Botswana Bash

You're Invited
To The First Ever “Botswana Bash”

Come Join Us For A Dessert Party
Sunday, November the 12th
at 7:00 pm
in the Faith Evangelical Free Church Youth Wing

It will be an informal time to just hang out and also to hear Kevin, Erine, and Elijah Porter and Becky Hartnett talk about what God is doing in Old Naledi, Botswana. Then specifically, we plan to share the vision He has given to our team for the year or so we're planning to live there.
So please come and bring any questions or ideas you might have with you!

Questions?
Call Kevin at 341-4288

Beth Shanholtzer - 2

(Beth is from the Harvest family and is currently travelling the Botswana countryside with 4-H. She can be reached at: bshanholtzer@gmail.com
The following is an update from her adventures.)

Hello again everyone!!!! I have now finished host families 7 and 8 and am in Gaborone for an agriculture/business expo called Global Expo. It is great to be back in Gaborone, where we started our trip four months ago. First and formost I am happy to be in a hotel where I have running water, a toilet that I can flush and has no bugs, and a shower!!!! Yes...running water, a luxury after living without it for the last two weeks. You see it is the dry season right now in Botswana and everyone is patiently waiting for the rains so in some of the smaller villages, water has been scarce. In the last family I lived with we had a collection of buckets and barrels that we collected water in every other day. The village tap that we walked/drove to was only a five to ten minute walk so we usually didn't have to wait in line to get water like I have seen so many other people do. But, the day I left the water at the village tap we had been going to was no longer there so they were loading the truck to go to another tap a few kilometers down the road.

Besides the water scarcity, Botswana has been GREAT!!!! I have come to the realization after so many families of varying types that it is definitely the people and not the accomodations that make this trip so memorable. My 7th family was O.K. but not really very social so I spent a lot of time with Lindsey and her mom at a Home Based Care facility where they counsel, test, and guide people with HIV/AIDS. I got some experience in grant writing by helping them with one grant they were working on. Lindsey and I corrected their English and wrote more concise explanations to the questions asked. It was a lot of fun but a little stressful at times. In this family I had my own house on the "compound" but as I said before not a lot of conversation. In my 8th family, I had seven kids under the age of 12 to fill my time and two sisters who were around my age, so we had a lot of fun but lived with no running water. I was able to attend the World Food Day here in Botswana and got to tour a pig farm, my first here, an industrial laying hen operation, and a huge vegetable operation. I learned a lot and was able to collect some great information from all the informational booths.

Learning the language is coming along very well and I know can understand quite a bit of conversation by picking out familiar words. It feels good to know that I am making progress. One lesson I learned recently though is that even though the word is spelled the same it can have two very different meanings. For instance, mabele pronounced ma-BALE-ley (voice raises during the middle syllable) means sorghum and I use it a lot when talking about the foods here in Botswana. What I recently learned is that mabele pronounced the same except for the voice lowers during the middle syllable means breast. So...I hope I haven't confused too many people by talking about a breast in my favorite foods list!

Speaking of food, one thing I have gotten very good at is eating certain food here with one hand! With some of the stiff porridges here the consistency allows for you to eat with your hand and everyone does. You tear off a piece of porridge and mix it with whatever morogo (vegetables) or soup you have on your plate. It took me a while to get good at just using one hand and not using two, but I can honestly say that I have mastered the art quite well! In fact, I think it is a skill I may have to establish in the U.S.!!!

The last thing I have to talk about in this email is grandparents raising grandchildren, I may have touched on this before but I had some first hand experience with it in my last family. They have four daughters all who have at least one kid and no husband, which is also common here. Anyway, the family I lived with was a set of grandparents two of their daughters and 7 grandchildren. They were nice but I could tell sometimes the grandparents became exhausted dealing with the seven grandchildren. I think a lot of my own family...I don't know if my grandparents who have enjoyed raising all 11 of my cousins and I!

Well, I had better say good-bye. Enjoy the cool weather in the states...here it is HOT!!! Only six weeks left until I return to the states!!

Love you all,
Beth

ON Prayer Requests

I received this email a few days ago. Please join us in prayer...

The Naledi Baptist Fellowship has compiled the prayer requests and wants to request you to pray with us in this regard:

Compiled: From Tuesday, September 12, till Tuesday October, 10th 2006.
Sciptures: Psalm 122, and Revelation1: 8-10.

* Job and school opportunity for girls in the church.
* Ministries for the kids, AWANA, Football, Sunday school, etc.
* Pray for the youth to have passion for the Lord.
* Pray for other activities in the Fellowship, eg Evangelism and reachout.
* Couples are needed in the church.
* For the lost souls in the community of Old Naledi, and backsliders to be revived.
* Leadership building Capacity for the Local Church.
* Mothusi is graduating this November.
* The Church leaders to study further locally.
* Pray for Kevin, Erine and Becky as there are still praying about coming next year.
* Pray that God will protect the children in Old Naledi.
* Pray for the Tlamelo Project, the Board and Champ as he is continuing to coordinate it.
* Local church impact in the community of Old Naledi and Botswana at large.
* Financial situation of the Naledi Baptist.
* Di and Peter departs Botswana on the 16th December, '06.
* Pray for Naledi Education Center school.
* Lame and Bushi(Thato) are going for Bible College.
* Pray for PEACE in Naledi.

May God Keep and Bless you as we join in and Pray together.

With our Love.

Naledi Baptist Fellowship.

The Porter/Hartnett team.

I kind of doubt anyone reads this blog anymore... but I felt like I should post something about the aftermath of this trip anyways.

Most of you probably know, that Erine and I have felt God's calling to move to Botswana for at least a year sometime this summer (or we hope for this summer). God has also called Becky Harnett to go - so we're going to all try to go as a team. My hope is to work with the youth, Erine's with the women, and Becky with the youth women. But, it's pretty hard to quantify what we'll be doing. The need is great and the work is plenty, both in Old Naledi and in Manhattan. We also hope to futher the partnership of God's church's in Manhappinin and Botswana. That's not to mention the abounding physical needs.

We're really excited about it. So much so, that we're pretty ready to go right now. In that, I'm feeling a little overwhelemed with all the logistical things. It's proving to be quite a lot of work. We could certinaly use and covet any prayers you might give. There's a lot to figure out and we're pretty new at this stuff. I'm more about doing than planning anyways. I get discouraged easily.

Yet, everytime I seem to get discouraged I hear about Champ or Muruti James or someone else in the church from Dave or Barb or Becky and am refreshed. Or, when things seem impossible for me to accomplish God reminds me that He is still in control by offering His provision that is completely beyond me. He often does that through His people from Harvest - which is doubly encouraging. I love the local church.

So, please pray. Ask questions. Help. We can't do this by ourselves.

Until next time...

Blessings,
Kev

From Moruti James...

The Naledi fellowship and my family sends their warmest greetings. Hope you are well. Thank you for coming to visit us.
We are in the process of sending two of our finest student to a theological college in South Africa. They are Lame and Thato. We are processing their forms as I write this letter. We count on the support of brothers and sisters at Harvest Fellowship. The church send their regards. Greet your family for us.

Yours in his name
Moruti James.