You are wonderful and special, Psalm 139:14

Tonya and I are working every Monday at the Tlamelo Feeding Station in Old Naledi. Our main purpose is to teach a lesson to the children and connect with the ladies who cook and prepare the food for the children. Tonya brings baked goodies for the ladies along with her beautiful smile and listening ear. They love her banana muffins and that someone would take time to provide something for them. They are helping us with our Setswana language also. They spend most of the time laughing at my southern spin on Botswana words. There are words that sound exactly alike to my English mind but have one letter sound a Botswana native picks up that I cannot pronounce. Ke tlhotse sentle, means “I spent my day well.” If you miss the “tlho” sound and say “tho”, it means, “I spent my day afraid”. Speaking the language keeps the laughter at my expense most of the time.

The children help me with basic words and love to help me say the words correctly. They correct me as if I am a student in their classroom. Botswana children are remarkable and learning through repetition is their main method of learning. Due to lack of supplies, they learn from reading off a board or repeating what the teacher says to them. The concern I have is how much they learn. The reward is how well you can repeat back what has been taught, not how well you comprehend. So my Botswana lesson with them has taken an interesting twist this time.

My lessons have been about the creation and leading to Psalm 139:14. When I asked the children to look around at one another and say, “you are wonderful” to everyone you see. They laughed and chuckled until I asked them to say, “I am wonderful.” The smiles went away and confusion took over. This was hard for them to the point they could not do it. It was no longer just repeating my words and having fun, it was foreign to them. They never thought of themselves as wonderful or wonderfully made by an awesome creator. We spent the next hour telling one another they were wonderful and sharing how wonderful we all were to God.

When we came back this week, I was astonished when the children ran to me yelling, “I am wonderful”. They began to show me things they can do and things about themselves that makes them wonderful. The joy on their faces and expressions of excitement told me they get it. Today, I talked with them that they are special in the eyes of God because the hands of God formed them. Instead of confusion, they rejoiced in the new word and were quick to tell others how special they are to God. They began to show their gifts and talents; jumping, running, singing, hair, face, hands, short, tall. “Look at me Mr. Scott, I am special!” Knowing enough Setswana words for body parts to get the children share how unique they are to one another was fun for me as well. 74 children understanding truth about themselves was fantastic. I pray as adults we can always remember how wonderfully made and special we are to God and encourage our children their uniqueness is what makes them so special to God.

Pray request for our upcoming training sessions with two organizations that train and equip leaders in Botswana called, Joining Hands and Love Botswana. We love how God puts people before us to train and equip leaders to reach Botswana. Also, pray for our move to a new house this weekend. Pray the transition will be good for the boys. I hate we have moved around so much this past year.

Thank you for the prayers and support. We have been here 6 months already and could not have made this journey without all of you.

Scott and Tonya