I want to put out a huge thanks to everyone who supported the Botswana trip through giving and prayer! Without the elders, Reach Global, and so many of you, we could not have made this trip a reality.
Church planting is God’s plan to reach lost people. In places where there are multiple churches preaching the Gospel and God’s Word, like Newton, Kansas, it might be hard to really connect with that truth. In places like rural Botswana, it is a stark reality that could not be more true! The classic statistic in Church Planting that still rings true in Newton is that if everyone in Newton were a believer, then there would not be enough seats in all the churches for them to come on a Sunday morning. That means we could have more church plants in Newton, and that would be a good thing. But in places like northern Botswana, churches are few and far between, and the situation is Biblical in proportions.
Much like Paul and his church planting travels in the book of Acts, the work in northern Botswana is just beginning. To be clear, there are churches there, and the Gospel is not new to everyone. However, most churches mix the Gospel and the Bible with other ideas. Whether they mix in familiar practices like voodoo (cursing neighbors or enemies) or they use the Gospel to raise money for their own interests (like TV evangelists). That means that churches based only on the Gospel and the Word of God are few and far between.
That is why the work of church planting, especially in Botswana, is so essential. The church planters there have a hard road they are walking. That is why the trip that our team, Brian and Marilyn Bisbee, Seth and Sarah Hershberger, Brett and Jess Warkentine, Steph and I felt the burden to sit in planes/airports for more than 40 hrs voluntarily.
There were two parts to our trip, both aimed at encouraging the church planting pastors and the churches they serve. For the first part, Steve Adriansen from the FEC (the group of churches our church is a part of), Steph, and I led a Soul Care Retreat for the pastors and their wives. A Soul Care Retreat was focused on spending time thinking about Jesus and how much He loves us and wants us to love one another. The goal was to refresh and fill up the church planters so that they could keep giving to the communities they serve. We have to be filled up before we can pour out. The rest of the team cooked all the meals and made sure everything was ready for the retreat each day. If you have not heard any of their stories of cooking meals in an understocked kitchen with unreliable access to ingredients, then you need to track one of them down and get ready to laugh! The team was awesome and they made such good connections with the church planter and their wives that by the end we were drawing them in to help with the Soul Care Retreat.
The second part of our trip was actually visiting three of the churches represented by the pastors in the retreat. One of the churches was 5 hours away, so we couldn’t visit that one in the time we had. Pure joy! Those are the only words that fit when you get to visit other believers who love Jesus but who express that in their own unique context. Heaven will be full of believers from all ages and all nations, and getting to taste a little bit of that on this side of eternity is pure joy! It was all joy to be with our brothers and sisters in the faith, but their situations are not without great difficulties. Some of the churches don’t even have out houses for restrooms yet. They are all battling against other compelling forces in their communities. Our church friends in Botswana only give out the Gospel, the Word of God, and the Love of Jesus. Other groups give out promises of wealth, status, and easily bought spiritual power. It is hard to convince neighbors and friends to join you in a church that is unwilling to promise anything but a good relationship with God. We are choosing the slow and steady way to build these church families, but it is the way that will last.
Please keep praying with us for our church planting couple that we support at GCC. Ace and Letty Morentwa and their 3 young girls would be so glad to know that they have a church family in Kansas praying for the work they have committed their lives to. Stay tuned for an upcoming date when the Botswana team will share a full report on the trip.
Blessings,
Pastor Will