Our friends gave her the name she has because she can be extremely active and when she slowed down in the evening, we enjoyed having a little pet to cuddle with while we relaxed.
Julie set up her desk area out on the patio while watching the puppy. Being outside for the day gave "Hurricane" room to play and not get into too much mischief. Having her with us those days did stir a desire to have a puppy of our own, but we will have to wait until we return to Alaska in a year. It was fun to have a little pet to care for though, even if it was only temporary.
The surprise of the month was the arrival of a new baby son to our porter, MT, and his wife. They did not even realize that KK was expecting until just a month before the birth. Julie was able to help bring KK and the baby home the day after the birth of baby Taboka who was born April 12. Below is a picture of the home coming with the four other siblings seeing their new brother for the first time.
Here is a closer look at Taboka. His name means "we are thankful" in the Kalanga language. In the culture here, the mother will stay home with the baby for 3 months and the father has to stay elsewhere. Fortunately MT had built an additional small brick flat for his brother on the plot he lives on, so that is where he is currently staying.
As mentioned in our last blog, we planned to travel to Sepopa again on April 16 to do some follow up ministry with the Sunday school program there. Patricia went with us this time and spotted a large elephant in the brush on the drive there. That was rather unusual for the panhandle area.
We arrived in Sepopa that Saturday about 1 pm, and Pusetso had already had the children at the Sunday school building for some morning learning activities. The church had been flooded for a few weeks, so on Sunday they had been using the Sunday school building for church. Due to the high water, Pusetso was meeting with the children on Saturday instead. Unfortunately not many of the boys could come on a Saturday, as it is harvest time so they must work in the fields. The children had just finished a snack when we arrived and then Julie opened up the afternoon events with some singing.
Then we took the children outside for some games that would reinforce the last few weeks' teachings. Patricia jumped right in as an additional helper with the forty children attending ages 3 years to 15 years.
Each game went along with a teaching aligned to the Wordless Book from the Child Evangelist Fellowship material we left with Pusetso in February. The gold lesson explains that God created Heaven and the world with all that is in it. Everything that was said had to be translated into Setswana by Pusetso. The pictures to follow may give you a small glimpse of a few fun learning activities we did with the group.
Learning through play seemed to be a new concept to the kids, so even translating how to play the games was not enough. For every game, Julie and Onalenna showed the group what they were to do. In the picture below they showed the teams lined with pairs of two how they were to put a balloon between them using part of their body to do a relay. Because God created man to be special, Julie would call out a variety of different body parts they had to use to relay with the balloon.
In the next picture, the children were "going for the gold" and were given a golden tail as a flag for groups of three to try to claim. The game was used to reinforce the gold page in the Wordless Book that represents Heaven, which is a wonderful place filled with God's glory and grace.
The Wordless book has a red page that represents the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross. In one of the games, the children had to crawl one by one under their team's legs to be the first to the cross Julie was holding.
The teaching was to help show that the only way to heaven is through His blood shed on the cross by Jesus.
The next page in the Wordless is a "clean" white page. When people understand the love Jesus has for them, and accept Him to be the Lord of their lives, then they are a new person and filled with the Holy Spirit. To explain this, the children were given balloon to play with. At first the balloons were not filled with air and brought no joy to play with. Once the balloons were filled with air they were a part of a fun activity that brought joy and happiness to those participating.
The game was a way to get the concept across that in knowing Christ and having the Holy Spirit, we will be filled with joy no matter what our circumstances are. There was a relay to follow as a way to collect the balloons. Later, the children were given the filled balloons to take home.
The special game lessons seemed to go over well with the group, and lasted about 2 hours. We then had a chance to get in a good visit with Pusetso and her family at their hut.
Notice the balloon in the picture of Julie with Pusetso and her girls.
While we visited, Pusetso's mother was roasting freshly harvested corn and beans, which we ate later with our dinner.
Colin even waded out into the flooded yard of the church to try some fishing. He only caught grass though...There was a fence between him and the main river channel, so no need to worry about crocodiles.
Sunday morning we all joined the growing church for morning services. Patricia is pictured next, just before church standing just outside the parsonage. The water had receded enough for everyone to meet again in the church building next door.
Pastor Reuben did an early Bible study for new believers that we sat in on until the regular service was ready to begin.
There was lots of singing before the children were excused for Sunday school. Julie left with the teachers and children to observe how things are going with the material she has organized.
Pusetso is the main teacher, and Onalenna assists her with the class. They seem to be doing quite well with the group and new children continue to come weekly.
After church was over, the congregation had prepared food to share in honor of our visit. We were asked to go first and take what we wanted, and then the others were served plates of food. It is the fall harvest time and food is plentiful. There was a lot of a chunky corn mush called Samp, cooked pumpkin and pumpkin greens, cooked bean greens, and a small portion of beef among other things. Below is a picture of Patricia and Julie as they finished eating. It was very thoughtful of the church family to make sure we had been fed before our drive back to Maun.
Just a couple days after returning from Sepopa, we had a visit from Graham Crawford who has been the IT for FM off and on for a number of years. He was in Maun back in May two years ago to help set up the computer in our office. The first day he arrived on the morning flight from Gaborone, we put him right to work repairing some computer issues on our office and personal computers.
For most people in Botswana, Easter is a four day public holiday. Unfortunately, when dealing with the tourist industry there are no holidays and we had flights to do even on Easter. Colin ended up having to overnight at Jack's Camp and on Easter had to fly to Francistown to leave one of our planes there. The rest of the day was spent driving back to Maun by car and he got home after 7pm. Below is a picture of the old runway and the new runway under construction at Francistown airport, where he left the plane.
Fortunately, our church had a sunrise service as the rest of the day Julie was busy flight following Keith and Colin. This time of year m mornings are cool with winter drawing near, and an early service was a lovely way to celebrate the event of Christ's resurrection. The story of Easter was told through narration and songs done by students from Okavango International School [OIS]. Our friend, Angela, led the group as she not only leads the worship at our church but is also a teacher at OIS. Most of the students that sang are part of the Bible club Julie does at the school with Angela.
The day after Easter, Colin got a couple of days off so we took Graham up to the Khwai River area north of Maun and spent the night in a tented camp there. Below is a picture of Graham by the river, which is really more like a creek even in the flood stage.
We saw a few animals while driving around the area and lots of bird life. The only new wildlife we saw was this Opened billed stork pictured below to add to our bird sighting list.
The tented accommodation was comfortable and clean. The reason we decided to stay there was that they gave a resident rate and allowed people to self drive into the camp.
After driving around the area a bit the day we arrived, afternoon tea was served in the dinning tent when we returned to the camp.
Breakfast was served early the next morning, and then we left to travel on narrow sand-tracks through the thick brush until we came to a large open pan.
The pan had a large herd of Giraffe lingering around in the coolness of the morning. It is always fun to explore a new area, and our wondering through the bush eventually took us back to the main road to Maun.
On the flying scene the flight schedule has remained very busy this month, with many days requiring Keith and Colin to fly larger groups in both planes. Below is a picture Colin took of Keith as they flew over a large salt pan.
Colin flies a faster plane and despite taking off after Keith, Colin would always pass Keith along the way. The next photo is of Keith landing on the Pom Pom airstrip in the Okavango Delta.
With the rivers rising as the rain waters from Angola come from the north, many of the bush airstrips are beginning to flood again this year. Below is the flooded Nxabega in the delta.
Due to the busy flight schedule, it is often more practical to have a pilot overnight at the camp if he will be departing with passengers the next day. Colin has been doing most of the overnights this month as he insisted Keith remain in town due to Cheryl's pregnancy. The baby is due the end of May, but she has gotten so big and the baby has dropped, that we are feeling it could come early. On a couple of the more recent overnight trips, Colin saw a group of southern stripped squirrels on the drive to camp.
They seemed to act similar to the Meerkats that reside in the area.
On another day while driving from the airstrip, the guide spotted a cheetah in the brush. At first, Colin could just see the tips of the animals ears and some of the face.
But then it sat up and let itself be clearly seen only forty yards from the truck. This sighting was a pleasant surprise.
Before closing, again we would like to share some photos from the flight line in Maun. With such a busy airport, there is always something interesting going on.
Beware of strangely shaped bugs before removing the pitot tube cover [above].
Six DeHavilland Tiger Moths [above] and one Hornet Moth [below].
Tiger Moth and cockpit.
Cessna 14o in U.S. Air Force livery and departing Tiger Moth.
As we continue seek direction to best serve the Lord and others while living here, we ask that you also pray with us for wisdom in the daily decisions and activities that fill our time. Our desire is to consistently remain in His will. For we know,"To God belongs wisdom and power, counsel and understanding are His." Job 12:13
