4 Sleeps Until I Leave......

As they say in South Africa, I have 4 sleeps until I leave for the states! Yeah!!! Its been a crazy week though trying to finish everything up here and get ready to leave. I do find it humerous that the day I arrive in the states Starbucks is raising their prices by 5 cents. Those of you who know how much I have complained about missing Starbucks will understand the humor in that.

I wanted to give you a quick update on Rose. I met with her on Tuesday night and was sooo encouraged. I asked her if she could tell me how she became a Christian. I was expecting to hear some story from her childhood and how she goes to church etc. Instead, she started to share with me about how hard things were for her when her mother died and how angry at God and how sad she was. She said everyone kept telling her to pray and that God was always there for her. She didn't like it when people told her that bit gradually over a few months it seems that God softened her heart and in the process saved her. She can share the gospel in an understandable way and can explain why Christ had to die. She even used an illustration from the Fundamentals of the Faith book to demonstrate what Christ had accomplished on the cross. (A Bible Study we all thought she hadn't paid attention in.) Without me asking, she also began to share with me the difference Christ has made in her life. She loves to pray and read the Bible. She isn't harsh and angry all the time. I was sitting there amazed at what I saw. She is truly a different person with a different countenance. She is genuinely happy and joyful. Time will tell about the genuniness of her conversion but it seems like God has truly done an awesome work in her life. What an answer to prayer!

It was also very challenging to me to think about how small my faith is and how big our God is. I remember praying Lord save her and since that seems impossible- make her quit or give us a reason to fire her. We serve a truly amazing God who is able to do immeasurably more then we can ask or think. This has been such a great reminder to me of that. It was also a great reminder not to give up praying for the people we view as impossible for God to save. Its not about me and what I can accomplish. Its about God's work in people's hearts and lives. He's the one who changes people.

Leaving Home to Come Home

Its a weird feeling to have two homes but in many ways that is the way I feel. Two weeks from today I will be landing in Los Angeles!! How exciting! I will first be attending the GMI conference in San Diego. I return to Los Angeles on October 14th and will be there until October 29th. I will then spend a week in the Philadelphia area visiting family. I would love to see as many of you as possible. If you would like to schedule a time to get together, please drop me an e-mail.

Just a brief update on Rose. Lyn and I had a great meeting with her today. She has agreed to meet with me to talk about her relationship with God and what she believes. Please be in prayer for this. She is still very seeped in ancestoral worship. Thanks so much for praying!!

Some Recent Pictures.....

Such a sweet smile!

Me with some of the kids


Rosemary preparing the kids medicine. Taking medicine is such a part of our kids lives that when they play with their dolls, they pretend to give them medicine like some kids pretend to give their dolls tea to drink.


Christie, Jennifer and I. Jennifer is here for a year with her husband. She is teaching preschool at Lambano and he is helping to finish building our church plant church building.

God is able to do abundantly more.....

When some of our staff workers ask to speak to me, I know what they want to do- complain about management. Thats what I assumed last week when Rose asked to speak to me. To be honest, we have had Lambano management meetings where we have prayed for either a reason to fire Rose or for her to quit. In the past, she has seemed to stir up trouble where ever she was working.

I was thinking recently about the need to praise people for what they do well. Some people only hear what they are doing wrong and never hear anything positive. So, last week I mentioned to her in passing that I appreciated what a hard worker she is. She beamed from ear to ear.

The next day when I went to talk to Rose, I assumed that she was in trouble and wanted to win me over to her side. Was I ever wrong!!! Instead, Rose asked me what she could change to be a better worker. Currently, we are looking for people to promote to housemothers. Rose knows she would never be considered at this point for that position. She told me she really wanted to know what she needed to change about herself for this not to be the case. When she asked, she was very humble and open to what I had to say. Her spirit was entirely diiferent then what I have seen in the past. What an answer to prayer! She also mentioned to me how much what I had said meant to her. She said it had kept her up at might because she was so happy that people were saying nice things about her.

My suggestion to her was that we meet with Lyn (the Director of Lambano) to discuss what she thought Rose should change. We're doing that this coming Monday. I told her that we would then come up with a plan on how to work on some of the things she needs to change.

Ephesians 3:20-21

20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Bostwana

Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to go to Bostwana to speak at a Women's Conference. Bostwana is an African country of about 1.6 million people. It also has the highest AIDs rate in the world. I took two of the young adults (Kerry and Christie) from church with me. It was a very encouraging and refreshing weekend.

Friday night the pastor's wife hosted a dinner for about 8 women were we discussed why biblical counseling and the priority of discipleship in women's ministry. Two topics I am a little passionate about :). Saturday I spoke on God's Solutions to Life's Problems. The women were very eager to learn and teachable. It was a great day.

The church, Open Baptist Church, is a church of about 700 people and has about 37 nations represented in the congregation. It was very different to be in an African country that is not as racially divided as South Africa and were crime is not as huge of an issue. Gaborone neighborhoods are mixed with there be low income housing, middle class and upper class housing all in the same neighborhood. You would never find that here.

It was encouraging too to see the ways that the church is trying to minister to the community. They have developed a program where they disciple and train college students who then go into the local high schools and teach AIDs prevention and specifically abstinence. They have now been invited by the Department of Education to teach it in all of the high schools. What a great opportunity.

Kerry and I with Mary (one of the most joyful people I have ever met)

Kerry, Christie and I

Christie and I at a recent rugby game

 

A trip to the clinic

Yesterday was a very sobering day. One of our staff workers asked me to take her to the local clinic to get tested to see if she was HIV positive. The stigma of AIDs is so great here that many who need to get tested are scared to and don't. So, this was a very brave and scary thing for her to do.

Its kind of weird to sit there and in some ways be waiting for someone to receive a death sentence. We're pretty sure that she has it but the test came back inconclusive. They did bloodwork and the tests won't be back until the end of next week. That's a long time to wait to know if your life is about to be changed forever.