Lesotho: a tiny country completely surrounded by South Africa where the mountains are incredible and the peaches abundant. As part of our missions discipleship training, Todd and I spent a total of 13 days in two different locations within Lesotho for a rural outreach. We were on a team of 9 MDTrainees: 3 South Africans, 3 Americans, 2 Chinese, and one Australian.
We arrived in Leribe on Wednesday night, but our journey from Pretoria started just after 4 am. I took some motion sickness medicine before we left and was completely out of it for most of the day. Big mistake, plan to never do it again, if I can help it. Bleh. On the up side, I slept a lot on the drive.
We stayed at Joy to the World ministries Wednesday night, and then all the teams headed out to their respective locations Thursday morning. We were blessed enough to be stationed in Hameletsani, a little village right at the foot of some of the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen, and I’m from east Tennessee. They really were beyond description. I tried not to get used to their majesty, and even did my quiet time outside most mornings, despite it sometimes being rather cold. It’s so interesting that God would plant such gorgeous scenery in a corner of the world that the vast majority will never ever see, or even hear about...
I was totally prepared to sleep in a tent outside and freeze nearly to death. I was so ready to take it like the man I am most definitely not, turn off the complaint mechanism, and deal with it. If I sound negative, here’s why: I don’t like camping. I think air mattresses are super uncomfortable and I hate walking in the dark, outside, with the wild animals, to go to the bathroom, something MiniBladder me will inevitably have to do.
So you can imagine my surprise when Todd and I got to pitch our tent inside the church building with the rest of our team. The other two guys pitched a tent inside as well. The girls slept without one, but it worked out. The nine of us, plus our two translators, were snug as bugs in our little cement and cinderblock fortress.
Which brings me to the next point: I mentioned my position on air mattresses, but I’m about to retract. I didn’t have an air mattress on this trip, only a thin foam pad. If you can call it a pad...”pad” seems to indicate a degree of cushioning, and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I had no cushioning. I laid that “pad” down, a blanket down, and another micro “pad” down on the cement, got inside my sleeping bad, and proceeded to literally bruise my hip. Seriously, I think I saw some discoloration. And it wasn’t just me; Todd found it super uncomfortable, as did almost everyone else on the team who didn’t have a proper mattress. I am thankful that most nights I was so tried, I fell right to sleep. But every single night was interrupted by at least one grueling trip to the local “long-drop,” which, as you can guess, is the outhouse. Needless to say, I would have gladly accepted an air mattress.
I must say, besides sleeping on a rock and walking in the dark to the bathroom, the rural-ness was much less intense than I’d expected. We had a running shower (cold water of course, lest you think we were living large) every day except the last 4 (when we ran out of water), cooked over a gas burner, only occasionally needing to build a fire, and enjoyed very warm to hot weather most days. It didn’t rain much at all (hence our water crises), and we were located on a peach orchard with all the peaches we could eat! This, roughin’ it? Yeah, I don’t think so. Towards the end of our trip we were bathing in a river and having to get creative with our rations, but I was pleased to prove to myself that I could live simply, and I loved the walking we had to do! We were in a valley so it was almost always a steep uphill climb to get anywhere we wanted to go, except down to the river. I was thankful for the hiking shoes mom bought me before we left the states *hi mom*
Ministry wise, we did a variety of things. The very first morning we climbed up to the village from our camp and “smeared” one of the mud huts. Actually, “mud” hut is kind of misleading...the components that went into our smearing mixture were mud, water, and cow poop. After it was mixed, we “smeared” it onto the interior wall of one of the rondavels. It smelled gross and felt gross, even through my thin rubber gloves. Todd opted to smear gloveless. Gloveless. What a man. We did other practical work as well, like learning to make Besotho (the name of the Lesotho culture) food, and cleaning for a very sick lady.
We also did children’s programs at two schools, hosted a youth event at the camp, and led/assisted with the Sunday service for the two Sundays we were there. Todd preached for our first service and did a fabulous job, if I say so myself.
The church was attached to a pre-school, so Monday-Friday morning there were lots of little kids running around. They were cute, and some of the team really enjoyed playing with them. After school hours, the camp often had lots of older children who came to play with the soccer balls (they didn’t actually play soccer with them) and with the visitors :)
I have struggled the past couple of years with the idea of short-term missions. In my mind, proper evangelism goes beyond a few minutes or even a few days with people. It often takes time to evangelize, to explain to people who God is, how depraved we are, who Jesus is, and what his death accomplished. To do this accurately is vital, obviously. Often short term trips just focus on numbers, getting people to pray prayers. This was not my goal, so I had to figure what was.
Todd and I both felt like we were there to support the work of the missionary family who is stationed in Hameletsani long-term. They are the ones who live there among the people, who regularly run the church, who are building relationships and trust and doing life with the Besotho. If we could help reinforce the basis of their lifestyle and increase their presence in the area, we were succeeding.
I also found a method of door-to-door that I fully support. We spoke to one old lady who sat outside peeling peaches (a common sight). I prayed for her, and then we gave her a copy of the gospel of John in Sesotho (the Lesotho language). What a comprehensive way of spreading the truth! If the Lord will cause her to read it, and open her eyes to the truth within, she will know who God is and what he requires of her...belief in his Son! (see John 6).
I was the appointed team photographer, but the images here were captured by both Todd and myself, with the one of the two of us taken by a teammate. Enjoy!
Besotho girls doing a traditional dance in traditional skirts.
Todd preaching via his translator, Joyce.
The team :)
The teacher and children from the preschool attached to the church.
Peaches!
At one of the schools we visited, many of the Grade 1 students had pencils tied on a string around their neck.
School uniforms.
Two of our teammates led a group of students in "Making Melodies," a song that involves gestures, each verse building until you look completely ridiculous, as seen here :) The kids love it!
The kids seemed to really find Issi's skin and hair to be quite fascinating.
More peaches!
Todd got a little artistic...
Posing in front of the beautiful mountains!
Here the group is mixing up our "smearing" concoction. I didn't get in on that action...I mean, somebody had to take pictures, right?
Todd getting artsy again, this time with the incredible night sky. I loved stepping out in the evening to see the stars!
Todd and Hennie cooking over the fire.
My favorite dried fruit experience: eating completely natural, hand cut, line dried peaches. Yum!
Long-drops :)
More melody making :)
I'll let you fill in the blank.
Todd did some really great panoramas of our little valley...not to shabby, eh?
