The Lutheran December 2012

Print Post Approved PP536155/00031 VOL 46 NO 11

NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

DECEMBER 2012

Long ago God spoke … by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son [Heb 1:1,2a]

EDITOR/ADVERTISING phone 08 8339 5178 email linda.macqueen@lca.org.au

SUBSCRIPTIONS phone 08 8360 7270 email lutheran.subs@lca.org.au

SOPHIE, FETCH!

www.thelutheran.com.au We Love The Lutheran!

Some dogs love to fetch the newspaper for their owner.

Sophie the golden retriever loves to fetch The Lutheran.

As the magazine of the Lutheran Church of Australia (incorporating the Lutheran Church of New Zealand), The Lutheran informs the members of the LCA about the church’s teaching, life, mission and people, helping them to grow in faith and commitment to Jesus Christ. The Lutheran also provides a forum for a range of opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or the policies of the Lutheran Church of Australia. The Lutheran is a member of the Australasian Religious Press Association and as such subscribes to its journalistic and editorial codes of conduct.

Photo: Julian Schubert

Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and you might see it here on page 2 We Love The Lutheran!

CONTACTS Editor Linda Macqueen PO Box 664, Stirling SA 5152, Australia phone (+61) 08 8339 5178 email linda.macqueen@lca.org.au National Magazine Committee Wayne Gehling (chair), Greg Hassold, Sarah Hoff-Zweck, Pastor Richard Schwedes, Heidi Smith

People like you are salt in your world [ Matt 5:13 ]

Design and layout Comissa Fischer Printer Openbook Howden

ADVERTISEMENTS and MANUSCRIPTS Should be directed to the editor. Manuscripts are published at the discretion of the editor. Those that are published may be cut or edited. Advertisements are accepted for publication on a date-received basis.

Acceptance of advertisements does not imply endorsement by The Lutheran or the Lutheran Church of Australia of advertiser, product or service.

Copy deadline: 1st of preceding month Rates: general notices and small advertisements, $18.00 per cm; for display, contract and inserted advertisements, contact the editor.

SUBSCRIPTIONS and CHANGES of ADDRESS LCA Subscriptions PO Box 731, North Adelaide SA 5006 phone 08 8360 7270 email lutheran.subs@lca.org.au www.thelutheran.com.au 11 issues per year— Australia $40 New Zealand $42 Asia/Pacific $51 Rest of the World $60

Bryan Barras

Gebhard Schornikow Val Schumacher

Bethlehem, Bendigo Vic Retired principal Enjoys golf, travel and gardening Fav text: Ps 23, and he repeats Ps 136 daily

St Philips, Tarneit Vic Traffic officer Enjoys family and gardening Fav text: Matt 7:7

Our Saviour, Aberfoyle Park SA Retired Enjoys walking, reading, travelling and volunteering Fav text: Isa 40:31

Surprise someone you know with their photo in The Lutheran. Send us a good-quality photo, their name and details (congregation, occupation, what they enjoy doing, favourite text) and your contact details.

Issued every month except in January Vol 46 No11 P366

FEATURES

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05 Finding Rita 09 Making a song and dance 10 Boy Zone 21 Kindness for kindy kids 22 Verkis

COLUMNS

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04 From the President 12 Little Church

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13 Inside Story 17 Letters /Directory 18 Stepping Stones 20 Notices

When I took up the reins of The Lutheran fourteen years ago, the production team consisted of just one member: me.

While I quite enjoyed being a one-woman-band, it wasn’t a sustainable situation, and so, over the years, The Lutheran team has grown into a spritzy little orchestra.

These days I work only half-time as editor of The Lutheran.

My other half-time position is coordinator of the LCA’s communications unit, called LCA Connect. Joining me now are some wonderfully gifted women, with whom I am proud to work in the LCA communications team. They are a hardworking bunch, and so they’ve been affectionately dubbed ‘Linda’s elves’. They each work one or two days a week on either The Lutheran or LCA Connect or both. We’re a lean (but not at all mean) machine.

Since it’s nearly Christmas, I thought this would be a good time to introduce you to the elves who work behind the scenes of The Lutheran and LCA Connect.

All of us thank you for your support and prayers during 2012. We wish you and your loved ones an Advent season that’s blessed by the Babe of Bethlehem, the King of Kings —and we look forward to serving you again in 2013.

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25 Bookmarks 26 Heart and Home

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28 World in Brief

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30 Coffee Break

Christmas blessings from the LCA communications team (clockwise from front left): Serena Williams (Queensland-based journalist), Kendrea Rhodes (LCA Connect journalist, contracted to Board for Mission as communications assistant), Linda Macqueen (editor The Lutheran and coordinator LCA Connect), Gaynor Gower (top) (LCA subscriptions officer), Janise Fournier (B10K officer and administration assistant), Comissa Fischer (The Lutheran designer) and Rosie Schefe (SA-based journalist). Not pictured: proofreaders Pastor David Strelan and Kathy Gaff, based in Queensland

He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways

‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways’ (Psalm 91:11).

In the book of Psalms, angels are also warriors and encouragers. Each part of every day brings its own dangers to us, from the hours of the night when we cannot sleep, to the temptations of the day. ‘Let your holy angel be with me, so that the evil one may have no power over me’, says Luther’s Evening Prayer.

It is not because of the work of an angel, however, that we enter heaven.

Angels appear around the work of Christ. Even the ’foreman’ among angels, Michael, could not finally defeat the dragon of evil; only the death of the one Son of God on a grim, crude cross has done that.

One bad angel, a messenger of death, destroyed Job’s family and property.

God’s angels, on the other hand, closed the mouths of the lions when Daniel was thrown into their den. It was an angel who protected Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in a fiery furnace.

Angels appear in major events as recorded in the Bible. They were there when Adam and Eve were expelled from their garden paradise. They were present when old Abraham was promised a son.

Keep up to date with news, prayer points and call information by visiting http://www.lca.org.au/ presidents-page-archive.html or by subscribing to the president’s electronic newsletter. To receive the newsletter, send an email to itofficer@lca.org.au giving the email address you would like included.

LCA pastors and layworkers are automatically included in this list.

Rev Dr Mike Semmler President Lutheran Church of Australia

The angels of God are his messengers to carry out his tasks.

Never alone, even in small congregations, we are familiar with angels in the liturgy of our church: ‘Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we adore and magnify your glorious name …’. The name of Christ brings angels to the fore. It was an angel who announced the resurrection of the Saviour, Jesus, God’s Son. When God intervenes in our lives, it is the angels who say, ‘Do not be afraid’.

And so it was when the Saviour, the child of Bethlehem, was born. Hosts of angels, entrusted as his messengers to carry his announcement to all the earth, joined the good news chorus.

At this Christmas initiative of God, we find excited angels inviting us to join them. They already knew what we still struggle to comprehend today: God has kept his promise. The angels’ day-to-day protection is of great comfort, but where we most need guarding is against the consequences of sin, unbelief and a purposeless, hopeless existence.

We do not understand the traps around us that threaten our status as God’s children. We do not understand that it took the vicarious death of Jesus Christ to break the barriers of death. We may doubt from time to time that this is for us. It really means God has acted where no-one and nothing else could. He also cares about our everyday issues and welfare in a world hostile to the threat of a child claiming to be the promised Saviour.

The unprotected death of Christ gives us a protected death and life in him.

Given the big picture of salvation intervening in this life at Christmas, in a child, the angels respond to the birth of the Saviour: ‘Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.’

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Photo: Linda Macqueen

finding Rita

by Rosie Schefe

The Mutitjulu Lutheran Church sits virtually in the shadow of Uluru.

Finding Rita Okai isn’t easy. Finding her community, Mutitjulu, isn’t easy either, even though it is situated close to the base of Uluru.

I first try to contact Rita at her office, but the woman who answers the phone says Rita isn’t there; she’s gone to do the banking at Yulara resort. There’s only one bank, so I drop in and ask if they’ve seen her this morning.

No, the staff tell me, she wasn’t due today, but she may be coming in anyway and they will give her my mobile number if she turns up.

I try Rita’s mobile and one of her family members answers and tells me she’s not there; she’s gone to work. When I try the office again, the answering machine is on, with messages in Pitjantjatjara and English, so I leave a message and my mobile number, and hope for the best.

Around lunchtime I try Rita’s mobile again and this time she answers. Yes, she says, come out to Mutitjulu and we can talk in her office. She gives me some directions and I tell her that I’m about half an hour away.

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It’s an amazing drive around Uluru. Every turn in the road gives a different play of colour and shadow over the enormous rock dominating the landscape. Signs indicate that we are getting near to Mutitjulu, but somehow we end up circumnavigating the monolith without coming to the settlement.

so it takes a couple of minutes before they notice the slightly deranged-looking white female.

We retrace the road, finally working out where the signage has been modified, and turn towards the community. It’s not big; a couple of hundred people live here at most. But even in such a small community it’s easy for a whitefella to get lost. I’m in the main street, but because of Rita’s accent and my hopeless sense of direction, I can’t tell where her office is. I call her again.

When I knock on the door of the modified shipping container, Rita has a young woman and a baby with her.

She’s helping the woman to fill out her Centrelink paperwork, so I’m happy to sit in the courtyard and wait for her to finish.

‘What do you want?’ the dealer asks me. ‘I’m looking for Rita Okai’, I tell him.

Seconds later I find out how ridiculous that sounds to a Mutitjulu resident; Rita’s office is three buildings away.

‘What do you see?’ she asks me. I’m outside the health centre (closed for the day) and I can see a big white ghost gum and quite a lot of people sitting around underneath it. ‘Go ask them’, Rita says.

During the week Rita is the Centrelink agent for Mutitjulu, a critical role in the community. Her office is in the Anangu Jobs complex—three shipping containers arranged to create a shadecloth-covered courtyard, complete with paving, a couple of tables and chairs and some garden beds, where young grevilleas are just starting to show some fresh growth.

There are about 30 adults, another ten or so children and at least eight camp dogs under the tree. A card game is in progress and money is changing hands,

The other two containers are home to an op-shop and a small training facility, neither of which is open for business today.

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When Rita’s client leaves, she joins me in the courtyard to talk about her other role as a lay worker in the Mutitjulu Lutheran Church. Quietly she tells me she’s been a member of the church at Uluru for a long time.

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For details contact Ann Blake at Harvey World Travel Norwood on 08 8332 9933, or tour leaders Margaret and Irwin Traeger on 08 8336 1141.

As the lay worker, Rita takes confirmation class for the young people, runs Sunday school and helps out in worship, especially during communion. She helps Pastor Hezekial Jingoona with whatever needs to be done, she says.

Usually on Sundays there are just a few people in church, but there are always more for funerals.

Singing is very important in this church, but it is hard to get people to commit, she says. A while ago there was a lot

‘I pray in Pitjantjatjara!’

by Rosie Schefe Photo: Rosie Schefe

‘I pray in Pitjantjatjara!’ Pastor Hezekial Jingoona says proudly, one of the few times during our time together that he speaks in English.

That’s no surprise really. As translator Paul Traeger (speaking Pintubi) helps me navigate through my interview with Pastor Hezekial, we calculate that he speaks about eight languages fluently, and English is well down on that list.

Not only does he pray in Pitjantjatjara, Pastor Hezekial also reads the Bible and worships and sings in his first language.

Telling me that he prays in Pitjantjatjara brings a huge smile to his face—a moment that words can’t convey—because much of Pastor Hezekial’s most-recognised work is to do with preserving his culture, passing it on to younger generations and giving interested tourists a glimpse into what it means to be Anangu (a term Pitjantjatjara people use to describe themselves).

Pastor Hezekial is leader of a congregation that most Lutherans aren’t even aware exists—at Mutitjulu, in the shadow of Uluru. He is also an artist and a senior elder among the traditional owners of Australia’s most recognised natural icon.

‘I work in my own family country, my father’s country, my grandfather’s country’, he says.

A long-term cultural heritage advisor to Parks Australia, Pastor Hezekial teaches National Parks staff and visitors about Anangu culture and its importance within the UluruKata Tjuta National Park. He also mentors younger Anangu and works with the Junior Rangers program to build skills 6

The Lutheran December 2012

Lutheran pastor and Male Elder of the Year for 2012 Hezekial Jingoona. He chose to be photographed in front of this mural depicting Bethlehem Lutheran Church at Hermannsburg. that they will need to be able to gain employment in the national park.

This important work was recognised nationally in July when Hezekial was named the Male Elder of the Year for 2012, as part of NAIDOC Week celebrations.

But being pastor to the people of Mutitjulu is as important for Hezekial as his cultural work, and because of the living Pitjantjatjara language, the two roles are closely woven. He is also involved in work to support translation of the Bible and Lutheran liturgies into Pitjantjatjara.

‘Although I am a park manager, I take the time to go to all the bush courses for pastors’, he said. ‘I have been a pastor for a very long time.’

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don’t see all the bad things that happen to you … Through bad times God is there for you. of practising for singing in the church, and then the ladies went across to Ross River for the Big Sing choir workshop.

Worship at Mutitjulu is conducted in the Pitjantjatjara language, even when Finke River Mission pastor Rob Borgas brings visitors to the community.

‘It’s good to learn about God; God changes your life’, Rita says. ‘Then you

don’t see all the bad things that happen to you; you feel happy every day.

Photo: Rosie Schefe

It’s good to learn about God; God changes your life. Then you

‘Through bad times God is there for you.’

I sense that Rita has relied on God a few times in her life. Mutitjulu is the kind of community where you need to.

Mutitjulu is proud to be identified as the home of Uluru’s traditional owners, but it is also infamous as the community which sparked the Northern Territory Intervention nearly six years ago. It remains divided and dysfunctional, but thanks to faithful members like Rita, Mutitjulu still has its own sacred Lutheran place, where God’s word is heard.

Rosie Schefe is editor of the SA/NT District’s Together newspaper and part-time journalist with LCA Connect.

Read another story about Rita at www.lca.org.au/mutitjulu-womaninstalled-as-lay-worker.html

As lay worker at Mutitjulu, Rita takes confirmation class, runs Sunday school and helps out in worship, especially during communion.

The board and staff of Finke River Mission along with the 6500 Aboriginal Lutherans of central Australia

For unto us a child is born...

[Isaiah 9:6]

thank you

for your ongoing prayers and generous support.

The work of Finke River Mission helps create and support vibrant Indigenous worshipping communities in central Australia.

May God’s peace, love and joy surround you at Christmas time and always.

LUTHERAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

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More information: Sheree Higgins FRM Development Officer 08 8952 4666 sheree.h@finkerivermission.org.au www.finkerivermission.org.au

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Yirara College of the Finke River Mission Inc

Equipping Indigenous youth with a Christ-centred education for life

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST invited for various positions

Yirara College is a Lutheran boarding school located seven kilometres south of Alice Springs, providing education to Indigenous secondary-age students from remote communities. The college provides 24-hour, seven-days-a-week care.

Expressions of interest are invited from appropriately qualified people with a genuine interest in serving God through supporting Indigenous youth in their academic, vocational, social, physical and spiritual growth.

Positions become available from time to time at Yirara across all areas of college life. The college would like to hear from people who are thinking about a change in work environment or are willing to commence their vocation in a rich, dynamic and Christian cross-cultural setting.

Backgrounds of relevance to meeting the needs of students, many of whom have low levels of numeracy and English oracy and literacy, include: • previous work experience in an Englishas-Second-Language (ESL) environment or other cross-cultural context, or holding a formal ESL qualification • vocational and life-skills teaching experience • strong ability to work relationally with others • interest and experience in working with young people who have suffered complex grief and/or complex trauma • strong understanding of the pedagogy of explicit teaching • interest and experience in teaching vernacular language • interest in developing engaging learning experiences in the academic and boarding programs that have a kinaesthetic focus

• willingness to visit remote communities in order to meet the families of students • love of young people, especially as they move through the challenges of adolescence.

Areas of work include teaching, houseparenting, community liaison work, administration and maintenance. People interested in working at the college at some point in the future in any of the areas of work listed above are invited to submit an Expression of Interest.

For the 2013 school year, the college is looking to specifically recruit to the following positions: • Teacher-librarian • School Counsellor/Psychologist • Design and Technology Teacher in either woodwork/metalwork or visual arts • Student Coordinator • Community Liaison Officer.

Applicants will be practising Christians with a willingness to support the Christian ethos of the college in word and deed. Further information on the positions, including a position description, can be obtained by phoning or emailing the college.

Expressions of interest or applications containing a short curriculum vitae, the names of two referees (preferably one from a minister of religion) and a response to the position description should be forwarded to: The Principal Yirara College of the Finke River Mission Inc PMB 51 Alice Springs NT 0872 Email info@yirara.nt.edu.au Telephone 08 8950 5644 www.yirara.nt.edu.au

Photo: Andrew Lloyd

Making a song and dance by Stuart Gray The all-African choir from St Pauls Lutheran church in Shepparton, Victoria, won ‘huge applause’ after singing two Christian songs at the Keith Murdoch Oration.

The prestigious event was held in the State Library in Melbourne on 14 November. Former Prime Minister Paul Keating (front of the picture above) delivered the oration.

St Paul’s pastor, Matt Anker, said it was a great honour that the state government organisation invited a Christian choir to be part of the event.

‘There was a huge amount of work in preparing for the event and getting the 25 choir members to Melbourne, but given the response to the singing, it was well worth it’, he said.

‘The choir was not on a stage, so about three-quarters of the audience stood up to get a better view of the singers.

The choir’s music filled the room. It was polished, beautiful singing’, Pastor Anker said.

After the event the choristers mingled with the audience.

Pastor Anker said that a lot of people were interested in where the Africans came from, what their stories were, how they came to be members of the Lutheran Church and what their future was in Shepparton.

‘They were congratulated on their performance, and I had many people thank me for bringing them to the event. They did themselves proud’, he said. ‘It was a wonderful experience Vol 46 No11 P373

for our very talented brothers and sisters, who highlighted the great contribution refugees are making to our country.’

The choir left Shepparton at 2.00 pm and did not get home until 2.00 am the next morning.

‘It was a very long day but in the end a very exciting one’, Pastor Anker said. ‘The day after, I had a call from the casting department of The Lion King, wanting some of the choristers to audition for the international casting department.

‘One never knows where God will lead his people.’

In 2007 St Paul’s was a shrinking congregation, with around 25 people worshipping regularly. Today it is bursting at the seams with predominantly African members, half of whom are under 18 years of age. The confirmation class has 30 members, more than the entire congregation's membership five years ago.

The congregation currently meets in a rented church, but plans are afoot to build a much larger church and cultural centre under a joint project funded by the LCA and the Victorian government.

In the Victoria/Tasmania District, about 75 per cent of LCA pastors minister to Africans, with the major focus areas being Dandenong, Traralgon, Shepparton and Footscray.

Dandenong alone has 306 African people under spiritual care.

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Photo: Concordia College

Boy Zone

by Rosie Schefe

You want boys to get involved in serving others?

Simple: just add football.

Some say that Aussie Rules is the true religion of Australia, but what happens when a Lutheran school uses Aussie Rules as a vehicle for reaching out to others?

A whole lot of learning, on both sides —that’s the short answer.

In October a small group of students and staff from Adelaide’s Lutheran Concordia College travelled to Vanuatu, where they linked up with the AFL Vanuatu Committee and its Under-16 team, the Vanuatu Volcanoes.

Their aim was to provide an opportunity for the Concordia students to participate in a service-learning project that would engage the boys and benefit the fledgling sport in Vanuatu.

‘Concordia has a history of servicelearning, teaching students to be part of the global community by serving people in other environments’, Concordia Director of Development 10

The Lutheran December 2012

Wayne Gehling said. College students have participated in projects with Habitat for Humanity (in partnership with other Lutheran schools), in South Africa’s Kalahari region and in the bushfire-damaged Victorian community of Flowerdale.

‘But it’s harder to engage boys in service-learning than girls’, Wayne said.

That is, until now.

The idea for Football Outreach Vanuatu began in 2011, when parttime Vanuatu resident and former member of the Hampstead Lutheran congregation Malcolm Thiel visited Wayne, hoping that the college might provide financial assistance for the Vanuatu Volcanoes to travel to an Aussie Rules competition in the South Pacific.

Malcolm was heavily involved in a coaching role and became a member of the AFL Vanuatu Committee, after moving to the small Pacific nation on

a semi-permanent basis about four years ago.

‘Vanuatu is often described as the happiest place in the world, but it does have its own set of problems’, Wayne said.

‘Just under 50 per cent of the population is aged under 18, and infrastructure is under pressure because of migration from the smaller islands into the capital, Port Vila.

‘There’s not much of a future for these young people, other than in the tourism industry. They value education, but once they leave school there are not a lot of employment opportunities for them, and many slip into the Kava culture’, he said. (Kava is a sedative drink, used and often abused, in many Pacific nations.)

Aussie Rules has proven to be a good way of engaging young Vanuatuan men and building life skills though Vol 46 No11 P374

One bite isn’t enough, is it?

Here’s how to get the whole apple.

Subscribe to The Lutheran.

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Subscribe online at www.thelutheran.com.au or contact LCA Subscriptions: lutheran.subs@lca.org.au Phone (in Australia) 08 8360 7270 Phone (outside Australia) +618 8360 7270 Vol 46 No11 P375

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