With our first two weeks of ministry coming to a close in Mochudi, Botswana, it’s about time I wrote something about it. It was an interesting first few days in the country, from getting in a car accident (all parties were uninjured) to being welcomed to an environment that I already felt familiar with.
On our first day of ministry, two random memories came to mind: my internship with the Jazz Arts Group in Columbus and my (very brief) time in a spelling bee. We got to the office on our first day of ministry (~syllabus~ day), one of the ministry options for the month is to come to the office and help out with whatever it is that they need, especially administrative work because Youth for Christ Botswana (our ministry hosts) have several events coming up throughout the next two months. (I did a lot of administrative work for my internship.) And, in getting to know some of the staff, Ember told us about her extensive experience with spelling bees. Simply, I knew I was going to enjoy this month because these were the types of things that I’d been wanting to do.
Back to the present. I haven’t spent every hour of ministry at the office, but when I do go to the office I almost always feel needed and useful (which isn’t the goal of ministry). Today it was especially nice to know that my jack-of-all-trades-ness was truly needed. I spent about 75% of ministry working on helping the office run more efficiently, technologically. I attempted to solve a network problem for one of the computers and also checked to see if there were many pieces of office equipment (i.e. printers, scanners, projectors) were still functional. And, when I wasn’t doing that, I was helping my teammates input camp registration information into a spreadsheet via Google Forms, which I have the most expertise and understanding of.
TL;DR: Because of the World Race, I have been able to come alongside people and help them with the things that they practically need to continue doing ministry, from hours of manual labour in the Dominican sun to running between three computers to create home groups on Windows computers.
How can you help someone this week?
Angie
Prayer Requests:
- Elsie and her family are going through a difficult season currently, please pray that they receive and remember the incomprehensible peace of the Lord,
- 14 people on my squad are not fully funded (including myself) and we need to be by the end of the month, and
- My team has been going on early morning runs with the intent of running a 5K in two weeks, please pray for continued opportunities to train.
Praise Reports
- I’m over 92% funded!,
- Elsie, Mantha, and Katie ran a 5K yesterday in gorgeous weather (short video to come), and
- My team is very excited about hosting a Thanksgiving lunch with some of our Botswana friends.
