The journey to Lesotho was long, but so worth it. We had a 6hr drive from East London to Lesotho. My team and I plus the team from First City Baptist Church all piled into a church van and a rental car. My plan was to go right back to sleep as soon as I got into the car considering we were leaving at 5 AM, but the mountains and the landscape of South Africa kept getting bigger and better the closer we got to the border. I think once we crossed the border into Lesotho is when I really started to realize we weren’t anywhere close to America anymore. Sad but true. Parts of East London are pretty similar looking to America, but I think it’s safe to say Lesotho is when I first saw real poverty and a drastic change in the way of life and the culture compared to where I had been staying the week before. There were loose cattle roaming the roads, sheep everywhere, kids as young as six years old herding them and working the fields, and people walking around with a blanket from the store tied around them like a cape. This was Lesotho. The most breathtaking mountains and valleys that rolled on for days with tiny villages scattered throughout them. The villages of people never stopped just like the mountains and valleys.
I’ve never been somewhere as beautiful as the Malealea Valley in Lesotho and I’ve never felt more welcomed by anyone than when we were welcomed by the Mierke family at their ministry site and home, Africa 4 Jesus. Pieter and Keila and their two young sons Jon and Jamie were Afrikaans and were from South Africa but were obeying and answering God’s call on their lives to move to Lesotho and to minister to the villages and start a children’s ministry high up in the mountains. Our first night we took some time to get settled in and eat dinner. Maki, their friend and cook who was from Lesotho herself cooked us some of the best soup made with maize, not to mention some of the best homemade bread I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I was instantly blown away by their hospitality and generosity considering they were willing to give and share all that they had, even if it was very little. They had one small house with dirt floors and mats that the Mierke family stayed in, a bigger building with a tin roof which was the church with a few attached rooms with mattresses, and another smaller building which was the kitchen with a room attached next door to it. My team and I stayed 4 to one room and 3 to another. The bathrooms consisted of a small outhouse type building with a shower and a running toilet (hallelujah!) and then a long drop toilet next door to it for those who didn’t mind using it. Compared to the way of life there in the valley, we had it good. I was time and time again overwhelmed by their generosity to give and help make us as comfortable as they possibly could while we were there.
The week we were there the kids happened to be on “holiday”, so we put on another “holiday club”, or vacation bible school for any kid who could make it. We got to attend a church service the Sunday we were there and we also got to go into the villages and pray for people as they openly welcomed us into their homes. The thing about Lesotho and especially the Malealea Valley is most everyone walks everywhere and they’re coming from all over the mountains, some walking for hours just to come to church and holiday club. As we sat and waited for church to start I looked out the window and saw people walking from all over the place, they were coming from so far away and the wind blowing as hard as it was made the cold temperature almost unbearable. There was one lady who caught my attention, she was an older lady probably in her 80’s, and she was the first one to church quietly sitting in the front row just waiting in silence. I later found out she lived in one of the villages we visited, which for me was about a 15 minute walk up the mountainside that wore me out. I sat and admired her and wanted to speak but I knew she didn’t speak or understand any English as most people there didn’t. I was humbled by her desire to worship the Lord and to seek him and know him more. She was hungry, not physically but spiritually and it was inspirational to me and challenged me. She was only one woman, soon the rest of the congregation slowly trickled in young and old. People with only the clothes on their backs and a blanket (it’s a traditional custom for people to wear blankets wrapped around them in Lesotho), coming and worshipping and praying in the most beautiful way I’ve ever experienced. I had no idea what they were saying in worship or in prayer except for one word, “hallelujah”. I’ve never danced as freely in worship as I did that Sunday when I stepped out and joined them as we danced around the whole building inside. At one point I just closed my eyes and listened to their worship and as the kids joined in and shouted with all their heart praises to God in their own language it brought me to tears. Language barriers have nothing on the Holy Spirit. God was so present and so pouring himself out on his people there in Lesotho. I felt honored to even be able to attend their church. Realizing how much I take so many things for granted back home, I was humbled by their hunger for the Lord and their faith. One of the neatest things for me though had to be when these beautiful people who with holes in their clothes, shoes with no soles, and literally nothing but the clothes and blankets on their backs, gave an offering. One for their church and a whole other separate offering for missionaries around the world. They had received from missionaries around the world and here they were giving back to them. In faith and in the truest form of worship I’ve ever seen, they were giving back to God all that he had given them.
The rest of the week we put on the holiday club for the kids who could make the long walks from their villages. It was a three day event and each day we shared a different bible story, led worship, and played games and soccer. How did we do this when none of us spoke Sotho (Soo-too) and none of the kids spoke English? God has gifted the Malealea Valley with a beautiful girl about my age named Mpoh. Her name literally means “gift”. She’s the community translator and stays and works and helps the Mierke family with their ministry and church. The first day we saw 122 kids come from all over the valley. They were coming from everywhere, some walking half a day just to make it. It wasn’t just cold, it was freezing up there in the mountains but they kept coming and coming from all over. Kids were still walking through the door when holiday club was coming to an end. The second day I got the chance to step outside of my comfort zone and MC for the day. I began to realize that even if you stumble over your words or talk too fast and forget someone has to translate everything you’re saying, God will move regardless. It wasn’t about performance with those precious ones because in their wide eyes you could only see gratefulness. They were truly grateful and touched and excited that we were even there. Once again, I was humbled. There was one girl who could speak better English than the other kids, her name was Fefe, and her cousin’s name was Fefe too, (I’m pretty sure their names were something completely different but they told me that to spare me from completely butchering their names). She was 14 years old and actually lived in Maseru (the capital of Lesotho) but was visiting family in the valley for the holidays. Over the next couple of days I got to know her more and she shared her dreams and goals with me. She told me she wanted to travel around the world like me and go to America. She wants to be a teacher and an actress, because acting was her passion. She was special and I heard God speak the word faith over her when I would talk with her. I was able to share with her one of my favorite verses, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” (Matthew 19:26). Adventures in Missions challenged each of us this year to leave something behind in each country, like a memento kind of thing. After meeting Fefe, I knew I was supposed to leave her my ring that says “faith” and to pray with her and encourage her. It was hard saying bye to her and the rest of the kids knowing I’ll never see them again or never talk to them again, but my comfort lies in knowing just how much God loves these kids and the crazy things he’ll do to show them that they’re loved and cared about.
I could honestly type a short book about Lesotho and the many things we got to experience and see while we were there. From church to the holiday club to going from door to door praying over people to working in the fields building an erosion system and playing in a spur of the moment soccer game in the freezing cold rain with the local kids who could easily play college level soccer and kicked our butts, (I’ve never played soccer a day in my life until this game), this experience wrecked me and blessed me in so many different ways. God cares about every single person on the face of this earth so much and will relentlessly pursue each and every single one of us into eternity, even those of us far up in the mountains and valleys who feel forgotten or hopeless.
“Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord as spoken.” (Isaiah 40:4-5)
“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” (Isaiah 40:26)
