As you can tell by the long laps from the last entry, it has been another eventful six weeks leaving little time to enter our reflections in this blog. There are a number of areas of service that have consumed our time since last writing, but the primary focus has been on ministering to people and working on establishing a more functional base of operations for the commercial flying operation here in Maun. Please bear with us as there is a lot to share and explain.
Shortly after our last posting, the C207 airplane was ready for the 100 hour maintenance check in Gaborone. On Monday, January 8, we flew south to deliver the plane to the FMS mechanics there. It was really nice to get away together, as the flying the last week before going had been particularly busy with holiday travelers. There had also been a number of scheduling mix-ups at the travel agency, which had sent us scrambling to correct. The clients never new of the jugging act that had gone on and they were all contently transported from one destination to the next on time. Yet it had left us a bit exhausted. While in Gaborone, it was great to see all our Flying Mission family and meet some of the new people that have arrived after us. Sorry to say, we were so focused on fellowship and visiting with everyone that we did not take any pictures. After four days, the plane was ready to go and we had to say our good-byes until the next 100 hours of flight time. Colin had to pick up passengers at one of the safari camps on the way back from Gaborone and bring them to Maun, so Julie caught a ride in one of the FMS twin engine planes heading to Maun on a mercy flight.
Shortly after our last posting, the C207 airplane was ready for the 100 hour maintenance check in Gaborone. On Monday, January 8, we flew south to deliver the plane to the FMS mechanics there. It was really nice to get away together, as the flying the last week before going had been particularly busy with holiday travelers. There had also been a number of scheduling mix-ups at the travel agency, which had sent us scrambling to correct. The clients never new of the jugging act that had gone on and they were all contently transported from one destination to the next on time. Yet it had left us a bit exhausted. While in Gaborone, it was great to see all our Flying Mission family and meet some of the new people that have arrived after us. Sorry to say, we were so focused on fellowship and visiting with everyone that we did not take any pictures. After four days, the plane was ready to go and we had to say our good-byes until the next 100 hours of flight time. Colin had to pick up passengers at one of the safari camps on the way back from Gaborone and bring them to Maun, so Julie caught a ride in one of the FMS twin engine planes heading to Maun on a mercy flight.
The day after we returned home, we realized someone had hacked into Colin's email account and sent a request for money stating that he had been robbed in Nigeria. It was very frustrating, as we were locked out of the account and could not let a number of people know that it was a fraud. After four days of battling through the hotmail system, we finally regained control of the account and locked the hacker out. We could then let everyone know what had happened. It did consume a lot of time and energy, and again we apologize to those that were impacted. The blessing in the whole incident is that we felt humbled by the genuine concern so many people had for us. Around the middle of December we had begun gradually building a relationship with a young pregnant Zimbabwean girl. At the time she had been abused, abandoned, and sleeping in a junk car near where Robert, our porter, and his wife Pusetso lived. Having no passport and being here as a refugee complicated her situation immensely. Out of compassion, Robert and Pusetso took her into their simple home, but asked us for help as her situation as a refugee in addition to another person to provide food for was beyond them. We helped with food and began coming to visit more often, but Anne (an English translation) was bitter and just wanted to die. It was hard to even get her to smile or trust us. Anne and Pusetso are pictured below just before Christmas. Anne is on the left and Pusetso is on the right. The little bit of a smile on Anne's face was more than we had seen to this point.
We were advised by our friends to get in touch with the Women Against Rape (WAR) agency that is sponsored by the European Union. Because of the abuse in her situation, we were told that she may have some protection as a vulnerable woman through the global agency. Every time we made plans to pick up Anne to go talk to the councilors at WAR, she would disappear. The night before leaving to go to Gaborone, we got a call from Pusetso that Anne was in labor and asked us to come to take her to the hospital. We did take her and with some intervention they amazingly admitted her. Unfortunately, we knew we were leaving for Gaborone at 6am and had concerns about leaving Anne. We called our friend at LBOM to explain what was happening. At that point, they were making plans to take care of the baby and find adoptive parents as Anne did not want to keep the baby. While we were gone, LBOM intervened on Anne's behalf along with WAR and battled through hospital issues revolving around Anne's resident status. Having WAR involved gave Anne the needed legal protection to have the baby in the hospital. By the time we returned she still had not had the baby (she had had a false labor), but she had come to accept Jesus as her savior. She was definitely a changed person. The fear, pain, and hardness in her heart were gone. She had also decided to keep the baby. Because WAR was now involved and Anne had been suicidal before entering the hospital, in addition to not knowing what her HIV/AIDS status was from the abuse, the hospital had to keep her admitted. She was getting three minimal meals a day and a bed, but the verbal harassment from two of the hospital staff was abusive due to her being from Zimbabwe. We visited her daily to keep her encouraged and bring her additional supplies while she waited. Remarkably, while waiting she found out that she was HIV/AIDS free and could nurse the baby when born.
Botswana has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa and women are usually tested as soon as they realize they are pregnant. If they are found to be positive, then they begin drug treatment to hopefully keep the disease from being transmitted to the baby. Once the baby is born, they can not nurse the baby as an added precaution. What a testimony to God's protection over Anne and her baby.
On January 12, a beautiful 8 lb. 5 oz. baby boy was born and Anne has named him Gift. Pictured below is Anne a day after giving birth and Gift just one day old. The nurses would not let her show us the baby, so we gave her the camera to get a picture to for us to see.
Anne had also made some friends in the hospital who had not yet delivered. They visited and celebrated with us in the lobby and we later returned with pictures and baby things for them.
Two days after giving birth, Anne was placed in a safe house and is currently protected by WAR. The women who are the councilors involved with her are Christians, and she continues to read the Bible and grow in her understanding of the Lord. Because she is at a safe house, in which only WAR knows its location, we can only see her once a week for a an arranged meeting. The first picture below is of Anne and Gift when he was one week old. The next picture was taken just before he was one month.
We continue to help provide spiritual encouragement and basic provisions for Anne and Gift as the councilors guide her through forgiveness issues. In addition, we are praying for a way that she can establish a legal residence here in Botswana.
The weather in January continued to be pleasant in the morning, and then would get hot and humid in the afternoon usually leading to a heavy thunder shower in the late afternoon to evening. In a matter of minutes, there would be small lake like puddles all over our yard. Everything has gotten a lush green and somewhat overgrown. We have kept Misheck (pronounced Meshack) the gardener, busy not only tending our yard, but also the Flying Mission Services rental house as everything quickly get over grown.
As Misheck spends more time with us, he has become like a family member. When he shared with us that he had gotten a message from his wife that his nine year old daughter was sick in Zimbabwe with Malaria, and growing weaker daily, our hearts were heavy with his. We had helped him acquire full time work, and leaving to return home was not a option. His brother and sister-in-law decided to go back to Zimbabwe, so we were able to purchase the costly malaria medication to send along on the journey with them. Two weeks later when Misheck's wife, Debra, returned she emotionally thanked us for saving their daughters life. Conditions in Zimbabwe are horrible as their government crumbles under corruption. Currently, it has the highest inflation in world, there is 90% unemployment, and people are sick and dieing of colera and starvation because of no food or good water. Many families are separated as individuals like Misheck and Debra leave their homes to seek work and food. They have left their two children with Debra's mother and travel back as much as possible with supplies. Pictured below is Misheck and Debra after church recently. 
Colin has also had to battle through some heavy rain conditions while flying the last month and a half. He has had a few mercy flights to transport injured people and a woman in labor from an outlying village. The picture below shows, and the story to follow explains, a little of what he has experienced when flying the mercy flights of late. 
An Afternoon of Prayer: I'm at home tinkering with the electric motor that supplies our house with water from the nearby Thamalaklane River when my cell phone rings at my side, it's 3:45 pm. A call from the Seronga Clinic to our base in Gaborone for a mercy flight has been forwarded to me in Maun. Seronga is a small village that sits on the banks of the Okavango River ninety miles north of Maun and in the Okavango Delta panhandle in the northwest part of Botswana. Though it is connected to the road system, the ride for a critically injured patient to the nearest hospital can be a tooth jarring four to five hours. Though the hospital is only thirty four miles to the west, the road travels first north one hundred miles, across a bridge and then south another two hundred miles to reach the hospital. With the airplane we can cut the arrival time to the hospital by almost 2/3, with the patient only traveling twenty minutes in the plane. The patient, an elderly woman of seventy-four, has been accidentally wounded in the back and legs with a blast from a shotgun. She rests very uncomfortably in the Seronga clinic losing blood as I am racing to gather my flight bag, stretcher and blankets for the plane in Maun. At 4:00pm I'm at the airport and by 4:30 I've filed my flight plan, removed two seats from the Cessna 207 aircraft, secured the stretcher into it, preflighted the plane and taxied for fuel. This afternoon is a typical Botswana rainy season afternoon. We have huge towering thunderstorms dumping torrential amounts of rain onto the earth below. They are a menacing dark grey with their black columns of rain lit by nearly continued bursts of lightning. Just as I pull up to the fuel pumps one of these storms moves onto the airport. The wind gusts blow, the rain comes down in sheets and lightning strikes all around. The fuelers are reluctant to fuel under these conditions, but I will soon run out of day light if I have to wait for this storm to pass. The fuelers realize this is a critical mercy flight and so with with the foolishness of the brave run to the hoses and plane. Two men hold the ladder as another climbs up to the wing and yet another holds an umbrella that threatens to collapse in the wind. The first prayer of the afternoon, "Lord protect these men, don't let lightning strike here." Prayer answered.
Its 4:45 and I've received taxi clearance to the end of runway 28. As I taxi down I look behind me to the departure end of the runway, it's all blackness punctured with white lightning bolts. Second prayer of the afternoon, "Lord move this storm from the runway end." I taxi to the end turning the plane to line up on the runway. I see light grey rain mists with hints of blue sky beyond. Prayer two answered. Now it's 4:55 I'm on the way to Seronga. Flying for fifty minutes across the flat Okavango Delta at fifteen hundred feet above the island laced water ways, I'm not distracted by the herds of antelope or even the elephants. The cloud ceilings are high and visibility excellent, I have no doubt that God is responsible. As it is getting toward evening and cooling down, I think there will be fewer storms on the way home. Later I would wonder, did I think I was now in control? My wrist watch, that I can't seem to stop looking at, now says 5:45 as I land at the Seronga airfield. The ambulance, a small four wheeled drive pick up with a covered bed, backs up to the plane. I open the cargo doors at the back of the plane and turn to help the medics load the patient who is laying on a foam mat and sheets in the back of the truck. My heart breaks as I see this small elderly African women whose face is already wrinkled with time and experience now more contorted with pain. We lift her into the plane with the bed sheet she was lying on to the blankets I'd prepared on the floor of the plane. She groans with pain I can't imagine. As the medics hang her I.V. from the ceiling and belt her in I hold her small head in my hands and pray the third prayer of the afternoon, "Lord ease her pain, let her ride be comfortable and preserve her life". As I open my eyes I see her smile at me, she is still in pain but not more than she can bear. Prayer answered.
Now 6:00 pm we depart Seronga. After a twenty minute flight we are in Gumare and off load the patient to another pickup with a foam pad in the back. We depart and after another twenty minutes I am back in Seronga dropping the medics at home thinking, "If I lived here I'd be home now." As I depart, my constantly nagging watch says that it is 6:50 and with the little tail wind I expect I should reach Maun by 7:35 pm, official dark. In Botswana there is no night flight except by instrument flight rules. I do not detect any tail wind. I'll be one or two minutes late but I can handle that. It's becoming dusky and it seems darker toward Maun but I can handle that. As I fly along I meet, fly through and circumnavigate heavy rain and thunderstorms that have developed since I last passed through, but I can handle that too. My circumnavigations around the storms have cost me more time, I'll arrive several minutes past "Official" dark. Perhaps I should turn about but as I look behind me there is no turning around as a line of thunderstorms has built there. Thirty miles out of Maun, with the help of an overcast layer of cloud, it is dark. It's as dark as Africa can be with no moon or stars or even people below with campfires. I've flown like this in Alaska between towering mountains, have I not?, I can handle this. I look forward and expect to see the glimmer of Maun lights but they are not there. I look in the darkened cockpit to the now bright screen of the moving map GPS navigation radio. More advanced than the GPS's I'd used before, it shows little "z" marks on the map where it registers lightning strikes. On the moving map display are a line of "z" marks between Maun and me. Suddenly it registers in my brain that I can't see Maun because, lurking out there in the darkness, there is a line of heavy thunder storms there. OK! I CAN'T HANDLE THIS ALONE. With head bowed and eyes momentarily closed I offer the fourth pray of the afternoon, now evening. It's the same prayer that I've offered so many times in thirty years of flying the Alaskan bush. "Lord, I need a path through this weather and I put myself fully in your hands." In a time of trouble that prayer can be said faster than it can be read. As I looked up with the confidence gained of similar prayers answered many times, I saw first the "z's" on the GPS screen were gone and then saw the lights of Maun. Confident of God's help, it is always still breath taking to see a prayer answered so visably. I land at Maun twenty minutes after dark but only eleven minutes after official dark. I said the fifth prayer of the day, a prayer of thanksgiving, and filed the paper work documenting my transgrestion and then life goes on, most importantly for my distressed passenger from Seronga. After I'd prayed I'd have been happy with a safe but scary ride through a heavy rain. I'd still have given the glory to God. But when we pray we should expect big answers. God likes to leave no doubt of His greatness or who is carrying us through. Many of my experiences in life and especially in Maun bring to mind Deuteronomy 3:24 which says "O Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?"
We were advised by our friends to get in touch with the Women Against Rape (WAR) agency that is sponsored by the European Union. Because of the abuse in her situation, we were told that she may have some protection as a vulnerable woman through the global agency. Every time we made plans to pick up Anne to go talk to the councilors at WAR, she would disappear. The night before leaving to go to Gaborone, we got a call from Pusetso that Anne was in labor and asked us to come to take her to the hospital. We did take her and with some intervention they amazingly admitted her. Unfortunately, we knew we were leaving for Gaborone at 6am and had concerns about leaving Anne. We called our friend at LBOM to explain what was happening. At that point, they were making plans to take care of the baby and find adoptive parents as Anne did not want to keep the baby. While we were gone, LBOM intervened on Anne's behalf along with WAR and battled through hospital issues revolving around Anne's resident status. Having WAR involved gave Anne the needed legal protection to have the baby in the hospital. By the time we returned she still had not had the baby (she had had a false labor), but she had come to accept Jesus as her savior. She was definitely a changed person. The fear, pain, and hardness in her heart were gone. She had also decided to keep the baby. Because WAR was now involved and Anne had been suicidal before entering the hospital, in addition to not knowing what her HIV/AIDS status was from the abuse, the hospital had to keep her admitted. She was getting three minimal meals a day and a bed, but the verbal harassment from two of the hospital staff was abusive due to her being from Zimbabwe. We visited her daily to keep her encouraged and bring her additional supplies while she waited. Remarkably, while waiting she found out that she was HIV/AIDS free and could nurse the baby when born.
Botswana has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa and women are usually tested as soon as they realize they are pregnant. If they are found to be positive, then they begin drug treatment to hopefully keep the disease from being transmitted to the baby. Once the baby is born, they can not nurse the baby as an added precaution. What a testimony to God's protection over Anne and her baby.
On January 12, a beautiful 8 lb. 5 oz. baby boy was born and Anne has named him Gift. Pictured below is Anne a day after giving birth and Gift just one day old. The nurses would not let her show us the baby, so we gave her the camera to get a picture to for us to see.
Anne had also made some friends in the hospital who had not yet delivered. They visited and celebrated with us in the lobby and we later returned with pictures and baby things for them.
Two days after giving birth, Anne was placed in a safe house and is currently protected by WAR. The women who are the councilors involved with her are Christians, and she continues to read the Bible and grow in her understanding of the Lord. Because she is at a safe house, in which only WAR knows its location, we can only see her once a week for a an arranged meeting. The first picture below is of Anne and Gift when he was one week old. The next picture was taken just before he was one month.We continue to help provide spiritual encouragement and basic provisions for Anne and Gift as the councilors guide her through forgiveness issues. In addition, we are praying for a way that she can establish a legal residence here in Botswana. As Misheck spends more time with us, he has become like a family member. When he shared with us that he had gotten a message from his wife that his nine year old daughter was sick in Zimbabwe with Malaria, and growing weaker daily, our hearts were heavy with his. We had helped him acquire full time work, and leaving to return home was not a option. His brother and sister-in-law decided to go back to Zimbabwe, so we were able to purchase the costly malaria medication to send along on the journey with them. Two weeks later when Misheck's wife, Debra, returned she emotionally thanked us for saving their daughters life. Conditions in Zimbabwe are horrible as their government crumbles under corruption. Currently, it has the highest inflation in world, there is 90% unemployment, and people are sick and dieing of colera and starvation because of no food or good water. Many families are separated as individuals like Misheck and Debra leave their homes to seek work and food. They have left their two children with Debra's mother and travel back as much as possible with supplies. Pictured below is Misheck and Debra after church recently. 
Colin has also had to battle through some heavy rain conditions while flying the last month and a half. He has had a few mercy flights to transport injured people and a woman in labor from an outlying village. The picture below shows, and the story to follow explains, a little of what he has experienced when flying the mercy flights of late. An Afternoon of Prayer: I'm at home tinkering with the electric motor that supplies our house with water from the nearby Thamalaklane River when my cell phone rings at my side, it's 3:45 pm. A call from the Seronga Clinic to our base in Gaborone for a mercy flight has been forwarded to me in Maun. Seronga is a small village that sits on the banks of the Okavango River ninety miles north of Maun and in the Okavango Delta panhandle in the northwest part of Botswana. Though it is connected to the road system, the ride for a critically injured patient to the nearest hospital can be a tooth jarring four to five hours. Though the hospital is only thirty four miles to the west, the road travels first north one hundred miles, across a bridge and then south another two hundred miles to reach the hospital. With the airplane we can cut the arrival time to the hospital by almost 2/3, with the patient only traveling twenty minutes in the plane. The patient, an elderly woman of seventy-four, has been accidentally wounded in the back and legs with a blast from a shotgun. She rests very uncomfortably in the Seronga clinic losing blood as I am racing to gather my flight bag, stretcher and blankets for the plane in Maun. At 4:00pm I'm at the airport and by 4:30 I've filed my flight plan, removed two seats from the Cessna 207 aircraft, secured the stretcher into it, preflighted the plane and taxied for fuel. This afternoon is a typical Botswana rainy season afternoon. We have huge towering thunderstorms dumping torrential amounts of rain onto the earth below. They are a menacing dark grey with their black columns of rain lit by nearly continued bursts of lightning. Just as I pull up to the fuel pumps one of these storms moves onto the airport. The wind gusts blow, the rain comes down in sheets and lightning strikes all around. The fuelers are reluctant to fuel under these conditions, but I will soon run out of day light if I have to wait for this storm to pass. The fuelers realize this is a critical mercy flight and so with with the foolishness of the brave run to the hoses and plane. Two men hold the ladder as another climbs up to the wing and yet another holds an umbrella that threatens to collapse in the wind. The first prayer of the afternoon, "Lord protect these men, don't let lightning strike here." Prayer answered. Its 4:45 and I've received taxi clearance to the end of runway 28. As I taxi down I look behind me to the departure end of the runway, it's all blackness punctured with white lightning bolts. Second prayer of the afternoon, "Lord move this storm from the runway end." I taxi to the end turning the plane to line up on the runway. I see light grey rain mists with hints of blue sky beyond. Prayer two answered. Now it's 4:55 I'm on the way to Seronga. Flying for fifty minutes across the flat Okavango Delta at fifteen hundred feet above the island laced water ways, I'm not distracted by the herds of antelope or even the elephants. The cloud ceilings are high and visibility excellent, I have no doubt that God is responsible. As it is getting toward evening and cooling down, I think there will be fewer storms on the way home. Later I would wonder, did I think I was now in control? My wrist watch, that I can't seem to stop looking at, now says 5:45 as I land at the Seronga airfield. The ambulance, a small four wheeled drive pick up with a covered bed, backs up to the plane. I open the cargo doors at the back of the plane and turn to help the medics load the patient who is laying on a foam mat and sheets in the back of the truck. My heart breaks as I see this small elderly African women whose face is already wrinkled with time and experience now more contorted with pain. We lift her into the plane with the bed sheet she was lying on to the blankets I'd prepared on the floor of the plane. She groans with pain I can't imagine. As the medics hang her I.V. from the ceiling and belt her in I hold her small head in my hands and pray the third prayer of the afternoon, "Lord ease her pain, let her ride be comfortable and preserve her life". As I open my eyes I see her smile at me, she is still in pain but not more than she can bear. Prayer answered.
Now 6:00 pm we depart Seronga. After a twenty minute flight we are in Gumare and off load the patient to another pickup with a foam pad in the back. We depart and after another twenty minutes I am back in Seronga dropping the medics at home thinking, "If I lived here I'd be home now." As I depart, my constantly nagging watch says that it is 6:50 and with the little tail wind I expect I should reach Maun by 7:35 pm, official dark. In Botswana there is no night flight except by instrument flight rules. I do not detect any tail wind. I'll be one or two minutes late but I can handle that. It's becoming dusky and it seems darker toward Maun but I can handle that. As I fly along I meet, fly through and circumnavigate heavy rain and thunderstorms that have developed since I last passed through, but I can handle that too. My circumnavigations around the storms have cost me more time, I'll arrive several minutes past "Official" dark. Perhaps I should turn about but as I look behind me there is no turning around as a line of thunderstorms has built there. Thirty miles out of Maun, with the help of an overcast layer of cloud, it is dark. It's as dark as Africa can be with no moon or stars or even people below with campfires. I've flown like this in Alaska between towering mountains, have I not?, I can handle this. I look forward and expect to see the glimmer of Maun lights but they are not there. I look in the darkened cockpit to the now bright screen of the moving map GPS navigation radio. More advanced than the GPS's I'd used before, it shows little "z" marks on the map where it registers lightning strikes. On the moving map display are a line of "z" marks between Maun and me. Suddenly it registers in my brain that I can't see Maun because, lurking out there in the darkness, there is a line of heavy thunder storms there. OK! I CAN'T HANDLE THIS ALONE. With head bowed and eyes momentarily closed I offer the fourth pray of the afternoon, now evening. It's the same prayer that I've offered so many times in thirty years of flying the Alaskan bush. "Lord, I need a path through this weather and I put myself fully in your hands." In a time of trouble that prayer can be said faster than it can be read. As I looked up with the confidence gained of similar prayers answered many times, I saw first the "z's" on the GPS screen were gone and then saw the lights of Maun. Confident of God's help, it is always still breath taking to see a prayer answered so visably. I land at Maun twenty minutes after dark but only eleven minutes after official dark. I said the fifth prayer of the day, a prayer of thanksgiving, and filed the paper work documenting my transgrestion and then life goes on, most importantly for my distressed passenger from Seronga. After I'd prayed I'd have been happy with a safe but scary ride through a heavy rain. I'd still have given the glory to God. But when we pray we should expect big answers. God likes to leave no doubt of His greatness or who is carrying us through. Many of my experiences in life and especially in Maun bring to mind Deuteronomy 3:24 which says "O Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?"
Colin continues to enjoy interacting with people at the airport. He has especially enjoyed building friendships with the locals that work fueling the planes out on the ramp. We continue to be amazed at what a useful tool the camera has become. Everyone here seems to love posing for pictures and then seeing themselves in the digital picture view window. Better yet has been the joy it brings when we return with prints copied for each one. Few people here can afford the luxury of having pictures of themselves or family members at home. Though the color ink cartridges are costly here for our printer, the photos are a great relationship building tool. Below is just a few pictures of some friends at the airport, and those mentioned that helped Colin when he needed to fuel for the mercy flight previously explained.
Travis ended up being gone from Maun for two months, but two of those weeks were in Gaborone after he returned to Botswana. Over the last two months KooKoo has gotten very comfortable living with us, and with Travis living in the small flat next door it seems like we will keep her here until a new home can be found for her. Where ever we are in the house, she needs to be close and has become a good little companion to us. 
The house and yard continue to be a blessing. We have always believed in a ministry of hospitality and enjoy housing other missionaries for a night or more while they take care of their business in Maun. In addition, we were recently able to host a birthday dinner for our church worship leader. Pictured below is the gathering of the worship team with their families, and Pastor Alex and his wife, from the church. 
In addition, Misheck has been transplanting new plants into the yard that people have given us, and we marvel each day over the colorful flowers, birds, and sunsets that surround us. 
Once again we thank all of you for your prayers and emails. Please pray for the Lord's continued provision and protection. The more we get involved in the lives of people here, the more we need greater prayer support in these areas. Also, in the middle of March we should be traveling to Zambia to help our Baptist missionary friends move to a small village there. It will take two days of travel each way. We are currently waiting on an expensive part that went out on the Pajero so that we will have air conditioning for the trip (we are still Alaskans at heart and more dependent on cool air than we like to admit). The first attempt to get the part has failed and it ended up in some safari camp in the Okavango Delta but no one knows which camp....So as everyone says here,"This is Africa."
Other things we have been busy with to support FMS is finding and working out a lease for an office here. Office space near the airport is extremely hard to find and expensive. We were fortunate to discover an office in a small complex down the road from the current airport entrance. The owners agreed to give it to us at a very reasonable rent, and after agreeing to take it we found out that when the airport renovations are completed, along with a new terminal building, the office will be across from the new main entrance! Pictured below is the outside of the complex and the office. It will be another place we will need to go clean up and paint.
Another request from the management in Gaborone, was to find a young Christian Motswana woman to be a meet and greet/ secretary for FMS. The Lord seemed to lead us to just the right person, and Patricia has now joined our team here. Julie has been volunteering and helping to train Patricia, who is pictured below in the center with Robert to the left of her. There were a few VIP people coming through Maun recently at different times, and we were all at the airport to meet them. We have been told that there will even be new uniforms for everyone soon.
A larger job we were involved in for FMS while the flying has been slow, was to clean up, repair, and paint the flat next to our house. It took over 50 hours of work to get it ready, but by the time Travis, the other pilot, returned from his travels it was ready to go. He is now moved in and momentarily settled until things are in place for his possible transfer to Francistown, east of Maun. Pictured below is the outside of the flat, and the inside of the finished flat.
Another request from the management in Gaborone, was to find a young Christian Motswana woman to be a meet and greet/ secretary for FMS. The Lord seemed to lead us to just the right person, and Patricia has now joined our team here. Julie has been volunteering and helping to train Patricia, who is pictured below in the center with Robert to the left of her. There were a few VIP people coming through Maun recently at different times, and we were all at the airport to meet them. We have been told that there will even be new uniforms for everyone soon.A larger job we were involved in for FMS while the flying has been slow, was to clean up, repair, and paint the flat next to our house. It took over 50 hours of work to get it ready, but by the time Travis, the other pilot, returned from his travels it was ready to go. He is now moved in and momentarily settled until things are in place for his possible transfer to Francistown, east of Maun. Pictured below is the outside of the flat, and the inside of the finished flat.
In addition, Misheck has been transplanting new plants into the yard that people have given us, and we marvel each day over the colorful flowers, birds, and sunsets that surround us. Once again we thank all of you for your prayers and emails. Please pray for the Lord's continued provision and protection. The more we get involved in the lives of people here, the more we need greater prayer support in these areas. Also, in the middle of March we should be traveling to Zambia to help our Baptist missionary friends move to a small village there. It will take two days of travel each way. We are currently waiting on an expensive part that went out on the Pajero so that we will have air conditioning for the trip (we are still Alaskans at heart and more dependent on cool air than we like to admit). The first attempt to get the part has failed and it ended up in some safari camp in the Okavango Delta but no one knows which camp....So as everyone says here,"This is Africa."
A few days after the graduation we enjoyed the company of old friend's who used to live in Galena, and some friends of theirs, as they stayed with us a night while passing through Maun. Tim and Laurel Osborne have been living in Namibia for the last ten years, but had been helping with a project putting radio transmitters on Kori Bustards (big birds) in the Central Kalahari Reserve. They stopped for a visit on their way to Zambia where they spent Christmas with friends. The friends they were traveling with were on their way to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwean boarder, and then were to fly back to the states from Namibia on Christmas day. Just about a quarter mile from our house there is a woman that makes some of the nicest baskets around here, so everyone was thrilled to get some lovely souvenirs to return home with from Botswana.
Only three days past after our Namibia guests departed, we had the pleasure of another visit from our missionary friend from Rakops for two days. After twenty years ministering in the country, John had some good insights to impart to us and many interesting stories share. His company was a pleasure. We continue to feel blessed with this home, and thankful to be able to extend hospitality with others the Lord brings into our lives.
Mmatshimo helped out by going with us to the out lying village of Sexaxa (pronounced Sicaca), and taking bags to her village of Disaneng. Pictured below are just a few of the people we visited when giving out the gift bags. People here live very simplistically in small huts. The children have very little and were thrilled by the simple gifts bags we distributed. It felt a bit like being a pied piper of children as we visited from home to home. They loved having their picture taken, and all Colin had to do was point the camera in a direction and they would run that way, gather together, and pose. Below is just a sample of the fifty or so shots we took during our village visits. Notice the car toys made from wire they were so proud to show us. We have been printing out the pictures we take and returning for further visits as we continue to build relationships with the people the Lord draws us to.
Not only were we able to give needed items to people who greatly appreciated the material help, but we were able to plant some spiritual seeds in addition to reflecting Christ like love as we distributed the gift bags. In a small and simple way it felt like we were able to truly share Christ, the real gift of Christmas this season.
This morning we had a chameleon clinging to the wire fence around our patio, hissing at one of the dogs as Red tried to attack it. The fencing was gray and the post near by was brown. In the photo below you can see how closely it had changed its coloring as it tried to blend in to its surrounding, but that still was not enough to protect itself from our barking dog. Colin held out a large stick and the chameleon carefully climbed on and allowed itself to be transported to the safety of a nearby tree. It then changed to the color of the tree bark. How amazingly simple for this small creature to just change to blend in to a new place. How quietly trusting and content it was to just be safely transported to a new location. How remarkably adaptable and flexible.
We can not say that the changes this year were easy or always simple, but the transitions in our lives have been positive and we certainly can see the hand of God in it all. Each day we continue to try to be a small blessing in someway to someone here as we seek guidance and direction from the Lord. In a recent Bible devotional a scripture was quoted that said, "Who despises the day of small things?" Zechariah 4:10 NIV. The overall point of the devotional was that often as Christians we can get caught up in the adage of "the bigger the better" when it comes to ministering. People sometime want to measure success in numbers or spectacular displays of God's power. But in reality, all God is interested in is our heart and our willingness to be obedient. It is good to remember that even in small things, His spirit is enabled His purposes will be fulfilled. We are just a small part of the Lord's work here in Botswana, but in this new year and season of our life please pray we continue to be obedient in the small things (and maybe a bit more like the chameleon.)