First Night in Old Naledi, August 31st, 2008

The Vacation Bible School flyer we passed out.

This is a page from my journal while we were in Gaborone, Botswana.

Dated August 31st, 2008

The first night we were at Old Naledi Baptist Church, I gave my personal testimony and Mathutha translated for me. It went very, very good. I wasn't even nervous, like I thought I would be. Praise and worship was very awesome! Something I have never experienced before.

Before we had church Moruti James split us up into groups. He had two of our church members and two of their church members at Old Naledi go out and pass out the flyers we had printed up in Setswana. The flyers talked about the VBS we were going to be doing at the church this week. We also were asked to invite the people to church that evening.

The two young ladies that went with Kristi Hipkins and I were very beautiful young ladies. I don't remember their names.

It was very humbling to see the living conditions in the village. To see how small these houses were was very, very humbling to me. Each of the homes had little fire pits in front of them. The people of Old Naledi did not have electricity, so they used the fire pits to cook over, heat up pots of water, to wash clothes in and to wash their small amounts of dishes in. Everywhere I looked I saw all these fire pits.

The people were very, very friendly and excepting of the invitations to church, unlike back in the states.

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That is all I had written on that date. More to come from my journal at a later time.

I sure do miss our friends from Old Naledi. Whenever I listen to my video clips and hear their voices, it makes me miss them even more.

Before this mission trip, when I would think of Africa, I would think of all the beautiful animals. After the mission trip that is NOT how I see Africa. I see it for all their beautiful, kind, loving and caring people and I cannot wait to return.

Have a very blessed day today.

In HIS Steps,
Kim Wright

http://www.jesusfollower.wordpress.com/

New Photos: Inside Church

Moruti sent me some new pictures today of the church meeting inside the new building. Be sure to check it out and sign the guestbook! I know they read it as they have posted there as well! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for here and it's amazing what God continues to do in Old Naledi, Sumter, Greer and around the world!

In His Steps,
Mareko

Photos

Susan Holladay's pictures added

I have added Susan's pictures from the trip as a slideshow to the blog. Still waiting for some of you to get over to the http://oldnaledifellowship.org site and sign the guestbook. Nudge, nudge, nudge :-)

In His Steps,
Mareko

Old Naledi

Added some more pictures of the building today sent from Moruti James.

http://oldnaledifellowship.org/photos.html


In His Steps,
Mareko

Update from Open Baptist: Old Naledi

Subject: Naledi update

Dear Scott,
Greetings from Gaborone. Trust you are well and being blessed.

We would like you to thank you all at Alice Drive for the investment in Naledi and for the blessing you have been to the folk there.

I went there last night to inspect the Naledi Building. Very, very impressive!! Not complete yet - still some finishing to-do - but in true African style the people are using it already.

By the way there is great excitement in the whole Naledi community - not just the church. Alice Drive can really be proud of what they have done for the Kingdom.

Naledi Church would like the official opening of the building to take place the first weekend of March.

God bless you richly,
Norman and Gabi

New Church pictures

Moruti sent me new pictures today. I have uploaded these to the http://oldnaledifellowship.org . Be sure to head over there and take a look. Also, I know some have mentioned that they have not been to the site to take a look. Please take a minute to view the progress and be sure to leave a message on the guestbook for our friends in Botswana. If you can get on a plane and fly around the world to visit them, you certainly can leave a message of encouragement on the guestbook. :-)

In His Steps,
Mareko

Sports Ministry Update from Moruti James

To: Scott Shipes
Subject: Sports Doing wonders for the Lord

Dumela bother Scott.Hope you are well.We thank God for what He is doing in Old Naledi.Ever since the donation of sports tools the church at Old Naledi has been recieving a lot of kids who come regularly for sports and church service.We do thank the church at Adbc for their contribution.We now have a ministry towards these kids.Do pray with us as we harvest for the Lord.The building continues to take shape every day.We hope to use it first week of Nov.
In His Name
Moruti James