Botswana Bulletin – Thirty Second Edition
“Don’t Visit At Night!”
June 16, 2008
Greetings one and all from an increasingly
cooler Gaborone, Botswana! Yes, it’s
becoming that time of year again where thick blankets and jackets are a common
site here in Botswana. Overnight
temperatures are dipping down to around 5°C which may sound like nothing but
when you live in a breathing brick house with no furnace, I’ll admit it can
feel quite chilly. Actually, the month
of June in Setswana is “Seetebosigo” which literally means “Don’t visit at
night”. I believe this is because not
only will it be a cold journey to and from your friend’s house at night, but
there will likely be no blankets for you when they get there since they will
already be in use. The language of
Setswana is truly rich in culture!
I believe the last time I wrote to you it
was the end of April. Wow! How time flies! I truly must be getting older because I
always remember old people saying that and wondering what they were talking about. When I was young it was always that time was
too slow. You couldn’t wait to be old
enough to ride the roller coaster, stay up late, or drive a car. It’s strange though that when you do get
older and are able to do these things that you then wish you were young and
carefree again. Then when you get really
old in a way you revert back to your childhood because you once again can’t
ride a roller coaster, stay up late, or drive a car. I guess we always feel trapped and restricted
no matter what age we are at. What?! Anyhow, back to that letter I was
writing! I better get back on track
before this letter becomes a rant! J Basically I was trying to
say it’s been a while since I last wrote you.
So sit back, relax, and let me fill you in on what has been happening.
At the end of April, Flying Mission had its
Annual General Meeting (AGM). I thought
it was great just having the whole Flying Mission family and in some ways
extended family all in the same room (well, not quite all but most). Flying Mission has been experiencing a lot of
growth lately especially with the growing number of pilots and flight hours
both here and in Zambia. Growth is
encouraging but it can also cause growing pains within an organization. For this reason the blueprint of how Flying
Mission works is going to change a little.
I don’t want to be overly dramatic about this but in a way it is “the
dawn of a new era”. Lots of things will
be changing in the coming months so stay tuned to hear more about that. In the meantime you can check out one of the
recent changes at the top of this letter, the new Flying Mission logo. When I first looked at the logo it kinda
looked like a mixture between the old Toronto Blue Jays logo and the old Canadian
Airlines logo. Overall I think it turned
out quite well.
One thing I do feel the need to clear up is
the use of acronyms in my prayer letters.
These can become very confusing if you don’t know what they mean so let
me give you a quick rundown on what is what.
FM – stands for Flying Mission.
This is the headquarters of all Flying Mission operations (based in
Botswana).
FMS – Flying Mission Services.
This is the registered name of Flying Missions aviation department in
Botswana. FM is simply registered as a
non-profit organization. FMS is
registered as a business because it is paid for its aviation services. Make sense?
FMC – Flying Mission Care Ministries.
This is a new one. This is the
new name for our
HIV/AIDS department. Just another one of many changes to come here
at FM.
FMZ – Flying Mission Zambia. As
you can probably guess this is the name of our operations in Zambia.
OBC – Open Baptist Church. This
is the name of the church I attend.
There are actually 2 different OBC churches in town so my church is
actually called OBC G-West. OBC is the
main church and OBC G-West is a church plant of OBC which started about 5 or 6
years ago.
Ao1 – Stands for “Audience of One” which is the worship band I’m a part
of. I’m the drummer for the band which
consists of people from all over the world (Canada, USA, Zimbabwe, Botswana,
Ghana, Uganda)
Hopefully that helps clear things up for
you. I’ll be using some of these
acronyms later in the letter so thought it was best to prepare you. Ok, on with the show!
As is the norm with missions there is
always a lot of comings and goings. I
was saddened to say farewell to one of our dear colleagues Jessica Cosby. Jessica is a trained nurse and comes from
England. She came to Botswana on a 1
year term to help Flying Mission’s Care Ministries (FMC). She did a great job and fit in well in the
ministries of FMC. It sounds a little
mean but it was great to see how sad she was to leave. It shows that she really did care about
Botswana and its people and also that she really enjoyed it. So, so long Jessica! Come back and visit anytime!
Sometimes we get visitors here we weren’t
even expecting. This happened recently
when a group from “The World Race” (see www.theworldrace.org
for more info) arrived in Botswana.
Apparently they were given some contact info for my roommate, Luke
Saffarek, who is FM’s Short-term/Team coordinator. Through Luke I was given a chance to meet the
team and I was really blessed to have a chance to spend time with all of them. The team was made up of 4 Americans and 1
Canadian and we all got along really well.
The team stayed in Botswana for about 3 weeks helping out in various FMC
ministries and also helping out a local church doing Bible studies and other
such things. So, to Merideth, Michelle,
Kim, Matt and Kelton, thanks for your help and come back and see us
anytime!
One of the highlights for me during the month
of May was to attend the worship workshop put on by Open Baptist Church (OBC). The workshop was led by a worship pastor from
Alabama named Dwayne Moore (see www.praisemorepowerful.com
for more info about Dwayne). Dwayne is a
very exciting speaker and it was great to have him come and teach us on how to
lead the body of Christ in worship. It
was great that immediately after the workshop, we were able to apply it! At the end of the workshop, Dwayne Moore held
an open air concert on the OBC grounds with about 1200 people in
attendance. The worship band I’m a part
of, “Audience Of One” (Ao1) had the chance to close out the evening for Dwayne
which turned out to be a absolutely fabulous night of praise and worship to
God. Dwayne’s website states proudly
that 7 people came to Christ that evening.
Praise the Lord!
I’ve noticed that the longer I live here
the more “numb” I become to the things happening around me here in
Botswana. For example, seeing a cow or
goat in a mall parking lot would have likely made me burst out loud in laughter
a few years ago. Now it’s just common
place. However, I was reminded recently
that Botswana still has a few tricks up its sleeve! For example, I was driving home from the
office one day and I was approaching one of our dreaded traffic circles which
litter the only freeway in town called “The Western Bypass”. I wish they could build a bypass to bypass
all the traffic circles! Anyway, as I
was approaching the circle I looked for oncoming traffic and noticed a big Lori
(Lori’s are Semi’s, 18 wheelers, tractor trailers, etc) coming towards me so I
stopped to let it by. Most Lori’s will
take both lanes up while going through the circle anyway so it’s always good to
give these mighty machines plenty of space.
As I’m watching this massive truck slow traffic to a crawl, I look at
the side of the trailer he’s carrying and I couldn’t help but smile at what it
said. Written across the side of the
trailer was the word “Humans”. I’m going
to assume that my immediate conclusion to what this sign was telling me was
wrong. One can only hope.
Another sight I was confused by just
happened recently while I was driving from my house to the FM office. If you ever come to Botswana, take the time to
drive around Gaborone for a few hours.
The streets of Gaborone always have something entertaining to show
you. For example, I’m driving to work
and I begin to approach another traffic circle where traffic has built up. As I begin to approach the traffic I notice
something peculiar about the car stopped in front of me. The car is a red hatchback and it has a rear windshield
wiper which in most cases is normally used to wipe the back window. In this case the wiper had been bent about 90
degrees so the wiper is now essentially pointing at the road. Not only that but it was on! So basically what was happening is the wiper
has gone from wiping the windshield to wiping his license plate. Unfortunately the wiper was designed to wipe
something a little bigger than a license plate so it kinda bumped and banged its
way along the back of the car making it a very ineffective license plate
cleaner. So, why did the driver have the
wiper on? Why didn’t he hear it bumping against the back of his car? Why was it bent in the first place? The answers to these questions will forever
elude me.
Well, I think that’s about it for the
highlights of the last few months. As
usual before I close out this letter I’d like to leave you with a few prayer
requests. So, here they are in random
order:
1)
Continue to pray for Flying Mission as we make
some changes to manage the growth that’s been happening. Pray that the changes would be welcomed by
all.
2)
Continue to pray for me as “the
lone wolf” of the IT department here in Botswana. Pray that I would be able to handle the work
load.
3)
We are saying farewell to Pastor Jonathon Larson this week (the pastor of the church I attend, OBC
G-West). Pray that the church will cope
while we search for another to take Jonathon’s place.
4)
Pray for my roommate Luke who
will be travelling home to Canada this week.
Pray that he has a safe trip and a great time at home with his family
and friends.
Thank you all for your prayers and support
while I venture on here in the desert of Botswana. May the Lord bless you as we server Him
together.
Peace and prayers,
Graham Crawford <><
For more in on SIM Canada visit: www.sim.ca
For more info on the Flying Mission visit: www.flyingmission.org
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