Impactful support for Bethany Home

Bethany Home was established in 1966 and continues to provide training and an educational program for children and adults with special needs. As of April 2021, we have 117 children with special needs (intellectual deficiency, spastic, autism and epilepsy) coming from a multi-racial and multi-religious background. Activities/Events The COVID-19 pandemic affected many of our planned activities and events for the year 2020. Our activities were restricted due to the Movement Control Order and Conditional Movement …

Aboriginal Ministry South Australia

The Lutheran Church has been a significant part of the Aboriginal community through much of Port Lincoln’s history. In Port Lincoln, the population of Aboriginal people is about five percent of the population. Most people have connections back to Ceduna, Koonibba or Yalata. After the mission at Koonibba wound down its operations in the 1950s, and no longer provided employment for people, families spread over Eyre Peninsula, with many settling in Port Lincoln. A numerically …

The Lutheran Church in Cambodia

Rev Tuch Keov Sreyleak’s life is part of the story of the Lutheran Church in Cambodia. Rev Sreyleak comes from the village of Phum Krus in Cambodia. She is one of four children and was only eight years old when tragedy struck – her father died, and her mother left the family in the village. As the eldest, Rev Sreyleak became responsible for the care of her siblings, including finding food and education, as well …

What’s cooking?

When I saw Ayen preparing food for the locals in a small tin shed “restaurant” in the back blocks of South Sudan, I was amazed at her passion and joy in what she was doing.  I thought of myself at my own kitchen bench. Some of you might also have a great passion for cooking. Some would prefer take-away every night, but you may not realise that you are part of feeding the world, one …

Support for our future Pastors and families

Australian Lutheran College (ALC), Pastoral Ministry Students Assistance Fund The year 2020 has been challenging for us all. My position as Coordinator between the Lutheran Women of Australia (LWA) and the pastoral students, and their wives, has been no exception. In the past, I have contacted ALC and arranged a time with the principal, Pastor James Winderlich, to meet the students, introduce myself and explain the gifting of the Pastoral Ministry Students Assistance Fund. At the …

All in the family

My office phone rang. It was “Karisol” (Garry Stoll, long-term faithful worker at Hermannsburg Mission, now retired in Adelaide). Garry was calling with a rather unexpected story: His seven-year-old great-niece Johanna Stoll had sent him a beautiful hand-written letter from the USA. She is growing up in a family of Christian missionaries and has developed a keen interest in “Uncle Garry’s” work with Aboriginal people. Johanna had been moved to support the sharing of the …

15 years in Debora

My days at Debora In 2004 I resigned from several positions, studied TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and was sent as a VIMO (Volunteer In Mission Overseas) to the Angkola Church, one of the smallest, most isolated Batak churches in Indonesia, to Debora Home. Panti Asuhan Debora (PAD) “home of helping” is funded by Lutheran Women of Australia (LWA). Residents are orphans, have one parent, or are very poor. Debora gives them …

LWA partners with ALC to prepare workers for the LCA

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 …

What lies down the track?

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 …

The tailor, the queen – and you!

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 …

Reliable power for Yagaum Rural Hospital in the Madang District

Each year the Lutheran Women of Australia (LWA) contribute funds for the provision of solar power to health centres across Papua New Guinea (PNG). In Australia, we take for granted that our hospitals and health centres have reliable power to function and that the flick of a switch will light up the rooms. Not so in PNG where blackouts are a common occurrence, disrupting the functioning of essential equipment and medical interventions. When the Yaguam …

Birthing Kits – an overseas embrace

Thank you for the heart you have and God bless.  Lupsy The Birthing Kit project is one of the ways that LCA International Mission provides practical support for women at the grassroots, in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Having responsibility for this project is one of the joys of being a program officer for this country partnership. In the recent shutdown, I have missed the regular deliveries of birthing kits, which come to the LCA Churchwide …