Botswana Bush Team Update

The Botswana Bush Team has been partnering closely with the local church to help fill whatever needs and strategy the churches have in reaching their people with the Gospel. 

They have traveled and spent their days in both bush & urban settings doing evangelism, discipleship, children’s ministry, and leading worship. The gospel is being greatly sowed and the team is seeing people respond! Through their partnership with the local church, the new believers are then connected to the church and begin to be discipled. 

• Pray for continued endurance for the team as they travel and do ministry. Their schedule requires them to be extremely flexible and ready to jump on any task, so be praying for continued spirits of readiness and joy for whatever is to come. 
• Pray for the gospel to continue to be boldly shared & for many to respond. 
• Pray for the local church to be encouraged & catalyzed through this partnership!
  
  
  

-Botswana Bush Team

Teams arriving at their final destinations....

International travel these days is getting back to normal.... but there are still unexpected hiccups along the way. We are so thankful that all the teams have arrived at their final destinations. The longest travel time was 52 hours from the time the team left Mentone, Alabama until they arrived at their final destination. 

Please continue to pray for teams as they get settled, have some local orientation & get into their daily routines.

Encouraging the family

Had a great time in F-town! We had the opportunity to do

street evangelism, prayer walking and trained some of the church members in Two Paths, the evangelism method we use here. It was great to get to visit with pastor Chris again and work alongside him to spread the gospel!

-Bush Boys

Team of the Day: Bush Boys

Location: Botswana
Team size: 2

Job description: We are looking at reaching the cities as well as rural areas here in Botswana. We will use children's ministry, youth outreach, Sports Evangelism, Prayer Walking, Evangelism, etc. to share the Gospel. We will partner with local Batswana youth in order to reach their cities and villages with the Gospel. The Baptist Convention is trying to plant one church in every village and youth ministry is a valuable part of the overall strategy.

Learning while helping

Spent the past week helping Lobatse Baptist Church prep for a women's conference! We got to help cook, clean, cut firewood, and help slaughter a cow! We learned a lot about how the Batswana cook and do things traditionally. Then we topped off the week by camping in the Kalahari!

-Reuben
Bush Boys, Botswana

Joy in Repentance

Got to speak at today at a local school's chapel! By far the most people I've spoke in front of... but definitely a good experience! My main point? There is joy in repentance and God wants us to turn back toward Him. He is a forgiving and loving God no matter how much we mess up!

Pray that the students will continue to think about what they heard & that they would choose to make that turn back toward God.

-Reuben
Bush Boys, Botswana

Thanks from Botswana!

We are so thankful for this amazing group of university students who came to work alongside of us in Botswana for the last 2 months through Nehemiah Teams. What an eternal impact they have made in so many lives. Thank you for serving... we love you all!!

-Field Supervisor
Bush Boys & Girls

Discipleship

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

Team of the Day: Bush Boys and Girls

Country of the Day: Botswana

Pray for the discipleship of new believers to continue even after team members have departed.

God's Love

Our team has done much to try to help the needs of people. We have done food distributions and giving eggs to kids in schools. The needs here have touched our hearts. Most people here are so happy and generous even though they have so little. One day we went to a school and heard of the needs of the kids there, and the need hit us greatly.

Here is a journal entry from Katie talking about the needs of some of the kids:
"Let me break this down for you. These people live in the middle of no where with really no way to get much less keep a job. The kids go to school from 7:30am to 4pm. Nine times out of ten they come to school hungry. When they get to school there is nothing to eat. The school is doing their best to provide the students with an education and a safe place to be during the day. They can't afford to feed them. If be some off chance they can afford to feed them, it's just sadza porridge which is cornmeal and water. And once they leave school, there is no telling what kind of situation they are going back to."

Despite this, we see that their greatest need is Jesus. His love for them is deep, and He cares for their needs. Therefore, we might not be able to meet all their physical needs, but we have come with the greatest news they could ever hear.

Please pray that God would help us to see that their greatest need is to know the truth about Him. Help us to be able to love them and provide for their needs whenever we can.

Following God's Lead

We are learning as a team to trust the Lord and follow His lead while we are here in Bulawayo. We are learning to "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" as 1 Peter 3:15 tell us to do. There have been times that we have been asked to share a Bible study when we hadn't had anything planned. Those times are teaching us to be always be prepared even when we don't think we should. People always need the truth. God is also teaching us that things might not work out as we think, but things always go according to God's plan.  

There have been times when things haven't gone according to plan, but we have seen God work in those times.Even when we don't understand, we can still trust and obey and know that God will work it all out. We have been reading through the book of Acts, and the early church is helping us to see that we can obey the Lord's leading even when it doesn't make sense. In the end, there is a purpose for it. I am learning that God will work all things out even when they don't make sense or work like we think they should. 

• Please pray that our team will trust God and will be obedient even when things don't work out like we think they should. 
• Pray that God would work out all the details here and help us to trust Him more. 

-Heather 

We'll make a plan

Dumela from Gaborone!

My name is Cam and I am one of the team leaders for the Bush Boys and Girls. After long flights and layovers starting in Atlanta, we arrived in Gaborone jet lagged and all on June 8th. There was a little bit of a learning curve at first as we learned to walk the streets as we are without vehicles of our own for the next two months.

We have been cooking dinners for ourselves, although finding ingredients has been somewhat difficult. We had to go to three different stores before we found everything for a taco dinner, but nevertheless we figured it out.

There's a saying here in Africa our supervisor likes to use: "We'll make a plan." Whenever we are talking about ministry planning, we have learned that scheduling in Africa is far more different than in the States. Though there is a bit of a learning curve, it has taught us to slow down and pay attention to the Spirit.

Our first week has been full of door to door evangelism. The people of Botswana are very receptive to hearing the Word of God. We have already had a week full of children's ministry as well. The Lord has been gracious in our ministry as several people have already been raised from death to life through the proclamation of the gospel!

Continue to pray for salvations as we continue our ministry!

-Cam

Meet the Team: Bush Boys & Girls

Greetings from Botswana!

Back row: Cam, John, Reuben, Kenny, Rachel
Front row: Anna, Maria, Kelsey, Mikayla, Taryn

We are the Bush Boys & Girls Team and we would like to introduce ourselves. We will be spending the summer in the beautiful country of Botswana, ministering to local churches and believers. Here is a little bit about where we come from and what we do in the US.

Maria: University of South Carolina, Freshman, Journalism Major
Mikayla: Mississippi College, Senior, Christian Studies Major
Reuben: University of Alaska Anchorage, Sophomore
Taryn: Blue Mountain College, Junior, Business Administration
Anna: Auburn University, Junior, Global Studies
John: Arkansas State University, Junior, Plant and Soil Science
Cam: Florida State University, Senior, Marketing
Kelsey: Western Kentucky University, Senior, Non-profit Administration
Rachel: University of Alabama Huntsville, Senior, Nursing
Kenny: Southern Seminary, Masters of Divinity

We appreciate your prayers!