I hadn't even been back home in Chipata a week upon our return from furlough and already I made a three hour dirt-road trip to Mfuwe.

Mfuwe?

Mfuwe is the name of the area that boasts one of the best game reserves in Zambia, if not all of Africa: the South Luangwa National Park.   It takes but one visit to see that the animal kingdom is truly that: a kingdom.  A kingdom of the great and the small, the stately and the lowly.  From the massive elephant to the mouse-size elephant shrew, from the lazy-by-day lion to the busy-by-day ant lion - they are all there in rank and file.    

A nature lover would be "tickled pink."   Speaking of pink, why, just the bird life itself dabbles the landscape a kaleidoscope of color.  God outdid Himself on that fifth day of creation when he came up with the color schemes of the Bee Eaters alone, not to mention the hundreds of other birds!  (And you thought a box of Crayolas was stunning?)  By the way, if you don't ever get to this park, check out some of God's handiwork in a Bird Book sometime!

Oh, by the way, on the 3rd of September 2006 I didn't enter the Park.  I did go to Mfuwe but I didn't go to see the animals.

The Installation & Ordination of Anton Phiri (Standing, left); Reverend Smart Mvula officiating (Standing, right)

I had a better reason to go to Mfuwe.  There are a couple of our Lutheran congregations in that area, St. Timothy's, Kakumbi and St. Mark's, Maulidi.  Two congregations that I used to serve.  Used to?  That's right, used to!

I went to Mfuwe on the 3rd of September for the installation and ordination of a national pastor, Anthony Phiri.  He recently finished his Vicar Year and was then assigned to St. Timothy's and St. Marks!

We held the worship service outdoors underneath the shade trees. (Not enough room in the church!)  Though we didn't have any elephants meander through our "sanctuary" that day, the bush all around us was alive with music.  It wasn't only our choirs that were singing.  So were the birds.

When the Lord created the birds, He also gave many of them a song to sing.  For some reason, on that day, they seemed to sing louder and prettier than I had ever noticed before.  

And so on that ordination day, I layed my hands upon this young pastor. I read the first three verses of Psalm 40.  Anyone who's ever been "in the pit" can identify with David.  Pits can be slimy.  Mud and mire can engulf even the strongest of the strong.  A pit of pain is one thing.  A pit of persecution is another.  But the pit of death is inescapable.  That is, unless God intervenes.  And He did.  What God the Father did for David, He also did for "David's Son," Jesus.  God the Father raised Christ from the stubborn pit of death!  And as long as we're talking about it, didn't He do that for us, too?   Weren't we caught in a bottomless pit of sin?  A stinking pit of death?  Think of it...we'd be in hell now or we'd be there soon had God not pulled us to safety!  Why, we are now in God's own kingdom!   And what a kingdom it is!  He set our feet upon a rock and He gave us a firm place to stand!  Both the Rock and the Foundation being one and the same: our resurrected and living Lord Jesus Christ!  

Women's choir singing under the shade trees at St. Timothy, Kakumbi

But then God did something else.  He gave us something more:  He gave us a...song.  "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." (Psalm 40:3).

On that 3rd day of September, outdoors under the shade trees, the illustration was God sent.  Feathered and frolicking, as vivid as it was real.  With a medley in our ears, I pointed to the singers in the trees and drew the analogy:

  "Just as God created the birds and gave them a song to sing, so He created faith in our hearts and gave us the same:  a song to sing!  The song of the gospel that would be heard around the world!  A song of forgiveness!  A song of salvation!  A song of all songs!