Hello from Gaborone, Botswana! After spending 4 months in Asia it has been quite a different experience coming here to Africa. The life and people in Africa are SO different to those in Asia, and I want to fill you in on what my month has looked like.
The main religion in Botswana is Christianity, but only about 20% of the population is actually following and practicing those beliefs. Several of the people here will tell you that they are a Christian, but they don’t believe that they are going to heaven. It is a common belief that you have to constantly be doing good things to go to heaven instead of being saved by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This month we have been living and serving with an organization called Campus Crusades for Christ, better know as CRU. Their main ministry is reaching out to college students at Botswana University. CRU is an international organization. In fact, I have known about CRU since I was in college at Baylor.
The office/house we have lived in this monthIn this type of blog I usually break down how we spend our days, but I won’t really be able to do that for this month. One week after we arrived to Gaborone the Botswana University students went on strike because the university did not pay everyone the allowances that were agreed upon. Several of the students stormed around the university disrupting classes, breaking into buildings, and stealing food from the cafeterias. This caused the university to be closed for the rest of the month…leaving us with no planned ministry.
Even though our month hasn’t turned out as planned we know that God has placed us here for a reason. We have spent the last few weeks building relationships with college students as they come to the CRU office (our home), walking around the neighborhood meeting people, and evangelizing in markets and malls. Having a more relaxed schedule has helped me rest and refill my tank as I’m getting to the midpoint of this whole experience. It has also reminded me that the World Race is a marathon, not a sprint.
My team with the CRU staff and studentsOutside of ministry, my team has been learning a few things this month. The 6 of us have been together for 5 months now, and 3 of those months have been spent all sleeping in the same room. That’s a lot of time with the same people. We are still being reminded that it is a daily choice to love and serve each other instead of just simply living with one another.
Where we sleep every nightJust a heads up, I will be working on posting blogs more often (at least once a week) with a smaller amount of content in each one. If you would like to receive notifications for these blogs you can do so by clicking the “Follow me” link to the left and entering your email.
Fundraising update:
First of all I wanted to thank each of you that have been generous enough to donate to my mission trip. Raising nearly $17,000 seemed like an impossible task, but now I am just $400 away from being fully funded! WHAT! I need to raise the final amount by March 31. If you would like to support me financially you can do so by clicking the “Support me” link on the left. Remember, all donations are tax deductible!
