Growing Vital Churches
To request assistance, or to find out more, please contact our District Office on 07 3511 4000 or email mission@qld.lca.org.au
FAQs
Queensland is a great place to live – although not without adversity. Natural disasters, fire, drought, flood seem to be increasingly common. Yet one thing that is special is that Queenslanders know how to support each other in the midst of such adversity.
The LCAQD consists of more than just congregations. Through Lutheran Education Queensland, Lutheran Services and Lutheran Youth of Queensland, we are also involved in education, aged care and disability services, and youth camps etc. We are grateful that no LCAQD properties were flooded (although several sustained storm damage). Lutheran congregations and other agencies are therefore available to respond to the needs around them, as we always have.
The District Office is here to connect those in need with those who want to help:
- We offer phone and other support for local leaders.
- We communicate with our wider community (and are very grateful for the donations received from throughout the LCANZ and beyond!).
- The Australian Disaster Relief Fund of Queensland Lutheran Giving uses your donations in two main ways:
- Local congregations can set up a project for quickly distributing funds in smaller increments (e.g. grocery vouchers).
- Individuals and businesses can also apply for cash assistance to help them regroup. These applications are verified by a local Lutheran leader and directed to mission@qld.lca.org.au.
Need help making a donation? Contact district@qld.lca.org.au Phone: 07 3511 4000
Need help setting up a project or applying for assistance? Contact mission@qld.lca.org.au David Schmidt: 0408 852 183 or Kathy Matuschka: 0460 604 827
Credit card payment is our preferred donation method. We are also able to receive donations by EFT, but we need to ensure that we collect the necessary details from our donors. To donate by EFT, please contact Mia and she will guide you through our EFT payment process: district@qld.lca.org.au Phone: 07 3511 4000
Or donate by credit card using the button above.
Our LCAQD congregations as well as agencies such as schools, early childhood centres and aged and community care services are part of their local communities, and so at the forefront of our responses in affected areas.
At the District Office level, we offer communication and coordination, such as through Queensland Lutheran Giving's tax deductible SEQ 2022 Flood appeal.
If you would like to apply for financial assistance from Queensland Lutheran Giving's Australian Disaster relief fund, please contact our District Office on 07 3511 4000 or email mission@qld.lca.org.au
We encourage you to:
- pray
- be gentle on yourself and those around you, as you never know what the impact of this might be
- if you are flood-affected, reach out for help - don't do it alone
- check that people you know are okay
- seek updates from your city or regional council who are coordinators for disaster response in your area
- pitch in with the clean-up as you are able
- donate to organisations that are providing relief. If you wish to donate to our LCAQD appeal you can use this link
We are endeavoring to keep you as up-to-date as possible via:
- The information and communiques below
- Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LCAQD which includes messages of encouragement from LCAQD Bishop Mark Vainikka
- Our LCAQD eNews. You can subscribe via this link.
along with communications produced by LCAQD Departments and local agencies for their audiences.
If you have updates to share, please contact our District Office district@qld.lca.org.au Phone: 07 3511 4000
Communiques
Dear Friends in Christ,
The impact of the Southern Queensland weather emergency continues to unfold. Currently, the impact of the weather emergency is also being felt by our communities in northern New South Wales. The pictures and videos ushered by the media to our devices and televisions over the last few days are as harrowing as they are heartbreaking. Every submerged home and every inundated business tells a story of anguish, of grief and anxiety.
If you need immediate disaster relief or assistance, please contact the disaster management team of your city or regional council. If you have been impacted by the recent weather emergency, please contact Church House staff at Milton on (07) 3511 4000, email: mission@qld.lca.org.au It is important to hear from you so that we are able to guide our district-wide response in the best possible way. Please remember that the primary role of every staff member at Milton is to support you in your communities. Although we continue to contact pastors and congregational leaders, we don’t have the staff to call every district entity. Hence, we look to you to contact us if your community has been impacted. Please also note that all our Church House, Milton, staff are currently working remotely. Like in 2011, the ground floor of our Milton office has been flooded once again. It is envisaged that it will take around two weeks for the cleaning and building safety certification work to be completed for us to be able to occupy the offices again.
Our response as a Church is twofold. Firstly, our primary response is prayer. We commit ourselves, our loved ones and our communities to the Lord, knowing that amidst the devastation experienced, God journeys with us. We pray individually and we pray corporately. We pray prayers based on Scripture and we allow God’s Word to guide our prayers. And we pray the words that are formed from the deepest places of our souls, as we cry out to God for help. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us, ‘A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses’ (Life Together, p.65).
Secondly, we act. We respond in generosity and concern towards those who are in need. As a Church in Queensland and northern New South Wales, we have responded with generosity again and again over the years. Dealing with storms and floods is part of living in Queensland and northern New South Wales. We have given generously of our finances and of our time in support of relief efforts. And in turn, we have been the recipients of the generosity of our Church members from throughout Australia and New Zealand. I am sure, this time will be no different.
LCAQD’s Queensland Lutheran Giving, and its ‘Australian Disaster Relief Project’ can assist with financial support, from grief counselling to costs of debris removal to grants for primary producers. A webpage for application forms and donations is currently being created that will be part of our LCAQD website. The details will be emailed to you as soon as that work has been completed.
This Wednesday as we commence our Lenten journey, we gather to hear the words ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return’ spoken over us. Like the images and videos on our devices and televisions, these words remind us of our mortality. Yet these words are also words of hope, as ash is smudged on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday in the shape of a cross. Christ has transformed the cross into a symbol of forgiveness and resurrection. The cross reminds us that we are not just dust, we are beloved dust, dust anointed in baptism and dust that Jesus has redeemed, embraced, and forgiven. Let us pray:
Petition:
Most merciful God
in the midst of natural disaster
we look to you in hope and trust,
acknowledging that there is much in life
beyond our present understanding.
Accept our compassion for the suffering;
bless those who are working for their relief;
and show us what we can do to share in their task,
as servants of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Morning, Noon and Night,
from New Parish Prayers.
Psalm 46:1-7:
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
God will help it when the morning dawns.
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Blessing:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face to shine on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord look upon you with favour
and give you his peace. Amen.
Wherever you are, stay safe.
Your Fellow Servant
Mark Vainikka
Bishop, LCAQD
Dear Friends in Christ,
The full extent of the devastation brought on by the recent southern Queensland weather emergency is still to unfold. What we currently know is that areas from Gympie to the Lockyer Valley to Toowoomba have been affected and some areas are facing the heaviest inundation in decades. Lives have been lost and properties damaged. We have congregations, schools, early childhood, aged care, and community services in all affected areas.
For many, the falling rain and rising waters bring back memories of 2011 or the Lockyer Valley floods of 2013. This can cause anxiety and fear. Please be gentle with yourselves, as God is gentle with you. If you have been affected by these events, please reach out to your loved ones and your church family for support.
Wherever you are and whatever your circumstance, we bring those affected by the recent weather events to our Lord in prayer.
Petition:
God of compassion,
You created a world for us
to know your love and peace.
Yet amidst the beauty of creation
we encounter pain and hurt
and forces beyond our control.
At times like this, our hearts are shaken and
ache with sorrow at the destruction of lives,
homes and livelihoods.
Hear our prayers for those affected
by the floods and for all those working
to bring relief and fresh hope. Amen.
Locally adapted from an original by wellsprings.co.uk
Psalm 77:16-20:
When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
the very deep trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered;
your arrows flashed on every side.
The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world;
the earth trembled and shook.
Your way was through the sea,
your path, through the mighty waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Blessing:
We come,
relying on the God of our baptism,
the Lord of wind and waves,
the one who is with us on the boat
and stills the raging storms.
The ocean is wide,
The waves are wild,
Your boat is small.
May God’s strong waters
Bear you up.
May Jesus calm the wildest waves,
and bring you home
on gentle winds.
Prepared by Ps. Aub Podlich, LCA Prayers for a Time of Crisis and Loss
For those of you living in flood-affected areas, please keep our staff at Church House, Milton, informed (ph. 3511 4000, Ps. David Schmidt, Kathy Matuschka or Trevor Ruthenberg). Your feedback will guide us in our district-wide responses. LCAQD’s Queensland Lutheran Giving, and its ‘Australian Disaster Relief Project’ can assist with financial support, from grief counselling to costs of debris removal to grants for primary producers. You will find an application form here. Update: please contact mission@qld.lca.org.au to apply for assistance or phone our District Office on 07 3511 4000.
Wherever you are, stay safe.
Your Fellow Servant
Mark Vainikka
