There were four of us; Shaun and myself and our two boys, Mitch and Drew. We left early Tuesday morning excepting to be there around lunch. After road work, a stop for lunch, customs and border crossings, we arrived about 2:30. Getting to the village was easy enough as all the roads were tar, but as we arrived at the village Erin mentioned his concerns about my vehicle making it back to the house. I must admit after seeing some of the roads, I was a bit concerned myself. But to everyones surprise the Fiat made it back to the house with no trouble.
Couple of things that I noticed right off the bat. There were no power lines even though we were only about 20ks from the border and the fairly good sized town of Maptusoe. The houses here in Lesotho terms were nicer than I had seen at other villages. There were a few traditional African Roundavales, but there were also quite a few block houses and even 1 or 2 brick houses. There were alot of animals here. Sheep, donkeys, cows, pigs, horses, chickens. It was a regular Green Acres. Farm livin is the life for me. The house where we stayed had all of these animals, the bad news was that the house we stayed in was back to back with the animal barn which meant tons and tons of flies. They were everywhere, but believe it or not where a bit of a relief from all the mosquitos that we had back in Durban. When Erin told Shaun that he accommodations for us, Shaun asked if there was a kitchen and a bathroom. Erin said yes to both. Our house was a two room building. It looked like maybe a cottage for one of the older kids of the family. As we looked around there was a lounge with a wood burning stove in the corner which Erin pointed at and said, "see, kitchen" and another room with two twin beds. As for the toilet it was a long drop outside. A long drop is pretty much like a permanent porta potty. So it was a little rough, but not too bad for a couple of days. All of our food was pre cooked but we were hoping to have a place to heat it up, but just ended up eating everything cold. Shaun and I slept in the house and Mitch and Drew choose to sleep in the car as opposed to the floor in the lounge (I don't blame them)
We took a short hike up the mountain about half way and got a great view of the village and some of the others in the distance. Estimates in the village put it at about 300 people.
We headed back to the house and then made our way to the tent for our first meeting. It was a good response, I counted about 50 people. It was typical Lesotho style worship that could go on for hours. Shaun shared the gospel and Erin gave an altar call and lots of the people came forward. That was awesome. Over half the tent giving their hearts to the Lord. After that we all prayed for anyone who needed prayer. It was a good night of ministry. We headed back around 10PM and finally sat down to have dinner. What we were not expecting was Erin and 5 other guys with him to come by excepting dinner as well. Fortunate for us, Shaun's wife Gail out did herself and there was plenty of food to go around. We went to sleep with great anticipation of what God had in store for tomorrow.
We got up and Erin told us we would start Pastor training at about 11AM, so we decided to take another hike up the mountain, but this time we went all the way up. It was a beautiful day and you could see for miles. The people of the village are hard working farmers. As we worked our way up the mountain there was a group of men there working together to gather fire wood. They were chopping down trees and throwing them down the mountain.
We met with the Pastors in another small house. Mitch taught them a simple English praise and worship song which they all really enjoyed. Shaun and I both did a Bible study with them and then we closed our time in prayer and headed back for lunch. Nothing here is dictated by any sort of time. Lunch is not around 12 everyday, lunch is whenever your done with everything else. Same with dinner. Bible study and tent outreach always came first. Food was an after thought.
After lunch, Drew and Mitch headed to a different part of the mountain with 2 of the pastors. Shaun and I spent some time with Erin, Joel, and Tumello discussing things about Calvary Chapel and what we thought the next steps would be. Erin, as I said, is an evangelist and his heart is to church plant. Joel and Tumello are both wanting to Pastor. Tumello will move here to this village in the future to help start the church. Right now him and Erin come every Sunday after noon to do church in the small house where we stayed. Joel would like to start a church in the town of Muputsoe which is about 20 ks away and is the border town where we cross into Lesotho. We are all excited about what God is up to and Shaun left them with some material to read and planned on following up in the coming weeks.
That night our plan was to show the Jesus Film, but when we plugged in the projector it started ooozing smoke. Shaun looked at me and said "I preached last night, looks like your up tonight." I counted and there were about 80 people and I think more may have even came while I was teaching. I shared a bible study and then gave an altar call and again had a huge response. It was awesome and we were excited to be a part of God working in the hearts of the Lesotho people. We headed back to the house for some dinner while Joel and Tumello stayed and talked with everyone about the church and gathered follow up information from everyone.
Another rough night sleep and we were up and packing, putting everything away and saying our good byes. Mitch and Drew wanted us to climb up and see the waterfall they found along with some ancient bush man cave drawings. So we prayed with the Pastors and loaded up the car. They were staying around to do more tent outreach and have Sunday morning service there before they took down the tent.
Pretty sure I got my first South African traffic violation on the way home. They have speed cameras here and one flashed as I went by which usually means there is a ticket in the mail. We will wait and see.
Since we have been home Shaun has been in contact with Erin and the only problem know is that they have outgrown the house where they were meeting on Sundays. We are praying about a possible tent that could stay there permanently and be used for church and other community meetings until we can build something more proper.
It was a short trip, but very fruitful and we are excited about what God is doing.
Just a side note, can you imagine never experiencing a hot (or cold for that matter) shower? How long ago was it in America that there was no indoor plumbing, running water, or electricity? Thats how it is for most of Lesotho. Now for a little bit of trivia. Do you know what Lesotho's biggest export is? 25 million rand a month (thats about 3 million us dollars) worth of water every month to South Africa. Like a lot of 3rd world countries that money doesn't trickle down to the little man.
I have put together a short video of our trip, you can check it out by clicking below.
Lesotho Video
Blessings
Shelby
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