listen to the hurt and brokenness of the past few years? Listen with grace and mercy to the complicated feelings they might have about worship, prayer and other people. Have you simply asked, ‘What is it that you need?’

Asking these (and many other) questions require us to re-think and move beyond our programs and our buildings. We need to establish meaningful relationships and nurturing communities.

LEARN MORE

If you would like to learn more about how to intentionally minister to all generations, please contact the team at Grow Ministries. Email us at growministries@lca.org.au and a member of our team will contact you.

Rachel Schilling is a member of the Grow Ministries team.

382

With God all things are possible

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Going GREYT! 1 Peter 4:10

In Going GREYT! we feature stories of some of our ‘more experienced’ people within the LCA, who have been called to make a positive contribution in their retirement. We pray their examples of service will be an inspiration and encouragement to us all as we look to be Christ’s hands and feet wherever we are, with whatever gifts and opportunities we’ve been given.

by Helen Brinkman

Matthew 19:26 assures us that, ‘with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’.

Retiree Robert ‘Rob’ Krause reflects on that Bible verse when he thinks of the decades of service he has provided to his local community. It is service provided simply because he has seen a need and tried to help.

From reacting to a fear of fire by assisting a group to start a rural fire brigade, to responding to the call for a local Lutheran school, Rob’s need for action has come in many forms.

The fourth-generation dairy farmer’s home is the historic village of Marburg, on the scrubland between Brisbane and Toowoomba. Rob’s service to this regional community was recognised when he was awarded an Order of Australia medal in this year’s Australia Day Honours.

And his list of service is long! It includes decades of support for the local Marburg Show Society, activities in his Lutheran congregation of Rosewood, and supporting several local schools, among other volunteer roles.

Rob says it was a desire to help his local community that drew him to volunteer.

‘I guess it grew out of wanting to be part of the community, and to put in an effort to make things a bit better around the place’, Rob says.

‘Things were hard in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and a lot of us had to make our own entertainment, and it was a matter of wanting to help your neighbour.’

Rob has lived in Marburg for most of his 86 years. One of six children, he grew up on his parents’ dairy farm and eventually took over the farm from 1972 to 2002.

This personal connection with Marburg, 15 minutes west of Ipswich, helped Rob find ways to help out in his community, starting with the local show. As a schoolboy he began helping with stalls and acting as a steward, then gradually took on more jobs, which has led to his 75-year association with the Marburg Show Society.

‘From school days on, I used to submit produce for judging in show categories’, Rob recalls. He’s even won a couple of first prizes for his sorghum, a grain for stock feed.

Rob served as the show society’s president from 2006 to 2017. He has been a life member since 1994. In addition, he not only helped set up the Marburg Rural Fire Brigade but also became its treasurer for a time. He is a former member of Ipswich Council City Country Consultative Group and was chair of the Marburg State School Centenary celebrations in 1979.

Rob and his wife Janet have been members of the Rosewood congregation for more than 50 years. The pair met through church and the local rural youth group. They were also active in the activities of Lutheran Youth of Queensland.

In June they will celebrate their 50th anniversary. ‘She is my biggest support and strength’, Rob says.

Rob served as congregational chair for several years. Janet, a former school teacher, also took on the congregational chair role for a few years. Both have served as General Synod delegates and have held other congregational roles.

Always interested in education, from 1982 to 1993 Rob served as a board member of the Bethany Lutheran Primary School, Raceview, where their four sons attended.

Their children had all but finished secondary school when the idea of a new secondary school in the region was sown. And so planning began for the Faith Lutheran College in nearby Plainland, with the school opening in 1999 with about 35 students.

Rob was part of the planning committee and a member of the school council for a decade, from 1999 to 2009. With Faith College now educating almost 800 students from across the Ipswich and Lockyer region, Rob and Janet’s son Paul is among its teaching staff.

As grandparents to eight grandsons and one granddaughter, Rob and Janet say that there have been many times when they have seen the hand of God in their activities.

‘There were a lot of things that happened which were quite miraculous’, they recall.

Rob regularly reflects on the words of Hymn 499 from the original black Lutheran Hymnal, which was shared in prayer before each sermon delivered by one of his previous ministers, Pastor Ludwig Doehler, at nearby Lowood: ‘Lord Jesus Christ to us attend, thy Holy Spirit to us send. With grace to rule us day by day and lead us in true wisdom’s way.’

Helen Brinkman is a Brisbane-based writer who is inspired by the many GREYT people who serve tirelessly and humbly in our community. By sharing stories of how God shines his light through his people, she hopes others are encouraged to explore how they can use their gifts to share his light in the world.

Know of any other GREYT stories in your local community? Email the editor lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au   

383

Tamil ministry unfolds in Geelong

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by Nathan Hedt

God is good and he keeps surprising us! That is the feeling among Lutherans in Geelong as they see something new that God is unfolding in their mission and outreach there. Before December, the possibility of a church plant among Tamil immigrants in Victoria’s second-largest city was not on anyone’s strategic plan. Anyone except the Holy Spirit, that is!

On Saturday 26 February a Tamil Christian church service was held at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in North Geelong. Joyce Mailvaganam, a Tamil guest from London, shared a message, and Pastor Vino from a Melbourne Tamil church led the praise and worship service. Around 95 people attended the service, including about 30 to 40 from the Geelong Tamil community.

The Tamil community is now being invited to attend either Sunday morning worship or a fortnightly Tamil fellowship and prayer group held in the afternoon at Our Redeemer.

Michelle Filipovic, who has worked for a number of years with asylum seekers and new immigrants in Geelong, is employed part-time in a united approach to ministry by four Lutheran congregations in Geelong.

She says that historically St Paul’s Lutheran Church Grovedale has been serving asylum seekers, refugees and migrants by means of practical, relational and spiritual support. The congregation was first called to support asylum seekers when some Tamil men arrived for worship one Sunday in 2013.

Now, together with the Lutheran churches in Geelong, St Paul’s Kindergarten and Geelong Lutheran College, the Grovedale congregation supports around 23 households. Nationalities supported include Iranians, Afghans, Haitians and Kurds, with the Tamil community being the largest group the community walks with.

‘The ministry to our families is practical, relational and pastoral’, Michelle says. ‘We have walked closely with our families, assisting them as needs arise, doing life alongside them while offering prayer, reading scripture, and sharing God’s love and the gospel in very gentle and loving but bold ways.’

The ministry is bathed in prayer, and friendships are created through visiting people in their homes. Practical support is offered via donating and distributing non-perishable food, providing transport to appointments, delivering large items, advocating and making referrals for support, teaching in-home English lessons, and resourcing community opportunities for volunteering and employment.

The ministry works closely with community organisations in Geelong, such as Diversitat Asylum Seeker Program, Barwon Health, 3216 Connect charity group, Geelong Mums, and the Baptist and Uniting churches.

LCA New and Renewing Churches is working with Michelle and the Lutheran congregations in Geelong to seek funding, form a core team, support Tamil Christians in leadership and discipleship, and connect with those who are not yet Christian through evangelism, service, witness, and reading the Bible together.

We hope and pray that this gathering of people is the birthing of a Tamil church plant in Geelong.

Michelle says that she is motivated by the words of John 6:40: ‘For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day’.

‘I love this verse because of the evangelistic heart of God’, she says. ‘God’s will is that everyone would know Jesus and have eternal life. This is my heart for those who do not know Jesus as their Saviour, especially in my role with asylum seekers and refugees. It is good news because it simply says that whoever believes in Jesus will be saved.

‘It also reminds me of the petition in the Lord’s prayer: “Your will be done”. His will is “that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life”. It is the Great Commission, the sharing of the gospel to all nations.’

We give God alone the glory for the ways in which he has and is working around us, bringing his kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. As Jesus leads us to people coming to know him as their Lord and Saviour, we are quietly expecting to see the unfolding of a new church.

Pastor Nathan Hedt is the manager of the LCA New and Renewing Churches Department.

Please pray

  • That visa applications are approved
  • For provisions for bridging-visa families who receive no Centrelink payments or healthcare care
  • For open hearts for families who don’t know Jesus yet, so that as we serve and minister to them they would hear and receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour
384

Child Safety webinar attracts hundreds

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More than 370 people participated in the first LCA Child Safety Standards for Congregations webinar, held on Saturday 26 March.

Conducted jointly by the LCA Child Protection Project Officer Mary-Ann Carver and members of the Professional Standards Department, the webinar outlined the new child safety standards developed especially for LCA congregations.

Ms Carver explained that churches, along with all other entities that work with children, are obligated to implement the ten National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, an outcome of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

‘As they stand, the National Principles are not well-tailored to faith-based organisations and those with a heavy reliance on volunteers’, she said. ‘This is why we have created the LCA Standards, which have been developed to suit our context while also complying with the National Principles.’

She pointed out that while the LCA Child Safety Standards are new, the LCA has a longstanding commitment to child safety, and much good work in the area is already being done within our congregations. She commended congregations that are taking child safety seriously and already making much progress.

The LCA Child Safety Standards for Congregations were approved for implementation by the General Church Board in October 2021. Every LCA congregation or parish is required to undertake a self-assessment of their child safety progress and prepare a child safety plan to guide their child safety activities.

Ms Carver stressed that the oversight and implementation of the LCA Standards, as well as the completion of the self-assessment and plan, should not be the sole responsibility of the congregation’s Safe Church coordinator. ‘This important leadership responsibility lies firmly with the church council, which is consistent with the duty of care that councils carry’, she said. ‘This is an important development for the LCA and a fine example of its longstanding child safety leadership and commitment.’

‘We acknowledge that hard work you are already doing. We appreciate that most people in our congregations are volunteers’, Ms Carver said. ‘This is why we’ve worked hard to make these standards as easy for you to implement as we possibly can.

‘Implementation of the standards is part of God’s work. They reflect God’s abounding love for children and his expectation that we will dearly and lovingly do our very best to keep them safe as they grow in their faith.’

The webinar was recorded. It is strongly recommended that congregation and parish church council members watch it. It is available for viewing or download at www.lca.org.au/css

385

LCANZ launches flood appeal

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The General Church Board has authorised the launch of a flood appeal to help alleviate the suffering of people and communities in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.

While it appears that the properties of Lutherans and Lutheran communities have largely escaped long-term damage, many are aware of immediate needs in their neighbourhoods.

On behalf of the Queensland District, District Administrator Trevor Ruthenberg has thanked everyone who responded when the call for donations was first made. Some of these funds have already been approved for distribution to affected people and communities.

Mr Ruthenberg points out, however, that the longer-term impact will only be discovered as Lutherans get back into their neighbourhoods and help with the clean-up and restoration efforts.

‘This is going to be a long-haul healing process for many people’, he says. ‘This is why funds are going to be needed, not only for emergency support now, but also for longer-term hardship relief and psychological assistance.’

In Queensland’s Darling Downs region, after a second major rain event, Pastor Ken Schultz of the Oakey parish said ‘things are as bad, if not worse, than a month ago’, with ‘the whole of the Norwin/Bongeen plain awash with water’.

‘Farmers are facing their third major harvest loss in a row, or severe downgrade of quality, or total loss for some, following on from three or four years of major drought’, Pastor Schultz says. ‘I’m not sure how they are all hanging in there, but they are.’

Mr Ruthenberg encourages congregations and communities to look around them and reach out to people in need.

‘It’s at times such as this that we can be a church “where love comes to life”’, he says. ‘There are so many opportunities for people to see the love of God come to them through us. We’re praying that donations to the flood appeal will help Lutherans reach out to their communities and thereby allow people who don’t know God to experience what his love looks and feels like.’

An example of this is the Lismore congregation, he says. ‘Their church was undamaged, and they are making it available during the week for a disability support organisation to use at low rent so they can continue to operate.’

At Rochedale in Brisbane’s southern suburbs, a school family from Redeemer Lutheran College received a gift of money from the LCA Disaster and Welfare Fund. The family, who did not have flood insurance, lost everything in the deluge, but the gift helped them manage their immediate devastating situation.

‘When I called them to let them know we wanted to help them in this small way, there was silence and then some tears as they realised they were not in this fight alone’, Mr Ruthenberg says.

Applicants for funding will need to meet certain criteria, one of which is agreeing to a face-to-face visit by a local Lutheran leader. ‘In this way, we can make personal connections with the people we are caring for’, Mr Ruthenberg says.

Options for donating to support flood-affected communities, including credit card online and bank transfer, are available at www.lca.org.au/disaster-welfare  Donors should be aware that in the event of funds not being fully drawn down for flood recovery support, the money will be retained in the Disaster and Welfare Fund for use in the future.

386

‘Stimulating, powerful’: 2022 Festival of Learning

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This year’s Festival of Learning was held in a fully online mode and attracted over 100 registrations from all around Australia.

Built around the theme, Speaking Many Languages, Hearing One Voice, the Australian Lutheran College (ALC) program offered participants an introduction to a number of subjects offered by the college. They also were able to attend a wide variety of elective sessions, ranging from deaf ministry through to a presentation on the hidden language of bias.

Daily panel discussions on current issues facing the church also proved popular, with topics including ‘Church planting in the variety of Lutheran school contexts’ and ‘Changing ministry contexts’.

Many participants made the most of attending ‘conversation hour’ at the end of each day, where they could discuss topics that had been offered throughout the day. It was in these sessions that the comment, ‘We need to keep having this conversation [in the church]’ was mentioned again and again. One of the aims of the annual festival is to open up theological conversations, and these remarks demonstrate that ALC is being successful in this endeavour.

Feedback received from the event was overwhelmingly positive and included comments such as ‘stimulating’, ‘powerful’, ‘fabulous’, ‘interactive’, ‘I learnt so much’ and ‘I never knew that’.

ALC plans to hold another Festival of Learning in 2023. The date claimer and program outline will be available later this year.

387

Because we bear your name

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Bishop Paul’s letter

Rev Paul Smith
Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand

Sometimes, there are little words or phrases in the Bible that unfold the wonderful mystery of God’s gracious hand at work in our world and in our lives. There is a phrase like that in the Easter story.

In the resurrection account in Luke’s Gospel, we learn of two disciples walking to Emmaus. We are told specifically that Emmaus is ‘11 kilometres from Jerusalem’, but there doesn’t seem to be any explanation as to why that piece of information is relevant or significant. It is only when the Risen Lord reveals his real identity to these two disciples, that we discover the reason for highlighting the distance.

The scriptures tell us in Luke 24, ‘That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.’

What is ‘that same hour’? If you remember the words of the well-loved hymn ‘Abide with me’, which is based on this Emmaus story, then you will remember ‘fast falls the eventide’. It is evening time!

The Emmaus story begins with another kind of darkness. The two disciples felt hopeless, lost and in a dark place because their Lord had suffered and died on the cross. But they had heard rumours that the Lord had been seen alive. As they wondered, ‘What did all this mean?’ they met a stranger who walked with them along the 11 kilometres from Jerusalem to Emmaus. The disciples stopped for the meal with this ‘stranger’ – who we know is our Risen Lord Jesus – and they stopped because it was getting dark.

When he reveals his identity to them, they are filled with joy, then the two immediately return to Jerusalem in the dark of night. This was 2000 years ago when there were no streetlights, no paved roads, no mobile phones with a light to switch on. They went 11 kilometres in the dark with all the hazards that would have been well known to them.

What motivated them to undertake such a perilous journey? It was the good news. These two disciples are the first to hear from the Lord himself, the gospel of the forgiveness of sin that we have through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This was what popular writer J.R.R. Tolkien describes as the good turning point in the story of Jesus, and, therefore, the good turning point of all human history.

We are told that the Lord said to them, ‘“Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.’

Then these two disciples travelled back the 11 kilometres from Emmaus to Jerusalem with a new purpose, full of hope and forever changed by this good news. They travelled this journey to share with the other disciples the good news of what they had experienced of the word and promise of the Risen Lord. As you join with sisters and brothers in Christ for this year’s Easter celebrations, may our Lord fill you with hope and joy to travel into whatever is ahead for you.

I once had a poster with the words, ‘If you really believed that Jesus rose from the dead, maybe you might want to shout it’. I pray that you have passion to boldly declare with Christian sisters and brothers of every time and place that wonderful Easter proclamation, ‘The Lord is risen indeed’. I pray together we would eagerly share with any who will listen, all that the Lord has made known for us.

Christ is risen!

Paul

(As a footnote to this meditation, I would like to express my personal thanksgiving for the many people who contributed to my recent installation service. God bless you.)

Lord Jesus, we belong to you,
you live in us, we live in you;
we live and work for you –
because we bear your name.

388

God places us just where he wants us

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by James Winderlich

Throughout our lives, God places us in many different relationships and roles. They are never just one thing. In some cases, they are not one thing forever.

Identifying and valuing our various life settings requires discernment. Sometimes it’s difficult to recognise them. At other times it can be difficult to appreciate them. We can even be tempted to believe that we deserve better, but God places us exactly where he wants us to be. Discernment leads us towards seeing, valuing and enacting our God-given roles.

Our roles can include being a follower of Jesus and a member of a Christian community, being someone’s daughter, son, or parent. It can include being a marriage partner, or an unmarried person. It can include being employed, or unemployed. Our life settings are where God places us to bear witness to him and to lovingly serve our neighbours. Vocations are what we do in those settings to witness and care. All of our roles and vocations have purpose irrespective of the status people give them. They are gifts from God.

As followers of Jesus one role is common to all of us. Living in faith and by faith is our shared life setting. That is why being part of a worshipping Christian community is so important.

Discerning the role that God calls us to begins with God’s word. As we read the scriptures, the Holy Spirit opens us up to recognise and appreciate where God places us and what God asks of us.

Role discernment also involves our lives together in Christian communities where our sense of internal calling is challenged and refined by Christian sisters and brothers. It is in community that we hear God’s word together, and are then able to help each other recognise and value our various callings.

Discernment also includes prayer. When we pray, we ask God for guidance, to provide what we need to witness and serve, and to thank God for the gift of our various life settings.

While Australian Lutheran College (ALC) focuses on the formation of pastors, teachers and church workers, we also support our students to give attention to their full range of callings. ALC also offers a learning program of intentional discernment called Discover. Discover helps people to recognise where God places them, and where God might be calling them to be.

Pastor James Winderlich is Australian Lutheran College Principal.

389

How I discovered God’s will for my life

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by Lisa McIntosh

When Tom Krahling was about 12 or 13, he began to wonder whether God wanted him to become a pastor. So, he spoke to his parish pastor about it and received some surprising advice.

‘He told me to be like Jonah, to run away and that if God wanted me to do it, he’d send a big fish to swallow me up and spit me out’, Tom, pictured above right, says. ‘I went and asked some other pastors and other mentors and they thought that advice wasn’t bad, and so throughout high school, I spent my academics preparing to be an engineer and I spent my Sundays growing in the faith and preparing in that way.

‘At the end of the day, it comes down to the theology of vocation. What has God given me to do? How can I use those gifts to serve others?

‘I thought I would pursue engineering, and I worked at it as if working for the Lord. But when the opportunity came up at church to grow or to get experience, I would go for that as well.’

The sense he was meant to be a pastor didn’t leave Tom, despite putting his energies into engineering studies. And so, with COVID ramping up in 2020, he decided to take leave from university and ‘test the waters’ by enrolling in the Discover program at Australian Lutheran College (ALC) from the second semester. Now 21, he has since completed three semesters of Discover and has applied to enter pastoral ministry study.

In his second semester at ALC, Tom moved onto campus at North Adelaide – a move that helped crystalise his decision to pursue pastoral ministry. ‘It became pretty clear that this is what I wanted to be doing’, Tom says. ‘And the study confirmed that more and more.’

The two-part Discover program features academic study and personal formation, including a ministry placement. Tom’s placement was at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide, helping out with the youth group and livestreaming services there.

His own experience shows that the so-called ‘aha’ moment of discernment is ‘often a lot more mundane than people expect’. ‘Over the years I’d had an interest, I’d had encouragement from people, but the final moment was just that last person who said, “You know Tom, I think you should become a pastor”’, he says. ‘And she was not the first person to say this. She was maybe the 100th person – pastors and mentors and friends confirming the inner call, and that’s really what made me sure.

‘There is more than one good thing that you can do in life, and I felt like God was saying, “Tom, you can be an engineer and do good and I will work through you in that; you can be a pastor and do good and I’ll work through that. I’m giving this choice to you”. I chose to study to be an engineer, and he said, “Good choice, but try again”.’

Contact Australian Lutheran College at enquiries@alc.edu.au to learn more about Discover. 

Knitting together past and future: the new ALC – see page 27

390

Cracking the code of our hidden stories

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Going GREYT! 1 Peter 4:10

In Going GREYT! we feature stories of some of our ‘more experienced’ people within the LCA, who have been called to make a positive contribution in their retirement. We pray their examples of service will be an inspiration and encouragement to us all as we look to be Christ’s hands and feet wherever we are, with whatever gifts and opportunities we’ve been given.

by Helen Brinkman

At Lutheran Archives in suburban Adelaide, up to 100 years of stories from Australia’s past are disguised in a largely forgotten handwritten German cursive script known as Kurrentschrift. And, just as archaeologists decipher hieroglyphics, the LCANZ has its own sleuths decoding the amazing stories contained in writings of this ancient German script, to share them with future generations.

Early this year, Australia recognised one of our supersleuths who has spent the past 30 years transcribing and translating Kurrentschrift to reveal its stories.

Dr Lois Zweck’s decades of research were recognised when she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her service to community history in the Australia Day 2022 Honours List.

‘Our local stories can be as dramatic and significant and inspiring as any history anywhere’, says 74-year-old Lois.

The volunteer transcriber, translator and research assistant has been at the forefront of deciphering Kurrentschrift, a feature of many records of early Lutheran history in Australia. ‘Lutheran Archives has 80 to 100 years of records not only in a language few of our people understand, but also in a handwriting even fewer can read’, says Lois. That presents a great challenge for anyone who wants to research the history of their family, their congregation, church, or missions.

That’s where Lois, a member at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide, feels so grateful for having acquired the skills that make it possible for her to help researchers access those stories.

‘You get addicted to following stories, to finding the answers … to following the trail and seeing how the stories help you understand what our church is and what it has been in the past’, Lois says.

A Lutheran Archives volunteer since 1992, and a life member of the Friends of Lutheran Archives, Lois is one of about 10 people who can read Kurrentschrift in the Adelaide-based archive. This houses correspondence and minutes in the script, and printed sources from the advent of church papers in the 1860s.

From 1920, English become the official language for synod reports and other official documents, as English began to predominate in church life.

Decades of German language studies and 10 years of formal tertiary study, including a PhD in German Studies and two post-doctoral years in Germany, laid the groundwork for Lois to crack the code of the Kurrentschrift telling the firsthand stories of Australia’s first Lutherans.

But her academic history alone was not enough.

Like her colleagues, she taught herself to read the script in 1988 to translate documents for the centenary history of Adelaide’s Concordia College, using an old textbook with the German alphabet. It went from there.

Her mastery of German also led to her work for two cardinals at the Vatican for 17 years from 2002, translating papers and speeches. She was even presented to Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square in Rome.

That’s not bad for a person who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa aged 17, on entering the University of Adelaide, and who later was assessed as legally blind. Her condition means Lois has a small section of central vision (5-10 degrees), instead of up to 180 degrees. Fortunately, that’s all you need to be able to read.

Added to that was the fact that, while her brothers Trevor and Glen were seminary graduates, Lois was part of the first generation in her family to attend university.

She was born 11th of 12 children and raised on a farm near Blyth in South Australia’s Mid-North. She also grew up among the post-war generation of rural families which sent their daughters to boarding school, completing her secondary schooling at Concordia College.

Her love of language has been life-long. Supported by encouraging people, she’s gone further than she ever imagined. ‘I’m enormously grateful to those people for being God’s guiding hand to put me in the place where I am, doing what I enjoy most, in an area where I can best contribute to my community’, Lois says.

‘The more I look back, I can see everything I had done was leading me precisely there. It was giving me the capacity to do it and the time to do it, it was all a gift. It is very gratifying to do what you enjoy doing and to see other people acknowledge a value in it.’

Among Lois’s favourite Psalms are Psalm 77 and 78, describing why we need to remember God’s ‘wonderful works’ in the past and tell it to future generations so they too ‘might set their hope in God’. Psalm 77:11 – ‘I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord’, appears on the dedication plaque of the original LCA Archives, where this story began 30 years ago.

The LCANZ’s new churchwide Bishop Paul Smith quoted Psalm 77 in a congratulatory letter to Lois after identifying a Zweck at the bottom of the honours list in the newspaper.

He said that honouring ‘those who have gone before us is a call to continue this work for the sake of those who come after’.

‘You cannot give thanks if you don’t know what you have been given’, Lois says. ‘We have to tell future generations about what God has done for us and those before us.

‘I cannot imagine a better life for myself than the life I have been given.’

Helen Brinkman is a Brisbane-based writer who is inspired by the many GREYT people who serve tirelessly and humbly in our community. By sharing stories of how God shines his light through his people, she hopes others are encouraged to explore how they can use their gifts to share his light in the world.

Know of any other GREYT stories in your local community? Email the editor lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au