55th LWQ Darling Downs Zone Rally

Held at: St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Oakey

on: Tuesday, March 14^th  2023

THEME – “Loving God by Loving Others”

Text:-1 John 4: 9 -11

⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

On March 14^th 2023, women of the Darling Downs Zone met at St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Oakey, for their annual rally, hosted by Oakey and Norwin members. Pastor Ken Schultz and Lyn Schultz welcomed us all, and President Val Kath, welcomed 62 attendees to the rally, and led us in prayer.

Pastor Schultz spoke on the theme for the day, “Loving God by Loving Others”, which is based on       1 John 4: 9-11 . “This is Love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v 10). It brought back memories of a sermon he preached on that text as a Vicar in Adelaide.

President of LWQ, Shirley Horrigan thanked the ladies of Oakey / Norwin for their work in preparing for Rally Day. She encouraged attendance at LWQ retreat May 19^th – 21^st 2023, hosted by West Moreton District. We were reminded to be thankful to God for all His blessings, and that we are able to gather together more freely now since COVID.

Avalon Hall extended greetings from LWQ, reminding us that God is Love, and His greatest Commandment is to Love One Another. Greetings and apology were also received from Shirley Klinge of West Moreton with the words of Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Our opening song was “Glorify Your Name”. Pastor Schultz led us in Bible Study based on John 4:7-19. He shared with us about his time as a Prison Chaplain, where he learnt the strategy to “Listen, Listen, Love, Love ”. We were all challenged to do this by listening to our partners as we told them what we heard in the text, as Pastor read it slowly to us, then reflect on what it said to us. “There is no fear in love” was discussed. We were reminded that Love is a “doing” word. We ought to show love to our neighbour by first listening. We love, because He first loved us.

The offering song “Freely freely” was sung, and Pastor Demmer prayed the offering prayer. $1,000 will be donated to support the work of the Youth Worker at PCYC, in Oakey.

Bishop of LCAQD, Mark Vainika expanded on his report. He spoke about the sadness and challenges of closures of various congregations, but also of the hope for the future in the opening of new communities and churches with the help of funds which have been donated following closures. There are concerns that we are unable to follow the constitution, amidst the struggle to find people to fill positions in congregations, guilds and fellowships. He reminded us that Church House at Milton is there to help us all through the difficulties with overwhelming governance rules and processes that we face today. In endeavouring to explain the constitution, he reminded us that the Constitution serves the Church, not the other way around. There is possibly a need to change the constitution to allow restructuring and simplifying of LWA and LWQ.

The Memorial hymn, ‘Be Still my Soul’ was sung as we remembered members who have gone before us in the past year.

Our Guest Speaker was Kat Medland, a Youth Officer working with PCYC at Oakey. She spoke of her Christian upbringing, and the difficulties we face in teaching Christian values, about love and how God loves us, in these days. We were reminded that love should be non- judgmental and unconditional. Kat’s work is currently funded by New Hope group, but that funding ceases in 2024.  Her role is to bring Youth services to Oakey and I believe we were all amazed by the number of programs and events that she has been involved in to bring these services to the young people. We were shown slides of well attended Community days, with donations of food and supplies by members of the community and the help of volunteers from local churches and groups. Other programs include Boxing, Brekky Club, and Smoothie Friday. With the help of QPS a Respect Program, Reset program for children suspended from school, and Breaking the Cycle program are all aimed at getting children back on the right path. Mental Health programs, Friends groups, and sports programs are also run.

May God continue to bless Kat and her work and we pray that funding will continue to be provided into the future so that this wonderful program may continue. Joy Wurst presented Kat with a basket of fruit and thanked her for her dedication to this amazing work.

Lutheran Drought Aid will continue to be our Zone Project for this year. Fellowship Day will be hosted by Pittsworth/Nobby ladies on a date to be advised at Pittsworth. Rally day 2024 will be hosted by Crows Nest/Haden ladies at Haden.

Val Kath encouraged all ladies who are in congregations without a formal Guild/ fellowship, but still gathering for Bible study/ fellowship to still become financial members of LWQ, to allow the work of LWQ to continue. Val stood down as president at the end of the day. Jenny Stolznow (Glencoe) becomes President and a vacancy for Extra Member was filled by Robyn Williams from Moree. Pastor Demmer presided over the rite of installation for all the ladies.

A vote of thanks was given by Del Priebbenow (Nobby), to all involved in making our Rally Day a wonderful success. The closing devotion was led by Lyn Schultz, talking about her and Pastor Ken’s trip to Germany a few years ago, and displaying some beautifully crafted works from there.

The closing hymn, ‘Love one Another” was sung and we said Grace together before gathering in the hall to enjoy our self-catered lunch and fellowship.

Dawn Fagan