THE LUTHERAN May 2017

N A TIO N A L M A G A ZIN E O F THE L U THE RA N C HU RC H O F A U STRA LIA

MAY 2017

VOL 51 NO4

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MOT HERS

– God’s precious gift John 19:27

LUTHERAN

CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

EDITORIAL Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8339 5178 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au

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O UT O F A FRI CA David and Jenny Kraft from St John's Lutheran Church, Tea Tree Gully, in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, spent two weeks in Zimbabwe volunteering at Good Shepherd Centre children’s home. The Chinhoyi Evangelical Lutheran Church was just around the corner! Chinhoyi is 120 kilometres northwest of the Zimbabwe capital Harare. The photo was taken by a local person, Eshwin Makosho.

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The Lutheran informs the members of the LCA about the church’s teaching, life, mission and people, helping them to grow in faith and commitment to Jesus Christ.

The Lutheran also provides a forum for a range of opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or the policies of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

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The Lutheran MAY 2017

Enjoys writing articles and letters on socio-political subjects, particularly domestic violence Fav text: Habakkuk 3:17-18

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MAY

Special features EDITOR'S

Letter

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Those of us blessed with having our mum still with us and those who cherish memories of their mum know mothers are a unique and precious gift from God. Selfless and sacrificing are words often used to describe mothers.

Most mothers would give their own lives to protect their children.

Their unconditional love seems boundless; their willingness to forgive, endless; their capacity to endure pain, inspirational. They give us a glimpse of the nature of God. Mums can also be great models of faith. That’s certainly true in my case. My mum has taught me so much about the importance of not judging others, that God loves everyone and that he is a God of second chances.

Of course, unlike God, mothers are not perfect. They make mistakes. And, for one reason or another, glowing sentiments do not reflect everyone’s experience of their mother.

As Lutherans we often are reluctant to acknowledge the role of Mary, Jesus’ mother, in God’s plan of salvation. However, I think there’s plenty to learn from the Bible’s accounts. Recently I read a Lutheran Media radio script by Pastor Trevor Keller which reflected on this in a wider piece on mothers, and I quote a few excerpts here:

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If we want a model for motherhood we need look no further than a young girl named Mary – the mother of Jesus himself. The first person to show Jesus love would have undoubtedly been his mother … It was his mum … who knew firsthand … the ultimate heartbreak of having her son nailed to a rough wooden cross …

A mother’s love! There can’t be greater, can there? Well, yes, there is! As Jesus looked down from the cross his heart went out to his mum standing nearby. What did he do? He committed her into the care of one of his closest disciples and told him to care for her like his very own mother. And there is love!

This Mother’s Day, as we give God thanks for our mum or for our treasured memories of her, we remember in our prayers those who never knew or didn’t get on well with their mum, those whose longing to be a mum is unfulfilled, and those mums who grieve for departed children.

Holding Isaac – a mother’s story

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Time to treasure

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Reflections on reconciliation

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Regulars Heartland

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Going GREYT!

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#youngSAVEDfree

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Go and Grow

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Inside story

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Reel life

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Directory

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Your voice (Letters)

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Notices

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Coffee break

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In this issue we are privileged to share stories of mothers of different generations. These moving accounts ache with pain and sing with joy but, mostly, they burst with love.

We also highlight National Reconciliation Week, held each May in Australia, by featuring reflections from Indigenous and nonIndigenous members of our church about this special time.

Of course, the ultimate sign of true reconciliation is the empty cross and I pray we will focus there as we ask God for healing in our relationships, whether they be in our families or communities, across cultures or within the church.

Lisa

Our cover:

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JES U S I S G OD'S LOVE. HE G IVES U S NE W HE ARTS TO L AY AS IDE O UR OL D WAYS, TO B EL IE VE AND FOL LOW HIM, TO L IVE WI T H HIM E VERY DAY.

heartland

REV JOHN HENDERSON

Bishop Lutheran Church of Australia

RIG HT WITH G OD? WHAT A PRIVILEG E! I reckon everything as complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8 GNB) In today’s world we tend to speak more easily of our ‘rights’ than we do of our ‘privileges’. Since World War II the concept of human rights has proven very useful in tackling injustice. It creates a legal tool which helps break down excuses that would protect perpetrators from the consequences of their actions. Human rights serve us well in our legal codes and law courts.

Rights set a baseline for human behaviour and help correct us when we breach it. On their own, however, they don’t provide a sense of selfawareness and meaning that can establish our identity as individuals, families, friends and acquaintances, and part of a wider society. A society based only on the concept of rights will sadly lack the essentials we need to bind us together as people.

Privileges are entirely different. They are less popular than rights, because a right is something I deserve to have, while a privilege is something I have that I do not necessarily deserve. A right begins with me, a privilege begins with someone, or something, else.

The Lutheran MAY 2017

I remember moving into Grade 3 at school. Grade 3 came with a privilege called a ‘pen licence’. That meant you could have a full inkwell on your desk, a pen with a nib and a blotting pad. You were trusted to use this somewhat risky combination. Before you got it, you were trained in its use. If you abused it, you would lose the privilege and go back to writing in pencil.

We have no rights in the KINGDOM of God …

Yet God has PRIVILEGED us in Jesus Christ.

Law, no matter how fine and wellintentioned, cannot reach the human heart. Law can compel obedience through shame or fear of punishment, but it cannot make that obedience willing. We will always look for ways around law.

That’s why – despite all our fine laws – our legal systems fund an army of solicitors, barristers, courts, magistrates and judges.

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Privilege, then, carries the concept of gift, grace.

I don’t grab it for myself, but it is given to me.

The ‘pen licence’ was a mark of your maturity and your ability to handle responsibility. It was not a right, it was a privilege.

Christians know a great deal about this kind of privilege. We have no rights in the kingdom of God. By rights, we should not even be here.

Yet God has privileged us in Jesus Christ with his grace, his gift of forgiveness and acceptance, of eternal life now and in the world to come. God is bringing us to maturity as his people, training us in the ways of grace, love and forgiveness. He privileges us to share in Christ’s service to others and even in his suffering (for example, see 2 Corinthians 8:4 and Philippians 1:29).

I don’t mean to set rights and privileges against each other. Both help us live meaningful, fruitful lives. In the end, however, at our last day, we will not be able to claim any rights. The best we will manage then is to throw ourselves into the loving, merciful arms of our Saviour, because he has privileged us to be united with him in his death and resurrection.

HOLDING ISAAC

– a mother’s story Like many expectant parents, having t heir first child was somet hing Rachel and Pete Schilling were really excited about. But soon af ter t heir son’s birt h, t heir ult imate joy t urned to unbearable sorrow.

by RACHEL SCHILLING Recently I read, ‘When a baby is born, it’s a mother’s instinct to protect the baby. When a baby dies, it’s the mother’s instinct to protect their memory.’

In 2005 I was working at the primary school at Trinity Lutheran College, on the Gold Coast, as a teacher and curriculum coordinator. Pete and I had been married for five years, were living in Brisbane, and had decided to start a family.

I had terrible morning sickness and was completely exhausted doing two jobs and travelling more than 100 kilometres to work and back each day. I was thankful when school finished and I could rest before the baby was due. I had a pretty run-of-the-mill pregnancy, though I didn’t go into labour until 29 January 2006 – 15 days after the due date.

It was long, hot and painful. Isaac, our first child, was born on 30 January, just before 9pm. He was big! Almost 11 pounds or 4½ kilograms. And he was perfect. There were no complications with the birth.

Pete and I marvelled that we had created this little being. We began calling our parents and friends. The wait was over – we had a boy!

We drove home with an empty car seat. We entered a quiet house filled with flowers. Just two people. We sat, we stared.

The tears didn’t come until later, but when they did, they didn’t stop.

The pain was excruciating. I cried for weeks. When I would finally fall asleep, I’d wake up crying.

I couldn’t think, I couldn’t eat, I could barely breathe.

I couldn’t stop the tears. I wondered if I would be like this forever. I felt like my heart had broken in two. When I didn’t cry, I felt nothing. I was numb. I would sit and stare. I wondered what kind of existence this was.

It was Pete’s turn to have a cuddle and one of the midwives noticed Isaac ‘didn’t seem quite right’. She took him outside to the resuscitation table asking Pete to press the red emergency button on the way.

Isaac needed oxygen as he wasn’t breathing on his own. Doctors, midwives and neo-natal specialists gathered around his tiny body.

Cords were going in and all over him. He continued to deteriorate.

Every attempt was made to get him to respond but nothing worked.

After about 20 minutes, I was wheeled out to this commotion.

I was suddenly in a haze of noise and people. Only half an hour earlier I was holding my baby.

I could see Pete’s confused, strained, angry, teary face. I didn’t know what was happening. It never occurred to me Isaac would die.

A chaplain arrived and asked whether we would like to baptise Isaac. Pete took the vial of water and baptised him.

I have lived through giving BIRTH and burying my firstborn son. And I have come out the other side! I’d like to think that HELPS others know you can SURVIVE such an incredible LOSS.

We talked with the neonatal specialist. I remember hearing: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before’, ‘acid levels so high, babies don’t recover from’ and ‘the machines are keeping him alive’.

And then, ‘What would you like to do?’ The machines could be turned off now or later, but the result would be the same. He wasn’t going to live.

I fell from the highest moment in my life to the lowest, all in a few hours. It didn’t make sense to keep him this way. The cords were taken out and he was placed in my arms, dead. I was now a mother of a child who had died. Was I a mother? I had no baby.

And so began the questions. Why? Why us? How do you leave a hospital with no baby? How do you enter your home and see the room prepared for this new life?

And where was God in all of this?

I actually became used to this state of being. If I wasn’t crying, I wasn’t feeling pain and I ached to feel something. If I could feel pain, maybe I could feel Isaac and this was my way of knowing him. All I wanted was to remember, to hold onto him.

As weeks passed, there were moments I didn’t feel numb and didn’t feel pain. I didn’t like it. I would look through photos of Isaac to start crying again. It was exhausting.

Sleep became my escape. When I slept, my mind and body repaired and rested.

I was angry about time. It passed so slowly and yet I hated every day that came and went. It was one more day that moved me further away from Isaac. I thought I would lose him, I wouldn’t remember. I wanted to go back to that day and stop time.

Those early weeks are a blur these days. But I haven’t forgotten the pain, the tears and the sorrow. Probably because they have continued and always will.

I had to acknowledge my loss and grief and, in the end, I embraced it. Deciding to do the hard work of grief doesn’t mean I didn’t suffer from not wanting to face another day of sadness, or aching to hold my son again. Part of that work involved creating a scrapbook of Isaac’s photos and memories. Pete and I met with an architect/stonemason to create a memorial for him reflecting who he was.

I also read widely about grief, the death of babies, other people’s journeys. I learnt of cases when mothers were told to ‘get over’ their baby’s death or to have another child to ‘replace’ that one.

I have journalled a lot, too. I wrote my questions, anger and frustration down and shared Isaac’s story with people.

When I had Isaac, I had left a school community which lovingly welcomed me back months later in a new role

as deputy primary principal. This was one of the biggest blessings in my life. I felt wonderfully supported.

for a baby to die from. We have only pieces of a puzzle we will never solve here on earth.

I took the challenges and joys on with a new life perspective and began to see good things could happen in my life, too. I began to see and trust again that God does good work in and through us.

As well as my school community, we were supported by our church community at Our Saviour, Rochedale, in southern Brisbane, and by close friends and family.

Bethania Lutheran School and congregation were also amazing – they donated the plot at Bethania cemetery where Isaac is buried.

I also began to know in my heart it didn’t matter what other people thought. I would cry when the tears welled.

I knew I was a mother. Those tears were important to me. I carried my baby in my heart and, as the years rolled on, I have learnt that is okay.

Pete and I now have three children, Ethan, Anika and Pearl. And there is nothing more precious than these children. Each pregnancy and their early days brought a resurgence of grief. But I cherish every single moment with my kids. You just don’t know how many more you will get.

I still feel that pain of wanting to hold Isaac. There is still sadness. But I like this now, strange to say. It’s my way of feeling he’s reminding me he is always with me.

I have lived through giving birth and burying my firstborn son. And I have come out the other side! I’d like to think that helps others know you can survive such an incredible loss. I didn’t do that on my own.

I am married to a man with whom I share life at the deepest level. We have shared the highest high and the lowest low and value many of the same things because of Isaac’s life and death.

We never found the cause of Isaac’s death. An autopsy revealed parts of his body had high white blood cells, indicating that he was fighting infection. There were several infections in his body, but not significant enough

Sure, there were people who didn’t know what to do or say, but over the years many have shared with us just how much Isaac’s life and death has touched them.

Once again I know God is working for good. I can’t imagine life without a loving God. I’ve got a God who loves me so much he sent his only son who died, so that I might live with him forever.

This is the gift of grace I have been given; the hope I hold on to. Sometimes it’s the only thing that gets me through. In knowing I have this gift, I know I will see my son again. And, I want everyone I know to meet him, too!

I don’t mind time passing so much anymore. I now think the more days that pass, the closer I am to seeing my son again.

Not many people escape grief. But God is always using these situations for good, to draw us closer to him and to show us we are loved.

God continues to work through Isaac’s life and death in ways beyond our imagination. We have been blessed because of his love and faithfulness. This doesn’t for one moment mean that we wouldn’t dearly love to have our boy back. But we have seen the ‘other side’ and we know God goes with us – all the way!

Rachel Schilling is a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church, at Buderim Queensland, along with her husband Pete and children Ethan, 9, Anika, 8, and Pearl, 5 (pictured).

Rachel is Congregation Coach for the LCA’s Grow Ministries, while Peter Schilling is Operations Manager at Lutheran Youth of Queensland’s Luther Heights Youth Camp at Coolum Beach on the Sunshine Coast.

The Lutheran MAY 2017

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I n Goi ng GREYT! we feat ure stories o f some o f our ‘more experienced’ people wi t hi n t he LCA , who have be en called to make a posi t ive cont ribu t ion i n t heir ret irement. We pray t heir examples o f service will be an i nspirat ion and encouragement to us all as we look to be Christ ’s hands and fe et wherever we are, wi t h whatever gif ts and oppor t uni t ies we’ve be en given.

Crafting vibrant into visual

by HELEN BER INGEN

Has your attention ever been caught by the vibrant embroidered fabrics adorning the altars, pulpits or lecterns of your church? I plead guilty to being caught up, midworship service, by the colours or shape of a symbol on these paraments, or the designs on the fabric stole around the pastor’s neck.

From flowers to flames, crosses to crowns, the beauty of these symbols leads the mind to wonder about the underpinning Scriptures represented, or the seasons of the church reflected on fabric.

They are works of art without an artist’s signature. They suggest, instead, divine inspiration using the Bible as a guide and a God-given talent to bring Scripture to life.

One such artist, Verna Fiedler, 77, has spent more than a decade of her retirement creating such embroidered masterpieces by hand, ably assisted by the visual design skills of her husband Eric, also 77.

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ACHIEVEMENT and

fulfilment in SERVING my Lord and in HELPING the less fortunate people.’

The retired nurse had no idea where to begin in making such ceremonial vestments.

‘When he first asked, I didn’t know whether I could, but I wanted to, so I didn’t say no’, Verna says. ‘When I went into it more, I knew I could.’

And so the research began. ‘I actually went to some patchwork lessons in Angaston in the Barossa (in South Australia) and from there I went on with it’, she says.

Her son helped her focus on the source of her inspiration.

‘Brenton asked me to think about the symbols as I was

The Lutheran MAY 2017

As well as growing her faith through needlework, Verna has found a talent. ‘I guess that real hidden talent of making stoles is something that God has given me’, she says.

That first labour of love led to more requests, and now Verna can count at least 20 stoles she has created by hand. Each stole takes two to three months to complete, with Verna usually ‘… it gives me creating a set of five for each pastor, in line with the colours of the five great sense of liturgical seasons.

Verna and Eric’s son Brenton planted the seed 12 years ago when, in his final year of pastoral ministry studies, he asked his mum if she would make a set of stoles for him.

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embroidering them – the why, when, where and how they applied to the Scriptures. And I then picked up the Bible and learnt a lot.’

One recent commission has been making vestments for Australian Lutheran College student Fursan Zumot. Fursan is from the Redeemer Church in Jerusalem – part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land – and has been doing his vicarage in Australia.

Verna has also created paraments for congregations at Toowoomba, Queensland, in the Dandenongs, Victoria, and in suburban Adelaide at Salisbury and North Adelaide, as well as Laura, in South Australia’s Mid-North, and Lowbank, in that state’s Riverland.

The parents of four and grandparents of eight love the teamwork. ‘We can’t do it without each other. We have been married 51 years.’

Eric, a photo engraver by trade, retired after a printing career which included working as supervisor in the pre-press department of the former LCA printer Openbook Publishers in Adelaide.

To create the stoles, Verna and Eric first work with pastors to determine the symbols they will use. Eric then transfers the symbols onto the fabrics.

Verna at tend s to the finer details of a pi ece. for Verna and Eric make preparations another embroidered artwork.

nsted, a ldler with Greg Be Eric and Verna Fie og pr ram at pastoral ministry graduate of the unique stoles. his th wi , ran college Australian Luthe

Following their relocation from Tanunda in South Australia’s Barossa Valley to the Adelaide Hills town of Hahndorf early this year, Verna and Eric have no plans to ‘retire’ from working on their passion.

The handiwork even joins them on holiday. During one camping trip to Wilpena Pound in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges, Verna was embroidering outside when a big spider landed on her, causing her to drop the half-completed work. A touch of mud on the stole meant it was spoilt and had to be started again from scratch. Such is her attention to detail, as evidenced by the range of stitches, threads, beads and fabric paints she uses in her creations.

for Lowbank Paraments made uth Australia So Lutheran Church

‘I like the challenge’, Verna says. ‘This talent that God has given me, it gives me a great sense of achievement and fulfilment in serving my Lord and in helping the less fortunate people.’

After expenses, all money raised goes to the Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS). More than $5000 has been sent, with the occasional earmarked donation.

‘I once made stoles for two Sudanese pastors [ordained as LCA Special Ministry Pastors in Victoria in 2015], so I earmarked all the proceeds back to their local mission work,’ she says. ‘I am always looking out for where and how I can serve the Lord. I thank the Lord every day that I’ve got this talent.’

And Verna’s word of advice to fellow GREYT compatriots?

Well, some inspired word of course, from Colossians 3:17: ‘And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him’.

Helen Beringen is a Townsville-based communications advisor who has been richly blessed through a career as a wordsmith. She is inspired by the many GREYT people who serve tirelessly and modestly in our community. She hopes by sharing stories of how God shines his light through them, others will be inspired to share his light in the world.

Know of any other GREYT stories in your local community?

Email the editor lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au