My first country in Africa was filled with many hot days and nights, crazy ants that tried to eat your feet, cool times (think slushy in a bag), amazing freshly baked bread, playing Phase 10 and spreading the love of Jesus with children at a local church.
My team and I were stationed in a very large village called Molepolole in a country called Botswana. We worked with an amazingly kind pastor, whose name is Emmanuel, at his church called Independent Assemblies of Botswana and our main goal was to help re-energize the youth program in the church.
About every Wednesday and Friday we would have “Kids Club” from 9 am to about 12 pm. We would play musical chairs, do duck duck goose, Mother May I, do worship, skits, a message and just spend time with the kids. Also, we would have biscuits (cookies) and a juice called squash afterwards for the kids. It was pretty awesome. It was a really fun experience and I believe the kids truly enjoyed it.
One thing working with the kids that you noticed quickly was how motherly or fatherly the elder sister or brother was to their younger siblings. They made sure they were taken care of if they got hurt, if they cried they comforted them, and so on and so forth. Some of these elder siblings were about 7-8 years old, some of them older. It was an eye opening experience because back home in the States, most children that age usually only care about their selves and their toys. Heck, most people my age only care about their selves and their things. It was really humbling to watch these kids selflessly care for their family.
Another thing that I learned quickly is that in African culture, people are really relaxed about scheduling. You may or may not start church at 10:00 am…maybe you will start at 11:00 am…or, you may or may not see kids show up at 9 am…or you’ll see them show up an hour later. It’s something that was a little frustrating at first, but I feel we (the team and I) acclimated to it pretty quickly.
Aside from Kid’s Club, we would also occasionally do a prayer walk or pray for different families Pastor Emmanuel knew. On Sundays, we would do Sunday School, share testimonies, sing a song and do a message. On the last Sunday we were there, which was the Sunday before Christmas, we had a Christmas dinner. It was nice!
For fun, we usually would go to the city of Gaborone which was about 45 minutes away. In order to do this, we would have to take a taxi down to another part of Molepolole, and then take a Combi (a bus) to get to Gaborone, then get off…and catch another combi to go to the mall. It was a fun and interesting process! On an Adventure Day, the team and I got to learn about the history behind Botswana, go to a museum, a Lion Park and go on a game drive. It was really neat!
My birthday was also last month, and my team truly blessed me. We went out to eat in Gaborone and had the opportunity to watch The War Room in theaters. Also, my sweet team mate Clare, bought me a surprise birthday cake and the team gave me a card. It was so nice! We also experienced a crazy lighting and wind storm that evening which was fun!
The day before Christmas Eve, we spent time with Pastor Emmanuel’s family in Gaborone. We had pizza with them and got to meet their children. It was so nice! After that, we went to a family’s very nice house, whom only my squad leader had talked to briefly at the mall, and spent time with them. They had bought each of us a Christmas gift and wrapped it for us. They invited us to swim in their pool. They invited us to play their musical instruments. It was very sweet and felt very homely!
On Christmas Eve, we also had pizza in order to go along with Karleigh’s (squad leader) family tradition, and Sam, a team mate, held a Christmas Eve service. For Christmas, we woke up and Karleigh and Clare prepared french toast and Lacey prepared potatoes. Afterwards, we all opened gifts in our stockings that we had bought one another. We watched a couple Christmas movies through out the day and also got to speak to family back home. It was a nice Christmas!!!
There was a lot of wonderful things that happened last month, and also, it was one of the hardest months on the Race for me so far. I battled a lot with feeling confused about why I was a team leader, dealing with frustrations towards team mates, and respected as a team leader. It was hard, and the last week of Botswana I was feeling all sorts of emotions. There was conflict about several different things that had been brought to light all at once and it was just hard. However, through that, the Lord taught me a lot of valuable lessons.
He taught me that He doesn’t call us to easy things. We don’t grow when things are easy.
I had to die more to my flesh and my desires.
I had to let God be God and orchestrate things I didn’t have the power to orchestrate.
I learned that God calls me to love people even when I feel like it’s futile.
That He called me into leadership and He will do the work in me, and I have to allow Him AND do as He says.
There were a couple of hard conversations that needed to be said, and I think it has helped the team a lot. I feel more at peace in my heart about things.
I love the women on my team and I am thankful the Lord put me on a team with them. The Lord has used them to teach me a lot.
And also-another amazing thing that happened last month is that I became FULLY FUNDED!!!!! Praise the Lord!!!! Thank you everyone who donated and prayed for this!!! God came through, as He always does!!!!
I love and miss you all so much!
Also-I have a return date! I will be hitting American Soil in Miami, Florida at 5:09 PM! I will be spending several days in Florida with my family when I get back, so the rest of you guys will probably get to see me late May/early June!
I love you guys!!!!
Sincerely,
Meraia
