Lesotho Mission Trip

October 15 - 21

 

We arrived on Monday afternoon in the town of Butha Buthe minutes outside of the South African border. Godfrey and Elizabeth introduced us to the culture of Lesotho and the organization here, LXP Lesotho.

 

While serving with LXP, we were involved in a few different projects. Each morning, we drove to the new site of LXP Lesotho to help them clear and fix the land. We dug a trench to channel the rain around the property as to not flood to property. After we finished with the digging of the trench, we poured the first layer of cement. We also did smaller projects such as painting the poles of the fence, pulling weeds, and  prepared the dirt for a retaining wall.  The house (which will be the first addition to the base) should be finished in June 2013.
 

On Thursday morning, we visited  a school for disabled children. The children are of all ages and have variation of disabilities. The school is called  “Thuso e tla tsoa kae” which means “Where does our help come from?”  We performed two dances and our “Set Me Free” drama. We felt this was the best audience that we had ever had! After this, we split up into teams to help in the garden or help with the washing. Visiting the school was a very humbling experience, however we wished that we had a bit more time to interact with the children.

 

In ministry groups of three, we went out into the community of Butha-Buthe to build relationships with the locals. We each had a translator in our team since many of the elderly people do not speak English. We were impressed that the team picked up quite a bit of Sesotho! They really made an effort to be able to greet the locals in their language. When we went into the people’s homes, we asked about their culture, connected with them relationally and spoke to them about the message of Christ. We found that many of them knew who Jesus was and is, but didn’t really KNOW him on a personal level at all. We took these opportunities to bring a deeper understanding of Christ. Before we arrived in Lesotho, the message of healing and bringing healing was spoken over our team. We prayed for many people and saw many healed!

 

Every Saturday, Godfrey, Elizabeth and their team of leaders run a youth program for the children and youth of their village. The children range from age 2—20. The week that we were in Lesotho, the discussion topic was being set free from oppression or anything that can hold a person back. The team did our two dances and the “set me free” drama. The youth responded well to this serious drama and found that they could relate. We also discussed in groups Isaiah 61 and that role that Jesus played on earth and the role we now play as followers of Christ.

We were very impressed with the youth and their understanding of the youth Word and their ability to apply it in daily life.

 Prayer Requests

 

-Pray that the people of Butha-Buthe will come to have a personal relationship with Jesus
-Pray for Godfrey and Elizabeth as they minister daily into the lives of the people
-Pray that the resources come through to develop the LXP base

A big thanks goes to Godfrey, Elizabeth and LXP Lesotho!

Thank you for hosting us and introducing us to new things! We are
grateful to you and your team! May the Lord bless and keep you!

Lots of Love,

The Bakers

 

 

As the year comes to a close

Seeing as 2012 is coming to a close, we can look forward to a couple of things:

1.       Our student graduation is coming up

2.       Fall and Christmas flavours at Starbucks (in some parts of the world…)

3.       Our trip to America is nearly here

4.       We need to find students for next year’s YOYL program (and quick!)

After a meeting with our pastors and the finance team, they have indicated that we need 8 students in order for YOYL to carry on. No eight students? No YOYL.

BUT the good news is that we feel God is doing something good and new with Year of Your Life next year.

A few weeks ago, some of our mentors asked to meet with us because they know of a young person who wants to do YOYL. Out of this meeting, we identified three young men who would be perfect for YOYL. These three guys are from the rural community, but are very involved in their local churches and have a heart for reaching out. Piet and I mentored two of these guys while we were still at Refilwe and we identified them as “junior leaders” in our youth. It is amazing to see how they have picked up where we left off and are now coaching soccer, mentoring other young people, and teaching Sunday School.

About a month ago, we were speaking to a friend of ours and they were commenting that it is too bad that the people who need the training of YOYL the most are the ones that cannot afford it. But after this meeting, we feel that God is drawing people not necessarily always from the “better off” areas and those who can afford the program, but from the communities where they need training and equipping the most.

Two of these young guys will hopefully join us this next year, and the other will join us the following year. The biggest thing we are worried about now is their accommodation. We have to trust God that someone (possibly in our church) will open up their home for them to stay. Ideally we would like to find someone with a cottage in their yard where these guys could stay together. We also need to trust God for finances for their food.

In addition to these guys, we have additional 4 or so students from our church that are thinking about YOYL. So, in total we have about 7 interested. This is good news!

We are trying to make the most of these last 2 months of YOYL...can't believe it's gone so fast! We have been running a new outreach lately that seems to be working. Right across the road from the church is a community center (the one we re-painted a few months ago). So, we decided to do a "play day" every Friday. We invite the kids (and moms!) of the community to join us for games, jumping castle, and lots of sweets!

Please pray with us that God will provide the students that we need for next year! YOYL 2013 here we come!