The organiser
Arthur Schuster is an organiser. It is his God-given gift. And he has used it with gusto to serve God for most of his 87 years!
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Arthur Schuster’s God-given gift of organising surfaced on his family farm at Yerong Creek near Wagga, New South Wales, when he was about 10 years old. He organised the local youth to clean sugar bags full of stamps to raise money for missions.
Recently at the LCA’s New South Wales District Convention, Arthur’s gift was acknowledged with a presentation recognising 51 years of service on district finance committees.
Over the years, he has been a member of many church and community committees. He served on the church council for Immanuel Lutheran Church Woden Valley, Canberra, for 29 years. Arthur is now a member at Canberra’s Tuggeranong congregation, where he has just finished eight years as secretary.
‘I was a farmer and didn’t have any great education, but I like organising things – it was my gift from God’, Arthur explains. ‘I’ve always been organising things.’
As a youth, he was president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia’s Luther League in NSW, which blessed him with many lifelong friendships.
Workwise, he has been a jack-of-all-trades, from farming, to painting houses, and selling firewood. A move to Canberra in 1975, with wife Modesta and their three sons, led to a photography and video business, and time as a learner–driver instructor.
Now retired, Arthur has rekindled his support for the LCA’s Stamps for Mission program, which has raised around $400,000 for LCA International Mission programs since it began in 1938.
In the past three years, he has collected about 40 kg of stamps, including 5.5 kg from one person alone! He has sourced thousands of dollars in unstamped stamps and once received $1200 of new stamps. Along with money raised through their sale, blessings have included a witnessing opportunity through prayer shared with a generous benefactor.
Arthur has been blessed with good health and just wants to, ‘keep doing what I’m doing’. What he is doing also includes serving coffee on Sundays and at church garage sales to fundraise for missions, and helping at the breakfast club at a local primary school.
In everything, he says he has been guided by the sentiment of his most loved hymn, Jesus loves me this I know and his favourite bible verse – John 3:16.
For more information about Stamps for Missions contact National Project Director Peter Nitschke at pmnitschke@bigpond.com or on 08 8365 7717.
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