Is God calling you?

Three years ago, a new bush church was dedicated at the small community of Engawala, 150 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs. Now, on 29 May, another bush church was opened, at a family outstation on Utopia freehold lease Ngkwelay (Ingkwelay), also known as Kurrajong Bore.

In May, I travelled to Central Australia as part of a group of volunteer board members that support the work of Finke River Mission.

My husband Duncan and I first visited the Red Centre a few years ago. Unknowingly, that’s when our current work at Hermannsburg as retirees began.

Lindsay Tjapaltjarri Corby was born on 1 May 1954 at Haasts Bluff and ordained as a Lutheran pastor on 22 June 2008. He passed away on 4 February 2022 at Kintore.

My husband Ashley and I lived and worked at Hermannsburg in the 1970s. Ashley did maintenance work and helped build the newly established homelands (then called outstations), and I was the teacher at Kuprilya homeland. We were accepted into the Western Arrarnta family, the Rataras.

Just as early German missionaries travelled north from Bethany to Ntaria, so the Ntaria Choir set off, this time, southward-bound to the Barossa Valley to share their gifts of music and language.

Casey Nelson was a faithful Lutheran. He died on 21 December 2021, after a serious heart condition. His funeral took place on 4 March 2022 at Arlparra. He was buried next to his older brother Ronny in the bush cemetery at Soakage Bore, where Casey had lived before settling in Arlparra.

It is with great joy that we welcome longtime SIL linguist David Strickland, who has joined the Finke River Mission team as a support worker in the Anmatyerr Language Area.

Indigenous pastor Frank Turner, ordained in 2000, from Ampilatwatja is currently the only person pastorally serving in the Alyawarr Language Area, about 3-4 hours drive from Alice Springs.

In a first for FRM communities, representatives from the new Language Area Agreement (LAA) groups participated in a Convention of General Synod as delegates.