10 years in Botswana

October 9, 2009

October 9: 10 years ago on this date, we took our first steps onto the soil of Botswana. We have been forever changed...
1. Our family has expanded
2. Our waistlines have expanded
3. The grey hairs have increased
4. Our love for this country and people have expanded

October 9, 2019

We love you, Botswana 🇧🇼

Signs, signs, everywhere signs...

Love these signs!! Enjoy...

Actual sign...I promise!

Potjie

We are so thankful for Cool Spring Baptist Church from Mechanicsville, VA that have so faithfully come over the years to share Christ with the Batswana especially in the villages of Ditshegwane, Dutlwe, and Takotokwane. This week they have seen many decisions to follow Christ, 4 baptisms, encouraged many believers, and even got to attend a Botswana wedding.
It has been so great to see people from this church come multiple times, but also to have new folks come alongside to experience all they have heard about Botswana from those who have gone before them. We are thankful for the heart for missions that this church has for the lost! 

Potjie

The word Potjie in Afrikaans means "little pot" and is a cast-iron pot with a lid, typically having 3 legs, for use over an open fire. Whatever event you attend, you will find at least one of these 3 legged pots being used to cook food for the attendees. 

Recently, Pastor Thokwane compared the relationship between himself (local pastor), missionaries, and our partnering church (Cool Spring Baptist Church) as a 3 legged potjie. Over the years, through this partership, we have been sharing the gospel consistently and have seen two successful church plants in the villages of Ditshegwane, Dutlwe, and now we have started sharing Christ in the village of Takotokwane. All honor and glory belongs to the Lord!

Bryan greeting Pastor Thokwane

Hello's and Goodbye's are so important in this culture

Cool Spring Baptist provided a tent and mat for Pastor Thokwane
so he can go out to the villages and stay for a week at a time and do evangelism

Church under the tree

Filling up the baptism. Water is very scarce so we had to use a
minimum amount for the baptisms

. 

Botswana's Independence Day and Camping Adventure

On September 30, Botswana celebrated it's 53rd celebration of its Independence (Boipuso). We are so thankful to be able to live in the beautiful country. We went camping over the Independence Holiday in the Kalahari Desert and had such an amazing time.   

The kids wore their traditional Setswana clothes or
colors of the flag

Their Setswana teachers organized fun Setswana games for the kids

We ❤️🇧🇼

Our camping trip:

Where the tar road ends, the adventure begins!

 

Kids got super close to the Hornbills at our campsite,
Tay even was able to touch one

Playing wiffle ball

The drop toilets

Taylor searching for the lions, we never saw them, but only heard them roaring

The most beautiful sunsets I believe are in Botswana

Bradyn was our lookout

Cooking a big breakfast and camping
just go together

Love sitting around the campfire and
the conversations that are had

It was literally 100 degrees during the day and
dropped to about 40 at night. Oh the desert!

Enjoying a herd of elephants who were gathered around a
small water source.

Ellie having her coffee and breakfast

Camping in Khutse in the Kalahari Desert

Ellie's 2nd birthday

Our sweet Ellie turned 2 on September 7. We are so thankful for this little spunky girl the Lord blessed us with .
Here are a few of her favorite words:
Mama
Dada
Sissy (Tay)
Bubba (Bradyn)
Bo bo (one of our dogs in named Bo so therefore every dog is now Bo bo)
Paw Patrol (her favorite show EVER)
Right there (she loves pointing out everything)
WaWa (her water)
Eggs-her favorite thing for breakfast
Bubbles
Pool
Night night
hello
hey
All done
Yuck and EWWW
Tada-when she does something cool
Wow-when she wants you to tell her how pretty she is
She signs: All done, please, and thank you

She knows the letters: A, B, C, D, E, I, L, M, O, S

She knows some of her colors, her favorite is blue.
She loves drawing with chalk, to be read to, swimming, jumping on the trampoline, bubbles, and having her nails painted. She is very opinionated about her choice of clothes and shoes and loves walking around in tutu's and heels...boy are we in for trouble, ha ha.

She loved her bubble present

She was not a fan of the cupcakes I made her.
Her actually response was "yuck"

Little miss princess in her heels

She loved being sung to and blowing out candles.
Now when we see any candles lit, she feels it is her duty to blow
the out and yell "Tada"

Prayer Retreat

At the end of August, we were so blessed to be able to do a prayer retreat with our colleagues from Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Pretoria, South Africa. We all met at a venue in Salt Rock, South Africa and had just an amazing week together. We did a study of Matt Chandlers on Psalm 119 during our morning times and then had some team building activities in the afternoons and evenings and just enjoyed getting to know each other better and how we can be in prayer for each other. We had fun theme nights-America night, Mexican Fiesta, Birthday Party night glow party, and Hawaiian night. We were able to further dive into Grip Birkman (how to fit and flourish with in the body of Christ) results that showed what our strengths were and how we could relate better to our colleagues, spouses, and ministry partners.
This prayer retreat was made possible by donors to our "special gifts" through the IMB designated specifically for our ministry. We are so thankful to all of you who give. This was a much needed prayer retreat for all of us.

America night-with hamburgers and hotdogs

Even some sparklers

Kids program-learning about being sons and daughters of the KING

Guys (and boys) bike riding outing in Durban

Bonding time for the fellas

Hawaiian night

Tshirts donning the beautiful artwork by
Sarah Harmening. "To the end of the earth"
To see the story of Sarah please click here

 We got to see everyones different personality traits by doing an amazing race. Some of us (aka Brent and Sky especially) are super competitive but I won't name any names, ha ha.

Ready, set, go....

Challenge #1: Go find your shoes spread throughout
the front yard and you must put them on. The
catch is that you can't use your hands so have your
teammates help out.

Challenge #2: Put as many sticky notes on a team member
in 1 minute with no overlapping

Challenge #3: One member on your team race around
an obstacle course with an egg on a spoon in your mouth

Challenge #4: One team member is blindfolded
and the other team members have to instruct them
where to put puzzle pieces

Challenge #5: Draw a number and that corresponds
to a jar of baby food. First team to down their
jar first wins. 

Challenge #6: One team member would go and find all the
individual letters to "Happy Birthday Everyone" and then
go glue them on a sheet

"Happy Birthday Everyone"

Challenge #7: Toss 10 marshmallows in a team members
bowl and then eat them as a team and race back to the mat

Theme night: Birthday Glow Party celebrating
everyones birthday

Girl outing to the spa

Mexican theme night: Pinata fun

We are so thankful for such an amazing team. Truly out friends have become our family!