Botswana Bulletin #46
"In Transit"
May 4, 2011
Greetings one and all from Edmonton,
Alberta Canada! After a lengthy trip
home I’m finally getting settled and enjoying time with my family. I left Gaborone on Saturday April 30th
at 3:45pm and after a short layover in Johannesburg, South Africa I flew all
night on an 11 hour flight to London.
Fortunately after 6 years of being a missionary I have somehow learned
how to sleep on a plane so I felt relatively refreshed once I arrived in London
at 6:35am Sunday morning. I had
originally planned to do a little sightseeing once I arrived in London but I changed my mind since the
airport was completely stuffed with people and there were long line-ups
everywhere. The Royal Wedding just
happened to fall on the same weekend I was flying home so I decided to just
stay at Heathrow instead of braving the long line-ups everywhere. To make
things worse, my flight from London to Toronto ended up being delayed. Normally this wouldn’t be that big of a deal
but I was beginning to worry that I would miss my connecting flight in Toronto
for my final plane ride to Edmonton.
Unfortunately, when we finally got on the plane and I arrived in Toronto
I was unable to catch my connecting flight and ended up waiting a few hours for
the next one. Once again, this normally
isn’t a big deal, but when you’ve been in transit for 2 days there comes a point when you just want to
get home. Well I finally got my wish at
1:35am Monday morning. I felt sorry for my
brother who came and picked me up at the airport at such a late hour, but I’m
glad he did. So now I’m home. So what happens now? Stay tuned and I’ll fill you in on what the
plan is. Before I do that thought, let
me update you a bit on what happened during my last few months in Botswana.
Friends
Visit
At the end of March some close friends of
mine, Gilbert and Sarah Collins, were able to come for a visit to
Botswana. Gilbert and Sarah are
originally from the United States but are now working with Peace Corps in Windhoek,
Namibia. Previously, they were stationed
in Botswana and attended the same church as me and we were able to become close
friends. Immediately after the Collins
visit, my friend Nicola Hoffman came for a visit from Germany with her friend
Desiree. Nicola is a nurse and came to
work with Flying Mission for a year and we became friends and even travelled
together to Namibia with another Flying Mission co-worker back in 2008. Both of these visits made me realize just how
many people I’ve seen come and go during my time here in Botswana. I don’t claim to speak for all missionaries
but I’m sure most would agree that it is one of the tougher things to deal
with, all the comings and goingz of close friends. I think most people when they live somewhere
for 5 years would see a bit of change in their friends because some would move
away, but being a missionary in Botswana takes it to a whole new level. This is why these visits mean so much to
me because I love reconnecting with old friends that I haven’t seen in a while. As tough as it is to live with this revolving
door I think God prepared me for it during my upbringing in my hometown, Fort
McMurray. Fort McMurray was quite a
transient town and I remember having lots of different friends come and go over
the years. So there is a sense of
normalcy to all this coming and going for me.
Last
Sunday @ Open Baptist Church G-West
April 17th was my last Sunday at
Open Baptist Church G-West. This is the
local church in Botswana that I’ve attended ever since my arrival in 2004. I’ve appreciated the family this church has
been to me over the years and they didn’t fail in making me feel valued. The leadership of the church invited me to
the front during the service and they prayed for me and gave me a departing
gift. I’ve served in a number of
different capacities during my time with OBC and they expressed their
appreciation for my past service. I had
a chance to speak to the congregation and thank them for the family they have
been to me. When you are apart from your
family for extended periods of time it’s good to have a church congregation that
feels like a family. I’m going to miss
my “second family” at OBC G-West.
Maun
Trip/Final days in Botswana
From April 20-27th I had the
opportunity to visit Maun, Botswana which is located in northern Botswana close
to the Okavango river delta. Flying
Mission currently has 2 pilots and their families living up there so I thought
it would be good to go up for a visit and see how they were doing. Since I don’t get up there much for work
related reasons I also thought I could take some time to look at any computer
problems they may have before the IT department leaves the country. I was able to look at a few computer problems
they were experiencing but once they were solved it was time to have a little
fun. I went on 2 scheduled flights with
both our pilots (Colin Brown and Keith Kowalski). During both flights I was able to fly in the
2 Cessna aircraft Flying Mission has in Maun, a 207 and a 210. Keith even let me try flying the 207 while I
was in the plane with him. I now have a
greater appreciation for just how difficult it is to fly an airplane. There are so many things you’re juggling all
at once! It actually reminded me a bit
of playing the drums. For my first time
flying Keith said I did pretty well but I don’t think I’ll be quitting my day
job to become a pilot any time soon.
After flying around northern Botswana I went camping with Colin and his
wife Julie in a place called Mankwe which is close to the Kwahi River. We stayed one night in a luxury tent and did
some game drives around the area and saw a variety of different animals
including Waterbuck, Impala, hippos and Steenbok. I had a great time and I want to take the
time to thank the Browns and the Kowalskis for their excellent hospitality. It was a great way to end my time in
Botswana! After returning from Maun I
only had a few days left in Botswana so I did my best to see as many people as
I could before my departure. Sorry to any
of you I missed, I know some of you were busy and I didn’t get to see you. Thanks to all of you who came to see me off
at the airport. I appreciated it.
Future
plans
Now it’s time to get to the question alot
of you have been asking me lately, “Now what?”
Well, it’s a good question and to be perfectly honest, I don’t have a definitive
answer...yet. This is the plan so far.
Most of you may recall that I was denied
access to the United States last year while on my way to work at SIM’s
international office in South Carolina.
The reason I was denied access is I was told that I needed a visa to
enter the country to work at SIM. In
October SIM submitted a visa application for me to enter the US to work at
their head office. The application has
been in process for over 7 months now but it looks like there may be some light
at the end of the tunnel now. On April
29th SIM responded to US Immigrations “request for evidence” so the
application we have been told should now be completely processed within the
next 60 days. So hopefully by the end of
June a decision on whether or not I’ll receive a US Visa will be made. At the moment that is option number one. If the visa goes through the plan will be to
go and work at SIM’s international office in South Carolina. If the visa is rejected there are a few
things that could happen. One option
would be to return to Botswana to continue working with Flying Mission as I
have since 2004. Why is this not my
first option you ask? Well, the easiest
answer is I don’t have peace about returning to Botswana. I’ve been officially invited by Flying
Mission to return but after prayer and careful consideration I don’t feel that
God is leading me there at the moment.
So until I have peace about returning to Botswana I don’t have plans on
returning. Another possibility is to
serve in some other capacity with SIM.
SIM has missionaries in 50 countries around the world and has many field
offices that require someone with my expertise.
My desire is to stay with SIM and serve in missions but at the moment I just
don’t know where I’ll be yet. I’m hoping
within the next 2-3 months that things will be clear and I can begin to move
forward in the direction God leads me.
Please pray for me during this time as I seek the Lord and His guidance.
Financial
Support
Upon returning from the field and
considering I don’t have a clear objective yet as far as what I’ll be doing and
where I’ll be going I’ve decided to cease my financial support. Those of you who are monthly givers, your
automatic deposits will no longer occur.
I want to take this time to thank all of you who have supported me
financially over the last 6 years. I’m
amazed at how the Lord provided such exceptional people to partner with me as I
served in Botswana. I look forward to
partnering with many of you again once I know for sure where the Lord is
leading me.
Travel
I plan to travel to visit the churches that
have supported me over the years to give an update to the congregations and
notify them as to what is happening. I
look forward to seeing many of you who have so diligently been praying for me
during my time in Botswana. I plan to
travel both in May and June so stay tuned for dates on when I’ll be visiting
and where.
NAIT
Graduation
Before I end this letter I should let you
all know what is happening as far as my schooling is concerned. In mid-April I officially finished my degree
requirements and handed in my last assignment.
About a week ago I received my marks back and I’m proud to say I scored
a mark of “A” for my credit work experience.
Graduation occurs on Friday (May 6th) at the Jubilee
Auditorium in Edmonton. I’m not sure
many would be interested, but if you’d like to watch my graduation it’s
supposed to be streamed live on the internet which I thought was kind of funny. They are only providing each graduate with 4
tickets for family and friends to attend so I guess this is why they are doing
it. If you’d like to watch the
graduation it starts at 6:30pm Mountain Standard Time on Friday May 6th. This is the link to watch it online:
If you’d like to just see me, the ceremony
is scheduled to be 2 hours long.
Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly when I’ll be on stage but I’m sure
the first hour or so will mostly be filled with speeches and such so you
probably won’t miss me if you skip the first hour. I won’t be offended if you don’t watch the
whole thing. J
Conclusion
and Prayer Requests
Well, hopefully you’re feeling a little
more up-to-date now. I want to thank
each and every one of you for the different ways in which you have supported me
over the years. I’ve felt loved and
cared for and I appreciate the opportunity I’ve had to serve the Lord with the
skills he has given me. Before I go I’ll
leave you all with a few prayer and praise requests. Here they are:
1)
Direction – Pray the Lord would clearly direct
me to the ministry he wants me in whether it be South Carolina, Botswana or
somewhere else
2)
Travels – Praise that the Lord
allowed both me and my luggage to arrive safely back in Canada. Pray for future travel as I plan to visit the
churches and people who have supported me over the years.
3)
Visiting – Pray that I would
have time to visit friends and family that I’ve been missing. One of the hardest parts of missionary life
is being distant from loved ones so I’m grateful that I’ll be home for the next
few months to catch up with people.
Thanks again one and all for your love and
support!
Peace and prayers,
Graham Crawford <><
For more info on SIM Canada visit: www.sim.ca.
The opinions expressed in this letter are
my own opinions. They are not
necessarily the opinions or views of my employers, SIM.
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