We had a Saturday training at OBC, our second in the series. They have a great curriculum and wonderful volunteers teaching the children. Teaching moment for them was taking the lesson and putting it to action for the children. Great turn out of about 25 people. Looking forward to the next session on children's discipleship.
I spent time training in the village of Selebi-Phikwe in the Northeast area. We did the next step in teaching with just a bible and they got it. Such a desire to open God's Word to children and using it to teach them direction for their life. I had someone from Kings Foundation with me to help train community outreach for the churches and provide them with a BaSE kit they offer for ministry. This training and kit will reach 500 children in the village. In the photo of the children, there were 388 jammed next to one another feeding each other after a bible story and prayer. It was like watching the feeding of the multitude breaking bread and passing it along.
When I got back to Gaborone, Chandler and I went on a father/son hunting trip. We had a chance for some leaders to talk about God's design for relationships. It was a great time of focusing on Chan. It was neat for me to have a time of hearing what he learned about God's design for his life. Chan got his first kill, a nice size impala 130 yards away drop shot. Worse part of the trip was Chan got tick bite fever and was pretty sick. Meds got him back to health. Such a great time together, I love that boy! He always knows how to make me smile and laugh.
We celebrated our first Easter here and Tonya's __ birthday. Our dear friends from Mosojane came to visit with their children. The Easter bunny has arrived in Africa! We went to an Easter egg hunt at the embassy grounds. We celebrated Good Friday with 7 baptisms at Desert Stream Fellowship. Easter was a great celebration and spent eating with friends. For Tonya's birthday along with our friends, the Barker family, we had red-velvet cake and mexican food (our favorite). When we got home, we had a multiple Skype session with Makenzie and Hunter. It was a lovely day for momma and daddy was glad God arranged it.
Then it was Xtreme Camp at Desert Stream Fellowship for the youth in the area. I got the chance to have fun on Saturday with the smaller kids. We used the BaSE kit provided to me from Kings Foundation and it was like Christmas. The colorful game props and 5m parachute was just the thing for them. They did not want it to end. We played "wolf" and "cat and mouse" - they were the favorite games. Also, I had the chance to see Chandler play his electric guitar for the worship team during the week. He did a great job. I also helped council the youth as they made "next step" decisions for Christ. Such a thirst for God here for the young people. The workers are few to disciple so many young people.
Then it was off to Kabwe, Zambia. Open Baptist Church (our receiving church here) has a mission point here. Every April they conduct a pastor's conference and allowed me to come along and teach the children's workers. All I can say is "WOW" and "Go God"! It was a great time for me to see how churches and communities without children's ministry are struggling. There were 14 bars within 1/2 km of the church we were at and children were all outside of them waiting on someone or just all in the streets. I had 27 leaders who worked with children or had and interest. When the sessions were over, every one of them committed to service in Children's work. Seven of them were not doing anything with church and said without hesitation, "I want to change the next generation, I want to teach children." I trained and gave them a BaSE kit as well and we had a kids Game Afternoon as well with 63 kids, 5-14 years old. One child said, "It was the greatest day of my life. We've never had something like this before. Please come back." Thanks to Kings Foundation for the kit and training, they can now have it every week. The vision for our ministry allowed me to reach 7 different churches in the area impacting over 2,000 children. I had no idea before we got there, God knew!
Closing, I just want to say, "I have been BUSY!" On a personal note, I would like to share as much a joy this side of the ministry is for us the other side is hard, very hard. The impact on our family living on two continents frankly, stinks! There are days when your children need momma no matter how old they get and she can not hold or help them. Sometimes, even daddy needs a chance to talk with them about what is going on with their lives. Not being there for them pulls at you in places you can not describe nor explain. On top of that, missing life moments like high school graduation and settling your child into college - it's painful. Truth is: we plain out MISS THEM!!! In this world, everything goes fast and vanishes quickly waiting for the next thing to happen. No time to soak it in or hold on to it. We have to keep moving, no matter how much rest you take, you can not stay there for long.
The ministry has mainly been me going away teaching while Tonya stays behind with kids, which makes the distance hard as well. The distance apart does not get shorter no matter how good the technology is out there. We pray daily that our children will not become angry at God or resist Him because of the impact this has made on them. We pray they will know Him because of what they experienced and obey His plan for their lives and not turn a deaf ear to Him. I guess the silence of 5 weeks is me not wanting to rejoice in what God is doing with our ministry because of the impact on our family is not always so joyful. We knew this going in but had not idea how to picture the sacrifice until we laid it on the alter and trusted God with it. I never knew how great and hard it would feel letting Him use it. Please join us in praying as we try to celebrate what God is doing and still mourn what we are missing!
Scott
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