• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

COVID-19: Updates and Resources

  • LCA Portal
  • Staff Login
  • Login to (old) LAMP
  • LCA Online Donations
  • Contact

Lutheran Church of Australia

where love comes to life

MENUMENU
  • HOME
  • ABOUT US
    • A BIT ABOUT US

      The Lutheran Church is the largest Protestant church in the world, with over 70 million members. This website tells the story of Australian and New Zealand Lutherans, following Jesus Christ – where love comes to life. Whoever you are, whatever your story, you're welcome here with us.
    • MORE ABOUT US

      • OUR PEOPLE
      • OUR LOGO, OUR MISSION
      • OUR BELIEFS AND TEACHINGS
        • WHAT LUTHERANS BELIEVE – VIDEO SERIES
      • HOW WE WORSHIP
      • OUR STRUCTURE (GOVERNANCE)
        • NOMINATIONS
      • OUR HISTORY
      • LUTHERANS WORLDWIDE
        • WHAT LUTHERANS BELIEVE
          • WHAT LUTHERANS BELIEVE – VIDEO SERIES
        • HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH
  • THE LATEST
    • THE LATEST

      • COVID-19 RETURNING TO WORSHIP
      • CHURCH@HOME RESOURCES
      • CHURCH@HOME WORSHIP
      • DAILY DEVOTION
      • STORY OF THE WEEK
      • SPREAD THE WORD bulletins and announcements
      • NEWS
      • FEATURE STORIES
      • COLUMNS
      • THE LUTHERAN
      • LCA FACEBOOK
    • THE LATEST

      • BULLETIN INSERTS
      • CALLS – EMPLOYMENT – VOLUNTEERING
      • eNEWS LISTS
      • BOOK: SPIRIT FILLED
  • DEPARTMENTS & AGENCIES
    • DEPARTMENTS

      • DEPARTMENTS – OVERVIEW & SEARCH
      • DISTRICTS
      • OFFICE OF THE BISHOP
        • LCA INTERNATIONAL MISSION
        • RECONCILIATION MINISTRY
      • LOCAL MISSION
        • CHILD YOUTH & FAMILY MINISTRY (GROW MINISTRIES)
        • CROSS-CULTURAL MINISTRY
          • Cross Cultural Ministry Conference
        • LUTHERAN MEDIA
        • MINISTRY WITH THE AGEING
        • NEW & RENEWING CHURCHES
          • NEW CHURCHES
          • RENEWING CHURCHES
    • DEPARTMENTS & AGENCIES

      • MINISTRY SUPPORT
        • CHURCH WORKER SUPPORT
        • COMMUNICATIONS
          • THE LUTHERAN
        • FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION
          • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
        • LUTHERAN ARCHIVES
        • PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
      • EDUCATION & TRAINING
        • AUSTRALIAN LUTHERAN COLLEGE
        • LUTHERAN EDUCATION AUSTRALIA
      • AUSTRALIAN LUTHERAN WORLD SERVICE
      • FINKE RIVER MISSION
      • LLL
        • LUTHERAN TRACT MISSION
    • COMMISSIONS & MINISTRY GROUPS

      • COMMISSIONS
        • SOCIAL AND BIOETHICAL QUESTIONS
          • LUTHERANS FOR LIFE
          • CAMPAIGN AGAINST DOMESTIC & FAMILY VIOLENCE
        • THEOLOGY AND INTER-CHURCH RELATIONS
        • WORSHIP
          • VISUAL ARTS
      • MINISTRY GROUPS
        • DEAF MINISTRY
        • LUTHERAN NURSES
        • LUTHERAN MEN
        • LUTHERAN SINGLES
        • LUTHERAN WOMEN
        • YOUNG ADULT MINISTRY
  • SERVICES & RESOURCES
    • SERVICES & RESOURCES

      • OVERVIEW & SUMMARY
      • BIBLE READING PLAN
      • BULLETIN NOTICES
      • BUSINESS PARTNERS
      • CAMPAIGN AGAINST DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE
      • CHILD YOUTH & FAMILY MINISTRY (GROW MINISTRIES)
      • COMMUNICATIONS
      • CONGREGATION WEBSITES
      • DAILY DEVOTIONS
      • DOCTRINAL STATEMENTS & THEOLOGICAL OPINIONS
      • EMPLOYMENT & VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES
      • ENEWS
      • FORMS
      • HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEM
      • INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
      • LAMP2
      • LCA FACEBOOK
      • LCA NOTICE BOARD
    • SERVICES & RESOURCES

      • OVERVIEW & SUMMARY
      • LCA LOGO
      • LCA POLICIES & STANDARDS OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR
      • LCA SONG
      • LUTHERAN ARCHIVES
      • MINISTRY WITH THE AGEING
      • NEW & RENEWING CHURCHES
      • REGULAR ELECTRONIC GIVING (REG)
      • STORY OF THE WEEK
      • STUDY ASSISTANCE
      • STUDY GUIDES
      • TELECOMMUNICATIONS
      • THE LUTHERAN
      • TRACTS
      • WORSHIP
      • WORSHIP LIVE STREAMING AND DVDs
      • VOLUNTEERING & EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
    • CONFERENCES & TRAINING

      • CONFERENCE – SENT
      • CONFERENCE – New Horizons
      • TRAINING – Continuing Education for Pastors
      • TRAINING – Professional Standards
      • TRAINING – Congregational Leadership Training
      • TRAINING – Reconciliation Ministry
      • TRAINING – SENT Evangelism Training
      • TRAINING – New Life New Love – Videos
      • TRAINING – Campaign against Family & Domestic Violence Resources and Training
  • PROJECTS & EVENTS
    • PROJECTS, CONSULTATONS & EVENTS

      • OVERVIEW: PROJECTS, EVENTS, CONSULTATIONS & DIALOGUES
      • CONSTITUTION REVIEW
      • ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE ADJUDICATION AND APPEALS REVIEW
      • CALL PROCESS REVIEW
      • LUTHERAN AGED CARE & COMMUNITY SERVICES – GOVERNANCE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
        • WELCOME TO LUTHERAN AGED CARE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES
      • WORKING GROUP – COMMISSIONS & INQUIRIES
    • PROJECTS, CONSULTATIONS & EVENTS

      • OVERVIEW: PROJECTS, EVENTS, CONSULTATIONS & DIALOGUES
      • CONVENTION OF GENERAL SYNOD 2021
      • LONGEST LUTHERAN LUNCH
      • LUTHERAN WINEMAKERS ANNUAL RELEASE
      • RECONCILIATION ACTION PLAN
  • FIND A …
Night terrors thumbnail

Night terrors

10 March 2015

by Reid Matthias
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

All 75 were nestled in their beds, visions of Vegemite sandwiches dancing in their heads. When all of the sudden, with a shriek and a shrill, the fire alarms went off and they awoke … screaming their heads off.

The last night of Year Seven camp. We’d had a great, tiring day, and after some night activities designed to dilute their stores of energy, the sirens went off. When the alarm went off, the lights came on, adrenaline coursed through my body and I immediately opened my dorm room door to see what was happening with the boys. Some were sitting up in their beds, groggily trying to erase the pain of the bright lights in their eyes. Others—somehow—were actually sleeping through, as 1000 decibels shredded the air.

As I tried to hurry them from their beds and out the door, the alarm stopped, the lights went out and all that could be heard was the sounds of various boys moaning about bad dreams. And soon, after we made sure that it was just a false alarm, the boys were back snoring softly.

Except, that is, for one young man who was sitting up in his bed, staring through the slats in the blinds. His whimper was a restrained scream held tightly behind closed lips. I approached him and as he trembled, he asked me a question:

‘Are you a teacher?’

‘Yes’, I said, hoping that enough adrenaline had leached from my veins to calm my voice. ‘Go back to sleep.  It was the fire alarm—a false alarm.  Something must have set it off.’

He started to sigh deeply, his voice falling back to relief, losing its initial edge of hysteria. ‘Thank God’, he whispered to me. ‘I thought it was a terrorist attack.’ (Perhaps his parents might want to scale back the television time.)

I attempted to soothe his nerves, and eventually he fell back into nice, comfortable dreams. But now my brain was awake and awash with thoughts about what goes on in the lives of these kids. They live in a world where something as innocuous as a false alarm transforms into the next Twin Towers, Sydney hostage situation or Charlie Hebdo. I suppose it is no different than the fallout shelters that were built 60 years ago, when practice drills were designed to get people into the dark basements packed with decades-worth of food as fast as possible, in the hope that they could survive that ‘thing’ that goes bump in the night.

How does the church respond to fear? Does it enlarge it? Ignore it? Defend it? Use it? What is our response to a world that craves to crawl back into the dark and hopes that it can survive this seemingly overwhelming terror?

How does the church respond to frightened children, cowering in their beds as they wonder if there really is
a God who is protecting them?

What do we have to say?


Reid Matthias is school pastor at Faith Lutheran College, Plainland, Queensland.

« Real cheep food
The perfect cuppa »

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Church Worker Support
  • Church@Home
  • Columns
    • #youngsavedfree
    • bring Jesus
    • Dwelling in God's Word
    • Going GREYt!
    • Little Church
    • Movie Reviews
    • Rhythms of Grace
    • Stepping Stones
  • COVID-19 response
  • Daily Devotion
  • Feature Stories
  • Features Homepage
  • LCA Bishop
    • Heartland (The Lutheran)
    • Messages
    • Sermons & Presentations
  • News
  • Our Lutheran Family
    • New Zealand
      • Palmerston North, St Lukes
    • Victoria-Tasmania
      • Hobart St Peter's
  • Presentations & Papers
  • Reconciliation Ministry
  • Story of the Week
  • Uncategorized

Tags

50.500 Aboriginal/Indigenous aid ALC ALWS appointments awards bishops children church workers COVID-19 easter ecumenism forms Grow Ministries HRS international International Mission LCA bishop local mission Lutheran Education LWF music natural disasters new and renewing churches NSW NZ ordination pastors PNG prayer professional standards Qld Reformation refugees Royal Commission SA-NT schools social issues technology Vic-Tas WA women in leadership worship youth and young adults

Archives for all Posts

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2011
  • Don't be the last to find out!

    Join over 4000 people receiving LCA eNews in their inbox every fortnight. It brings you the latest of everything, including updates from this page. It's free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

    Sign up here

    Footer

    Quicklinks

    • HOME
    • DEPARTMENTS & AGENCIES

     

    • SERVICES, RESOURCES & TRAINING
    • PROJECTS & EVENTS
    • FIND A …

    Contact us

    197 Archer Street
    North Adelaide SA 5006

    08 8267 7300
    email us

    © 2021 Lutheran Church of Australia

    Privacy Policy • Disclaimer

    Designed by LCA Communications