Botswana Day 9 & 10

The weekend has come to a close. Our direct ministry time has ended. It has been an incredible expereince. Our students showed great maturity, never complaining and always working hard till the day was done. We worked with a group of college students from America and our students benefited from their presence and mentorship.

Friday Colleen and I were invited to lunch with an old Indian muslim friend of mine. We played soccer together here in Lobatse 10 years ago. I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him before returning home in 2002 but hadnt heard anything from him. We had some spicy chicken curry and his whole family sat around the table with us. They are still devout muslims but I wanted to maintain that connection, hopefully one day he will email me with a searching question and I can direct him to the truth. His son, who is now 20, invited me to come out and play soccer with them Saturday.

Saturday we participated in setting up and running components of the Lobatse Baptist Church “Family Fun Day”. The students painted faces, helped with games, and made sure each child there was loved on. Several children from the local orphanage came by. Our students did an incredible job showing the love of God to these children. Saturday afternoon Alex White, one of the summer missionaries, and myself played soccer with a group of under 21 Indians, Pakistanis, Iranians, and Batswana. We had a great time and several of the older players remembered me. One in particular, Mogomutse, a Motswana guy, 23 years old, sought me out specifically. I felt like he had just found his lost brother, he was smiling as we spoke. He was just 15 when I left but he remembered me. I invited him to church and we headed home for an great Braai, or cook out.

Sunday morning I got to preach at Lobatse Baptist. God was good. I met a guy who was a student at one of the schools I led Bible studies in back when I was a Journeyman and now he is a church leader. Mogomutse showed up. He is not a believer but hopefully he will continute to attend and give his life to Jesus.

This trip has been intense for me personally. Several people I knew and worked with from 2000-2002 are now dead or have fallen away from the faith. My heart was so broken during our time. But God is good and seeing others who had been impacted by the work I did. He renewed my hope and reminded me that God continues working, even when we are not present. He will raise up new believers each day in all the world. It’s been a joy to see that happen this week.

Tomorrow we head off to Pilanesburg for a short stay at a game reserve. I plan on being amazed by, and a little intimidated by God’s creativity. We will not know if we will have internet until we are there. This may be our last post. If so, continue to pray for us as we see God appointments even as we relax a little. We return home early Thursday morning. Thank you for your continued prayer support.

Jeff

Botswana Day 8- Mary Beth Barham

Even though it was our last day in Jwaneng it gave me hope. The Lord has been softening the hearts of the people and I was able to witness first hand His amazing worl. When we arrived at our morning appointment, the girl, Godnelawang, came out with papers filled with questions. It was evident she had studied the Bible, and by God’s grace we were able to answer some of her questions and lead her to Jesus. She decided she was ready and willing to be born again, and for the first time in my life I was able to lead the sinners prayer for someone other than myself.

This afternoon brought even more joy. We had the opportunity to sit down and talk to a woman, Nono. She was already born again but had many questions and really had a heart for the lost. She was especially torn about Christians who only give part of their life. She said the devil never sleeps, he is alwys trying to pull us away from God, but we do not give the same attention to our faith. Just like the devil, our faith should never sleep. Honestly I think I have learned more from the people of Botswana than I have been able to teach them. After a bum-numbing ride back to Lobatse we went out to expereince restaurant life in Botswana. “The Braii Place”. The steak was delicious and we have conclusively decided that they have the best ice cream.

Its going to be hard leaving Botswana knowing that we will never see some of those people again. It was heartbreaking enough to say good bye to some of the children we had played and become friends with today. We have one last weekend of ministry, beginning with a “Family Fun Day” Saturday afternoon.

Mary Beth Barham

Day 7- Beth Johnson

Greetings from Lobatse!

The day started off with daily devotions and a beautiful african sunrise. We traveled to Jwaneng and walked around sharing the Gospel. I was in a group with Andrew (from Botswana), and Jamie Hoover. As Andrew was talking to a few boys at a local playground, Jamie and I went and talked to a girl named Dumala. After we introduced ourselves we got to talking about what it means to be saved and who Jesus is. She had not attended church and had lots of questions. Please pray for her that she opens her heart to what we had to say. It has been encouraging to share the Gospel out here, the people are friendly and receptive. Its a new experience for me to just walk up to a stranger and start sharing the word of God but they have made it so easy and I am enjoying it immensely. As we were heading back to Lobatse I was watching the beautiful landscape and I was reminded of how big God is and how infinite his power is. I pray that he will continue moving the people of Botswana. I believe he can do great things here. Pray for the team’s safety and focus. Much love from Botswana!

Beth

Botswana Day 6-Alex White

Today did not go as expected. That’s really been the story of our time in Africa so far, but this day was truly exceptional. For this past week, we have been working in a diamond mining town called Jwaneng. Our focus there has been on jump-starting a Baptist church one of the locals is hosting in their house. This means prayer walking, passing out tracts, and spreading the word about the church. Jwaneng is about two hours out from Lobatse, where we are staying. On a normal day, we would be awake and ready by eight in the morning, and piling into the truck or Combi by about eight fifteen. That would put us in Jwaneng before ten thirty. Today, though, we didn’t have access to the truck, and the Combi, while it can hold fifteen people, was not enough for our entire group to fit. To make up for the lack of space, two of the summer missionaries took Beth, Mary Beth, and me via a different route—the public bus system. Buses in Botswana are much like those in America, except that people here believe that there is always room for one more person—them. Once all the seats are filled, people just line the aisles, packed together like sardines in a tin, and we were going to ride it for almost two hours. My friend Brett and I had a plan for today’s work; throughout these last few days we’ve been making contact with a bunch of different people, and some of them had invited us over to do an introductory Bible study with them. We were going to get over there early and meet up with them before lunch. That didn’t happen. To make a long story short, God took over. The bus group arrived on time and in grand style, having never been as packed as expected, but the Combi, which was coming late today anyway, didn’t get there until almost one. Brett and I never made contact with the people we knew, but God continuously opened spontaneous witnessing opportunities to us. Instead of doing Bible study with the two men, we witnessed to a Combi driver who was idling in the lot, evangelized two construction workers who called us over out of curiosity, met a local born-again Christian who later joined us in our ministry, passed out tracts to a group of half-drunk Batswana, scheduled (and played) a soccer match with some of the town’s kids, prayer walked the neighborhood, met the house-church leader, got mobbed by a mass of drunken Batswana who were all promising to come to the service tonight, shook about a hundred hands, wore out our tongues saying “Dumela” to random people on the street, and finally conducted an intense Bible study with a family we met on Monday. God is great. Instead of allowing us to complete our perfectly reasonable but human plans, He substituted His own designs and did amazing things today. I guess the lesson is simply that:

⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
       neither are your ways my ways,”
       declares the LORD.

 ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
       so are my ways higher than your ways
       and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

 Anyway, know that we love and miss you all. Keep loving and honoring Jesus Christ, and, God willing, we’ll be home soon. God bless. -Alex

Botswana Day 5

Today is Tuesday, our second day of ministry in Jwaneng. We woke up around 6am so we could get a shower, have our devotional time, and breakfast before leaving for the 1 hour 45 minute drive to the village. We prayed before dividing in to groups, one from the Virginia team, one from Botswana, and one of the summer missionaries. I went with Charissa and Andrew. Andrew translated and spoke Setswana to those who didnt speak English (most do though). We walked and prayed for the willage and if we saw someone on the road or at their home we invited them to attend the local church and gave them a simple Gospel tract. We spoke with them for as long as we could, always ending by praying for them. Some people were even opne to doing a Bible study right then and there or they asked us to return later in the week to do one with theit household. We would share a Bible study from John 3, talking about what it means to be born again. After lunch Allison, one of the summer missionaries, met a girl named Zenet who was very interested in the word of God and scheduled a time for a Bible Study after lunch.

We ate meat pies from the local grocery store for lunch (they were delicious). When we came back to meet with Zenet she had a friend with her Tlalaletsang. Those two plus Andrew, Allison and I led them in a Bible study. After about an hour of talking about the wide and narrow paths and what it meant to be born again, both girls gave their lives to Christ! We have plans to meet with them tomorrow at the Bible study at the local church.

We also got to expereince more of Africa, we sang songs in Setswana in the van on the way home. We sang as we had to honk at cows trying to cross the road. Overall it was an amazing day, getting to watch God work in powerful ways. Thankfully I am starting to get accustomed to the time change. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue the work here. Keep checking this site for a new post every day.

Jamie Hoover

Botswana Day 4

Today we began our ministry in the town of Jwaneng. We are working alongside of several college summer missionaries and several Batswana from Lobatse, the “mother church”. We spent the day prayer walking, handing out tracts, and sharing the Gospel with those in the town. We split in to groups of 3 and canvased two different neighborhoods.

From the minute we landed in Botswana I have been incredibly impressed with our students. They have been very flexible, ready to do whatever God called them to do. They all have made a huge effort to learn the language and have each “mastered” several phrases in Setswana. The students actively seek out conversations with those here and have shown genuine interest and sensitivity to the people and culture of Botswana. I think each student is amazing. They put all of this in to practice as they walked through Jwaneng and went door to door. Some were invited in to homes and some helped teach impromtu Bible Studies. They made contacts and appointments to show the Jesus Film and prayed for and ministered to each home they visited. We had a great first day of ministry and look forward to all God is going to do tomorrow. Thank you for your continued prayers!

Colleen

Botswana Day 3- Joseph Sanford

For the next 6 days each student (and Colleen) will give a daily report based on their personal expereince. Rather than seeing this trip through just my eyes I thought it would be good to hear from others. So here is the first one!

Today I woke up with the overwhelming comprehension that I was waking up in Africa. It’s such a crazy feeling to sit outside in sweatpants and a heavy jacket for an hour-long quiet time on a continent you’ve never visited. We’re among such a great group of summer missionaries here; students who are crazy and love to have fun, but have an undeniably strong foundation in the faith we share. I can’t wait to get to know them better as we live together for the rest of our time here.

 Church this morning was simply an incredible experience. It’s amazing to realize that, on our separate continents and in our different languages, we were worshipping the same God at the same time. There was no elaborate music, just voices, which still created as incredible a sound as a full orchestra would. While not always on pitch, it was clear that the music was purely meant to praise God.

 After church, we dropped off some fresh meat to an old friend of Jeff’s, and attended a sort-of funeral wake. During the week-long wake, family and friends gather to support the grieving family. We were all surprised to find out that during the ceremonies, men and women are separated, due to a rural tradition. We were also impressed by the communal nature displayed, much unlike the stress we place on individuality in the United States.

 I know I speak for all of us when I say that I can’t wait to see what else we encounter during our stay here. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel throughout the region, and remember to come back to check our updates!

 Joseph Sanford

Botswana Pictures from Day 1 & 2

Botswana Day 1 and 2

We made it! We had a short delay at the Johannesburg airport but still arrived safely in Lobatse Friday evening. All of our luggage arrived, which is an act of God for sure! Today,the students slept in while Colleen and I went to the grocery store to get breakfast food and other food for meals and snacks for the next 10 days. This afternoon we will have an orientation meeting followed by a cookout with some impala and some warthog shiskabobs. Should be good!

Sunday we are going to church here in Lobatse and we will hot the ground running (with minsitry) on Monday. Keep checking this site for more updates and pictures. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!

Charleston Report

I thought I would write the story behind the pictures.

Sunday we led worship at James Island Baptist Church, had some beach time and participated in a prayer walk with Northridge Baptist Church. We prayed around the apartment complex in which we were to hold the Kids festival Monday, Tuesday and tomorrow (Thursday).

Monday students worked at a home clearing some serious weeds and brush and replacing a wall as well as doing work in the bathroom and with the electrical (no students were electrocuted!) Some other students handed out water in downtown folly beach. These water bottles had a small piece of paper taped on them with a scripture verse. Monday afternoon we began the first afternoon of teh Kids Festival at the apartment complex. Over 40 kids attended. This complex has had a problem with crime and the owners have resisted allowing Christian groups to do anything on site. We are the first group allowed to do such an event. It has been a real God appointed time. We finished our night with a swim party at a local church members home (Roger McGee’s former house)

Tuesday was more construction and yard work and more water bottle handing out. We also had the Kids Festival. Again we had around 40 kids show up. We have Bible lessons, rec time, craft time, and of course lots of balloon animals and face painting going on.

Today, Wednesday, we took some time to visit Fort Sumpter and walk around downtown Charleston. Tonight we led worship for Roger McGee’s former church, Ashley River Baptist. The students gave all they had and did a great job. Ask about the Wednesday night version of “Me without You”…you will laugh when you hear it!

Thursday we are going to be back working at a different home in similar projects and then we will finish our work up tomorrow evening with the last session of the Kids Festival followed by a free cook out for the kids and their families. The students will then give a shortened version of the program for those in attendance.

Friday we head home. I’ll post more info on what happens Thursday as well as some fun travel stories.

Have a great end of your week!