Dumelang!
Greetings all! Well, remember last time how I said I have no official ministry these couple weeks? Well, God apparently likes setting up “unofficial ministry” opportunities. Just five days after God opened up the door to share the gospel with the boys who overheard me worshipping atop the highest hill in Mochudi, the Lord set up another divine appointment in the capital city, Gaborone…
Another Divine Appointment!
I was waiting to get my Botswana Driver’s License for hours and decided to leave the busy waiting room and sit in the lobby area of the high rise office building. A few minutes later while I was reading a book, a businessman came up to me out of the blue and asked if I might possibly have something to say that could encourage him during a hard time. He went on to explain the problem he was facing, and asked if there was anything I could share with him to help him focus on God and realize that God can bring good out of difficult things. I thought, Um…yeah, it’s kind of the story of my life lately! I pulled out my mp3 player which has a photo album on it entitled “Triumph out of Tragedy,” with photos detailing my accident/recovery. Over the course of the next half hour, I was able to share all about the accident, recovery, extending mercy in court, etc and how God can bring beauty from the ashes. Later, I shared about losing my dad and how God’s grace has proven sufficient even after that.
I gave him a little booklet YFC makes that explains more about the gospel and has a form he can fill out to receive the discipleship bible study course. He said he wants to get focused on God, to buy a bible and read it, to pray, to go to a Christian church (he’d been going to a Baha’i Faith center off and on lately), to be a man of God. He wants to really know right from wrong, and do what is right. If that wasn’t a divine appointment, I don’t know what is!
It’s cool to realize that even that conversation was another way God was bringing beauty from the ashes of our accident. Jessica’s mom Cindy thanked me for sharing the story of talking with this businessman, saying, “I was telling Kjel just this afternoon that I still struggle with making any sense out of Jess not being here. It helps SO much to read that God is using what sometimes feels like too much pain in my own life to bring glory to Himself and to bring people into a closer walk with Him.”
Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…
Going back a bit, there’s still more from the youth leader conference in South Africa that I wanted to share. When I got back from the conference, I read an email from my aunt Roni (Dad’s sister) in England in response to my previous blog post. I had mentioned in that post how I had written a letter to one of the Canadian short-term volunteers encouraging her with Hebrews 12:1-2 [“Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith”] and to have a marathon mentality in this race of faith…and amazingly, she had written me a letter that same night also quoting Hebrews 12:1-2 and telling me that my work here is a marathon! Well, turns out my aunt Roni had just been preparing a lesson for family church on Hebrews 11-12, but focusing on Hebrews 12:1-2!
When I read Roni’s email telling me that, I recalled how at the conference, they had shown us a short film based on Hebrews 12:1-2 and how the “great cloud of witnesses” cheering us on as we run our race is made up of those heroes of the faith listed in Hebrews 11, but also the great heroes of the faith in our own lives who have gone on to heaven ahead of us. They are cheering for us, “Come on! Don’t quit! It’s worth every effort you make! You can do this by the grace of God! Keep running!”
Then after we watched that short film as part of a silent reflective journey where we went to several rooms/stations to reflect on things, journal, read quotes, I went into a room where there was a paper about 30 feet long where they had drawn circles for faces where we could write in some of the “great cloud of witnesses” and share a bit about them. Many people were writing in loved ones who had died. Here is what I wrote, through tears that came as I wrote:
My Dad – he just joined the great cloud of witnesses in heaven 2 months ago. I know he’s proud and cheering loud, as God provides the grace for me to keep running the race He set before me. My dad supported my calling to missions in Botswana. The last time I saw him was when he “gave me away” on Valentine’s Day to leave home and follow the call of my Beloved to Botswana. He always supported my following God’s call, even if it meant saying goodbye…for now.
So yeah, that is something I had just realized that week—I don’t know if I’ll ever get married where Dad would’ve given me away to the bridegroom, but I’d realized that Dad seeing me off to Botswana was, in essence, his “giving me away” to my Beloved [Christ] and entrusting me to His care here. On Valentine’s Day, no less. When my former youth pastor had written on my facebook, “so the Father is flying out his girl on Valentine’s Day, huh? How perfectly poetic!”, Dad had written to me that her comment made him teary eyed as reality was dawning that I’d be leaving.
Obviously, Dad had known for years I would be leaving and he had “given me away” to the Lord in his heart. I can still remember vividly a very meaningful conversation with Dad when I was 19, after I had just told my parents how I felt called to be a long-term missionary in Botswana. He said, “I hope you weren’t afraid to tell us what you feel God is calling you to do. As we see it, you were a gift from God, and we’re just giving you back.” So in his heart, he had already entrusted me to Christ’s care, but the day that he actually finally had to say goodbye and see me off to Botswana was Valentine’s Day. So, in a way, Dad did “give me away” to my true Bridegroom on Valentine’s Day...and now we know it was truly saying goodbye until we meet again in the Kingdom of Heaven. But for being the last time I saw him, it is pretty poetic, isn’t it? And my Beloved is indeed caring for me here in Botswana. Always faithful. In good times and bad. In sickness and in health. Until death …brings us closer—for death will NOT part us. Nothing can. Amen.
My first day back at the internet after the conference in South Africa, I got the email from my aunt about Hebrews 12:1-2 and emailed her back to tell her how Hebrews 12:1-2 had come up at the conference too. Right after that email, I drove home and one of my housemates Katie (not knowing I had just been writing/thinking about Heb. 12:1-2) showed me the craft poster that the kids at the daycare holiday program made that day—they had made footprints with paint and painted Hebrews 12:1 on it! It’s cool to see the ways that God is encouraging us to keep running with perseverance the race that is set before us.
An Epic Journey…brass bands and baboons!
Speaking of running with perseverance, Saturday I set out on a long run. I ran to one of my favorite spots along the river, where I can sit on a low-lying branch and pray/reflect. Then I walked a bit further along the footpaths to another spot I like to sit, where I saw my four-foot lizard friend again. I have learned that it is a monitor lizard, meaning a mix between a massive iguana, snake, and crocodile. Seeing as how he has been there by that same spot in the river the three times I’ve been there, I think it’s safe to say it is the same lizard. This means I should give him a name. Any suggestions?
Then after exploring other trails, I made it back to the juncture where I could go back home. I had been gone over 45 minutes at this point and was about 15 minutes from home. But I heard the sounds of a marching band in the distance…and it beckoned me to discover more trails by ‘following the music’. So I set off on little footpaths in the direction of the brass sounds and drums. This part of the village is just nature/bush with little footpaths (no roads, no houses). I kept going, encountering goats and cows along the way. The music was getting louder. Then I made it to the river again…and found a safe place to cross on some huge pipes that had been piled up to form a bridge. I could hear I was very close at this point…Sure enough, I discovered the band playing outside at a church. I walked by, and they invited me to come in and sit next to the band to listen.
It was a band made up of all ages…of about 20 brass instruments (tubas, baritones, trumpets, trombone), a bass drum, a snare drum, and a healthy contingent of tambourine tappers. I was impressed to see that most of them did not have music in front of them…and those that did, only had solfege letters written [ie. S D RM …= So Dol Re Mi]. The director was instructing the tubas on their part and he sang it in solfege for them. In my music major opinion, that takes way more musical insight and aptitude to play by solfege…having to always think in the particular key what note is which solfege symbol…instead of just seeing notes in front of them. I guess I wasn’t expecting to encounter something like this in a village in Africa.
On my journey back home, I wasn’t able to retrace my steps because I forget all the twists and turns, but I knew the general direction to head through the bush section…and in so doing, I saw 3 baboons! Those were the first baboons I have seen in the wild here in Mochudi. I’ve seen some monkeys, but these were bigger. Sweetness! Soon afterwards, I recognized where I was, and headed home the way I usually take. This involved responding to the “Emily!” shouts from my little friends who I say hi to each time as I pass their house. I usually stop and high-five them, but they were at the neighbors’ yard and yelled and waved from there. Their names are Rose, Lame (pronounced Lah-may, not Lame!!), Tumisang, and Botho. Then as I kept running, a little while further down the road the kids, as usual, yelled “Emily!” and came running out to the road to meet me smiling and excited, and so we ran together for a few minutes as is their joyous custom (they giggle and laugh most of the time, which makes me smile too). Yesterday was just 3 kids, but some days it is six barefoot kids ranging from 5-10 years old.
One day whilst running with my barefoot “posse” of 6, we passed an older man smoking. He smiled, noting my excellent posse, and said, “Shapo, Mama” which means “It’s all good, Mama!”. That made me smile as well. Who knew when I came to Botswana I would become a mama? That’s what they call you if you are female, even without children. And that my name is now Lekgoa [white person]. Every time I go running, I hear from the yards little voices excitingly yelling, “Lekgoa!! Lekgoa!! How are you?” One time, another YFC volunteer was told by a little child, “Your name…is Lekgoa.” Awesome. One day I was walking in town along the sidewalk in Mochudi, when a young man in his 20s coming towards me started doing a jive dance and chanting “Lekgoa! Lekgoa!” If only I could re-enact his jive for you…it was amazing. Now that the kids are getting to know my name, more often I’m hearing “Emily!! Emily!!” instead of “Lekgoa! Lekgoa!” when I go running. Earlier this week while running with about 5 kids a few minutes from their house, another kid came running down an adjoining path towards us, yelling “Emily!” and joining the posse.
After the adventurous run, I spoke at our Coffee Bar drop-in center Saturday night about AIDS and abstinence. I will share more about that in a future post, including how we’ve given Coffee Bar a new name.
Blessings until next time!
~Em
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