Welcome back… from Botswana

Another week of outreach lies behind me. It is incredible how fast the time flies away. I was in Botswana for one week. We have supported a local church there. Botswana is one of the well-to-do countries in Africa so this time everything was a little bit different …

We have lived in guest families. On the first day when we arrived I thought: „ Wow, thank you Lord that I can enjoy this luxury for one week: Internet, walking barefoot from the shower to the room without getting dirty feet, a kitchen where we could prepare our own food whenever we wanted to, television etc. etc.

On the third day we took food to orphan children on the street. This was like a blow in the face. The poverty was more extreme than with the outreaches before. I felt as if I had fallen into another world. The children came running with their plates completely ravenously. Many have hunger bellies (a blown up belly which one gets by malnutrition). If one has this, the survival chances are rather low. All the children live on the street. Most have lost their parents as a result of AIDS and are infected themselves. This was really terrible to see.

The members of the church bring warm food to the children every day. What has given me a hard time, was that the help is just enough for the survival, but not for life. By the food the children can live a few days longer and then? After eating they still sit on the street, have no mummy that waits for them at home, no bed where they can sleep securely and no place where they can expect love. It’s hard hard to put that in words. The result was that I could not enjoy the luxury any more. I felt so bad because the children are so much in need.

We have also worked in a kindergarten and a nursery school. It has been great fun to teach small African children. The nursery school soon has graduation and we have prepared a party for them. During another day we were in a school for disabled children and youngsters. We did sports together and I had quite a lot of fun. In addition we were also in a hospital to pray for the people, in a police station or on the street for evangelism.

Our host church was very charismatic. On one side it is a little bit funny and unusual, but on the other side I have also enjoyed to see how the people party and dance for God. As I said, the church was rather well-to-do. We have helped to organise a pool party. It was a rather big celebration with 60 people as a thank-you for the managers of the church. We had considerable expenses in food and organisation. And as I said, half an hour away children try to survive.

The outreach was good, all in all. Sure, it was really hard and challenging. I have noticed that God has not shown this to me free of charge. For me it is not about helping the children to survive, but enabling them to live! I could see in Kimberly what it means that children get at home through God - this was the biggest example for me.

Nevertheless, I have enjoyed the last days on the base. We had a lot of free time which we filled with pool party (here it is midsummer), girls night and relaxing.

Final Info: From Sunday, 15th November 2009 I am no longer accessible through my South Africa email address. We will be on the move for 6 weeks in East London, George and Cape Town. Probably I will be able to get on the Internet now and again. So you can use Facebook or my private eMail: Pina_ldk@gmx.de

From the beginning of January I will again be in Pretoria.

Prayer requests:

Please, pray for me that I get through the coach journeys well. Long journeys of 18 hours in a minibus are very difficult for me and I really need assistance.

Thanks:

* For all the experiences here and God's constant assistance.
* For all the support from home (financially, timewise and in prayer)

Thank you to all of you for praying, sending e-mails and letters and simply thinking of me!

I give you a hug,

Pina


@Uwe thanks for translating again. Micha