Botswana
Bulletin #58
"Night
of the Flashing Lights"
October
19, 2013
Prayer Requests
1) Rain – The drought continues here in Botswana. Please pray that rain would fall on this dry
land and bring the country much needed relief.
The water dams are very low.
2) Open Baptist Church Bluetree/G-West – I’ve had
a chance to speak with some of my friends back at Open Baptist Church G-West
and was encouraged to here that the worship ministry is still doing well
without me. Pray that the ministry of
worship in both Open Baptist Church Bluetree as well as Open Baptist Church
G-West would thrive and grow. I’m
currently still attending Bluetree as they are without any drummers.
3) Flying Mission Leadership – We currently have
two major positions within the Flying Mission organization that need to be
filled. The current interim CEO of the
organization, John Lubbe, will be stepping down in November. The Managing Director of FMS (aka “Flying
Mission Services” - the flying department here in Botswana) resigned a few
months ago and the Operations Manager, Charles Greenwald, has been filling in
as an interim director. Both these
positions are very important to keep the organization running smoothly. Pray that the Lord would show us the people
he wants in those positions.
4) Joining Hands Conference – Praise the Lord that
I was able to attend a conference this week that is specifically designed to
bring mission organizations in Botswana together for informational reasons as
well as spiritual refreshment. It was an
excellent conference and I met many people from different organizations that
are spreading the gospel all over Botswana.
It was very encouraging.
5) Donations – Please continue to pray for my
own finances and the finances of Flying Mission. I am currently $300/month short on my monthly
support. Flying Mission has a number of
projects it needs financial assistance with.
Pray that donations would come in so that we can continue with these
projects.
6) Mom – My Mom has been in the hospital for
over 4 weeks now. Her internal bleeding
has continued and the doctors aren’t sure where the bleeding is coming
from. She continues to get weekly blood
transfusions to keep up her supply of blood.
She is feeling very weak. Pray
for strength and that the Lord would guide the doctors to the location of the
bleeding.
Introduction
Greetings
all from Gaborone, Botswana in the mighty name of Jesus Christ! I’ve often heard people when they are up
front at church greet everyone in Jesus’ name.
The Apostle Paul often greeted his readers in his letters in the name of
Jesus. So, I figured if it was good
enough for Paul, it’s good enough for me!
J
God
has officially decided to turn on the heater here in Botswana. Temperatures are nearing +40C on a regular
basis. Considering how dry it is here it
seems like an understatement to say that we are living in a desert here. We are in desperate need of rain. If you are willing and able, please send some
prayers up to God for us and ask him to open the skies and let the rain
fall. Things are getting desperate here.
Night of the Flashing Lights
Speaking
of prayers, I’m always glad to know that there are people praying for me
specifically. The reason for this is I
seem to have a knack for getting myself into sticky situations. And when I get into those situations, my
first reaction to how to remedy the situation is often the wrong one. It’s during those moments that I am extra
glad to know someone is praying for me.
If I was out here in Botswana simply on my own steam I think I would
have landed in prison long ago. My hope
is that the Lord does not intend to send me into prison ministry as a prisoner! J
So
what am I going on about? Well, about a
month ago I was driving home from a friends place. It was about 11pm on a Saturday night. Traffic was very light. There was hardly anyone around. I drove up to a 4-way stop. I looked to see if anyone was coming and I
didn’t see anything except for some car lights approaching off in the distance. So I did what some would call a “rolling stop”. I say “some would call it” because my
experience on Botswana roads would tell me that I what I did was a “sufficient
stop”. It was late. Nobody was around. What’s the harm? So I “rolled” through the intersection and
carried on my way. Now remember, I didn’t
actually think I had done anything wrong up to this point. As I approached some speed bumps a car behind
me started flashing his lights (turning them from high beam to low beam
repeatedly). Now this is something that
has happened to me before in both Africa and Canada. The reason for it in my experience is usually
because the person behind me wants me to speed up. Well, I’m sorry but I’m not going to fly over
some speed bumps just because a person behind me wants me to. So I ignored the flashing lights. As I proceeded to the second speed bump the
car behind me sped up beside my car so I rolled down my window to see what this
nut wanted. I rolled down my window and
shouted, “Can I help you?!” There were
no street lights around so I couldn’t make out the person in the car. All he said back to me was, “I’m here to help
you.” What he said didn’t make any sense
to me so I assumed he was drunk. I rolled
up my window and kept going. As I got
past the speed bumps and got onto the main road to drive home, the flashing
lights behind me continued. As it continued
the temperature of my blood began to boil inside of me. What did this person want! This is when I decided to do something that I’ve
been told not to do. I pulled over to
the side of the road. I got out of my
car, locked it, then started marching over to the car that was following
me. I’m not sure what my plan was going
to be but I had been properly motivated to give this person a piece of my mind
and perhaps a piece of my fist. He had
really pushed my buttons. The car was a
simple white Toyota Corolla and as the door began to open I started shouting at
the person getting out of the car. “What
is your problem?! Are you drunk or
something?!” And then I stopped. As the man stood up, enough light caught his
uniform that I realized it was a police officer. The car off in the distance when I did my
rolling stop was actually an unmarked police car. No lights.
No siren. No Police markings on
the car of any kind. He had been
following me ever since and was trying to get me to pull over by flashing his
high beams at me. I said to the police
officer, “I was about to get in a fight with you! I had no idea who you were or what you wanted!” The officer looked back at me with a serious
look on his face and simply said, “I would have fought back.” Indeed.
Needless to say at this point a notepad came out and I was given a
ticket for disobeying a stop sign and thankfully nothing more. For those who are interested the fine was
about $125 Cdn. I apologized to the
police officer for getting upset with him and not stopping but I also told him
to use the $125 Cdn and buy some reflective stickers, some lights and a siren for
his car! Thank you for your prayers
everyone. This story could have had a
very different ending had I decided to act on my anger.
Open Baptist Church Update
In
my last prayer letter I had mentioned that I was now attending Open Baptist
Church Bluetree. Open Baptist Church
G-West has my home church here in Gaborone since I arrived back in 2004. I had been serving as the Worship Coordinator
and had helped develop 3 worship teams who were taking turns leading Sunday
service. The Worship Coordinator at Bluetree
came to me and asked me if I could give her a hand. She had no drummers willing to play at the
church and was wondering if she could borrow one from G-West. After discussing things with my pastor and
the worship teams I decided that I would go over myself to Bluetree and help
with the worship team there, specifically by playing the drums. I’ve had a chance to help develop 3 people
into good drummers at G-West and it is my hope that the same thing will happen
at Bluetree. Well, so far nobody has
come forward to help with the drumming so I’m still playing almost every
Sunday. I say “almost” because two other
drummers from G-West (Bokang and Natasha, aka “Nutty”) have also played at
Bluetree. Bokang has been helping the
Bluetree Youth Band “Ignite” as they are currently without a drummer. Ignite leads the worship services at Bluetree
about once a month. Nutty was at
Bluetree last week as they had an all woman’s Sunday service. Everyone who participated in the service,
worship team, preacher, etc was female.
They did an all-male service a couple of weeks ago. Since I didn’t have to drum at Bluetree last
week I decided to pay a visit to G-West to see how things were going. I was very encouraged to see that the worship
teams were still doing very well.
Everyone was very glad to see me and were wondering how things were
going at Bluetree. I’m not sure what
some people may think of my decision to switch churches but I really feel it is
something the Lord is wanting me to do.
I also think it is great that a denomination of 2 churches can work
together to help each other out. I’m
hoping that a Sound Technician/Engineer from Bluetree can move over to G-West
to help them out with that. G-West has a
lack of people running the sound during the services and Bluetree seems to have
that in abundance. I’ve talked to 2
different people but nobody Is willing at the moment. Please continue to pray that as a
denomination Open Baptist Church would continue to thrive and impact the city
of Gaborone for Christ.
Flying Mission Leadership
As
I’ve already mentioned in the prayer requests Flying Mission is in need of two
key personnel. A CEO and a Managing
Director for the FMS Department (flying department in Botswana). Continue to pray that these two roles would
be filled by the people God chooses.
Joining Hands Conference
Every
year a missions conference is held here in Botswana called the “Joining Hands
Conference”. The purpose of the
conference is to bring together missionaries and mission organizations from all
over Botswana and bring them to one place.
The conference has a number of objectives, firstly that people would be
encouraged to see the mission work that is being done in the country of
Botswana. Another objective is to have
the missionaries meet each other and potentially work together to impact the
country for Christ. Sometimes
missionaries can feel lonely in their ministry.
It’s encouraging to see that there are actually many other people doing
ministry in the country and that you don’t have to feel alone. Lastly, the conference is designed to be a
place for spiritual refreshment. Some
people can get burned out and tired doing ministry and it’s great to have a
time where you can retreat from your ministry and take time to recharge your
batteries with other Christian brothers and sister. And for me the conference was all of those
things. I found out a lot about what is
going on in the country. I also made
some relationships with people that I hope to meet up with again in the future,
possibly to do ministry related stuff or just get together and have fun. Lastly, I was very encouraged by our guest
speakers Pastor Ron and Rina Kinnear.
Ron is a very evangelistic person and encouraged us to continue to reach
out to lost souls her in Gaborone and Botswana.
His wife Rina gave an excellent talk on the power of prayer and I was
challenged to work on improving my own prayer life by what she said. This was about the 4th Joining
Hands Conference I’ve attended and I definitely feel it’s been the best one I’ve
attended. The conference has been so
successful that they plan to do two next year, one in northern Botswana (Maun)
and one in the south (Gaborone). Maybe I’ll
get a chance to attend both next year! J
Financial Needs
I
have been very blessed financially over the years by individuals and churches
that have given so generously to my ministry and to the ministry of Flying
Mission. These are tough times
economically with the “economic crisis” in the world so I understand that it
has been a sacrifice for many of you to give the way you have and I thank you
very much for doing that. With that
said, there are still financial needs that we are trying to meet within Flying
Mission and in fact within my own mission budget. Let me fill you in on some of the things we are
doing and how you can help out if you feel the Lord leading you in that way.
Donations to Graham (SIM)
I
currently have enough money in my mission account at SIM to continue doing
ministry until April 2013 which is technically the end of my current
contract. I can state that I have no
plans of quitting Flying Mission and doing something else after April
2013. So when April rolls around next
year I’m going to be short on funds to continue in ministry. To try and remedy the situation of staying in
Canada for longer periods of time raising support (which has happened in the
past), I thought I would get a jump on things and challenge some of you before
that happens. I am currently looking to
raise another $300/month in monthly support.
Would you prayerfully consider giving a monthly gift towards my
ministry? If you are interested in
giving to me you can contact SIM directly via telephone toll free (the contact info is
at the bottom of my letter) or via their website sim.ca. They have online giving available on their
website if you are interested in giving that way. They will request a missionary number if you
give a financial gift. My missionary
number is 24460. All donations are
tax-deductable. Thank you to those who
are currently giving and to those who have given in the past. May God bless you as you bless others.
Donations to Flying Mission
This
has been somewhat confusing for me in the past but things have become clearer
recently. Flying Mission has a number of
on-going projects and donations can now be given through our Flying Mission USA
office. To give to a Flying Mission
project you can write a cheque payable to “Flying Mission USA” and state the
project name on the cheque. Then send
the cheque to:
Flying
Mission USA
Suite
#1, 1698 Airport Road N.
Worthington,
Minnesota
56187
USA
Please
note that donations to Flying Mission are NOT TAX-DEDUCTABLE. The reason for this is because Flying Mission
is not registered as a charity within Canada, nor does it have a partner that
handles its finances within Canada.
There is hope that this could change in the future but is not something
currently implemented. I apologize that
this facility is not available.
Current Flying Mission
Projects
1) Bible
Distribution – Since the 1980’s Flying Mission has distributed Bibles at
the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone on December 26th, Boxing
Day. This year we plan to distribute 600 English, Setswana and Children’s
Bibles. The cost per Bible is
approximately $10 which means we need to raise about $6000. If you would like to give to this project
please state on the cheque that the gift is for “Bible Distribution”.
2) Rerotlhe
– Rerotlhe is a childrens day care that provides for children who have either
been orphaned or who are considered “vulnerable” meaning they live in a family environment
which is unable to care for them properly.
The day care is in the small village of Seherelela about a 1 hour drive
from Gaborone. Living conditions in the
village are quite crude. Rerotlhe
attempts to provide for the childrens needs by teaching them, showing love, and
sharing God’s word with them. If you’d like
to give to this project please state on the cheque that this gift is for “Rerotlhe”.
3) Early
Childhood Development (ECD) School – Flying Mission has been involved in
childrens ministry for a number of years now and noticed a startling trend. Many caregivers in day care centres in
Botswana have poorly trained staff. Many
of the people who provide care to children have no training on how to care for
the children properly. To remedy this,
Flying Mission opened its own ECD School.
The school teaches their students how to not just care for the children
but develop them and teach them valuable skills for living using a Christian curriculum. If you’d like to give to this project please
state on the cheque that this gift is for “ECD School”.
4) Aircraft
Maintenance Engineer (AME) School – Flying Mission has been involved in the
aircraft industry ever since it started back in 1980. One of our Flying Mission missionaries
noticed that there was no training available within Botswana for Aircraft
Maintenance Engineers. To remedy this
the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) School was started. The students are taught how to became
Aircraft Maintenance professionals and we also have a local pastor on staff to
teach them the gospel. If you’d like to
give to this project please state on the cheque that this gift is for “AME
School”.
Conclusion
Sorry
if this letter seemed centered on finances.
That was not my intention. A
number of people have asked me about giving to Flying Mission projects so I
felt that I needed to get that information out to everyone. This seemed like the easiest way.
Thank
you again to all of you who make it possible for me to be a part of the
ministry of Flying Mission.
Peace
and prayers,
Graham
Crawford <><
SIM
Contact Info:
SIM
Canada
10
Huntingdale Blvd.
Scarborough,
Ontario
M1W
2S5
Canada
Tel: 1-800-294-6918
E-mail: info@sim.ca
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.
