“PULA
January 11, 2006
Greetings to you all from the rain soaked
country of Botswana Africa . One thing I can say for sure is when it
finally decides to rain here, you get a ton of it. So, to God be the glory. We finally have rain! (or as the locals call it “Pula
So, as most of you have wanted to hear how
my holidays went I guess this is my big chance to fill you in. Our last day of work at the Flying Mission
office was December 23rd then we had two weeks off to celebrate the
holidays. Actually, on the 23rd
I was invited to supper to meet our newest missionaries from the US Tennessee
So anyway, after my big dinner with the
Koens it was time to celebrate Christmas eve.
I did this by heading out to the village of Ramotswa (about 30 minutes south
of Gaborone Botswana
After a great day in the village it was
time to spend some time with fellow missionaries. On Christmas Day our “Member Care
Specialists” Steve and Pam Workman (a pastor and wife from Texas
I want to break away from Africa
for a moment to tell you a story about my Mom that I thought was so funny. Sorry Mom if this embarrasses you. I think it falls in the category of “cute”
more than embarrassing. Anyway, last
thanksgiving (Oct 2005) my family was invited to my aunt and uncles place for
thanksgiving dinner. Because there was a
large group of us we dished our food “buffet style”. One of my Aunts relatives was in front of me
and unfortunately was using a plastic plate to hold her enormous pile of
thanksgivings finest (turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc). Not only was she using a plastic plate but
she was also holding it by the edge because it was hot. I think we all know what happened next. Well, the tensile strength of the plate was
breached and all that glorious food came tumbling to the floor faster than you
can say, “NOOO!” As the mess was being
cleaned up my mother decided it was best to look at the good that came out of
this experience and said, “Well, at least no one was hurt.” Oh my.
I almost died laughing. I think
it was because of the fact that I have never heard of someone being injured by
there thanksgiving dinner. I’d
definitely have to rank that up as one of my favourite thanksgiving memories so
thanks Mom for the memory!
Anyway, I told you that so I could quote my
mother regarding the outcome of people eating my scalloped potatoes. “At least no one was hurt.”
So after cheating death Christmas day it
was time for round two. For Boxing Day I
was invited to “post-Christmas dinner” at Bryan Bryan
So, after a few days of eating it was time
to relax. I didn’t do much during the
last week of December. I went to a braai
(BBQ) my friend Baleseng held at her house in the village
of Gabane (about 10 mins outside Gaborone
When New Years Eve came I went to “the
mother ship”, Open Baptist Church Maruapula for a special New Years Eve
service. We sang and danced and prayed
our way into the New Year. It was a
great way to end the year. I don’t
remember ever being at church on New Years Eve in my life. I remember being with my church youth group
as a teenager, but I don’t ever remember being physically in a church building
to countdown the New Year. It was kind of
amusing though at the end of the service.
We had a guest speaker come and he was challenging the people with the
gospel. The plan was for him to stop
10mins before midnight , but
of course, because this is Africa , he went
late. Just as he was doing the “altar
call” part of the sermon, fireworks and firecrackers began to blow up all around
the church. Fireworks are HUGELY popular
here during the holidays. If its illegal
nobody appears to care because EVERYBODY seemed to be blowing up something on New
Years. Anyway, back to my story, OBC
shares the same property with…I guess what you would call a strip mall and is
usually crowded with people at night.
There is a bar just across from the church and it isn’t unusual for OBC
to have drunks show up at the church (a few showed up after our service
requesting songs). With this in mind AND
the fact that it was New Years Eve you can imagine the noise this poor pastor
was dealing with. The good part of this
story is there were 3 people who were able to block out the noise and gave
there lives to Christ. What a way to
start the New Year!
After celebrating the New Year at OBC I
headed straight home to get some sleep.
Why you ask? Well, I had
volunteered to give my testimony in church the next day so I had to be up early
and be ready to speak. Once again a
first time event for me, giving my testimony to an entire church! Well, actually it was only about 20 people
and about half of that was kids so it was a pretty small congregation. I was encouraged by some in the congregation
who said they really enjoyed my testimony.
I was just grateful they were all able to stay awake to hear it!
So, with the holidays finished it was back
to the “same-old same-old”. However,
this year appears to be quite different so far from last year. We have had a ton of rain lately (Praise
God). I heard as much as 8.5cm fell on
January 9th. As much of a
blessing the rain is for our dam it also came with a cost. BTV (Botswana Television), the local TV
station here reported that many cattle were struck by lightning during the
storm and that there was a lot of flooding throughout south eastern Botswana
The house I’m staying at right now is owned
by the director of our Aviation
School
I left the house about 8AM for work and returned about 5:30PM . This was the day of the big storm as well so
when you picture this story in your head remember that its absolutely pouring
outside. Ok, so I get home and all I see
are 2 dogs, Honey and Jake. Where’s
Kiwi? I start calling her from the house
and nothing happens. So out into the
rain I go looking for an old dog. I
finally find her laying under a tree soaked to the bone. To tell you the honest truth when I first saw
her I thought she was dead. When I began
to walk closer I could see that she was breathing which was a welcome
relief. I walked right up to the tree
and called her. Nothing. I tried helping her up but she was completely
limp. I decided at this point it was
time for the vet to take a look at her.
Luckily, because of the rain, I had borrowed a Flying Mission
vehicle. Could you imagine me having to
strap a half dead dog to my motorcycle?
Anyway, I got some towels and covered the back seat of the car, then
began the task of picking up a soaking wet 10 year old German Shepherd. GOOD TIMES.
Have you ever smelt a soaking wet dog?
Nasty! Anyway, so off we go to
the vet. When I get there I open up the
back of the car, pick up Kiwi and start heading towards the clinic. Ok, this is where the story gets a bit
graphic. If your easily grossed out you
may want to skip to the prayer requests.
Ok, for those who are still with me as I was carrying the dog it decided
it was time to have some diarrhea.
Luckily, because of the way I was carrying her none of it got on
me. I was just glad she waited until she
was out of the car! Anyway, I get her
into the vet clinic and the vet checks her out.
He tells me that she looked dehydrated and would keep her overnight to
assess any other problems there might be with her. I told her that she had diarrhea on the way
in and the first thing he asks me is, “What color was it?” Uh, I kind of paused for a moment and decided
it wasn’t a time for jokes. “I didn’t
look”, was all I said. Since nobody had
been with her all day it was possible that she could have been sick all day, thus
causing the dehydration. Anyway, the vet
said they would do what they could and to call him in the morning. I called the vet the next morning and he told
me the news that Kiwi had died during the night. Apparently they gave her an IV and she was
beginning to brighten but she was throwing up and having diarrhea a lot and it
was just too much for her body to handle.
The next sentence he said to me I felt was quite cold (no pun
intended). “She’s in the cooler now what
do you want us to do with her?” I had no
idea what the owners would want done with their dead dog. Well, I did some phoning around and it was
decided to let the vet clinic dispose of the body. You can never be to sure these days. Some families have accepted their dogs as
“one of them” and would perhaps hold a funeral for a dog. After e-mailing the owners and getting their reply I realized that this family is not “one of those”. Basically they said that they weren’t
surprised because of her age and just said thanks for dealing with it.
So the question you have to ask yourself
after something like that is, “Why me God?”
After thinking about it for a bit I felt that maybe it was for the best
that it happened to me. Had one of the
Baerg kids come across their half dead dog it may have frightened them. Maybe it was best that it was me who found
her. I think their one daughter was
quite close to the dog so having her not be around to witness the demise of her
dog was easy to understand. An
interesting thing about this story is that while I was at the vet clinic a
friend of mine text messaged me to see how I was doing. I told him the story about the dog and she
replied back, “Did you pray for the dog?”
The statement caught me by surprise.
How do you pray for a dog? Well,
when I got home I figured I’d give it a try.
I prayed that if God decided to allow Kiwi to die that she would not
suffer long, that he would take her quick.
I also prayed that if she lived that she would be as the Baerg kids
remember her. I felt it might be
traumatic for the kids if they come back and there dog is now a vegetable. In the end I think it has all turned out for
the best, thank the Lord. Now all I have
to do is get the smell of wet dog out of the back seat!
Ok, well this letter has definitely gone
long AGAIN. However, before I go its
that time again for a few prayer requests.
Here they are in random order:
1)
Please continue to pray for rain.
We’ve had a few good days which has been great but we could still use
more before the dry season starts.
2) Please
pray for the Baerg kids who may be mourning the loss of their dog.
3)
Please pray for my church OBC G-West.
We have an executive meeting tonight and there is still much to discuss.
4)
Please pray for my boss Richard Wheatley
who is presently in Zambia
Thank you again for all your prayer and
financial support. It definitely makes a
difference. I’ve realized that there is
nothing worth NOT praying for. Even a
dying dog can be prayed for! Don’t make
the mistake of thinking God won’t care.
Anyway, before I break into a sermon I’ll bid you all farewell. God bless and Happy New Year!
Peace and prayers,
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