First, allow me to apologize to you all for not writing a blog while we were in Africa. We were unable to have internet access but for a few minutes. I will try and capture the accomplishments of the team and what God did through our efforts. I would like to thank all of you for your prayers. I have heard people say that they could feel my prayers and never quite understood what that meant until I experienced it myself. Your prayers were very powerful and effective and I could literally 'feel' them.
Despite the travel experience of 18 hours in the air and a total of 2 days of travel, it was a small inconvenience of the blessing that we received from the Lord. Botswana is a country that is fairly modern in the city developments and even in the villages where we were at people have cell phone coverage. As ironic as that may seem the people who live in the villages barely have running water and live in a 3rd world environment. Not only is the situation rough there from a living stand point, Botswana has one of the highest rates of HIV Aids in the world. To say that I was a little nervous going in would be a complete understatement. Botswana's cities (Francistown and Gaborone among others) are well developed and very comfortable. The driving force behind its economy are two fold: Diamonds and tourism. To my shock ever where we turned people were driving land cruisers and Mercedes cars.
Once we left the city and moved into the more rural areas the picture began to change quit a bit. The roads were nice up until the village and quickly became dirt roads with nothing in site for miles. The village called Mosojane has about 2,800 people in it. The people are all very kind and hospitable and really made us feel at home. Most of the population there is in poverty but most of the time has something to eat. The only source of drinking water is in a small pond that is shared by many animals that drink from it and leave their dung and other things in the water. You can probably guess that safe drinking water is a serious problem here and produces many illnesses because of it. They have also dug cisterns around the water source in hopes of getting clean water but usually to no avail. There is also one well that is being used that is 50 foot deep but has little water in it as well.
The houses are small hut's and some of the homes are nicer Masonite type structures with some having thatch roofs. We were able to stay in a home that was Masonite that had some accommodations that made our stay more enjoyable and allowed us to rest and recoup to make a bigger impact on the mission field. Botswana is 7 hours ahead of c.s.t. here in the U.S. so it made it difficult to get used to going to bed on time. I slept on a couch that was probably built in the 60's and almost sank to the floor. I rarely got a good nights sleep but decided not to complain after learning what most have to work with in their homes.
Joining us on the field was a team of college students from Open Baptist Church in Gaborone Botswana that was a wonderful asset to the mission. Their job was to coordinate the days events as well as food, lodging etc. The team also used puppetry and skits to interact with the people before we shared the gospel. Bo Shed, an evangelist from Alabama, Myself, followed by Ken and Mike Mozingo were responsible for sharing the message and sharing through music.
Sunday Oct 3 we traveled to a boarding school full of teens ages 16-19 to share the gospel message with them. I was quite nervous and continued to ask on the way into the town more questions as to what my audience would understand. Fortunately they all could understand English and understood more of our culture than some of our teens do. Sunday morning at 3 am God awoke me with a message on purity that I felt led to share. Once we were at the school we were expecting 500 students to show up, and to our unbelief nearly 12o0 showed to the service. The setting was outside in a flat amphitheater type setting. Students poured in and brought their own chairs. From the first song that was sung and the power that was being generated from their lungs, I knew this was going to be fun.
I finally got to stand and speak and shared a 3 fold message of purity followed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe nearly 5oo of the students gave their life to Christ that morning and God showed his wonderful power to us by the outpouring of his spirit. PRAISE BE TO GOD! After we closed the ceremony I found myself shaking hands for 20 minutes. It was if they were very grateful for our attendance and we gave Bibles away until we ran out. I was able to give my small bible to a young lady that was a new convert before we left. We then left to attend another service that lasted for 2 hours at the local church in Mosojane where God showed again.
After a much needed lunch we went to another school and ministered to around 300 youth there and saw man come to faith in Christ. Bo sang and spoke at this event and we were able to pray with many that came forward and made decisions. These students had many things on their heart including parents that had died from Aids, murder, etc. It was really sad to hear of the things that young men and women worry over at such a young age. We somehow gathered ourselves and finally ended the day at a archaeological site. We then enjoyed a dinner by the village women and had our first open air service at the church.
The next day we had a service with the chief of the village. We gave gifts to the chieftain and were greeted with an African dance and music. During this service the chief gave her heart to the Lord among others. At the end I handed out candy that was donated by a few ladies in our church that warmed the heart of the people and put a smile on their face that I will never forget. During the afternoon our team went out to a soccer (dirt) field and ministered to nearly 150 kids and 50 or more gave their heart to Jesus during the short message. We spent most of our time playing soccer and different games. The kids did not wear shoes even though their were shards of glass all over the field and we even saw several used condoms laying around. Again, it was told to me that many of the kids there have HIV so we were extra careful in our interaction. The kids were wonderful and we were able to build some relationships for the years to come and for the other missionaries that come behind us.
The rest of our time there we ministered outside of 2 bars in the evenings and held other day evangelism events. One of the day events was at a school where I was to share the gospel in the end. We found it highly entertaining that the interpreter was obviously not saved as he laughed and even messed up our presentation on what appeared to be on purpose. I told Ken before I stood to share that I wanted a different interpreter and that I was going to say some bold things. I made mention that there were some lost their today. I said "You may even be a teacher or even the interpreter here today and be lost without Christ." I couldn't believe what I saw when I gave the invitation. Several of the teachers, many of the kids and the interpreter gave their hearts to Jesus. It was really neat to see the Holy Spirit use the music, puppets, testimonies, and gospel presentation to bring those to Christ. God is good!
The nights we ministered outside of the bar's were really fun. All we had was car lights, our sound system and Jesus! We couldn't see who was coming and going and honestly it was neat to see God move in the pitch dark. Many were coming up during the presentations and listening to Ken and Bo preach the gospel and when the invitation was given, 30 plus came one night and 15 others on the second night to give their hearts to the Lord. A small caveat, there were only 50 or so at both meetings as it was hard to get the word out to the community. It was still really neat to see God's hand moving again.
Another neat story happened on our last day in the village. We spent most of our time cleaning and prepping to leave and we hung out at the local youth center for the afternoon. The youth center is across from the land that we praying about putting a church or a water facility on. That afternoon Bo led the director to Christ and others that were in the facility to the Lord as well. This facility teaches teens about how to protect themselves against aids. The one key thing that was missing from this effort was Christ and abstinence. They go so far as to show them how to use a condom and we noticed their literature had several false statements like: Using a condom will prevent HIV. This is a totally bogus statement and after the director gave his heart to the Lord I gave him my favorite Bible and was able to point him in scripture where the Bible clearly states what God expects of our sexual life in 1 Corinthians 6. It was as if the light came on instantly and the Holy Spirit changed that guys life right there! AMAZING! He made a promise to teach abstinence only and hopefully this is the beginning of a change in this area.
We also videoed the site for the new church and how we as a church can help and assist the mission there. I pray that our church will catch the vision that Call to Africa has and from what God did through this ministry. Many other things happened during our time there but I wanted to merely highlight a few powerful things we witnessed. The trip home was probably the hardest travel we had experienced. We are now home safely and we will never forget what God did in and through us. Thank you for being my friend and prayer partner.
David Howard
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