Our 1st day in Africa

We received a warm welcome at the Gaborone airport from a couple of folks at Open Baptist Church. Our church has worked with them on many occasions, so although we had never met anyone there, we all felt as if we knew each already. That evening, we checked into a hotel, ate a bit of supper, and hit the sack. Sleeping in a bed feels much better than [trying to sleep] on a plane!

The next day, we got a tour of OBC, which was formerly a golf driving range and bar. Pastor Norman has done all the landscaping, and it's just beautiful! While there, we had a wonderful meeting with the OBC folks about the history of Botswana, and about traditional African religion and culture. I found it all truly fascinating. Hard to condense into a blog post, however. The University of Botswana backs up to the property of OBC, and we are convinced that God is going to do big stuff with the kids on that campus. Remember, the average lifespan in Botswana is about 33 years old, due to the rampant spread of AIDS/HIV, and especially so in the young-adult age range. There are billboards around town reminding you to consider "Who is in your sexual network?" In every hotel room, there are condoms in the bedside drawer, right on top of the Gideon Bible; they were even packaged in hotel packaging, just like lotion & shampoo & such. Up until very recently, the country's strategy for dealing with the AIDS epidemic was the "ABC" campaign, urging people to "Abstain, Be faithful, Condomize." Obviously, that sends a very mixed message. Now, a new program called Face the Nation is making a difference, training Christian college kids who have volunteered to take the message of Christ into secondary schools and convince the kids about the importance of sexual purity. The folks at OBC do the training for this program, and our church helped them get things going.

That afternoon, we had a bit of a tour of the city of Gaborone. Botswana is a young country and the city is even younger. A generation ago, no one lived in the city; mostly they lived in rural communities as part of a tribe. They are still learning how to do life in the city. It's really odd, because when you are in the city, you can forget for a while that you are in Africa. Until you see a herd of goats running across the road.

We had a little time to stop and walk through an open market. I could have spent all day just watching people, and talking to folks like this man who sold me baskets.

I really wanted a basket from Africa, and our tour guide (aka the youth minister at OBC) said Botswana is known for baskets. The dollar goes pretty far there, so I got two lovely baskets for less than $20.

Some things there made me laugh. Like a TupperWare booth right next to a booth selling hand-made baskets. Or this booth advertising cell phone repair...In the evening, we had a meeting to go over all the specifics of the FamilyWise conference. But we had some serious spiritual warfare going on. The BIGGEST challenge to pray about: Denise Glenn, one half of the couple who was to teach the conference, had come down with a sudden & wicked stomach bug. Her husband David, who was the other half, was losing his voice; not good for two upcoming days of speaking. And one of our team, Laurel, had fallen in the hotel bathroom and cut her foot and was badly bruised. We spent a a lot of time that night praying.

(More Botswana blog posts to come!!!)