Botswana Bulletin #54

    

Botswana Bulletin #54

"White Beach Christmas"

January 12, 2013

Prayer Requests

1) Praise for safe travels during the Christmas holidays.  Border crossings went smoothly and my car was problem free.

2) Pray for my Mother as she continues to struggle with Anemia.  Pray that the doctors will be guided to the reason for it.

3) Pray for my financial situation.  I'm currently about $2556 short of my financial goal for next year.  I’ll be travelling home to Canada at the end of February to do more support raising.

4) Pray for the Flying Mission Board/Leadership as they continue to plan the way forward. There are still a number of governmental issues within the organization that needs to be addressed. Pray for wisdom.

5) Pray for me as I continue in my new role at Open Baptist Church G-West as the "Worship Coordinator". It's a time consuming job so pray that I would manage my time well.

Introduction

Greetings to you all from a hot and sunny Gaborone, Botswana.  For most of you reading this who are living in the western world "hot and sunny" is probably not something you've heard in a while.  Sorry for that.  I was talking with my parents during the holidays and they said Christmas day in Edmonton saw temperatures nearing -30C.  Ouch!  I'm really sorry for that!  So before I get accused of dragging people through the coals because I enjoyed a "White Beach Christmas" I should probably turn away from the topic of weather and move on to something else.

I want to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I hope the holidays were a time where you were able to be with family and friends.  I also hope it was a time where you were able to reflect on the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  This year was interesting as I was basically with strangers on Christmas Day in Mozambique.  However, when I thought about it, I realized how similar it was for Mary and Joseph.  They were travelling and had stopped in a crowded, unfamiliar place and could only find shelter in a humble stable.  My accommodation wasn’t quite as humble as a stable but it gave me a new perspective on the task set before Mary and Joseph and how they were faithful in going where God had called them even when it lead them away from the familiar.  So as unfamiliar as Christmas was this year, it was still a very memorable one and I felt privileged to celebrate Christmas in Mozambique with new friends! 

Passion World Tour

I believe my last letter to you was written at the beginning of October.  That letter was so jam packed I completely forgot to mention something I did at the end of September.  The "Passion World Tour Conference" came through Pretoria, South Africa so we decided to go.  Sonia Sutton, a friend and fellow Flying Mission collegue, went with me and it was excellent.  For those who don't know about the tour it is a Christian concert/conference headlined by popular Christian musician Chris Tomlin and speaker/preacher Louie Giglio.  The tour also has other speakers/artists involved depending on the location of the event.  The thing I thought was unique about this concert was the focus it had on bringing people closer to God.  The concert was very interactive and there was alot of intercessory prayer for people in the concert and for people who were attending future conferences.  Needless to say it was a great time of worship and reflection and I look forward to attending another Passion Conference in the future.

                               Chris Tomlin performing at the Passion World Tour Concert

Financial Update

Some of you have been asking about my financial situation so I thought I'd give you all an update so you'll know what's happening.  Before I do that let me backtrack a bit so everyone understands what the goal is.  The original plan was to leave for Botswana in March 2012 for a 2 year period with Flying Mission.  However, because of an emergency IT situation it was decided that I would leave for Botswana even though I did not have enough money to cover me for the full 2 year term.  I'm happy to announce that I currently have about 92% of my financial support covered.  Praise the Lord!  For those wanting to know figures, my current financial need is for another $2556 or $213 per month.  Please pray that the rest of this money will come in so that I will be able to continue serving the Lord in Botswana for another year.  If you feel the Lord leading you to make a financial donation please contact SIM Canada by phone or by their website www.sim.ca.  (there is contact info at the end of the letter )  You will need my missionary number which is 024460. I would like to thank all of you who have already given financial gifts.  Your cheerful giving is greatly appreciated!

Flying Mission Servers

I don't usually talk much about the specifics of my IT work but I know there are some of you who are interested in those things so I thought I'd share a little bit of info on our new servers.  For those who don't know, Flying Mission leases a server which is located in London, England and it works as our "central server".  It is by far our busiest server as it handles all of the missions e-mails as well as our online services and data backups.  The server has been a real workhorse and has run faithfully for over 5 years.  The provider of our server was wanting to retire our server and lease us a new one.  This sounds good but they also wanted to charge us more money.  Alot more money.  So my boss Richard and I started looking for alternatives.  We ended up finding a provider in Germany that could not only give us an improved server but charge us less money than what we were currently paying!  It’s amazing how the Lord can take what at first appears to be a problem and then turn it into something good.  Richard has put alot of work into setting up the new server and I'm happy to report that it is running smoothly.  As Richard worked on the server I was able to keep up with the day to day work so it was a good team effort.  Richard even added some new improvements to the server which should make both of our jobs easier in the future.

After getting our central server up and running we had an emergency situation with our server in Zambia.  The server had a hardware failure and we needed to replace the unit.  This was of course no surprise to the Lord who in his mercy timed the failure to work perfectly with a pre-planned trip the Zambian team had already made to Botswana.  Our Zambian director was able to purchase a new server in Zambia and flew it to Botswana the next day.  Richard and our Zambian team were in a big planning meeting so it was up to your friendly neighourhood IT man (me) to install the new one and transfer the data over.  So on Saturday morning around 8am I started working on the server.  Richard returned from the meeting around 4pm and helped setup the rest of the server and by about 8pm it was finished.  The next day the Zambian team flew back to Zambia and without too much trouble we were able to get the server back up and running.  This was a good thing because we were able to do some needed upgrades on the server which should help things run smoother for our office up in Zambia.  All in a days work for the Flying Mission IT department!

AMETS and ECD Graduations

One important function that Flying Mission does is training.  The two main sources of training Flying Mission does is through our two schools.  The first school we have is AMETS.  AMETS stands for “Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Training School” and is the only school of its kind in Botswana.  Years ago some Flying Mission personnel though it would be good if they could pass on some of their aircraft maintenance knowledge to the local people.  What started as informal training has now been transformed into a fully operational school.  Back in October we had our second graduation ceremony and had 5 students graduate with a diploma in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering.  A few of these students have decided to continue with their studies while some are now working full-time with us in the Flying Mission hangar.  Great job gentleman!

In November we saw the first students graduate from our ECD - “Early Childhood Development” School.  Years ago some Flying Mission personnel saw a need for kindergarten/pre-school teacher training in Botswana.  There were different reasons for this but basically what was noticed is that many of the teachers put in charge of young children simply did not have the proper skills to help develop the children.  After years of work a curriculum was worked out and the school started.  It is still a developing school but I’ve had the privilege of attending some of the training and have been really impressed with the content and the enthusiasm of the students.  This enthusiasm carried into the graduation and you could see it on the faces of the ladies as they received their diplomas.  All the student we teach already either work or volunteer for day cares or schools.  Congratulations to all our ECD graduates! 

                                          
                              Our 5 Aircraft Maintenance Engineers awaiting their diplomas
                                      from Flying Mission Services Director, Mark Spicer

Worship Coordinator

In November I was asked to take on a new role at church.  I believe this was partly due to the goo work I was doing in helping develop the youth band within our church.  The senior pastor asked if I would be willing to serve as “Worship Coordinator”.  As coordinator it is my responsibility to form worship teams, schedule practices and give overall leadership to the worship ministry.  I’ve been careful to not take on all the responsibility and have put in place worship team leaders with the hope that things can be sustainable even when I am not around.  The musical talent in our church has grown and we have been able to form 3 small worship bands.  The response from the congregation has been good so far and we’ve even had some new people ask if they can join one of the teams.  Please pray that the worship ministry would continue to grow and develop at Open Baptist Church G-West and that I would manage my time well as it’s a time consuming job.

                        Senior Pastor Modise Mokgwathise preaching at a recent service
                                               at Open Baptist Church G-West

Christmas Break

As many of you were aware I took a long Christmas Break this year and did some travelling.  I had only taken 2 days off during the year so it was definitely time for a break.  So, thanks to birthday money and Christmas money generously given by my family, I was able to plan a trip through Swaziland, Mozambique and the coast of South Africa.  I left Botswana on December 15^th and spent a week in beautiful Swaziland.  It is a mountainous country, very green and picturesque.  The people there are very friendly and easy to get along with.  I was able to pick up a little bit of the language during my time there and was even given a “Siswati” (Swaziland language) name.  Since I was quick to learn the language they named me “Mashesha” which means “Quick or fast”.  The backpackers lodge I stayed at had people visiting from all over the world and despite the fact that I was travelling alone I rarely felt alone as there was always somebody to do something with. 

Unfortunately my time in Swaziland went by fast as well and next thing I knew I was on my way to Maputo, Mozambique.  I spent a week in Mozambique mostly in the Maputo area.  It was my first time seeing the Indian Ocean.  I’m usually used to the cold Pacific Ocean or lake water, but this was a nice change.  It was more like stepping into a warm bath.  I’m guessing the water had to be around +20C, very inviting.  I stayed two nights in a hotel but switched to a backpackers after I discovered one about 0.5km away from the hotel.  It was about 75% cheaper to stay at the backpackers so I was glad I found it!  The manager running the backpackers (Paulo) was a real nice guy and I spent most of the time hanging out with him and his girlfriend (Tatiana).  I tried to pick up some of the language there (Portugese) but I found it quite hard.  The beaches and ocean are beautiful in Mozambique but the city of Maputo is quite dirty and overcrowded so it wasn’t my favorite place to be.  It was also a hassle dealing with the corrupt police officers wanting bribes and the endless stream of “hustlers” (street beggars) who were also wanting to cheat you out of your money.  However, I was able to overlook the down sides when I tried the food there.  The food in Mozambique is fantastic!  I was staying about 0.5km away from a local bakery which made excellent fresh bread every day.  The bread is called “Pao” and it was so good I didn’t even feel the need to put butter on it.  It tasted great just plain.  I also had some great seafood including Prawns, Red Snapper, Barracuda and King Mackerel.  Paulo and Tatiana were excellent cooks and they loved cooking new things for me to try.  They made me some authentic Portugese style chicken which was awesome. 

So, after being thoroughly spoiled by Paulo and Tatiana I headed to South Africa.  I travelled to Johannesburg first, then to Upington and then met up with friend in Cape Town for New Years.  After close to a week in Cape Town I headed up what is called the “Garden Route” which is a beautiful area of South Africa stretching between Cape Town and Durban.  After stopping in a number of places along the garden route I finally ended up in Durban where I started heading north back to Botswana.  I arrived back in Botswana on Friday (Jan 11^th) night and have the weekend left to relax before starting work again on Monday.  After travelling over 6000kms in just under a month I’m happy to just be back home in one place for a while!

                                          
                                           Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland

                          View of Maputo City and Indian Ocean Coastline, Mozambique

                                           Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa

On The Road Again

However, it won’t be long until I’m travelling again.  Due to me being underfunded it was decided that I should return to Canada for a 2 month furlough after a year in Botswana.  The first year of my two year term ends at the end of February so I have a flight booked back to Canada and should be arriving in Edmonton on March 1^st.  The plan is to do a little visiting with family and friends as well as re-connecting with my supporting churches in Alberta and BC.  I’m praying that all my support will come in during my time in Canada and I’ll be able to return to Botswana fully funded for another year of ministry. 

Conclusion

There are tons of stories I could have told you all from my time travelling but I feel this letter is getting long enough so those stories will have to wait.  My guess is by the time I get around to writing you all again I’ll already be back in Canada so I may be able to tell you those stories in person! 

Thanks again to all of you who make all of this possible.  Your prayers and financial support are what sustain me here in Botswana and I’m very thankful for the support you’ve given me over the years.  God bless!

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><

For more info on SIM Canada visit:  www.sim.ca.

For more info on Flying Mission visit:  www.flyingmission.org

The opinions expressed in this letter are my own opinions.  They are not necessarily the opinions or views of my employers, SIM or Flying Mission.