Author Archives: Jana Lackey

Lorato House-A Story of Perseverance Pt 2

19 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in Lorato House Rescue Centre

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The LBOM team sat together around the table at Riley’s Hotel in early 2004 to discuss our desire to develop more community outreach programs. Alf Birger Eikaas from Norway said as he was praying he sensed that 1 Corinthians 13:13 was to be our plume-line which says, “So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (ESV) We all agreed!  It was like a road map for us.

The Setswana words for these are: Tumelo (Faith), Tsholofelo (Hope) and Lorato (Love).

Tumelo (Faith) was the preschool program for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. Tsholofelo (Hope) was for the community outreach work to those sick and disadvantaged.                                                                                               Lorato (Love) was to be the name of our Rescue Center for babies and young children zero to five years old.

Shortly after that time, our Chief Operations Officer and Missionary, Linda Madeksho and I made the 5 hour drive to do a fact-finding visit Nyangabwe, the Hospital in Francistown. We wanted to see how many orphaned babies there were living in that hospital. We were taken into a “special wing” where there were 5 orphan babies living there for different reasons, some abandoned, some the mother died and no family was found. We were both surprised when we found that the name of the 5 babies, all had one of the three names, Tumelo, Tsholofelo and 3 Lorato’s! We thought that was pretty amazing!

 We drove another 5 to the Capital, Gaborone. My “Motswana Mama”, Serara Kupe-Mogwe went with us to Princess Marina Hospital for another fact-finding mission. Mom, now, still active in her 80’s, is known as the “Florence Nightingale” of Botswana. Her contribution to the nursing movement in the country is recognized throughout Africa. She was the first woman in Botswana to get a degree and the first woman to get her doctorate on top of that! Her textbooks on nursing are used across the Region. She was the founder for The University of Botswana School of Nursing. Her daughter, Pearl, and I are dear friends, like sisters really.

Mom and I were having a traditional lunch one day at the Broadhurst Mall. Mma Mogwe, as she is known, proudly introduced me to the waitress. She said, “Yes, this IS my daughter. You see, the problem is that when I was pregnant with her, I drank too much milk and she turned out like this!” We all had a good laugh and I felt privileged to be introduced as “hers”!

More on the Lorato story in the next blog!

How To Get That Tune Out Of Your Head!

18 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Growing Pains, Inspirational Thoughts

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Image

Click pic to hear song!

The craziest things come across Facebook. Today my brother, Lee, posted the Theme song of “Mr. Ed”, the talking horse. Now, hours later, I cannot get it out of my head! Perched in front of our new, black and white TV, in the mid 1960’s, my brother and I watched this weekly show about a wise, talking horse. Mr. Ed had attitude, for sure, but he always seemed to trump his owner with his words of wisdom for the situations presented in the story line.

I was driving down the long road in the Magadigadi pans in Botswana, where I live, when I saw a horse that triggered my fond memories of sitting with my brother as a kid, watching that show. Oh! I got the “warm fuzzies!” I found myself singing it and my 4 children, ranging from ages 8 to 22, looked at my like I was crazy! I amazed myself for remembering the whole first verse! I guess you would have to be in the 50 to 60’s age group to know what I am talking about.

Sometimes it is hard to get something out of your head. Some things need to stay there, imbedded in our memories, but often times, they really do need to be forgotten! Memories can come just as fresh and real that are anything BUT warm and fuzzy! Maybe it was an injustice done to you, or a situation that left you asking “why God?”

Some memories bring shame, like the time after I had given my life to the Lord at 14 and not long after, I got high with my brother and his friends. I thought I could sit with them and “witness to them” while they smoked their pot. Maybe they would still think I was “cool”. I was wrong. In the thickness of the smokey room, and the vulnerability of the situation , I got just as stoned as the others and smoked right along with them.

The memory of my brother and our friend who I had been trying to share my faith with, stopping me in the hallway afterwards, looking at me and shaking their heads in disgust saying, “Jana, I thought you said you were a Christian”! Oh the shame I felt! What a hypocrite I was! I let God down, I let them down, and most of all, I let myself down. You see, when I met the Lord on March 3, 1976, as my own personal decision to have a relationship with Him, I had a lot of baggage. I was forgiven and set free from Drugs and alcohol at the age of 14! And to fall back into it only a few months later, well, It took some weeks before I understood that God’s forgiveness wasn’t just a one time thing. It is for the rest of my life. It’s not a license to sin, but when I do, and I do and I will, His love is there to cover me.

When memories flash back that bring you pain, give them to all Jesus, He will turn your sorry into joy. And while you are at it, forgive yourself! Can you remember a time when you needed to wipe a memory? Tell us how you did it and how God helped you through it.

Romans 8:1,2 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the Law of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death.” (Read up to verse 17 for a great read!)

2 Corinthians 5:17I “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away and behold, all things have become new!”

Click to listen to song