Life has changed since I last blogged about what’s actually going on here in Africa. All six teams of squad Gap O met in Nelspruit, South Africa for five days of training and being poured into. I enjoyed visiting with the other teams, hearing how the Lord worked through them, and simply hanging out. It’s more and more difficult to say goodbye to my friends on other teams. Man, do they rock. One huge blessing the lord has given us, is that two of our fellow teams live just thirty minutes away. We hope to see them once or twice on our off days, during the next two months. And we are now at our new ministry site!
Before I talk about where my team and I are now, I want to share my heart for the last two months in Botswana. As most of you remember, my team and I stayed in the village Seronga with a family of three woman: Ma Willie, the mother and Simone and Arista, the two daughters. What you may not know is that this family very recently suffered extreme loss. About a year ago, Ma Willie lost her father and daughter (Arista’s twin sister). And then, in September 2017, this family lost their father, Willie. Willie was the head of Delta Cross Ministry. He oversaw all the evangelism and events and made a true impact on the community. His daughter, who passed in 2016, handled all the finances and logistics of running the ministry. After the loss of two family members, the entire ministry went through extreme changes and trials. Their family was grieving and learning how to physically move on with the ministry. Willie passed away in September from a heart attack, and we arrived in November. Adventures In Missions staff reached out and really prayed with the family before we arrived, making sure our teams would truly be good for them. And they adamantly believed that the Lord wanted us there. I am grateful for their faith.
Can you imagine, hosting 12 girls for two months, only two months after losing your father, or your husband? What outstanding, true obedience to the Lord.
Delta Cross Ministries’ mission statement included this phrase, “To reach the unreached.” This family chose to live in one of the most rural areas of Botswana and reach the people of “forgotten Botswana.” When traveling to South Africa, so many people were shocked that we lived in Seronga the last two months, because even born and raised Botswanans would never go there. To even them, Seronga was unreachable.
And it made me think sometimes, “Did we really impact that village? Did we cause any real change with our time there? Did we really reach the people of Seronga?” But reaching the unreached can look different.
Now, this ministry doesn’t usually have teams come around November and December for a few reasons. 1) most villagers are on holiday and/or working in their fields 2) the rain season also limits the work DCM usually does. All and all, there isn’t a lot of space and time to evangelize. Still they welcomed us to their home and, as you know, we worked with the children and developed the island on the delta. My team and I loved it. We were happy to be there and serving alongside these women, but before, we honestly thought these two months would look different. We are in the middle of the bush of Africa, we should be preaching the good news, healing, sparking a fire in the lives of these village people, and really reaching the unreached. That’s not what happened.
Instead, we loved three women who were broken hearted. We sat in their yard and asked them about Christmas traditions from their childhood. We laughed and talked while doing dishes in the kitchen. We watched multiple animated movies, because they were Arista’s favorite. We ended every night singing worship in their living room, thanking God for another day we get to be alive and together. We looked through binoculars, bonding while trying to spot the black mamba from earlier. We sat at the long table in the backyard, eating the best food we’ve had on the race, made by Ma Willie. We spent Christmas eating dessert and salad, handing out our home-made gifts. We prayed for rain together and thanked God when it poured. We shared every night in bible study how the Lord was teaching us.
Yes, we taught bible stories to the children of Seronga, built meaningful relationships, played a million games of snake snake hippo, built a fence, planted trees, painted a bunch of buildings, and set up a vegetable tunnel. We did have ministry and it was meaningful. But when I look back on these last two months, three names immediately come to mind: Ma Willie, Arista, and Simone.
One of my team members, lillabea, shared her thoughts on the mission statement “To reach the unreached.” Our hosts were actually the unreached that we reached. We, as 12 girls from the united states, came to the middle of the bush of Africa, to reach the unreached woman of this family in a time of deep grieving. Women, who have devoted their lives to serve this remote village of Seronga. We got to spend holiday season with Ma Willie, Arista, and Simone while they felt the loss of loved ones. Over and over they commented on how grateful they were that we filled the house with chatter and laughter and how much joy it brought to spend time together, especially in the third month of grieving, which was the hardest when Arista’s twin passed away.
No, we didn’t reach all of Seronga, we didn’t see hundreds saved, we didn’t heal the sick or blind, but who am I to question the value of these two months? I am not going to tell God, “hey, it’s not worth living in the bush of Africa just to love these women. I think I could be used to do something more, something bigger. Don’t you know what I am capable of? In fact, God, I’m too big to do the small things you ask me.” Yikes. That was painful to type, but isn’t similar to how we sometimes think? God is so big and I am so small. He says go and do, I go and do. I know that God specifically wanted my team and I in Seronga Botswana just to love Ma Willie, Arista, and Simone and be near to the broken hearted. I will always treasure, treasure my time with those three women.
