On Sunday night we arrived in the capital of Lesotho, Maseru, and our hosts were excited to pick us up. Right when we met them we knew this would be a fantastic month. This month my team and I are living with a host family in Roma, Lesotho, where we are doing primarily college ministry (Cru) with some worship nights, youth group barbecues, and Sunday school thrown in the mix. Pieter and Sylvia are our hosts, and they met at the National University of Lesotho through Campus Crusade for Christ. After they got married around 1999 they began working for the ministry, and they have been ever since. Now they have 2 sons, Emanuel who is 16, and Tsia who is 10. They live 1 kilometer from NUL, and they host small groups and disciple students all throughout the week. Both Pieter and Sylvia are very passionate about Cru, and they are so excited for us to be living with them.
We are only their second World Race team, so we are still on the trial run, but I can already tell we are going to have a great time with them. They have accepted us into their family by letting us cook in their kitchen, giving us all mattresses, sheets, and pillows, allowing us to take hot showers, and letting us watch all the episodes of Fresh Prince they have on their DVR. Emanuel and Tsia watch TV with us, and we bake them cookies. After living in a guest house in Swaziland with no host on the property, it is very nice to be a part of a local family. This morning we talked to Sylvia about taking turns cooking a meal for each other on Sunday afternoons, we will cook them an American dinner, and next week she will cook for us. Last night while we were playing cards and baking cookies, some college students from the small group came over to introduce themselves to us. We were all so excited to meet each other, I can tell this will be a fruitful month of relationship and discipleship. Also, we get to dress like we do at home! No skirts! The students at NUL are much more stylish than the clothes in my backpack, so I need to step up my game.
After hearing all of this, it is easy to say we are blessed this month. Blessed with hot showers, blessed with beds, blessed with wifi, we are in heaven. Living around the world is not always comfortable, and it is easy to equate comfort to blessing. When we have all the nice amenities and awesome ministry we are blessed, right? Sure, but we were also blessed when we were bucket showering, and cooking rice over a gas stove by the light of a headlamp in Swaziland. We are called to have a spirit of thanksgiving, no matter what. My life verse is from Philippians 4, its the second half of verse 11 when Paul says “for I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.” (NIV). I also like the ASV translation, “for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therein be content.” Yes, I was content in Swaziland, I was content in South Africa, and I am content here. God has blessed us differently in each place, and I need to be mindful and aware of the blessings He has poured out in each country. As we do things that are similar to home, some of the team is experiencing homesickness, please pray for us to live in the moment and count it all joy!
Prayer Requests
-in December 2016 4 Cru student leaders died in a car accident, left a hole in the ministry
-the student leaders of Cru are young in their faith, pray they can grow and mature
-Pieter and Sylvia’s church has been seeking a pastor since 2015
-Team Further to have energy and passion
