When God “Breaks” Your Heart Earlier this year, before international travel became the stuff of daydreams, I made it to East Indonesia to visit Compassion Australia projects and my tiny but sunshiny sponsor child. Compassion Australia is an International Christian charity and child development organisation. Before leaving, I asked God to butterfly-cut my heart. As may have come across in the last few devotions, this year has been tiring on my spirit. Caring had become …
Just as I was about to tell you about ministry in Vietnam, an email arrived to say the next trip to Vietnam was cancelled due to the virus. The airline said they regretted this, but I regret it much more. I have grown to love the people I meet in Vietnam. They are hungry to be taught the Word of God. Just this morning I received an email saying: “I hope that the coronavirus will …
Above: Back row –Barossa Valley volunteers: Helen Semmler, Eileen Bartel, Marg Kaerbach, Rae Materne. Front – Ruby Kaur (India – a lead sewer of bags), Mai. Helen Semmler started teaching a former refugee new neighbour lady sewing in 2001. A year later, with Noreen Klein, this became the Lutheran Community Sewing Group. Now, 37 new neighbour ladies learn sewing each Friday, with five more ladies waiting for a space. The new neighbours come from Iran, Liberia, …
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 …
Hallelujah! This well-known phrase from the Bible is Hebrew and means “Praise the Lord!”. Praising God in all circumstances is something that can seem paradoxical in uncertain times like these where the COVID-19 has changed the world as we know it. And yet, we come across people who seem to be praising God ceaselessly through the great ups and horrible downs of life. That becomes a motivation and encouragement for us. Annie and Ku are …
‘Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh, what a beautiful day …’ for those of you that know the words to the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic, there is one word I would change in the chorus: ‘Everything’s goin’ my God’s way’ (of course I would make the words a little more Aussie). Do you get the picture? We are going through some challenging times, and yet let us not lose sight of the magnificent gift from …
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’ …
Peshawar, Pakistan. 1995 Grant and I are living in a block of flats. At 11:30 each day, five women gather for morning tea and a chitchat. Five women, with five different backgrounds and five different mother tongues. But each of us knows some Urdu, so it works. We all love Ayisha from Flat 2, the one with royal blood in her veins. She is refined, educated and quietly elegant. She buys her expensive perfume on …
I was born into a non-Christian family. Through the religious classes taught during secondary school and attending youth fellowship, I heard about Jesus Christ and was baptised on Christmas day of 1981. Ten years later, the Lord called me to serve full-time in ministry, and I took up my theological training in the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary in Penang from 1993 – 1996 and graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree. After completing my studies, …