Why white girls shouldn't wear braids...

Prayer Requests!

Some prayer requests:

-The third term of school began Sept. 5. Pray hard for the students of Mmaphula CJSS during September and October as they are learning about God’s plan for sex. In a few weeks they will be asked to sign commitment cards if they are willing to commit to remain abstinent until marriage.

-Pray for Palapye Baptist church as it celebrates its one year anniversary in September. Pray that the church will continue to grow both spiritually and physically.

-Pray for the Journeymen in Palapye (Kelly, Crystal, and me) as we are making important decisions about future ministry opportunities in Palapye.

Happy Birthday Crystal!

Crystal turned 24 September 5^th. We had a pirate themed party for her. Yes, we have to make our own fun in Palapye.

The Dikupa Wedding

I went to my first Batswana wedding! Weddings are a huge joyful celebration with lots of eating and dancing. There are always two parts: one party in the girl’s home village and one in the guy’s home village. Anyone in the community can come—it doesn’t matter if you are invited or if you actually know the bride or groom. We had never even seen the bride or the groom before we attended their wedding! This was the second half in the groom’s home village.

Because this was a Christian wedding, there was first a ceremony that took place at a church. The bride and groom and the rest of the wedding party sat in the front while the pastor gave a message. Afterwards, he showed the marriage certificate and the couple kissed. Then the congregation danced and processed in a line to greet the couple as everyone sang traditional Setswana praise songs. Next the wedding party danced out of the church together. The bride wore a wedding dress and was attended by bridesmaids who worn fancy dressed made out of the same color fabric. In this way, it was similar to an American wedding. The groom and his groomsmen also wore tuxedos.

After the ceremony, everyone loaded up in cars and drive to a scenic spot. Everyone sang and danced while a photographer took pictures of the bride and groom and wedding party. Then we all drove to the groom’s house for the reception.

The family and friends of the bride and groom had been working all day to prepare a huge meal for everyone. Large tents were set up in the compound to accommodate the people. We sat and fellowshipped all afternoon and waited to be served. We were given a ridiculous amount of food: rice or samp (a kind of soft porridge with beans) with a tomato and onion sauce, chicken, seswaa (shredded beef), beets, slaw, potato salad, apple salad, and pudding with cake. I love traditional Batswana food (minus the beets)!

The wedding was beautiful and a neat experience even though we didn’t know anyone there!

One horribly funny story: In the middle of the meal Crystal says “Ouch! What just hit me?” She looks down and the wedding cake (which had been precariously balanced on a cake stand) has fallen off the table and rolled and hit Crystal in the leg! Someone quickly picks it up, brushes it off and sets it back on the table.

Maun and Makgadikgadi.

August 25-30 Crystal, Kelly, Shawna (J-man from Lobatse), and I went to Maun to visit career missionaries Jeff and Staci Powers. After getting a glimpse into their ministry in Maun, we all went camping in the Makgadikgadi Pans. Jeff is a big hunter and they own a game viewing vehicle. We rode all over the Pans in search of a lion we heard roaring the first night. Unfortunately we never found the lion, but we did a lot of evidence that he was around:

I have never seen so many zebra in my life! Because it is the dry season all the animal gather at the water hole to drink. Here zebra fight to get water from this small puddle.

Here, I enjoy a piece of zebra jerky as we look at all the zebra.

One of the coolest things we saw was this zebra stampede. All of a sudden over a thousand zebra come running up this hill and right in front of our vehicle. It was like a large zebra traffic jam.

In addition to zebra we saw hippo, elephant, kudu, impala, wildebeest, jackal, warthog, crocodile, a bush buck (a very private animal, very rare to see), a black mamba (the first snake I’ve seen in Botswana!), giraffe, vulture, and tons of other birds.

Youth Rally

August 16-20 was the annual nationwide Botswana Baptist Youth Rally. Palapye Baptist sent 24 youth north to the village of Tati Siding by train to attend the rally. Many of the youth had never ridden in a train before and some had never left Palapye, so it was an especially exciting trip for them. Here Kitso shows her excitement next to the train tracks.

In many ways this camp was like many retreats in America; there were Bible study sessions, conferences, workshops, nightly worship, and fellowship activities. This is a picture of some of the youth performing at the rally.

But in many ways the camp was extremely “African.” I know I don’t often use the blog to reflect on what God has shown me through my time here, but I just have to share this. We as Americans take so much for granted.

First, everyone is responsible for providing their own transportation to the rally. Most churches have church vans or the capability to rent a vehicle to take their kids to camp. Most churches have a youth minister or someone in charge of taking care of logistics of a trip like this one. Botswana churches have neither. Youth rode public buses or the train to Tati Siding and then had to walk about a mile from the bus stop or train stop to the school where the rally was being held. (This is of course after asking a random person around the village where the school was because another thing Botswana doesn’t have is maps and street signs.) Remember, that each of the youth had their bags for the entire week that they also lugged this mile to the school. Luggage included various duffle bags and shopping bags because most youth didn’t have fancy suitcases. Working M-Fuge, I saw students bring like a huge suitcase and a backpack and a pillow and a sleeping bag and maybe even more for a weeklong camp. Most of our youth had a small duffle that held everything for the entire week (including bedding and a plate and cup for meals). Some of our youth that came wore the same outfit everyday because they don’t have anything else to wear. Some of them didn’t bring bedding because they don’t have any to spare at home.

Anyways, we got to the rally in the afternoon well after registration was supposed to take place and nothing was going on. We put our stuff in the rooms (large rooms with bunk beds) and just waited. Finally after a couple hours the people showed to take our money. The rally cost 100 pula, which is about $20. While this may not seem like a lot of money to us, the youth had to work for months to be able to save the 100 pula to attend. They sold candy, did yard work, cooked meals, washed dishes, held a talent show, and still many could not afford to go. This 100 pula paid for all the meals for the week, the lodging, a t-shirt, and the program fees. As the evening went on, they had more girls show up than they had beds for. Girls were asked to share their twin beds so that everyone could have a place to sleep. The bath houses didn’t have electricity and few people own flashlights so using the toilet at night was difficult too. Basically, if you put an American youth in this situation, they would complain the entire week. At mealtime the youth took turns serving. We all lined up and were given papa (a hard porridge) and a small piece of meat. There were no choices; you either ate it or you didn’t. Sometimes food ran out and everyone didn’t even get to eat. Those that didn’t bring plates had to wait until someone was finished and then use their plate. After the meal, you were responsible for washing your own dishes.

Nothing was on time ever. There was a schedule to which we rarely adhered. The first time we were supposed to have workshops only two of the eight were offered because the teachers had not shown up. The conference times were the same way. Many leaders did not show up to teach.

The second day the youth executive committee had to deal with another problem. The school had doubled booked and another group was supposed to be coming in to have a conference the next day. The wanted nothing to do with fixing the problem and asked the two groups to handle it among themselves.

When the t-shirts finally came in, they were not the right colors that had been ordered and so most people had to settle for a different color and size than they had asked for.

I could go on but basically in the eyes of an American this rally would have been considered a disaster. It would have been every youth minister’s nightmare. They would have had a multitude of complaining students and chaperones on their hands.

Yet I was completely humbled by the attitude that these Botswana Baptist youth exhibited. So many of them commented on how nice the facility was (to which I was secretly thinking “really?”) They loved the food and didn’t care that there was only one option and only water to drink. They enjoyed the conferences and workshops and weren’t at all upset that they didn’t have very many options. They wore the same clothes almost everyday and didn’t care. They didn’t care that they were responsible for cleaning their rooms and the bathrooms everyday. And most of all they loved the worship and getting to praise God with youth from all over the country. Despite all the glitches in the program, God was at work in the lives of the youth. The theme of the week was based on Ephesians 4:1 which says we should walk “worthy of the calling.” As a journeyman, I was privileged to be able to pray with students during the invitation times each night. So many youth gave their lives to Christ and many others committed to live a life that would be worthy of the calling that we have received as Christians. Youth Rally was an amazing experience from me and a reminder of how much we as Americans really do take for granted. I wish daily that my attitude could be more like these Batswana that simply longed to worship and did not let circumstances prevent them from allowing God to work in their lives.

Crystal, Kelly, and I get ready to make the mile hike back to the train to head home.

The Church!

I spend so much time talking about church activities that I figured you might like to see a picture of the actual church building in Palapye. This is a picture of the Palapye girls in front of Palapye Baptist.