The Crawford Chronicles: December 2015

Botswana Bulletin #67

“The Last Of The Lasts”

December 19, 2015

Prayer Requests

Flying Mission IT Department - Please pray for Daniel, Richard and Matthias (IT person in Zambia) as they continue running the Flying Mission IT Department without me. Pray that Daniel will settle in nicely as my replacement
Time With Family - Please pray for Kathleen and I as we will be spending time with each others families. Pray for good friendships to be made.
SIM Status - Kathleen and I are currently focusing on going to Benin by around January 2017. Pray for Kathleen and I as we transition into a new life together and a new field. Pray for us as we both work for SIM Canada next year.
Time With Supporters - Pray for Kathleen and I as we will be traveling a lot during the next 2 months visiting people and churches. Pray that we would both make good connections with each others support teams.

Introduction

Greetings one and all from beautiful South Africa! Yes, even though this is officially my 67th letter this will be the first one that I’ve written in South Africa. Well, maybe I should check that. As far as I know this is my first. As I just said it’s my 67th letter so I may have forgot one or two. So, to be exact, I’m actually at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. I have about 5 hours until I fly to Zurich, Switzerland so I thought I’d take time to write a much needed update to all of you. I had intended to send a letter out earlier but December turned out to be much busier than I had planned. So without further delay lets get to the newsy newsness. (Not sure that’s a word)

My Last Day at Flying Mission

Officially my last day with Flying Mission was yesterday (Dec 18th). However, I haven’t really been working much since November 30th. Richard (my boss at Flying Mission) agreed that I was free to roam Gaborone and say my good byes after November 30th but needed to be available to help Daniel (my replacement in the IT dept) in case he needed my help. As expected, Daniel has done a great job on his own and I only spoke to him a few times on the phone. He has been able to handle whatever has been thrown at him which is a real blessing for me. Having Daniel there and doing a good job makes leaving that much easier. Thanks Daniel, I’m gonna miss working with you!

What Are Your Plans Now?

So, this is the big question that most people have been asking me lately. As with any plans, this could change, but it is the direction Kathleen and I feel is the direction God is leading us. In other words just put “Lord willing” in front of about every sentence you read from now on. Here are the details.

Tomorrow (Dec 20th) I will finally be reunited with Kathleen after spending 4 long months on different continents. I will stay with her and her family in New Brunswick (Geary, NB for those who want to know) until January 8th. On Jan 8th Kathleen and I will fly together to Edmonton, AB and stay with my family in Fort Saskatchewan. We will be doing some travelling within Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan to visit friends and family. We will be visiting my supporting churches as well so that Kathleen gets a chance to meet my support team. This is our current travel schedule while we are in Western Canada:

Jan 10th - Fort Saskatchewan Alliance Church

Jan 17th - Fort Saskatchewan Fellowship Baptist Church

Jan 24th - McKernan Baptist Church (Edmonton, AB)

Jan 31st - Northlife Church (Fort McMurray, AB)

Feb 6th - Fly to Nanaimo, BC

Feb 7th - Parksville Fellowship Baptist Church

Feb 9th - Fly to Edmonton, AB

Feb 10th - Travel to Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan and back to Edmonton, AB

Feb 20th - Fly to Toronto, ON

Feb 21st - Fly to Fredericton, NB

At some point, which date I will not be sharing in this letter, Kathleen and I will get

officially engaged. Yes, there is a ring and a plan. As Forest Gump would say, “Thats all I have to say about that.” So assuming Kathleen says yes, we will be full time wedding planners once we get back to New Brunswick in February.

What Is Your Current Status As A Missionary?

For those who may be wondering about support and such (some people have already asked this) I’ll answer the questions here. I hope I’ve made it clear but in case I didn’t I am no longer with Flying Mission. I am however still an SIM Canada missionary. The official status that SIM Canada uses is that I’m on “home assignment”. I will actually be working for SIM Canada while in Canada. The details of my job is not quite established yet but I will be having meeting with the SIM Canada office personnel to iron that out in January. Unofficially it looks like I will basically be a resource to help communicate with people who are interested in serving as missionaries with SIM. People who are

interested in serving but have questions and such, I’ll be someone they can talk to. It

actually sounds really fun. So that will be my job for most of next year. This means that I will be working for the mission and that I can still receive financial support. My hope and prayer is that my support team continues supporting me during this transitional phase of my life but I understand if some of you don’t. Unfortunately, I can’t give a current figure on my exact support needs while in Canada, but I will let you all know once this is sorted out. We should have this figure worked out early next month.

How Long Will You Be In Canada?

The plan is to be in Canada for all of 2016. I’ll give you a rough sketch of what that should look like.

As I’ve already explained earlier, Kathleen and I will return to New Brunswick at the end of February. We will be wedding planners/SIM Canada workers until the wedding which will likely be in May. After the wedding Kathleen and I will go on a 2 week honeymoon (the current plan is to go to…Ecuador!) This should bring us to about the middle of the year. In my last prayer letter I mentioned that we were currently looking at the possibility of going to Benin. Our placement in Benin is currently unofficial, but Kathleen and I are very excited about the possibility. So, Lord willing, this will be where SIM places us

after we get married. For those who don’t know, Benin is a French speaking country. English is not widely spoken there. This will mean that Kathleen and I will need to go to language school. SIM Canada has recommended a school in Quebec which we would need to attend for 1 year. This is good because SIM Canada recommends that newly

married couples spend at least a year in their home country before going overseas. So after Kathleen and I get married, if Benin becomes official, we will depart for Quebec, get settled in there and start attending French School. French school is 2 semesters September to December, then January to April. This would likely mean that we would be leaving for Benin in May 2017.

So You’ll Be In Canada For 1.5 Years?

Possibly. However, there is another possibility that we are looking at. The SIM director in Benin has suggested that we could move to Benin in January 2017 and attend a French School there. This would mean we’d only be in Canada for about 1 year. This goes against SIM’s recommendation of being home for 1 year though so an exception would have to be made for us. Kathleen and I both have previous experience in Africa so this may be an easier transition for us. So, if Benin works out we could leave as early as

January 2017.

Conclusion

I’ve thrown a lot of information and dates at you so I hope it wasn’t too confusing. As I mentioned at the beginning these are all plans that are not written in stone yet. I wanted to give you as much information as I could though because I want you all to know what is happening and approximately when. If some of you are wondering how I’m feeling about all this change, I’m totally stoked! I’m really excited for 2016 and think it has the makings to be one of the best years of my life. I thank all of you for joining me on this journey I call life thus far. I hope you stick around a while longer though, cause it looks like the best is yet to come!

Thank you to all of you who make this crazy life I live a reality. I could not be doing what I’m doing without your prayers and financial support. Thank you so much! I look forward to meeting with many of you during the course of next year and introducing you to Kathleen.

Oh, and before I go I’d like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Jesus is the reason for the season!

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><

SIM Contact Info:

SIM Canada

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Scarborough, Ontario

M1W 2S5

Canada

Tel: 1-800-294-6918

E-mail: info@sim.ca

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