From our street to yours ...

Glyn, Susan, Maeyken, Adriaena

December 2008 #5.6

Blessed be the Name of the Lord... Blessed be His Name Blessed be the Name of the Lord ... Blessed be your holy Name You give and take away... you give and take away My heart will choose to say... Blessed be your name
	As we sang this praise song at little Jonathan’s funeral the words pierced my heart. “You give and take away... my heart will CHOOSE to say.” God gave Jonathan to his parents and yet 21 short months later he was gone back to be with God. His parents had a choice. They could either become disillusioned, bitter or angry in their faith or find ways to praise God despite the circumstances. During the days following Jonathan’s death I was struck by his father’s prayer of “God I choose to praise you in this situation”. Then at the memorial service we were once again choosing to praise God. The sceptical might say that the parents are perhaps sheltering themselves from the true pain of their loss. And yet as we walked with them in those days (and the days to follow) the pain is very obvious. They are grieving the loss of their son. And yet through it all they are choosing to place their faith and their trust in God and God is being faithful to comfort them and meet their needs. One of their comments has been that if you are going to loose a child, Africa is the best place to be. They have been surrounded by people who are acquainted with death. The tradition here is to have prayer meetings at the home of the deceased every night until the funeral. Keith and Cheryl choose to follow this tradition. Their Batswana neighbours came every night to pray with them and surrounded them with love and support. Many were strangers to Keith and Cheryl until they met to pray together in such difficult circumstances. All of them have also experienced a similar loss whether it be a relative or a friend’s child. The people of Botswana are acquainted with death and see death as a necessary part of life. They are also people who are compassionate in the face of other peoples grief. Many foreigners wondered if Keith and Cheryl would return home to Canada because of this tragedy. Their response: “Jonathan’s death doesn’t change God’s call to us to be here in Botswana.” It changes many things for Keith and Cheryl but not the fundamental call to come and serve here in Botswana. Thankfully they and their other two children are surrounded by people and professionals here who will be able to support them and help them as they live without Jonathan. This situation has forced me to reflect upon God’s call in my life. I struggled with God’s call to come here. I remain convinced that we are where God wants us to be for this stage of our lives but that does not mean it has always been easy. I have vivid memories of how angry I was with all of you who assumed that Glyn and I would go someplace far away when we were both looking for new places of ministry in 2003. You seemed so sure that this would be the next logical step for us. But in my heart I was struggling with God. I wanted to tell you to leave all that was comfortable - to leave family and friends. But it was not you to whom God was calling.
We are in the advent season and will soon celebrate the Birth of Christ. Through Christ we have access to God. Through Christ we learn of God’s love and plans for us. Through Christ we learn what it means to follow and be obedient to God’s call in our lives. I pray that during this Advent season that you will come closer to God who calls us to follow. God who sometimes calls us out of our comfort zones to teach us new things and use us in ways we could never have imagined. But God’s call is not only about serving and what we can do for others. God’s call is also about being in a place where God can speak directly to us and provide much needed healing and grace in our lives. We are aware that the current economic situation in North America is causing havoc with many lives. All over the world we have become a people who are greedy for more money and more of the “good” things in life. But perhaps God through this economic crisis is asking us to rethink our priorities. Perhaps God is asking us to rethink our “call”. No matter how much we don’t have we still have more than a majority of people in this world. A percentage of our income is adjusted according to a cost of living index. This insures that people who live in countries where the dollar goes far don’t get rich and people in countries in Asia can actually afford food! We in Southern Africa have struggled with this index as our experience of the exchange rate of the dollar doesn’t match with what the index says. We were hit with another big reduction in this portion of our salary when the index was adjusted in November. As I have been dealing with my frustration with having less money in our bank account yet feeling that costs here keep rising God has been speaking to me.
Madudu, a 15 year old friend from our village, was staying with us last week. One day I saw her staring wistfully at our stock of food in the cupboard. I made a comment about the quantity. Her response “it’s beautiful”. This is from a girl who is lucky if she gets bread and pap (mealie/corn meal) in any given day. Mavis, our household helper, is constantly struggling to have enough money to pay her bills and feed her children. I feel strange every time I bring groceries into the house when she is working knowing that I have just spent about 2/3 of her monthly pay on one trip to the grocery store. Mosetsanagape, another village friend, just told me that her rent for one room in Gaborone on a crowded plot without electricity or running water has gone up this month from 150 Pula a month to 250 Pula. This from a pay cheque of under 650 Pula ($Cdn 100) a month. So during this time of Advent I ask God to continue to deal with the greediness of my heart and help me to be generous to those who don’t have what I do even when sometimes I feel as though what I have is limited! God is good and God is in control. I believe that God honours those who choose to believe in Jesus, a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem who grew up to teach us all about following God’s call even when it involves sacrifice. May you and your family choose this Christmas experience God’s great gift of love in incredibly special ways! Susan

Family:

Maeyken is in Cape Town visiting her South African Oma. Oma, a hair dresser, is giving her tips on hair cutting and colouring, skills that have become a passion of Maeyken’s. While there she plans to have some fun with her friend Kyla who is also visiting Oma.

Adriaena was busy last week with a holiday Drama club in the mornings and getting in some extra swimming training in the afternoons. All of this she gots to do with her good friend Frederikke.

Nathan Detweiler (son of Network Mission workers Phil and Christine Lindell Detweiler) from Pietermaritzburg in South Africa has come to visit us for a week. Glyn is enjoying having a fellow computer buff around the house and Adriaena a brother for awhile!

Last Friday Glyn was heading to school to get Adriaena and our car met with an unfortunate situation. Fortunately Glyn wasn’t hurt, the damage is fixable and since the accident wasn’t Glyn’s fault it shouldn’t impact our insurance. Unfortunately it is close to Christmas so it might be touch and go as to whether or not it is fixed in time for us to go to South Africa for Christmas and retreat. We are still able to use our truck and have been loaned another truck by friends who are away.

We will be here in Gaborone until the 21^st of December at which point we will go to Pretoria to visit with friends. Then on the 23^rd we pick Maeyken up at the Joburg airport and head to Pietermaritzburg to spend Christmas with the Lindell Detweiler’s and other Mennonite Mission workers and MCC people. Then on the 29^th we go to Port St. Johns where we meet up with all of the Southern Africa Network and Witness workers (Mission Workers from Mennonite Church USA and Canada) for a retreat. We plan to be back in Gaborone by the 5^th of January.

Adriaena and Frederikke at the final production of the drama club they attended

In the Future

1. Preaching Dec. 21^st (Glyn) at G-West our English speaking church

2. Christmas in Pietermaritzburg with colleagues and friends.

3. Retreat over New Years in Port St. Johns (Eastern Cape, South Africa) with Fellow Network (Mennonite Church USA) and Witness (Mennonite Church Canada) colleagues and friends.

Mail us at: Box 33, Gaborone, Botswana

Phone us in Botswana: 267-390-5554

(Just remember that we are 7 hours earlier than Ontario!)

Skype at: susanglyn

Our web site: which includes pictures and previous newsletters: www.susanglyn.org

There have been some issues with our blog since the web site was relocated. We are still working on it and you should be able to check it out soon at: www.susanglyn.org/botswana/

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...

...The Bopaganang Basha Youth Centre. It appears that there are some administrative issues with the agency that is funding part of their work. Please pray that they will be able to clear these issues up and that they will be able to develop a transparency for their work that allows for better accountability. Pray for Network worker Melanie Quinn as she walks along side the leaders of the Centre.

... the National Inter Church Ministries Botswana committee. The meeting did not take place in December. It is now being rescheduled for January. Please pray that the meeting will happen!

... for government funding for glasses for Madudu We discovered that Madudu needs glasses. Upon calling the social worker for the village it is likely that the government will pay for them. These things are not always straight forward. Please pray that she will get this funding and that the money will come through in a timely fashion as she badly needs these glasses.

... for the people of Zimbabwe. Things continue to deteriorate there with a Cholera outbreak being the latest crisis. Pray that as pressure from governments speaking out about the injustices increases that the leadership will have to listen and take action.

... us as we travel to South Africa for Christmas and New Years.

... Potential Bible Study with a youth choir in Selebi Phikwe. Glyn visited a group of youth (aged 22 to 32) connected with a gospel choir in Phikwe who were interested in starting a study. Pray for them to be able to talk with their pastors and others as necessary first steps for this study to begin.

Thank God for...

...the many ways in which God has been present during this time of tragedy for Keith and Cheryl. We are thankful that we can choose to praise God in times of difficulty.

... another year of school completed!