Topic: Regional

African ministry growing faster than Australian Lutherans can keep up!

‘Our focus is on our children’, Michael Jang said. ‘If you come to our homes you will see us adults watching The Simpsons [a popular children's program in Australia] — because we lost our own childhood and we’re trying to find it now!’

Mr Jang, the pastoral ministry worker at Dandenong [Melbourne, Australia] was speaking at the African Ministry Conference held in Melbourne. It drew together around 60 people representing the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) and its districts, Victorian District Church Council, African pastors, evangelists and other lay workers, and non-African pastors and lay people supporting them.


The aims of the conference were to listen to the stories of African leaders and to find ways of meeting the needs of African people flooding into Lutheran congregations, particularly in Victoria.

Like hundreds of other African refugees who have arrived in Australia in recent years, Rev James Hoth Luk, of the Sudanese Nuer tribe, spent a number of years in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. Lutheran World Service is the leading non-government organisation providing humanitarian services at Kakuma under the umbrella of the United Nations. Many African refugees who come to Australia via Kakuma look for Lutheran churches when they arrive here because they associate the word ‘Lutheran’ with help and safety.

The conference was an opportunity for LCA and district leaders to listen to the stories of around 15 African leaders ministering to their people in eight Victorian parishes. Many of the leaders and the people to whom they minister are refugees from Ethiopia, Burundi, Congo and Liberia, and especially from war-torn Sudan. The civil war there, which started in 1955, claimed an estimated 2 million lives and displaced around 4 million people to neighbouring countries.

Most speakers told attendees something of their personal history, often involving stories of extreme trauma and loss. Many have lost some or most members of their families. James Jool, a speaker for the Dinka people of Sudan, told conference attendees, ‘When there was no food, no water, no clothes, no shoes, no anything, God took care of us’.

Congolese spokesperson Bahati Watutu, together with Shepparton pastor Matt Anker, told how the congregation has grown to bursting point with the influx of Congolese and Burundian families. ‘It has been a great blessing that we have had to work through language issues and learn to grow together as God’s family, despite the difficulties’, Pastor Anker said. Other speakers representing the LCA’s most culturally diverse congregation, Footscray, the Liberian people at Ringwood and the Ethiopian communities at Knox and Noble Park described the challenges of adjusting to a foreign culture. Similarly, non-African pastors and lay people serving these congregations are learning how to work with cultural differences and sensitivities, and in many cases are also learning the languages of the people they serve.

Pastor Anker talked about the African understanding of church as a place of mercy — both spiritual and physical. ‘If you don’t care for the physical needs of people, you lose the opportunity to care for them spiritually. We are often the only white people they trust and the only ones who will go the extra mile for them. So, in addition to the proclamation of the gospel, we are also involved in immigration issues, legal problems, family issues, problems at school, insurance issues, telecommunications contracts, and visiting doctors and dentists.’

Rev Luk said, ‘I believe that my coming to Australia was no accident. Maybe it is another way to carry out God’s mission, because there were flocks [of people] who had come here before me. We are here today as God’s witnesses in Melbourne, in other parts of Australia and to the ends of the earth. Likewise, we are also his witnesses in Sudan, Ethiopia and in other parts of Africa, and to the ends of the earth.

‘It’s like new fruit on the old vines’, said Jenny Pietsch, who works with the Sudanese people of Dandenong. ‘The Sudanese people have brought a mini-reformation. They are hungry and thirsty for the word. Their belief is that God brought them to this country. From our perspective, they have taken us out of our comfort zone and involved us in mission on our doorstep.’

Pastor Greg Pietsch, President of the Victoria District said that LCA and Victorian District leaders will now work towards developing an integrated approach to supporting those congregations that are meeting the physical and spiritual needs of African people in our Lutheran communities.

Linda Macqueen
ALN Editorial Member, LCA