Being a follower of Jesus is an invitation to a life of joy, peace and hope, but it can also be a journey filled with persecution and temptations to believe you are alone. So, when I was asked to join the organising team for the Mission EineWelt-run online Global Worship in 2020, I leapt at […]
In August 2022 I received an invitation from Dr Wilfred John, director of the Lutheran Study Centre – Sabah, Malaysia, to teach at a conference with the theme, Lutheran Distinctives on Church, Ministry and Mission. Dr Wilfred is a former student at Australian Lutheran College (ALC) and a long-time friend of the LCA. The visit […]
After such a long time living life in isolation in Thailand, we are pleased that many people have now been, or are planning to get vaccinated and that the number of COVID-19 infected people is decreasing. The evening curfew which lasted for many months, now no longer applies. The schools have started to reopen, we […]
My husband Michael and I were very surprised to read an email from Abdi Sabda Seminary in Indonesia, requesting that ‘Michael and Debbie Borgas help us with our English Program online’. We had no idea how our names were chosen, aside from the fact that prior to COVID-19, we had been in some discussion to […]
Be careful of barbecue conversations, because you never know where they might lead! Especially if you are newly retired and have an open mind about where God might be leading you. This was certainly true for retired Openbook Publishers (formerly Lutheran Publishing House) General Manager Warren Schirmer, 73, and his wife Marianne, 69, when they […]
Papua New Guinea (PNG) Christians have marked 135 years since the gospel of Jesus Christ first landed on the PNG mainland, introduced by Lutheran Pastor Johannes Flierl at Simbang Finschhafen, Morobe Province, on 12 July 1886. The written and oral histories of how the gospel spread are beyond imagination: crossing high mountains, fast-flowing rivers and […]
Most Friday mornings I hear a wonderful sound: the Skype ringtone. It announces that Pastor Hans Giegere is calling me for our weekly supervised reading session. From my office in Walla Walla, situated in the rural farming district of the Riverina New South Wales, I hear how Hans is going and we discuss an article […]
During our retirement, my wife Ruth and I have been blessed with good health and able to volunteer in a number of countries. In each case, there were new faces, a new language and a different culture. As strangers in foreign lands, we knew there would be challenges. But there were also many kindnesses. When […]
For more than 13 years, the sale of thousands of bags of deliciously sweet dried apricots from Moorook in South Australia’s Riverland, has had eternal benefits. Several thousands of dollars each year from dried apricot sales have supported the Lutheran Church in Cambodia’s ongoing ministry and, recently, the redevelopment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in […]
I retired from the full-time workforce in July 2016, and I had always imagined I would like to spend my retirement years undertaking some voluntary church work – “finding a place for service in retirement”. But I had no idea where this vague idea would lead me. As it happened, I was then employed for […]