Feb2016
Faith under fire
by Tim Wilson
While Australian and New Zealand Christians bask in a persecution-free zone, in other countries believers are under attack. Sometimes they have to flee for their lives. OpenDoors lists the 50 worst offenders. North Korea holds the number one ranking for the 14th consecutive year on the OpenDoors World Watch List, which ranks the top 50… Read more
Feb2016
Love thy (new) neighbour
by Cecil and Jane Schmalkuche
Refugees have become our neighbours. Our loving Lord says, Love your neighbour as yourself. For Jesus the neighbour is the needy person near you.
Feb2016
Hope back on the playlist
by Richard Fox
‘Where’s hope when …?’ It is a question that many people ask, especially in a crisis. More than 250,000 people in Auckland, New Zealand, are hearing where there is real and lasting hope. For some of them, it may be the first time that they have heard this message of hope in Jesus Christ. On… Read more
Feb2016
In their skin
by LCA Communications
The lead character Atticus Finch said in To Kill a Mockingbird, ‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it’. ALWS’s Chey Mattner recently visited Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, meeting refugees who live and work… Read more
Feb2016
Best foot forward to welcome strangers
by Jonathan Krause
More than 60 million people around the world have been forced from their homes due to poverty, conflict and the impact of our planet’s changing climate. Of these, 20 million people have sought refuge in other countries as refugees. Our Lutheran family takes seriously Jesus’ call to ‘welcome the stranger’. When the students of Living… Read more
Feb2016
Hills of grace
by LCA Communications
From the inner cities of Australia and New Zealand, to country towns and the outback, LCA pastors, lay workers and members have worked with, and cared and advocated for, refugees and other new arrivals for many decades. In this way, these servants of Christ – some of whom were refugees themselves – have been bringing… Read more
Feb2016
God draws the kids
by Chris Reardon
I have always been excited by the promise that God will bless, redeem and glorify all nations and cultures through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I have been deeply touched by Isaiah 60:1-3 which, in part, says: ‘The Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And… Read more
Feb2016
Refugees: what are we doing
by LCA Communications
The LCA has committed to welcome, host, advocate for and ‘actively support’ refugees. Delegates at the church’s 18th General Convention of Synod last year in Queensland overwhelmingly supported the call by the Commission on Social and Bioethical Questions (CSBQ) and Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) to do just that (see The Lutheran, October 2015). The… Read more
Feb2016
Message in a bottle
by Rebecka Colldunberg
Let’s be honest – water is bland, tasteless and downright dull! If you’re anything like me you will get the sporadic jolt of motivation to ‘drink more water’, whereupon you will dutifully line up eight glasses of water on the windowsill of your kitchen, take one look at them and retreat, defeated, to a darkened… Read more
Feb2016
A Lost Boy’s journey
by Maciek Nek
My name is Maciek. I have a story that might be like yours, or like those you see on TV or read about in the Bible. I am one of the war–time children of the world, born into a civil war in 1987. The war started in 1983 and continued until 2005, the year peace… Read more
