Flower girl and ring security

Our friends Nelson and Fridah were married on October 15 &17. Here in Botswana there are normally 2 weddings, one at the home of the groom and one at the home of the bride. October 15 was on the grooms side and was the wedding at our church here in Gaborone. It was a beautiful ceremony with Taylor being the flower girl and Bradyn being the ring bearer or "ring security"! On Saturday, October 17 they held the other wedding in South Africa where the bride is from.

So do you want to know what weddings are like here?  Let me briefly describe to you the 2nd wedding and all of the comedy of errors that happened that day...overall though it was a great day.

Start time was supposed to be  8:30am (remember there is something we call "Africa time" and that means it NEVER starts on time but we were on "America time")

• 8:45am: We arrive as we had to drive about 1 hour to get there...we are the 1st ones there! The venue is still trying to set up chairs etc.
• 9:15am: A few others arrive and we all decide to go get coffee as we heard they probably would not start until well after 10am
• 11am: We arrive back at the venue and still no bride or groom. Go to get Taylor dressed and her zipper down the whole back of the dress breaks. The ladies at the reception desk find a sowing kit and we proceed to sow her into her dress for the next hour.
• 12pm: All ready and everyone has arrived, just waiting on the bride and groom
• 1pm: Bride and groom arrive but can't exit the car until the photographer arrives
• 1:30pm: They ask Brent to be the photographer-wedding begins
• 2:30pm: Photographer arrives (now remember this was all supposed to start at 8:30am!)
• Wedding, photographs, reception and many dances later, we arrive back at our hotel at 7pm.

Long day to say the least but we are so happy for these two. Now I culturally can't include pictures of the bride and groom until late November but here are some snapshots from the rest of the bridal party/crowd.

Bridesmaids

So blessed!

Taylor at the ceremony

Love this shot of this sweet lady!

The bride :) She was radiant!!

our girl

Flower girls and ring bearer

Ok so quite of few pics of our girl but she looked beautiful

our kids

kisses

dancing in to the reception

outfit change and more dancing

 

Happy 5th Birthday, Bradyn!

On October 12, Bradyn celebrated his 5th birthday...where has the time gone? We celebrated by taking him swimming at a local hotel and having ninja turtle pizza and cupcakes. It was such a great day!

 

Going for a ride on what else, a giraffe!

Bradyn and his friend Riley

 

We had a few monkeys join the party...one came and was swinging

 

Happy Birthday, Bradyn!!

He ended the day by smearing a cupcake all over his face!

Greece

Brent recently traveled to Greece for a meeting and was able to go sight seeing for part of a day in Athens. It is so awesome to see all of the old structures as they try to restore them without compromising the integrity. If you read in Acts 17, this is also a place Paul visited. Isn't is so amazing to think that Paul walked those streets and hills! Below you will see a stadium/theatre, the Acropolis, temple of Athena, and the Parthenon

Mission family

As most of you are preparing to gather around the table with family to celebrate Thanksgiving/Christmas, we wanted to share with you about our mission family. Saying leaving family in the States behind as we come to serve the Lord overseas is "hard" is an understatement. But that said, the Lord has provided us with an amazing mission family that we can come and serve alongside. With all the many changes the IMB is going through, our mission family is changing and many are transitioning back to the States. I ask you to pray for those who will be leaving that the Lord would guide their steps. Also pray for those of us who are still on the mission field that the Lord would work mightily with those few of us who are left behind and that the nationals that we have been working with would step up even more than they already have and that many people would come to know the Lord!

 

Our mission family

On a fun day out game drive together

We got to see some pretty amazing rhino

Mission cousins

We love just sitting around the table together catching up...
and of course eating!

Which path are you on?

Here in Botswana foot paths are everywhere (see below) so it makes sense in our presentation of the gospel to use an analogy of paths.

We present Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

We draw this in the sand or on a piece of paper with a wide path with lots of people on it and an arrow leading to destruction;  and then a narrow path with few people on it and an arrow leading to life. We explain that we are all on the wide path according to Romans 3:23 and Psalm 51:5 and talk about the only way to get from the wide path to the narrow path is through repenting and believing in the gospel (Mark 1:15 and I Corinthian 15:1-5) and so we draw a cross between the 2 paths.

We recently taught this at the Friday children's ministry at Gaborone Baptist Church and 15 of them asked Jesus to come live in their hearts. We also challenged them to share this good newswith someone this week.

Maybe you have your own way of presenting the gospel to those around you and maybe you don't. I challenge you to share the gospel with someone around you today. If you have questions about how to do this or you want to accept Jesus yourself, please feel free to write us at bltast@hotmail.com

The foot paths here in Botswana

Ridge (a missionary kid) helping explain 2 paths
 

We challenged the kids to share 2 paths with someone they know
so they wrote their names and the names of those they would share
with this week.

Our kids practicing sharing 2 paths

Tebogo, one of the helpers, explaining 2 paths to a little girl

No training wheels

This summer Bradyn has just seemed to learn so much. He just learned to swim and now he is riding his bike without training wheels. Where has the time gone?? So proud of this little fella and how hard he works at everything!

Our newest bike rider

 

Riding on the path behind our house

No training wheels!!

While teaching him to ride we had to keep saying, "look straight ahead" because he kept looking down and losing his balance. This is true in our lives too, sometimes we look down at all the things around us and get overwhelmed and fall, but we need to look straight ahead to the one who holds our future and keep our eyes on Him!

Cool Spring Volunteer Team

We arrived back to Botswana on September 3 and hit the ground running. We had a volunteer team from Cool Spring Baptist arrive just a few days after we did and had such a great time with them amidst all of our jet lag. They began by teaching an all day conference to pastors, leaders, and elders on "Preventing Ministry Failure" which was written by one of the team members-Brad Hoffmann. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the topic and he shared how to have the right foundations in ministry.

Brad teaching on "Preventing Ministry Failure"

 

All of the people who attended the conference

 

Cool Spring Baptist has agreed to partner with us to reach the village of Ditshewagne which is about 2 hours from our city. This village had no evangelical presence, but in June the first church was planted there. This was the first time they were able to see the church meeting together under the tree. They were able to do evangelism in the village and saw many people come to the know the Lord. We are thankful for the missions heart of this church to reach the nations!

 

The church in Ditshewagne meeting together under the tree

Evangelism in Ditshewagne

Walking the sand covered roads to spread the gospel

  

 Thank you Cool Spring Baptist for spreading the good news of the gospel!

Goodbyes never get easier!

Well, I am here to tell you that goodbyes just do not get any easier no matter how many times we have to do it. We have a lot of people come in and out of our lives so I would say we should be pro's at it at this point, but saying goodbye to family and close friends is so HARD! We have enjoyed our precious time with our families while we have been here, but our time is coming to a close as we get ready to head back to Botswana. Also, we were so blessed to be able to speak and connect with several churches while we have been here and have been refreshed by them. Please pray for us as we prepare to head back to Botswana.
 I wanted to post a few of my favorite pictures from the summer, hope you enjoy!

The Turner Family

 

The Turner kiddos spending time together at the beach

Family dance off-Grammy and Grandad hijacked the kids to do
"Walking on Sunshine"

Disneyworld!

The Martin family

The Martin kiddos spending time at the beach together

Visiting with Grandma Martin in WV

A little fishing

Couldn't miss the WV State Fair

Horse riding with Noa

 I love how even though the cousins may not see each other but once every 2 or 3 years, they reconnect and are the best of friends! Love all these kiddos!