Attendees at the Continuing Education Week in Lusaka, Zambia.
Inside the Chapel on the Seminary Campus.

They didn’t need to tell me.  I could see it in their eyes.  I could read it on their faces.  Their actions spoke louder than their words.

Actually, they never did speak words, anyway.  Yelps, growls, hisses, squawks, squeals and other throaty, guttural sounds, but no words.

It was a nature show.  Mind you, not a television film or National Geographic documentary.  It was live.   We witnessed the raw, real, ravenous display of raw, real, ravenous hunger.  My family and I were on the Serengeti watching the scene unfold.

In came the hungry.

The Cheetah took down a Thompson's Gazelle.   With an uncanny ability, birds of prey found out about the kill and flocked to the scene.  While some of the cautious hovered overhead, the bold ones glided in for landing, still keeping their distance from the killer cat.  But after a stand off, the Cheetah moved off and rested under a nearby tree.  (It’s belly was bulging, anyway). 

Once the Cheetah relinquished its right to the kill, the White-backed Vultures and the Marabou Storks quickly descended upon the leftovers.  There was a flurry of grabbing and pulling and eating.  But still the meat wasn’t gone and the show wasn’t over.  In came two Black-backed Jackals.  Though small, they were quick.  And relentlessly persistent. Minutes later a hyena came in and stole the show as well as a hunk of bone and meat.  He could run but he couldn’t hide and soon he was chased and flanked by the jackals and the storks and the vultures still unwilling to give up their chances at another chunk.

Hunger.  Makes for quite a memorable scene in the animal world. 

Professor James Tiefel teaching Christian Worship

As well as in our Christian one.  Allow me to give you an example that I both witnessed and took part in:  Continuing Education Week in Zambia.  This year it took place from the 23rd to the 28th July.  

Each year, alternating between Zambia and Malawi, a professor or two bring in hunks of meat for us to chew on.   This year Professor James Tiefel and Missionary/Professor Phil Birner accepted the request to be the presenters. 

Professor Tiefel is a worship (liturgics) and preaching (homiletics) professor at the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.  He came to Zambia to teach a class on Christian Worship.

Missionary Birner is a professor at the Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia.  He prepared a class entitled, “The Doctrine of the Call in Looking at the Ministerial Office.”

In came the hungry. 

From Malawi and from Zambia we came.  From hundreds of kilometers we came.  Leaving families and congregations on their own for a week, we came.  Missionaries and national pastors of the Lutheran Church of Central Africa (LCCA) came from the width and breadth of these two countries hoping for much more than milk. 

We were not disappointed.  Both professors placed big platters in front of us.    

We ate.  Seven hours a day for five days we feasted on Scriptural and Lutheran fare as we discussed The Call and Christian Worship.

We got what we came for:  meat!  And lots of it!

If you had been a silent on-looker to that scene as I was to the one on the Serengeti, no one would have told you that we were hungry.  But you would have known it.  You would have seen it in our eyes.  You would have read it on our faces.  You would have heard it in our questions and our discussions.  You would have known that we were hungry by our interest in the meat.  We hovered around the table.  We grabbed and pulled and took what we could from the platter. 

Though it was Professors Tiefel and Birner who set the food before us, it was really Jesus Christ who fed us.  It is He who is the Bread of Life!  His Word was as nutritious as it was plentiful.  How blessed we are that His Holy Inerrant Word speaks to the issues that come up concerning Calls and Worship.  How blessed we are that the Holy Inspired Word speaks to – and satisfies - hungry people!  As Jesus put it:  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."  (Matthew 5:6) 

Were we blessed?

I believe so.  But not only because we attended the classes!  We were blessed long before we came into Lusaka this last July!  Christ Jesus has already blessed us with forgiveness and eternal salvation!  Think about this staggering thought….we are already declared righteous through faith in God’s Son!   Blessed and hungry and filled describe every believer in Jesus!  That includes you, dear Mission Partner!  

It’s no wonder then, that when a feast is offered,

…in come the hungry.

See you at the table! Missionary John Holtz, Mission Partner		Click image - Take a satellite tour from St. Paul's to Chipata, Zambia
August 2007 Communiqué
For St. Paul's Members: You can support Mission Partner John Holtz by including a special gift in the monthly offering envelop with the "Mission Partner" box or mail a gift to St. Paul's, labeling it "Mission Partner.