Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Greater Geraldton - Issue No.: 780 Issue Date: 15 Apr, 2024

JIM DILLON introduced our Guest Speaker JON PASCHKE.   Jon is the Pastor of the Lighthouse Church here in Geraldton.  Jon was born in Adelaide, he worked for a while on a farm in country South Australia, trained as a Registered Nurse, and then in his 20’s spent 2 years as a volunteer Youth Worker in Vanuatu.  After 4 years at Bible College in Melbourne, he met and married Lyndell and together they returned to Vanuatu and spent the next 20 years there.  They were involved in teaching at a Pastors training college and in writing and publishing teaching resources in the Bislama language for Youth and Children’s ministry leaders.  Their final 10 years in Vanuatu were spent with Scripture Union, a Christian organization which works alongside churches to support youth in schools and through camping and resource development. Jon and Lyndell completed their time in Vanuatu at the end of 2015 just 9 months after the passing of the incredibly destructive Cyclone Pam.  These last 2 months were spent in community disaster management mode. In 2017, along with their two teenage sons, Jon and Lyndell came to live in Geraldton and enjoyed “becoming Aussies again”!     Jon then became Pastor of the Uniting Lighthouse Church

The Lighthouse Church is a congregation of the Uniting Church.   The Uniting Church was formed by members of the Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian communities. In recent times the Uniting Church has become increasingly charismatic and this is defined in the Lighthouse current Mission which is “To Reach out, Share and Grow.”   Your Scribe has a number of friends who attend the Lighthouse Church and Jon is highly respected as a great Leader of his congregation.