THE LUTHERAN March 2015

Print Post Approved PP100003514 VOL 49 NO2

‘For I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’ [Jeremiah 29:11]

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Cover: Newly arrived from Kenya, Bebye and her daughter Mechwa enjoy the welcome of her parents’ church family. Photo: Rachel Cramer

EDITOR/ADVERTISING phone 0427 827 441 email rosie.schefe@lca.org.au

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Nobody and nothing is taking away Joy’s copy of The Lutheran! Joy Balzer of Hervey Bay, Queensland, reads her favourite magazine high up in the Semien Mountains of northern Ethiopia. The two armed guards protect her against attacks by dangerous wildlife.

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: Dieter Gerschwitz

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

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CONTACTS Editor Rosie Schefe 197 Archer St, North Adelaide SA 5006 phone 0427 827 441 email rosie.schefe@lca.org.au

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

Executive Editor Linda Macqueen 3 Orvieto St, Bridgewater SA 5155 phone 08 8339 5178 email linda.macqueen@lca.org.au Design and layout Comissa Fischer Printer Openbook Howden

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Zel Lowien

Colin Sieber

Gary Truss

Bethania Lutheran Community Church, Qld Pastoral assistant Enjoys working with youth and young children Fav text: 1 John 4:8

Immanuel, Gawler SA Pilot for oversize loads Enjoys his family and getting away in the caravan Fav text: Psalm 23

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Issued every month except in January

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The Lutheran March 2015

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Sometimes it can feel as though this column writes itself. At other times I wrestle for weeks to find the right words.

This month began as one of those.

What to write for Lent? How could I tie this very diverse group of stories into a single theme?

Was it even worth trying? And then I received Neil’s letter.

Neil Patzwald wrote from Monto in central Queensland, apologising for returning his survey form a bit late (not that I minded). While filling out the form, he felt compelled to share the following with me and I can think of no better way to introduce this issue than—with Neil’s permission—to simply share his words.

FEATURES 05 Unconditional 09 Where are you headed?

10 Sew many blessings

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22 The table of plenty 24 All the lonely people

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COLUMNS 04 Heartland

‘Our loving heavenly Father recently called home to himself my loving wife and friend of 51½ years, Margaret. Throughout her life she displayed a simple and uncomplicated faith, trust and love for our Lord and Saviour.

‘Margaret had a serious illness as a young girl, which left her with a condition that caused constant uncontrolled movements. She bore this burden for the rest of her life. She rarely complained and in no way ever blamed God. Just occasionally she would break into tears, put her arms around me and say, “I wish this thing would go away”.

12 Little Church 13 Inside Story

20 Notices 21 Reel Life 26 Bring Jesus 28 World in Brief 30 Coffee Break

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‘This has strongly reminded me that I myself, and each one of us, need to take the words of Jesus into our hearts when he commands us to quickly forgive our fellowman and not to hold onto anger and hatred in our hearts.

Amen to that, Neil. And may Christ, who conquered death for us by his death and resurrection, continue to be your comfort.

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17 Directory 18 Stepping Stones

‘Margaret was reasonably fit and healthy, so it was a complete shock when she got a pain in her head soon after getting up in the morning and died shortly after, from a massive haemorrhage in the brain. In the midst of this, two thoughts stand clear in my mind. First, I was thankful to our loving God that in his love and in his wisdom he had taken Margaret at the right time. His time. My other thought was that I was so thankful that we had gone to sleep the night before with only kind and loving feelings for each other.

How much more sadness and how much regret I would feel if there had been anger and bitterness between us, with no time in the morning to make amends.

‘Margaret had a wall plaque which read, “Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen today that you and I together cannot handle”. May we all share her sure and simple faith.’

16 Letters

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‘Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray’ (Mark 13:6).

Just recently someone stole my credit card. I had the card cancelled and replaced. Then, a week later, a bank I had never dealt with contacted me about ‘my’ new account. Using my personal details, someone had attempted to open a credit account. This kind of identity theft is getting all too common. Perhaps it has happened to you. It takes hours to chase everything down.

This experience has made me wonder how God feels about the way in which we humans use his identity. We say and do so much in the name of God, both good and bad. People use Jesus’ holy name quite loosely to support their actions and to make oaths about all

sorts of things. If other people were to use our names as freely as we use God’s, we would be mightily offended. We might even end up in court.

God’s identity gets stolen all the time, and not just by obviously ‘bad’ people. Leaders, officials, politicians, business people, customers, and ordinary people all do it. They make promises to tell the truth and deal honestly, but at the same time they resort to cover-ups and lies. They protect their own reputations by blaming others. It’s the bread and butter of the news, the scuttlebutt of social media, and the downfall of many an otherwise fine and wellintentioned organisation. Upstanding citizens and ‘nice’ people easily fall into this trap. It infects government, police, the school yard, the hospital ward, and yes, dare I say it, the church and its pastors.

This oh-so-human behaviour completely denies God’s command to Moses in Exodus 20: ‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain’ (v7). Luther reminded us, ‘We should fear and love God, and so we should not use his name to curse, swear, practise magic, lie, or deceive, but in every time of need call upon him, pray to him, praise him, and give him thanks’ (Small Catechism: The Ten Commandments, 2).

As Christians we bear the name of Christ. His identity is our identity. He baptises us with his very own name.

His Spirit is within us. He makes us ‘one family’ in him—the church.

We share a lifestyle of mutual forgiveness, love and compassion.

As God’s word says, ‘Be subject to one another, out of reverence for Christ’ (Ephesians 5:21).

As Christians we bear the name of Christ. His identity is our identity. He baptises us with his very own name.

When people listen to us and watch us, they are learning about the Saviour in whom we believe.

We must not lead them astray. We believe in the love and forgiveness of God in Jesus. His love and forgiveness lays out the life we ourselves must live. We can only do it with God’s help, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As our Saviour gave his life for us, so we give ourselves for one another.

I continually pray for the church, for you, and for myself, that our lives will be a faithful witness to the identity of the God who loves us.

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love Ten long years, countless prayers—and lessons in

by Julie Hahn

Photo: Chris Hahn

Unconditional

Ten years of separation are swept away in a father-and-son hug and by a daughter’s recognition of her mother: Otoli (left, back to camera) and Ariet (right, back to camera) are reunited with Omod and Bebye at Adelaide airport.

‘Are you excited yet?’ we asked Otoli, Ariet and Jackson two months ago. The immigration papers for their family to come from Dadaab Refugee Camp, in Kenya, were in their hands. To us, it was evidence that our prayers of four and a half years were being answered.

But to our question, ‘Are you excited yet?’ their answer was ‘No, not yet’.

Over the past couple of months, that question has been asked of them many, many times. When we knew that the medical checks had been passed; when the children had safely returned to the camp from their long and dangerous trip to the Australian embassy in Nairobi; when bribe after bribe had been paid to officials; when the International Organisation of Migration had accepted payment for the airline tickets; when the flight schedule arrived in an email ...

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Still their answer was ‘No, not yet’.

How could they dare to get excited, when for ten years they hadn’t seen their children? The children had been left with their grandmothers in Ethiopia when Otoli and Ariet had run for their lives, carrying little Jackson in their arms. They hoped then, that by splitting the family, at least one of them might survive.

‘Are you going to have a party?’ we asked Otoli in the few days before the plane was scheduled to arrive.

‘No. I would rather give thanks to God. And I want to thank the people at the church.’ He explained that at times when he felt as though he should give up hope that he would ever see his children again, someone from the church would ask, ‘How are things going? Are your children coming soon?

We’re continuing to pray.’

When he looked forward to having their children come here a couple of

years ago, there were not enough humanitarian visas available to meet every desperate cry for help. When it looked like they could come, Australia had a change of government and a change in policy; when it looked like they would come, a grandchild and husband were added to the equation (so that the process had to begin again). Every time his hope had run out, Otoli was comforted that others were praying. And he was encouraged to hope again.

Even as we stood together, watching the first of the passengers walking from the plane onto the gangway and into customs area below us, Ariet’s answer was still ‘No, not yet’. Otoli’s smile, though, grew wider and wider.

‘My heart is going boom, boom, boom inside my chest!’ he said.

Jackson, now fourteen and taller than his dad, maintained his Aussie-teenager The Lutheran March 2015

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At times when he felt as though he should give up hope … someone from the church would ask, ‘How are things going?

Are your children coming soon?’ pose: earphones in place, bobbing and swaying to the rap music on his phone, not giving any clue of how he was feeling—though he had hinted during the day that he was looking forward to being a real-life uncle.

An hour and a half later, after about 200 other passengers had already appeared through the door of customs, Otoli pushed through the people in front of us, grabbed the young man that the rest of us had almost missed, and enveloped him in his enormous arms. The father and son who had been separated for ten years embraced with a hug that may have lasted 6

The Lutheran March 2015

Photo: Josh Jaeschke Photo: Chris Hahn

Photo: Gabby Hahn

The children had been left with their grandmothers in Ethiopia when Otoli and Ariet had run for their lives, carrying little Jackson in their arms. They hoped then, that by splitting the family, at least one of them might survive.

Top: Ariet, 11-year-old Jackson and Otoli as they first appeared in pages of The Lutheran three years ago. Above: Now inseparable: from left Otoli, Omod and Jackson. forever—except that his daughter and granddaughter also appeared and needed hugs.

Yesterday, Sunday 8 February, Otoli ushered not only Ariet and Jackson into church, but also his son Omod, daughter Bebye and granddaughter Mechwa. Pastor Joel Cramer invited Otoli to the front. It has taken four and a half years for him to feel confident enough to speak in English to our congregation. But yesterday, there was no way to hold him back.

‘You see in front of you a happy man.

And I see that you are also happy’, he said. ‘Our prayers and your prayers have

been answered, as you can see’—and the congregation burst into applause.

‘I am a changed man. You have taught me about uncon … un …’. He faltered and laughed, and the congregation laughed with him. ‘Unconditional love.’

He read from Ephesians 2:19, then said, ‘I am no longer a stranger or foreigner.

You are my brothers and sisters.’ He went on to introduce his children, and to present the congregation with a gift from the Anuak community in Dadaab— a framed work of traditional beading.

When I asked him later what he wanted me to write, he laughed.

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Photo: Rachel Cramer

‘Our prayers and your prayers have been answered, as you can see’—and the congregation burst into applause.

‘Our prayers and your prayers have been answered’—Jackson (left) Omod, Bebye holding Mechwa, and proud parents Ariet and Otoli celebrate at The Ark. ‘That word. The word I couldn’t say this morning. “Unconditional”. Write about unconditional love. Those three men who came to our home when we first moved here—big men—they chopped wood for our heater. We don’t even see them anymore, but we remember they just chopped wood for us out of Christ’s love. There are many people who have shown us love, but they were the first.’

He told me that the kindness and love he has experienced from within the congregation has taught him what love is. He has learnt to love his family—his

wife, his son. He is a different man because of how we loved him.

The blessings have flowed both ways.

It is evident from the way that Otoli and Ariet have joined in the work of the church that the Holy Spirit has been very active. Their love for Jesus is translated into acts of service. Otoli helps in the children’s programs, helps whenever there is need for physical labour, and has arranged a maths class for other Africans in the area. Ariet helps with caring for the elderly, cleans the toys in the babies’ bags in the church and has become a vital part of the

The kindness and love he has experienced from within the congregation has taught him what love is

Photo: Rachel Cramer

women’s stitching group. Together they are teaching the congregation how to incorporate different cultures—and to never take anything for granted.

Pastor Joel Cramer accepts the gift of a framed piece of Anuak beadwork, crafted in Dadaab Refugee Camp for The Ark, presented by Otoli and Ariet.

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It’s taken a whole church community to care not only for Otoli and his family, but also for the people from at least 23 other nations represented within our church community. People have been praying fervently. They have given generously to help Otoli’s family pay for flights, food, furniture and everything needed for a suddenly expanded family. For others, they’ve donated money towards warm clothes.

They’ve provided rides to church and to appointments, given driving lessons and supervision of hours and hours of driving practice, and offered tutoring The Lutheran March 2015

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Photo: courtesy Julie Hahn

‘Salisbury is not perfect’, someone told me, ‘but, generally, people are loved and accepted’.

Now an indispensable member of the congregation at The Ark, Ariet enjoys a sewing retreat with other members of the congregation. She is sewing a quilt for Mechwa, in preparation for her granddaughter’s arrival. through courses in English, maths and vocational studies. They’ve opened up the church building for use by a local Vietnamese church, by Alcoholics Anonymous, a community choir and a holiday club. Annually, the church runs a fete which is known throughout Salisbury for its great produce and its friendliness. They’ve provided parenting courses, playgroup and mainly music, youth groups, women’s groups, men’s groups, choirs … and a very popular kindergarten.

But more than that, they’ve loved. One Chinese woman began coming to the playgroup with her son and later joined the church and became a Christian. She explained that due to the one-child policy in China, her son has only his mother, father and grandparents. He does not have any aunts or uncles or cousins.

‘This church is our family’, she said.

There are all types of people from all sorts of backgrounds in The Ark Lutheran congregation in Salisbury.

There is still much to learn about breaking away from our shyness— particularly in learning to introduce 8

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ourselves. But once the introductions are over, usually people are made to feel very welcome.

People from The Ark are not afraid to go out into the community to share Jesus’ love with people who won’t step inside church premises. Worshippers attend services, then volunteer in a myriad of ways outside of the church.

Friendship groups that have been going for decades equip their members to take Christ’s love beyond the walls of the church building. Perhaps the most recent example is the ‘adoption’ of a local state school by the church, which provides volunteers to help in the school in different ways. The mission statement at The Ark is ‘Stepping out with Jesus to help others’, and there are many examples of how this happens in real and practical ways, as well as through prayer and friendship.

‘Salisbury is not perfect’, someone told me, ‘but, generally, people are loved and accepted’.

he drove. It was safer that way. But Ariet told me she would come with me in my car. She made phone call after phone call to relatives in Africa to say that the children had arrived safely.

I guess she knew she would be busy cooking and welcoming the family into her home as soon as she got there, and she knew I would understand.

Her last call was to our mutual friend —a woman from our congregation who has a heart for people of different backgrounds. We each spoke and laughed with our friend on speakerphone. I had to smile when Ariet said to her, ‘I am excited. My heart is going boom, boom, boom!’

(Otoli’s story ‘Dawn’ was published in the February 2012 edition of The Lutheran.)

Julie Hahn BHSc describes herself as ‘a wife, mum and family encourager’. She and her family are members of The Ark Lutheran congregation in Salisbury, Adelaide.

I asked my husband Chris to drive Otoli’s family back to their home from the airport so that they could talk while Vol 49 No2 P44

Lent, repentance and driving in the Hills

WHERE ARE YOU HEADED?

by Eugene Minge

Many years ago, when I was a student, I was the designated driver for a group of mates attending the wedding of a couple of friends in the Adelaide Hills.

I had lived in the Hills as a child, so when the time came to head to the reception, I confidently told the others I knew how to get to the venue and didn’t need to check a map.

Almost an hour later, as we drove along some very windy Hills roads, I started to get worried that maybe I had gone in the wrong direction. We stopped and asked someone how to get to the reception venue. He told us that the only way was to turn around, to go back the way we had come and then take the correct road. We followed his instructions and walked into the reception just as the meal was about to be served.

I like to tell myself—and my friends when they still bring it up—that our timing was perfect. However, the reality is that if I had continued heading in the direction we were going, we all would have missed our friends’ wedding Vol 49 No2 P45

reception. My pride made it hard for me to admit that I was heading in the wrong direction, but when I turned around and headed the right way, we were able to enjoy a good night with great friends.

Repentance is a central part of being disciples of Jesus. In Matthew 4:17 we read: ‘From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”’. Then, later in Matthew’s Gospel, we also read: ‘Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son”’ (Matthew 22:1,2).

If we read these two passages together, we can think of the kingdom which Jesus proclaimed as being like a magnificent wedding reception, bringing joy and celebration into the world. Jesus calls us to turn our lives around because the directions which we choose for ourselves are often harmful to us and to the people around us. Our heavenly Father wants better than that for us.

Jesus also calls us back to himself because he gifts us with the goodness

of God when we live in fellowship with him, as citizens of his kingdom. Just as my mates and I eventually arrived at our friends’ wedding reception after I turned the car around that day, Jesus gives us the blessings of his kingdom when, through the working of the Holy Spirit, we return to him. He graces us with forgiveness, healing, hope, joy, and so much more that is good, when we turn towards him in faith and walk his way of love.

Lent is a time when Christians from all around the world are called to repentance as we prepare to focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus for us. Repentance does not have to be something negative.

Instead, Jesus calls us from the paths we choose for ourselves, to turn towards him in faith and love; to become witnesses of his love in his death and resurrection for us, and to join him at the endless wedding reception in his kingdom of peace and joy.

Rev Eugene Minge is the pastor of St Paul Lutheran Church, Blair Athol, South Australia. He also serves as a member of the SA/NT District Church Council.

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Photo: Rosie Schefe

Bringing women together, for a purpose

by Rosie Schefe ‘We are building a foundation for each family’: Baindu expresses her gratitude for the opportunities that the Lutheran Community Sewing Group has provided for her and other participants.

‘If I were in Africa, I would be very old’, Baindu loudly declares. ‘In Africa every day is hard work.’

‘You have to go bush to get wood before you can cook. You walk half an hour to get water. Anything you need, you have to walk long distance. You put wood on the fire all the time until cooking is finished. You sleep and you cook in the same place, very smoky’.

Not that hard work frightens this widow, mother of seven children and grandmother of ten. After seven years in Australia, Baindu is still working hard to give her family the best possible chance of success in this country.

Baindu comes from Liberia in West Africa, where bloody civil war is a recent memory. She took her children to uncertain refuge in neighbouring Sierra Leone following the death of her husband.

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The Lutheran March 2015

‘They would chase people for money.

If you would not give them money, then they would kill you.’

The women are all from different countries; we all met here. We are building a foundation for each family.

Baindu and her family spent eight years in refugee camps in Sierra Leone before they came to Australia in 2007. ‘We came here and everything is good— even if you’re not married they help you a lot’, she says.

For Baindu, whose own literacy is poor, education has been a top priority. While in Sierra Leone some of her children

were sponsored to go to school, but when sponsorship ran out, they had to pay. Medication was also difficult to obtain without access to money. Now, she says, her children speak good English and the two still living at home are in school (a son in Year 10 and a daughter in Year 11). She has very high hopes for them.

I met Baindu over lunch at the Lutheran Community Sewing Group (LCSG), which gathers at Good News Lutheran Church in Albert Park, a north-western suburb of Adelaide with its own high migrant population. It was Baindu’s graduation day, an acknowledgement of her persistence and new levels of skill. Although she began to sew on ancient pedal machines in refugee camps, now she can use an electric machine, she understands the uses of different fabrics and can read a sewing pattern for herself.

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Photo: Rosie Schefe

Photo: Helen Semmler Photo: Helen Semmler

Above left: More than 200 women have been involved in the Lutheran Community Sewing Group program during thirteen years of operation.

Above right: Co-ordinator Helen Semmler congratulates Baindu on her graduation from the program, presenting her with a book that showcases the skills Baindu has learnt.

She puts her skills to work, not just by sewing for her own family, but also to earn money by sewing for others in the African community. She cares for neighbours’ children too while their parents go out to work (often bringing her charges with her to sewing group).

As well as supporting her immediate family, she sends money back to Guinea to support other family members, including the children of her dead sister.

With the Ebola virus continuing to rage throughout Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Baindu holds her family close in her thoughts and prayers. She is concerned too that it is becoming much more difficult for West Africans to access family-reunion migration programs.

Earlier in the day, as the group worshipped together and gave thanks to God for the year, Baindu’s heartfelt prayer was for those whose lives are threatened by the deadly disease.

But she remains positive. She has taken her own first steps towards living the ‘Australian dream’; she is buying her own modest (former Housing Trust) home from the state government. ‘I have a mortgage!’ she proudly declares.

‘This group [LCSG] is many things; it is like a family’, she says. ‘The women are all from different countries, we all met here. We are building a foundation for each family. The group does a very good job!’

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The Lutheran Community Sewing Group (LCSG) began its thirteenth year of service to migrant women with the commencement of the 2015 school year.

Since LCSG began, more than 200 women have been involved in the program. Not everyone will finish the course, with some women leaving to go into paid work, or to study Adult Migrant English, or to go into TAFE or other training courses leading to work. Course graduates often find their achievement a confidence boost that helps them to find their place in the community. But for older women who find learning English difficult, or who cannot work, LCSG remains a place of connection in their lives as children or grandchildren move into closer involvement with Australian culture.

The course guides women to master 34 sewing skills, beginning with sewing in a straight line and finishing with making a shirt with a two-piece collar. These skills are broken into five groups so that in the early groups plenty of help is available, but towards the end women are encouraged to work independently.

The curriculum developed at LCSG has been shared with sewing groups in Victoria at St Paul’s Shepparton and Holy Trinity Dandenong. In Adelaide, one of the regular LCSG teachers has developed a new sewing group based at Parafield Gardens Uniting Church, using the LCSG curriculum and sharing donated fabrics and other sewing materials to get started.

LCSG relies completely on its volunteers, who contribute about 200 hours of work towards each three-hour session. It currently has 40 volunteers, with 24 volunteers on site for each session. Volunteers come from across Adelaide, from different churches and some from other faiths.

At present there are migrants from eleven nations taking part: India, Indonesia, Liberia, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Iraq, Kenya, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Between them, they speak about 15 languages. Many are Christians, but there are Muslim women who find connection and community here too.

Donations of unused fabric, and of time (as teachers, crèche helpers, lunch organisers or in logistics) are always welcome.

Helen Semmler is the co-ordinator of the Lutheran Community Sewing Group at Albert Park. For more information, contact Helen at khsemmler@optusnet.com.au or on 08 8370 2499.

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