From our street to yours ...

Glyn, Susan, Maeyken, Adriaena

November 2007 #4.8

William Monaka leading the Kanye class

Photos, Videos and Bible Classes

Any of you who know me well will know that I have many things on my list of “not fun things to do”. Two of them are getting my picture taken and the other one is speaking with a video camera pointed at me! This past weekend I endured both! Dan Dyck (communications Director for Mennonite Church Canada) and Ed Doell (a very willing and able volunteer from Altona, Manitoba) visited us for a glimpse of our work and ministry here in Botswana. Dan and Ed kept busy interviewing our ministry partners, attending a Bible Study class and two worship services on Sunday. Given that we are getting ready to go to Canada for our North American Assignment it would seem that perhaps this was not the best timing. Contrary to that we discovered that for us the timing was perfect!

Mennonite Ministries in Botswana has a long history of Mennonites working in relief and development work as well as Biblical training. When talking to Batswana who have known Mennonites it does not take long to realize that the depth of relationships here has run very deep. It was very encouraging to hear the older folk credit Mennonite workers for helping them to understand the Bible in a way that challenged not only their own faith but the life of their congregations as well.

Dan and Ed with the Kanye Bible class

Throughout our time here we have been very cognisant that we inherited a thriving ministry that needed us to just help direct it into the next phase. The transition from Mission Worker led Bible Studies to Batswana leading these studies has not always been easy. When we came in 2003 we were introduced to Pastor William Monaka. William was a faithful attender of a Bible Study group that met in Gaborone. The amazing thing about William is that he drove over an hour each way to attend this group every Tuesday for over 5 years! He was so committed to studying the Bible he even continued studying after he had completed the required 12 books for graduation with a Certificate. The financial commitment of driving in to Gaborone became too much for him and he was forced to quit a year ago but not before he had completed almost every book available in our studies.

Glyn preaching at the Zion Christian Church of Messiah

William had taken some of the Bible Study Leadership courses that had been offered by our former colleagues prior to our arrival with the dream of starting a study in Kanye. Every once in a while we would talk about the possibility. William always promised it was going to happen but not until he had his church building finished. Last year with a small grant from Mennonite Ministries he was able to finish his building. We joined the congregation in Kanye for the opening celebration.

On Saturday, Dan, Ed and I drove to Kanye to attend the class. What an amazing time it was. Around the table on a Saturday afternoon at 4 pm were 8 students from a teenager to a senior in his 70's. Two of them were pastors from another AIC in the village. What an amazing thing to see William as he transformed from this very quiet humble man into a passionate teacher. He would lean forward in his chair to make a point his whole expression was alive. William believes in the power of studying the Bible and wants to give this gift to others as well.

Dan engaged in worship

Dan and Glyn at worship at the Spiritual Healing Church

After the class he spoke with Ed. He summed it all up in one statement when he was asked what the Mennonites throughout the years have given to the AIC’s. They taught us not just to preach but how to teach! And now folks like William are passing on their passion of studying the Bible through teaching the Bible to their own people.

Dan and Ed have a lot of other stories and video clips from their time here. Dan will be putting those together in a useable form and sending them out to congregations. But already their visit here has had an amazing impact at least on our lives as we see the fruit of not just our ministry here in Botswana but those who came before us.

Susan

Upcoming Events

Nov 16 - Jan 16 North American assignment.

Blog

We aim for weekly updates of our Blog. This seems to rarely happen on schedule! There is a link to the blog from our website. Or follow:

http://thegatheringsite.ca/botswana/

Adriaena working on her Canada project for school at Mokolodi Game Park being encouraged by Ed.

Family

Our sojourn to Canada for our second North American Assignment has begun. I (Susan) left Botswana on Thursday, November 8 for a week of renewal with friends in England. Glyn and Adriaena leave on Thursday, November 15. They will meet up with me at the airport in London for the flight to Canada. Maeyken will stay in Botswana for an additional two weeks to write her year end exams. We are grateful to our friends Poul and Dorthe Gundersen for their willingness to have Maeyken live with them. She flies to Johannesburg for the trip to Canada on November 29 arriving in Toronto on the 30^th. We are all looking forward to walking on Canadian soil again and spending time with our families, partner congregations and friends. We’re hoping for a bit of snow but clear roads!

Susan

The last bit has been very full. As Susan described above, Dan Dyck and Ed Doell from Mennonite church Canada were here for five days. They left on Monday Nov 5. The next day Adriaena presented her Canada project to her class and then had a swimming gala (swim races) in the afternoon. On Wednesday she had a piano exam, on Thursday Susan left, while on Friday and Saturday Adriaena had two more galas. This coming week she has another gala on Tuesday (where Maeyken and I will be time keepers) and we leave on Thursday. Somehow we thought that things might be slower in Africa - in some ways but for sure not the last month.

Maeyken has helped me (Glyn) pack. Because Dan and Ed were coming, we actually had about half our stuff packed a week before Susan left, and two weeks before I take the stuff (Susan took a minimal amount of things to make travel easier for her). Yesterday we basically finished packing - strange I thought that this was what you always did the night before you travelled...

Maeyken has been studying for exams. She has 7 in three days. Her Science exam was to have been written on the Friday after she had left - that one has been rescheduled earlier in the week. The others are 3 a day on both Wednesday and Thursday Nov 28 and 29. She is hoping to move the last one on Thursday so she has a chance to change out of her school uniform before going to the airport to fly to Canada.

Glyn

North American Assignment

We will be in North America from Nov 16 to Jan 16. During that time we will be visiting our supporting congregations and connecting with friends and family.

Confirmed dates:

Nov 23 - Missions Event, Baden

Nov 25 a.m. - Living Water, New Hamburg

Nov 25 p.m. - Soulspace, Stratford

Dec 2 - Wilmot, Baden

Dec 4 - Chapel at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, KW

Dec 9 - Wadsworth, Ohio

Dec 16 - Wellesley

Dec 23 - Shantz, Baden

Jan 6 - The Gathering, Kitchener

Mail us at:

Box 33, Gaborone, Botswana

c/o Jim Loepp Thiessen

18 Ripley Cres.

Kitchener, ON, Canada N2N 1V4

Phone us at:

Botswana: 267-390-5554 (Just remember that we are 7 hours earlier than Ontario!)

Ontario: Cell: 226-220-0147

Skype at: susanglyn

Email us at: (Stays the same while we are in Canada)

We welcome your financial contributions for our support and invite you to send these to:

Mennonite Church Canada WITNESS

600 Shaftesbury Blvd

Winnipeg MB

Canada R3P 0M4

Please Pray for...

... Mission Worker for Francistown. We are still hoping that something will work out. The folks in Francistown regularly ask us when we will be sending someone their way. Pray that we may be able to move this along while we are in North America.

... Bible classes. Sometimes energy lags when the mission workers are away. Pray that the various class leaders will find their classes exciting and will be able to continuously point to God and God’s role in people’s lives.

...Our North American assignment. We will be in North America from mid-November to mid-January. Pray for the time we will be in churches that we can represent God’s work that we are involved with here in Botswana, and that we can listen well to our partnering congregations as they tell us about God’s work in North America. Pray also that we will be able to find quality time with family and friends so that together with the church visits we can be energized for another term of service here in Botswana.

...Maeyken as she stays here in Botswana for 2 more weeks to study and write exams.

Give Thanks for...

...A wonderful time of encouragement from our local partners as they told about the significance of Mennonite mission work over the years here in Botswana during Ed and Dan’s visit.

... Friends who will host Susan in the UK and care for Maeyken here in Botswana, and the many friends who have already put in a lot of effort towards our stay in North America.