Cows, Donkeys, Goats Oh My!

I just got back from a long trip training in the village of Selebe-Phikwi and wanted to share what a great experience I had during this trip.

First, the travel was crazy, with all the business of payday and everyone driving wild on the roads to get where they wanted. Took way longer than I expected to reach my destination. My first stop was to visit the Brazilian missionaries who have been watching over my belongings in Palapye after the Suburban broke down (yes, it is still in the shop. Waiting on parts from the US to arrive.) Wonderful family establishing church in their home and reaching 45 children and 23 adults. When they found out our ministry, they were very interested and requested we do a training next year for them. They will organize other baptist churches in the area who need this type of training. Opportunity impact of reaching 150 to 200 children in the churches alone that have no established children's ministry. That Suburban is building my ministry and the kingdom of God by my fuel pump breaking down. I pray the Lord will be done with it soon so I can get it back to help in transportation back in Gaborone. I'm loving what he is doing but sure miss my car.

Because of the late driving, I ended doing something I should not do, drive at night in rural Botswana. Death from driving accidents involving animals is the largest in Botswana outside of HIV. From the main road to Selebe-Phikwi I traveled a road so full of life stock I felt like I was driving trough a farm instead of a road. Cows (dikomo), donkey (ditonki) and goats (dipudi) were everywhere. The locals were driving through as if they were not there, just the flashers going off. I had my hands at 2 and 10 o'clock and my head in the windshield looking out for them. They were in the road walking, sleeping. They were beside the road and even saw a few Impala jumping across the highway. The adrenaline was over the top. I finally arrived and was welcomed by Rob and Mary Grindley, with Branch Ministries to a nice steak and a good nights rest.

The training was with Branch Ministries who asked me train three churches in their ministry. The churches were: Church Of The Harvest (the existing ministry); Botshabelo and Tobane. They are working to develop children ministry in two of them and grow the ministry in the third. There are 140 children attending the churches represented. Branch Ministries was established in 1996 by Robert & Mary when they answered the call to preach the Gospel in Africa. Since that time they have been involved in many types of ministry. Their ministry is primarily in Selebi-Phikwe, a mining town in central Botswana with a population of approximately 65,000. Branch Ministries now includes works and projects of church planting, evangelistic outreaches, leadership conferences. Selebi-Phikwe is an area known to be surrounded by witchcraft and the spiritual battle is very real for all ages. It is a battle field most of us can understand nor begin to comprehend. This is a stronghold capturing many generations.

The next day was a wonderful day of training. Eager participants and who grasped what was taught and a vast desire to learn. A day was not enough for this group. Our mission here is to help establish effective children's ministries in churches. Watching the churches work to organize themselves, determine the roles they were to fill and define their mission, vision and values right in front of me was impressive. I wish Pastor Clay Smith was with me to coach me through the last part. He is the beast at it. I am grateful this grasshopper had a good teacher. God showed up and it was working great as they eagerly got busy putting the work together. Pray for the three churches as the work their next steps in their children ministry and define the direction God wants them to take. The 3 churches have the opportunity to impact 1,600 children that attend school them. I look forward to seeing what God will do here. Pray the next training will be done soon before we head home for the holidays. They want to learn more about creative teaching methods and finalize their mission, vision, values statement. Such a joy to be part of something that is 100% what we provide to churches here in Botswana.

The drive home was uneventful, praise God, with not issues. Glad to spend the night with family and enjoy time with friends who were visiting.

Pray for Hunter's last weeks here and the transition all of us are going to face when we leave him in the US and head back to Botswana in January. We love tall, competitive boy so much. He has such a presence in the family that will be greatly missed.


Scott Shipes