Larah Heinrich is a chaplain in a Christian nursing home in New South Wales, a wife, and a mum of three girls. She leads a Bible study, mentors young women, and writes at RantToGrace about knowing God personally when faith has gone thin.

She trained through Ministry Training for Women with the Australian University of Theology and completed Clinical Pastoral Education. She has also studied with OCCA in Oxford. Before ministry she worked in business and marketing.

She writes as a member of the local church, not instead of it.

Walking this path with you

For years I worked hard, built a business, and kept God at a polite distance. In 2010 that changed. I turned to him honestly for the first time, sold the business, and walked into a local church not knowing what I would find. What I found was grace, and people who were willing to know me.

Not long after, we moved to Sydney. Life filled up with marriage, three girls, and the ordinary, wearing work of raising a family. In one season I studied with OCCA in Oxford, which taught me to think carefully about the questions people actually ask. In another season I trained for chaplaincy, and I now sit with residents in a Christian nursing home, people near the end of their lives who are still asking whether God is really there.

I write because I know what it is to be a Christian whose faith has gone thin. RantToGrace is simply one person talking to another: honest about the hard parts, always pointing back to Scripture, and always pointing back to a real church family where you can be known face to face.

Where to next

• Can I know God personally?
• What I believe (statement of faith)
• The longer Oxford story: I Denied Him to Survive — But He Never Denied Me

This website is a companion to your local church, never a substitute for it.