Home!

Home?  What is home? Or should I say where is home?  Is it a feeling or a physical reality?  What comes to your mind when you think of home? Is it your house – the bricks and mortar?  Is it the people in your house – your family?  Is it the place you currently live?  Or the town you grew up in? Or your Momma and Daddy’s house?  Is it the place you are most comfortable? Or just the place you lay your head at night?   I’ve been thinking about home a lot these past few days.  Not in a homesick – missing home kind of way – just pondering Home.  There are so many things that come to my mind when I hear or say the word home.  I asked myself recently where is my home?  After spending several months without a “bricks and mortar” house and no official place to call home, I’ve wrestled with the answer to that question.  I’ve heard it said, “home if where your heart is” and “there’s no place like home” but even those sayings didn’t answer my question of home.  I have thought about Sumter and the previous house we lived in – while we were there it was home.  I have thought about Aiken and my parent’s house - it was home while I lived there.  I have thought about Aiken and my sister’s house (which used to be our house) it was home when we lived there.  When I think of all of these places now – I say to myself – No that’s not my home, no that’s not my home, and no that’s not my home.  I have been thinking about home so much because I have a new place to call home in Botswana. I have thought about Abraham in the Bible – when called to a new land, how he obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going.  I have wondered what Abraham thought about leaving his home? I wondered if He questioned whether he would ever get to go home again or did he assume he was going to make a new home?


When we boarded that plane 2 months ago to follow God to Botswana (an unknown for me) I wondered how long it would take for this to “feel” like home? I really wondered if it ever would feel that way.  I wondered if we would ever feel settled here or if we would always feel like temporary residents… strangers in a foreign land on a temporary assignment?  Today as we mark our 2 month anniversary of living in our new home, I have concluded that home is a choice. A heart choice! 


Through all of this thinking about home God has reminded me that our real home is not anywhere on this earth.  We are all only temporary sojourners traveling through until God calls us to our real HOME in heaven.  Even our heavenly home is a choice – we can choose to accept the free gift of God’s grace through Jesus Christ and receive our eternal mansion that He is preparing for us – or we can choose not to accept it.  That is what home comes down to – a choice.  When God sends us somewhere we can choose to accept the place he has us as our home or we can pine and ponder and never settle in our new home.  I could choose to “wander in the desert for years” or I can choose to say this is my home – Botswana, Africa.  I am content with where I am and grateful for the home He has given me. So for today and until He calls me to my forever home, I have settled the question in my own heart and mind and I am happy to say “THIS IS HOME"!  15602 Broadhurst ext. 44, Gaborone, Botswana.   You are welcome in our home anytime!! 

I am so grateful for all of you that read our blog and pray for us.  Please continue to pray for our ministry here.  We have just starting meeting with the leaders of G-West Baptist Church where we will be launching a new Children’s program. Our goal in coming to Botswana was to help as many churches as possible take their next step in establishing a sustainable Children’s Ministry.  This is our first step in accomplishing our mission.  Please pray for G-West, for the pastor, Modise (Mo-dee-say), for the elder’s and the current Children’s leaders.  Please pray that everything we do they would grasp as their own and would lead the children straight to JESUS!! To Him be all the Glory!!  Please pray for the team we are hosting this week from Alabama.  They are here to survey what is happening in Botswana and are praying about a partnership possibility. 
Scott and I are also traveling this weekend to Mosojane (mo-so-john-ee) – a small village in Northern Botswana.  We are going to meet with a pastor and his wife that run 2 “daycare” centers.  They have asked us to come and see how we might assist them.  From what we hear Mosojane is one the most impoverished areas and these are probably more like orphanages than daycares.  Please pray that we would have God’s wisdom and discernment while we are there.  Pray that we would see very clearly how we might further help or assist them in their ministry. 


Thanks again for praying!  Tonya