A school trip, a cyclone and the kindness of ‘family’

I want to tell you a story. A story about the very best parts of being connected to the body of Christ, and the limb that is the Lutheran Church of Australia. It is one of amazement and suspense, God’s providence and a man named Dean.

On 2 March this year, I was part of a Year 6 school excursion group flying to Canberra from Queensland’s Gold Coast. Included in this menagerie of awesome human beings were 84 children and eight adults. As we did every year, we took the opportunity to travel to Canberra to experience the Australian Government, Federal Parliament and their locales.

But this year was different because looming over us was the threat of Cyclone Alfred. Ironically, there was an Alfred and an Alfie on the trip, and I smirked at the comparisons of their cyclonic abilities.

As we flew from the Gold Coast, the parents waved to us, as parents always do, with tears and fears and blown kisses; their arms crossed on their chests holding their hearts as their treasures were ushered through security and onto the waiting plane. A plane that would take us far, far away – away from the threats of storms and into the dreams of constant activity.

That world belonged to the children. The reality of the situation was, as the calendar ticked over from Sunday, 2 March, to Tuesday, 4 March, Alfred’s threat was becoming more serious.

Our return tickets were for Thursday, 6 March: the day Alfred was scheduled to whirl from the ocean and wreak havoc on shore. I watched the faces of my compatriots, each wanting to know if we could return early, but the airline was loathe to change flights for us, and it would be incredibly difficult to place 92 people on flights already booked. The options the airline gave us were for Wednesday night, Thursday (our original flight), or Friday (during the heart of the cyclone).

None of these options were optimal, but to add to the stress was the fact that our hotel in Canberra could not house us past the Friday night. We would have to find accommodation either at the airport (and hope that we could fly out), or at a hotel, which would be enormously expensive (not to mention stressful) for 84 children and eight adults.

Enter Dean.

Well, there were events leading up to it. As I spoke with our team leader, a thought came to my mind.

‘What about Warrambui?’

I’d never been to this Lutheran retreat and conference centre before, but I knew that it was in the vicinity of Canberra. On the night we talked about it, it was well past closing hours, and I didn’t have a direct connection. So, I called some people in Queensland from Lutheran Education. No, they didn’t have a number. Then, I thought about Bishop Richard Schwedes from New South Wales. I checked my phone. Nope, no number. But I did know a bishop who could set me up – South Australia-Northern Territory Bishop Andrew Brook. Thus, the chain of connections.

Aaron to Christine to Andrew to Richard and, finally, to Dean, the director of Warrambui. All these great Lutherans ready to lend a hand in time of need. I left a message for Dean at 8.45pm on Monday 3 March, hoping for emergency housing for two nights. Imagine if you got the call, three days ahead, from someone you had never met before asking, ‘Hey, would it be possible to house three classes of school kids and their teachers for a weekend?’

And yet Dean’s first response was to help.

Immediately, this Scripture verse came to mind:

‘… there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it’ (1 Corinthians 12:25,26).

Though Warrambui was hosting another group on campus already, Dean said he would call me back to see if they could figure something out. And he did, an hour later – well after business hours had closed. He said that they could negotiate a space in the Dome, a circular building containing a dining room, dormitories and a large meeting area, which would house all of us, and he would call us back the next day to work on catering. When I mentioned we had no linens, the response was, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it’.

‘… its body parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it …’

Dean did not know me from a bar of soap in the shampoo aisle, but what he did know was that I was a fellow Lutheran Christian in need of aid. He and Warrambui were up to the challenge of keeping the body of Christ safe.

The next day, the airline told us they had worked out another flight to Brisbane that would unload us before Alfred unleashed his fury.

Here is Dean’s response (paraphrased) when I told him we probably wouldn’t need the emergency housing after all:

‘We will continue to prepare for you just in case. When you land in Brisbane, we’ll celebrate with you, but if you need us, we’ll welcome you with open arms.’

If one part is honoured every part rejoices with it …

Isn’t this the best part of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand? Though we are sometimes accused of parochialism, and seemingly everyone knows (or is related to) every other Lutheran, we also know that, in times of strife, our brothers and sisters in Christ will stand up and deliver for the common good of Christ’s body.

People like Dean.

I’m so very proud to be part of the LCANZ and can’t wait for the day when I can meet Deano in person.

Reid Matthias is the school pastor at St Andrews Lutheran College in Tallebudgera, Queensland.