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Sharing the gift of life

by Lisa Mcintosh

In 2008, 39-year-old Darren Forrest contracted a virus that caused his kidneys to malfunction. Unless a compatible kidney donor was found, Darren would need to go onto the life-altering routine of dialysis, something medical professionals wanted to avoid. Family members were tested for compatibility and, while his mum, Marg, was very keen to be the donor, only his father, Geoff, was a match.

Willing to donate a kidney to his son, but also feeling as though he had no choice in the matter, Geoff, who was then 65, underwent a year of very extensive medical tests – between 20 and 30 in number according to his estimates.

However, in the last scan, doctors found lumps on his lungs. The transplant was put on hold due to concern that Geoff might have cancer. The medical team decided they could test again three months later to confirm that the lumps were benign.

‘The whole process took more than a year from start to finish’, says Geoff, who taught and then tutored at Immanuel College in suburban Adelaide across
a period of more than 35 years from 1981. ‘And they tested for everything. It was very reassuring to me. Because I was older, they had to check absolutely everything to ensure that I wasn’t going to get cancer or anything that would leave my remaining kidney damaged.’

While the lead-up to the transplant impressed Geoff, what happened afterwards was painful – physically and emotionally. Darren was in intensive care after the operation with nursing support throughout, but Geoff was put in a public ward that accommodated a violent patient with dementia and then was sent home from hospital after two days despite not feeling well enough to be discharged. He split his stitches due to the extreme pain and the effect of the drugs he was given, but was unable to access promised nursing support through a 24-hour hotline.

Naturally, though, there were plenty of good outcomes of Geoff’s sacrifice. The amount of the chemical waste product creatinine – which is removed by the kidneys – in Darren’s system had been at near-fatal levels before the transplant, but the improvement was dramatic. ‘The transplant happened at about 8am and by midday, it had gone down from 2000 to 200’, Geoff says. ‘So, the kidney started working straight away – it was incredible.

‘The transplant also enabled Darren to have a child so, indirectly, I was responsible for that, too. So, all that was really good, but it was much harder on me than I thought it would be. I still would have done it, don’t get me wrong. But I also resented the fact that I felt that I didn’t have a choice.’

Thankfully, Geoff’s experience of a lack of post-operative medical support was not typical of other donors that year from the same hospital. The donors were asked to share their experiences with health practitioners at a meeting. ‘All these other people were saying it was the best experience of their life’, Geoff says. When it came to his turn, he says the surgeon was ‘shattered’ by what had happened to him, because she said they hadn’t paid enough attention to the donors while focusing their attention on the recipients.

Geoff, who was raised in the Methodist church and had taught at an Anglican school in New South Wales, before joining the staff at Immanuel College and becoming involved with the Lutheran church through the chapel services there, says he has often pondered the interplay between Christian living and the ethics of organ donation. ‘Is it playing God or is it just like any other advances in medical treatment?’, he asks.

However, it was his second experience with organ donation and, more particularly, the sudden death of his wife of more than 49 years, Marg, that he says shook his faith to the core.

In 2015, Marg, who had also been a teacher and, like Geoff, was at that time tutoring Indigenous students who boarded at Immanuel, fell one day at work and hit her head. Otherwise fit and healthy, Marg played golf and worked in the two days following before a severe headache led to her being hospitalised. Within a further 24 hours, she was in a coma from which she never recovered. Marg was on life-support for two days, with Geoff and his children, Darren and Kerry, keeping a hospital bedside vigil.

Geoff knew Marg wanted to be an organ donor. However, when the family was told that donating her heart and lungs would mean a further two days on life support, it was too much to ask. ‘And so we said. “No, we don’t want that”’, Geoff says. ‘We were able to donate two kidneys, and that’s what she would have wanted because of Darren.’

Even more traumatic for the Forrests were the three hours of interviews that followed Marg’s death with the workplace health and safety regulator and the organ donation representatives, including highly personal and even ‘revolting’ questions. ‘It was hell’, says Geoff, who hopes there will be procedural change that will save other families going through what they endured.

‘The whole thing with Marg’s death rocked my faith because I’m thinking, “Why me?” I’ve had a friend who was five minutes from dying due to blocked arteries – now they’ve had a quadruple bypass and they’re fit as a fiddle. And I’m thinking, “Why wasn’t Marg given that chance?” I don’t like the suggestion that God simply needs her more than others.’

However, Geoff says the tragedy has changed his outlook on life and relating to loved ones. ‘I’ve learnt that life is very precious’, he says, adding that it’s critical to treasure the people you love while you have them. ‘And remember to tell them that you love them.’

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Remembering Strehlow a hundred years on

by Pastor Neville Doecke

It would seem a rather sad occasion to spend two consecutive Sundays commemorating the death of an important person, particularly if their life was cut short at the age of only 50 years.

But that is what happened at Hermannsburg in Central Australia recently, as the community celebrated the life and work of Lutheran missionary Carl Strehlow. Carl and his wife Frieda are remembered for their service among the Western Arrarnta people of the region, and Carl’s legacy includes extensive Bible translation work and writings on First Nations languages and cultures.

Commemorative worship services on 24 and 31 July 2022 were held at two locations, one at Hermannsburg and the other 300 kilometres south-east at Horseshoe Bend on the Finke River.

The sermon text for the Hermannsburg service, Isaiah 55:8,9, was preached by Ingkaarta Neville Doecke and translated into Arrarnta by Pastor Marcus Wheeler to nearly 300 people gathered outside the Old Church at Hermannsburg. It leads us to think of God’s thoughts and plans. God’s big picture takes in more than the present. ‘All things work together for good’, as Romans 8:28 reminds us.

In 1922, Carl Strehlow died while trying to reach medical help after becoming seriously ill with dropsy. His tragic journey to Horshoe Bend, viewed 100 years later, reveals God’s ‘big picture plan’. Hermannsburg Mission did not close down. Frieda found fulfilment in six valuable years working as matron of Immanuel College. Their young son Theo grew up to follow in his father’s footsteps and continued to make huge linguistic and anthropological contributions. Most importantly, the Western Arrarnta people, led by the strong faith and commitment of ‘Blind Moses’ and other evangelists, continued to preach, teach and spread the message of God’s amazing love for his people.

The gospel message did not die with Carl Strehlow! Aboriginal pastors from all the language groups in Central Australia continue to sow the seeds of the gospel. ‘“The words I speak,” announces the Lord, “will not return to me without producing results”’ (Isaiah 55:11).

The sermon text for the Horseshoe Bend memorial is etched on the base of the cross on Carl’s grave – Hebrews 11:25,26. Sixty people travelled four hours from Alice Springs to gather in the dust and burrs at the bottom of a small hill to ponder Carl’s fateful journey and hear God tell us that his big picture plan includes two important details. For believers in Jesus, there will be hard times and suffering, but we must look ahead to the gift God has for each of us – life forever with him. The grandson of Carl and Frieda, John Strehlow, who had made his own rather difficult journey to travel from the UK to Alice Springs, unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion.

We praise and thank God for his big picture plan that wove together the lives of Carl, Frieda and the Western Arrarnta people for his continuing work of growing the gospel.

This story was first published on the LCA South Australia – Northern Territory District website and through Online Together eNews.

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God’s strength provides a career in caring

Every morning when Shirley Klinge looks out of her window at the Tabeel retirement village at Laidley, she gazes at the hills at Cunninghams Gap, a pass over the Great Dividing Range connecting coastal Brisbane to the Darling Downs, in southeast Queensland.

Visible from Brisbane on a clear day, the mountains are a reminder of her favourite psalm, and the source of her strength: ‘I look unto the hills, that is where I get my strength from’ (Psalm 121).

Shirley’s home in the picturesque Lockyer Valley, nestled between the peaks of Mount Cordeaux and Mount Mitchell, is perfect for where God has placed her.

‘God’s given me gifts, so why not use them to the best of my ability?’, asks Shirley, who turns 74 this month.

So, she has done just that through a lifetime of care for the people of her community.

Shirley’s passion for caring for others has touched people through all life stages, from children as young as two, to elders as old as 108 years.

The trained nurse spent a decade from 1985 as director of nursing at Tabeel aged-care home at Laidley – in the same location where she and her husband of 52 years David have since moved into the retirement village.

She’s also run a childcare centre, worked in a hospital casualty department, been an in-home nurse, and a voluntary parish nurse, and provided chaplaincy support to the valley’s Faith Lutheran College.

‘I’ve gone where the need has been and then paid work often followed’, Shirley says.

Despite several failed attempts to retire from 2013, she is hoping her current attempt will allow her to spend more time caring for the member groups of the West Moreton Zone of Lutheran Women Queensland, of which she is president.

‘I do love my guild work, it’s women supporting women in the church’, Shirley says. ‘Until COVID hit, I visited every parish in the zone, and in August I will start again, just to let them know they are not on their own, that Lutheran Women of Queensland care for them.

‘That’s what I want retirement life to be about, but I haven’t quite found it yet.’ What she has found in her lifetime of caring is the skill and sensitivity to be a caring companion.

Since finishing work at Tabeel, Shirley has previously been called back to serve as chaplain, and now does paid relief work when the current chaplain, Pastor Noel Burton, is on leave. Shirley often also volunteers in palliative care chaplaincy in a role she finds very rewarding using her nursing skills.

‘There’s no greater privilege’, she says. ‘Many a night I have gone in to stay with them, especially ones with no family around to support them. It’s all the little things that can provide that last special touch, a back rub, sharing Bible readings and their favourite music.

‘I ask God to please give me the gifts and inspiration I need to give them what they need in their last hours.

‘To me, it’s just special. It is beautiful, peaceful, and it’s just a privilege, especially in the early hours of the morning.’

From when she was a little girl, Shirley knew she was going to be a nurse.

Born in Kingaroy, in Queensland’s South Burnett region as the second eldest of five, she grew up on a peanut farm in nearby Kumbia, before going to boarding school
in Warwick.

‘When I finished school, I did dental nursing until I was old enough to do my nursing training from 1966 to 1970’, Shirley recalls.

Her future husband David, a diesel fitter, was working across the road from the hospital. They wed just after she graduated, and they moved to Mt Isa for work. That is where they had their two sons, Nigel, 50, and Nathan, 48, and where she became director of the St Pauls Lutheran Church Child Care Centre.

And, after a life of caring, what is Shirley’s secret ingredient? ‘God loves us, so you’ve got to love everyone else’, she says.

Now, in her (most recent) retirement, Shirley is an elder in the Laidley church, president and treasurer of Redeemer Lutheran Women’s Fellowship and convenes the congregation’s funeral catering group. And she loves her roles with Lutheran Women of Queensland.

Shirley’s also been awarded life membership of the Lutheran Nurses Association of Australia for her volunteer pastoral nurse role.

Her tip for lending a helping hand? ‘Do what makes you feel comfortable’, Shirley says. ‘You’ve got to be comfortable with what you do … other than running a mile the other way!’

Just look to the mountains!

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Invited to join God’s family

by Lisa Mcintosh

Being baptised as a baby has been traditional for most Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand. But for Luke Horner, along with many others, the journey to joining God’s family has been different.

Now husband to Amy and a father of two young children, Luke went to church occasionally as a child with his mum and attended a Lutheran primary school. But he’d never been baptised.

‘I knew I wasn’t baptised in primary school, especially being a Christian-based school and learning about God’, Luke, from South Australia’s Riverland, says. ‘For my parents, baptism wasn’t something that they thought was essential for me.

‘I knew there was a God but, during my teenage years, I thought God was not as important as my other priorities at the time.’

In 2006, Luke got to know Amy as both were playing sport – football and netball – in Waikerie. They got chatting in the pub one evening after home-ground matches. When they started going out, Amy says, ‘we had no idea that we both held a connection to a belief in God’.

Amy had been baptised as a child, attended church and Sunday school and grew up with a strong Christian influence from her parents. ‘However, during my teenage and early adulthood years, I didn’t go to church as much’, she says. ‘However, I still held my Christian faith and always believed in God.’

When the couple became engaged, they decided on a church wedding. They knew Pastor Richard Fox, who was serving the Waikerie Lutheran parish and umpiring local Aussie Rules football, both through Amy’s parents being active church members and Luke’s sport. They asked Pastor Richard whether he would conduct their 2010 wedding and he offered some pre-marriage preparation sessions.

‘Luke was the vice-captain of the Waikerie Football Club at the time’, Pastor Richard explains. ‘Luke and I didn’t talk about Christianity while at footy, though a few of his teammates suggested I might be better in the pulpit rather than umpiring! I invited them to come and compare! But Luke and I acknowledged each other and said “hi”, which was a big thing between a footy player and an umpire.’

During Luke and Amy’s pre-marriage sessions, Pastor Richard chatted with Luke and the topic of baptism came up.

‘Luke wasn’t baptised but wondered what it was, and I shared about what happens. He seemed surprised about its simplicity but also the great gifts it gives.’

After completing the preparation, the couple was married. But while he remembers the wedding as a wonderful celebration, it was what happened the morning after that also stands out in Pastor Richard’s memory. ‘I think Luke and Amy were the first people at church’, he says. ‘I asked them why they were there, and they explained that they wanted to worship before going on their honeymoon.’

After their wedding, the Horners attended church regularly and Pastor Richard says occasionally he would ask how they were going, and if they had any questions about worship, God and baptism.

‘Some months later after church one Sunday, Luke and Amy waited around to talk with me’, Pastor Richard says. ‘They wanted to know more about baptism and what the options were for Luke. I went through the baptism rite with them and discussed any questions they had.’

Luke was baptised in 2011 in a private service with Pastor Richard and close family.

Pastor Richard describes the occasion as ‘wonderful and intimate’. ‘The resulting joy on both of their faces was heart-warming and infectious’, he says.

Luke was happy to be baptised into God’s family. ‘Being baptised for me means that I know God is always there for me and always will be, no matter what happens’, he says. ‘Once baptised it was also a good feeling to know that I could join in holy communion.

‘If you are thinking about getting baptised as an adult or about going to church, look into it, as it’s never too late.’

Amy and Luke say that for them there are many blessings of baptism: ‘God’s love and belonging to his family indefinitely; knowing that God will forgive us for all our sins; knowing that he is always there watching over us and keeping us safe, no matter what life events we are enduring.’

After several years of trying to start a family before Isaac was born, followed by Evie, the Horners say it was ‘extremely important’ to them that their children be baptised. Pastor Lee Kroehn baptised Isaac. When Evie was born, Waikerie was in a pastoral vacancy, so the Horners invited Pastor Richard, who by then was serving as director of Lutheran Media, to baptise her.

‘Pastor Fox has been an inspiration and a great influence on our lives, and we will forever be grateful for this’, Amy says. ‘He continues to be a strong part of our life and now our children’s journey.’

Pastor Richard says, ‘God works in ways beyond our understanding and through people we may not expect. God was already working on Luke and Amy before I arrived, and he used me in a small part on their journey and relationship with Jesus Christ.’

And what do Amy and Luke, who are now members at St Pauls at nearby Ramco, believe are the most important things to remember from their faith journeys so far? ‘That God loves you and he wants you to be a part of his family.’

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Lutheran education community back together

by Kate Bourne

After a two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Australian Conference on Lutheran Education (ACLE) was held in Melbourne last month, drawing 450 in-person attendees and a further 120 people online.

The hybrid conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre offered an opportunity for connection and re-connection for a Lutheran education community that has faced significant challenges in the past couple of years.

The ACLE theme was ‘One voice, many paths’. With more than 40 presenters leading sessions across the three-day event from 5 July, participants were able to hear from those currently serving in Lutheran education, as well as national and international keynote speakers.

Opening the conference, Lutheran Education Australia (LEA) Executive Director Lisa Schmidt thanked participants for their ‘passionate and dedicated service over the past few years’. ‘This is our long-awaited chance to gather as a whole again’, she said. ‘Communities need connection and nurturing – the next few days is a dedicated time for doing that.’

International speakers included Rev Dr Chad Rimmer, a Lutheran pastor who serves as the program executive for Identity, Communion and Formation at the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Switzerland. Neuroscience trainer Nathan Wallis travelled from New Zealand to present a three-part series entitled ‘Engage your brain and the first 1000 days’, which was of particular interest for early childhood educators.

During a collaborative session designed to inform the national initiative exploring our vision for learners and learning, attendees were asked, ‘What’s your vision for the learner and learning in 2022 and beyond in Lutheran education?’.

Given the experience schools have had in recent times it was no surprise that the session ‘Me, We, Us, Wellbeing in the Workplace’, led by Natasha Rae, was in high demand and required a last-minute change to seating configuration to allow more people to attend.

On the final day, Dave Faulkner and Maddie Scott-Jones from professional learning organisation Education Changemakers prompted participants to work together in school groups to develop a plan for action and impact to take back to their schools.

Addressing conference attendees, LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith described Lutheran schooling as an integral part of the ongoing life and mission of the church. ‘While the Lutheran Church has been forming young people through its schools, Lutheran schooling has been forming the church’, he said. ‘Therefore, that makes ACLE a significant event in the Lutheran Church calendar’.

At the conclusion of the conference, the ACLE candle was extinguished and handed to Lutheran Education Queensland, which will host the next triennial event in 2025.

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Opportunity knocks in the Gabba’s shadow

by Helen Brinkman

When the Brisbane Bears joined what was to become the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1987, who would have guessed the ripples of opportunity that flowed from its emergence as the first Queensland-based club?

The club’s home at the famed Gabba, the Brisbane Cricket Ground, created an unexpected boon for the good folk of the nearby Nazareth Lutheran Church, Woolloongabba.

For the past three decades, the Bears’ home matches, and those of their successor the Brisbane Lions, have created an ongoing fundraising opportunity for the church.

Located 600 metres up the road from the Gabba, a tenant in one of the church rental properties first noted a few cars parking on the church property on game days.

It wasn’t long before all vacant space owned by the historic Hawthorn Street church was up for grabs for home matches, coordinated by longstanding Nazareth members Ruth and Colin Schneider.

Ruth and Colin, now both 81, took responsibility for organising paid parking, firstly on the congregation’s vacant lots, then its car parks and grounds. It was $5 a car park for footy patrons. ‘In the end, we could get 90 cars because Colin and I would do it together. He’d park them, and I’d stand at the gate and collect the money’, says Ruth.

In the early years, the operation become more sophisticated when Colin set up temporary spotlights for evening matches. Additional parking spaces were utilised around the church property, its kindergarten and across the road at Nazareth’s then-senior citizens’ home.

As development occurred, parking opportunities changed but never stopped. The Schneiders were helped by fellow members and enjoyed the camaraderie of fans usually enjoying fun, pre-match banter about their beloved teams – and yes, they still do allow opposition team supporters equal access to the car parks!

‘It was a fun time and everyone’s happy because they are going to the footy’, says Colin.

Even when the church was gutted by fire in May 2000, the car parking continued.

Colin recalls how most parkers, who were now regulars and had seen details of the church fire plastered over the news, had donated generously toward the church restoration fund. ‘We’d be getting $50 notes just given to us’, he says.

And Ruth even saved the church from a $300 fine for a misplaced parking sign, after a written plea to the Brisbane Lord Mayor asking him to waive the fine as the church had recently burnt down and the parking funds were supporting its re-build.

For Ruth and Colin, car parking has been part of a life-long connection to the church. ‘It has been part of our lives to be at church, and you see things that need to be done, and you think, “I can do that”’, says Ruth.

‘The people you meet are normally so lovely and you enjoy their company. You have happy times; your friends are there and it’s a good feeling when you do something like this.’ The pair coordinated the fundraiser for almost 20 years, agonising over raising the parking price after the first decade, first to $6 then to $10.

In 2004, the Schneiders passed the baton to a series of fellow members. Most recently committee member and octogenarian Eric Parups worked with other members to keep the fundraiser going for almost two more decades and has supported a transition to new members this year.

‘It’s going to a good cause, and we quite often get more additional money from parkers as a donation’, Eric says.

The parking price has this year risen to $20, with regular parkers not batting an eyelid as the fundraising is earmarked to support domestic violence shelter, Mary and Martha. Serendipitously, this refuge has been a church mission since its inception by the Nazareth congregation more than 35 years ago.

Nazareth now provides regular donations for bedding that is given to clients moving to more permanent accommodation. And each home match collects about $600 for the cause.

After running in the shadow of the Gabba for 35 years now, the fundraiser shows no sign of waning. Who knows what boon the upcoming Olympic Games in 2032 may bring? Regardless, the Schneiders’ favourite Bible verse sets the tone: ‘The Lord your God goes with you, he will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Deuteronomy 31:6).

The author is a member of Nazareth Lutheran Church, Woolloongabba.

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Investing to bring blessings

by Lisa McIntosh

The standard current definition of ‘ethical investment’ involves investing in companies that meet certain standards in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of their operations.

But investing ethically can mean far more than this – especially when we consider the wide-ranging opportunities available to use for good the money with which God has entrusted us. For many people of faith, matching what they invest in with their values is an important aim.

Indeed, investing funds to ‘contribute to meaningful outcomes’ and having social responsibility at the heart of financial decisions are among the core values of LLL Australia’s operations, says Chief Executive Officer Ross Smith.

‘All that we have is a gift from God – including our wealth’, Ross says. ‘If we are to be good stewards of that wealth, we need to be thoughtful about where we invest.

‘As companies become more transparent about their ESG operations, each of us is able to make more informed decisions about how we can be good stewards with our wealth – investing to bring blessings to God’s world and God’s people.

‘Further, investing our funds to contribute to meaningful outcomes can create greater connection, community and purpose. LLL has social responsibility at its core. We aim to support the Lutheran Church by meeting the capital needs of organisations that proclaim Christ as Lord and Saviour and seek to show his love to all people. We do this by providing missional grants, sponsorships and financial allocations to Lutheran organisations.’

Thoughtfully considering and selecting where and how to invest is ‘both a privilege and a humble response to God’s abundant provision for us’, Ross says. ‘Each of us needs to do our research and be mindful that we are selecting an investment that is secure, viable and will serve your individual vision’, he says.

While what each person considers ‘ethical’ can vary according to their values and beliefs, Lutheran Super CEO Stella Thredgold says Australians are ‘increasingly considering’ ESG factors in their investment decisions ‘to ensure alignment with the issues most important to them’. ‘When assessing your super, considering how your money is invested by the super fund will help you assess whether it aligns to your values and views on ethical and sustainable investing.’

Stella says Lutheran Super’s investment manager Mercer Australia has long put sustainability at the forefront of its investment philosophy, with the organisation’s sustainable and ethical super policy stating that ‘taking a holistic approach to investing is paramount’.

*The information contained in this article is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation. You should consider whether the information is appropriate to your needs, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a financial adviser.

With the support of LCA members, the LLL backs Lutheran ‘organisations that proclaim Christ … and seek to show his love to all people’, says CEO Ross Smith. These entities include ALWS, which invests in people through aid and development projects, such as that pictured above.

 

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Lutheran pastor honoured in Queen’s Birthday list

LCANZ pastor Darren Jaensch has been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday 2022 Honours List. The Director General Chaplaincy – Army since December 2017, Pastor Darren has been made a Member (AM) in the Military Division of the Order of Australia for ‘exceptional performance of duty in chaplaincy leadership and development’.

An Australian Army chaplain in various roles since beginning part-time with the Army Reserve in 1998, he accepted a full-time call with the Army two years later. Released by the LCA to represent the church in that mission context, Pastor Darren will be returning to parish ministry in 2023, having accepted a call to Holy Cross Lutheran Church at Belconnen in the Australian Capital Territory.

Pastor Darren described receiving the AM as ‘a very humbling but wonderful affirmation’. ‘The sad part is that our entire Army chaplaincy team provides amazing ministry that contributes to the recognised achievements, but there is only one recipient of the award’, he said.

‘Our Army chaplains are engaged in meaningful human interactions, meeting soldiers (and their families) in the raw realities of their lives and the sacred spaces of their spiritual walk and human existence, most recently in supporting the Australian community through COVID-19 and the floods. All the while, sharing their hardships and dangers. And it is my deep honour to lead them whilst flying the flag for our beloved LCANZ.

‘The affirmation is nice, particularly for my family who bear the cost and are long-suffering, but all glory belongs to God in whom “we live and move and have our being”.’

The citation of his honour reads: ‘Principal Chaplain Jaensch’s exceptional leadership as the Director General Chaplaincy – Army has optimized relevant and effective chaplaincy across Army. His wisdom, persistence and compassion have progressed the recruiting and integration of gender and culturally diverse, full and part-time and multi-faith chaplains’.

The congratulations of the church are offered to Pastor Darren and any other members honoured with awards.

To learn more about what our Army and other Australian Defence Force chaplains do, see the following videos: https://youtu.be/RX4ZXLq3ymQ; https://youtu.be/2kFgiOIyGM8 and https://youtu.be/q0WQFdhzI38

Pictured above: Brigadier Darren Jaensch stands in the tower of the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France. Photograph: LSIS Jake Badior. Copyright: Commonwealth of Australia Department of Defence

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The greatest love story ever told

by Helen Brinkman

The Bible is God’s love story to us. But how can we share his love story with those who are yet to hear it?

For 92-year-old Les John, it’s as simple as listening to God. He’s felt guided by God’s hand to help the people he’s met along the way over his lifetime of ups and downs.

Looking back at the places he’s lived and situations that he has navigated, Les says God’s pencil is writing a book to guide him to do God’s will. All he has to do is listen.

The retiree from country Victoria is putting his listening (and writing) skills to use to support and uplift a dear family friend with a cancer diagnosis.

At a time when many nonagenarians may feel their helping well is running dry, Les is using the power of words to encourage Courtney, 42, as she battles stage four cancer.

Every day Les writes to Courtney (pictured facing page inset) from his home at the Heywood Rural Health hostel about 30 kilometres north of Portland, west of Melbourne.

‘I pray every time I go to write an email to her for God to give me the strength to support her through the messages I give her every day, and he has never let me down once’, he says.

And Les says it is never too late to hear God’s will for us. As he says: ‘This story is all about love.’

‘I started to realise that God had been writing his own little book to me and boy, has he opened his heart to me – reminding me of that wonderful text from John 4:8 – “He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love”.’

Les and his late wife Marjorie first met Courtney in 2006 when Marjorie was recovering from a stroke, and Courtney came to clean the windows of their Portland unit. Courtney became an instant friend.

After Marjorie’s passing from cancer in 2018, Courtney reached out to visit Les in his Heywood hostel.

‘Courtney came and took me out for lunch and, to cut a long story short, she virtually became a carer to me – taking me out for drives and coffees when she was in the area or I was in town’, Les recalls.

Then in 2020, COVID-19 appeared, and hostels went into lockdown, so their visits to one another stopped.

Soon after, Courtney rang Les to say she’d been diagnosed with a life-threatening cancer.

‘I well remember the day she phoned and told me the news with tears and fright in her voice’, he says.

‘My heart just completely broke. It was astonishing that here I was, going into my 90th year when she was diagnosed. The Lord whispered into my ear: “This lady has cared for you, so it is your time to care for her.”’

So, Les started to write to Courtney every day. ‘I would just talk to her. As my wife had cancer, it gave me the opportunity to be aware of what she was going through’, he says.

‘Every time I sit at the computer, I honestly believe God whispers in my ear what he wants me to share. I am just sharing the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and we’ve had long discussions about that.

‘I don’t think there has ever been a time when I have sat there and haven’t stopped for several minutes to pray that the Lord will help me with what to say.’

Les, who is struggling with his own age-related health issues, hopes this story gives other people like him the idea of doing something similar.

‘I am so thankful to God that he has given an old geezer like me the responsibility for helping a girl with a terminal illness’, he says.

Les is also no stranger to writing. In his retirement, he has written and published two novels under his nom de plume, John W Leslie, and is working on a third. He’s recorded a reading of both novels for Portland radio station 3RPC. He’s also compiled a poetry book, Dreams upon a rainbow.

As for now, Les’s daily emails continue, as does Courtney’s medical treatment.

‘I know God’s finger is writing all the time’, he says.

And his favourite good news comes from Psalm 13:5,6 – ‘I will rely on your constant love; I will be glad, because you will rescue me. I will sing to you, O Lord, because you have been good to me.’

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Shame, guilt, regret and the path to repentance

Why do we feel guilt, shame and regret? We asked Lutheran psychologist Dr Michael Proeve, whose research interests include shame, guilt and remorse, to unpack what these emotions teach us and what their relationship is to repentance for us as Christians.

The Greek theological term ‘Metanoia’ is often defined as ‘a transformative change of heart’. It is the turning again or change in mind and change in living that in Christianity we commonly call repentance.

And if we are to live repentance and articulate our experience of it, we may do this through the language of emotion. For, as creatures of flesh and bone as well as spirit, we are used to speaking our experience through those fusions of thought, feeling, physiological response and interpersonal action that ebb and flow and recur in our lives, which we call emotions. I want to focus on three emotions that I believe feature when we work through repentance: regret, guilt and shame.

The idea of looking backwards seems contrary to one of our current cultural imperatives of ‘moving forward’ but looking backwards is what regret entails. The Frank Sinatra song My Way talks of having had ‘… a few [regrets], but then again, too few to mention …’. However, I suspect people who endorse this view either have extraordinary foresight or more likely are not paying attention to the consequences of what they do. The rest of us have regrets.

Psychological interest in regret has been developing since the 1990s and the value of regret is recognised in business-oriented self-help literature. Put simply, we experience regret when we wish that things were other than they are. This is broad, in that we may regret the situations and behaviour of others, but I want to focus particularly on regret as it applies to ourselves when we wish that we could turn back time, and start the day, month or even years again. Regret for actions and opportunities we did not take may preoccupy and weigh very heavily on us, but our behaviour is often a painful source of regret and need for repentance. When we regret, we think of mistakes we made, that we should have known better, and we want a second chance.

Though regret may bite and ache, it offers us the motivation to look at how we might do things differently and make the changes that we can, if we should be given a second chance. We can feel regret because of what we have suffered, but we may also regret what we do because it has hurt others, and this is where regret links to guilt.

Guilt is known as a self-conscious emotion in that we evaluate ourselves against standards and rules. When we feel guilty, we judge our behaviour negatively against the rules and standards we hold for ourselves, particularly about behaviour towards others, and we feel responsible. We want to apologise, repair matters, and remind ourselves to live by the values we hold. Recent psychological thinking sees guilt as generally a good thing, as people who feel guilty tend to be empathetic towards other people, understand their perspectives, and they want to repair their relationships with others.

However, there are times when guilt is not so helpful to us or others. For example, sometimes people take too much responsibility for what happened in circumstances where others would not judge them so harshly.

When we feel guilty, it can be good to ask what we are truly able to control and be responsible for, as we cannot necessarily control all circumstances and we cannot control what other people do. We can then repair what we can repair, reach out to other people whom we have hurt and be more conscious of living according to the values we hold.

The emotion of shame, however, is a mixed blessing. Shame is a very painful emotion, which involves judging our whole self as inferior or bad, and perceiving that other people see us that way too.

Also, people commonly feel shame not because of their behaviour, but because of their appearance or because of things done to them. In these circumstances, shame results from events or aspects of ourselves for which we are not responsible and which we cannot necessarily repair.

As well, whether shame results from our behaviour or not, we can respond to shame in unhelpful ways. People may cope with shame by turning it outwards, being angry and blaming others. Or we may cope with shame by isolating ourselves and hiding from others. So, shame can result in responses of attack or paralysis, neither of which benefits others or ourselves.

The way out of shame is often by means of the opposite of shame, which is compassion. When others treat us with compassion and accept us for who we are, and we learn to do the same towards ourselves, shame can decrease. If shame comes from what we have done, we may then transform shame into guilt, take appropriate responsibility, and return to our values.

There are few more striking descriptions of guilt and shame than King David’s outpouring in Psalm 51, his prayer of repentance. For Christians, as for David, God is the compassionate ‘Other’ to whom we may bring our shame, guilt and regrets, to be restored, renewed and compassionate towards ourselves. In turn, when we can be compassionate towards others, their shame may be lessened, they can feel appropriate guilt, and they may be renewed and may renew their relationships.

A clinical and forensic psychologist, Dr Michael Proeve is an academic at The University of Adelaide. He is co-author or co-editor of the books Remorse: Psychological and Jurisprudential Perspectives, and Remorse and Criminal Justice: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. He has had a long involvement with the Lutheran Church as a congregant and member of church committees.

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