Preaching at Mantshwabisi

Today Jeff & I drove to a village about 1 1/2 hours outside Gaborone for Sunday Service at Mantshwabisi Baptist Church. Angie May, a missionary with "Reaching the Unreached" invited Jeff to preach. She has been ministering to this village for quite a few years. Last year Jeff took a college mission team from Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in the U.S. to this desert village. We took Gofaone Kehumile, our church receptionist, with us to translate. As we took the long dirt road to the village we passed many groups of cows. I remarked to Gofaone about the collar with a bell around the cow's necks. She said that each bell had a different ring, and the owner could identify his cows by the tone of the bell ring. This reminds me of John 10:27, where Jesus said that he knows His sheep and they follow Him. I am forever thankful that Jesus does know me!

When we arrived at the church, Angie told us that after being away the previous week she arrived on Friday to find that someone had ransacked the small room she stays in off the Church building and taken most of the food supplies she had. However, she still offered us bushtea (minus sugar which was taken) and 2 ladies from the church came later to cook us lunch consisting of canned sardines and "pop", their staple starch made of white cornmeal (similar to grits). We were very humbled and very thankful for this sweet church family. Jeff preached to a small group on 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, about the importance of each and every one of us to step forward and use the gift that God has given to us. The church body as a whole works so much better when there is unity and we all work together with our particular giftedness. After service Angie and Jeff walked around the village visiting church member homes. They stopped by at the home of an older blind man. We had visited him last year and noticed that his small thatched hut was in disrepair and the door was rotted out and did not close properly. His house was empty and he slept on the floor but his only complaint was that the goats could get in the door and were sleeping with him! The door was repaired last year by a mission team member but now he was getting a new home constructed out of cement blocks. We continue to praise The Lord for all his provisions.

I will try and post additional photos to our online web album and also to facebook (if I can figure out how to do it!). Posted by April