OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF BOTSWANA COG December 4, 2011

What a wonderful time we had in Botswana. The area around Maun is sandy and dry and their summer has begun with temperatures rising to over 100 degrees during the day. On this, my first visit to the country of Botswana I traveled with Jim & Mary Nipp who began serving in Botswana in 1962.  After we cleared immigration and customs we were greeted by about a dozen folks from the church. They loaded our bags into the vehicle they had for us and brought us to the home where we stayed for the week. We then gathered on the porch and visited for a while with Jim & Mary catching up on people and the various happenings.  When we arrived at the church at 5:00 pm to be welcomed, we were greeted by children, youth, younger and older adults. The youth worship team led us in music and Pastor Keeme officially welcomed us and gave Jim, Mary and myself an opportunity to greet the church. The youth closed in a song and prayer. Then they served all there sandwiches and snacks with juice and coke to drink. As is the case at all church functions, everyone stood around and visited until it began to get dark.

At the conclusion of the church service on December 4th we presented the placque that officially recognizes the Churches of God in Botswana upon which the whole congregation erupted in clapping and whistling/cheering.  We visited a number of the churches around the Maun area throughout the week and visited with various members.  The Church of God in Botswana is alive and well, and growing.  The work that Jim and Mary Nipp helped start has a heart to reach others for Christ.  The people are beautiful and it was precious to meet and worship with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ in Botswana.

 

Cote D'Ivoire Oct. 8-13, 2011

Hope the saying "better late than never" is true. We were not able to blog from Cote d'Ivoire and when we got back to the US, mail and things were piled high from our 5 weeks in Africa and then it was the CBH Retreat in NC, some business on the road, debrief in Anderson and a conference in IN and then "the holidays" and here it is 2012 already!!!  Whew!!  So let me try to fill you in since the last blog and hopefully I'll be able once again to include some pictures.

 

Kay & Sherman Critser with Daniel N'Goran





When we left Uganda we had to fly to Niarobi, Kenya (East) and then from there to Cote d'Ivoire (West). It was a 5 1/2  hr flight for us from Niarobi to Abidjan and then a 3 1/2 hr ride to Yamoussukoro!  It was a "reality check" for me as to how vast the continent of Africa is as we didn't even fly the full extent from east to west coasts!  We were hosted by Sherman and Kay Critser as Larry and LeAnn Sellers are on furlough. We were able to attend a church service with them--complete with lots of prayer and dancing--and meet several of the leaders they are training.  

Solomon-John Baptiste-Timothy
Lead the program:
 Hope for Youth without Aids
(an abstinence education program)



Art in Radio Studio

A couple of days we went out in the rural areas to visit church leaders and see their communities--observe cocoa being dried, mud bricks being made, see some crocodiles, hold an impromptu service and eat a "typical Ivoirian" meal--foutou (a ball of gummy, yellowish, sticky meal) with a fish sauce, fried bananas and a drink made from Bisap (a kind of grape juice color and "musty" grape-prune taste). They speak French there and it was comical to observe as Art spoke his Haitian Creole to one of the pastors and the pastor would speak French to Art--they were actually able to figure out fairly well what the other was saying...of course the Critsers were there to interpret too...and there was lots of laughter along the way.


CBH French Program is produced
and aired from here

There is a radio station/studio in the Yamoussaokoro Church that produces the CBH program for the French-speakers in Africa.

While in CI we also were able to see the "Bascilica" (Roman Catholic church that "rivals the Vatican" and is a bit bigger). The stained glass, architecture, marble columns and ornate fixtures were quite impressive but saddened me to think about how much was spent on a structure used very little and that costs a lot to keep up the 130 acres it's built on and just what that could have done for the welfare of the people in the country. A few pictures below: