Obare and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya Open New Headquarters

This is marvelous. The new headquarters is funded via LCEF. Income from office space will pay for the building. The office is located on Uhuru Highway next to Uhuru Highway Lutheran Church, which is the seat of the Archbishop (Obare). Obare is pictured at the head of this blog along with his family. It's been an honor working with the ELCK, and so much has happened since the partnership with the LCMS began.

Matt Harrison

Government welcomes constructive criticism
Written By:PPS Posted: Fri, Feb 27, 2009

Caption: President Kibaki cuts the tape to officially open the Luther Plaza during the Dedication and opening of the Plaza in Nairobi. Looking on are VP Musyoka and Most. Rev. Dr. Walter Obare, Central Diocese Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church

President Mwai Kibaki has assured Kenyans that his Government welcomes constructive criticism as well as proposals on alternative policies.

Speaking when he presided over the official opening of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya's Luther Plaza in Nairobi Friday, President Kibaki said the Government has in the last six years given Kenyans the widest latitude in form of the most unprecedented freedom of expression in the country's history.

"It is for the same reason that the Government continues to respect the freedom of worship. In virtually all societies, liberty is exercised within the platform of national dialogue that seeks to make a nation a stronger and better home for all," President Kibaki said.

The President said it is therefore imperative that the Government and Faith-Based Organizations lead the way and unite the people, so that Kenya can be a nation of followers and doers who strongly believe that in working together they will have the best opportunity of building a peaceful and prosperous country for the welfare of all.

President Kibaki further appreciated the role played by religious organizations in creating a self-respecting society and in promoting good governance in public affairs.

The Head of State pointed out that religious organizations provide a feedback on how the public feel and react to the behavior and decisions of various branches of Government.

"But as they do so, religious groups also have a responsibility to mobilize citizens towards the rightful behavior that is consistent with family virtues, and the need to make use of available resources to provide the basic human needs," President Kibaki said.

Congratulating the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya for the project, President Kibaki urged other church organizations in the country to partner with their counterparts in other regions of the world with a view to initiating development projects that will further the spiritual and physical well being of Kenyans.

He said partnerships between local Churches and foreign organizations provide avenues of marketing the country as an investment destination, as well as strengthening ties between Kenyans and peoples of the rest of the world.

The President thanked the Church Extension Fund of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod of the U.S.A for financing the project, noting that in doing so it has contributed immensely to the success of the mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya.

Said President Kibaki: "I am confident that this investment will go a long way in enabling the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya to be self reliant and to better advance its calling."

President Kibaki also appreciated the Church's contribution to the country's development in areas such as education, disaster response, health, HIV/AIDS, peace building as well as in the rehabilitation programmes of street and orphan children.

Noting that the aim of putting up the Luther Plaza was to enhance the capacity of the church to manage its development agenda , the President expressed hope that through the initiative the church will be able to offer holistic service to its members and to the society as a whole.

"Indeed, through projects such as this, church organizations have contributed to employment creation, as well as to poverty alleviation in our society," President Kibaki said.

Speaking during the same function, vice President Kalonzo Musyoka faulted the recent opinion polls that claimed that the grand coalition Government had achieved nothing in the first year in Office.

Mr Kalonzo noted that the peace brought about by the signing of the peace accord by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga accorded Kenyans an opportunity to participate in developmental activities without fear.

The Vice President asked Kenyans to be truthful in their judgment of the grand coalition Government.

National Heritage and Culture Minister William ole Ntimama who was also present called on the church to integrate religion with culture to accelerate restoration of peace and cohesion in the country.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya through its Head Archbishop Dr. Walter Obare boosted the Sachangwan/Nakumatt fire disaster fund with a donation of Ksh. 300,000 presented to President Kibaki during the occasion.

Bishop Orare called for a review of the objectives of the proposed tribunal to try post-election suspects saying Kenyans should embrace peace and reconciliation.

Internal Security Minister Prof. George Saitoti, Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Amb. Francis Muthaura and senior Church officials were also present.

It Happened Right Here

This photo is taken from the St. Louis Arch. Below is the Old Court House, built in 1828. Right across the street on the right, probably slightly to the west, was located Christ Episcopal Church (which is today Christ Cathedral St. Louis - no longer at the church's original location). Here the Saxon emigrants who formed the Missouri Synod, worshipped in the basement of Christ Church. On Rogate Sunday (Easter 5) 1839, Pastor Loeber preached his famous sermon after which two women came forth separately and confessed improprieties with "Bishop Stephan", the leader of the 700 Germans. Walther was chosen to head 110 miles south to confront Stephan, which he did. The congregation became Old Trinity, which exists in Soulard (just south of Downtown St. Louis) to this day.


Matt Harrison

See Steffens, "Dr. Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther" Philadelphia, Lutheran Publication Society 1917, pp. 113f.

" Trouble and perplexity drive me to prayer, and prayer drives away perplexity and trouble."

Melanchthon

Mission ONE - Support the Seminaries

I posted this a few months back. In these challenging economic times, mission ONE has to be supporting our seminaries. And they NEED it.

GIVE NOW. It's easy on line. You can sign up to give monthly with a debit/credit card. I just did it. Join me. Concordia Seminary, St. Louis or Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne.

Pieper (1852-1931) was President of the LCMS St. Louis seminary, and President of the Synod. Here is a little piece recently translated from German where he upholds both mercy and mission. Hope you enjoy it. MH

Why Should we Very Faithfully Provide for Our Synodical Teaching Institutions?
Sermon by Dr. Franz Pieper
1905

God is very merciful. God is merciful in all his works. God gives food to all flesh and fodder to cattle. He also takes to heart the physical misery of mankind. Thus when the Son of God walked upon the earth he also eliminated physical misery. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and brought the dead to life. In our text it says that he not only “taught in their schools and preached the gospel of the kingdom,” but it adds, “and he healed every disease and every affliction” among the people. This mindset is also given to the Christian. In general Christians take on the physical misery of their brothers [in the faith] and their neighbors. Wherever Christians encounter physical need, they take it to heart and they take pains to alleviate this need as much as they can. But the Christian knows that the physical need of man is not the greatest need of man. He knows that the mercy of the Christian would be a poor mercy in deed if it would stop after it had addressed the physical need. Indeed, it is the case that if Christians were to achieve the alleviation of all physical need on earth, if they achieved the feeding of all the hungry, the clothing of all the naked, and find homes for all the abandoned, healing all the sick and making all the poor rich, but cease with their mercy at this point, they would they be very imprudent, unmerciful and pitiless. The Lord said: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” [Matthew 16:26] Every person must suffer damage to his soul, that means, every person must be lost eternally in hell, who does not have and believe the gospel of Christ the crucified. If we therefore want to show true mercy to the world and to those around us, doing the most important work of Christian mercy, then we must educate and send out teachers of the gospel. That is also taught in our text. Our text reports that while Christ taught he also healed all sorts of illness among the people. But when he sums up the desperate situation of the people and places it before our eyes he does not say, “Pray to the Lord for doctors.” He says rather, “Pray to the Lord that he send workers,” that is, teachers and preachers, “into his harvest.” It is not that the Christian should not be merciful also over against physical need, but rather because he desires to emphasize that they do the most important work of Christian mercy in the preparation and sending out of teachers of the gospel. (Translated by MCH)

More Photos From Indonesia

Boat relocated by the tsumani waters on top of a house in Banda Aceh.

Jacob Fiene and Maggie Karner visiting the beach where the tsunami hit in Banda Aceh.

MMT Team members occupied the children with activities such as playing with a colorful parachute while they waited in line for their medical examination in Banda Aceh.

Hilka Schirmer from Connecticut doing intake on patient in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

News Flash from Banda Aceh

Wow. Maggie Karner, Director of LCMS Life and Health Ministries for us, just sent along a few photos. She and a Mercy Medical Team from LCMS World Relief and Human Care, just finished a week of caring for patients in Banda Aceh and in Jakarta. The team of LCMS medical personnel saw over 1000 patients, caring for them in the name of Christ. Jacob Fiene is our new manager for these teams. For years there were few opportunities for LCMS doctors and nurses to go on such trips via the LCMS. These efforts are paid for by the participants, happen on the ground where we have standing relationships and contacts, and are coordinated with local (most often Lutheran) medical personnel. Local capacity is increased, and those who go have the experience of a lifetime.

I'm proud of Maggie, Jacob and all these folks. Darin Storkson, our Director for Asia who lives in Indonesia, arranged and hosted the whole event. Good job! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Pastor H

Luther on Courage and Affliction

Luther wrote to Frederick the Wise (a long time collector of relics) on February 24, 1522: ... I put this greeting in place of my assurances of respect. For many years Your Grace has been acquiring relics in every land, but God has now heard Your Grace's request and has sent Your Grace, without cost or trouble, a whole cross together with nails, spears, and scourges. I say again: grace and joy from God on the acquisition of a new relic! Only do not be terrified by it but stretch out your arms confidently and let the nails go deep. Be glad and thankful, for thus it must and will be with those who desire God's Word.

...Your Grace's humble servant, Martin Luther

Letters of Spiritual Counsel, p. 139.
Pictured is Duerer's portrait of a young Frederick in 1496.

Luther on Match-making

"It takes great effort and labor to get couples together. Afterword it requires even more paints to keep them together."

Luther

Table Talk, about 1536 (Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, p. 283)
WA, TR, II, No. 3675

St. Paul's Collection for the Poor in Jerusalem

Here's a paper I wrote some time ago on St. Paul's great collection for the saints suffering in Jerusalem. It needs some revision, but that'll have to wait for a time. The study of this topic has probably been the most formative theological endeavor for me in the past 8 years at LCMS World Relief. I need to add a section discussing Barnabas, whom I believe was probably the driving force behind the "proto-collection" in Antioch.

It's the kind of paper that people who like these kind of papers will like. Click HERE.

Matt H

One Sure Hope

Here is the video to my presentation One Sure Hope, given at the Southern Illinois District Convention on Saturday, 21 February 2009.

--Pastor H

Voelz

The Missouri Synod has an amazing history of linguists and New Testament scholars. Dr. Jim Voelz, Dean of the St. Louis Faculty, is one of the most amazing of an amazing cadre. There is nobody like him. I had Jim for text criticism (understanding the textual history of the documents of the N.T.) when he taught at the Ft. Wayne sem. He combines a delightful intellect with a fabulous sense of humor, and an unparalleled ability to teach. He can discuss the faith in any context with anyone. And though his ears are open to all, he's a rock-ribbed Lutheran. I'm honored to know him. The Missouri Synod is blessed beyond belief to have his service. This little video on You Tube gives you just a tiny taste of his wonderful pedagogical gifts!

You can take Jim's Greek course on line via ITunes HERE.

Matt H.

New "Christ Have Mercy" DVD Available from Lutheran Visuals

The great folks at Lutheran Visuals have produced a new video companion to my book "Christ Have Mercy."

Click Here for the link. You can purchase the book, the DVD, or the book and the DVD.

Blessings, Matt H

Walther on the Lutheran Church as the Catholic Church

In a certain sense one can in fact say that the Lutheran church is the catholic church, that is when one understands the “catholic church” as the one holy church which is spread out over the whole earth. It is to this church alone that all Lutherans, from Luther on, actually confess themselves. For the Lutheran church did not separate itself from the Roman church in order to thereby sever itself from the universal church, but rather in order to not be severed from the universal church. It did not separate itself as the Roman church did, in order that it might now claim the dignity of the catholic church for itself alone, but rather in order to remain with the catholic church. This is all gloriously and clearly stated in our symbolical books, especially in Article 4 of the Apology, in Article 12 of the third section of the Smalcald Articles and in the explanation of the 3rd Article of our Christian faith in Luther’s Large Catechism.

Der Lutheraner March 2, 1852

Mark Twain

"I do smoke a cigar, since like the government, I like to chew on something smaller and weaker form time to time."

Teddy Roosevelt (Left Hand Kingdom Stuff)

"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it. The function of the mere critic is of very subordinate usefulness. It is the doer of deeds who actually counts in the battle for life, and not the man who looks on and says how the fight ought to be fought, without himself sharing the stress and the danger."

My Latest Favorite Song... It ain't Bluegrass (Waiting for Change)

Free Lenton Sermon Series on Mercy

Reverend Bernie Seter is one of my very favorite people. He's produced this sermon series, which we've gotten through LCMS doctrinal review post haste (thanks to the folks in the Presidents office!) in the nick of time for Ash Wednesday. Bernie concentrates each week on a theme which matches a significant area of work of LCMS World Relief. Of course, we'd love to have congregations take an offering or provide a portion thereof for this work. But feel free to use what you find appropriate. Support congregational or local mercy efforts as you see fit.

Matt H




The Spirit Anointed Christ for Mercy - Lenten Series




The Spirit Anointed Christ for Mercy is a seven-part Lenten sermon and service series available from LCMS World Relief and Human Care (WR-HC). Written by Rev. Bernie Seter, president of WR-HC’s board of directors, the series is based on Luke 4:18-19 and examines the church’s corporate life of mercy.

"Rev. Bernie Seter is one of a kind. He has remained in North Dakota at his very first call for some 30 years. He has served in many different capacities in the district and Synod. He has chaired LCMS World Relief and Human Care’s board for over four years. He has a heart for mercy like few others, and combines that with keen insight into the human condition. This series is a wonderful demonstration of how to preach Law and Gospel, and to open hearts to living mercifully."

Rev. Matthew Harrison
Executive Director
LCMS World Relief and Human Care

Download each sermon and service as Adobe PDF.

1. The Spirit Anointed Christ for Mercy (Ash Wednesday)
Sermon Order of Service
2. The Spirit Anointed Christ … to preach Good News to the poor
Coming Soon...
3. The Spirit Anointed Christ … to heal the broken hearted
Coming Soon...
4. The Spirit Anointed Christ … to preach deliverance to captives
Coming Soon...
5. The Spirit Anointed Christ … to recover sight of the blind
Coming Soon...
6. The Spirit Anointed Christ … to free the bruised (Maundy Thursday)
Coming Soon...
7. The Spirit Anointed Christ … to proclaim the jubilee (Good Friday)
Coming Soon...

ELCA Task Force Proposal

Statement of Rev. Matthew Harrison on ELCA’s Task Force on Sexuality Study

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Yesterday the church commemorated the 463rd anniversary of the death of Martin Luther. His last written words, found on a note in his pocket, were "We are beggars: This is true." Hermann Sasse regarded these final words as a summation of Luther’s great legacy to Christianity. In all matters of faith and life, Christians are beggars who receive what the Lord gives, and as the Lord gives. Salvation is all by grace, all by Christ’s doing. All that we are to believe and practice in the church is very clearly given in the Bible, God’s own infallible Word.

Today the ELCA’s Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality released its "Report and Recommendation on Ministry Policies" (http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney). The report recommends a path for the ELCA’s 2009 church-wide assembly to recognize and accept publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same gender relationships of clergy in those synods (ELCA regional divisions) and congregations, which desire to approve of such relationships.

The LCMS position on homosexuality is that of the Bible and the church catholic from the very beginning. Revisionist readings of the Bible that assert otherwise are deeply dependent upon views of the Bible that are at odds with its self-definition as God’s very Word.

We at LCMS World Relief and Human Care (LCMS Board for Human Care) have many tasks mandated by the Missouri Synod, which involve a great deal of interaction and partnership with ELCA offices, entities, affiliated agencies, and individuals. We have sought to carry out these mandated tasks with complete and uncompromising fidelity with charity, faithful to the LCMS’s clearly stated positions, including those on human sexuality. This task is becoming ever more complex, and the proposals of the ELCA task force promise to increase this complexity greatly. We will continue to the best of our ability to ensure that service organizations recognized by the LCMS "respect and do not act contrary to" (6.2.1 LCMS 2007 Handbook: Constitution, Bylaws, Articles of Incorporation, page 200) the biblical position of the LCMS on this issue.

To say that we are disappointed in the Task Force proposals would be a vast understatement. But we are not surprised. We are deeply concerned about many ELCA friends (on both sides of the issue) and especially about those who find themselves holding the orthodox position while their beloved church body slips into heterodoxy. But we do not write in order to self-righteously castigate the ELCA. Rather in deep humility and repentance, we think of our own many and deep sins: our own failure to hear the word of God; our failure to bear convincing witness on this issue; our own deep sins and our lack of love for one another, which have often rendered our witness of no effect; our lack of love and failure to reach out "with might and main" to those who struggle with the issue of homosexuality.

Today, Feb. 19, 2009, is a day of deep repentance. Join me in praying for the future of the Lutheran church, in America and throughout the world. Please join me too, in praying for the hundreds of Lutheran agencies, which faithfully struggle to serve those in need. We are beggars: This is true.

Rev. Matthew Harrison
Executive Director
LCMS World Relief and Human Care

For a further discussion on this topic from a biblical and Lutheran Confessional viewpoint please see Armin Wenz’s "The Contemporary Debate on Homosexual Clergy" published by LCMS World Relief and Human Care. Phone 1-800-248-1930 and ask for World Relief and Human Care. The pamphlet may be downloaded from the LCMS World Relief web site (via this blog).

Outrageously cool video of the construction history of St. Sebald, Nuremberg

This video really amazing. Pastor Neuther was serving St. Sebald in 1851 when Walther and Wyneken visited Germany at the behest of the Missouri Synod convention to try to patch things up with Loehe. Walther spoke very highly of most all the Nuremberg clergy who were deeply concerned about genuine Lutheranism at the time. St. Sebald is one of the oldest and most significant churches in the city.

Matt H

Febrary 18 - Anniversary of Luther's Death

This is for the folks who missed it several months back... Here's to Luther 463 years later.

"...Wir sein pettler. Hoc est verum." WA Tr. V.318 (no. 5677)

We are beggars. This is true.

Matt H

How to Paint Martin Luther Digitally in Photoshop

Wyneken's Home Church: St. Andreas, Verden

Here are a couple of photos from the web site of St. Andreas in Verden, near Bremen, where F.C.D. Wyneken was baptized by his father in 1810. Click HERE for a satellite (photographic) map of the city. Note the large mosque not far from St. Andreas!

When C.F.D. Walther and Wyneken traveled to Germany in the fall of 1851 to try to patch thing up with Loehe, they visited Wyneken's brother Carl. He was pastor at St. Johns and Arbergen, not far from Verden. Walther wrote: "Because the next day was a Sunday (13th Sunday after Trinity), we left as soon as possible in the morning to go to Arbergen, a small village near Bremen, where the brother of my dear travel companion, Carl Wyneken, is the preacher. From his mouth we heard the Word of God in a public sermon for the first time since we have been back in Germany. We rejoiced in the unity of faith, through which we soon recognized and felt a sense of unity."

Photo of St. John's below. To visit the web page of St. John's click HERE.

Pastor H

A Theology for Hope

The church is to be seen as the people of hope, experiencing hope in the God who is present in his promises. The coming kingdom gives the church a much broader vision of reality than a "merely" private vision of personal salvation. The church is to contest all the barriers that have been constructed by man for security; it challenges all structures that absolutize themselves, and all barriers erected between peoples in the name of the reality that is to come in Jesus Christ. The coming kingdom creates confronting and transforming vision for the mission of the people of God.

Smith, Elwel Evangelical Theological Dictionary

If you want to build a ship...

"If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

- Died fighting for the French Resistance against the Nazis

C.S. Lewis

"Reality, in fact, is always something you couldn't have guessed. That's one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It's a religion you couldn't have guessed."

“Any man worth his salt..."

“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error”

Andrew Jackson

p.s. Note the cool old photo of Jackson at the end of his life (d. 1845)

"One man with courage makes a majority."

- Andrew Jackson

It was Heinrich Schwan!

Yup. Wyneken's nephew (about 9 years his junior) had come from Brazil to St. Louis in July 1850. He had married in Brazil and his wife also shows up on the census record. By that fall he was called to Salem, Black Jack. And in a year he'd been called to a pastorate in Cleveland. He became president of Synod in 1878, and served until 1898 (if my feeble memory serves). He died in 1905.

Matt H

Guess who's living at the Wyneken House in July 1850?

Wyneken moved to St. Louis from Baltimore about the time he was elected Synod President. He was called to Old Trinity. A now famous (in LCMS history) nephew soon joined him in St. Louis from Brazil, preached a trial sermon at Salem, Black Jack, and was called. Who was it?

Matt H

Painting of the "Isabella"

Appears this is a painting of the ship which brought Wyneken from Bremen to America. This depiction is from ca. 1820, about twenty years previous to Wyneken's immigration.

Matt H.

While I'm on the Wyneken Kick...

Here's another very cool document. It's the passenger list from the ship "Isabella" which arrived on July 5,1843 in New York, from Bremen. Aboard was Wyneken (Synod President 1850-1865), his wife Maria Sophie, and a child, along with Pastor Biewend. Friedrich C.D. Wyneken is the first on the list. Click HERE for the complete transcribed list.

It's amazing this stuff is available on line at Ancestry.com.

Matt H

Wyneken's Salary as Synod President

Don't know for sure, but it appears Wyneken claimed $174 in income in 1864, the last year he served as Synod president. Found the tax record on Ancestry.com. Scroll down the doc until you find "Wyneken F. Rev."

Matt H

p.s. Yes, I'm crazy.

Interactive Australian Fire Map

Saw via this map that fires are buring in western Victoria in Horsham. Avito DaCosta was pastor in Horsham for some years.

Matt H

Australian Fires

Our friends in Australia are in our thoughts and prayers these days. The wildfires in Victoria have claimed 200 lives. Keeping our eyes and ears open for news particularly of dear friends in the Lutheran Church of Australia being affected.

Matt H

A Maltese Australian man, Fred Frendo, has been confirmed dead in the Australian bush fires in Victoria after having been missing for two days on his fire-ravaged farm. His son, Scott, who is in his 20s, is still missing.

The fires have killed more than 200 people in large swathes of Victoria and several Maltese-Australians have reported lucky escapes.

Among them was Carl Agius and his girlfriend Helen Fischer who just managing to escape a wall of flame.

“We’re the luckiest in the world… We only have the clothes on our back but there's hundreds of people dead up there. Hundreds,” Mr Agius, a resident of Kingslake, told Australian media.

He said that he was at his house when he saw the fire coming towards him. Within a few minutes, the sky blackened and there was a wall of flame.

It was then that he jumped into his Mustang and managed to drive to his girlfriend’s house. He got her, her three children, the dogs and the cat – even though “we don’t like the cat” Ms Fischer said – and fled the flames at 70 miles per hour. However, the fire soon caught up with them and the car was “engulfed in flames”, Mr Agius said.

Meanwhile, a Maltese-Australian is being hailed as a hero after saving the life of a woman and her baby from the raging fires in Victoria.

The woman, Eileen Scott, a resident of Traralgon South, spoke of how she spent yesterday thanking a stranger for saving both her and her baby's lives just seconds before her house exploded in a ball of flame.

Ms Scott had drawn the blinds in her home to protect her six-month-old daughter Lily from the searing 44C heat on Saturday afternoon. She was shocked when a woman ran into the house screaming at her to get out.

The woman, Melissa Falzon, rushed through the house, grabbed a sleeping Lily, and ran out just before the house erupted, Ms Scott told the Herald Sun newspaper.

Ms Scott called Ms Falzon her angel: "She just flew into my house. She saved us."

Some distance away, at appropriately named Heartbreak Hill near Wandong, 15 houses were totally destroyed, but Steve and Carmen Spiteri found that their modest house was, somehow, still standing.

"Funny, we couldn't get insurance on the extension because it wasn't finished, but she's still standing," Carmen told the Herald Sun newspaper.

"We bought this block five years ago. It used to be a nudist camp - and such a pretty place in the bush. We bought it off them because we thought this was just the place to bring up the kids."

They have three children - Shayla, 11, Tyler, 10, and Michael 7.

Steve Spiteri said he had been resting on a couch when he suddenly noticed smoke through a window. He didn't hesitate, evacuating his wife and children immediately to safety with some friends.

The Spiteris managed to get back in time to save their home, flames licking the back steps as a shed, where many of their precious possessions were stored, burnt fiercely 100m away.

"I was petrified; never been so scared," said Ms Spiteri.

"And I was wearing a dress, not even jeans. I was so frightened I would catch on fire, too."

The Maltese High Commissioner to Australia, Francis Tabone told timesofmalta.com that the situation in Victoria was “very sad”. He said that although this time the fires had overwhelmed them, the Australians were very well-equipped against bush fires.

“One has to keep in mind that Australia has experienced drought these past seven years and to top it all, the temperatures soared to 45 degrees Celsius. With that kind of heat, even a glass bottle lying around in the bush can start a fire,” he said.

Mr Tabone explained how the area was mostly farmland and one’s closest neighbour could be five or 10km away. “Yet they’re still neighbours. Unless you see it, it’s difficult to understand this concept when you come from Malta.”

Mr Tabone said that no official list of the victims' names has been published yet. According to reports, the fires have so far claimed over 200 lives.

The High Commissioner urged anyone needing information to log on to www.dfat.gov.au or call the Australian Red Cross hotline on (+61) 3 9328 3716. From www.timesofmalta.com

Serious Signs of Genetic Contamination in Africa

A recent trip of a friend to Africa produced evidence of troubling biological develepments.

Schweitzer was right about a few things...

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

Albert Schweitzer

... Another great mustache. MH

Sylmar Fires

I took this little video last week while in Sylmar California, visiting the former home of Rev. and Mrs. Craig Boehlke. They lost most of what they owned in the fire last November. We are so honored to work with Jerry Reichmann and the PSW District, and to have come along side of local congregations who reached out in love to their own members and beyond. The Boehlkes are hoping to close on a new home soon. Lord have mercy.

Matt Harrison

A Little Fun With The Banjo

This is for two friends, one Paul, and the other little Jotham. I remember being captivated by the theme from the Beverly Hillbillies when I was a small boy. The show was and remains, of course, mindless drivel (what sitcom isn't?). But Earl Scrugg's banjo playing for the theme, and occassion guest appearances, was (and remains) mesmerizing. The folk boom, and the advent of Flatt and Scruggs and their Foggy Mountain Boys on the national stage, brought bluegrass music into the stratesphere of popularity.

I regard myself as a "first rate second rate banjo player." I love banjos, guitars and mandolins, have piles of old bluegrass LPs in my basement (and snoop for more in second hand shops, Good Will stores, and antique stores whenever I get the chance). My membership in the "professional" organization called "The Missouria Area Bluegrass Committee" has lapsed, but I hope to rearrange my priorities in the not too distant future.

Matt H

Thanks for All the Feedback on "It's Time"

Now that the LCMS Blue Ribbon Task Force on Structure has come out with its proposals, I should like to state publicly that I stand all the more firmly behind what I wrote and released a couple of months back. Thank you to the thousands who have read the paper, and especially to those of you who have been kind enough to respond, especially those who have taken issue with my views. That's the kind of dialogue we need. "It's" still "Time."

Matt Harrison

Its Time: LCMS Unity and Mission

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work Philosophy music time

Study Guide for "It's Time."

Study Guide for It 2

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Academic Work Religion