Take your mind to another time – a time before the COVID-19 pandemic. What did you expect to be doing in 2020? None of us imagined that we would be living as we now are. We’ve had to adapt, pivot, and change direction with breathtaking speed to live with restrictions. No more hugging and handshaking. Limitations on gatherings. No more travel. Importantly, we’ve shown that we can do it. Apart from a few wobbles, praise …
As a member of the Lutheran Women of Australia (LWA) committee, we are facing a challenging time trying to organise the next LWA Convention to be held in Victoria next year. During the COVID-19 crisis, travel, the closing of borders and the many other obstacles that we are facing with the organisation of Convention is very challenging. With the help of God, fortunately, we have the use of computers, emails, phone calls and other sources …
Sing God’s Word The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 3:15,16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (ESV) Singing Christ’s Word is an effective and joyful way of teaching, learning, and passing on the Christian faith. When God joins his Word to music through singing, he does extraordinary things, especially in families. His Word …
Dear Christmas, I hope you look different this year This was my silent prayer in September as I saw the store shelves begin to bear their annual load of Christmas stuff. A singing reindeer, a nativity set, biscuits and tinsel and platters and bonbons. I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated. My pet hate is clutter, and I reserve a particular hostility for Christmas-themed clutter. Take Christmas-themed crockery for example. Why should I store …
Recently, at my church, we had a ‘Mission Festival’ Sunday. A day that we focussed on, not only the work the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) does in overseas (International) mission, but also what the LCA does with local and home missions. As a church we try to reach out to all those who need to hear the Gospel and the saving love of Jesus. During the service, Lutheran Tract Mission was also mentioned as …
In the warm shadow of the overhead Bangkok highway, alongside the railway tracks slicing through the slum structures, in an area full of sights and smells most people go out of their way to avoid; lives Kainui. Kainui already wears his environment like outer clothes. Although six years of age, he has the size and look of a three-year-old. His constant companion is the television – always on – often showing images children should not …
I could no longer stay in the room. In the audience chamber, the servants watched me from under their downcast eyes. They knew better than to look at me directly, but they observed keenly all that was happening. I knew this well from my own days as a slave. I could feel the tears beginning to well in my eyes as I looked down from my throne at the group of men. My brothers, ten …
Above: HM Queen Mathilde and HRH Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, with Hilda far right, visit the Jitemegee Vocational Training Centre where you help support women like Faheema learn to sew. Image credit: LWF Kenya What a strange year 2020 was! Bushfires. COVID-19. Recession … Yet despite this, you and other Lutheran women in Australia and New Zealand helped make 2020 a wonderful year for many people around the world … … and the life-change you brought …
Although our fellowship, as a “gathering together”, closed with the lockdown in March, our ladies kept in touch in various ways. The catch cry throughout COVID-19 was “You are not Alone”. Our members made sure each other felt they were not alone. Keeping in touch through phone calls, visiting where possible and distributing the Bible Studies titled “Women of the Bible”: Eve, Ruth, Esther, Hannah, Mary, Deborah. They would have been prepared for the Qld …
Families As December 2020 draws to a close, perhaps you will, as I will, be drawing in a collective sigh of relief. It has not been an easy year. The year of COVID-19. One we will not soon forget. We can also ponder in our hearts, as Mary did over baby Jesus, the loss to many families that came in 2020. Perhaps you shared the loss of a loved one this year, or perhaps you …
Trust, Love, Listen … Wisdom This year has certainly been a long journey for many! We have experienced in our different States, degrees of enforced isolation. Through this time many have been challenged in our trust of governments, sometimes we have failed to listen to the right messages! We have certainly had time to reflect, rest in the quiet ‘forced’ periods of 2020. I have ‘over done’ – glued to different forms of digital media …
God is a Farmer (Part 2) Open with a short prayer. During October and November, we are exploring the Biblical metaphor “God is a farmer.” As a farmer, God has planted you in his field (i.e. the world). He provides everything you need to grow and mature in faith, particularly his Word and Spirit. God employs farmhands — like you! — to work in his field to produce good fruit for his harvest. Read Isaiah …