Botswana Bulletin – Thirty First Edition

Botswana Bulletin – Thirty First Edition

“The Car Epic Returns?”

Greetings one and all from beautiful Gaborone, Botswana!  It has been a busy time lately so I will first apologize for my lack of correspondence.  However, I know for some of you it takes 1 or 2 months to read my updates so perhaps this is coming in right on time.  J  Whether it is on time or not, it is good to be writing to you all again and taking time to go over the past to see how God has worked.  So with that in mind lets get right to it shall we. 

Last time I wrote to you I mentioned the problem with power outages here in Botswana.  For some reason the problem appears to be going away.  Information on why there has been a change is difficult to come by but it is definitely a welcome change.  It is now more of an annoyance than an actual concern which is good.  I guess this means we don’t have to trade in our electric stove for a gas one!

In February Open Baptist Church G-West (the church I attend) had a baptismal service.  There were quite a number of people who were baptised which was encouraging to see.  We have a discipleship class after church that has seen a lot of fruit in the past months.  A number from that class were baptised at the service.  There is another baptismal service tomorrow so it will be interesting to see who all is involved in it this time.  The church does not have a baptismal tank so we have been meeting at peoples houses who have swimming pools.  Last time we baptised someone in his own pool!  You can’t make this stuff up!  We are having another baptismal service tomorrow at our pastors house.  Perhaps this is a good reason to have a pool!  You never know when you may need to baptize someone!

I’ve been really enjoying Setswana lessons lately.  We have a good group of students and our teachers Tina Kort (Initial Ministry Coordinator) and Lilian Moyo (Administrative Secretary) make each lesson fun to learn (although frustrating at times).  I am realizing more and more the truth in the saying “the more you learn the less you know”.  The depth of this language is both beautiful and intimidating.  We are on a bit of a break from lessons right now but I’m hoping in May to continue in developing my Setswana language skills.  I hope to one day be fluent enough that I’ll be able to carry on long conversations with my Batswana friends.  Perhaps I’ll even be asked to preach!  Well, one step at a time.

In February we had an important “Organizational Assessment” meeting to discuss where Flying Mission is now and what changes (if any) we need to make to continue to develop and grow in our effectiveness.  As a result of the meeting there will be some organizational changes that will have to be made which we will be finding out more about later.  Please pray for the leadership of Flying Mission as they discuss and implement these necessary changes and for the current missionaries in Flying Mission that the changes would help and not hinder them in their ministries.

As usual there have been some comings and going here at the Flying Mission.  I’ll start with some new arrivals.  We had yet another Canadian (from Alberta no less) join Flying Mission lately by the name of Ryan Cole.  He is a pilot and will be working…well obviously for our aviation department FMS (Flying Mission Services).  We had another pilot arrive with his family from the USA (from Illinois I believe).  Bryan and Amy Lindner with their son Elijah were welcomed into the Flying Mission family last month.  It’s always encouraging to see the Lord send new and unique people here to Botswana to help in the ministry. 

We also had to see a few people off.  My boss, Richard Wheatley, departed for Zambia a few weeks ago.  Our HR Manager, Diane Vos, also left firstly to go home to South Africa for furlough but afterwards will then be residing in Zambia doing Human Resource work up there.  We are sad to see them go but happy that they will be staying within the Flying Mission family and helping our operations up there.

Last week was an exciting time for me and the worship band I’m a part of called “Audience Of One”.  OBC G-West requested a “benefit concert” be done to raise money for a youth camp they were planning this month.  There were quite a number of youth who couldn’t afford to pay for the trip so the concert was planned to help raise additional funds.  The concert ended up being a big success!  About P2000 (about $340 CDN) was raised which enabled our church to send 34 kids to youth camp this week.  Praise the Lord!  It was so awesome to be a part of something like that.  I’m trusting that the kids will have a great time and grow closer to God during their trip.

Speaking of trips, me and several of our short-termers headed out to an area just outside of Gaborone called “Mokolodi” for our own camping trip.  It was so awesome going out camping and leaving the to do list and cell phones behind.  We did a lot of relaxing and got a chance to see quite a bit of the wildlife in the area as well.  We even had a Warthog family come and visit our camp on a daily basis!  Although it only lasted a few days it was great to get out of the regular work routine and just enjoy God’s creation.  And not too mention some good food!  (at least on the days I wasn’t cooking!)

As I mentioned in my last letter I decided to step down from playing the drums at church so I could help out with our powerpoint ministry.  I believe I also told you about Andrew Shaw who had volunteered to help me.  Well, after a few weeks of training I let Andrew take the reigns to see how well he could handle the job.  As I figured, he did a great job which has been a real blessing for me.  In fact he has been so helpful I’ve even had a few chances to play the drums again!  Andrew is currently on vacation right now so I’m currently back in the drivers seat doing powerpoint.  I’m just glad I have someone to share the ministry with now.  So thank you for praying for Andrew.  He has been a great help!

Here is some cutting edge news I just found out about on Thursday.  Unfortunately it’s bad news, but news nonetheless.  It appears the car epic has returned!  On Thursday afternoon a letter arrived for me from the Botswana Insurance Company.  When I opened it and read it I couldn’t believe what I saw.  The letter was from the insurance company of the gentleman I had my car accident with back in October (over 5 months ago!).  They want me to pay the damages sustained to his car.  This was something I was afraid was going to happen.  The damage quoted in the letter is P28,000 (approximately $4700 CDN).  There is however a bright side to this story.  Since my insurance company insured me for the damage to my car I’m assuming they knew there was a possibility they would need to pay for the other car in the accident as well (the police report stated I was blamed for the accident).  So, my guess is my insurance company will cover this cost and the problem will be solved.  However, things don’t always happen the way we think.  For those who aren’t tired of praying for my car problems, please take some time to once again pray for what will hopefully be the last chapter of my car epic.  I plan to talk to my insurance company next week.

With the bad news aside it’s now time to share some good news.  My mother, father and brother have booked airline tickets to come and visit me in September!  This will be the first time I will be in another country with my family!  Well, actually, when I was 1 year old I went to Venezuela with my family but since I have no memory of that trip I’ll consider this the first.  J  Anyway, it will be great to show my family the country I’ve spent the last 2.5 years in.  For those who know my family, unfortunately my sister will not be able to come.  She is due to have her second child around the end of August so she’ll be nursing a new born at the time.  She’ll just have to arrange a trip with her family another time.  Right sis?  J 

Before I close I’d like to share a story on what I’d call “the lighter side of life”.  For those who are bothered by public breastfeeding you may not want to read this paragraph.  I once again had the pleasure of witnessing an African woman publicly breast feed her child.  I was guessing that I’d be exposed to this again, I just never imagined it would be in my own house!  We invited our neighbours for breakfast today and as we were talking their baby decided she wanted some breakfast as well, so, out it came.  My first instinct was to look away but when you’re having a conversation it feels even more awkward to never look at the person you’re talking to.  For those who wish to come to Africa, this is something you just have to get used to.  I’ll admit I still feel awkward talking to a woman who is exposing herself to me but it’s interesting how the person I feel should be embarrassed isn’t at all.  At least this time she didn’t ask me to take a picture!  People like to tell me that it’s just a natural part of life and I should accept it as that.  Well, in that case, the next time it happens to me I'm just gonna burp really loud.  Isn’t burping a natural part of life?  J

So, on that lovely note I think its time to close.  Hopefully I didn’t scare you all away!  J  Anyway, I just want to take time to thank you all for the different ways in which you encourage me.  Whether it be through prayer, sending me a quick note or helping me with my finances, it all brings joy to me and I’m sure to our heavenly Father as well.  Thank you for your investment in my life and for your interest in my ministry here to the people of Botswana.  As usual I will leave you with a few prayer requests.  Here they are in random order:

1)     Church growth – please pray for Open Baptist Church as it continues to grow and reach out into the community.  Praise for the baptisms that took place in February and for those that will take place tomorrow.  Pray for the leadership of the church as we will be saying good-bye to our pastor in July.

2)     Setswana Lessons – pray for me as I continue to learn Setswana.  I would like to one day become fluent in this language but it is taking time.  Pray for patience.

3)     Organizational changes – pray for the organizational changes that will be occurring in Flying Mission in the future.  Pray that the missionaries will accept and embrace these changes.

4)     Continuing car epic – please pray that my insurance company would cover the cost of the damage done to the car I was in an accident with in October.

Once again thank you so much for the different ways in which you support me and my ministry.  God bless you all!

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><