What’s the biggest gift that you have given to God and to his church? Every Christian has given their heart and life to Jesus. The Holy Spirit brought us to faith through the gospel and set us apart to be God’s people. But out of all the earthly resources that God has given you, what’s the biggest and most valuable gift that you have returned to God?
Hannah gave her son. Read her amazing story in 1 Samuel chapter 1. Childless, she prayed that if God would bless her with a son, then Hannah would dedicate the child to God’s service. God listened. Hannah conceived. A healthy boy was born to her. Hannah rejoiced to name him Samuel, which in Hebrew means “God listened.”
That boy could have been a tremendous asset to Hannah’s family, he would have been a capable worker at home or on the farm. But Hannah had made her promise, and she kept it. When Samuel was still a boy, Hannah brought him to God’s temple. She told the High Priest: “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord” (1Sa 1:27-28). Samuel became one of the greatest prophets in the history of Israel.
Over the past few months, things have been rather quiet here at the Lutheran Bible Institute (LBI) in Lilongwe, Malawi. The school trains young men to serve as pastors in the Lutheran Church of Central Africa. Every three years we accept a new group of students who bring their families with them to live on our campus. Last June, our most recent class graduated and moved on to the Lutheran Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia, where they will spend another three years training for the ministry. After they left, the student houses all stood empty. The classroom was silent. The LBI campus was “childless.”
But not anymore. Last week the LBI chapel hosted the opening service of a new school year. All 20 desks in the classroom were full. These 20 students have been carefully selected from more than 50,000 members in over 250 Lutheran congregations in the countries of Zambia and Malawi. They were chosen because they demonstrate a high degree of God-given gifts for leadership in the church. They could have made a comfortable life for themselves and their families by following secular callings, but they have set their hearts on being public servants of the church.
Thanks be to God, the Giver of all good things! Thank you to the congregations who sent us the finest young members that they had. And thank you to 20 faithful “Hannah’s” who have offered up their sons for service in God’s church.
As our Lord said, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29)
Missionary Mark Panning, Malawi
Please pray for those working in fields that are ripe for harvest. Share their story, engage with future news and receive updates. Go to this link to learn more about our mission fields in Africa and how the Holy Spirit is working faith in people’s hearts https://wels.net/serving-others/missions/africa
