Training

After sitting through eight one and-a-quarter-hour teaching sessions at a Bush Bible Course, the brain seeks a bit of rest and rejuvenation. However, at the recent Bush Course at M’Bunghara, linguist David ‘Stricko’ Strickland was talking with some Anmatyerr language-speaking young men. They decided to use their spare time to translate the lunchtime hymn, ‘Spread… Read more

On 15 October 2023, 12 Areyonga (Utju) students were confirmed by Pastor Malcolm Willcocks and Pastor Paul Calnan at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Areyonga.

A Finke River Mission teaching course was held in late September 2023 at Alice Well, 30 kilometres south of Titjikala and 150 kilometres south of Alice Springs.

In July 2023, a Finke River Mission teaching course was held at the community of Kintore/Walungurru, 500 kilometres west of Alice Springs. It was on ‘safe place’ issues and taught by Dave Biar from the Lutheran Church’s Professional Standards Department.

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. 

Nungalinya College, situated in Darwin, is the premier ecumenical Bible and community development training facility for Indigenous students in Australia.

The last of the three pastors bush courses this year was held at the end of September at Harts Range, about 215 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs.

In late September the people of Imanpa, a Pitjantjatjara community 270 kilometres southwest of Alice Springs, welcomed Indigenous church leaders from all over Central Australia to a teaching course.

When Rita Okai graduated from her Certificate III course in Christian Ministry and Theology in 2017, she was quite possibly the first Indigenous Lutheran in central Australia to have ever graduated with a tertiary theological qualification in the 140-year history of the FRM.

On Saturday 1 July, ABC TV will screen a documentary about the work of the Finke River Mission on their Compass religious affairs program.