Four women representing the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Victoria, Australia, have joined other Christian leaders to ask national political leaders to increase their commitment to Australian aid.

ADRA Victoria director Rebecca Auriant, Selba-Gondoza Luka, Kate Pincheira, and Moe Stiles were among 35 Christian leaders from across Australia who met in Canberra at this year’s Women’s Leaders Network event hosted by Micah Australia. On August 14, Micah groups met with 42 elected representatives at Parliament House, along with relevant government ministers and shadow ministers.

In asking Australia’s political leaders to increase Australian aid from its historically low current levels to one percent of the national budget, Micah Australia’s message was that “as churches, organizations, and communities, we care deeply about the level of aid Australia provides.” Both Auriant and Luka were able to share their firsthand experiences of the benefits of Australian aid, with Auriant having worked with ADRA in Nepal and Luka working with African diaspora communities in southeastern Melbourne, including students from Malawi who have benefited from university education in Australia and then been able to return to their home country to serve their own people.

“When I spent time in Nepal, I witnessed how Australian aid through ADRA increased livelihood, health and educational opportunities for families,” Auriant said. “As a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, when I hear that 700 million of my brothers and sisters around the world are still living in extreme poverty and one in five children are in conflict zones, I must do something about it — and speaking with our political leaders is a way to do that.”

Pincheira is an art teacher at Nunawading Christian College and volunteers regularly with ADRA in Melbourne. As part of the Women’s Leaders Network worship program, she created a live work of art — which will be displayed in Micah Australia’s office in Newcastle — but she also reflected on what she learned from speaking up with Micah. “Micah has earned the respect of parliamentarians, and the politicians we met with were welcoming to us, willing to listen, engage in discussion, and treated us respectfully,” she said. “I learned the power of meeting politicians in person, being in front of each other is disarming — and the Micah team demonstrated the high value of compelling research, supporting and trusting your team, and showing up in a professional manner.”

Having participated in Micah’s Women’s Leaders Network a number of times, Moe Stiles, pastor of Crosswalk Melbourne, reflected on the strength and potential of “the collective voice of faith.”

“The church really does have a voice in parliament, politicians really do listen to people of faith,” she said. “Especially when we show up for others, and not just for our own rights and freedoms. Consistency matters — advocating for others matter.”

The messages delivered by the Women’s Leaders Network to political leaders are part of Micah Australia’s “A Safer World for All” campaign. Micah Australia is a coalition of Christian development and justice agencies, of which ADRA Australia is a partner.

The original article was published on the South Pacific Division news site, Adventist Record.