I went to visit him on Sunday afternoon, July 4, before I left for\nMababe. During my visit to him, I spoke to him seriously and warned that he is\nvery exposed to Covid-19 because there are many children and grandchildren\nliving in his yard. They pick up the virus at school or anywhere and come and\ninfect the people in his yard. “Frits, as you know, there is now a drastic\nincrease in Covid-19 cases in this area. I am prepared to take you to your cattle\npost at my own expense. \u201d We then agreed that I would take him away to his\ncattle post at 9 o’clock on Monday morning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The next morning he called me and asked if we can wait a while, because\nrumors are circulating that the vaccine is on its way, and we could be\nvaccinated sometime that week. I called Sister Thupe, Gantsi’s nurse, to find\nout if the vaccine had arrived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It had not arrived but she promised me to let me know as soon as it is\nthere. On Tuesday morning she let me know that the vaccine had arrived and that\nwe could go for the Sinovac vaccination on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next morning we first had to go to the hospice in Gantsi to be\ntested to see if we might not already have the virus. Arriving there, we had to\nwait in a long line until it was our turn. Miriam (my wife) was with us too.\nShe came on her own. Our plan was to be vaccinated together. From there we went\nto the community hall for the vaccinations. Shortly after Miriam was\nvaccinated, she began to have severe heart palpitations and felt very dizzy.\nFrits and I waited with her until the symptoms started to subside before we\ntackled the 40 km back to D\u2019kar again. So we were able to drive up behind her\nto make sure she got home safely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day I called Frits to find out what time I could pick him up to\ntake him to his cattle post. To my shock, he replied that his daughter, Dinah,\nwho teaches at the preschool at Clareo here near D\u2019kar, had contracted\nCovid-19. She had been tested positive and the clinic on D\u2019kar has ordered them\nnot to go anywhere so that everyone can be tested on site. They would arrive\nthe next day, Friday, which did not happen then and was postponed until Monday.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monday, July 12, Abdul, his son Johannes, and I, left for Mababe. This\ntime, unfortunately, Frits could not go along. On the way to Mababe, I kept in\ntouch with Frits all the time. Eventually the clinic came and eight members of\nhis family tested positive, Frits included. From then on, I called Frits every\nday until Friday the 16th. Sunday the 18th, I called again in the afternoon. His\ndaughter then answered the phone and said that Frits was struggeling to breathe.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I immediately called the clinic in D\u2019kar and asked them to send the\nambulance to Frits as soon as possible. Not long after, they went to pick him\nup at his house. He was still trying to climb into the ambulace by himself, but\nthey had to help him up because he was already so weak. That evening I called\nhis daughter. I heard her crying heartbrokenly. The ambulance man had just\nbrought the message that Frits had not made it. I could not believe it. His\nfamily, obviously ignorant, did not notice that their father’s condition was\ngetting worse. It was not easy for me, but a huge shock. For 20 years, Frits\nand I were inseparable. If there was anyone who always faithfully wore his\nmask, it was Frits, but he was not protected against his own family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \nMababe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As I mentioned, Abdul and Johnnes, his son accompanied me to Mababe and\nMotopi. Abdul made his confession of faith in D\u2019kar a year ago. For him it is\nvery important to take his sons with him, to expose them to the Gospel. He\ndesperately wants them to get involved with the church. They themselves have\nnot yet made a confession of faith or attended the services, and the Christian\nconversations around the campfire are very important to Abdul as far as his\nchildren are concerned. On a previous occasion it was Xgaiga, his other son,\nwho was with us at Bere, and then Johannes. With the recent Mababe and Motopi\noutreach, it was again Johannes who could not wait to go along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We were in Mababe for two weeks where we could conduct regular Bible\nstudies. When we meet, it reminds me a lot of the house churches in New\nTestament times. There were no churches then as we know it today. In 1\nCorinthians 16:19, Paul says, “The churches in the province of Asia send\nyou their greetings; Aquila and Priscilla and the church that meets in their\nhouse send warm Christian greetings.” In Romans 16: 5, Paul says, “Greetings\nalso to the church that meets in their house. Greetings to my dear friend\nEpaenetus, who was the first in the province of Asia to believe in Christ.”\nIn Colossians 4:15, Paul says, “Greetings also to the church that meets in\ntheir house. Greetings to my dear friend Epaenetus, who was the first in the\nprovince of Asia to believe in Christ.” In Philemon verses 1 – 2, Paul\nsays: \u201c1<\/sup>From Paul, a prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus, and from\nour brother Timothy—To our friend and fellow worker Philemon, 2<\/sup>and\nthe church that meets in your house, and our sister Apphia, and our fellow\nsoldier Archippus: 3<\/sup>May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ\ngive you grace and peace.” It tells us that house churches were a common\nphenomenon in New Testament times. It is encouraging to know that even the\napostles started small, and had congregations that arose in homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Idea<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0The name of the man who welcomed us every time and who has gone out of his way to invite and receive us since 2017, is Idea. How he got his name as a Bushman, I do not know. He is a very dynamic person and through his actions we have already got a large yard from the government on which we can later, if the Lord wills, build a church or a structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He has a book in which he writes down the names of all who receive Bibles and audio Bibles. His wife does the writing for him. In the two weeks there, we were able to visit the village, Sankoyo, twice and Khwai once. The joy and excitement of giving people the audio bibles strikes you anew every time. According to Idea, the audio bibles are going to bring many people to repentance. \u201cIt is as if they are now hearing the Word for the first time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During our time there, a government vehicle stopped at our campsite. One\nof the men introduced himself to us as Maun’s council secretary. His name is Lets.\nHe asked me about the work we do and whether we can get involved in Maun as\nwell. My answer to him was that we can get involved everywhere depending on the\nfunds we raise. He asked for my number and I totally\nforgot about him until he called me out of the blue yesterday to hear when we\nwere going to Mababe again. He would like us to meet Maun’s council chairman.\nThat man, he says, accompanies the president everywhere in the area. If he\nhears about the fine work we are doing, the President is definitely going to\nhear about it, and he expressed his sincere appreciation for what we are doing\nthere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n During our stay at Mababe we\nwere also physically active with the cutting of poles. Idea initially suggested\nthat we hire people to cut down the 40 mopane poles for the fence. My\nsuggestion was: “Idea, there is nothing wrong with our hands, we can cut the\npoles ourselves, Abdul, Johannes and I.” I have to say, except for the\nblisters, it was very good exercise. In the end we were able to cut down 35\nyoung mopane trees, good poles for the churchyard. Now we just need the wire\nfor the fence. The question then comes to mind involuntarily, what are we going\nto do about the elephants. The only thing is to repair the fences from time to\ntime. The people there are used to repair their fences from time to time. There\nare times when the elephants walk over the fence but when they break it, one\nhas to repair it unless one can get an electrical contraption which shocks them\nwhen they touch it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Idea, as I said, is a very dynamic person, and is serious that we should\nestablish a permanent church in Mababe that serves all the surrounding\nvillages. He also wanted to know from me if we could go to his other family in\nKasane next time so that they could also hear the Word of the Lord. It is about\n600 kilometers through the wilderness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \nThe time in Mababe passed quickly,\nbut also slowly, especially the nights. One night seven lions came to visit our\ntents. I could hear the one near my head passing by. At Abdul and his son’s\ntent they sniffed and one with his nail scratched at the tent. Abdul then\nwhistled as finely as an angry mamba. People who have ever encountered a\nseverely upset mamba will know that he makes such a shrill whistling sound. The\nlions then left us alone afterwards. According to Abdul, lions are afraid of\nmambas and they know a mamba’s famous whistle when he is very angry. From then\non we slept with one eye open. Abdul says he once heard a mamba arrive in the\nfield. He found himself between the mamba and his hole. Then, he says, a mamba\nis then at its most dangerous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After\ntwo weeks in Mababe we wanted to go back home but we could not get travel\npermits. Meanwhile, Frits was buried Sunday morning. We decided to drive to\nMaun on Monday, where we would ask the DC (District Commissioner) for a special\npermit. Unfortunately, the DC could not help us, because these are urgent curfew\nmeasures that the president himself has introduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday night we camped at Motopi. \n \n \n There we had a long conversation with Gift. He is a\nZimbabwean, who has been Dorette’s right hand on Motopi for years. Now that Dorette\ncan no longer go to Motopi regularly, he is the one who handles the services\nthere on Sundays. I called Dorette and asked if it is not the right time to\nconfirm Gift as an elder, seeing that he had applied for citizenship in\nBotswana and that his Tswana had improved a lot over the years. Dorette thought\nit would be a very good idea if he is prepared. I discussed this with Gift who\nwas very excited about the proposal and assured us that he definitely feels he\nis called to work for the Lord. The reason why we postponed it in the past was\nbecause there has always been a sword hanging over his head that he can be\nexpelled from the country at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next morning we were still unsure how we would be able to go back to\nD\u2019kar. This led us to the plan to drive down the old Heineveld fence. The\nelephants trampled the fence there. From Makalamabedi it is over 200 km on a sand\nsingle track road. That night we slept beside the road, me in the back and\nAbdul and Johannes in the front of the bakkie. They would keep watch over me,\nbecause the lions abound there. This they promised me. I rather think they were\ntoo scared to sleep outside. I must say, I have not slept so cold and\nuncomfortable in a long time. The cold is coming in from everywhere. The next\nday we were fortunate to be let through the Tsao gate to the Ghanzi district.\nThe Tsao Gate is one of the gates to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To close<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Three days ago, Idea called me with the bad news that ten of his family members\nhad tested positive for the corona virus, he included. Our closest pharmacy in\nGantsi have a fund set up to provide for people who could not afford with\nmedication. I contacted the pharmacy and they were able to help me with\nmedicine for Idea and his wife (Ada). Your intercession is asked for this\nfamily that is now going through a difficult time. Because there are now strict\nrestrictions again and we are not allowed to cross zones, I arranged with their\nson-in-law to meet me at the foot-and-mouth gate at Kuke. Unfortunately he\ncould not keep his promise and I had to make another plan to send the medicine\nto Maun where Idea would send someone to pick it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The big secret with this disease is to treat it as soon as possible.\nThis we saw with Frits. The big danger is, you do not realize that your oxygen\nlevels start to drop. Because the clinics are so poorly equipped, it leaves our\nold people very vulnerable. To date, Idea says the clinic there in Mababe has\nnot provided them with any medicine. They will apparently visit them again on\nMonday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We pray that the Lord will give us the necessary wisdom during this\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your brother in Christ, <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hendrik\ndu Plessis. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rev Hendrik Du Plessis Frits I went to visit him on Sunday afternoon, July 4, before I left for Mababe. During my visit to him, I spoke to him seriously<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":915,"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\/914"}],"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=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":921,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions\/921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/botswanasending.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Frits.jpg\")
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