Merry Christmas from Botswana!

We want to thank each of you for your continued prayers and support over the past year for our ministry here in Gaborone, Botswana. Merry Christmas!!

Kits for Kids in Lobatse

When we first moved to Botswana over 2 years ago, we lived in Lobatse which is a small town 1 hour south of where we currently live. We studied the language of Setswana for about 9 months and during that time, we were able to volunteer at an orphan care centre. This centre is not an “orphanage” as we think of in America, but the kids that come here have lost either one or both parents to AIDS. They come to the Centre after school (if they can afford to go to school) and have a time of bible stories, games, singing, and a hot meal for the day.

When we learned about the kits for kids sponsored by the BGR (Baptist Global Response), we knew we wanted to order some for the children who come to the Centre. These kids probably will not receive anything else for Christmas which is so sad, but to see the joy on their faces when they saw they were getting school supplies was priceless. Many thanks to the kids in America who put together these kits during their VBS this past year for needy kids around the world. We received such a blessing being around these kids and we were able to share the true meaning of Christmas-JESUS-with them.

Above: Playing games outside and of course Taylor and my friend Torie joined in all the fun.

Below: Yola works with the children 5 days a week and loves them so much.

Yola and Granny handed out the kits for kids to all the kids (48 total)

Me, Yola, Taylor, Granny, and Torie

Prayers needed for Jacob

Recently, we have gotten to know our neighbors Kelly and Jacob. Kelly is a Motswana woman and she has been married to Jacob, a white British man for about the last 1 1/2 years and they were expecting their first son on December 8. We met them on one of our evening walks and it turned out they lived only about 4 houses away from us. Kelly had started coming to my house as she wanted to buy some of my baby things I had for Bradyn and we became friends. We had her and Jacob over for morning tea just 2 weeks ago. This past Saturday morning (Dec 3) Jacob came knocking at our gate. I looked all around and didn’t see Kelly and asked him if he was ok. He just hung his head and said no.

As we opened out gate, he begins to tell us that Kelly had passed away on Thursday. She started having some complications and they ended up doing a c-section and successfully delivered the baby. Kelly though did not make it. Jacob is now left to raise his new baby boy-Letsepa-on his own. Please pray for him for strength as a single-father, but most importantly we don’t think Jacob is a Christian and we pray he can find God through all of this.

This whole week they are doing a Merapelo or prayer services at their house each evening at 5:30pm and the funeral will be all night Friday and the burial is on Saturday. Please pray that our God will comfort Jacob as only He can.

Youth Christmas Party

This past Saturday, December 3, the youth at our church-Gaborone Baptist Church-had their annual Christmas Party at our house. We along with the Warner family enjoyed having them over. Youth here in Botswana are considered anywhere from teenage years till when you are married, so we had many age ranges.It is so great seeing youth serving Christ boldly.

The youth brought all of their own food and they guys-Brent and Brandon-grilled all of the meat for them. It was so good!