laughing kids and testimonies!

January 28th

My roomate Ruth and I! Quite the pair - we can't cook and we can't sing, but we have a blast trying to do both!

So funny story: Ruth and I have been running in the morning, but yesterday we got a late start and so it was the same time as the children are walking to school. I had no idea what a show we were about to put on! Nearly every group of kids we past laughed out loud at us! It was hilarious! Some of them stopped walking, starred and then burst out laughing! I guess they do not see too many white girls running! As soon as we would calm down and stop laughing from the last group of kids, another group would come and start it all over again! It was so cute to hear their little laughs as we ran along. I have never laughed that hard while running before!

It is quite strange weather for Africa lately. Rain, and a lot of it! It is very obvious that people are not used to having rain because it doesn’t even have to pour hard before nearly every car has their 4 way flashers on and several cars are pulled off to the side! Heaven help these people if they ever had to encounter a Michigan blizzard!

These week is orientation at Flying Mission. All the new short and long term volunteers are being trained together. All together there are seven of us. Three new pilots, two pilot's wives, Sam who is a general short termer, and me! They are a fun group and I enjoy hearing their testimonies. Yesterday during orientation I heard some AMAZING testimonies of the Botswana employees at FM. I wish I taped it because there is no way I could convey to you with words what Lillian expressed with her smile as she told her salvation story. I'll give you a sum up: Here dad was a witch doctor ad their family held traditional practices of protection for the family cutting on the arms, neck and several other places. There were two Christian families in their village who were continually mocked for their faith and for simply being different, but Lilian thought they were brilliant, beautiful and to her these people "just shined." There was something in them that she wanted. "They just were shining so bright" (at this point Lilian's eyes and bright smile were radiating in the orientation room!) She snuck out of her house one night to go to a Christian service and accepted Christ while she was there. She went home and for the first time all the chaos of life, busy thoughts, and fears were gone - everything was different - she felt a peace. She says what had made the biggest impact on people is watching the way Christians live out their lives. This has transformed her family and Botswana.

John Lupe who is the founder of FM also told us some of his life story including the beginnings of FM! He left us with some inspiring advise taken from Exodus 4 when God was speaking to Moses about the giant plans that awaited him in freeing His people from Pharaoh. "Moses answered. "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, "The Lord did not appear to you?" Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" John asked us the same question. "What is in your hand?" I just love that because It doesn't matter what it is…all Moses had was a stick and God used that to free a nation from slavery! Whatever gifts, abilities, talents, whatever you have - if it is surrendered to God, He can use it!

orphans from Onaladi mealsite

posers! they were all about the camera!

Onaladi village

January 25, 2009
Well I have now been in Africa 1 week! God has already been stretching, teaching and growing.
Today, I went with the other short termers (Ruth, Sam, Yohannes, and Philipus) to Onaladi, the poorest part of Gaborone. There we helped serve a meal at a meal site and then got to hang out with the precious kids for awhile. One look at these dear dear children and they have your heart for good. These kids were a little different than the others I had met so far, at the school we visited. The orphans at Onalady have been taught or have learned on their own how to survive. I could not finish my portion of lunch so I gave my plate to one of the girls, before she could sit down she was pushed this way and that while the other little ones were trying to rip the plate from her and grabbing handfuls of rice off the plate. They were very kind to me, but not so much to each other. One darling little girl came and sat down by my feet, she pointed at a few sores I had on my ankles as she looked up at me and I smiled and made a cringing face. That sweet heart then traced her finger around my foot and blew on my sores. This girl is an orphan, she comes to the meal site so that maybe she can get at least one meal a day, and she is blowing on my rich feet! I learned more from her in that 2 minutes than the pastor I listened to today for 3 hours!
On our way out, one of the guys friends named Lami gave us a tour of the village. Right after he finished explaining how Onaladi is a very unsafe neighborhood, there is quite a lot of violence and frequent robberies happen because the people there have nothing really to loose, and they are often hungry…our car broke down! It was quite humorous to me, but I held in my laugh for the sake of those around me. I was a little skittish about getting out of the car at first, but we were not stranded more than 5 minutes before the first little girl came to us. She came back later with a few more friends and before I knew it I was surrounded by about 20-25 little ones! So while the guys worked on the car, Ruth and I had a blast chillen with the kiddies. We sang songs, and I got some free Setswana lessons! They showed us their fruit that grows on most of the trees in their village called Malapo (its what they eat to survive sometimes) it was like a sour grape with a thick peeling, and for some reason they got such a kick out of me trying to eat it! It was a blast! Oh yeah the girls love to touch white people hair so as soon as i sat down they had my hair out of the pony tail and were running thier fingers through! i ended up with a bunch of small braids...it was cool!
Yesterday, in my devotions I read 2 Corinthians 13 about Paul’s thorn. Paul cried out for God to take his thorn away three times, and for some reason God decided to not remove it. I often pray for my small thorns to be removed. Example: God please take my stomach ache away, God will you please help my face stop growing pimples. But God gives us thorns for a reason and His grace is sufficient. I often need to remind myself that I am not here to be happy I am here to know God more so I can worship Him more thoroughly. I am here to glorify Him, to bring Glory to His name. Nothing in our life is insignificant. Everything that happens is an opportunity for character development, to love more deeply, to depend more on God.
P.S I share a room with a lizard…I’ve named him Golegonnye (that means ‘little bit’ in Setswana) we get a long quite well J

all the kids LOVE to get thier picture taken!

social work and school visit

Today is the 22nd incase this blog gets confusing.


I have already had a tour of Botswana, visited a nearby village, worked with children after school, made 3 house visits with Roberta and had a meeting with Baylor Clinique staff. Yesterday, I had an awesome meeting with Roberta my supervisor, the psychologist Linsday and the social worker Bachani at Baylor Clinique. They are all phenomenal people who share my passion for people and I am so excited to be able to work with them. Lindsay and Bachani had so many ideas of how to use me and I was excited by every possibility. Evidently they are in dire need of extra hands. So it looks as though I will be spending the majority of my hours working with the Clinique. Bachani has had social work interns many times before so she has a good plan for me. They are interested in getting me trained quickly so I can begin to take my own cases as soon as possible! I will first have to be trained in HIV/AIDS care as nearly every client at Baylor is HIV positive. Some other possibilities mentioned at the meeting were:
- Working with the teens program/support group
- Job shadowing other social workers in the area (Backani’s contacts)
- Assisting Lindsay with extra house visits to inform her on what is happening at the home of clients
- Assisting in training for caregivers of HIV positive patients
- Organizing a survey to put numbers to the cause of virus
Yesterday, after the meeting Roberta and I went back to the FM office. There I met up with the rest of the short termers (Ruth and the 3 guys from Germany) and headed out to the school in Pakgalani. At Pakgalani we put on a program of singing, told a Bible story, played some games and then just talked with them. Many are starved for attention so as soon as we arrived we were ambushed by a mob of smiling children each telling me about their day in Setswana all at one time. It was hilarious all I could do was laugh when they pulled me to the ground so that some could sit on my lap! It was cool to watch how the older children watched out for the younger. At one point two girls were each holding onto one of my arms and sharing quite nicely until a third girl came in and pushed one out of the way so that she could take my hand. Before I could say anything an older girl came in, took the third girl gently away and put the other two girls hands back on my arms – it was so cute! When the third girl came back she kept eye contact with me as she took hold of a part of my arm that was free. They helped me with Setswana and had fun laughing when I said it wrong. It was great fun and I can’t wait for next time!

Dumela Africa

January 19, 2009

Dumela! Well…I’m in Africa! And loving it so far! God was definitely with me on my way here. I could really sense His presence with on my flights it was really a sweet time. And my creative God found a way to let me meet some other missionaries with Flying Mission on my way! It was perfect timing too. Right when it started to hit me that I would probably need to stay awake for the next 8 hours (10pm – 6am) so that no one would steal my luggage, I found the sweetest old couple to hang out with, who spoke English and ended up being with the same organization! We had a lot of fun talking about where they had been and what I was about to do, and when I needed to sleep I felt totally safe! God is so good!
It was kind of crazy not having a clue as to who would be picking me up from the airport, but my people found me right away I didn’t even have to look. (It helped that they were the only white people thereJ) Side note: There are sirens going off right now which means that someone’s house in our neighborhood got broke into.
Anyways a lady named Tina and my new roommate Ruth brought me to my new house which is very quaint. I quite love it. I will show pictures once I am able to. Sidenote: I am now the only American short termer so that may be why I am speaking British like J
Something different besides being the minority and not understanding the language spoken around me is having to unlock a series of 5 doors before entering my room! I have never been good at using keys so this process could take up to 15 minutes. We have an outside gate, inside gate, alarm key, front door, and my bedroom door! But I guess it is quite necessary, I talked to a man at the office today named Emanuel who had a swollen face because he had gotten robbed last week and his bedroom door was unlocked so they got ahold of him too.
Gaborone, Botswana is actually a very westernized part of Africa. Because of the income that the diamonds bring in, it is extremely wealthy compared to other parts in Africa and other parts in Botswana as well. Tomorrow however I will visit a not so wealthy part of Botswana, a village called Otsile.
I have been fairly busy since I have arrived. Getting tours of the city and local restaurants. One day we ate a place called Lady M. I was so excited to go because I had heard a few different people mention it and how good it was. I was surprised to find Lady M was a small red trailer parked along side the road. But they were right, it was delicious. We had chicken, pop (it’s a type of corn), beats, and coleslaw! I guess it must be unusual for white people to eat there because nearly everyone stopped to stare!
I am so grateful to be here, to be meeting these new people, and have this opportunity to learn. However, I must admit I am disappointed. I was excited about being stretched out of my comfort zone, however I am extremely comfortable and have been ever since I’ve left Grand Rapids. Is being uncomfortable impossible when God is with you? I did not think it was. Maybe I am wrong.
This is my newest memory verse and I love it:
Colossians 1:16 “For all things were created by God, visible and invisible, whether in heaven or on earth, whether thrones, powers, rulers, authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him.”
I love it because it reminds me of my purpose. I was created by God, for God. That is why I am here. This is encouraging for me in this situation that is new and I am not sure of much of anything around me, I can always be sure of this. God made me, God loves me, and I am here to glorify Him.

2 years down...2days to go!

I've been waiting to go to Africa for about 2 years now and in 2 days...I'M GOING!!! I will be taking off from the Grand Rapids airport at 5:20pm Wednesday! I've got one and a half suitcases packed and I am oozing excitement from my pores! I'm not really nervus or scared - which maybe I should be, but because I am confident that this is where God wants me to be, all I can be is excited!!!

I read this verse today and it was encouraging for me so I thought it may be for you also. 1 Corinthians 15:58 "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain"

I don't know about you, but that just puts my mind at ease - knowing that it doesn't matter if what I do for God totally fails. If I am doing it for Him - it is never in vain! Thank you Jesus!