The Lutheran February 2012 by Lutheran Church of Australia

THE LUTHERAN PO Box 664, Stirling SA 5152, Australia editor: 08 8339 5178 advertising: 08 8339 5178 subscriptions: 08 8360 7270 editor: linda.macqueen@lca.org.au advertising: linda.macqueen@lca.org.au subscriptions: lutheran.subs@lca.org.au www.thelutheran.com.au We Love The Lutheran!

Ehrlichs learn early: Ryan Ehrlich (born 26.12.2011) has already been introduced to The Lutheran. He is held by his dad Jake, and supported by greatgrandfather Allan and grandfather Lester. All four generations are members of Bethlehem, Glencoe, Qld Photo by Lyn Ehrlich Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and you might see it here on page 2

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. Editor Linda Macqueen, PO Box 664, Stirling SA 5152, Australia phone (+61) 08 8339 5178, email linda.macqueen@lca.org.au Beyond10K Project Officer Janise Fournier, phone 08 8387 0328 email janise.fournier@lca.org.au National Magazine Committee Wayne Gehling (chair), Greg Hassold, Sarah Hoff-Zweck, Pastor Richard Schwedes, Heidi Smith Design and layout Comissa Fischer Printer Openbook Howden Issued every month except in January ADVERTISEMENTS and MANUSCRIPTS should be directed to the editor at the above address. 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 08 8360 7270, lutheran.subs@lca.org.au, www.thelutheran.com.au Subscriptions: 11 issues per year — Australia $39, New Zealand $41, Asia/Pacific $50, Rest of the World $59

GERTRUDE SIMON

RAY MYERS

MEGAN KOCH

Faith, Warradale SA Retired teacher Enjoys: Riding her scooter and KYB studies Fav text: 1 Thess 5:16-18

Zion, Gympie Qld Semi-retired Enjoys: Fishing, his wife’s cooking Fav text: Matt 22:37

St Mark’s, Underdale SA Student Enjoys: Drawing and time with friends Fav text: Isa 40:31

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Chatline

As two friends of mine exchanged wedding rings, this is what they said to each other: 'This ring that I give to you has elements of our past, the wonderful present and our exciting future …' That's a lovely expression but it's not especially memorable … until you learn that their wedding rings had been fashioned from the melted-down and combined gold of the wedding bands from their previous marriages. That makes you prick up your ears, doesn't it? Is that something you would do … drag all your memories of pain and brokenness from one marriage into the next one—in a physical, highly visible and permanent way? But think about it. In the exchanging of those unique rings they were making a public declaration that, for all the pain in their previous relationships, their partners had played a major role in shaping them—for better and for worse—into the people they are today. There is no escaping your past; you carry it with you wherever you go, including into a new marriage. My friends were unashamedly declaring that they were giving to each other all of themselves—not just the best bits—as they committed themselves to each other for the rest of their lives. It was a way of declaring: I am giving you both the light and the dark in me, the whole pieces and

are

the broken bits, my strengths and my weaknesses, my hopes and my regrets, my joy and my pain. They were acknowledging that they were all these things, all mixed up together as one, melted down and fashioned into a brand new life together. When St Paul proclaims, ‘So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!’ (2 Cor 5:17), he doesn't mean that God wipes our hard drive clean so that we can't remember our past anymore. (Because we can remember it, and we do.) Instead, God takes all the pieces of our life—even our mistakes, our weaknesses and our failures, even the most painful parts of our lives—and fashions them into a new creation. In this first edition of The Lutheran this year, we share some stories about people whom God has called out of darkness or lostness or great tragedy. He has melted down all the pieces of their life and created something beautiful, something unique, something new. Look for the NEW symbol in this and in other editions of The Lutheran this year. And be encouraged as you see how God makes new creations out of life's meltdowns.

Linda Macqueen Editor

God takes all the pieces of our life—even our mistakes, our weaknesses and our failures, even the most painful parts of our lives—and fashions them into a new creation.

Linda

salt in your world

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Matt 5:13

Our Lord is a missionary God. His mission is in the sending of his Son. It is in his love for the world. From beginning to end (Alpha and Omega) it is in his Son Jesus, who is the Christ. It is his gift that each of us is a new creation in Christ to be ‘ambassadors for Christ’ (2 Cor 5:20). The College of Presidents and the Board for Mission of our church have the revelation to the young pastor Timothy (1 Tim 2:4) in our minds that clearly our Lord ‘desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’. We spent time with District President Rev Don Schiemann of Lutheran Church – Canada on this issue at our annual retreat during the middle of last year.

Rev Dr Mike Semmler President Lutheran Church of Australia

Keep up to date with news, prayer points and call information by visiting www.lca.org.au/president 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. All LCA pastors and layworkers are automatically included in this list.

As parents we pray constantly that our baptised children will never turn their backs on their heritage as the heavenly Father’s own, but that God’s word of gracious action would always nourish their lives. Mission begins with God and ends with God. While we in the LCA partner in mission with churches in Papua New Guinea and South-east Asia, we also have a growing church among the Chinese people in our own countries, refugees from Africa, including South Sudan, and a continuing commitment to our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. We have aged-care facilities and schools of the church, and efforts at church-planting, all presenting the message of salvation in Christ that only the people of God can bring. Sometimes, however, we lose heart. Congregations close. We see death. We forget that for us life comes from death, just as a farmer sows the seed that dies in order to bring a great harvest, and the Son of God himself is raised to life after his crucifixion. When a congregation completes its earthly journey, that does not mean all is lost. On the contrary, the congregation has served God’s purpose and, with its assets and with those whom it has nourished in the faith, new beginnings

are beckoning as other parts of our cities and regions are given opportunity to begin anew in the gospel.

Sometimes ... we lose heart. Congregations close. We see death. We forget that for us

life comes from death, just as a farmer sows the seed that dies in order to bring a great harvest.

In the Book of Revelation (7:9,10) the apostle John describes a vision of ‘a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb”.’ The liturgical response at the end of this word from God assures us that we will pass through whatever sufferings and death this world can throw at us, and with our robes washed white in Christ’s blood we already join with those from every time and tribe and nation on earth in worshipping the Lamb who is our Saviour. God has his very heart in his mission and it will have its effect. For us now as a church, we have the word, we have bread and wine and we have water. That is enough. That is for our salvation, our hope and the means for mission, as we bring Christ to people. The Lutheran February 2012 vol46 no1 p4

by Otholi Okwot

I want to start at the very beginning. We are Anuak, from the region of Gambella on the border of Sudan and Ethiopia. Our village was Punydo, about four hours from the city of Gambella, the capital city of the region. The population of our village was about 10,000. For my work I sold bananas, mangoes and other fruit. In my village were Assembly of God, Presbyterian and Baptist churches. God sowed the seeds in my heart and I decided to go to church. From there I met with people in the church and became a friend to them. I joined in a program for prayer. I started to know how to pray but did not really know God in my heart. I did not really know about life after death and I did not understand that I am a stranger here on earth. The Lutheran February 2012 vol46 no1 p5

In December 2003 a government vehicle was attacked on the road in our region. The government said that because it was on Anuak land, the Anuak people were responsible. There had been much disagreement between Central Ethiopian businesspeople and Anuak people. There had been years of torture and beatings of Anuak people. On Saturday, 13 December people gathered in Gambella. The Anuak police had their guns taken from them. The military distributed machetes to civilians. At 9.00 pm they began to burn the city, shooting and killing Anuak people, to totally get rid of us. Our friend’s father was the Assemblies of God pastor. He was shot and killed and his body was burnt by soldiers. At 10.00 pm soldiers walked into our village in groups of ten. There was a young boy, a Year 12 student, who got

When I held the Bible in my hand, when every young man was being killed, the soldiers just looked at me and kept running. It was as if they looked at me but couldn’t see me. I understand now that God was protecting me.

Otholi, Ariet and their son Jackson escaped with only their lives when their village was burnt to the ground. Now resettled with Ariet and Jackson in Australia, Otholi looks forward with faith and hope as his new life rises from the ashes. He told his story to Chris and Julie Hahn 5

into a fight with a Central Ethiopian. It was just a little fight. He taunted and teased the military. Then he ran. They shot and killed him. I was in a prayer group at the time. I had left my wife Ariet and son Jackson at home and wanted to get back to them. I held my Bible under my arm. The soldiers saw me but they ignored me. They killed ten people that night. When I got home Ariet and Jackson had gone and Ariet had locked the door. I broke in and hid inside, not knowing what to do or where to go. Then I went to our auntie’s home. Ariet and Jackson were there. We began to walk in the middle of the night. With others we walked but we could not talk. We needed to remain silent. There were about a thousand of us. We walked for four hours. We hid in the bushes. The Anuak people began to gather together to find guns and to seek revenge. Four soldiers were killed on the Monday. I wanted to pray; I did not want to fight. They told me I was a coward. The soldiers camped during the day and in the evening went to villages. They had heard that the people in the villages had guns. They killed the Anuak and burnt down whole villages. On Tuesday we walked for six more hours. Eventually, after walking about 150 kilometres, we arrived in Sudan. But we didn’t have any food.

We set off for Pochalla. But still there was no food. It was not organised as a refugee camp, not recognised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Refugees kept arriving in Pochalla, but there was not enough food to feed them. There were 22,000 people in that camp. People died of malnutrition, especially mothers after childbirth. We stayed there for two years, fending for ourselves. We caught animals according to the seasons. As a group we would work together to catch them. Our favourite was antelope. Eventually, there were no animals left. No food at all. Ariet and I decided to go to Kenya, carrying Jackson on our shoulders. We left our older children — who had been living with other family members — with their grandmothers in Pochalla. It was unsafe to take them with us because we would have been too slow. For eleven days we travelled. We walked for three days and then we rode in the back of a military truck. There were 50 of us in the back of the truck. We were so close to each other, leaning on each other, our legs scrunched up, with no room to move or stretch out. During this time we lost our documents. When we got to the Kenyan border the police wouldn’t allow us to cross. They put us in prison for five days. Then the UN negotiated with the police to release us.

We went to Kakuma Refugee Camp and stayed there for three months, together with Sudanese and Somalian refugees. While we were in Kakuma I worked with the men to dig a bore hole. It had a solar-powered pump and irrigated a field. I was paid for my work. We saved as much money as we could, enough to catch a bus to Dadaab camp. We stayed in Ifoh, a suburb of the Dadaab camp. In Ifoh, Lutheran counsellors worked with the Anuak people. I was chosen to be taught the Apostles’ Creed and the catechism. I had three months training, was confirmed and became a Lutheran. In 2006 we began praying as a Lutheran congregation but we had no place to worship. I was running a program in my house. But eventually we were given land in Ifoh and we built a church there. The Lutheran World Federation came to Dadaab in 2008. It organised security, shelter, water and training. I was trained in security and became a volunteer team leader. My job was to monitor the housing shelters. I was leader over many people. I was given a CB handset and had good communication with police officers. While we were in Dadaab a friend told me that my name had appeared on the noticeboard to say I had been chosen to have an interview. There I was told that my name had been selected from a thousand names.

We began to walk in the middle of the night. With others we walked but we could not talk. We needed to remain silent. There were about a thousand of us... We hid in the bushes.

6 6

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My second interview was with the Australian embassy. They asked me, ‘Do you know which embassy is interviewing you?’ I did not know. I was not excited. Going to Australia was not something I had ever thought about. I had only ever thought about going back home; that is all I wanted. All I knew about Australia was what I’d learnt in Grades 6 and 7. I had heard about kangaroos. But I believed that I needed to seek God’s kingdom first and everything else would be given to me. So I just accepted. The Australian embassy offered me the opportunity to resettle. From there it took about eight months to come to Australia. The Australian government paid for and arranged everything. We just followed instructions: go to the interview, go for the medical, pack your bags, get on the bus, get on the plane … God has a plan for the people who trust in him. When I had been called a coward, I was not demoralised. God

protected me. If it were not for God, I would not be alive today. ‘If the Lord had not been on our side … if the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive’ (Psalm 124:1-3). I can see God’s plan now. God knew the plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11), even when I was just surviving. I was just living to be safe, to survive. But God had a bigger plan to use me. He led me. He had prepared a place for me. When, back in the village, I held the Bible in my hand, when every young man was being killed, the soldiers just looked at me and kept running. It was as if they looked at me but couldn’t see me. I understand now that God was protecting me at that time. Since I’ve been a Christian and have known God, I don’t think of being Anuak anymore. I feel that my brothers and sisters are all those who are in Christ. The word of God says, ‘Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers,

but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household’ (Ephesians 2:19). Now I am in Australia and am learning to build. I dream that I could go back to my country—to show my people how to build, and to build a church. Then to train people to build their houses. In my country, education is only to make people accountants or teachers. There are no doctors, no engineers. People have to pay lots of money to others who have learnt new ways to do things. I am dreaming that I can help, that my children can make a difference in my home country, that Jackson could go to teach them—or that my other children could join us here. But although I have these dreams, I am whole enough. I know that God can do it. Without God’s help, it won’t happen. But with God’s help, greater things than I can dream of can happen. Otholi, Ariet and Jackson, and Chris and Julie Hahn, are members of The Ark Lutheran Church at Salisbury, SA.

I am dreaming that I can help, that my children can make a difference in my home

Chris Hahn

country, that Jackson could go to teach them— or that my other children could join us here.

The Lutheran February 2012 vol46 no1 p7

the reluctant atheist The Grey might seem like yet another ‘monster movie’—the sort where the characters are chased around a forbidding landscape, falling victim one by one to creatures they can’t hope to fight. But humans are not the only ones being hunted in this film. Also fighting for their lives are an atheistic worldview and the image of a caring God. Liam Neeson plays Ottway, a hunter hired by an Alaskan oil company to keep its employees safe from the wildlife prowling their frozen workplace. But Ottway is battling a much larger beast. Death has claimed his wife and he is no longer sure if he has any place in life. ‘I’ve stopped doing this world any real good’, his thoughts tell the audience. However, when the company jet he’s travelling on crashes into the frozen tundra, Ottway finds himself responsible for saving the survivors from death incarnate—a pack of ravenous wolves. The Grey is the conversation about death that no-one wants to have. The seven survivors slowly realise that if the cold doesn’t kill them, then starvation or the wolves stand a good chance. However, Ottway displays a calmness that neither their bravado nor their fear can shake. As a crash victim lies bleeding, he offers the truth no-one wants to admit: Victim: ‘What’s happening?’ Ottway: ‘You’re going to die, that’s what’s happening. Keep looking at me. Who do you love?’ Victim: ‘Rosey.’ Ottway: ‘Let her take you there.’

Rating: M Distributor: Icon Release Date: 16 February

But don’t mistake Ottway’s words for some pluralist philosophy that sees everyone reunited on the other side. His personal experience of pain has convinced him everything stops at the grave, and concentrating on loved ones is simply a way to calm your fears. His father has left him with a poem that has him fighting for today but forgetting everything else:

Once more into the fray, to the only good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day.

Of course this could just be Ottway’s grief talking, but when, Job-like, he confronts God, we discover the atheist’s real objection: how could the Almighty allow such pain? ‘Do something, you phony! Prove it! I need something real! I’m calling on you. Show it to me now and I promise I will believe in you to the day I die!’ Ottway screams. The deafening silence justifies his dismissal of the divine: ‘I’ll do it myself.’ The Grey fades to a black-and-white conclusion, even though you get the sense Ottway would like to believe if he could. However, his reluctant atheism cannot see anything more important than his survival, and therefore any purpose to his pain. Ironically it’s Ottway’s pain that finally brings him to deal with God. Neeson’s character can see this is not the way the world should be and that death’s real pain is the separation it brings. But, sadly, to solve his biggest problem, he never considers the suffering undertaken by the one he accuses. Ottway will still die even if he is able to evade the wolves. We all will. But the life of Jesus has split history in two, leaving his death and a resurrection-shaped dent for all the world to see. If our life is safe with him, we can face the end with a confidence that countless have testified is more sure than any sharpened stick, and more comforting than simple nostalgia. 8

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like a moth to the light by Shane Thamm

In June 2009, Kevin Wood with his wife Jane and children Nathaniel, Michaela and Harmony.

Kevin Wood was living in a dark tunnel, bouncing off the walls, directionless. So it’s not surprising that when he glimpsed a way out, he was drawn, magnetically, towards the Light of the World.

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A Lutheran church in Sydney sounds like an unlikely place for an ex-spiritualist to decide to become a pastor. Combine that with the fact he had once been a drug-taking, drug-dealing, tarot-reading psychic from rural Queensland and it’s a miracle he ever turned up at a church in the first place. But that’s precisely what happened. It was 1994 when new Christian Kevin Wood returned to Sydney, his childhood home. He had left Howard, a county town about 300 kilometres north of Brisbane, and given up everything, including a rich circle of friends and a thriving youth ministry. He planned to study social work at the University of Sydney but was rejected on the grounds of ‘suitability’. He thinks this was on the grounds of his faith, which he expressed in his application.

So, Kevin, a 34-year-old engraver and shoe-repairer, was now in Sydney, living with his parents and infuriated about being there. ‘I was angry with God, I really was. What was going on? And then I started looking for a place to worship. I went to one place, and then another place …’ He never felt comfortable. At Howard, where he came to know Jesus as his Saviour, he had worshipped in what he describes as a ‘Spirit-led’ and ‘largely unorganised’ style. ‘I used to turn up at three o’clock on Sunday afternoon and we’d have prayer and praise and it was impromptu. Then we’d break and have a coffee and then have more teaching. After teaching time we’d have tea together. I wouldn’t leave there until ten or eleven o’clock.’ 9

To find a similar worship experience, even in a city of 4 million people, was an unlikely expectation. So why on earth did he take his parents’ advice and try a church that was, well ... Lutheran? Surely it would be worlds apart from what he was looking for. ‘I missed that fellowship [at Howard], but what I enjoyed about Campbelltown Lutheran Church in Sydney was the structure. They knew what they were doing. It flowed, it drew me in. It had another dimension. I went to the first service, I stayed for the second service and came back for the evening service. I really wanted to be a part of this.’ Stranded at the church, Kevin accepted a lift home from Pastor Peter Steicke. It was the start of an intimate friendship. ‘He was so hungry’, Peter says of Kevin, ‘not just for knowledge but also for 10

understanding of the Bible and how to apply it to his life. An insatiable appetite to grow and mature in Jesus.’

youth of Howard. He advertised a youth group and on the first night had 45 unchurched young people attend.

Kevin’s conversion five years earlier had been an eventful one. He had delved so deeply into the occult for 20 years that he had started seeing spirits. They had haunted him each night. They had appeared to his housemates. One time a spirit had physically forced his face into a pillow.

‘We just played games. I told them about Jesus and they kept coming back’, Kevin says.

Kevin’s recollection of the experience was published in The Lutheran in May 2010: ‘I struggled to push back, but it was too strong. I struggled to speak and eventually managed to get out, “In the name of Jesus Christ, leave me alone!” Immediately I was able to get up.’ At the time he didn’t actually know Jesus, but he had read in a book that Jesus’ name could be used to rebuke a spiritual presence. As evil spirits continued to torment him, Kevin knew he needed a way out. ‘I thought that if Jesus saved me once, why couldn’t he do it again? So I started searching for Jesus again, trying to work out who he is.’ He bought a Gideon Bible for 50 cents at St Vinnies. Just a few weeks later, during a conversation Kevin had with a Christian cattle farmer in Howard, Jesus entered Kevin’s life. ‘I just fell at Jesus’ feet’, he says. Being a deeply passionate man, Kevin gave everything he could to saving others. He would sit in the gutter in front of the milk bar and talk to the

His ministry grew and many kids were saved, but after a few years Kevin believed that God was calling him to Sydney to study social work. So when that came unstuck, he was desperate for answers— both personally and theologically—and he plagued Pastor Peter and then vicar Noel Kluge with questions. ‘He wasn’t long out of his past life’, Peter recalls. ‘He was still trying to work out how to walk a new path pleasing to the Lord. He loved the tensions of Lutheran theology: law and gospel, saint and sinner, the left and right kingdom. He loved the deep stuff.’ Significantly, both Noel and Peter were open to dealing with Kevin’s past. ‘In the year before Kevin arrived, my wife and I had three previously dysfunctional, homeless girls living with us who had become believers’, Peter says. ‘One had been harassed by an evil spirit. The congregation understood that, if we’re serious about following Jesus, we’re going to meet these people. ‘When Kevin came along, he was a breath of fresh air. He was the genuine article. He was constantly delighted by the acceptance he received from others. What was proclaimed in that community was lived in the practical acceptance that Kevin received.’ The Lutheran February 2012 vol46 no1 p10

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