Forgiven to Forgive
When Marlene Pluckenhahn was a little girl, she wanted to be a missionary in Africa.
When Marlene Pluckenhahn was a little girl, she wanted to be a missionary in Africa.
Death of a parent, breakdown of marriage, the experience of being abandon, poverty…these are some of the harsh realities of life in our world. For vulnerable children, these experiences can mean isolation, homelessness, a deeper experience of poverty, a loss of identity and dignity, and loss of their family or a place to call home. […]
‘Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing’ – 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV) Visit the Lutheran Churches in Singapore, Malaysia (the mainland Peninsula and Sabah), Thailand, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea and you will see the encouraging influences of the LCA scholarship program. Scholarship recipients are nominated by […]
Thank you to all those involved in collecting, cleaning and sorting stamps. In 2011, an amazing $7,679.39 was raised and an additional $3,094.09 was deposited in January 2012. These funds will be put to good use supporting these mission projects: Support for the 6 Lua evangelists working with Rev Simon Mackenzie in Nan Province of […]
“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 […]
To reach Debora Orphanage in North Sumatra, we travel ten hours along the bumpy road from Medan. When we’re almost there, there’s a deep ravine. Down we go, and labour up the other side, perhaps with the help of a winch if the day is wet. Then we turn down a little track, bump through […]
We’d retired and settled into a quiet life, spending time with the family, working around the house and garden – filling in time quite nicely, thank you very much. Then bang out of nowhere we were thinking about volunteering overseas to teach English. We’d had friends around for dinner and everything was going as normal […]
Helping overseas students fulfil their calling to be bringers of the good news for more than 20 years, the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA), in cooperation with the Australian Lutheran College (ALC), have awarded over 100 scholarships in that time. In offering scholarships to overseas students, the LCA are contributing a great gift to extending […]
On 15 July 2010, after months of preparation, my husband James and I boarded a plane to Indonesia. Having volunteered for overseas service, a request came via the LCA, asking if we would spend a month helping at Elim Orphanage in North Sumatra. They were looking for help with teaching English to the children and […]
My prayer for all of us who call ourselves Lutherans here in Australia is that we will all have “a pain in the gut”! Let me explain…I’m not a great theological scholar so when a pastor challenged me about my understanding of the word “compassion” I fumbled around with words such as “empathy”, “feeling sad […]