“Big Changes”
August 29, 2015
Prayer Requests
1) Power/Water Situation - Botswana is currently
going through a water shortage crisis.
Power is also off from time to time but the water situation has reached
a critical level. Its not quite as bad
in Gaborone as some villages are going without any water for an entire
week. Please pray that something will be
able to be done so that everyone can have access to fresh water on a consistent
basis.
2)
Re Rotlhe
Playground Project - Praise the Lord that over $3000 has been raised to build a
proper shade structure over the children’s
playground. Also praise that Re Rotlhe
now has a new plot and some grant money to build a new facility with. The existing playground will be moved to the
new location and the shade will be built there.
Thank you to all who gave to make this a successful project!
3)
Kathleen - Praise
the Lord that he has led to me a godly woman!
Please pray that my remaining months with Flying Mission will go by
quickly. Pray for Kathleen and I as we
seek the Lord as we plan the wedding and our new life together.
Introduction
Greetings everyone from Gaborone, Botswana! I’ve
finally found some time to get an update out.
I’ll try to finish it quickly before I get distracted by
something else! :-) I haven’t
been able to send an update out since I arrived back in Botswana. Sorry about that. I actually have a ton of stuff to tell you
guys so let me just get right into it.
Furlough
In case you haven’t
assumed already I arrived safely back in Botswana at the beginning of May. I had a great two months in Canada spending
time with family and friends in Alberta and BC.
I even had a chance to make a “special
friend”
while in Canada. More on that later…
Power/Water Situation
When I first returned to Botswana reality hit me quite
quickly. The power and water were both
off in my house when I arrived at home.
This is something that we’ve
had to live with here in Botswana with increasing frequency. The power situation was really bad for a
while. Most nights I had no power at all
in my neighbourhood. Something was
obviously done about that as this is something that now happens less frequently
(yet still happens from time to time). I
think what they did to fix the situation was this. Around about a year ago the Botswana Power
Corporation started installing what they call “smart meters”. These are electric meters that allow
customers to buy “credit” that allows them access to the electrical grid. For example, instead of the meter simply
tracking the amount of electricity you use and bill you for it, you “pre-pay” and
buy, say $100 worth of electricity and the meter tracks the amount of
electricity and slowly eats away at the balance of credit you put in the
meter. Once the meter credit reaches $0,
your power turns off. This took some
getting used to but eventually you started to figure out how much power you
used in a month. This I think helped a
bit as I heard that there were many people that just never paid there electric
bill and the power company never shut off their power so people were using power
without paying for it. The next thing
they did is they activated the “smart” part of the meter.
The meters are remotely programmable and the power company has now
enforced a specific amount of power that you can use in the evening. This means that between 6pm-10pm you can only
use a few electrical devices in your home.
If you use more power than the enforcement allows the meter starts beeping
and you have a short amount of time to turn devices off or the meter turns off
your power for 1 hour. So yah, as you
can imagine quite a few of us were having our power go off every night due to
over usage. However, as time went on you
got used to it and started to figure out how many things you could turn on in
the evening before you’d trip off your
power. Just to give some insight on to
what this entailed, to boil a pot of water for tea in the evening I had to turn
every single thing off in my house. I
only had enough power to run a kettle!
Nothing more! So yah, its taken
some getting used to but I think these measures have made the power situation
more stable.
The larger issue has been the water. Water is being very restricted these
days. Just this morning when I went to
shower there was only enough pressure to shower under what amounted to “drool”. Some days the water is completely off. In rural villages I’ve heard that the water can be off for as long as a
week. The city dam is completely
dry. To be honest, I have no idea where
the water in Gaborone is even coming from.
My guess is its being piped from dams further north. I have no idea what the plan is to fix the
situation. Please pray for Botswana that
there will be good rains this year as it has been extremely dry. Pray that the dams of Botswana will be filled
once again and that the Lord will be glorified as He provides the rain.
Re Rotlhe Playground Project
In July, SIM contacted me to let me know that I was
going to be their “Missionary of the
month”
for August. What this entailed was that SIM would
highlight myself or a ministry I was a part of to increase its awareness with
supporters. Since my own support team
has covered my needs so well, I decided to promote a Flying Mission project on
SIM’s website. I’m sure some of you saw it on the website or were
contacted by SIM directly. The Flying
Mission project is called “Re Rotlhe” (roughly translated as “We Are Together”) which is a
children's day care based in the rural village of Seherelela. The
issue that the day care is currently dealing with is
their playground. The playground has
been built mostly out of steel and when the hot Khalahari sun hits the metal
swings and slides it becomes unusable.
The idea has been to build a structure above the playground to provide
shade for the equipment and the children so they can play in comfort. I am happy to announce that SIM has told me
that the entire $3000 for the project has been raised! In fact, as God usually does, he has provided
even more than the $3000! (I believe its
something like $3220 but I haven’t
gotten the final amount from SIM yet) So
to those that have given, thank you so much.
I plan to contact each of you individually to thank you for your
generous giving. I imagine SIM and
Flying Mission will contact you as well to thank you for your donations. I also have an update to the project. As it turns out things are going to improve
even more because of a recent development.
Re Rotlhe currently resides in a temporary location (a location they do
not own). For this reason they have been
searching for their own plot of land in the village so they can build a proper
day care centre. A plot of land has been
recently given to Re Rotlhe as well as some grant money to enable them to build
a new larger facility on the plot. The
plan now is to move the existing playground to the new plot and then build a
shade structure above it with the donated money we have just received. So as you can see there are big changes
happening at Re Rotlhe! Praise the Lord!
Who is Kathleen?
This is a question people have been asking me
recently. I finally feel that I am able
to answer this question without reservations.
For those of you who don’t know, I met a
beautiful woman named Kathleen Davidson when I arrived back in Canada in
March. We met at the SIM Canada head
office in Toronto. Kathleen had recently
become a member of SIM and is currently assigned to work as a nurse in
Benin. She was at the SIM Canada office
doing her orientation when I arrived to do my debrief. I was invited to take part in the orientation
and give my insights. This gave me the
opportunity to meet Kathleen and get to know her a bit. After I left Toronto and headed to Edmonton
we began communicating via Facebook and then started
having regular Skype conversations. As
time went on and I headed back to Botswana the relationship grew. We made a plan to meet in South Africa
earlier this month and spent two weeks together there. We had a fantastic time! We are very much in love and we have now
decided that we’d like to get married!
The big issue we were facing is how this would be done when we aren’t even living in the same location! My original plan was to stay in Botswana
until the end of April next year and then head to Canada for furlough. We both agreed this is too long to be
apart. So, we talked about it and I
agreed to speak to Flying Mission about coming home early. After speaking with Flying Mission they
agreed that coming home in
December would be acceptable. I want to leave the mission on good terms and
ensure that there IT needs are covered when I go. The next few months will give me time to
properly train Daniel to take over my work.
I also spoke with SIM and they are in complete agreement.
In fact, both organizations are very excited for both myself and for
Kathleen. So my last day with Flying
Mission will be on December 18th when the Flying Mission office closes for the year. The plan from there is to fly to New
Brunswick (where Kathleen is from) and meet her family in person. I’ve
had a chance to talk to her parents over Skype already so it will be nice to
meet them in person. This will also give
me the opportunity to seek the parents blessing to get married in person. After spending time in New Brunswick, Kathleen
and I will head to Alberta so she can meet my family. It is likely there that I will propose
(sorry, gotta leave a few secrets) and we will be planning the wedding for sometime next year (April or
May most likely). Some of you may be
thinking that I’m ruining all the romance by telling you all our
plans, but as my supporters you are a part of my life! I want you to know what is happening and why
it’s happening and where things are heading. Some of you may be thinking, “Isn’t this all happening
to fast?” Well,
Kathleen and I talked about that but we also feel that the relationship has
gone through natural “progressions” (for lack of a better word) and at this point in the
relationship either we need to decide to get married or break up. We both agreed that we didn’t want to just date.
We wanted to be in a relationship to determine whether this is a
relationship that could lead to marriage.
Well, we obviously both agree that this is the case. So, we made a plan to make it happen. Some of you may be wondering if I plan to
return to Flying Mission and Botswana.
The answer at the moment is, probably not. Kathleen and I both want to continue being
missionaries with SIM. That won’t change.
However, we do want to ensure that wherever we go we both have ministries
that we can be a part of. Flying Mission
has said they would be happy to have me return but when we looked at
possibilities for Kathleen in Botswana we didn’t really find anything that fit.
We’ve already talked with SIM and the plan will be to
look at a field (preferably in Africa) where we can both serve together. A possibility at the moment is that we will
both go to Benin which is where she was planning to go in January. SIM has recommended that after getting
married that couples spend 1 year together before entering the mission
field. We understand why SIM is saying
this but we also want to hear what the Lord is saying to us and obey Him as he
leads us. At this point that is about
all I can tell you about the future. It
feels like there are so many things that will be changing in my life next
year. I would really appreciate your
prayers as Kathleen and I (with God’s
help) figure it all out.
 |
| Kathleen and I in Mossel Bay, South Africa |
 |
| My favourite picture of Kathleen |
So, do you understand now why I was quiet for a little
while? Lots of big changes will be
coming in the future. As I’ve said your continued prayers would be
appreciated. And while we are on the
subject of that let me just take the time to thank you all for your prayer
support and financial support. I’m fully aware that these past 11 years in Botswana
would not have been possible without your help.
Thank you so much! So, as I transition
into a new phase in life I look forward to continuing to partner with you and
going wherever the Lord may take us.
Peace and prayers,
Graham Crawford <><
(My missionary number is 24460)
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.
