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The students standing outside the classrooms at the LBI.
Shine Like Stars
The night sky over Malawi is jaw-dropping, eye popping brilliant.
Beautifully brilliant. Brilliantly beautiful.
Since last month, even moreso!
The black canopy sparkles brighter with a newly assembled cluster of stars.
However, these stars are not suspended in the heavens. They are not hanging over the earth. For the time being they are found on a school campus: the Lutheran Bible Institute (LBI) in Lilongwe, Malawi.
Twenty men from three countries: seven from Zambia, one from Zimbabwe and twelve from Malawi.
Different tribes
Different clans
Different customs
Different languages (1)
 Their differences uniquely distinguish them. Their desire distinctly unifies them. Their desire? To become an "overseer" in the church. Paul would be thrilled. (2)
We most certainly are!
Lutheran Pastors in the making!
Travelers on a six year academic journey.
Students learning from the Master Teacher (3)
Shining stars.
Stars shining.
Starshine. Starshine?
You've heard of sunshine and moonshine. Shoeshine and even spit-shine. But starshine? It's not in my dictionary either. But it is all around me. I can't help but see it. It's on our campus, in our community and in our congregation. Wherever the twenty go, they shine. Powerful dots of light puncturing the ink-dark backdrop of a "crooked" and "depraved" generation. (4)
Against such darkness, how the stars shine!
When these twenty students listen in the classroom and when they labor on the campus - they shine! When they invite me into their homes for a chat - they shine! When they sing in the chapel and shop in town or witness their faith - they shine!
So many occasions to shine like stars!
But no star shines as bright as when it holds out the very word of truth (5): My LORD and GOD is Jesus! My Forgiver is Jesus! Sin destroyer and death conqueror is Jesus! My Light and my Salvation is Jesus! Earth's graves and Hell's gates can't swallow up the Morning Star! (6)
Each truth radiates brilliance; each one a sparkle of hope to a sin-darkened soul.
In the classroom at the Lutheran Bible Institute, Lilongwe, Malawi
Light-receivers have become Lightbearers. Lilongwe luminaries.
Starshine.
You've never used the word, but in your own congregation and your own Christian circles you've witnessed it's wonder! You've seen the starshine when...
a Christian partners in the gospel with you; (7)
a believer prays with you and for you; (8)
a fellow saint overflows with Jesus joy; (9)
a group of disciples in faith stand firm in one spirit; (10)
a person not only believes but suffers for the name of Christ; (11)
a brother in the Lord considers you better than himself; (12)
Starshine in the city of Philippi.
Starshine in the city of Lilongwe.
May I ask a favor? May I beg you to take a moment and offer a prayer on behalf of the twenty men studying at our LBI? Thank God for them. Ask God to give them a humble heart, a determined spirit, a heart-felt desire to become what they said they wanted to be:
The drop off is a foot or two from the front door of my tent!
a pastor in the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. Request from God that He give them a love for the Word and a respect for authority Plead earnestly with your Father that the twenty who are starting school are found six years later finishing school. Go to the Throne with a prayer on your lips that they fight the good fight of faith and finish the race; that you'll meet them in heaven. Pray that wherever the Lord places them and uses them, that they hold out the Word of truth. That they hold fast and hold forth. That they... Shine like stars.
By the way, when Paul wrote to the Philippians he didn't command them to shine, he simply reminded them that they already were!
Starshine.
Hmmm...I just noticed the skies over your head. Was that you praying? My how you shine!
You shine like stars.
-- In the glow of the Morning Star,
Missionary John Holtz,
Malawi
October 2008 Communiqué
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