Transition in Botswana

Part of the beauty of our calling is the love engendered in our hearts for our missionaries, seniors and juniors alike.  These four senior missionaries celebrated January birthdays together. 

We continue to hemorrhage missionaries as our VISA concerns persist.  It seems the Botswana government is in no hurry to resolve the problem, so the time continues to click away with all of us having an expiration date on our foreheads.  We just keep sending them out, some to go home after their 2-yr commitment, some to reassignments elsewhere in the world.  It rips my heart out each time someone leaves.  It's also quite unsettling for everyone left, somewhat like having a guillotine above our heads.  Our expiration date is 9 March after which we hope to find safe haven in Namibia.  Tomorrow we will send away 5 young African sisters to their reassigned missions in Zambia. It just tears me up.

Miraculously, we did receive our first new missionaries in 3 months; three young men from Canada and the US.  As well, this week will see the return to Namibia of 5 heretofore reassigned African missionaries.  We don't want to send too many to Namibia as we have a tenuous VISA relationship with that country as well.  

These young men recently fled from Botswana to Namibia as their expiration date came due. 

 The beautiful Elder Kapinga, whom we have grown to love as a son, honored Elder Kasper with a tam for his birthday present.  

Baptisms continue to bring faithful people into our fold.  The people of Botswana are so ready to receive the saving principles of the gospel into their lives.

                                                  

The islanders decided to have a pig roast luau.  They captured the poor squealing beast early in the morning, and we happened upon them just as they had just removed the entrails and again later in the morning as they roasted the unlucky porker.  We declined the luau, however; these images were enough to quell any desire to imbibe.  It turned out just as well; reports were that the meat was undercooked and tough.   

Our good friends Wame and Joscelyn Nyepi, him a Batswana, her a Pilipino, let us crash their date night. Dinner and a movie out was such a treat with these lovely people as well as a much-needed respite from the 60-hour work weeks we put in.  

As our numbers dwindle, several flats empty out, and we take the opportunity to clean and refresh them, sometimes recruiting help with the messier ones.  

Recently we made the 5-hour drive north to Francistown to clean out another flat which we need to let go of due to our declining numbers.  We called upon the local missionaries to assist in the move, then treated them to dinner.  They become as dear to me almost as my own children.

A lovely P-Day was spent with our cohorts the wonderful Smiths.  We went mountain biking through a local reserve called Mokoldi, and while we didn't see much in the way of wildlife, we enjoyed the break and the beautiful scenery nonetheless.  Best of all, though, is the friendship with this absolutely lovely couple. 

Botswana is at baseline a scorched earth country in the dry season, and they received no thirst-quenching rains last season.  It's been a tough year on the people and the animals.  Many people lost cattle from starvation as the country does not put up hay but rather relies on the seasonal rains.  Unfortunately, when those rains failed them last year, every living thing suffered.  However, the rains have come in abundance this year, thank heavens.  We have witnessed marvelous lightning storms and drenching downpours.  So much so that there is now flooding in some areas, and newly planted crops have washed away.  Heretofore dry riverbeds with countless footpaths through them have now turned into muddy raging waterways overrunning their banks.  The rains also produced verdant green; the transformation of the burned brown bush into fields of lush grass and wildflowers is a remarkably beautiful sight.  The cattle are fattening and the parched earth is replenished.