The Crawford Chronicles: July 2014

Botswana Bulletin #62

"A Time To Laugh"

July 19, 2014

Prayer Requests

1) Re Rotlhe – Praise the Lord that myself and a group of Flying Mission colleagues were able to go to the Re Rotlhe day care facility and distribute warm clothing for the children as well as some books and cooking supplies. Pray that Re Rotlhe would be able to recruit more volunteers to help with the child care as well as raise more funding so the project can continue to develop and become self-sustaining.

2) Financial support – I am very thankful to God for providing cheerful givers to cut my financial shortfall in half to $250/month. Please pray for a fundraiser I am currently organizing called “Ride For Refuge” (see rideforrefuge.org for more information). I am hoping to raise $5000 to help cover the rest of my financial shortfall as well as provide funding for Flying Mission projects.

3) Setswana Classes – Please be in prayer for me as I have recently started taking Setswana Classes. I have been able to pick up some of the language during my time here but it is a difficult language to learn and I am far from fluent. Please pray that I would pick things up quickly. My dream is to one day speak fluently in the language.

4) Clothing Donation – Praise the Lord for a donation of used clothing from a local dry cleaner. We have given away some of the clothing to Sedibeng Sa Lorato (a Flying Mission project located in the village of Gabane) and are hoping to sell the rest at a yard sale. If all the clothing sells we are expecting to make around $2000 to be used for Flying Missions different ministries.

Introduction

Greetings from a sunny but cool Gaborone, Botswana! As I write this letter it’s about 9am in the morning and the temperature is around +7C. Nothing near a bitter winter day in Canada but it can feel cold here at times considering there is no central heating to keep the house warm. I was hearing about the hot summer days in Alberta and was thinking how nice that was considering people were pretty sick of winter when I was home earlier this year. However, I’ve also heard about the devastating forest fires near Banff and Grand Prairie which have made it tough to celebrate the warm weather. Sometimes life is just tough. You feel like you’re getting kicked while you’re down, that sort of thing. Life can be tough in any context. You don’t have to be oversees to have that feeling. It’s something we all live with from time to time. With that in mind I thought I’d reflect more on the lighter side of life. Sometimes we all just need a good laugh to lift our spirits. So in this letter I’m going to share a few funny stories as well as give you a bit of an update on what’s happening with Flying Mission and what’s happening in my own life. Well, at least I hope it will be funny. Read on to find out! ;-)

Re Rotlhe

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to the village of Seherelela to visit the children at one of our day care projects called “Re Rotlhe”. Re Rotlhe in English means “We are together” which seemed fitting as a large group of us from Flying Mission were able to travel down together in two separate vehicles. The purpose of our trip was to bring some donated items to the day care, the biggest items being warm winter clothing for the children. However, as nice as it was to give warm clothing, cooking supplies and books to the day care, it paled in comparison to the joy the children received from a 4 year old boy from England. Paul and Tania Tanner are relatively new with Flying Mission as they only arrived about a year ago from England. Paul is our new Public Relations Manager and Tania keeps busy looking after their two children Thomas and Arthur. Since the Tanners have arrived, every time I’ve gone out to Re Rotlhe the Tanners have come along and always bring their children with them. Thomas is a bit of a novelty to the children. Arthur is still quite young and fragile but Thomas is a very rambunctious kid and the village children love playing with him. They will all crowd around him and Thomas will just run around bumping into them while the children scream and laugh with joy. It’s quite a spectacle to behold but it reminds me that as much as children need warm clothes, books to read, and cooking supplies, they also need to play and laugh. God provided that laughter for them through something unexpected, a 4 year old English boy.

Thomas doing what he does best

Now if we could just teach him to preach...

Ride For Refuge

In my last letter I mentioned that I had lost some of my monthly support and that it may result in me coming home sooner than I had expected. Well, I’m glad to announce that a few generous people have responded and have cut my current need in half to $250/month. Praise the Lord! On the day I discovered that my monthly support was running low I decided to take the need to the Lord in prayer. Almost immediately I received an e-mail from someone I had never met. The guy who e-mailed is named “Mika” and he works for a fundraising organization in Canada called “Bluesea Philanthropy”. He let me know about a fundraising opportunity that Bluesea was organizing called “Ride For Refuge”. Ride For Refuge is a cycling fundraiser that supports all sorts of different Christian charities that work with displaced, vulnerable and exploited people. Mika was wondering if this would be something that Flying Mission could be a part of. Having never met Mika I started an e-mail dialogue with him to see what this event was all about. After speaking with Mika, SIM Canada and with Flying Mission, I have officially been accepted as a partner (through SIM Canada) and will be able to raise funds through Ride For Refuge! We’ve set a goal of $5000 which will go towards my support shortfall as well as towards Flying Missions ministries in Botswana. Things are still in the early stages but I hope to have more information on how you can either sponsor someone riding or get involved as a rider yourself. The event will be taking place in Edmonton on October 4^th. There will also be other Ride For Refuge events happening throughout Canada so feel free to check out their website (rideforrefuge.org) if you are interested in participating. To see the page they have created for me visit http://rideforrefuge.org/partner/simcanada. I’m excited to see how God uses this event to help and encourage myself and Flying Mission!

Interesting Article

Someone recently forwarded me an interesting article titled “10 Things Missionaries Won’t Tell You”. It’s a great article and I thought I would pass it on to you to read. It really does give an insight into how it can be difficult to communicate certain things to people while living and working as a missionary. You can read the article at the following address: http://www.trinitykenya.com/10-things-missionaries-wont-tell/ .

Setswana Classes

Since I arrived in Botswana I have been fascinated with the local language spoken here called “Setswana”. Over the years I have had an opportunity to pick up some of it but it’s been difficult to learn more than just the basics. Through a friend at church I discovered that Setswana lessons were being offered at the French school here in town called “Alliance Francaise”. I went to the school to get more information and was able to enroll in their Setswana class. I’ve had two lessons so far and I’m really enjoying it. Theie are two classes a week for 10 weeks so I’ll be busy learning until about the middle of September. Please be in prayer for me that I will be able to pick up what is being taught quickly. My desire is to one day speak fluently in Setswana. Mastering the local language will be helpful in building strong relationships with local people and hopefully open up opportunities to share Christ with them.

Clothing Donation

Flying Mission recently received a donation of used clothing from a local dry cleaner. Apparently even in Africa people drop clothing off at the dry cleaners and then never return to claim them. The clothing we were given had been sitting at the dry cleaners for 3 years! So, to make room in the shop the dry cleaner decided to give the clothing away to a local charity. We were the lucky recipients! We sorted through the clothing and were able to give some to one of our projects in the village of Gabane, Sedibeng Sa Lorato. The rest of the clothing we are hoping to sell at a yard sale. If all the clothing sells at expected prices we are hoping to raise $2000. The money we raise will go towards various Flying Mission ministries.

Feather Fireworks

One morning I was driving in my car on my way to the Flying Mission office. There was a car ahead of me travelling at a high rate of speed. I remember thinking to myself that this guy is likely going to hit something orsomeone if he keeps driving like that. Just as I had finished my thought, a puff of bird feathers surrounded the car. A bird had tried to cross the road but was unable to make it across before getting hit by the car. I had assumed the bird would be dead but it wasn’t! Instead the bird was, for lack of a better word, naked. I didn’t see a single feather on it. It was just walking around like someone had plucked out every one of its feathers. This bird was going to have some explaining to do once it got home. “Honey! You’ll never believe what happened!”

Traditionally Built

After the rainy season ends it is quite common to see people on the side of the road cutting the long grass that has grown during the summer months. I’ve heard local people call these people “slashers” because they typically use a long hand held blade and swing the blade back and forth in a slashing motion to cut the grass. Once again I was in my car heading to the Flying Mission office when I saw a group of “slashers” cutting grass on the side of the road. I didn’t think much of it but as I got closer I couldn’t help but laugh at what I saw. Quite often there are older woman among the group of people slashing the grass. One of the older women in the group was what we call “traditionally built”. For those who have read or watched “The #1 Ladies Detective Agency” you know what I mean. For those who haven’t, traditionally built woman in Botswana are usually quite round and typically have a large back side. This woman was particularly “gifted” in the back side department. In fact, she was so gifted that as she slashed at the grass some of it had begun to collect on the top of her large bottom. It was almost as if her bottom had a top shelf and she was collecting grass on it. It looked like she was growing a feather tail made of grass. I can’t imagine anyone dared tell her, because how could you without laughing? J

Creative Caller

I see all sorts of things during my daily commute to the Flying Mission office but I was quite amused by what I saw on this particular day. As I was driving down the road I noticed someone had their hazard lights on and were driving slower than the rest of the traffic. As I approached the slow moving car I looked to see if I could see the reason for this guy driving with his hazard lights on. I didn’t see any issue with the car but when I looked at the driver I just started laughing. He was talking on his cell phone. As in Canada, it’s illegal to drive while talking on your cell phone in Botswana, a fine that I have paid once before. This creative individual seemed to think that flicking on his hazard lights was all he needed to do to remedy the situation. I’m thinking it wouldn’t get him very far with the police but at least he was trying to be safe.

Let Us Spray

A few weeks ago I was at church and the pastor had gotten up to the mic to start his sermon. Before preaching he said the familiar words, “Let us pray”. As the room gave way to silence, and before the pastor could utter the first word of his prayer, someone decided this would be a perfect time to blow their nose. Now, if it was a quieter nose blow I don’t think I would have even noticed. Nope. This was one of those fog horn type nose blows. So just after the pastor uttered, “Let us pray” someone lets loose a howitzer… FFFRRRRRT! It sounded something like the horn on an 18 wheeler. I couldn’t help it. I think I laughed through the entire prayer. The first thing that came to my mind was that the person misheard the pastor and thought he said, “Let us spray”. J

Conclusion

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed reading my letter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’d like to thank all of you who continue to pray for me and for Flying Mission as we serve the Lord here in Botswana. Thank you to those of you who have given sacrificially with your finances to allow me to even be here in Botswana. I am so grateful. I imagine many of you are enjoying your summer holidays now. I pray that it will be a safe time as many of you will be driving long distances to see family and friends. May you all have a blessed summer with many opportunities to laugh!

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><

Online donations can be made at: www.sim.ca

(My missionary number is 24460)

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.