Botswana Bulletin – Seventeenth Edition

Botswana Bulletin – Seventeenth Edition

“Good news, bad news”

April 5, 2006

Greetings to all from the lush and fertile desert of Gaborone, Botswana!  Ok, lets start off with some good news.  The rain here has been crazy the past few months!  The local city dam is nearly 80% full.  Every other dam in Botswana is 100% full.  We have in deed been blessed with rain.  I’ve been asking some of the local people if they could remember a year where we received this much rain and nobody could.  The secretary in our town office told me she has never seen rain like this and she is 30 years old.  Decades have past without rains such as this.  God has truly answered the prayers of his people in abundance.

The rains have brought an unexpected site to the usually dusty looking landscape.  Grass taller than 6 feet is shooting up all over the place.  For a desert it sure is green!  The bonus that the rains also bring is farm productions.  There is now plenty of maize (corn) to go around.  Small shacks have been popping up all over selling corn on the cob.  The cows and goats you see around town are actually beginning to look like they’ve eaten recently.  In a very practical way, the rains have brought life to the desert.

Speaking of life, I have some more good news.  My sister Lori gave birth to a baby boy (Caleb) on March 5^th! (I think it was the 5^th, the time change messes me up)  So I am now the proud owner of a nephew!  Not that I would have been disappointed if it were a niece, but I’m glad she had a boy.  I’m not looking forward to the day when I have to walk down the girls aisle in a toy store.  Hopefully I’ll be married by then and my wife can have that privilege.  It was disappointing being away for the birth of my sisters first child but once again the wonder of the internet has helped “bridge the gap”.  My mother put some pictures of the little guy on the internet so I could see him at the hospital.  It isn’t quite the same as being there but it was great to be able to see him.

So that’s the good news, now for the bad news.  The day before Caleb was born I made an announcement to the youth of Open Baptist Church G-West.  After lots of prayer and consideration I decided to step down as leader to the youth at the church.  Unfortunately, the time I was putting in to plan and lead the group was just becoming too much and burn out was becoming an issue.  Not only that, but date clashes were beginning to occur.  As most of you know I am also involved as a drummer in a worship band called “Audience Of One”.  Most of our worship events have been occurring on Saturdays thus double booking me on those days.  3 out of the 4 Saturdays this month the band was playing.  So, because of these date clashes and feelings of burnout, something had to give. 

Thankfully, the youth have not been left stranded.  My faithful and also overworked friend and brother, Andy Moyo, is now leading the youth group.  As good a job as he does, this is still not an acceptable resolution.  Andy is a very busy man and we are praying that someone in the congregation would reach out with their heart and accept the challenge of leading these youth.  Please keep this in your prayers as I consider it quite an urgent need.

Upon stepping down from the youth another transition was set into motion.  This is unfortunately more bad news.  On March 8^th the leadership of Open Baptist Church G-West met and discussed issues within the church.  As the meeting was coming to end we came to the agenda item that was simply titled “Graham”.  I felt I knew what was coming.  I discussed with the leadership the reason for leaving and all those in the leadership, although disappointed, were in agreement with my decision.  However, because my place in the leadership team was wrapped together with me leading the youth group the reason for me being on the leadership committee began to be in question.  Upon some further discussion it was decided that I would no longer be required at the leadership meetings. 

I’ll admit it was a bit disappointing.  I was enjoying being on the leadership team but felt that maybe it was good to have a break from leadership for the moment.  Like I mentioned before, the feeling of burnout was beginning to creep up on me.  Good grief, I still have 8 months to go in my term!  I can’t burn out now!  So for now I am only involved on the worship team at the church and I’ve been happy with how things have been going so far. 

I have been reading a book my sister gave me called “Waking The Dead” by John Eldredge.  In it he talks a lot about guarding your heart (Proverbs 4:23).  In it he talks about how we should be more like reservoirs instead of canals.  Canals are only useful if there is rain.  Without rain the canals simply dry up.  Reservoirs give out of abundance.  Reservoirs have a vast and deep reserve and when the rains come, the reservoir floods over because of the overabundance of water.  It’s such a perfect picture of what Jesus talks about in John 7:37-38.  When we come to God and fill ourselves from his spring what we receive overspills from us to others around us.  To make a long story short, my stream was feeling very dry.  Being freed up from some of my responsibilities I am hoping to spend more time in God’s word in an attempt to fill those “streams of living water”.  Hopefully by doing that the effect of my ministry will be less about me and more about what God is doing through me.

Okay, back to the good news.  On March 11^th Audience Of One had the privilege to join with YFC (Youth For Christ) to lead worship at a youth rally it was having in Mochudi (a village about 45mins north east of Gaborone).  The event was designed to help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among the youth of this village.  As we got up and began playing our first song I was literally blown away by the enthusiasm of this small group.  There were only about 100 youth at the event but it was easily one of the loudest groups I’ve ever played in front of.  We had a sound system amplifying our every sound but these 100 or so kids were way louder than anything we could produce.  It was awesome!  After we played a few songs some HIV+ youth stood up and gave there testimonies.  One had actually gone from being HIV+ to HIV-.  It was cool to hear how the people had found hope and even healing through their faith in God.  I think the night had a real impact and I was glad to be a part of it.  The week after, we did the same YFC event except at a secondary school in Gaborone.  Surprisingly, there were less people but I feel the event was still a great outreach to the youth of Botswana.

On March 24^th we had a really special event at Open Baptist Church G-West.  The leadership in our church had the idea to have a “Block Party”.  A team from Huntsville, Alabama called the “Time Team” had come to Botswana to perform a puppet show/drama event that reveals the gospel in a very unique way.  Somehow our pastor got in contact with this American team and invited them to perform at our block party.  Audience of One was asked to play to provide an element of worship to the evening.  As well our church purchased 500 hot dogs to attempt to feed anyone and everyone who participated.  It ended up being a HUGE success.  It was very difficult to get an exact number of how many people were there but we have guessed anywhere from 600-800 people showed up at our church.  This is a church of 100 people!  Obviously it was an outdoor event and thankfully God turned off the tap for a few hours and we were blessed with perfect weather.  It was awesome to see the response of the crowd to the Time Team.  It was guessed around 40 or so people gave their lives to Christ that night.  I hope that another one of these events will be planned in the future.  Maybe a drama team from Canada could come?  Just an idea.  ;-)

Ok, back to some bad news.  I had to say good-bye to some great friends last weekend who were leaving to go back home to Tennessee.  Peter and Carrie Koens had come to work briefly with the Flying Mission while some key people were out of the country.  It is rumoured that they are planning to return to Flying Mission later to work up at our Zambian base.  Perhaps then this wasn’t good-bye but, see you later.  Lets pray that the Koens will be back with Flying Mission soon. 

Ok, well I guess that’s it for now.  Hmm, is that good news or bad news?  J  I’ll let you decide!  However, before I go I would appreciate you remembering a few requests during your prayer time.  Here is the list I’ve compiled this month:

1)  My mother – She was able to have surgery on her pacemaker but had to be put on IV to thin her blood.  The IV has left a lot of bruising and thus a lot of pain.  Pray for her recovery and that the pain would subside. 

2)  My Sister – My sister had a healthy baby boy.  Please pray for my sisters transition into motherhood that it would be a smooth process

3)  Youth Group – Please pray for someone in our congregation to replace Andy.  Andy is doing a wonderful job but is severely overworked.

4)  Church Leadership – Please pray for our leadership that they would continue to make wise decisions and give the church the vision and mission it needs.

5)  My Future – Please pray for me as I am still considering what to do at the end of this year. 

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><