{"id":898,"date":"2021-06-26T10:44:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T08:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=898"},"modified":"2021-06-26T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T08:44:15","slug":"mababe-and-motopi-outreach-9-13-june-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/?p=898","title":{"rendered":"Mababe and Motopi outreach 9-13 June 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\nsaw it as an act of divine providence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the grace of the Lord our outreach to Mababe and Motopi was very\nsuccessful. We left D\u2019Kar on Wednesday 9 June. Due to the fact that we need to\napply for an interzonal travelling permit through a cellphone application, we\nhad a hard time to process our applications. The cellphone application is\nblocked by die government to download it seems. Finally we managed to apply for\neach travelling companion and the permits were sent to everybody\u2019s individual\nphone, as required. Arriving in Maun, we were able to quickly greet Dorette\nbetween her Tswana classes. She is a Tswana teacher in Maun. We therefor left\nfor Mababe late. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Close to Mababe, it started to get dark. Arriving at the first pool of\nwater we found a double-cab Hillux utility vehicle stuck in a mud pool. A man\nimmediately appeared with his flashlight to get our attention. After that, the\ngreat struggle began. We tried everything to free them out of the mud, but their\nrope broke time after time. It was clear the bakkie had landed on its belly in\nthe mud. The wheels spun around all the time. We decided to go to Mababe and\ntry to borrow a chain. We arrived there at about eight o’clock. Luckily we were\nable to borrow a chain and went back to the people. They were a Finnish couple\nand with our poorly spoken English, we luckily could understand each other quite\nwell. We struggled to get the vehicle out of the mud pool till around 11pm\nwithout any success. The poor man tried everything. Once a vehicle has settled\non its belly in the mud, branches or whatever underneath the wheels no longer\nhelp. We then decided to retire for the night and rather try to help the next\nmorning. It was a nightmare experience for the Finnish lady. They were\nsurrounded by hippos in the water pools. The hyenas were just as troublesome,\nbecause if branches in the forest behind you crack, it’s them again. Luckily they\nhad a good flashlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the night a large truck arrived and we hoped they could help the\nstucked travellers, but the next morning when we arrived they were still there.\nLater, South African tourists arrived. Trying to assist with their 4×4 vehicle,\nthe Hillux did not even move. We were later able to phone a rest camp nearby to\ncome and help us. Before long help arrived and with their Toyota Land Cruiser\nand another vehicle they pulled the stuck vehicle backwards out of the pool of\nmud. When we required where they were going, the Finnish couple replied that\nthey were on route to Khwai, but it is clear that they were driving in the\nwrong direction. Obviously lost. Then it struck us, the pool of water in the\nroad is so deceptive and false, if they had not got stuck into it, we would\nhave ended up in that situation. We saw it as directed by the Lord seeing that\nthey should not actually have been there. What the damage to the chassis of\ntheir vehicle (rent-a-car) was we will never know, but when they were finally\npulled out, the water flowed out in streams from their vehicle. With tears of\ngratitude in the woman’s eyes we greeted them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brief  background <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mababe is a settlement east of Maun close to the Moremi Game Reserve. We\nstarted reaching out to the people there at the end of 2017. Every year around\nAugust, a dance festival was held on a game farm about 20 kilometers from D’kar\nto expose the Bushmen of Southern Africa to each other. From far and wide they\nare came, and then, over the course of the weekend, from Friday onwards, they\ntake turns dancing. The game farm is then an anthill of activities as each\nBushman group and language displays their culture and dances. During these\nactivities, I met someone with whom I soon became friends. We had a nice chat\nand then said goodbye. So in between chatting through, he invited me to visit\nhim. He wanted to show me how beautiful it looks in his area where he resides.\nI gave him my cellphone number and he started to call me frequently, inviting\nme time after time. An elder and I finally decided to go and have a look. It\ncould become a gospel opportunity, we thought. It felt very much like a\nMacedonian call. Since then, we have visited them from time to time, conducted\nBible studies, and visited people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people are under the false impression that everything from day one\nfalls into place with such an outreach point. You immediately have a catechism\nclass or a Sunday school class and members who enroll. Unfortunately, the\nopposite is true. When you come to such a place, everyone is sceptical about\nyour arrival, except of course the one who invited you. You just try to be as\nfriendly with everyone as possible. Here and there someone laughs at your jokes,\nespecially if you are familiar with their sense of humor. They are formal and\nsuspicious. You  try to share the Gospel\nand when they hear you are the pastor (moruti) from D\u2019kar, they just sit and\nstare at you. Then you go away and feel very dissatisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months later you will be visiting again, of course with the aim of\nmaking friends first. You come and distribute Bibles and they are grateful. You\nhave the opportunity to talk about the Bible. They listen to you but nothing\nfurther. You sit down with them around the beer pots and talk about this and\nthat until they hear you are a \u201cmoruti\u201d and then they start asking questions.\nHow often we sat there talking around the beer pots. There, people have more\nconfidence to ask questions. It comes spontaneously. Many times I have tried to\nimagine how the Lord Jesus did the same. This is, of course, why the Pharisees\ncalled Him gluttonous and a winebibber, not because of his drinking, but\nbecause of those with whom he spent time with. At one point, someone expressed\nthe desire to say goodbye to the drink. I replied that it is not that simple,\nbut I know Someone who can help you. It then became the angle to introduce the\nLord Jesus to him as a Person. He started to listen with more interest,\nespecially now that he has spoken up about his problem. With each outreach, the\nsuspicion are less and you reach a stage where the villagers are not just\nacquaintances. They have names and they become friends. They start to miss you.\nWhen you arrive they look happy to see you. The best example, of course, was\nour Lord Jesus, for whom his disciples were more than disciples. They were his\nfriends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missionary work is not just about going to a place and preach to them,\nor going to church. In the first place, you are going to make friends, build a\nrelationship with them. They start trusting you later with their deepest\nproblems. They start phoning you. They want to know when you are visiting again\nbecause they miss you. The children want to talk to you on the phone. You start\nto be their spiritual parent. This is not something that happens in one\noutreach. This happens over years. It’s not about gathering a few people\nquickly under a tree and giving them a class or conducting a service. Your\nvisit to them is one big life class and every conversation is a pulpit. Your\ndeepest purpose with all of this is to bring each of them into a personal\nrelationship with Jesus Christ and nothing else. Baptism, church membership,\ncommunion naturally flow from it, but do not use the cart in front of the\nhorses by making instant Christians as soon as possible for the sake of\nnumbers. It is very easy to gather 100 people under a tree and say to them,\n“You are now our members.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With our outreach last week, my elder and I had much to be grateful for.\nWhen we arrived on Wednesday they were very happy to see us. My elder said to\nme on Saturday when we departed one cannot believe that these are the same\npeople we met there a few years ago. It feels like yesterday when everyone\nstill treated us with suspicion, but now they are our friends. We conducted\nBible studies in the open and everyone was eager and grateful for the audio\nbibles. We were able to have in-depth conversations with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What particularly impressed me were two people in the group. One of them\nis the local policeman, in his thirties. He used to be quiet and withdrawn, but\nnow that we’re getting to know him better, he’s thawed more and more, so much\nso that he spontaneously came to me and asked if I could send him Bible study\nmaterial via Whatsapp. He would like to present Bible studies to the groupin my\nabsence. He told me that he was devouted to keep the Biblestudy group alive he\neven wants to send me a phot each time they gather. For my part, I have given\nmy undertaking to send him Bible studies from time to time via Whatsapp. In the\nphoto, he is sitting at the very back to the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was another man I met. After studying the Bible, I learned\nthat he had a degree in social sciences from the University of Botswana. We\ntalked about their Bushman language that is becoming extinct. Only the older\ngeneration speaks the language. The children talk to each other in Tswana. This\nis actually tragic. I do not know who convinced them that Tswana is the\nlanguage of the future. The parents started talking to their children Tswana\nand believed that they would do better in the schools. How different is it here\nin D\u2019kar. Nowhere will you hear Bushman children speak Tswana. Even if a Tswana\nperson speaks to them in Setswana, they will answer back in Naro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bushman language they speak there at Mababe is called Tsiga. It is a\nKh\u00f3\u00e8-related language like Naro. While we were talking and he shared his\nconcerns with me, I asked him whether he knew which way is best to preserve a\nlanguage. The answer is simple … The Gospel of Jesus Christ. He immediately\nagreed with me because he is also an outspoken Christian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gave him D\u2019kar as an example. We have a New Testament in Naro. The Old\nTestament has come a long way. With that, many things had to fall into place,\nan orthography, dictionary ect., but above all where Jesus Christ is preached,\npeople become free to be themselves in Christ. All of this fell into place\nafter years of evangelism. We have now come so far that the government has\ngiven Naro the green light to be offered as a subject in school. For the past\nfew years, the government has appointed Bushman interpreters in the schools to\nhelp the children understand the work. Furthermore, I said that it is never too\nlate to start and suggested to contact the \u2018Naro Language Team\u2019 in D\u2019kar.\nBecause Tsiga is a Kh\u00f3\u00e8 language, the orthography of both languages should not\ndiffer much from each other.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning I went to see him again. I asked him if he might not be\ninterested in being trained as a minister, because we have a church in South\nAfrica that is willing to pay for someone’s studies. His answer was that he was\nrather interested in Bible translation and that it was his wish to translate\nthe Bible into his language. Then he told me that from time to time he goes to\nGaborone, but when he is in Mababe, he will be more than willing to offer the\nBible studies. I just need to send him the Bible study material, and he gave<\/p>\n\n\n\n

me his email address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, after our morning Bible study, we left for Motopi. The\npeople in Mababe were very excited about their audio bibles. One of them told\nwith great excitement what he was listening to yesterday. We encouraged them to\nlisten to Genesis and John. If we come again we’ll talk about it. They can just\nlisten to the books over and over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In Maun, Dorette offered us to over night at her place, but my elder,\nFrits, and one of our members, Abdul, felt that we should rather go camping on\nthe churchyard in Motopi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day I was able to conduct the church service at Motopi and the\nwords of David in Psalm 37 appealed to them quite a lot. In Psalm 37:25, David\nsays, “I have been young, and now am old; Yet have I not seen the\nrighteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.\u201d This brought us to the question:\nWhat does it mean to be righteous? David himself had many sins, and no one is\nrighteous before God. In Psalm 51: 7, David acknowledges that he was conceived\nand born in sin. When you are righteous, you stand without blame before the\nLord. Your sins are then forgiven. How was that possible at that time? How\ncould one stand righteous before God? In the Old Testament you had to repent in\nyour deep remorse as David offered a sacrifice to the Lord. This is all how you\ncould settle your case with the Lord to stand before Him as righteous.\nRepentance for your sins was crucial. In Psalm 51:17 David said: \u201cThe\nsacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, you\nwill not despise.\u201d Then the time of the New Testament dawns and repentance is\nstill crucial, and all the sacrifices of the Old Testament then become pointers\nto the final sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The example of the publican\nand the Pharisee was presented to them and the publican who pleads in deep\nremorse that the Lord will have mercy on him as a sinner. After his prayer\nstanding there he could walk home as a righteous man.. Of such a righteous man\nthe Lord then promises in Psalm 37 that He will never leave him. The Tswana\ntranslation states that even his children will not beg for food. This brought\nus all to the question: \u201cHow do we stand before the Lord? Is not our affliction\ndue to the fact that the Lord can not regard us as righteous according to Psalm\n37:25?\u201d We make the right church sounds, baptize, profess faith, go to church\nregularly, but we have never really gone to the Lord in deep repentance for our\nsins. Very simply I explained it to them. Afterwards, one lady  expressed her appreciation and said that she\nlearned a lot today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That evening Hendrik Keitshokile, a local resident of Motopi, and his\nwife came to visit us. For years he no longer came to church. At one point we\nconsidered to install him as an elder, but unfortunately, the marraige between\nhim and his ex-wife ended. He now intends to return to church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a busy week, we ventured back the next day. Our fervent prayer is\nthat the Lord will bless Mababe and Motopi as a light in that dark part of\nBotswana. My biggest challenge is not just to visit them but also to provide\nthem with the material to continiue even if I am not there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greetings and blessings, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hendrik du Plessis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We saw it as an act of divine providence By the grace of the Lord our outreach to Mababe and Motopi was very successful. We left D\u2019Kar on Wednesday 9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":903,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}