Dumela! Time has flown! I am already 2 weeks deep into ministry here in Maun, Botswana. Maun is in the far Northwest region at the southern part of the delta and just west of the kalahari desert! As you can imagine it is hot! 110 during the day and in the 70s at night when we are in our tents (without the oven of a rainfly on). We have partnered along side the organization Love Botswana. They have a prominate church here in Maun, with an awesome wide range of programs to better their community through Christ! Programs like: Reach4life, women against abuse, orphange, private school, youth programs, media programs, and branch churchs further out in the bush. It is quite awesome to walk into a ministry that is so diverse in a country you would least expect it. But, that does not mean it has not come without its challenges. Though they have many programs, the workers are few, making it hard to communicate. At points throughout these past 2 weeks we have felt unproductive and under utilized with little ministry ops setup. It has caused me some frustration internally as the only reason I am here is to serve. However, it is good to come along side a ministry that is truly in need of some extra hands. Despite the enemy trying to hamper my attitude toward less ministry time and my own self perception of productivity, God has used us greatly. I have witnessed more people profess Christ and be saved than any other month on the race! Unbelievable, if you would have told me that month 1 I would have laughed you out the door! Just more and more evidence that God likes to work in mysterious ways!
Throughout the week Myles, Kevin, and I have been helping out at Bana Ba Lasati (literally, children of light). This is a place for the outcast, under educated kids to come after school and be thaught many life skills. A place to learn responsibility, discipline, to hangout, and recieve help with there homework. Honestly it wasn’t all that exciting, it is a secular organization and was in need of more hands, so They called the church and got us. So I felt naturally a little pawned off, esspecially when for the past 2 weeks I spent each morning rearranging their bookshelves. No kids were around until the afternoon, who was I able to minister to? I wasn’t evangelizing, I wasn’t preaching, I was stacking books in a room by myself. Talk about struggle bus. When the kids came after school, we helped with there homework and presented a Bible story each day, with little response I might add. With my attitude tanking and my frustrstion building, God humbled me and yet again taught me something. One afternoon I spoken on the wise & the foolish builder, figuring this would be applicable since these are high risk kids for drugs and alcohol. After challenging the kids with this story, our majorly Spirit lead (Botswana people are extremely spiritual) transaltor ask if anyone would like to receive Christ and build on a solid rock… These at risk, mostly unreceptive kids (21 of them) all came forward and accepted Christ into there lives! And to boot we began to see the staff walk around with Bibles and even had opportunities to pray over them too! They expressed so much encouragement and joy they said that came from us being there. Despite my poor attitude and monotonous duty to the books, God moved. And taught me to be responsible and diligent evem with the little things. I hope this speaks to you back home, I know I felt the daily routine of life wear on me then, but do not accept the fact that God still works through the daily grind to reach those He wants to gift with His love
! These past 2 weekends our team has spent out at the partner churchs further out in the bush! It is very much picture esc. African desert; smaller flat top trees scattered about and small straw hut homes way off the beaten path. In both villages ( Sethitwa & Gumare) we evangelized going hut to hut, spoke to the youth in the area, and had the opportunity to preach during the sunday service. Nearly each house we visited, people accept Jesus as their savior, and were able to explain to them what a relationship (not religous rituals) was all about! I know this blog is getting long, but bear with me as God did a lot! We evangelized to people who have only heard of Jesus, and never new Him personally. We talked with one women who only ever went to church and had no idea that you could be in relationship with Christ, as we led her through the salvation prayer, she came out and said that whatever illness she had been feeling right before we had come was gone! We spoke with a local witch doctor who took directions from a spirit in the mirror and attributed his work to Jesus. I was blessed to be able to rebuke that man of what he saw and teach him how The Holy Spirit works and moves, thay he will know when he has accepted the Lord and becomes filled with the One true Spirit of the Lord because he will not be able to hold such overwhelming joy back. He run throughout the streets profess Christ! We encounter demonic possession once again and wws able to speak life into this lady and freed here of the enemies shackles in Christs name! At a youth meeting one of the translators lead 15 or so teens to Christ after we shared what God had done in a few of our lives.
We meet a 103 year old women, she was blind and bed riden for a year due to muscle degradation. We came to pray over her and wildly she spoke so much truth and encouragement into our lives. We sang with her talked with her and prayed over her, even tried to get her up to walk. She wasn’t able to but I saw Jesus alive in that women, she had true joy all over her! That 103 year old lady from the bush God used to alter my attitude. I was in the gutters about ministry lacking, mad about not everyone carrying their own weight when it came to co-team duties. Yet, God did not leave me and let me fall to the way side, he spoke through this wonderful women to tell me “REJOICE!” “Rejoice always, no matter the circumstance, do not doubt me and believe that you can dictate when I can work and move through you and others! A powerful lesson that I have learned this month so far. I shall leave you with this Psalm that has been ever on my forehead during my time in Bots: Psalm 63:1-5
“God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands, I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”
Seriously, ask me about Botswana when I get back home, there is so many intricate things that God has done this month a blog can not contain it, though I did my best to concisely convey just what God is doing here! Love you all!
WR Fun Facts: – There are 2 million people in Bots, and 6 million cows… Beef is cheap! 🙂 – It has the most stable economy in Africa – There are no starving people here – Botswana natives receive free education through college!
