Thursday, November 13, 2014
Saturday, November 8, 2014
Botswana Bulletin #63
Botswana
Bulletin #63
"When
Disaster Strikes"
November
8, 2014
Prayer
Requests
1) Eyitayo family - Please be in prayer for
Pastor Eyitayo and his family. Pastor
Eyitayo is the pastor of the church (Open Baptist Church) I attend here in
Gaborone. Thieves broke into his house
and attacked him and his family. As a
result his teenage son Elisha was killed.
Please pray for the Eyitayo family as they mourn the tragic loss of
their son.
2) Setswana Lessons - Praise the Lord that I was
able to pass my Level 1 class in Setswana with flying colours. Please pray that next year I’ll be able to
pick up from where I left off and continue in my learning of the local
language.
3) Richard & Marlene - Please pray for my
boss Richard and his new wife Marlene as they settle into their new home. They were each living in their own house and
have now moved into a new place together.
Its alot of work to take on such a task so please pray that they would
settle into there new place soon.
4) Support - Praise the Lord for the success of
the Ride For Refuge fundraiser! Over
$2000 were raised through the fundraiser.
The plan is to split the funds between my support account and Flying
Mission’s ministries. Thank you to those
who participated in the event either by riding or by giving financially. A big thank you to those who gave directly to
my SIM account as well. I currently have
enough funds pledged for another year of ministry in Botswana! Glory to God!
5) Rain - Please continue to pray for rain to
fall here in Gaborone. We have had a few
showers here and there but nothing that has made much difference. Pray that God would open the heavens and
provide adequate rain to fill up the dam and replenish the cities water supply.
Introduction
Greetings
one and all from Gaborone, Botswana!
Wow, it’s been too long since I’ve written to all of you. I apologize for that. Things have been quite hectic over the last
few months so taking time to write a prayer letter has had to take a back
seat. However, I’m happy to announce
that I’m here now and ready to update you all on “the haps”. So without any further delay let me get
straight into it.
Earthquake
On
August 5th I had a first time event in my life. As I age I seem to get less and less of these
but it was actually a moment that almost passed me by without me realizing what
it was. I was in the Flying Mission
office working when the ground started to shake a bit. It wasn’t anything massive. I actually shrugged it off thinking a large
truck outside was driving by. After the
shaking happened I went into the common area of the office and people started
asking me if I felt the earthquake.
Earthquake?! Was that what it
was?! So yah, not much drama there but
after looking it up online apparently there was an earthquake in South Africa
and we were feeling the after shocks in Botswana. Upon investigating earthquakes online I also
came across some earthquakes close to home in Alberta. It was a while back now but I seem to
remember there was one near Rocky Mountain House. These are places I never really considered as
places where there would be an earthquake.
I remember people talking about earthquakes when I lived on Vancouver
Island but it was the first time I had felt one. Who’d a thunk that my first earthquake experience
would be in land locked Botswana, Africa?
Anyway, I’m grateful that no major disaster followed any of these
earthquakes. However, it was a reminder
that disaster can strike at anytime in our lives. How fortunate I feel to have a loving God who
will be there with me no matter what trial may come.
Eyitayo
Family
As
many of you know I have been attending Open Baptist Church here in
Gaborone. What many of you probably
don’t know is that the current Pastor of Open Baptist Church is Adekunle
Eyitayo. Pastor Eyitayo is originally
from Nigeria but has been living in Botswana for a number of years with his
wife and children. As I mentioned in the
last story we never know when disaster may strike in our lives. One night some thieves entered the Eyitayo
home and attacked Pastor Eyitayo and his family. As a result of the attack Pastor Eyitayo’s
teenage son, Elisha, was killed. As you
can imagine as a church family we were shocked.
However, it was powerful to see the strong faith the Eyitayo family had
during this very difficult time. Elisha
had become a believer a number of years before his passing so there was reason
to have hope that he was with the Lord in glory. After taking some time off Pastor Eyitayo is
back preaching in church again. It is good
to see that even though tragedy came into their lives, the Eyitayo family have
been able to endure through the grace of God.
Please continue to be in prayer for this family as the deal with the
loss of Elisha.
Setswana
Lessons
As
many of you know, ever since I came to Botswana I have been trying to learn as
much Setswana (the local language spoken here) as I can. I’ve had some lessons here and there but have
not been actively learning the language.
Well, I happened to have a chance encounter with a friend at Open
Baptist Church. His name is Peter and he
is the...well I guess you’d call him Multimedia Guru for the church. Peter is originally from Kenya but is now
settled in to life in Botswana. He found
a lovely Motswana woman and they married and have started a family. I don’t remember exactly how the conversation
went but somehow learning Setswana came into a conversation I once had with
Peter. He told me he had taken some
lesson at “Alliance Francaise” which is a French school here in Gaborone. Apparently they had hired a Setswana teacher
and had classes there for a reasonable price and Peter said the classes were
very good. Before I knew it I had
enrolled in class and was once again learning Setswana. The Level 1 class ran for about 2 months and
we had our exams at the end of February.
Not to brag or anything...but I did very well in the class. In fact I was graded as having “Advanced”
knowledge in Setswana. As encouraging as
this was it was alot of work. So when I
was asked to start Level 2 classes the very next week I actually passed. I thought I would take a little break from
Setswana and start up again next year.
Hopefully I won’t forget anything too quickly! Please pray for me though as I continue to
tackle learning the difficult but beautiful language, Setswana.
Khutse
Game Reserve
In
between learning Setswana and working hard at Flying Mission, I did take the
time to relax and go camping with some friends in the Khutse Game Reserve. Khutse, which translates into “where one kneels
to drink” is about 250km Northwest of Gaborone, but it took us most of the day
to get to because most of those kilometers are on rough sand roads. We took two 4x4 vehicles but one of the
vehicles four wheel drive failed to engage so we had some tough spots on the
road where we got stuck in the deep Khalahari sand. However, we were always able to pull
ourselves out of the sand and get moving again.
We saw lots of African animals during the 4 days we were out in the
reserve but I think the highlight was having a Brown Hyena come into our
campsite. He first showed up while we
were around the fire at night but got spooked off when we noticed him and
shined our flashlights on him. However,
he later reappeared while we were sleeping and actually tried to carry off our
propane tank! :-) All in all it was a great trip and I can’t
wait to head out into the bush again.
 |
| Khutse Game Reserve Main Gate |
 |
| The deep sand roads of the Khalahari |
Richard
& Marlene’s Wedding
Well,
as it turned out I had another first at the end of September. As some of you may know my boss, Richard Wheatley,
was recently married. Richard would
sometimes go on weekends to Francistown to preach at a local church there. It was there that he met a nice lady by the
name of Marlene. Well, suffice to say
they hit it off well and before too long they were engaged. I had the honor of being asked to be
Richard’s best man. I had never had the
pleasure of being someones best man before but as it turned out it was an
awesome experience. Richard and Marlene
had a great wedding. In fact, it was
probably one of the most laid back, kinda “chill out and enjoy” weddings I’d
ever been too. We didn’t even have to
wear suits. Richard and Marelene had
these lovely African shirts made for the men in the wedding party. Please be in prayer for Richard and Marlene
as they have had to move out of their individual houses and move into a new
place together. There is alot of work
involved in their move so please pray that they would get settled in their new
place soon so they can concentrate on simply enjoying life together as a
couple.
Zambia
Trip
After
having a great time in Khutse Game Reserve and at Richard & Marlene’s
wedding, reality struck once again. This
time it was the Flying Mission server in Zambia. Zambia was experiencing long power outages
and because of this our server was being turned on and off quite
regularly. Well, before long files on
the server began to become corrupted to the point where the server stopped
working. The server was brought to
Gaborone during the wedding and I was able to get it back up and running
shortly afterward. Then I had to board a
plane to Zambia to set it back up at our office in Lusaka. To my delight the server booted up and worked
great straight away! However, it wasn’t
all fun and games then as Zambia had a number of other jobs lined up for me
while I was there. In between work I was
able to visit with a number of our people in Zambia including some new people
that had recently arrived. I’m looking
forward already to my next trip up to Zambia!
Hopefully it won’t be because of an IT disaster this time. :-)
Ride
For Refuge/Support Update
In
previous prayer letters I mentioned the fact that my support levels were
critically low and that I was planning to take part in a fundraiser called
“Ride For Refuge”. The Ride For Refuge
bike ride happened on October 4th and was a huge success. My sister Lori Reid and her husband Dave did
a great job in helping organize this fundraiser to make it such a success. Total funds raised through the Ride For
Refuge was just over $2000. The plan is
to put $1000 towards my support needs and give $1000 to Flying Mission
ministries. A big thank you to my team
“Graham’s Goons” who did such a great job raising the money. And a big thank you as well to all of the
people who gave so generously to help support myself and Flying Mission. A number of people also gave directly to my
support account at SIM Canada. Thank you
to all of you who were willing and able to do that. My support account is looking very healthy
again. So much so that I currently have
enough pledged funds for another year of ministry in Botswana! So even though my support situation looked
disastrous, God was faithful and provided the needed funds. Glory to God!
 |
| My team of fundraisers. They lovingly called themselves "Graham's Goons" |
 |
| Graham's Goons hitting the road |
Trip
Home
For
those wondering when they will be seeing me in person again I have a short 8
week trip home planned at the beginning of March next year. My plan will be to travel around and visit as
many of you as possible. I don’t have dates
setup yet for where I will be and when but thought I would just give you a
heads up that I will be in Canada during March and April next year. I’m especially looking forward to staying in
the new home my Dad and sister are currently building together in Fort
Saskatchewan!
Conclusion
Well,
I think that pretty much sums up what has been happening in my life over the
past few months. Thanks to all who
continue to support me in prayer and financially. I have been so humbled by the response to my
support needs recently. You guys just
simply amaze me! And I know this is
early but just in case I don’t get another update in until next year - Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year! (It seems
so weird to be saying that already).
Until next time!
Peace
and prayers,
Graham
Crawford <><
(My
missionary number is 24460)
Please
visit my blog site at: botsbulletin.blogspot.com
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.
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