well, this was supposed to be posted last Friday, but my ten minutes of free wifi met its time limit and we only get wifi from the local post office once a week, so here we are. A week late!! If you’re missing context, scroll on back to “What’s up in Botswana Part One” and hopefully everything will make wonderful sense!
hoping you enjoy none the less<3
PART TWO:
Before I go on to tell you about this family and how we have been and will continue to partner with them in these next six or so weeks, I need to explain something.
Back in September, as our squad was in the Dominican Republic back on Hope Mountain (God bless that place!), Willie Booyse suddenly passed away. He had a heart attack. It was the day after his 25th wedding anniversary with Estelle. Willie was a man of God. For the past fourteen years he lead his family from their home in South Africa to Botswana because he believed that God was asking him to give up a secure job, work for Delta Cross Ministry, and tell people about love and hope and faith. Honestly I continue to be astounded by what God does within and through everyday, ordinary people. Not only did he pass away a couple months back, but Estelle’s father passed last year shortly after one of her daughters, Arista’s twin sister, passed of malaria complications. Three deaths in the past year and five months.
Tragedy after tragedy. Heart break after heart break. My heart aches as I’m typing.
Adventure in Missions made sure that this family, these three women- Ma Willie, Arista, and Simone- were mentally and spiritually healthy enough to take in our two teams of girls due to the devastation going on in their lives right now, but they were persistent in having us still. They were adamant that they host us no matter if the season they’re in right now is the mountain high or the valley low. They knew it’d be hard, but they knew it was what Willie wanted and they felt within them that it’s what God wanted as well. I stand amazed at these women.
This is something really beautiful that one of our leaders, Kate, emailed to the girls headed to work with DCM: “To bring comfort to those in need and laughter to those who haven’t had it in a while may not look extravagant every day, but the heavenly extravagance begs to be seen. To be the heart of the Father the body itself is a great and Godly gift to partake in.” Couldn’t of more eloquently written it if I tried.
That’s the thing about life. It’s hard. But, these women are clinging with white knuckles to grieving WITH God. They’re not alone. As sisters in Christ, we’ve come to simply be with them. To be. To be in the presence of our God. To mourn with those who mourn and share in joy when there is joy.
It’s a different mission than anything I’ve done on my World Race so far- in the Dominican we were in the community, praying and visiting and hosting a food and clothe pantry post hurricanes and logistically paving the way for their family to build a women’s and children’s home for those liberated from different forms of slavery to have a safe haven. In Haiti, our days were absolutely packed with preaching and teaching with little wild childs and the elderly and anyone and everyone in between. Here though, we rest together.
In our resting, this is what we’ve been up to:
Like I mentioned earlier, their ministry is called Delta Cross Ministry. Their heart is simple; it’s to “reach the unreached.” Seronga is in the rural most part of Botswana, meaning that people living here truly don’t know about God the way every single American does (what I mean by this is that even if you don’t believe in God, you’ve heard about the Bible or church or have some kind of familiarity with God; it’s not completely foreign- it’s at our fingertips). Their heart is in relational evangelism, meaning they believe firmly in talking about God and having bold conversations with people much like Paul speaks of in Colossians 4:2-6- freely proclaiming the gospel, yet always holding conversations evident with grace so that you may know how to answer everyone, “outsiders” included. But, they are not the type of ministry that goes door to door sharing about God without building a friendship first. Last week the twelve of us girls went to school in the mornings, learning how to evangelize through sincere relationships. Super cool. Super scriptural. Pumped for what’s to come!
In the afternoons we’ve been hanging out in a shady field with pale red sand as our floor. This is where one of the sisters, Arista, has been playing with the local kids and teaching them about God for the past couple of years four days a week with absolutely no gain but the joy and hope in raising the next generation of Botswana to know and love God and live their lives to the full. Since we’re here through all of December til early January, this past week I have written plays where we have been (quite elaborately) acting out the birth of Jesus so that the kids will know and understand why we celebrate Christmas. One of my favorite things in this world: entertaining people. Seeing 50something kids staring up at me, wide eyed, smiles on their faces, listening to stories and watching our every move has got to be one of the greatest things on earth. Again, super cool. I very much admire her devotion to the guppies around here. Really beautiful to be allowed into this alongside her.
In the evenings, the fifteen of us sit in the family’s living room and worship and do a bible study. We finished “Godly decision making” three nights back and now we’re looking into “forgiving like God forgives.” Wildly insightful. Lots of thoughts. I’m learning a lot here. I’ve grown a sense of appreciation for discernment over these past couple of months which has increased my desire to be a woman of healthy discipline. Because of this, I’m reading a lot here. It’s beautiful…exhilarating to think that I’m growing habits that’ll last me a lifetime, that’ll allow me to be the woman that not only I want to be, but that God wants me to be as well. Strange how fun Genesis is. Strange how fun Exodus is. Strange how badly I want wisdom.
Last Friday we woke up and measured eight hundred and twelve meters worth of a border around an island across the delta that they need a house and a garden on by 2018 or they’ll lose the land they were given as a gift from one of their neighbors that considered Willie a son. For the next two weeks we’ll be spending our mornings building an irrigation system for the garden we’ll be plowing and getting a huttie (hut like house) up and finishing fencing in this land so that they don’t lose it. Lots of work to be done!! Got calluses on my hands and sore muscles every night. Got scrapes up my arms and sun kissed skin. Rewarding. Empowering. They’re thinking and praying about using the land as a Sabbatical sort of retreat for pastors in Africa that need rest and refreshment and refocusing. We get to be a part of laying down the literal foundation for something that has the potential to be truly amazing. REAL COOL!
Thanksgiving in Seronga, Botswana (missed our families a little extra last thursday): we cooked and cooked and sat around a long table in the backyard of our ministry’s host home and we read a Psalm along with other verses of thankfulness and gratitude and we passed our homemade dishes and we ate and drank and each woman seated at the table said what they were thankful for and it was beautiful. The sun set on us, so we sat in the light of oil lamps with greenery and flowers delicately littering the table with music that sounded like family (I hope you somehow know what I mean by that). We shared reasons why we’re sincerely thankful. Not because life is easy, not because our blessings are so obvious and tangible that we can’t help but sit around and smile all of the time, but because of something strong within us- deep sorrow and loss and pain is all around us and within us- we’re seeing it and feeling it, yet we are blessed. We are blessed to simply be alive. We are blessed to sit at a table with a full plate set in front of us. We are blessed to be walking in freedom, hope, and joy that so simply sustains our entire existence.
We are blessed! Oh, we are profoundly blessed!
Additional note about Thanksgiving: we wrote and acted out an explanation of the history of thanksgiving because Estelle, Arista, and Simone are all South African and this was their first Thanksgiving. We’re the strangest. Once I get back to America I might as well get into last minute play writing and preforming because we’re all getting remarkably talented at it.
So.
This is where I’m at right now. I’m in Africa, trying my hardest to be good to this family, trying my hardest to make these days count- to seize my days that God is giving me, to grow in community and friendship with the eleven other girls here, to read and write and artistically express myself in new and exciting ways since I have ample time to do so. I’m figuring out what on earth prayer even is. I’m living and loving and learning.
And it is well.
Ah, and if you want a good laugh, here’s something I find real funny: set up a 20 day late happy birthday picnic on the delta on Wednesday night as the sun was setting. Super magical. It was for Carsen because her actual birthday fell on a travel day and due to changing time zones, her birthday was only 10 hours. Plus, everyone was delusionaly exhausted and gross and spread apart, so it was just the worst. She wasn’t celebrated well, she deserves to be, I wanted to redeem all that was the worst about November 9th!! It’s all set up. Simplistic, yet insanely picturesque. We were about to call for Ky to blindfold her and send her down to the delta…And then, a HIPPO decided to show up to the party a couple yards away from us. I’m not sure if you know this, but hippos are the leading cause of death in Africa. Ended up having to calmly pack up our cute happy birthday picnic and scoot it way on back into our property where we’re nicely protected by a barbed wire fence.
For anyone wanting to throw a picnic dinner party on a delta somewhere in Africa: scan premises for hippos first!
