Week 2, September 6

Clean laundry drying as the sun sets.

Steph was a master at catching
the water and reusing it!

I am writing in between loads of laundry today... BECAUSE WE GOT A WASHER!! Praise God! Our friends helped us find a 6kg (small-ish) washer and helped us carry it up to our third floor flat yesterday. The only hook-ups are out on our patio, but we will be storing it inside to protect it from the elements. And because we are in the midst of a very bad drought, we recycled the water from one load's rinse to use in the next load's wash. We are so excited to have clean clothes!

This week, our teammate and national director, Taffy, traveled to Zimbabwe to move his immigration process along in person. The bus ride from Gaborone to Harare was 12 hours, and we spent days praying for his safety and for his meetings. When he finished his meetings at the immigration office, they told him they'd have to keep his passport to complete the process. He set off on his bus with a copy of his passport, and we prayed him over the border. It is incredible that the border guards let him back into Botswana, and we rejoiced when we heard the news!

While Taffy was gone, the STINT team served as chauffers for his family. Gracious doesn't have a license, so we woke up super early every morning to drive 25 minutes to their house to pick up little Zayne and drive him 35 minutes to his school before our work day started. We made the same long trip at the end of the day. Because I was the only one who knew the route, I drove a loooot this week... hours and hours a day. Though it was physically exhausting, our time with Zayne was so sweet! It was an honor to serve our teammates who are going through a trying season with immigration, but lots of other little things came up in Taffy's absence. We drove students he normally drives, and we ran extra errands he usually runs. It's going to be really hard to see him go when their family moves to South Africa in December! I selfishly want to pray that they will stay longer, but the Lord has called them to South Africa, and I will choose to support them in following Him. Until then, we will embrace every moment with them, like the movie night we had with the kids last night.

We moved forward with our own immigration process, too, meeting with the Chair of the Board of Campus Crusade for Christ Botswana. He signed our papers and gave us a list of other things we need to include in our packet in order to be accepted. I'm so thankful for his help, but I am growing weary of the long and drawn out immigration process.

A quick shot of African Mall

And speaking of long and drawn out, everyday errands become full-blown adventures when the city and culture are foreign. We needed to make a third set of keys for our flat this week. A friend told me we could find a key cutting business in "African Mall", but the only direction she gave me was that it was by Main Mall. After driving for a while with our necks craned and eyes scanning, a kind man pointed us in the right direction. African Mall looks nothing like a mall... not even the other malls here in Gabs. It most closely resembles a very large, old, poorly mapped out collection of strip malls. We had to run between shops to get the keys we needed, which included a horrific experience looking for parking in Main Mall (by far the most chaotic area of the city). The
whole process took about 2 hours and heightened
our stress levels, but now we have enough keys.

In the midst of a chaotic week, we stumbled upon a bit of home. There's a cafe here called Cafe Pie Time. The decor is fresh and modern but rustic, reminiscent of my favorite coffee shop, Caribou. (May the Bou live forever in our hearts). They offer a full menu plus lots of awesome coffee/espresso/smoothie options. The furniture is comfy and the staff is welcoming... and they have free wi-fi! The Lord was sweet to grant us this little bit of comfort in a sea of discomfort.

That discomfort came in the form of no water yesterday. We had invited our teammate Mpho over to shower and get ready at our flat before we went to a wedding at Open Baptist together. It rained last night (see the video), so it never occured to us that we are still in a terrible drought. Shortly after she jumped into the shower, our water was cut. We scrambled to give her our water bottles, the only water we had to offer, and the rest of us went without showering. For a shower-every-day girl, not having water is a big stretch. Water cuts are quite a common experience, but we had been spared from the harsh realities of the drought until that morning. We laughed a lot and bonded over the experience.

All alone at the wedding.

We also bonded over the fact that we were the only people at the wedding when it "started" at 10. The other guests started to arrive at 10:30, and the bridal party arrived at 11. Oh, Africa.








Our team is becoming more like family each day! This week, the men were both busy with immigration and missed team prayer time. This granted the women more freedom to share their hearts in prayer. It was so fun to see knowing nods and eyes lighting up as each of us shared, all of us realizing our struggles are common and our sisters understand. The single girls, especially, opened up and bonded in prayer. I really appreciate the depth of relationships Cru provides... no matter where in the world you may be. Cru culture supercedes cultures of origin when it comes to authenticity and vulnerability, and I love it!

Sarah chatting with students about Jesus.

We hit evangelism hard again this week, with our whole team spending peak hours on campus just sharing the Gospel. While we were sharing on campus one day, I shared the Gospel with a group of girls. One of them was pregnant, which is pretty common here. Young people go a little crazy when they get to university and make all kinds of bad life choices (just like in the U.S.). After hearing the Gospel and praying to receive Christ as Lord and Savior, the pregnant girl said, "I have wanted to do this for so long, but I thought I'd have to do so much. Does this mean I have to stop speaking to my boyfriend?" So I took that opportunity to explain the Spirit-Filled Life and the ways God changes us from the inside out, emphasizing the fact that we cannot just will ourselves to "live better lives" or "be good Christians". Just like an apple tree doesn't groan and struggle to produce apples, our growth comes from being connected to the Vine. The conversation stopped short when the girls had to leave for class, but that night one of the girls texted me to thank me for sharing with them.

We were hit with the reality that the novelty of our pale skin and American culture/nationality draws a wide variety of students to us. Some, like the girls above, are sincere in their desire to talk about spiritual things. Others want to monopolize our time to share their own opinions on hot button political topics. One such student asked me and Sarah what we thought about issues like gun control, same sex marriage, and America's role in the wars in the Middle East but didn't give us time to answer between her own strongly worded opinions. Try as we might, we could neither steer the conversation to spiritual topics nor leave. We finally met up with our team an hour late, our skin still stinging from the harsh words. Eish. Pray with us for wisdom in knowing how to graciously remove ourselves from those situations so we can spend our precious, limited time with students who want to grow in their faith. That is, after all, why we are here.

Pray also for wisdom in choosing a church home and in finding life-giving friends. These things are crucial to our ability to thrive this year, and we have yet to find them. We're going to check out a new church next week, but the ex-pat community we heard about has disbanded. I know that I cannot spend all of my waking hours with my staff team and students. I will never stop working unless I find some fun friends to do life with this year!