N A TIO N A L M A G A ZIN E O F THE L U THE R A N C HU RC H O F A U STRA LIA
O C TO B E R 2020
‘Whatever you did for one of ... these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for m e.’
Thank you!
VOL 54 N09
Print Post Approved PP100003514
MA TT HE W 25 :40
70 years of service through ALWS
LUTHERAN
CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
Back to the start of an Australian story
EDITORIAL
Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au
The Australian story of Pastor Ernie Kiss began at Bonegilla Migrant Camp near Wodonga in northern Victoria. Pastor Ernie stayed at Bonegilla for four months with his mum while he was a toddler, after his family emigrated from Hungary in 1950. The retired LCA/NZ pastor, who lives in Wodonga, visited Bonegilla recently with some other Australian (and New Zealand) Lutheran cross-cultural stories in hand. Read more of his story and those of other former residents of Bonegilla, the birthplace of Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS), on pages 10 and 11.
Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8267 7300 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au
CONNECT WITH US We Love The Lutheran! @welove_TL lutheranchurchaus
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Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and it may appear on page 2 of a future issue and on our website at www.thelutheran.com.au
08 8360 7270 lutheran.subs@lca.org.au LCA Subscriptions PO Box 731 North Adelaide SA 5006
People like YOU bring love to life Mia Dohnt
11 issues per year
Our Saviour Aberfoyle Park SA
Australia $45 | New Zealand $47 Asia/Pacific $56 | Rest of the world $65
Year 9 student at Immanuel College SA and ALWS supporter
Issued every month except January.
DESIGN & PRINT Design & Layout Elysia McEwen
Most treasured Bible text: Proverbs 4:23 ‘Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.’
Printer Openbook Howden
Dot Daniells
ADVERTISING/ MANUSCRIPTS
St John’s Ipswich Qld
Should be directed to the editor. Manuscripts are published at the discretion of the editor. Those that are published may be cut or edited. Copy deadline: 1st of preceding month Rates: general notices and small advertisements, $19.00 per cm; for display, contract and inserted advertisements, contact the editor.
Most treasured Bible text: Romans 12:9 ‘Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.’
Neil Lutz St John’s Unley SA
LUTHERAN
Former engineer, manager and HR specialist, now volunteer and longtime ALWS supporter
OF AUSTRALIA
Most treasured Bible text: Matthew 25:40
CHURCH 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.
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Retiree and ALWS supporter who enjoys visiting others to brighten up their day
The Lutheran O C TO B E R 2 0 2 0
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these my brothers, you did it for me.’ Let the light of someone you know shine through their photo being featured in The Lutheran and LCA Facebook. With their permission, send us a good quality photo, their name and details (congregation, occupation, what they enjoy doing, most treasured text in these difficult times) and your contact details.
October Special features EDITOR'S
let ter
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While it’s often easier to focus on negative attitudes and selfish behaviour we see, experience or even contribute to, I am frequently surprised by the generosity and kindness of people. For me, these heartwarming surprises have been going on for nearly 50 years. I still remember the thoughtfulness of a motel manager who posted back the beloved Humphrey B Bear I’d left behind on a family holiday, and the elderly lady who donated the only $2 she had to spare when my friend and I doorknocked houses to raise money for refugees when we were 11 or 12. Throughout my life I’ve seen the kindness continue. In 2019 our Lutheran family in Australia and New Zealand backed the call by our church’s aid and development agency, Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS), to raise more than $1 million to support schooling for 40,000 children in African refugee camps.
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Still more Lutheran refugees and migrants came to Australia and New Zealand from Europe after World War II. Thousands of new arrivals were resettled through Bonegilla Migrant Centre near Wodonga in Victoria. A Lutheran pastor began serving at Bonegilla in 1947. That ministry was the forerunner to what today is ALWS. Through strong partnerships with Lutheran schools, church and government bodies and people like you, ALWS today works in 11 countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and last year helped 297,498 refugees and others hurt by poverty, injustice, or crisis. Unfortunately, thanksgiving events to mark the ALWS 70th anniversary this month were cancelled due to COVID-19. However, many congregations will recognise the anniversary during worship on 18 October. And, thanks to the LLL and Lutheran Education Australia, this special edition of The Lutheran is going to all ALWS supporters and all staff of Lutheran schools and early learning centres in Australia. Welcome to you all and especially any first-time readers. I pray that you will be blessed by what you encounter in these pages, as together we learn about ALWS history, hear from the agency’s supporters and partners, and come to see how its work shares kindness and generosity, and brings love to life for people in need.
Lisa
PS: If you’re not already part of our subscriber family, we’d love to have you join us. You can subscribe at www.thelutheran.com.au or through the details on page 2.
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Where people like you bring love to life
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A language of love prevails when strangers are welcomed
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‘It is for others’: Taking care of your care
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‘Thanks for what you 13 do through ALWS’
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Despite this year’s Walk My Way group fundraising events for the same cause being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of people have innovated to safely participate – and to contribute to the education of thousands more kids. The Lutheran churches in Australia have a long history with people fleeing war, persecution, or famine. Many of the first Lutherans who came to South Australia in the 1830s did so because of religious persecution in their native Prussia.
Side by side, every step of the way
Lutheran schools in Australia and ALWS team up
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Regulars 18
21
27
Heartland
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Dwelling in God’s word
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Church@Home
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#youngSAVEDfree
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The inside story
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Going GREYT!
26
Directory
28
Sudoku
29
Prayer calendar
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Our cover: Khoun Tha from Cambodia is thankful for the support of our Lutheran family through ALWS, which has enabled her to grow fruit and rice. Photo: ALWS. Insets: ALWS had its beginnings in the welcoming of new arrivals to Bonegilla Migrant Centre in the 1940s. See pages 10-11. 10-11. Students from Concordia College in South Australia are among hundreds raising money to help send refugee children to school in Africa. See page 21.
JES U S I S G OD'S LOVE. HE G IVES U S NE W HE ARTS TO L AY AS IDE O UR OL D WAYS, TO B EL IE VE AND FOL LOW HIM, TO L IVE WI T H HIM E VERY DAY.
heartland
RE V JOHN HENDERSON
Bishop Lutheran Church of Australia
SALVATION FOR ALL – A STORY WORTH SHARING ‘“These people have received the Holy Spirit, just as we also did. Can anyone, then, stop them from being baptised with water?” So [the apostle Peter] ordered them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ’ (Acts 10:47,48a GNB). Years ago, when I was a young pastor, I said in a Sunday sermon that the Bible verses I was speaking about were a ‘story’. Later, an older pastor took me aside to tell me I was wrong. He thought a ‘story’ meant something made up and therefore not true. I disagreed with him then and I still do now. Stories are important. We each have a story – the story of our life. It’s a real story, told from the inside as only we can tell it. Similarly, parents
CH RISTIANS TODAY CO NTI N U E TO TELL TH E SAM E STORY, SO THAT PEOPLE OF EVERY BACKG ROU N D – WO M EN AN D M EN , CH I LDREN AN D ADU LTS – MAY BELI EVE I N J ESUS AN D BE SAVED. 4
The Lutheran O C TO B E R 2 0 2 0
and teachers use stories every day to teach children about life. Kids love stories. Adults love stories too. They are important to our growth and learning. It’s no surprise, then, that when God speaks to us, he often does so in the form of a story. The Bible is a collection of books that tell the story of God’s love for human beings and for the world. From Adam and Eve to Noah, to Abraham and Isaac, to Moses and Joshua, to David and Solomon, through the prophets to John the Baptist and, finally, to Jesus the Christ. The Book of Acts tells part of God's story. It tells how the Holy Spirit worked to spread Christianity throughout the Mediterranean world. It’s a dynamic story of faith, preaching, wonders and a growing church. It also tells of danger, active opposition and strident debate as Christians learned that God accepts all people without discrimination. Acts contains the story of Cornelius, a Roman centurion and a good man. For the Jews, he was a religious outsider, or Gentile, which was a huge barrier in those days. One day an angel of the Lord told Cornelius to invite the apostle Peter to visit. Peter was an observant Jew, but God gave him a vision of all kinds of forbidden foods mixed together, which he was told to eat. Because of the vision, Peter could accept Cornelius’s invitation with a clean conscience, despite his religious
training. Peter told Cornelius his own story and the story of Jesus. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit came on the household and they all were baptised. God had shown that salvation in Jesus has no barriers, religious or otherwise. When Peter shared this story with other Christians, it changed their attitude to people of a different background. Acts shows how faith spreads by telling the story of Jesus. The apostles used it to explain how everything that God had done among the Jews – as recorded in the Old Testament – led up to this point. They told all who would listen how Jesus, who died but whom God raised from the dead, now saves everyone who believes in him. Christians today continue to tell the same story, so that people of every background – women and men, children and adults – may believe in Jesus and be saved. It is still our direction and motivation. It still excites us because Jesus is just as much alive among us as he was among them. God raised him from the dead, and we believe that he will also raise us. That’s worth sharing, over and over, until he returns and takes us to be with him in heaven. The story of Jesus Christ, which is the church’s story, has also become my story, and I pray it is yours also. He is our life and our salvation, as he is for all people, everywhere, for all time.
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