Kruger National Park

Tshwane Lutheran Seminary is as close to living the cloistered life as I'd like to get.  With no car for transport and these feet of mine will only go so far, living and serving here at the seminary is rather confining. Thus, it was with great excitement that on the 12th day of cloistered life, Friday, September 23rd,  I tossed my smallest suitcase into the rented Renault to join my ministry partner Ginger and visiting 'professor' Pastor Randy Asburry from St. Louis, MO for a weekend safari at Kruger National Park.

The four plus hour drive from Pretoria to our destination of Hazyview included time to nap and listening to music on my IPod and one stop at McDonald for fresh baked carrot cake. Soon we arrived at the sweetest lodge in the Southern Hemisphere: Kruger Adventure Lodge.

We each got our own hut, which had one queen bed and two twin beds, tile floor and a nice modern bath all under a thatch roof.   We decided not to venture back out and ate a delicious 2 hour, candle lite dinner at the lodge.  Soon it was off to bed because we had to be back in the reception (lobby) at 5:15am for our 5:30am departure.

We witnessed a beautiful sunrise just before we arrived at the gate.  Once at the Numbi entrance we waited in a rather long queue for the opening at 6:00am.  (We departed Phabeni gate.)

Ginger Taff-Lagergren, me, Pastor Asburry

Before long we were inside and realize our first blessing was that we were the only 3 in our truck. Most were filled to their 9 person capacity.   This allowed us to each have a row and 'run' to the right or left as the animals dictate.

Rhino

water buffalo

In South Africa the object of the game (no pun intended) is to witness the BIG FIVE: Leopard, Rhinoceros, Water Buffalo, Loin and Elephant.  Our tour guide and driver Bennett nor the locals can believe that we did indeed saw and took pictures of ALL the Big Five before 9am - truly a blessing from the hand of God.

"Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind; cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind'; and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:24-25.

mother & baby Hippo

Yes it was good, very good.  My favorite minute was the first sighting of a giraffe, I spotted one and was so speechless that just sputtered and pointed - I was so taken away.

We arrived back at the lodge at 1700 (5:00pm), yep an almost 12 hour safari. Went to Wimpy's for dinner, which is a fast food place except that if you are having take-away (carry out) you order at the counter BUT if you are dining in, you sit down and they have a printed menu.  All we wanted was 3 hamburgers and chips (fries).  Interesting.

kudu

Sunday mid-morning we said our goodbye's to owner TC and his seemlying only employee Pumula.  Pastor got us out of town and near the highway, then I took to the right side of the car to drive the manual on the left side of the road all the way home to the seminary.   Happy and blessed we traded pictures amongst ourselves, congratulated each other once again for an amazing safari and settled down to one more week of our missionary lifestyle of cloistered life. Here at the seminary we are living and serving the Lord with Zeal.

Vervet Monkey

Hyaena

vulture

Life Interupped

And the adventure begins...

Mr. Toad, you've got nothing on me.  My friends and family are living 7 - 9 hours behind me; as I am currently in Pretoria, South Africa.  Living and serving  at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane.  You may ask how in the world did I ended up here.  Good question.  It has been a wild ride - sorry Mr Toad, I've got you beat on this one.  

August 2010 it suddenly occurred to me that I was getting old, albeit healthy & hyper. That my 26 year old daughter would be working on her doctorate in psychology for the next 2 years, that my 24 year old son would be at Virginia Tech working on his Master's degree in Dendrochronology (tree rings - think forestry). With neither engaged, expecting, no grandchildren it just seemed like it was now-or-never to cross off the bucket list my lifelong desire to serve the Lord as a missionary. 

That objective explanation sounds so cold and unlike me. The subjective explanation is that like a song that gets stuck in your head, for as long as I can remember I've wanted to serve the Lord overseas as a missionary. Although I loved my life as a Director of Christian Education in Pensacola, Florida, serving at Grace Lutheran Church - the song had grown so loud that its all I could hear.

Philippians 2: 9-11 was the song stuck in my head.  

"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Every tribe, every tongue, every nation. So I applied to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod World Missions, was accepted and on my way to my assigned destination of Kampala, Uganda to teach the Holy Scripture to woman.