by Lorenz Holland-Moritz
It is a continuous joy to make and share posters that combine some of the many pictures God’s Word shows us in stories and parables together with the Bible passages we start with. In mid June we met Pastor Souksamay Phetsanghane (WELS) with a group of students and I immediately saw a shepherd like young King David in one of them: Seth Koelpin. The second teaching of the upcoming Sunday Service contained the parable of the lost sheep so we went to the Elbe river and took a few shots in the beautiful sunset. (I had to fake the sheep in the post, since our time and budget did not include a whole flock of sheep.) I am thankful for the great collaboration and for strengthening the connection between our churches in many conversations and the Sunday Service we had together!
Publishing photographs and individual-related data is becoming more difficult in Germany due to the new European privacy regulations. So one idea was to take a step back and not only look for motives suited for publications of the church but to work with different individuals in order to give them, their family or friends, a good portrait of themselves. This doesn’t seem like a lot but it can act as a conversation-starter about how we see each other and more importantly how God sees us – not through the means of a photograph, obviously.
During the last KinderCamp we made simple picture frames which can be filled with the children’s paintings or photos of them we took together. Another project has started in Dresden, called “Getrost in die Zukunft” (“Confidence in the future”). We take pictures of people who can’t come to church because of their age or health and write a few lines about them, showing the hope in eternal life we share independent of our health and feelings. This way we want to do both: show them the attention of the congregation and remind others of the people in need.
That is a task, more than easy to do for anyone. But it gives just another opportunity to show love and care to our brothers and sisters in the congregation of our Lord Christ.