Botswana Bulletin – Twelfth Edition

Botswana Bulletin – Twelfth Edition

“Oceanic Edition”

October 13, 2005

Greetings from the passenger deck of the Queen of Cowichan ferry!  As strange as it sounds that’s exactly where I am right now.  I just left Vancouver, BC (or more literally Horseshoe Bay) and am now sailing across the Georgia Strait (30 nautical miles) to Nanaimo, BC (or more literally Departure Bay) located on Vancouver Island.  Its about a 1.5 hour ferry ride so I thought I would take this time to update you all on what has been happening during my time here in Canada.

Hmm…where to start?  Well, as I recall the last time I wrote you all I was still in Toronto, Ontario so I’ll start from there.  I had a few days of debrief at the SIM Canada head office and then it was time for my final flight home.  I arrived in Edmonton on September 10th and was welcomed warmly by my family.  No friends had come to meet me at the airport which was fine.  It was good to start off my “return to Canadian culture” with my family.  So, what do you think was the first thing I did when I got back home?  Drink a slurpee?  Watch a hockey game?  For those of you who know me well will remember that I have a love for the restaurant “Olive Garden”.  So stop number one was none other than the Olive Garden!  For those who have never dined at this particular restaurant, you are missing out on the best meal of your life.  I have never left the Olive Garden hungry.  And that’s saying something!  When you purchase a meal they automatically give you NEVER ENDING bread sticks and your choice of soup or salad.  I have more than once tested the limits of this supposed “never ending” supply of appetizers (my record is 13 breadsticks in one sitting).  Luckily, they have held up there promise thus far.  One cool thing that happened while my family and I dined at Olive Garden is we ended up getting a waiter who was from the country of Zambia! (Just northeast of Botswana)  He was really interested in hearing about my trip to Botswana and he even started calling me his “brother”.  At the end of the meal he gave me about 8 bread sticks to take home as a little gift.  You gotta love African people!

The next day was my first Sunday back at my home church Fort Saskatchewan Alliance Church.  It was good to see familiar faces and catch up with other people who I hadn’t heard from while I was in Botswana.  As most of you can imagine my first week back was a frenzy of visits and lunch dates.  One of the highlights was when I was able to once again grace the doors of probably my favourite place in Edmonton, Rexall Place!  This is the place where I go to watch the Edmonton Oiler hockey games, attend various music concerts, and of course…WWE Wrestling!  I’ve had a chance to go to 2 hockey games since being back and have really enjoyed being able to “talk hockey” again.  As most of my friends back in Botswana will know, I looked all year for someone in Botswana who liked hockey.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find anybody who wanted to talk hockey with me.  Needless to say, being able to discuss hockey with my friends back here in Canada has been a real pleasure. 

As far as support raising goes things have gone pretty well.  I have been able to speak at Fort Saskatchewan Alliance Church (my home church), Fort Saskatchewan Fellowship Baptist Church (my parents home church), an SIM brunch and a Christian School.  The Christian School came as a bit of a surprise but ended up being a really cool experience.  My friend Sarah Cresswell works there as a Grade 6 teacher and invited me to speak at their afternoon chapel.  The kids were really fun to interact with and asked a ton of questions.  I’m telling you, being a missionary definitely keeps you on your toes! 

On the last Sunday of September my home church (Fort Saskatchewan Alliance) allowed me to give a presentation on my mission work in Botswana.  Our worship director asked me to play drums that Sunday as well so it was a very busy morning for me.  As an added bonus to the worship I taught our worship team the famous Southern African song “Bambelela” (translated “Hold On”).  I even had a chance to teach the actions to the congregation.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did at singing a foreign language while still doing the actions.  Of course it wasn’t the same as when we sing it in Botswana but it was still a lot of fun.  I prepared a powerpoint presentation complete with African music and it was really well received by the congregation.  Its great to see my home church take such an interest in Botswana.  There was even talk of some people from the church coming for a visit!  It will be interesting to see how that develops. 

Most of October has been filled with visiting people, showing pictures of Botswana and attending weddings and birthday parties.  It was great having some time to relax with friends before I headed back on the road again.  I left Edmonton on October 12th for Vernon, BC where I stopped and visited with my friend Heather Treby.  She works at the relatively famous skiing location “Silver Star” so I had a chance to visit with her and meet a few of her friends and co-workers.  I was hoping to visit more with her and her parents but her grandmother has been quite ill (stroke) so unfortunately I had to cut my visit short.  So the next day I headed to Vancouver and that leads us back to where I started…on a ferry! 

For those wanting to know where I’ll be the next few weeks this is my schedule:

Oct 13-21 – Will be in Parksville, BC on Vancouver Island

Oct 16 – Speaking at Parksville Fellowship Baptist Church in Parksville

Oct 21-23 – SIM Fall Conference in Abbotsford, BC

Oct 30 – Speaking at Fort McMurray Fellowship Baptist Church in Northern Alberta

Once I return from my hometown of Fort McMurray, AB I’m hoping my financial support will be nearing 100%.  At present I am sitting at approximately 50% financial support so for those still wanting to give feel free.  In case you were wondering, I’m never at 100% prayer support so there is always room for more people who would like to pray for me and my ministry.  I was told by SIM that as you build more prayer supporters the financial support will follow.  You just can’t stress it enough how important prayer is.  It was by prayer and answer to prayer that this whole journey started so I am always grateful when I hear someone say they are willing to or are praying for me.  Feel free to let me know of any prayer requests you have that you would like prayer for.  I enjoy praying for my supporters and its good when I have something specific to pray for.  James 5:16 states: "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  I'm sure James meant "a righteous women" as well so you ladies, don't feel left out!

Ok, well it looks like this letter will be my shortest yet!  Maybe it has something to do with being on a boat.  It’s funny how things change when you get on a BC Ferry.  All of a sudden the price of everything doubles!  I guess when you have no competition it’s easy to charge $2 for a can of soda.  Anyway, as usual I have a few prayer requests before I go.  Here they are in random order:

1)  Support – I have about 50% of my financial support which is an awesome answer to prayer already.  Pray that the rest of the funds would come and that more people would be willing to become prayer partners.

2)  Travel – I have a lot of travelling to do in the next few weeks.  Please pray for safety on the road.

3)  Speaking – I still have a few speaking engagements during the month of October.  Please pray for me as I tend to get nervous and also pray that the Lord would prepare the hearts of those who would want to partner with me.

I want to send a big thank you to all who supported me through last year.  It was a great year and it would not have been possible without the support of so many people.  For those I haven’t seen yet, hopefully we will be meeting in person soon.  I am trying to book time with everyone but its proven to be quite difficult.  I apologize if any of you feel left out.  Ok, that’s it for now.  God bless!

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><