Lesotho is a small country completely surrounded by South Africa in the mountains. June is winter down here in the southern hemisphere, and we are over 8,000 feet. This means cold. There is now snow on the mountains and each night we cuddle into our sleeping bags under blankets provided by the ministry. I am loving this month. So much of this reminds me of my childhood in Wyoming: mountains, thin air, warm days followed by cold nights, a gorgeous night sky, and horses.
Our ministry contact is Harvesters Hillock Bible Church in Mekhotlong. Pastor Obed and Pastor Tsepo have many ministries based from the church here in town including six planted churches. They have a prison ministry, a feeding ministry at the hospital for HIV patients, a women’s fellowship night, youth church, a primary school, and are currently building an orphanage. The pastors, their wives, and their staff are so on fire for God and loving. They have welcomed us with open arms, blessed us with friendship and encouragement, and energized us.
The exciting thing is that we are the first World Race squad to work in Lesotho and with this ministry. Our main ministry work is construction on the orphanage. We are digging, by hand, the foundation for a portion of it and filling in the floor of the portion that has walls. In three hour shifts, we carry dirt and rocks and shovel. It is hard work but we were in need of some manual labor after the bakeries of Vietnam and home cooking in Swaziland! The rest of our ministry is preaching and teaching. We have the opportunity to give testimonies or teachings at the prison, hospital, primary school, high school, women’s fellowship, and church on Sunday morning. This is the most we have preached and it has been so good to learn from each other and see how God is working or has worked in each other’s lives.
Entering Lesotho God asked me to surrender my independence and to have more honest communication. Then I had two encouraging conversations during Debrief. One of our alumni squad leaders said that ministry should be inside or outside. Inner ministry is our relationship with God. That is the priority. When that is aligned then we can properly do outer ministry which is everything else. When my relationship with Him is aligned properly I can hear His direction for outward ministry. The second conversation was with one of our raised up squad leaders. I told her that God was asking me to speak more in truth. She challenged me to go further, to be vulnerable with my team.
