New friends bless us so

Nothing is more constant in our mission than change.  The young missionaries come and go with regularity, and we serve and love them deeply for the short time they are ours.  Our missionaries are absolutely precious to us. 

                                       

It's been a long flight across the pond for these new arrivals.

What's been super fun of late has been the arrival of new friends from America.  Jerry and Maureen Smith are absolutely delightful!  We couldn't be more grateful for them.  They hail from Payson Utah and will serve in Botswana for the rest of our mission.  Maureen is a highly experienced nurse practitioner and Jerry a retired educator/school administrator.  Maureen will assume the nurse responsibilities which were mine for a couple of months, and Jerry will take over coordination of all vehicles, bikes, and cars.  Both of these are huge jobs, and we are deeply grateful for their service.  And even more grateful for their friendship.  Together we climbed to the top of Kgale Hill.

With our new friends the Smiths, we traveled north to the village of Serowe to find a new flat for arriving missionaries.  We attended church in Serowe...

                                                 

...before moving on to visit for the weekend a lovely preserve named Khama Rhino Sanctuary where we stayed in comfortable rustic chalets.

                                                     

                

This beautiful park was established in 1992 to preserve the highly poached rhino.  The initial 4 white rhinos and 2 black rhinos brought here have grown to a herd of more than 30 whites and 5 blacks.  We learned how to distinguish one from the other and saw quite a few whites including a still very young rhino.  

South Africa protects their rhinos from poaching by keeping their horns shaved off.  Like a fingernail, the horn can be painlessly removed after which it grows back. In contrast, Botswana protects their small rhino population by employing Botswana Defense Force personnel full time to constantly patrol.

              

Rounding a corner, we ran into some giraffe making use of the road. It's just too incredible!

            

             

This tiny antelope is called a duiker and must surely be at the bottom of the food chain.

                                            

Favorite birds of ours are the colorful hornbill.

                

The park features a blind from which to quietly spy on unsuspecting animals at the waterhole...

              

               

Aaron needs a total right hip replacement upon our return to the US.  Until then, we found an orthopedic surgeon who gave him a steroid injection to buy him some pain-free time.  While the doctor injected without the use of CT guidance, I stood in the background and prayed the Lord would guide his hands and his needle placement.  I was reminded of this beautiful artwork hanging in the hospital where I worked for 23 years.  What a blessing is modern medicine even in developing nations like Botswana. 

We hit the halfway point of our mission this week and so are planning a celebratory getaway soon.  We'll fly north to Chobe National Park and UNESCO's Okavango Delta for a 10-day self-safari adventure.  Stay tuned!