Fellowship Day Report West Moreton Zone

The 53^rd Annual Fellowship Day was hosted by Lowood Parish Lutheran Ladies Fellowship and held in the Lowood church. Thirty people attended. We were greeted with a beautiful morning tea.

Theme for the day was “With God all things are possible” based on Matthew 19 v 26b.

Opening devotion; The opening devotion was led by Pastor Jing Luan based on the reading;  Matthew 19; 24 “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.

Welcome; Lowood President Dawn Heck welcomed everyone and wished them a blessed day and congratulated Shirley Klinge on her Life membership to Lutheran Nursing. President LWQQMZ Zone Shirley Klinge extended a warm welcome to all especially our guest speaker Katie Patterson, Pastor Jing and Pastor Peter and thanked the Lowood Parish ladies.

Visual Display: Helen Boughen created and explained the display saying, “as we climb the mountains of life, very often the going becomes extremely hard and we cling to the promise of God “that with Him all things are possible” and when we see how He cares for the birds and the animals, he assures us that he will certainly care for us too.

Reports: Apologies from both Bishop Mark and Shirley Horrigan and their reports were issued to members present. Bishop Mark urged us to pray for more young men to enter the ministry.

Bible Study: Pastor Peter Geyer Zone Counsellor presented a bible study based on the theme text ending with “the devil will tempt us but do not be afraid, God says be faithful to me and I will give you the crown of life. With God all things are possible. If God is for us who can be against us.

Offering for the day $385 will be forwarded to our Indigenous Missions of our church.

Guest Speaker Katie; Katie was born without the lower part of her left arm. She states that her life has been a living breathing example of our theme. “Depending on ‘who is asking’ how come her hand is missing? She has many and various answers, attacked by a shar! Caught in a mincer, a motorbike accident on the farm. Chopped of by my brother with his chainsaw! The truth of course is that she was born like that. Her parents seeking professional help was told “S@#t happens.

In life often bad things happen to good people, who can ask “why me?” or they can rise above their problem for a better outcome. One of Katie’s favourite quotes is “Your present situation doesn’t determine where you can go, it is the starting point of where you can go and what you can do.

You can be angry for what you do not have or be thankful for what you do have. In her early child hood she had no idea she was any different to anyone else because her parents, her brother, immediate family and cousins never treated her any different. She could tie her shoes, ride bikes, swim, play the piano, do cartwheels, play netball and other sport. It was only when she started school she was branded as being different and having adissability.to her the hardest part of having no lower arm was the people. It was annoying when she was classed as “the girl with no arm”. Katie had a breakdown because she thought she was not pretty because her arm was weird. For some time she was annoyed with God because she could not comprehend what she had done to deserve this. At school she had to prove she could do everything others did. It felt good when she could do with one arm what others did with two. A year 9 PE Teacher told her it comes down to having faith and believing in yourself. Mark 9; 3. “ everything is possible for the person who has faith”;  Katie learned that your frame of mind is everything.  Katie went on to become a successful athlete and participated all over Australia, taking part in many other activities.

Another of her favourite quotes is “if in doubt try it out”  Katie is a criminal defence lawyer on the Sunshine Coast. Katie was suitably thanked by Mrs. Wendy Paech.

After Katie’s inspiring talk we were entertained by the Friends of Coolana Lutheran Church  Choir with beautiful harmonized voices singing inspiring songs.

Shirley Meier gave a general vote of thanks and Pastor Peter closed the day with a devotion based on Matthew 17.20. The  LWQ Prayer and Lord’s Prayer concluded the day. Fellowship was held over lunch time.

Maureen Itzstein reporter