So, now to the big things that happened in Botswana. I will break them down into 3 separate parts so sorry for it not being a very flowing blog. These are things that have either never happened in my life or have left a lasting impact on me for the rest of my life.
Yuruko, Stella, and Dorine:
During our second weekend village trip we were doing our village evangelism and had the opportunity to meet 3 generations of amazing women. We were getting prepared to go to there house and speak with them and our translator asked if we had Bible verses prepared to give them to get them to believe in the gospel. I kind of had a feeling of disappointment because we were coming off a month where our ministry was so relational, which I love, and this ministry did not have that as much. So we got to the house an we’re asking them some general information questions and then the awkward silence hit, like it always does in non English speaking countries. Our translator asked us just to share our verses, but I felt like we could really reach these three women so I spoke up and instead of sharing a verse, I just asked them what some of their struggles were and some of their joys in life. Immediately the atmosphere changed and they were really opening up. We shared the gospel with them by simply sharing life experience intertwined with scripture. They admitted that they believed in God but didn’t realize that it is about a personal relationship with him. Throughout the entire visit the young daughter who was no older than 15 was sitting outside of the circle just listening, and when her mother an grandmother decided to give their life’s to Christ and we went to pray for them, she jumped right into the circle. As we were praying I opened my eyes to look at them and the young daughter was crying. It was such a deep, and soulful heart cry. I have never been apart of someone giving their life’s to Christ that felt so genuine. ALSO, when we got done praying, the young daughter’s mother admitted that when we left she planned on going to shower and go to bed because she was sick, but as we prayed the salvation prayer she was healed and felt 100% better! Our God is a relational God, and does amazing things when we just love people.
Demons released:
The very next house we went to in that village we met two more women. One just had surgery and got a bad infection from it, an the other was going through troubles with her husband. The woman who had the infection told us that when she saw us coming that she felt like she was about to be healed. After talking with them some, we started praying for them. As we were praying, the lady with marital problems started shaking and screaming. It was easy to tell that she was demon possessed. In the middle I praying for her, she grabbed ahold of the other woman’s neck and was screaming. After more intensive prayer we got her settled and at peace. Then the other one started doing the same thing! It was a lot of prayer, but when we were done they both admitted to being taken over by a demon and it being released. It was absolutely incredible to experience those two things back to back like that. Botswana was not my absolute favorite month all around, but God was moving in a big way there.
A 6 year old and his caterpillars:
One last story. A shorter one though. The first day I was at the orphanage I met a 6 year old who ran up and climbed up me immediately and hugged me. I played around on the playground with him for a couple hours and all we did was pretty much play house with these huge dead and alive caterpillars. We named them, fed them, and built houses for them. He seemed to know exactly where every single caterpillar was, both the dead and alive ones. After we built a house for them, I got up to try to pull him over to something else, because I was honestly/selfishly getting a little bored with caterpillars, but he stopped me and just said, “let’s hang out with them”. Even though I laughed when he said it, the whole thing was a big eye opener. Here was a kid, stuck in an orphanage with no actual parents which means no pure loving attention. Despite his circumstances he is happy just knowing where all the caterpillars were and using his child-like imagination. I came on this trip with a life-long love for kids and that was just another instance where a child showed me why I love them so much. They truly make the best of any situation and find joy.
