Category Archives: Trials to Triumph

10 Things

27 Monday Oct 2014

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

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images-1Today my husband, Jerry, challenged me to list 10 things for which I am Thankful. It really puts things in perspective. Here goes:

1. Thankful for the Morning

Each day is a new day, with a new story to write.

2. Thankful for my 4 Children

Four blessings, each unique, healthy, full of purpose and life. Though on their own journey, are not completely off the rails!

3. Thankful for my home.

Beyond my wildest dreams, such a haven in the midst of wildlife, and river view that brings tranquility of soul.

4. Thankful for My Husband

A man who fears God, loves God and loves me. And a bonus-he doesn’t dominate the TV with sports. He’s just not into it.

So, the occasional car show is perfectly bearable!

5. Thankful for the joy of seeing fruit from our labors in the lives of people. Souls whose lives have been lifted and helped in practical ways.

Children who grew up and now have children and are living on purpose for Christ.

6. Thankful for my Mother in Law and the 5 month journey we have shared. The furnace of affliction has been tough.

God is more concerned with my heart condition than my comfort. It has been revelational to me to be the vessel through which God’s love has been poured out to her.

7. Thankful, even proud to be called a Missionary, and to be Christ’s extension of peace and reconciliation in this world.

8. Equally thankful for giving me the grace to be away from my earthly family in Texas all these years.

Longing and sadness is replaced by joy, knowing who they all have become and quality times when I do see them.

9. Thankful for the brave people in my life who cheer me on to be a better person and for those who just cheer me on in the good times and the bad.

10. Thankful for Social Media-Skype, Facebook, Twitter, What’s App, etc.

For the seconds and not months to connect with people. It makes the world accessible to me from my life here, in Northern Botswana, unlike missionaries of old who packed their belongings in the coffin in which they would be buried and had only mail by ships to make contact with their loved ones.

I want to extend this exercise to anyone else who might need a reminder that the good in our lives far outweighs the stormy times.

**Photo compliments of myheartmyhandsasl

The Fire Part 3

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by in Growing Pains, Life in Africa, Trials to Triumph

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ImageThat evening we were given a room at the Baptist mission house. We laid, shell-shocked, on the bed. The 2 boys, 7 and 5 years old were on one bed and Jerry and I had the baby in between us. We thought of events of the day and looked down at this innocent little baby, and the two boys peacefully sleeping, without a care in the word, and we thanked God that we had our lives and that no one was hurt. That’s all that mattered. A few minutes into that priceless moment, the phone rang. It was a call for Jerry from our father in the faith, (and father of Joel Osteen), Pastor John Osteen, who is in heaven now. I was watching Jerry, and the sound of his Pastor’s voice brought tears to his eyes. Pastor Osteen told Jerry that they were going to get us home and, “did we want a one way or a round trip ticket?” Were we gonna come back or call it quits? We could easily wave our missionary flag and say we had done our bit and go back to living in the comforts of America. But Jerry said, oh Pastor, a round trip ticket for sure! We have not finished yet, we have only just begun!”

With that, Pastor John Osteen told Jerry, “I know this may not seem like the best time to hear a story, but I am going to tell you one anyway.” He said, “ there was a man who was ship wrecked and stranded on a desert island. He managed to muster up enough sticks to build him a little shelter from the sun. Not long after that, a storm came and lightning came and struck the shelter causing it to catch fire. Then the unexpected happened, a ship in the distance came his direction, blowing the horn and waving, “Ahoy there”. When they arrived on the shore they said, “ We’ve come to rescue you!” The man said, But how did you find me?” The captain replied, “We saw the smoke from your fire!” Brother Osteen said to Jerry, “The Lord has seen the smoke from your fire and has come to rescue you. Come on back home, sit on the front row, let God build your faith and get you strong again, then you can go back and carry on with what the Lord has put before you to do.”

The Fire, Part 2

16 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in Growing Pains, Life in Africa, My Journey, Trials to Triumph

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ImageI called for help and as I stepped outside I could see a huge mountain of black smoke coming from the direction of our mission base and home. Someone from the office tracked Jerry down in town and before I knew it, we were in the car. All he could think of to do, was go to the airport because it had just received its very first fire engine! It was brand new and strictly for use at the airport. (Maun airport is the 2nd busiest airport in the southern hemisphere due to tourism. Mostly small planes sport its runway.) The river next to the house was dry from drought and we had no running water on the farm. We had to haul all the water we used for the 3 years we lived there.

Jerry ran in and used his best negotiating skills, while trying to keep calm, to get them to come out and salvage what might be left of 10 years of pioneer work in Maun, Botswana. Meanwhile, I was in the car and had one of our sweet, older students, Shevaun, in the back seat holding the baby. All I could do was pray. As we sat there, I overcame the feeling of totally loosing it by starting to speak out praises to God. We have been taught that “if you put the word of God in you when you don’t need it, it will be there when you do need it!” As I started, I couldn’t think of a thing to Praise God for in that situation, so from deep down inside, I began to worship Him for Who He IS, for His faithfulness to us in all things, for his great grace, for what he did for us on the cross, and for his mercy.

Gradually, I felt a super charge of power as I focused on God and God alone in the midst of this tragedy. About that time, Jerry returned to the car with a big, yellow fire truck in tow. As they followed us out to the farm, Jerry tried his best to prepare me for what was ahead. He could see from the smoke that it was very bad. The main house was thatch and went very quickly. He said, “Jana, you need to be prepared that there is likely to be nothing left”. I continued in my heart to worship and focus on the Lord. Shevaun and the baby were crying in the back seat, Shevaun because she realized the severity of the situation and the baby, because he was hungry!

We arrived at the base, with only smoldering ashes left. Jerry and I got out of the car, took hands and started a walk around the house. That walk together was a history-maker for the both of us. As we walked around the perimeter of the house, we came to the window of the room we had slept in the night before. As we stood there, Jerry said, Honey, I am so sorry. It’s all gone. He really didn’t know what to expect me to say or fee. You see, we had everything in that house. No more was this a short term thing, we were it it for the long-haul! Jerry was trying to console me when a Holy anger came up from deep down inside me. As we held hands tight, I said, “Devil, we won’t stop! We won’t quit, we won’t give up! We are going to go further and do more than ever before!” It was a declaration and it was clear who our enemy was and where a ‘holy anger’ should be directed! Jesus said in John 10:10 “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” (The Message Translation)

It was all gone, 10 years of life in Africa- the tangible and the worldly possessions at least. Photos from our lives, musical instruments, guitars, keyboard, music, journals, bibles we’d had from the time we had given our lives to the Lord, my mother’s wedding ring and special family jewelry, $10,000. (usd) was hid in a shoe in the closet awaiting deposit for the expenses of the outreaches and teams we had that season. I didn’t even know it was there. Everything was incinerated. Later, when we began rummaging through the debris, we saw a neat little stack of the remains of the bills that Jerry had tucked in an old shoe, and with one touch of the finger it turned to dust.

There is a little song that has filled my thoughts many times and became even more dear to me than ever, “More than anything, More than anything, I love you Jesus, more than anything. More than worldly wealth, more than life itself, I love you Jesus, more than anything.”

One day I was thinking about all that was lost and remembered something precious to me. It was the Fender guitar that my daddy gave me when I was 16. I loved that guitar. It had a sound like no other. I was a serious sentimental sap all my life, but I then heard the Lord whisper to me in my heart, “Jana, we love people, not things”. Another famous quote is so true: “Only one life on earth is passed, and only what’s done for Christ Will last”.

Do you want to hear more of the story? What do you think so far?

The Fire Part 1

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in Growing Pains, Life in Africa, Trials to Triumph

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ImageIt was July 17, 1997. Jerry had just returned the day before from a trip into the Central Kalahari and left the team of 100 teens & leaders behind to continue ministry to the Bushman (Basarwa) tribes who speak in a clicking language, of that region. He felt an urgency to come home and check on the family and the mission. Mason, our 3rd born son was only 4 months old and due to all the guests and traveling immediately following the birth for the first month, I had been staying in for some time. In Botswana the culture is for a woman to retreat totally for several months following the birth of the baby. I broke all the rules with all 3 of my births, including this one, so I was trying to make up a little and stay put for a while.

Traditionally, the mother of the woman who gives birth comes and takes care of her, seeing to all her needs. All she has to do is feed and love the baby! When the second child is born, the mother-in-law comes and takes care of them! The husband is not allowed to sleep in the same room with the wife for this period of time. There are many customs and traditions during this “bosetsi” as it is called, that are purely for the benefit of the mother and the baby. It is a wonderful tradition that would do well to be followed in other countries! By the time bosetsi is over, mother and baby are rested, healed, and the baby is ready to be exposed t the outside world. I have been blessed to have my mother-in-law with us since the time we opened our school in 1992. She has lived near us all this time and has been a tremendous help and blessing to all 4 of our children.

This particular day, I decided, since Jerry was back from weeks of being away, that I would go into town with him and the baby. I hadn’t been out for a while. We got the 2 boys ready for school, packed the baby a diaper bag, grabbed my computer so we could check email and headed for town. We left the base in the care of the workers and headed off down the deep, sandy, bumpy road to town. Jerry dropped me at the school and headed off to town to run some errands while I visited with staff and students and showed off baby Mason to the staff and students.

Mogomotsi was a tall, strong, young man from the Humbukushu tribe, known as the “River Bushmen” of the Okavango Delta. He had given his life to the Lord on one of our outreaches and we asked him to come and work for us. He was growing in the Lord and his whole family came to Jesus through his salvation. He was such a hard worker. The school was housed in one of the oldest buildings in Maun. It was originally built by the London Mission Society and Jerry’s office was situated in the very room where, according to Maun Historian, Pat Dance; Robert Moffit did the first translation of the Setswana Bible, which is the first bible in Africa translated into a local language. There was a closed-in porch that separated the office from the outside. Around 10 a.m. I heard a noise outside the office door. It was Mogomotsi. He fell down, out of breath. He said, “Mma Moruti, (they called me for lady teacher/preacher) the house, the house is burning”. We later realized he had sprinted 15 kilometers from the farm, 5 k’s of that in deep sand to tell us the house was on fire! (look for Part 2 soon!)

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!