Monthly Archives: May 2012

Desert Rain

13 Sunday May 2012

Posted by in Inspirational Thoughts, Life in Africa, The Early Days, Trials to Triumph

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Photo by Heather Walker

1996-97 was a terrible season of drought in Northern Botswana. We lived on the Boteti River and the very last pool of water from the Okavango Delta was in front of our house. In that pool lived 32 Hippos who were hanging on to their last days of life. They were literally starving to death. Their home-the Boteti River was dwindling in the Kalahari sun by the day. The smell of death was all around and nothing could be done about it.

Water was hauled in the back of a hilux Toyota pickup. Water rations were just a part of life. By this time I was pregnant with our 3rd son and we had 2 very active boys who loved to play in the dirt! “a dirty kid is a happy kid” one mama of kids raised in the Botswana bush taught me. So true. There was an old generator that we turned on in the evening for some lights and Video taped shows.

Bath time was especially eventful. We would fill the tub with about 6 inches of water that the whole family had to share. The cleanest person got to go first, which given the family dynamics, that person was usually me! By the time we got to the last bath, that water was black! We then dumped the water down the toilet. We used the “if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down” method, to stretch the water we did have. Any other water was used to water what little green there was around the house.Image

The grand finale of this season was a mysterious fire that destroyed the house and all its contents, leaving us with a new baby boy and 2 sons-homeless. We wrapped up business and traveled to the USA to my mama’s place in Texas. We arrived exhausted from the journey. When I went in to take a shower I just stood under the water and cried. It had been a tough couple of years. It didn’t feel right to let the water flow like that. I felt guilty. But wonderful at the same time.

Eventually the rains came to our village and gave moisture and life to the dry land. Sometimes our lives are like that. We get dry-dirty-thirsty. We need the rain to come. God desires to pour out his love on us like that shower in my mama’s Texas home. So glorious, so, almost sacred, is that water. Refreshing and restoring my soul from a very difficult season.

Image Revelation 22:17 (ESV)  “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”

We have all heard the phrase “water is life”. I can tell you I know it is true. But there is a river of water that never will run dry. This is God’s love to his kids. Jump in, enjoy, let it wash you clean and be refreshed!

TIME OUT!

12 Saturday May 2012

Posted by in Inspirational Thoughts, Life in Africa, Trials to Triumph

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ImageHere I sit on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2011. The year has been long and yet fast as a blur! Under the mosquito net at the Royal Tree Lodge Villa, in Maun, Botswana, I have come to have some time alone. The first exercise was reflection over the year, and that is another piece altogether. While listening to worship by Michael W. Smith, I heard Cleo, my fearless Jack Russel, in some kind of fight. Looks like it was a Genet or a Mongoose. Do Mongoose’s climb trees? Either way, she has 2 chunks of flesh missing now against her beautiful white and accents of brown coat. I managed to clean her up good though and now she is looking so solemn. I only brought her because she looked so sad as I was leaving and she recently lost her real mom, Linda, who has just retired from the field. I also felt like I could brave the Villa alone, far from the main lodge and close to the river, if she was with me “to protect me”.

Today I got completely overwhelmed with life. As a woman, I am what I consider to be-at least most of the time-privileged- to be a wife, a mom, a minister, and a myriad of other titles that have been bestowed upon me. Heck, this year I even received an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity! Well, titles aside, it is a day of serious self evaluation before God. Sometimes life is just too hard! Wonderful are the days when everything works and my children are perfect and my husband heaps loads of niceties upon me. But this day wasn’t one of them.

So I lost my cool with dishes, laundry, no water on our property for days and lazy children who wouldn’t go fetch water out of the pool. So I got in the car and drove to a nearby graveyard. Yep, that will put life in perspective! I walked for what seemed hours looking for the grave of a young lady we dearly loved and who was in an accident a few years ago. Turns out I was at the wrong graveyard, but the exercise did have the desired impact.

All the months of going “full speed ahead” caught up with me. The 38 activities planned for the 31 days in December have now passed, well, almost. 3 ½ hours to go. Who ever had the idea of putting Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve on a Saturday night? I remember 7 years ago like it was yesterday. And here we are again. I have dreaded it all month. Look, I love church, don’t get me wrong. Its just that its nice when we can celebrate our holidays with our families at home. Chill, bake, watch movies, play games. So tonight, on the eve of the biggest day of the year, I am in a room, in a house, on a game lodge, alone, just me and my dog, while the rest of the family, including my dear mother-in-law, are going to be spiritual and at 10 pm to midnight be in church to welcome the new year in. Then they will get up tomorrow morning and go to church again. I still haven’t made up my mind if I will throw on some makeup and rush over there through the bush in my Jeep. Probably not, but at least the thought is there.

I didn’t get into this state of mind overnight and I guess I won’t get out of it so quick either. But the point is, sometimes we just have to take a “time out”. I am having my “time out” with God. I will let you know how it goes.

Happy New Year!

The Wedding Album

08 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in Inspirational Thoughts, Life in Africa, Marriage, Trials to Triumph

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ImageIn June 17, 1997 a fire destroyed our house and all of our personal effects gathered over 10 years of working in Botswana. There are many amazing things to share about what all came out of that but for now, one special story I would like to relate is about our wedding photos. I started looking for the man who took the photos when I was in Houston but was told that he and his wife had moved to the Texas Hill country upon retirement. Donna was one of my spiritual mom’s during the early days of my Christian walk and I attended all the Women’s Aglow meeting I could get to in between school. Fred McCreary was active in ministry in addition to his job at NASA. I attended faithfully as a teen getting all I could from the wave of the move of God in the 70’s.

It was 1997 and I was attending an International Aglow conference in New Orleans. While I was going up a 2 story escalator, with my 2 year old, Mason, I heard the Lord in my heart say to me, “turn around”. So when I reached the top, I did, and I saw the back of a lady’s head in the middle of the huge crowd of thousands of women who had come from all over the world. , Then I heard, “That’s Donna McCreary!” I bolted down the escalator with baby in tow and made my way through the crowd until I reached her. I tapped her on the shoulder and sure enough, it was her! I spent many hours in her home as a teen with her kids and she recognized me right away. We hugged, had a time of reunion and then I told her about the fire and all we had been through. I told her I had tried to reach them to see if perhaps they had kept the negatives of our wedding because we had lost all in the fire. She informed me that they had gotten rid of all of that when they moved and was so sorry. 

She invited our family to visit them in their new home on the river in the Texas hill country. Our trip got really full and when she phoned me to see if we were coming, she told me,” We really want you all to come. I really think it will be worth your while.” So we made the drive out on our way through the vast state of Texas. People ask me what country I am from sometimes in Africa and I till them- From Texas! Botswana is roughly the same size as Texas.

We all disembarked from the packed out mini-van we were driving and managed to get to the front door with the all 3 boys. We were warmly greeted and asked to sit down and have a cup of coffee before unpacking the car for the night. As we sipped our coffee, Fred sat down and said how sorry he was that they had not kept the negatives for our wedding. They just did not have space in the move for all those things. He worked for NASA for years and did photography on the side. He was very good at it. That was just another thing the Lord did for us on our wedding- was to use Fred and Donna to bless us with quality photos. He said, “But though we didn’t have space for the negatives, I did keep one thing”…and he pulled out an album and placed it before us on the glass table. It was worn and looked just like the one we lost. I was confused for a moment, and when I opened the page, I was even more confused. Jerry sat beside me in utter amazement and surprise. He said, “Jana, these are our wedding pictures!” Fred went on to tell us that because our wedding was so unique and the pictures turned out so well, he made a copy for himself as a demo to show his work! He said, It’s yours if you want it!! Of course we said, “yes”! His album had even MORE pictures in it than our own album had.

That album is tucked away in my oak hope chest in Houston, Texas for safe keeping! What a wonderful God we have to remember even the smallest detail of our lives. That was a very special reminder from the Father on that day! To view it you can friend me on facebook to see it.

Aside

Cancer Storm

06 Sunday May 2012

Posted by in Inspirational Thoughts, Life in Africa, Our Family, Trials to Triumph

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I had just returned to Africa from the states in May 2008.  I had taken our middle son, Jordan to join his brother as a student at Christ For The Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas. He was joining our oldest son, Remick and had lived their whole lives in Botswana, Africa where we have lived since 1987. 

Returning to Botswana, the land of my heart, I was full of excitement for what was ahead. Two weeks prior I had a very unique experience when a friend treated me to a 5 day getaway to connect with God on a Ranch in the Texas Hill country. http://fellowshipofthesword.com/ It was a transformational experience! Little did I know what lay ahead for us a week later. I arrived in Botswana on Saturday May 24. I was so excited to get back into our busy lives there and particularly eager to see our long awaited rescue center for babies-the Lorato House Rescue Center, up and running. It had been a long, 6 year battle for licensing and we were getting close to opening our doors.

Sitting down to a good cup of Earl Gray tea, Jerry shared the recent report he had been given from the Doctor but kept to himself, awaiting my return. A week before my home coming he had learned in the Capital city, Gaborone, that he had stage 4 Cancer. As he shared this unbelievable report of their findings, Squamous Carcinoma. The left side of his neck was full of cancer. In all the years we have been serving in Africa, our Father had never let us down. Just a year prior, friends had given us catastrophic health insurance. Little did we know what we would be facing.

The leaders from our church wept with us, encouraged us, then took arms to pray for us. I repacked my bags to travel back to the states with Jerry the next week to MD Anderson Cancer Research Center in Houston, TX. 

We live in the remote village of Maun 10 hours away from the Capital City Gaborone.  National church leaders began calling & asked us to fly through the Capital on our way out of country so that they could pray with us before we left.  They showed great love and respect to us for our years of work in their nation and promised to hold us up in prayer and see us on the other side of this battle. Upon arriving in Houston, we were invited to stay with a dear friend, Susie Wolf at her beautiful home less than 5 minutes from M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center. 

We arrived full of faith and determined to return and resume our assignment in Botswana. We were greeted by a wonderful Christian Oncologist Dr. Anne Tsao who told us we would need to be willing to give her 6 months of our lives for treatment, Jerry as the patient and me as the caregiver. Consulting with our spiritual Mom Dodie Osteen who had been healed of Cancer many years ago & Dr Paul Osteen, they encouraged us to walk the healing path the Lord had put us on.  

Chemo Therapy started right away. The cancer was aggressive and had spread so they had to give the strongest dosages humanly possible since Jerry was healthy in every other way. Three Months were scheduled and after the first round- miraculously, no cancer was identified in the first PET scan!

We were so excited and thought we might be able to go back to Botswana and get back to work! Dr. Tsao reminded us that we had committed ourselves six months to her care which meant  3 months of chemo and 3 months radiation. Jerry had one request, really a demand if he was going to follow through with further treatment. He would do the treatment as outlined if he could fly back to Botswana where our 10 branch churches join the main church, All Nations Village Church for our annual leadership conference in between the Chemo and Radiation treatments.

The doctors and I would ‘wink’ at each other and say yes, of course we can try. By the time to leave for the conference, Jerry had lost weight and all his hair but was counting the days before his awaited departure date. He was on injections of blood thinners twice a day and 3 heavy doses of Chemo had taken its toll on him

I went to Sudan for a few days to speak at a conference beforehand and meet Jerry in Johannesburg and go on to Botswana. Jerry made his way with our good friend, Doug Stringer, who accompanied him to the conference who was one of the speakers. He used his air miles to get Jerry in Business Class to be more comfortable.

Jerry was there at all the sessions and in between he rested up for the next service. The church was electric with excitement and all rejoiced at their Pastor’s presence there in the midst of the storm! It was a crucial time of encouragement for the ministry team in Maun. We had a great team around us and Jerry and I have always believed that the ministry has never been built around a man, but around THE man, Jesus Christ. 

We returned to Houston for the last 3 months of treatment and stepped off the plane to go straight to MD Anderson for the first round of Radiation treatment.  Throughout our journey we were encouraged by a picture the Jerry bravely kept before him. It was a very real picture of he and I in a sail boat out on the sea of Life. The dark clouds were looming overhead the wind was blowing harshly against the sail, the waves were lapping against our boat trying to sink our dreams and future!  But in the midst of the dark clouds and raging waters, Jesus was there and told him to look to the other side and focus his eyes on the shore line. As we did this this, we could see something beautiful & bright awaiting us there. This filled us with courage and joy!  Every day Jerry got up, no matter how he felt, showered, dressed and had a purpose in each day, if even to do a simple task. We ministered to others around us at MD Anderson, preached in churches on weekends, we gave our best to others and it filled us with strength.

At a time when America and the rest of the world were feeling the economic  struggles of the year 2008 we came out on the other side of this enemy called Cancer. We reached the shoreline and the months that followed were nothing short of supernatural! Six months later we headed back to Botswana with a clean bill of health and a mandate to get regular checkups as prescribed by the Oncologist.  Four years later, Jerry continues to remain Cancer free! The enemy is taking some serious blows for this attempt on Jerry’s life and we are walking safely on the shoreline with Jesus!

The Couple Part 6: The Wedding

06 Sunday May 2012

Posted by in Life in Africa, Marriage, My Journey, The Call

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On June 7th, 1986 we were joined in marriage at the First Baptist Church of Friendswood, Texas. We were the first couple to be Wed in the beautiful white, victorian Gazebo under the great oak tree built in memory of Dot Wilden’s Imagebeloved husband. Money was tight for us both so it really had be put together on a shoestring budget. At the home of the Duffer’s we had a magical night at our Hawaiian Luau following our dress rehearsal the night before the wedding. Jerry Duffer performed the ceremony 18 years later came to work with us in Botswana! Rachel Burchfield told a story as she did “The Commissioning” of us as a couple to Africa as an important part of the ceremony. She told of how, when I was a teenager I had spent the night and was having a quiet time with God. I came out and said to her, “God spoke to me!!” She said, “What did he say?” With great excitement I shared that God told me my life was going to be a life of perseverance, and that he was going to teach me perseverance. Her eyes got big and I said, “By the way, what is perseverance?” So has my life been in many, many ways as we have learned to stick with it through thick and thin!

We had a beautiful wedding and God pieced together every detail, including the pearls lovingly sewn on my wedding dress and Texas-style hat. It was so wonderful to see so many people pull together to make it an unforgettable event. Flowers, music, cake, food, photos, presents potpourri and friends were all given by the amazing people in our lives.

When we celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary, we looked back in awe at the wonderful gift the Lord has given us in one another to fulfill His calling in much greater ways than we had ever imagined.Image

We made a promise never to say the “D” word, (divorce). We’ve had our share of struggles as two people with very strong wills and ideas. But when placed in the Lord’s hands, He can do wonders with our flaws and weave them into a wonderful tapestry of destiny for His Glory!