Saturday bible study

On Saturday mornings, the kids and I walk to the neighborhood right beside of ours and do a children’s and ladies bible study. In November, the children finish their school year and then most of them leave the city where we live and go to the villages where their families are originally from. Before the kids left, we did a Christmas party  and gave them toothbrushes/toothpaste (from Glenwood Baptist Church in NC), chips, and a frisbee (from Sewell Valley Baptist Church in WV). They decorated their frisbees and then they didn’t know what to do with them. So we taught them how to throw a frisbee and then there were 20+ frisbees flying through the air creating sheer chaos. It was fun though. They learned about the story of baby Jesus this day and we pray that each of these children one day will ask Jesus into their hearts.

This is Mma Simba. She is one of the 4 ladies who attends Saturday morning bible study each week. She is a seamstress and makes very beautiful dresses. This is her 2nd born child-Neka.

Batswana Missionaries

I want to introduce you to two very special young men-Jones and Thato (Ta-to). If you heard us speak during Stateside, you have heard about Jones who is Brent’s friend and ministry partner. In May of 2013, Jones and Thato committed to serving as missionaries within their own country of Botswana for 6 months. They stepped out in faith and are fully supported by the current Baptist churches here in Botswana. These are the 1st national missionaries to their own people.

They are serving in 2 small villages-Kang and Hukuntsi (Hu-Koon-t-see) in southwestern Botswana. They have been working with Kang Baptist Church in spreading the gospel in that village and helping strengthen the church. They also have just recently planted a church in the village of Hukuntsi.

Brent recently went out with two young men-Lesh and Sets- from our church (Gaborone Baptist Church) to go out and encourage Jones and Thato as well as going out and doing ministry with them. Below you can see them at the small house Jones and Thato are staying in.

Above: Lesh and Thato-walking house to house spreading the gospel

Below: Jones and Sets

Above: You can see an empty “pan” above where the cattle are looking for water. It has not rained here in Botswana for a very long time. We are in a severe drought and need rain. Please pray for rain!

Below: (from left to right) Jones, Thato, Lesh, Sets

Above: This is Kang Baptist Church

Below: Jones doing bible study at the church

The Heavens Declare His Glory!!

We ask you to pray for the people here in Botswana that they would become more and more open to the truth of the gospel. With less than 2% Christians, it is a unreached people with the gospel. BUT there have been so many seeds planted over the years and finally we are seeing folks come to the Lord like never before. We give all the glory to God for what He has done and will do!

Ballet Recital-“Seasons”

Taylor had her ballet recital this past weekend. It focused on all the Seasons and Taylor was a strawberry to represent summer. Amanda had the privilege of helping backstage before the show in getting all the strawberries ready for their big night and got to capture some fun shots.

Above: Taylor’s missionary cousin was also in the recital. Lili is in the middle.

Below: Daddy brought his little strawberry some flowers

Below: We had some of our mission family come to watch the recital as well. Taylor was so happy they were there.

10k/1k and the mountain pass

This past weekend we traveled to South Africa to run a 10k (6.4 mile) race with some friends outside of Pretoria. We had beautiful weather and a great run.

Taylor has also been training for her 1st 1k race. She got to run it on Saturday as well and did great. She was so proud to get her very own medal. Below-Taylor running with her friend Ridge.

After the race, we had about a 4 hour drive home. We decided to take the scenic route home and take a mountain pass road called the Magelies Meander. The kids loved all of the bumpy roads and getting out and exploring. Sometimes it is just nice to get on the path less traveled and take a breather.

Before entering the road that went to the top of the mountain, we saw this warning sign.

What a fun weekend away together as a family with our dear friends!

Youth meeting

We love having the youth from Gaborone Baptist Church over to our house. This past Friday we had just the guys come over and instead of “pizza night” like most youth in the States have, they had “goat head night”. Yep, that’s right, they were given 2 goat heads from the dedication last weekend at our church and they cooked them up in a big pot outside. They ate everything as you can see from the last picture below except for a few bones. Tongue and eyeball were even eaten! Even though we did not stomach trying it, they had fun :)

Happy Fall Y’all!

Most of you in the States are experiencing fall weather and preparing for Halloween.  We are in summer and It is blazing hot here (currently 105 degrees), but we still try to carry on with some of the traditions we did when we were kids.  So today we got with a couple of other American families and let the kids dress up. We did some fall crafts and baked some yummy sugar cookies. Halloween is not celebrated here in Botswana, so I think if we went out in costume and knocked on someones gate asking for candy we probably would be labeled as “crazy”. So instead we let the kids go from bedroom to bedroom and get candy. They had a lot of fun as did the mommy’s.

The beautiful orange pumpkins you find in the States are pretty much non-existent here. One store had imported a couple of pumpkins and my friend Laura was able to find one the other day so the kids got to carve it. So much fun!