From Lisa Schmidt, LEA Executive Director
Last weekend I attended the Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) 75th Anniversary events in Albury Wodonga. This included a Walk My Way at the former Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre. At the end of the 10km loop I was delighted to receive a commemorative medallion made by the students at St Paul’s College Walla Walla NSW as shown in the photo. Lutheran schools at Jindera, Henty and Wodonga were also represented on the day.
I attended with my father and aunt who were residents at Bonegilla when they were 2 and 6 respectively, arriving in 1948 from the bombed-out wreckage of Europe. They had already been in three displaced persons camps in Europe before they even got on the boat to Australia heading for their fourth camp. On arrival at the docks in Melbourne they walked straight onto a train to Bonegilla where they got off at a rudimentary railway siding in bushland and were loaded onto a bus or flatbed truck to the migrant camp. The transitions from Europe to sea to Australia; from ship to train to vehicle to foot; from cold to hot (it was December) must have been a shock but it was worth it to give the children a better life.
Millions of Europeans were displaced during and after the Second World War. Some estimates put the number of refugees from Europe at nearly 60 million. Around 10 million of these were Lutherans. When train loads of Lutherans arrived on their doorstep near Albury Wodonga, the Australian Lutheran community responded and ALWS was born.
You were there, welcoming them with open arms. Helping them find their feet.
75 years later, you still help vulnerable people find their feet. Helping refugee children in Kenya go to school so they are free to flourish. Helping build underground schools in Kharkiv, Ukraine, ensuring safe in-person learning for more than 3,000 children whose schools have been destroyed by the war.
Whether you step out in an ALWS Walk My Way, support a walker, or give a generous 75th gift, you will help 75,000 children step up to the life every child deserves.
“And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” Jesus (Matthew 18:5)