The foyer area of the national office of the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA) houses a wooden carved totem pole that tells the story of the work of Lutheran missionaries in Papua New Guinea---the first missionaries who brought the gospel to the people, the wondrous spreading of the word of God throughout the country, the building of places of worship, and the eventual growth of the church that led to an independent church in 1976. Today the ELC-PNG is a church of approximately 900,000 members.