Dumela! (Hello!)

Lo tsogile jang? (How are you all?) It has taken me a while to get this first blog update posted – I know many of you have been patiently waiting for pictures of my new home and environment! A REALLY brief overview of my first two weeks in Botswana goes something like this: it started with a blurry first couple of days due to jet lag and exhaustion in which Emily and I met many wonderful missionary families and tried to absorb lots of new information. Then we spent a night in a village called Masunga, followed by a week of language training and culture orientation in Francistown. We met many of the youth who attend the Baptist church in Francistown and they did much of our culture orientation. It was really great to hear their perspectives on their own culture and to begin to understand what it is like to be a youth in Botswana. Then, last Saturday, Emily, Crystal, and I moved into our new homes in Palapye. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of unpacking, fixing last minute things, moving furniture, and getting settled in – all while beginning our first week of teaching and learning our way around Palapye! A big thank you goes out to all the missionaries and Batswana who have helped us get settled and to all my friends and family at home who are praying and e-mailing their encouragement. It would take forever to list all the names here, but God knows who you are and I am thanking Him for you! God is really at work in Botswana and He has shown me what beautiful people live here. Please pray for Emily, Crystal, and I as we minister to students in our classrooms, meet new people and build relationships in our community, and begin to develop ministries with and through our church (Tent of Hope). Please also be in prayer for Operation HIV (our teaching ministry in the schools and home-based care ministry) as plans are made to turn the program over to the Botswana Baptist Convention so that it will continue even after all of us leave. Finally, you can pray for Emily – she is having an allergic reaction to a bug called the blister bug. If you are allergic to it, blisters will pop up on your skin if it even steps on you. Emily has two large blisters on her leg and they are pretty painful – so pray that they would heal soon. I hope you enjoy the pictures I’ve posted and I trust that they will help you visualize this amazing country and pray for its people.

Psalm 91