Lisa Groetzinger went to be with the Lord on Thursday 25 July 2024 after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in December 2022. Lisa was only 46 years old and leaves behind her husband, Dean, and their two children, Levi & Asher (aged 14 and 3 years old). Although Lisa was undergoing treatment, her death came quite suddenly and unexpectedly. She passed at Hollywood Hospital, where she had been admitted two days earlier and new treatment options were still being explored. 

Lisa was born on 26 February 1978 in Kankakee, Illinois to Gary and Patty Umphrey. Her younger brother Brandon came along about five years later, and sister Erin another five years on. She grew up there surrounded by a close knit extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who she loved dearly. She left home for university in 1996 to Huntington College in Indiana. There she studied mathematics and education, and eventually met her best friend and love of her life Dean. They were married on a snowy night December 28, 2002, not far from the university. 

They began their married life in Nyack, NY, along the Hudson River near New York City. They felt called to give their lives to ministry, going wherever God would lead them to see people come to know the good news of Jesus. She saw life as a great adventure for God. While there, Lisa taught year eight maths at a middle school in The Bronx, NY, while Dean was studying to become a pastor. In 2004, after finishing his coursework, the two of them moved to Perth, Western Australia for Dean to do a 1-year internship at Subiaco Church of Christ. No matter their work, they were an inseparable team in all they did.

Lisa not only joined Dean in ministry but also began teaching at St. Mark’s Anglican School. One year became five, living in Subiaco and Shenton Park and loving their new life in Australia . In 2010 they felt God call them to lead a church in the northern suburbs, which became True North Church. 

Levi was born that same year on 9 July 2010, and Lisa loved nothing more than being a mum. She had a way of making every day fun and even routine moments special. When Levi went to school, Lisa returned to work as a teacher briefly, but knew her calling was no longer there. Though she had always fully engaged in ministry alongside Dean, she joined the True North staff team as a pastor in 2016, focussing all of her working energy on serving God through His church. Being a part of the pastoral staff team was one of her greatest joys. 

Near the end of 2020 came the surprise gift of Lisa’s life, finding out she was pregnant after being told seven years prior it was impossible, that it would take a miracle. Asher was born, six weeks early, on 30 June 2021. Lisa loved the name Asher because it means “happy” or “blessed,” and that was what she felt. 

In December 2022, Lisa received the incurable diagnosis. Despite the crushing weight of the news, Lisa met the moment with the courage, strength, and tenacity, as well as the love, gentleness, and gratitude that defined her. She journeyed her path with the same singular focus she had for a lifetime: to see God glorified through her life. It carried her through the greatest battle she ever fought over the last 19 months, leaving a profound impact on all she encountered and putting an exclamation mark on 46 years of loving God and others.