A chance remark from a mother to her daughter resulted in a wonderful invitation to members of our Guild. That remark was along the lines of “I wonder if anyone will invite us to a ‘Seniors Luncheon’ when we’re too old to continue this service ourselves”! As is the situation in many areas around Australia, the average age of our group keeps creeping up with the oldest member approaching 90 and others, in, or approaching …
Thank you for the opportunity to let you know some of the ways we serve, share, come together and grow. Each year in March we hold a three-day retreat at Warrambui Retreat and Conference Centre. Each retreat is hosted by a volunteer fellowship or group of ladies, making very diverse weekends. It is wonderful to see how God moves the hearts of these host ladies to choose themes and then focus our attention on God …
St Luke’s Evening Fellowship, Albury, is a small group of about eleven members who continue to meet on the third Tuesday of each month. Members are rostered to take the opening devotion of their choice, often using one from Lutheran Women. Pastor David Grulke leads us in Bible Study, the focus of our meeting and providing us with a greater insight into God’s Word. Our program for the year has included a variety of activities …
Meryl Packer, along with her husband Rex, both long-time members of Immanuel Woden Valley congregation in the ACT, were each awarded an OAM in the 2020 Australia Day Honours for service to the Lutheran Church of Australia. Their service notably includes over 40 years’ commitment to the Warrambui Retreat and Conference Centre, from the time of its construction, in a large part by volunteers. In recent years each has been recognised as a ‘Warrambui Legend’ …
Immanuel Women’s Fellowship, Woden Valley, meets each month for Bible Study, fellowship and business. We have been blessed to have Pastor (now Bishop of LCA NSW District) Robert Bartholomaeus, lead most of our studies, usually those from Lutheran Women. For the past seven years, Pastor Robert researched and prepared ahead of time to make sure we gained maximum benefit from the material presented by the various Bible Study writers. We will miss his participation in …
Bethlehem Ladies Fellowship, Wagga Wagga, continues to hold regular meetings with Bible Study, hymn singing and other business. Recently, we hosted our annual coffee morning at the church, and it was a huge success. Pastor Stuart Kleinig spoke during the morning about his recent trip to Germany as part of the “Mission Eine Welt” (Mission One World) Summer School which encouraged focus on conflict/resolution issues, and inter-religion tolerance. Pastor Stuart also reported on the thoroughly …
The Parkes/Forbes Parish recently welcomed a new pastor, James Leach, his wife and six children aged from one to sixteen. They are delighted to have a new shepherd after a vacancy of about three years. The Ladies Guild has been in recess for most of that time but, hopefully, this will not always be the case. Natural attrition, families moving away, and illness always create difficulties, but new people join the congregation, others recover from …
… meets regularly and would love to welcome new members – not so easy these days. I thought I would tell you about a couple of interesting things, one a ‘one-off’ and the other is ongoing. Recently, a long-time member, Ros Hartwig and her daughter, Karla, participated in the “Walk My Way” April project for ALWS. Ros began training earlier, doing many walks around Temora to get her body ready for the 26km walk in …
Elaine Pfitzner, a lifetime servant of her Lord, passed away on 20 July 2019 after a ten-year-long illness which baffled doctors for many years. It was eventually diagnosed as Sezary Syndrome, a T Cell Lymphoma. This full body, itchy skin condition was an ongoing challenge which she dealt with stoically and, in typical fashion, without complaint. Elaine and Peter, her husband of 52 years, spent much of those ten years travelling to and staying in …
Last year marked the 50th Lutheran Women of NSW (LWNSW) Retreat, which brought back memories of retreats in the past. Since the NSW District Warrambui Retreat and Conference Centre added motel style accommodation in 2008, we no longer had retreats in the Dome. In the new village, it was exciting to be in a room with an ensuite with only four women. The Dome is a round building with dormitory rooms with six bunk beds …
Our Culcairn Fellowship gathers on a monthly basis in each other’s homes. Bible study is led by Pastor Sturm and, if he is unable to attend, we use the Lutheran Women‘s study with everyone contributing. The opening devotions are taken by our ladies. We have undertaken several outreach programs in our area: In July we provided casseroles for the First Tuesday Club where, once a month, a home-cooked meal is served at the Uniting church to …
The Lifeway Women’s Fellowship at Epping consists of those who are able to meet during the week and members who cannot, for one reason or another, attend daytime meetings, but who like to keep up with the excellent articles and news in Lutheran Women. Some time ago, we tried three Saturday afternoon meetings at the suggestion of a member who worked fulltime. Unfortunately, it wasn’t successful, as those who work have many commitments and found it …