Hermannsburg

In mid-April, Cyclone Ilsa whipped up record-breaking winds off the Western Australian coast. Heavy rain fell over WA in a line straight towards a little Lutheran community in the Gibson Desert called Kiwirrkurra. 

Almost 45 years after his death in Adelaide on 3 October 1978, TGH ‘Ted’ Strehlow has at last been laid to rest, along with his second wife Kathleen, near Hermannsburg (Ntaria).

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.

In March this year, I joined the Lutheran Mission Development (LMD) Board. This board was established to support and promote the aims, beliefs and articles of faith of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

Four young ladies confirmed their baptismal promises and confessed their faith in the Triune God at a confirmation celebration at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Hermannsburg on 8 August 2021.

Thanks to Northern Territory government funding totalling $3.5m, major restoration work has been carried out at the Hermannsburg Historic Precinct.

With the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) document in hand and copies of the RAP poster, Marilyn Wall returned to Central Australia in October. The purpose of her visit was to discuss how best to share this information with the Aboriginal members in the Lutheran communities.

Water is important and powerful, but why would 16 families gather to have their young babies and children washed clean?

31 July 1960. Where were you? What were you doing? Up in the Centre of Australia, they had just finished building a brand new, very modern hospital and had gathered to dedicate it ‘to the glory of God’.

Early this year Michael Jacobsen and his wife Hanne were delighted to host a guest from Germany for two weeks. During Rev Arnim Doerfer’s stay, they were able to give him a detailed insight into the varied work and eventful history of Finke River Mission.