‘This group are going to give us the help we need at Home of Grace?’ It was a query of doubt rather than a question of disbelief, made by one of the workers from Home of Grace, a home where pregnant unwed mothers go for support. The mission team (MT2014) joined the local church near […]
Simon King is the volunteer Thailand Program Assistant for LCA International Mission and has been involved with trips to the Nan Province since they began in 2009. The Thailand trips are an organised annual volunteer project and have really helped make a difference in the lives of the area’s indigenous people. ‘This is frontline mission work – […]
Volunteers from across Australia work together with Australian pastor Simon Mackenzie in Thailand. Pastor Simon Mackenzie was assigned to Thailand as the first full-time missionary in Asia, after being ordained in 2004. While living and ministering in the Thai city of Chang Rai, Simon was aware of the plight of the Lua’ people in Nan […]
The word ‘connect’ is bandied about like cardboard coffee cups – used too frequently and then thrown away, its value rarely appreciated. For, like the underrated cardboard cup, the word ‘connect’ contains something deliciously addictive. ‘Connect is all about relationships and all the potential that lies within them. To connect is to make contact, be […]
The Thailand mission team has tested the ‘bigger is better’ theory with its biggest-ever contingent: 19 people. They ranged in age from 14 to 66, and represented six Lutheran congregations and one congregation of another Christian denomination. For ten days, 6-16 January, the ‘MT2012: Disciples of all Nations’ team assisted LCA missionary Pastor Simon Mackenzie […]
Ordained in 2004 after studying at Australian Lutheran College (ALC) in Adelaide, Pastor Simon Mackenzie was assigned to Thailand as the first full time missionary in Asia, for the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA). While living and ministering in the Thai city of Chang Rai, Simon was aware of the plight of the Lua’ people […]
‘You are confronted with poverty, family displacement, hardship. Families living in this area are just trying to survive. ‘But they are happy and always smiling. They would give you the shirt off their back’, explains Simon King. Simon recently returned home to Australia after evaluating progress in Baan Den since the two-week mission trip in […]
Through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, 13 women (including myself) from the St Johns Lutheran Church, Goroka, Papua New Guinea, went on an outreach journey to South Australia’s Golden Grove Lutheran Church and Primary School in November, 2008. Three from our group had been to Australia before. For the rest, it was their first […]
“Hello! Hello!” The smiling man with the missing teeth called cheerily to us every morning – and every time we walked past his sitting place. His warm call and happy grin were guaranteed to make us smile back. But that was normal at Hephata – we were always met with smiling faces and cheerful greetings […]
‘My name is Minh and I am 38 years old’, says the man sitting across from me. He smiles a broad and bright grin, his teeth white against the deep darkness of the night in the mountain village of Ban Den. I sit with three other girls on the cold concrete floor listening intently as […]