Botswana
Bulletin #59
"New
Year, New Challenges"
February
5, 2014
Prayer Requests
1) Family – Please continue to be in prayer for
my family as we mourn the loss of my Mother who passed away on December 30th.
2) Travel – Please pray for me as I begin
travelling this month to visit supporting churches, family and friends. My Father will be joining me on the journey.
3) Rain – Please continue to pray for rain,
specifically in Gaborone. There has been
rain in the northern part of Botswana but Gaborone is still very dry.
4) CEO/MD – Flying Mission is still in need of
two people in key leadership roles (Chief Executive Officer and Managing
Director of FMS). Pray the Lord would
lead Flying Mission to the man He chooses.
5) Open Baptist Church – The Senior Pastor
(Norman Schaefer) of Open Baptist Church Bluetree has resigned. This was due to some issues between the
senior pastor and the elders board. It’s
caused much unrest in the church. Please
pray that the church would be able to sort out its leadership issues and that
the Lord would bring healing to broken relationships.
Introduction
Greetings
to all from a very cold Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! Considering I was born and raised in Fort
McMurray (and during the winter in the month of November no less) I’d like to
think that cold weather is just a part of who I am. Having grown up in a cold environment it
should be easy for me to handle temperatures of -20C and below. However, after 9 years of living abroad in
Botswana I’ll have to admit it…I’m cold!
It doesn’t help that I left unexpectedly from Cape Town and had no
winter clothing at all in my suitcase.
So I partially blame the lack of sleeves in my closet for part of my discomfort. Some have been wondering how long I plan to
stay in this freezer I call home so I thought it best to send out a letter to
inform you all of my planned movements.
I’ll also give an update on some of the stuff that was happening in
Botswana before I left.
My Mother’s Funeral
As
most of you are aware I left Cape Town, South Africa on New Years Eve to travel
home to Edmonton, Canada when I received the news that my Mother had passed
away from a heart attack on December 30th. My Mother’s funeral was held on January 4th
and it was a beautiful tribute to the godly life that she lived. Over 300 people were in attendance and many
came from out of town to pay their respects.
I was overwhelmed by the sympathy shown from our extended family and
from our friends. My missionary family
including people from both Flying Mission and SIM all did a great job in
encouraging me and the rest of my family.
I appreciate all of you for the e-mails, Facebook messages, cards and
all the other forms of communication to express the shared sadness in my
Mother’s passing. I’m going to miss her,
but I look forward to the day when we will meet again in glory.
Travel Plans
After
the funeral I spoke with both Flying Mission and SIM and we agreed that having
an early furlough now was the best thing to do (my furlough was originally planned
for May 2014). So, I began meeting with
and contacting pastors to plan visits with my supporting churches. These are my travel plans for the next couple
of weeks (I’ve also included the churches I’ve already visited in case you
missed me):
January
19 – Fort Saskatchewan Alliance Church – Fort Saskatchewan, AB
January
26 – Fort Saskatchewan Fellowship Baptist Church – Fort Saskatchewan, AB
February
2 – McKernan Baptist Church – Edmonton, AB
February
8 – Travel to Fort McMurray, AB
February
9 – Fort McMurray Fellowship Baptist Church – Fort McMurray, AB
February
10 – Travel to Edmonton, AB
February
15 – Travel to Calgary, AB
February
16 – Renfrew Baptist Church – Calgary, AB
February
18 – Travel to Vernon, BC
Febraury
19 – Travel to Maple Ridge, BC
February
22 – Travel to Parksville, BC
February
23 – Parksville Fellowship Baptist Church – Parksville, BC
February
26 – Travel to Blue River, BC
February
27 – Travel to Edmonton, AB
I’m
hoping that I’ll have a chance to visit with many of you during my travels. I don’t have a lot of time in each city I
visit but I’ll try to make the most of it and visit as many of you as I can. For those wondering when I’ll leave back to
Botswana my plan is to begin my trip back on March 3rd. I haven’t confirmed my plane tickets with SIM
yet but should have them by the end of the week.
Now
that you know what my future plans are, let me fill you in on some of the
things that have happened over the past few months.
AME Grad/ECD Grad
At
the end of October Flying Mission was happy to host the 3rd Aircraft
Maintenance Engineer (AME) School graduation.
For those who don’t know, Flying Mission founded a school to teach local
Batswana how to fix and maintain airplanes.
The reason for this is that there is no school currently doing this in
Botswana and if local people wanted to learn they needed to travel out of the
country which is often too expensive an endeavor. I was happy to see that the school has grown
over the years and so has the graduating classes. It was great to see the students families
there to express their appreciation to Flying Mission for the work it’s doing
in educating their children and providing a bright future for them and their
families. Congratulations class of 2013!
In
November we celebrated Flying Missions 2nd Early Childhood
Development (ECD) School Graduation. Once
again for those who don’t know Flying Mission founded a ECD School after
discovering that many people working in day cares and crèches (kindergartens)
were unskilled in developing young children.
After seeing the need for educating these people Flying Mission began
forming a school curriculum and began teaching classes back in 2011. Once again it was good to see family and
friends supporting the graduates and we wish all of them the very best in their
careers.
Uncle Bob and I playing music for the ECD Graduation
Rain Is Falling
The
rainy season starts and ends during the hottest months in Botswana which
typically ranges from December to March.
The rain has been more than enough in the northern part of Botswana but
in the south it is still very dry. There
has been small rain showers here and there but not enough to make a big
difference. The last report I received
said that the Gaborone Dam, the main source of water in the city, is currently
only 12% full. Please pray the Lord would
be merciful and provide rain for the city of Gaborone.
Chief Executive Office and
Managing Director
I’ve
shared in past letters the situation with the leadership of Flying
Mission. As it currently stands we have
two positions that we are in desperate need of filling. We currently have two interim people
“standing in the gap” but we need full-time Godly people to take on these key
positions. The first position is the
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Flying Mission. This is the highest ranking position in the
mission. Our last CEO resigned a few
years ago and the previous CEO, John Lubbe, has been filling in for us in an
interim role. John is wanting to retire
and leave the mission in the hands of a capable leader so please pray that this
person would be found.
We
are also needing someone to fill the role of the Managing Director of Flying
Mission Services (FMS). FMS is the
aviation department of Flying Mission in Botswana. We currently have someone filling in this
position on an interim basis but we are also needing someone to stand up and
take on this challenge on a full time basis.
Both
these roles are very important to the present of Flying Mission (keeping things
running) but are also very important for the future of Flying Mission with regard
to its vision and goals. Please pray
that the Lord would send workers into His harvest field (Matthew 9:38).
Zambia Trip
During
the last two weeks in November I had a chance to visit Flying Mission Zambia
(FMZ) in Lusaka, Zambia. I shouldn’t
just call it a “visit” as it was a work trip but I did get a lot of visiting in
during the evenings with some of the personnel we have there. However, the trip almost ended before it even
began. Let me explain.
For
those of you who are familiar with air travel you’ll know that delays can
sometimes happen. Well, in Africa it’s
almost a given. Most flights I’ve had in
Africa are inevitably late and I’ve just grown to accept it. Sometimes it’s actually really convenient if
you yourself are running late or want to spend a bit more time with your
friends at the airport before you start travelling. Anyway, in this case, it wasn’t
convenient. Not in the slightest.
Flying
Mission had booked me a flight with Air Botswana from Gaborone, Botswana direct
to Lusaka, Zambia at 11:15am. According
to their website, my ticket and other unimportant paperwork the flight was
about 3 hours long meaning I should arrive in Lusaka at around 3pm. Well the first issue occurred when I went to
check-in. I was told immediately that the
plane was delayed so the flight would not be taking off at the expected
time. Then I was told they were
switching the plane to a different type of plane and oh yah, we’d be landing in
Kasane, Botswana for a layover.
What?! It was explained to me that
the type of plane we were going to fly was no longer a twin engine turbo prop
(the slow double propeller airplane) but a much faster jet airplane. Well, that actually sounded nice. It should get us there quicker and it should
be a more comfortable plane to fly in since it was bigger. Maybe I won’t be that late after all. I spoke too soon.
We
boarded the plane and waited for a long time before we were finally told that
they were “waiting for paperwork”. It
sounded weird but we just sat patiently in the plane and waited to slowly die
of heat exhaustion as the plane was beginning to cook in the hot Botswana
sun. Eventually the paperwork arrived
and the doors of the plane closed and we were on our way. Awesome!
I’ll only be an hour or so late now.
I spoke too soon again.
We
took off and started flying for about 15mins when I noticed that the plane was
doing a 180 degree bank and was losing altitude. We were going back to Gaborone! To my horror the flight attendant announced
over to us that the plane was experiencing engine problems and we would be
heading back to Gaborone. Oh, and they
also told us they had no idea how long we’d be there. Wow. I
was beginning to think that driving to Zambia would be a better option at this
point.
So
we landed in Gaborone and piled back into the terminal. At this point is was around lunch time. I was starting to get hungry. To be upset and then on top of it all to also
be hungry…that isn’t a good mix. I
approached the gate agents to see if there was something they could do. They were waiting to hear what the status of
the plane was going to be. I suggested
that while they were waiting maybe they could serve us the food that they were
going to serve to us on the plane. I
actually didn’t think they would do it.
However, to the joy of all the other passengers in the terminal, that’s
exactly what they did. They wheeled the
little carts into the terminal and turned the gate into a small lunch bar. This was somewhat political because it’s hard
for people to complain when they have food in their mouth. After solving the problem of hunger, everyone
went back to figuring out whether or not we’d be leaving on a plane. My worst fears were realized when I saw the
door of our plane close and the ladder moved away and it began its “walk of
shame” back to the Air Botswana hangar.
It was a sad sight for all of us.
However, just when all hope seemed lost, an Air Botswana representative
approached the gate and announced that they were now preparing the original
plane that we were meant to fly. The
issue was they didn’t have any crew for that plane type so they had to call in
crew members who were at home to come in and work. This was going to take some time so we waited
patiently in the terminal until the plane arrived with its crew. And then it happened. We boarded the plane and flew direct to
Lusaka. And we were only 4 hours late! Needless to say, I was grateful to be in
Zambia and grateful for the two weeks I had with the FMZ folks. I can’t wait to fly there again!
Open Baptist Church Update
As
many of you know I have been attending a different church for the last few
months (Open Baptist Church Bluetree).
It is the Mother Church to the church I’ve attended for years (Open
Baptist Church G-West). Bluetree was experiencing
a drop off in participants in their worship team and I was asked if I would
help them out on the drums. I was happy
to assist. However, I began to realize
that there was a much greater problem in the church besides worship team
attendance. Some battles had begun among
the leadership group in the church and it ended up causing the senior pastor to
resign from his position. I was saddened
to see yet another Christian organization experiencing disunity among its
leadership. Please pray that this issue
of disunity which seems to be affecting so many churches and Christian
organizations would come to an end. I’m
frankly sick and tired of it and I know Satan is having a ball seeing the
results of it. Pray that we would stand
together as the body of Christ and resist the evil ones evil plots.
Language Barriers
As
most of you know I have been trying to learn as much Setswana as I can while in
Botswana. I have to admit there have
been a number of times when I’ve been laughed at for what I’ve attempted to say
in Setswana. This is normal and happens
to people who are infants in a language all the time. However, I’ve had an opportunity recently to
laugh at some of my local friends as they’ve murdered my national dialect,
English. Here are two examples.
During
the ECD graduation a woman was speaking to the crowd and I couldn’t help but
laugh at what she said. We all sometimes
make silly grammar mistakes but I thought this woman’s error was a doozy. She was speaking about how we need to
continue to do the work of the Lord despite difficulties, circumstances,
etc. It was all going very well until
she said regarding God’s work, “We should never stop doing her work the way he
wants us to.” Um, Amen? I had to at least give her some political
correctness points for her not attributing one specific gender to God.
I
was talking with a local friend one day and we were commenting on just how hot
it was outside. In reply another friend
who was talking with us agreed and stated, “Yesterday I melted and turned into
a steam.” I wonder what more than one
steam would be? Could you have melted
and turned into many steams? Too funny.
The African Art of "Extreme Laddering"
Conclusion
Anyway,
I think I’ve managed to update you all on my comings and goings. I’m looking forward to seeing some of you as
I journey around Canada this month.
Thanks again for those who diligently pray for me as well as provide
financial support for my ministry.
Without you it simply wouldn’t be possible.
Until
next time!
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.
