Peppers in Lesotho

We've moved!

2011-01-21T11:18:00.002+03:00

We have now migrated over to a new blog. You can find us at

http://peppersintanzania.blogspot.com

Please stay with us!

We're moving to Tanzania

2010-12-23T11:18:00.011+03:00

It is true. No, we haven't changed missions. But mid January we will leaving Lesotho and will be moving to Tanzania. After much prayer, spiritual counsel from our team, more prayer, trying alternative options for ministry here, huge budget cuts from government for flying, more prayer, meeting resistance to doing what we know we are called to do ('Preach and Heal'), more prayer... Sally and I have been given permission to transfer to work in the Kigoma/Ujiiji area of Western Tanzania. It is a big change. It is a long story of how God has taught us about patience, perseverance, trusting in His ways, and being faithful on a day-by-day basis.

We will spend the next 3-4 months in intensive Kiswahili language learning in Iringa, Tanzania. Swahili is the official national

language of Tanzania. Each people group has their own language as well, but we will begin with Swahili. Living in Iringa first will give us the opportunity to give our full attention to language learning. Our team leader wants to be sure that we have a good grasp of Swahili before we move to our mission home in Kigoma.

Once Sally and I reach level-3 in language learning we can move to our mission home in Kigoma. Kigoma is on the Eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika in the far Western region of Tanzania, south of the country of Burundi. We will be working together with the staff of the Kigoma Baptist Hospital.

Sally and I don't know the exact day-to-day details of how we will minister there, but we know that God continues to give us a calling to 'preach and heal' using the gifts, talents, and experience that he has graciously allowed us to have. That we have the privilege of being incarnate cross-cultural witnesses of the hope of Salvation through Jesus Christ is our joy.

We are excited about the ministry opportunities we will have in the Kigoma area. We are confident that having teams of volunteers join us will be an essential part of our strategy to get the Gospel to each person. Already one couple has shared their desire to come in the Fall and volunteer to help us with sharing the Gospel. The task is huge. One statistic I came across says that there are approximately 500,000 persons within a 5 mile radius of Kigoma. Our task is to 'Shatter the Silence" by working with others in getting the gospel proclaimed.

We will certainly miss our friends and 'family' in Lesotho. It has been a privilege to serve together with them. They have encouraged us, loved us, challenged us to grow in Christ, and made us laugh. We love them!

Stay tuned in 2011 as we share the great things that God will do as His kingdom expands in Tanzania. Daily by His grace...

God with us! Amazing!

2010-12-23T10:25:00.005+03:00

Emmanuel - God with us! It astounds me that God would even consider coming to the earth in flesh, born of a virgin, fully man and fully God, to carry out the greatest rescue ever. To rescue us from our sin and sinfulness. I have been reading in Ephesians 2 for the past months and am repeatedly reminded that we do nothing in terms of salvation. It was God's grand idea, to redeem his Name and to rescue us. Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, reminds us that we were dead in our sin and in our sinful destructive behavior. It was hopeless. I have worked for 25 years now in medicine and I have never been able to raise someone from the dead, nor to give life back to a dead person. Only God can do that, and that is what Ephesians 2 talks about. When we were dead, Christ made us to be alive, to have a spirit that will respond to God, to that god-hole that we have in our souls. I'm reminded what the old prophet Ezekiel said (Ezek 36) when he prophesied about the time when God would be taking our hearts of stone and replacing them with hearts of flesh - a heart ready to respond to God. And to give us a spirit that would be ready to follow God's ways with joy.

It is amazing, and lest we get it wrong, it is NOT about us, but all about God, His glory, His great name being glorified.

I'm thankful to be a part of a team (IMB and MAF) that is all about getting that message, of God's rescue, to people in their heart language, in a culturally relevant message. It's a message of hope, of forgiveness, of new amazing God-designed purposeful life.

Sally and I are so grateful for each and every Southern Baptist Church member and others that give through our annual Christmas Lottie Moon Offering that funds the largest portion of our mission organizations budget. Already we have been hearing the news that in spite of difficult economic conditions that people are giving sacrificially to continue the task of taking the Good News to ALL peoples. "For God so loved the world that He gave..."

Please continue to pray for us as we work toward the goal that our region has to "Shatter the Silence" in getting the Good News to each and every people in Sub Saharan Africa.

Have a restful, peaceful, joyful time of Celebration of Jesus!

A few more pictures from Katse

2010-12-15T10:01:00.002+03:00

Lesotho is truly a beautiful country, unlike any other on the continent of Africa. With 2/3 of the country mountains, you can't help but appreciate the beauty of God's creation. For the team from University of Botswana, it was amazing coming from the relatively flat, arid, desert land of Botsw to the high mountains with beautiful flowing streams. We were truly blessed as we served along side their team and the Flora family.

After returning to Maseru to fly to Matsaile Health Post on Thursday, I returned to Katse to complete the week with the team. Sally stayed the whole 9 days helping Teresa and ministering with the team. Friday we pony trekked into one last village. On Saturday Jim and Teresa had all of us head to the river to have a time of quiet reflection on what God had been doing in the villages and in our own lives. It was a great time to relax and pray and praise God. After a picnic we headed over to the village of Ha Kinini where the Floras have been doing a bible study and kids program for almost 2 years. The kids were excited to see the team arrive and

really got into the songs and games and the bible story that Andrew (Team Leader) told them. I got to do what I enjoy - pray while the team was ministering, encourage them, and hold a little

boy sick with flu as he fell asleep in my arms.

I prayed that God would be gracious in his life to allow him to grow up healthy to a point where he could choose to be a follower of Jesus. Life expectancy in Lesotho is only in the mid 30s, and unless he chooses to follow God's safe and life-giving ways, he will end up like 28% of the population, infected with HIV. I thank God for the Flora family and for the pastors and leaders they are training in the mountains of Lesotho. And I thank God for the Botswana University Team for their willingness to come share the good news in Lesotho.

God bless and enjoy this great season of celebrating the coming of the King of Kings. It is truly amazing - Emmanuel - God with us!

Botswanan University Student Invasion

2010-12-08T21:16:00.011+03:00

We are so privileged to have a great team to work with (Melvins , Floras, Justin & Korby ). This week Sally and I have the honor to work along with the Flora family and their Botswanan University student team. The Floras invited us to serve alongside them this week. The team that has come are actually Americans, Botswanans and two from Zimbabwe. They came to the mountain village of Katse to spend a week working with the Floras as they share the good news. The reason Sally and I are with them is that the timing was just right as I don't have any flights scheduled at this time (due to budget cuts in the gov't). And it was God's timing as Teresa Flora's shoulder is giving her fits and Sally can be her "right hand."

So we headed up the mountains to Katse to arrive the same day as the Botswana team. They

began preparing for this ministry in January, meeting once a week to learn about missions, Basotho culture, and Lesotho. Our mission has a family and a single lady doing university student ministry at Univ of Botswana. So we all met at the Flora family house in Katse Village high in the Maluti Mountains.

The strategy plan that Jim and Teresa had developed

with the team was to go to some villages to encourage the few believers and share the gospel with more, and to go to villages that the gospel of Jesus Christ had never been to! The mode of transport is 4WD plus Lesotho Mountain Pony trekking plus feet. The plan was/is simple. Work with a local Baptist pastor to identify the villages, pray, pray, pray, and then pray some more. Then go with the student team to the village, get permission to share, sing songs in Sesotho and Setswana language, share testimonies of how trusting Jesus and following him works, preach, and then do Q&A. Then pray, pray, pray.

So that's what Sally and have gotten to do along with the Floras and their team. Sunday we drove about 1.5 hours (the last 30 min. of that in 4WD) to the village of Lilomong ('dee-low-mong'). Now why there? Bear with me as I share a pretty amazing story about a young pastor and friend by the name of Sefiri. One day, following God's command to go out and share the good news, Sefiri set out on foot to hike back up into the mountains to share the gospel. When he reached a village he would get with the chief and the people and ask if they wanted to hear the good news. Village after village rejected him but he kept on going. Finally he reached Lilomong and they agreed to hear him and this message from God. Some responded by repenting and turning to Christ. He decided to go further up the mountain but was met at the next village by the priest who informed him if he came there again, he would kill him by stoning him! He decided to continue to go to Lilomong whenever possible and that his pastor would also go there.

Pastor Sefiri and Pastor Molapo have been trying to return to Lilomong village at least once a month. So that is where we ended up on Sunday. Our plan was what I outlined above. And God blessed it. The students were amazing. Great singers, leaders, great testimony. I had the privilege of preaching after Andrew shared his testimony.They just loved sharing what God has been doing in their lives and answering questions. After a full day we headed back to Katse village.

Monday we again traveled by 4WD back to Lilomong to hold a free medical clinic (thanks to generous donations to our mission) and to again do Q&A as well as HIV/AIDS prevention teaching.

We began as before - prayer, prayer, and more prayer. Then singing and a testimony by Michael how God radically changed his life when he placed his faith in Jesus Christ. Then it was time to

do the clinic. Andrew and I saw the patients, Sally dispensed the

medicines, Jim and the rest of the team did Q&A and HIV/AIDS teaching. Some was done one-on-one, and some was done in

groups (like the teenage girls). This university student team was amazing. They stayed engaged with the people all the time,sharing, listening, teaching, laughing, and praying.

Again a long day, but praise God for strength to do the ministry - "I have food that you know not of. My food is to do the will of the Father..."

Tuesday we drove about 45 minutes to a place to get some Mountain Ponies. The villagers rent them on occasion. We went with Pastor Sefiri, Pastor Molapo, Ntate Tsepo, and the team. Jim Flora (being a former cowboy) made sure that all the students had some instruction on how to ride as none of them had ever ridden. I think the thing that I remember the best was 'keep your legs on each side of the horse...' So the 12 of us (11 of

us and a guide) headed up the mountain to find the village of Ha Macona. We trekked up the mountain past freshly planted fields, mountain streams, and rock upon rock until about 1.5 hours later we were there. 7,700 ft elevation, a village of about 75 people. Some were not there as it is the season for cultivating the fields. But as they gathered we had about 40 adult men, women and teenagers plus 15-20 kids. We did the same routine - prayed, sang, shared a testimony and preached (this time it was university student Wasa) and then did Q&A.

What was shocking to me was just how deeply engrained was the belief that everything in their life centers around appeasement of the ancestor spirits. The people were very eager to hear about 'what does your church say about...' We answered many many questions in the group and in smaller groups by showing them in the Bible what the answer to their questions were. Many were in disbelief and argumentative at times. Those that attended a Catholic church about 5 miles away told us that the priest told them 'if you have questions about God don't read the Bible, just ask me.' They were so eager to

at least hear what the Bible said. It was awesome to hear the Botswana University students answering the people with 'God says in the Bible...' As we neared the time to go, several of the older women practically begged Pastor Molapo to come back every week to teach them as they wanted to really know what more of what the Bible says. Others were not so interested but as

Basotho culture dictates, were very polite and kind to us.

As we prepared to leave, Jim Flora gave a PROCLAIMER MP3 player to one of the ladies. It has the New Testament in Sesotho on it and it is rechargeable by either solar or hand crank.(check out www.faithcomesbyhearing.org) She and others were elated to receive it. Our prayer as we headed back on the horses was that God's word would be listened to that evening and that through it, their eyes would be opened to the beauty of gospel of Jesus Christ.

After the horse ride back and the truck drive to the Flora's house we were all tired, but excited about what God is doing through simple obedience to his command to go and share. I voiced a brief prayer of thanks for the strength and grace to do what our region's theme is - to "Shatter the Silence" and share the good news.

I'll share more later next week. As I write this I am at home in Maseru preparing to fly to Matsaile tomorrow for medical clinic there, then will head back up to Katse early Friday morning to join the team for another trek deeper in the mountains to another village that has yet to hear the good news. Thank you Jim and Teresa, Gracie, Anna, and Becka and the Botswana University Student team for allowing us to be part of your ministry team. Thank you Southern Baptists and other supporters for making it possible for Sally and I to serve the Lord here.

Hey, thanks for reading and please pray that in all of this, Jesus Christ will be praised and the good news will be heard. Pressing on daily by His grace...

Happy Birthday Dad!

2010-12-03T19:54:00.002+03:00

Today is my dad's 80th birthday. I am Larry, son of Leo L. Pepper, Jr. I am so proud to say that. I love my dad and miss him so much - he in America, and us in Lesotho. I am so privileged to have a dad like mine. From my youngest days I remember my dad doing certain things EVERY day - telling my mom that he loves her, kissing her goodbye and again when he returned from work, and reading his Bible. Everyday.

I am so thankful for growing up in a family that loved each other and loved the Lord. Dad committed his life to be a follower of Jesus Christ not long after he married mom back in 1950 and has walked with the Lord ever since. He hasn't been perfect, but what he has shown me is how to love the Lord and love others. He taught me about integrity, about working hard no matter what you are doing, about being kind to people, about treating others with respect, and about loving others. That has had a huge impact on our family and on my life. I have seen my dad walking with the Lord, living a life of love and of service to others. My dad's (and Mom's) love for each other and for the Lord Jesus Christ are the reason that Sally and I are serving in missions in Africa.

I love you Dad! I pray that your Lord and Savior Jesus will continue to give you strength for each day, love for mom and for your family, and many more years to teach us how to be a man of God.

Praise God for the Rains!

2010-11-11T15:59:00.002+03:00

The rains have come to the mountains of Lesotho - actually the whole of South Eastern Africa! This is a critical time for the rains as the people have been waiting and waiting to see if the crops will survive. Most of the Basotho are subsitence farmers, in other words, they depend on each growing season to survive. This is the time to plant corn, the main staple of the Basotho.

Of course with heavy rains and wind comes NO FLYING. So that's not great in terms of getting to the clinics and health posts, but hey, at least with the rain there is the possibility of food and survival.

After two days of heavy rains I did get to fly to the mountain village of Semenanyane with our team. Like my usual mornings, I rode my bike to the hanger for the morning MAF meeting. After the plane was loaded and fueled we got ready to head to the mountains. Semenanyane is a very wind sensitive airstrip so this time the MAF pilot (Melvin Peters) stayed with us at the clinic while we did our patient care. I saw patients while the eye nurse took care of the eye patient referrals and the dental technician saw his patients. We were just about to finish up when I heard the radio call that there was a "Code-1 at Mokhotlong" A Code-1 means a life or death situation and MAF basically drops everything to go and get that patient and get them to a hospital, often to the one in the capital city Maseru. We decided to get to the airplane and head to Mokhotlong - a 20 minute flight. About 5 minutes after landing a double cabin pickup pulled up to the plane with a pregnant woman who had obstructed labor (in other words, the baby was stuck and wasn't coming out without a C-section). Now Mokhotlong Hospital currently has 3 doctors but unfortunately they had no power so they couldn't do the operation. It was either fly her to Maseru (a 50 minute flight) or put her in a truck and drive her 6-7 hours over some rough parts. So we got her situated in the back seat, got ourselves back in and headed to Maseru. The LFDS ambulance was waiting at the hanger when we arrived and whisked her off to the hospital to do the C-section. Tomorrow she'll be visited by the MAF Chaplain (Ntate Sefiri) to get her a blanket for her baby and to share the gospel with her.

It was a great day of treating patients, praying for them - 'meeting needs with loving deeds.' We thank God for how is providing support to the MAF/IMB Lesotho mission teams. We are so thankful to our mission and to our 50,000+ Southern Baptist churches that voluntarily support missions through the Lottie Moon Missions Offering and the Cooperative program.

Lastly, I want to encourage you to take a look at this new You Tube video by MAF about MAF Lesotho. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZmfNCmSPCo) You might see a few familiar faces...

Burnt Rondoval Roof and NO rain

2010-09-15T17:38:00.007+03:00

Just got back from a very very dry Matsaile. I had gone on Tuesday for the twice monthly doctor team visit. Our team (ophthalmic nurse and two pharmacy techs) and I were met at the plane by Justin and Korby. They were on their way back to the capital city (Maseru) for their time out of the village to rest, restock, take in some fast food and a movie or two. We waved by to the guys as the dust flew from the airplane takeoff. As we started the 20 minute walk to the village I noticed just how dry it had gotten. A guy rode by me on a horse and I nearly choked from the dust it had kicked up. The problem is that we've had essentially NO snow in the mountains this winter. And that's a problem. No snow, no nitrogen for the soil, and likely not as good of corn crop. (A friend shared with me that as snow is formed it captures nitrogen from the atmosphere). This is windy season and so the combination of no snow, plowed fields, and high winds = dust, dust, and more dust.

We reached the village and as the team was setting up the medicines, I walked over to the chief's rondoval to greet him and find out more about what happened. I had been informed by the guys that Saturday night someone tried to burn down the chief's rondoval while he was sleeping in it! The chief was matter-of-fact about it sharing that it was just an act of 'juvenile deliquency' and not to worry. A message had been sent to the police and they were just waiting from them to come and apprehend the accused. The police are at a town 3-4 hours away. The thatch roof was burnt on the lower edge around about half the perimeter. Fortunately he had noticed the smoke and then saw the flames out his window. According to the chief, several people came to his rescue and put it out before it destroyed the roof. After he shared his story, I prayed for him, the people of Matsaile village, and especially for the person who tried to kill the chief. We know that only God can change a person from a murder to a follower of him (remember Saul who became Paul).

I rejoined the doctor team as they were set up and ready to begin the day of work. We began with a song and then I prayed for the sick, for rain, and for God to open the eyes of the peopel to see the beauty of Jesus Christ. It was a pretty usual day as we cared for 52 patients - providing the diagnoses and needed medicines. The people are very thankful for the government providing this service as the closest clinic is a 3 hour walk (there are no vehicles or roads in Matsaile).

Went and saw the chief again before we left to walk back to the airstrip. The MAF plane was later than expected. After some time I found out that there was a problem with the plane after it landed at an airstrip just a 10 minute flight away. Another plane and pilot was sent from Maseru to pick up Melvin and then proceed to Matsaile. I ended up staying behind as there wasn't space for all of us - and I had the key to the guys rondoval. I had a very quiet and restful evening which I used for reading the bible and praying that God would do a mighty work in the hearts of the people of Matsaile. The next morning a plane came to get me and bring me back to Maseru.

As we flew back over the central range of the Maluti mountains I couldn't help but notice how dry everywhere was, and even the reservoirs were lower than usual. We really need rain. Please pray that God would send those long soaking rains that will help for the Spring planting and to replenish the reservoirs. Pray too for the safety of our MAF pilot colleagues as this is the 'windy season' and mountain flying becomes much more challenging.

Daily by His grace...

Back Flying Again!

2010-08-24T14:30:00.002+03:00

After three weeks of being grounded, we're back flying tomorrow morning (Wednesday). I will be in a meeting at the Ministry of Health all day to be trained on the country wide decentralization of health care plan, but our specialist eye/dental care team will be flying to one of the health clinics. I thank God for answered prayers - patients will get the care they need, our staff will be able to get back to the clinics and out for a break, and we can all do our jobs again. Thanks for praying!

Matsaile Ministry

2010-08-18T13:30:00.006+03:00

It's been a long three weeks of no LFDS flying. Same thing as before where the Lesotho gov't is failing to pay the flight bill to MAF and we are grounded. In spite of that, through some special gift money, we flew up to Matsaile on Tuesday to hold the biweekly medical clinic. I was really happy to be sitting in the back seat watching Kelly have the controls to fly under the careful eye of MAF pilot Danny Hulls. Enroute to Matsaile we picked up another missionary who is heading to another part of the mountains to meet a village chief in order to begin the work of ministering to herd boys. Two stops later we were at Matsaile airstrip. Wewere met at the airstrip by Justin and Korby. We gathered up our medical and repair supplies and headed to Matsaile village.

This visit was two fold - to do the clinic and to fix Korby and Justin's HF radio antennae. Strongwinds had broken some fasteners and the lower half of the folded dipole had fallen down. Danny is a pilot/mechanic and offered to help fix it with Justin's help. While they worked on that Kelly, Korby, Thabang headed over to the building to prepare for the clinic. With the help of Ntate Tsupane and a couple of the village health workers, we get the place set up, unpack the medications, and then have a word of prayer before seeing patients. I like to pray for those gathered and

then pray with each patient as I examine and treat them. As we were setting things up, we were surprised to meet a

lady that had come from Thaba Tseka (about 5-6 hours walk) to do voluntary HIV testing for any patient desiring it. I was glad to find out that only 1 of 15 tested were positive for HIV.(the country wide prevalence is around 23%)

Thabang and I saw the patients while Korby and Kelly dispensed the medications. It was not quite as busy as I had hoped (saw 46 patients) but I think that people were not expecting us as they knew of the problems in paying

the bill.

After finishing the clinic we had some time to sit and talk with the guys and have prayer together. We were thankful to be able to complete the tasks we had come to do. We then carried the medical and repair supplies back to the airstrip to prepare to fly back to Maseru. We were soon airborne heading home. 50 minutes later we were on the ground and heading to the house.

Please continue to pray that the bill will get paid so we can resume normal flights. We have staff that need to get back to the mountain clinics and others that need a break. We have three successfully treated patients who were discharged from the hospital here in Maseru but can't get back home till the flights resume. And pray for our LFDS staff as we are discouraged.

Daily by His grace...

So which are you doing?

2010-07-25T10:42:00.001+03:00

Sally reminded me this morning that what I posted perhaps wasn't entirely clear. To some of you, it may have come across that we had been doing it all wrong, and suddenly I got some 'new revelation.' It's not the case. Rather what was exciting me from the meeting in Augusta was to realize that our organization now had a 'fresh view' of how you can do the both of Preach and Heal. I had the opportunity to gather with a large number of our health care professionals and supervisors that were being trained and were excited about the both of Preach and Heal. Unfortunately in the past, in some areas where our group works, the supervisors had not viewed this approach as a valid way of church planting, and so had either stopped or at least strongly discouraged our health care personnel from using their medical skills as part of their ministry. (yeah, I know that sounds pretty severe, but it was true.) Sally and I were blessed to have worked in a region where our supervisors were supporting us all along the path.

So, it wasn't that I got a new revelation in Augusta, rather it was affirmation of what Sally and I had been doing (the "A,B,C,D,E" concept) in Uganda over the past years. We began by entering the community (part of the university and hospital), caring for the needy (in the hospital and then HIV/AIDS clinic), and then because of our compassionate loving care were able to get into homes with families of our patients, sharing the gospel. We saw God work in amazing ways as we went into people's homes with our Ugandan colleagues at our side, empowering them to do the same. Disciples were made, and churches were planted - all by the grace of God and for His glory!

What excites me is that Dr. Fielding put it down in a book, something he and his family have been living and teaching. And now, others will have the opportunity to apply those A,B,C principles with intention on the front end of ministry (or be affirmed that they are already doing it). The bottom line is to be more effective in doing what Jesus calls us to do - Go, Preach the Good News, and Heal.

That excites me.

Preach and Heal, or Heal and Preach?

2010-07-24T16:35:00.002+03:00

If your task is to share the Gospel with people who haven’t heard before, then which is the best (or better) way? Preaching is good, but what if people are hurt and hungry and not interested in listening? Healing is great, but what if you are so busy doing it you fail to preach the truth? How you answer the question depends a lot on your background, experience, biblical understanding, and your world-view.

I just returned from a conference in the US sponsored by our organization that really challenged my thinking about this topic. Over the years I have tried to integrate both in our ministry, but I confess that the ‘healing’ part of it tends to take precedence. I have felt the tension of ‘preach or heal’, but haven’t really got it figured out. I have been continually remodeling my ‘Theology of Health and Illness’ as I call it, but this conference really forced some re-thinking. Much of the material came from a book called “Preach and Heal” by Dr. Fielding. Now don’t be put off by the title thinking it is only for health care people. It is one of those books that I really think everyone who is serious about following Jesus needs to read. (I don’t often get so passionate about recommending a book, with the exception of the Bible)

I just love the opening chapters that basically have an ongoing dialogue between the ‘preacher types’ and the ‘healer types,’ each presenting their biblical basis for saying that “Preaching” is right, or “Healing” is the answer. They both have strong arguments. Fielding helps us to better understand this artificial dichotomy. You may be surprised to hear that the author (a medical doctor) will conclude that the answer is not one or the other, but both. And will try to convince you that the church has to once again embrace the opportunities of Preaching and Healing in order to more effectively reach all who need to hear the good news.

I like how he takes the “A,B,Cs” of emergency medicine (airway, breathing, circulation, etc) and applies them to missions. Let me share just a bit to whet your appetite to buy the book (available through our mission link on the right).

We all know the biblical mandate for missions. Both the OT and NT make it very clear. Jesus, makes it very clear in his teachings, and the early NT church got to it after a while (after the initial persecution of the early church). In the book, Fielding suggests the following as a model for a form of missions that is both Preaching and Healing, whether you are a health care worker or not.

Access the community. Be in the community, side by side the people you are trying to reach. This is the relatively easy part.

Get Behind closed doors. Although mass-evangelism can work, it is more effective getting into peoples homes where you can share the love of Christ with them and their family.

Care for people with the compassion of Christ. That care takes many forms, both tangible and non-tangibles, medical and non-medical. There is great power in first diligently listening, and then praying for people in their time of trouble.

Disciple the believers – to be followers of what Jesus taught (remember he said to go and make disciples, ‘teaching them to obey all that I have taught you’.) This may not take the traditional form of teacher/student, but that of ministering along side one another, learning the culture and language, while modeling the Jesus-way of life. It’s not just about head knowledge, but heart knowledge translated into a Holy Spirit empowered transformed life.

Empower the local body of Christ-followers. If Sally and I try to do it all, there are only two of us – limited impact. But if we do the A,B,Cs and then do D and E, God can multiply the effect. I have to confess it is often hard, with my ‘I can do it all’ mentality, to let go and empower others to do it. Yep, they will make mistakes along the way, but so have I. Our task is to encourage one another in our walk with Christ.

So there it is – the summary of the ABCs of Preach and Heal missions. For us the ‘A’ and ‘C’ is the easy part, but the ‘B’ is the part that takes effort. And without an intentionality of the ‘D’ and ‘E’, we would just be another group doing good for the poor. Christ calls us to do more than just ‘do good.’

The book has several chapters on how one can take these ABCs and apply them to areas like Community Health, Water and Sanitation, Nutrition, Prison and Refugee Camps, Volunteer teams, and some traditional medical areas like HIV/AIDS, Community based TB treatment, and Mobile Medical Clinics.

I would really encourage you to get this book. If you are interested there is another article on “Teach, Preach, and Heal” by Michael K. Augustson, MD that challenges us along these lines. (www.churchclinic.org/resources/hcrs_teach_preach.pdf) It’s a great read.

As you might imagine, Sally and I are once again rethinking how we are doing our work in view of these simple, but biblical concepts. We are excited to think of what God may do though us by applying this to our ministry to the Basotho in the mountains of Lesotho. We’ll keep you informed…

Back in the Air Again

2010-07-04T22:29:00.002+03:00

Wanted to let you all know that the gov't has paid enough of the bill so that LFDS is back flying again. Thank you for praying! So tomorrow, Monday, the LFDS team will head to the remote mountain village of Matekane to provide much needed medical care. I won't be there as I am heading to Augusta, Georgia to the Medical Missions Mobilization Summit at Warren Baptist Church. (http://www.regonline.com/MMMS10)

Thanks again for standing in the gap for the Basotho.

Is My Heart Burning?

2010-06-29T08:13:00.003+03:00

This morning I began re-reading a book Kelly gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. The book is entitled "Great Days with the Great Lives" and provides daily readings along with Scriptures that chronicles 10 great lives found in the Bible. In the introduction, the Russian Poet Boris Pasternak is quoted

"It is not revolutions and upheavals that clear the road

to new and better days, but someone's soul inspired and ablaze."

That caught my attention immediately. I'm ready for a clear road to new and better days. The past months have been frustrating as the ministry plans Sally and I had seem to have all fallen apart. We've been praying for direction, for inspiration, for 'revolutions' of ideas if I may use that term. So I could relate to the poets quote. But then I read it again and realized that what was lacking was the latter part.

To be very honest, I have been spending too much time contemplating the unaccomplished things, and the challenges at LFDS, and the difficulties with the government, etc. Considering the poets thesis, I would classify myself as having a soul that is uninspired and certainly not ablaze. That may sound harsh, but it is true. The past 12 days of not flying again has afforded me the time to do some self evaluation and soul searching. It has been a process of asking hard questions, talking to God, and waiting for answers. Which is the really hard part because I am of the personality type that likes to make things happen. But not this time, I've purposed to go slow and learn.

So what am I doing? I've realized that this is time to immerse myself in the Scriptures. In addition to reading the gospels, I enjoy listening to podcasts of great preachers. I was doing just that last evening as I was on the eliptical. The sermon was based on Jesus' words in John 15 "if my words abide in you..." As I came to the end I was evaluating the message and was about to say 'this wasn't that great' when the preacher said something that hit hard. He shared how he and his wife have a weekly lunch 'date' and that for the past 6 months that date took the form of the first 20 minutes lamenting all the challenges and problems they were facing in the church family. He shared that in the midst of that date he suddenly realized that they had not once shared scripture, but only complaints. They purposed at that moment to change. He shared a verse that really hit me. The psalmist David is in the midst of trouble but is writing about the past mercies of God. He says,

I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness

from the great congregation.

As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me;

your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me! (Psalm 40:10-11 ESV)

What struck me was that I had been focusing on all the 'troubles' Sally and I are having and haven't recalled the great mercies and the faithfulness and the salvation God has shown toward us. Not only that, but I haven't been speaking of that faithfulness and salvation, instead just complaining. No wonder I don't have a inspired and burning soul. I know I'm not the only one that is struggling with this. I do recall those in the Scriptures who call out to God to give them a heart that burns for him, that longs for God and his word, that is ablaze with the joy that comes from being totally satisfied with and in Jesus Christ. What I've realized is that I need what only God can do through the power of the Holy Spirit through Scriptures - to transform me more towards the image of Christ. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." (John 6:63 ESV)

So, as we wait to hear the news of when we can get back to flying to serve the Basotho in the mountains, I'll be trying to do better at recalling the great mercies of God and saturating my mind with the life changing, soul igniting words of Jesus Christ.

Daily by His Grace,

Larry

Grounded once again!

2010-06-16T18:21:00.002+03:00

Well, it's a repeat of last year! The Lesotho gov't is 3 months behind on their flight bill payment to Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and so we're grounded once again. The explanation given this time is that the Finance Ministry (like the Dept of the Treasury) has failed to process things to get the money transfered. This same thing happened last October and we were grounded for a month. So, no Doctor Team flights, no patient flights except for life threatening emergencies.

Incarnational Ministry in Matsaile

2010-06-10T12:03:00.009+03:00

Justin and Korby are there! That's right, as of Monday they are now living in Matsaile village. last week was a flurry of activities as we flew three flights to get all the supplies there and things readied. Wed/Thur Mike Shutts (MAF Pilot/Mechanic) and I were flown there to install the solar and radio system. As usual, we had to haul the supplies from the airstrip to the village, a 30 minute walk. Once there, we began the work of re-assembling the antenna pole. A big thanks to Roger Clark (MAF Mechanic) who helped to build the antenna in pieces so it would fit in the airplane and then be easy to assemble at the village. With the four pieces put together, Mike and I and one of the men in the village got the pole up next to the house. Then we ran some metal straps above the block wall and under the thatch to fix it in place (the pole had a spike welded to the bottom to drive into the ground). Then it was time to hoist up the folded dipole antenna and secure the ends.

Next it was time to put up the 80 watt solar panel and do the electrical wiring. We had brought Mike's folding aluminum ladder so it made for easy access to the thatch roof. The stuff is really thick so Mike pushed through guide wires so I could then send back through the wire to secure the panel to the rafters. Then back inside again to set up the lights. Justin and Korby now have two 12 volt lights that give some great lighting.

Well, once we had the solar installed it was time to test out the HF Radio. Mike gave a call to "49" (that's the MAF base in Maseru at Mejametelana Airport) and they answered back. The radio works, but this is the time of year in the solar sun spot cycle where communication via HF radio is not ideal. We will use it during daytime hours as a means

to communicate with the guys. There is one area in the village where there is cell phone coverage. Already we have had to use that backup plan as that day the radio signals were not good.

We praise God for all the help from our support team in Johannesburg as well as the great MAF team here in Maseru. It took a lot of team work to get all the supplies to Matsaile airstrip and then to the village. Praise God for the faithful support of Southern Baptists in giving to missions to make this possible. We now have two young guys being "Jesus" to the people of Matsaile village and the 6 surrounding villages. There is no question now that the good news of the gospel will reach the Basotho there.

The guys are outfitted pretty good now. They have their solar lights as primary with headlamps, candles and kerosene lantern for backup. The rondoval has a kerosene heater that also doubles as a one burner cooker. They have as their main cooking source lpg gas to run their two burner stove and the camp fridge. It's a pretty good set up and will work well for them to have as their home and base of operations. I will be traveling there twice a month as part of our normal Lesotho Flying Doctor Services mobile health post so I will use that opportunity to meet with the guys as part of my part in mentoring them. LFDS also has the

public health team that travels there once a month to do pre-natal care and under-5s immunizations. This will give the guys some 'outside' contact apart from the radio calls. The plan right now is for daily radio/phone checks. We have had one 'hiccup' as the promised completion of their pit latrine did not come through. We will fly two more bags of cement there on

Friday (weather permitting) so it can be completed. Meanwhile, they have another pit latrine they can use.

So, please pray for Justin and Korby as they adjust to life in Matsaile village.

Pray for opportunities to share the love of Jesus with the Basotho there.

Pray for endurance as they learn to live in the village.

Pray for wisdom in the work they do there.

Will send more pics next week after I make a visit there on Tuesday. Meanwhile, I'm back to our LFDS clinic and health post doctor team visits.

Hurray for Megan!

2010-05-11T20:18:00.015+03:00

We are so proud of our daughter Megan! This Sunday we celebrated her graduation from Hope College with many of our extended family.

We want to thank God for all that He has done in her life over the years, and especially the past 4 at Hope
College.

We also want to thank so many of you that have contributed to her success - by your encouragement, by your loving care, by your 'taking care' of her while we have been in Uganda and Lesotho. It is not easy being away from our kids, but we have seen them taken care of and loved on by so many of you when we have not been able to be physically there. Thanks too to our Uganda and Kenyan friends that helped to 'shape' Megan while she was in school there.

It was great to get back in the USA a week ahead of time to 'reset' our clocks and be 'awake' for her graduation. Graduation at Hope always falls at the same time as

the Holland Tulip Festival so we got the added fun

of seeing over a million tulips in blossom around Holland.

Graduation day was sunny and we enjoyed having family there with us. Adam flew in from DC and Kelly drove

up from Taylor University in Indiana. Sally's mom and sister and kids came as well as some of our family. It was great to see not only Megan graduate but also some of her Rift Valley Academy classmates.

After grad we went over to Aaron and Jenn's (thank you again!) and had a party to celebrate Megan's birthday, her graduation and Mother's day.

Lots of food and conversation, getting caught up with family, seeing the newest addition to the Pepper family - Dan and McKenzie's daughter - welcome to this crazy family Alexis Pepper.

So what's next for Megan?

For the next two months she's coming back to Lesotho with her sister to spend their summer (our winter) together. She interviewed with CityYear and is waiting to hear about a job in Boston that would start late August. Meanwhile we will spend till May 21st here in the MidWest enjoying time with family and friends.

Outfitting the Rondoval for the Journeyguys

2010-04-30T12:19:00.006+03:00

Just got back from the mountains - Matsaile Village. We did a MAF cargo flight to carry up the new door and other furnishings for the Justin and Korby's rondoval (round house). This is phase one of outfitting the place. Everything has to be weighed and then secured in the Cessna 206T. Oliphant and Maila did a great job getting all the stuff loaded in and tied down. The flight is about 40 minutes - roughly 70 miles. There are no roads to the village. The airstrip is 0.4 miles from the village so we carried things by hand and wheel barrows. Took 4 of us two trips but we got the door/frame, futon, mattress, table/chairs, bedding, some kitchen items, and the portable generator and tools I needed to put in the new door. By the time we got everything to the village it was close to getting dark so the work had to wait till morning.

We are so grateful for the way several people in the village have embraced the idea of having the guys living there to share the gospel and teach the bible. This week I had three guys that were so helpful in getting the door put in - Ntate Tsupane, Ntate Thabang, and Ntate Moloi.

Woke up the next morning to a cloudy, drizzle and cold day. Started by tooking out the old door that didn't fit and

couldn't latch shut. (Note the traditional Basotho blankets. They are really warm - part wool/acrylic). Next was the task of fitting the new door frame into the opening. Fortunately I was able to drill and anchor the frame to the stone blocks. Then it was the task of fitting, and adjusting and re-adjusting till it was in. I am so grateful to my dad for his patience over the years of teaching me a lot of different things like basic carpentry and electrical and plumbing. Some may argue that a little knowledge is dangerous, but hey, with the combined skill of the four of us we got the door in. (Ntate Tsupane knows stone work and some carpentry). After that, it was time to

use mud/manure mixture to seal around the door frame to fill in any gaps. Sounds weird but really works good. Through out the day we talked about a variety of things including the word of God and what place it has in their lives.

We finished the work by around noon but the weather was too bad between Matsaile and Maseru for the pickup flight. It worked out well as it gave me time to reassemble the futon, the table and chair, to put down 2/3 of the floor covering, and clean up. I was blessed that evening by one of the widows who had cooked something like an egg omelet and cornmeal for me for my supper. It was pretty exciting to be able to sleep in this rondoval that will be the home of Justin and Korby. I enjoyed the extra time to read my bible and pray for the people of Matsaile, for Justin and Korby, and for the expansion of God's kingdom there.

I woke up the next morning to look out the window to see 10 feet of visibility as the entire village was blanketed in a fog. Turns out Maseru was totally enveloped in a fog as well so all aviation activities were on stand by. By mid morning the fog lifted and the flights could begin. Ntate Tsupane, Ntate Thabang and I headed to the airstrip carrying the generator and tools. I got back to a sunny Maseru by mid afternoon, thanking God for a successful journey.

We have more trips to go as we still have the solar panel, batteries, radio antenna, radio and other supplies to install. That will happen the end of May after we get back from the USA.

Oh yeah, we are so excited to be heading to Michigan next week. We are so proud of our daughter Megan as she will be graduating from Hope College on May 9th (her birthday too).

More about that later...

Mountain Men for Matsaile

2010-04-22T12:52:00.006+03:00

We are so excited to finally have Korby (on right) and Justin here in Maseru. These two young guys are recent college grads that are doing the IMBs Journeyman program. They will be working with our team over the next two years - but living in the remote mountain village of Matsaile. This past week Sally and I have been getting them oriented to some things in Lesotho like driving a stick shift on the other side of the road, beginnings of language lessons, lots of Q/A about the things we've learned over the past year, meeting Tom, Cindi and Eli (our team mates), meeting some of the MAF team, etc. We've been working with our mission to get things ready for their living in the mountains in a rondoval (round house). We've got their HF radio/antennae and this week picked up the solar system that will provide the basic power needs for the radio and two lights. And we got them a new door - which the guys and I spent almost two days putting on the hinges (it's a split stable door), lock set, frame, and varnishing it so it will be ready to install in the rondoval as the current door doesn't lock and doesn't close right. It would be pretty cold with the old door. Their rondoval is the one on the left with the lighter cut stone. It is 18 feet in diameter which is pretty big. We also hauled over to the MAF hanger two truck loads of their supplies for their place. It will be transported up along with the door early next week.

We also took the guys over to Ladybrand, RSA for a horse riding lesson. Even though we have all rode before, Sally and I knew that we'd benefit and they also

agreed that we could all learn something new. We

over some basics of riding and horse behavior. Boy I wish I had done that when we first got here...

Well, I took the guys to the airport this morning as they head off to Zambia for 30 days of training with our mission. It will be all about living in remote situations, learning language, and living in community.

Pray with us as we continue to prepare things for Justin and Korby in Matsaile. I had planned on taking a plane load of things today to Matsaile but the weather was not cooperative. We will have about three to four plane loads of things - especially the door. I have to get that installed so the place can lock. Hoping to do that next Tue/Wed. We are so excited to have these two guys on our team. They love the Lord, they are committed to investing two years of their lives in the lives of the people of Matsaile and the surrounding 6 other villages. Their task will be to live among the people as an incarnational witness of Jesus, to share the good news, to teach the bible, and to start new churches. A big task...

Flying Again with reduced budget

2010-04-15T14:25:00.004+03:00

I am so happy to say that starting Monday we will be back to flying an almost normal schedule! I had an intense meeting with the Ministry of Health yesterday and a follow up this morning and it was determined that they would find money to allow us to resume much of the schedule we had last year.

We will make some cuts this first quarter as well as do some analysis of the numbers and types of patients referred from the mountains to the national referral hospital (It is one of our biggest cost items).

Our LFDS team is so happy today, and I can now sleep better knowing that we are going to provide through MAF the kind of service that the people in the mountains so desperately need. I give glory to God for he is the one who knows all, who moves the hearts of kings, and is sovereign over all.

Happy Birthday Sally!

2010-04-11T09:25:00.002+03:00

I love you Sally! I thank God for my wife and ministry partner and love of my life. I am so blessed to be married to Sally, to have known her for almost 29 years, to have been married for almost 27 years, to have served in missions with her for 15 years, to be loved by her. She loves God, loves her children, loves to serve others, and loves even me. Happy birthday Sally.

Major Cutbacks in LFDS Services

2010-03-25T11:12:00.006+03:00

Sorry for the tardiness in posting what has been happening in our lives. I have been consumed with trying to convince the gov't that a 60% cut in our flying budget for the next fiscal year (begins April 1) will result in massive changes and suffering. From what I understand (it is possible I don't have the whole story), the whole gov't is under tight budget scrutiny by IMF and World Bank, and various gov't entities have taken big budget cuts for this new fiscal year. Even though I submitted last August a request for increased funding for our flying component, I just found out two weeks ago that our budget was cut 60% from what we were able to spend this year.

So, I have spent the past two weeks going over finances, programs, invoices, etc. to see what we can do with the money they have budgeted. A large portion of our flying budget (80%) goes to transporting sick patients to/from the mountains. That cost is more than what we are given for next year so something has to change. The Lesotho Flying Doctor Services program is expensive as it involves flying, but it is the Lesotho Government's program. It costs money to fly sick people, clinic staff and immediate family, Doctor Team, Public Health Team, Environmental Health Team, Cargo (drugs, coal, wood, gas, food, coffins). It is heart wrenching to have to make these cuts but that is my responsibility as Manager, LFDS.

So, beginning April 1st, we will only fly what we call Code-1 patients. Those that have life threatening emergencies out of the mountain clinics. For example a pregnant mother whose labor is problematic as she can't give birth the normal way; or the man we flew out Wednesday that was semi-comatose; or the infant with pneumonia who needs hospitalization, etc.

Hopefully all will survive and we will be able to fly them back to their mountain clinics to get to their homes.

As far as the Doctor Team, we will continue to fly to the two health posts as they are places that have no clinic except what we provide when we go there twice a month. We will also go once a month to the two mountain clinics where there is no doctor stationed. The Public Health Care team (two nurses who do vaccinations and pre-natal care) will continue to go to the two health posts once a month. We will stop our services of eye care and dental care in the 7 mountain clinics that have a doctor stationed there. We will continue to fly our LFDS staff that work in the mountain clinics in and out on a monthly basis as per their agreement. And we will try our best to get the cargo where it needs to go as well.

These are drastic measures that have to be taken in order to provide some basic services throughout the coming fiscal year. I will be meeting again today with the gov't to 'beg' for the money to be able to do at least what we did this past fiscal year, but I am not very confident they will find the money.

Please join me in prayer in interceding for the Mountain Basotho as they will suffer from these cut backs, and for our LFDS staff as they also see the suffering. I'll keep you posted if things change.

Back from Kenya and in 'school' again

2010-03-01T12:18:00.003+03:00

Got back from an awesome CMDA conference in Kenya. There were about 310 medical personnel from all over Africa including the teaching staff from the USA. It was a daily 'diet' of a breakfast of spiritual food, followed by a buffet of Continuing Medical Education, followed by some later afternoon exercise, topped off with some fellowship dessert. The morning spiritual food was brought by Dr. Robertson McQuilken, author of many books including 'Life in the Spirit.' I say a buffet of CME as there were 3 concurrent sessions for docs (1 for dentists) in Med/Peds, Surgery, Community Health. The late afternoon exercise was great as we had been sitting for the whole day and the running trails at Brackenhurst are just fantastic - lush semi-tropical yet highlands vegetation that in many places made a canopy for running under. Evenings concluded with singing and then 'reports' from the field sharing what God has been doing all over Africa in the area of Medical Ministry. It was intellectually challenging as well as spiritually stimulating - something both Sally and I needed. A special "THANK YOU" to Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship for paying for our way!

So yeah, we're back in language school again. Day two and my brain is hurting. We spent most of today going through an evangelistic tract I put together that is mostly Scripture passages. Our teacher, Me' Mamela (her name means 'listen'), was helping us get the pronunciation and emphases correctly. We spent over an hour and completed 3 sentences and 4 scripture verses only! Ouch...at one point I was sure that she was wanting us to make a noise like you are clearing your throat immediately followed by a sound only made by somehow blowing air by the sides of your tongue and making a 'l' sound. One of us practically spit on the teacher trying to make the sound, but she was quite patient with us. Me' Mamela has a PhD in theology and so we are 'picking her brain' as it were to understand some of the Basotho cultural innuendoes within religion.

I had made up a list of theological terms (English) and then went looking for them in the Sesotho Bible to see what word they used. Not as easy as I thought. For example, there isn't just one word for 'sin', but about 5 that I have figured out so far. Which one to use is dependent on the context. Wow, we have a long way to go. I want so much to be fluent in Sesotho in medical as well as Biblical language. Well, I need to do my homework...

In Kenya for two weeks

2010-02-09T10:28:00.000+03:00

Hey, sorry. I forgot to share that we are in Kenya now. Yep, back in East Africa, but only for two weeks for the Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) Conference. This gives us opportunity to be together with about 250 medical missionaries from around Africa and Middle East. It’s an action packed conference that allows me to get much of the required Continuing Medical Education credits that are essential for maintaining my US medical license. And of course, it allows Sally and I time for fellowship, to share ideas and challenges we are facing, to encourage one another, and to have a break from the daily medical tasks.

Sally and I are particularly grateful to Baptist Medical Dental Fellowship (BMDF) who graciously funds our entire time here. We would not be able to come here without their help. And they really encourage spouses to attend, having a non-medical program for them for spiritual growth and renewal.

If you’ve never heard of CMDA or BMDF check them out at

www.cmda.org and www.bmdf.org

The CMDA Commission does an amazing job of getting a superb group of experts to come and teach us – asking them to do it voluntarily! The CMDA team has dedicated huge amounts of time, personal expenses, love, and prayers for this conference. The result is to provide us with a quality program. We’ve been so blessed. This is our 6^th CMDA conference since we came to Africa.

Tonight as we met together as a big group to sing a bit and then get through some of the announcements, they asked how many were first timers to the conference. About 1/3 were new! Sally and I noticed how many young people are here. It is really encouraging to know that God is still in the business of calling out people with medical skills to use them for His glory and for advancing the kingdom of God through medical missions with a variety of mission organizations.

Please remember us this week and next as we spend time here getting medically and spiritually renewed. Pray for me as I do a small presentation as part of a Medicine and Spirituality Symposium (Weds 10^th). on “Avoiding the sin of doing medicine apart from ministry” Pray for the faculty too. Their desire is to do all of this with excellence for the glory of Jesus Christ.

And if you feel led, visit the CMDA and BMDF web sites and consider supporting their ministries.

Daily by His grace…

Matsaile and Matekane Ministry

2010-01-30T17:48:00.006+03:00

Let see...approximately 300 people saw the Jesus film for the firsttime...about 92 repented and turned to Christ in faith after hearing the gospel clearly presented... Brad and Sefiri/Sechaba trained 60 village health workers and AIDS support groupmembers in basic HIV care and prevention using the AIDS cube...Sally and Angie, serving as pharmacy techs dispensed medications to over 200 patients...3 out of 6 of us had diarrhea...we slept extra nights in the villages because of weather that prevented the MAF pilots from landing...we are so thankful for beds with mattresses... and hot showers... a lot of older people can now read as Brad and Sefiri helped people get fitted for reading glasses thanks to the generous giving of people at Community Bible Church in San Diego (Brad and Angie's church).

God is so amazing. To be able to minister together with Brad and Angie Stoner as well as Pastor Sefiri and Sechaba was such a joy for Sally and I. We laughed together, we prayed together, we slept in tight quarters on the ground on camp mattresses, ate together, got sick together, and saw

God do amazing things in the lives of Basotho and in our lives.

We now have a group of people at Matsaile that were practically begging us to come back and teach

them the Bible. We know that we have a big challenge to get back there and begin that process. There is follow up also for the AIDS cube training to be sure that people are actually using them to teach others. Right now we are reviewing all that happened over the past two weeks, what didn't get accomplished, and to see what is next. We really wanted to go to Mokhotlong to minister with our missionary colleagues, the Floras, but the rains were so much that the road was not drivable... maybe in March... Thanks Brad and Angie for being willing to risk it all and come and minister with us. Thanks Sefiri and Sechaba for joyfully putting up with Americans as you ministered with us in sharing the Gospel. Thanks for praying for us. Thanks for giving so we can remain here in Lesotho serving God as we see the Kingdom expand... all for His glory!

Update on the Ministry Marathon

2010-01-23T07:02:00.014+03:00

I'm sitting at home in Maseru with a really nice cup of coffee reflecting on the past 5 days of ministry with our team. We should be in Mokhotlong District (far East side of Lesotho) getting ready for ministry there but the heavy rains have prevented us from going there. The place that we were to meet up with the Flora family has roads that are too treacherous to go even with our 4WD when it has rained this much, and there is no airstrip there yet. So, we are resting a bit while we prepare for Monday-Tuesday in another village.

Our first ministry area was Ha Rapase where we went to hold a pitso (village gathering), mobile medical clinic and evangelism. This is another of those areas in the Maloti ('ma-loo-tee') mountains that is far from health care and where we have identified a place for an airstrip. Monday morning we left Maseru at 6:30 by two MAF planes to Qacha's Nek to meet up with guys from the district health team. Ntate Molisana is the focal person for health and is the key for promoting a health post and airstrip

in this area. We went by van 30 minutes to a place where we could cross the Senqu river by boat. There is no bridge there so

the government pays a man to row people across. We began walking to the village. The path was not bad at all, only crossing through a donga (river ravine) once. It was 85-90 degrees and full sun. We arrived at the village and they began calling people for the pitso. We waited a couple of hours as people came from some of the surrounding villages. Might seem like we keep doing the same thing over and over and you're right. This is the third area where we are doing this as the Ministry of Health has tasked LFDS with assisting the mountain district health management teams with opening new areas that they have identified as most critical. It's something I really like because we get to help begin the process of bringing what I call 'total health' to an area - addressing the social, medical, physical, and spiritual needs of a

community.

People were very receptive to the idea and had already carried a lot of large stones up to where the airstrip would be, as well as collecting sand for building. We emphasized the need for each village to contribute so the airstrip and health post would belong to all the communities and they agreed. The woman standing in the photo shared stories of sick people walking 3-4 hours

(or being carried on a stretcher) to the nearest clinic, and of people getting robbed or raped on the way back. They really want

an airstrip and health post. She is a village health worker and gladly allowed us to use her home for our mobile clinic. Sally did the medication dispensing while Brad and Sefiri shared the gospel using the EvangeCube. Angie was helping the children learn some new games along with a couple of young Dutch girls who have come to work with Youth for Christ. Meanwhile, Christiaan Haak

(MAF Pilot) was surveying the airstrip location. That night we were given the nicest rondoval (round 'hut') to sleep in. They are thatch roofed with a divided Dutch door that we ended up

opening in the middle of the night as we were too warm. The next morning it was time to pack up a couple of donkeys, hop on two horses (which we shared) and walk back to the river crossing.

This time the trail took us through some beautiful areas along a river. We were met there by the van to take us back to the airport in Qacha for our flight back to Maseru. A great plan but the clouds were so low that we had to stop in Semonkong to wait out a storm. After a couple of hours we were able to get airborne and back to Maseru. A good hot shower and a real bed made for a good night's rest, ready to head to Matsaile the next day...more in the next post.

Urgent Prayer Request

2010-01-19T22:58:00.002+03:00

We believe that God hears and answers prayer. Please pray for our daughter Megan as she found out Sunday that her friend from Hope College was killed in a plane crash. Also remember the families of the two who died in this crash. Over 1100 students and faculty attended the memorial service. We want so much to be with Megan as she grieves and processes all of this but that is not God's plan right now. We do know that he is the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1).

The other urgent prayer request is for good weather. We are working these 10 days with Brad and Angie Stoner and Pastor Safiri to go to 4 different areas. Tomorrow we would like to be able to fly to Matsaile and tomorrow night (Wednesday) to show the Jesus film. That means we are asking God, who controls all things, to grant us good weather to show the film. We have to show it outdoors. This village has NEVER had a film shown there before. The first one we hope that they will experience will be the Jesus film. The weather forecast for tomorrow is rain and more rain. We need good weather to get to this remote mountain village (no roads there) and good weather for the film. Please join us in praying.

Ministry Marathon...

2010-01-12T11:30:00.005+03:00

We are so excited to be picking up Brad and Angie Stoner at the Johannesburg airport on Friday. They come from Community Bible Church, San Diego and will be our ministry partners for the next two weeks. We had the opportunity to do ministry with Brad while we were in Uganda. A year ago January 2009 we were blessed to go to San Diego and meet Brad and Angie and the Community Bible Church family and staff. What a cool church. God is doing an amazing work through the faithful servants there. (if you want to know an amazing story of God totally transforming lives check out Pastor Barry Minkow's story http://sandiegocbc.org/about-us/pastor-barry/ )

Back to the ministry marathon...We are going to be in 4 different mountain areas in 10 days.

First to Ha Rapase to a brand new area where we are checking it out for an airstrip and health post. It will be Sally and I, Brad and Angie, Christiaan Haak (MAF Pilot), Pastor Safiri, and three from the District Health Management Team. We will hold a pitso (gathering) to discuss it with the chiefs and community as well as hold a mobile medical clinic. Healing the body and soul will be our goal, as well as seeing if the land will be good enough for a future airstrip.

Next we will be flying to Matsaile Village Health Post where we will do our usual medical clinic, but this time we will have the opportunity to minister to people waiting to be seen by the doctor team. In addition to medicines, this time we will have reading glasses as Brad is coming with 27 dozen pairs!!! Obviously we won't use all of them in that village. That evening we will show the Jesus Film. It is the first time any film has been shown in this village. When I told people this last week, they were so excited about it. The next morning we will be doing training of Village Health Workers in how to use the HIV/AIDS Cube to teach about HIV prevention (see the Facebook video http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=101856129831097).

Next we will be driving to Mokhotlong District to meet up with the Flora family at the land that the chief has given them to build on. We will do a mobile medical clinic there as well show the Jesus film and do village health worker training. We will drive back to Maseru on Sunday.

Then Monday and Tuesday we will be at another of our health posts (Matekane) to do a similar program (clinic, Jesus film, training). There is a small group there that meets as a church (about 8 adults) and we will be there to encourage them as well.

Finally, Wednesday (27th) we will drive the Stoners back to Johannesburg so they can get their flight back to the USA. Sally and I will return to Maseru on the 28th.

Please pray with us for good weather in order to get in/out of the mountains; for the eyes of people to be open to the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ; for safety as we travel many miles by truck and small plane; for good health as we eat and sleep in the mountains; for joy in serving others for the sake of the gospel. We'll be sure to post things as we can to share with you the great and mighty things that God is going to do.

All for His glory...

Christmas Blessings

2009-12-23T10:34:00.003+03:00

Sally and I are truly blessed in so many ways. We have a wonderful family, three great kids of whom we are missing something fierce this week. They are all together in the midWest for the next couple of weeks. Megan finished her second semester abroad in Dakar Senegal and then flew back to the states right into the huge snowstorm on the East Coast. She spent two nights in NYC until she finally got a flight to Detroit on Monday. She and Adam and Kelly will spend time between the Pepper family and the Jessups traveling between Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

Sally and I will be celebrating Christmas with our mission family friends. The Flora family who have been living in the mountains will come down on the 24th (you can see their blog at http://jflora.wordpress.com/). The Dials will come over on the 25th along with Justin and Amanda and Bryan. It will be a feast of food for the 14 of us. It is hot here (in the high 80s this week) so we will be trying to find some cool shade to eat under. Varieties of food are good here so we will be having ham and a turduken along with other amazing foods.

What we are excited about is spending time with friends in remembering and celebrating the incarnation of the Son of God - Emmanual - God with us! There is no other religion in the world where by God intervenes in human history to actually enter into the human race to provide a way of forgiveness, an example of the way he intends us to live, and the means to empower us to live changed lives. If there is anything that the Basotho people need today it is a restored relationship with God and empowerment to live changed lives. Jesus Christ offers that, the real gift.

We pray that each of you will experience the love and joy of Christmas this week. I would encourage you each day to remember - Emmanual - God with us! It is so amazing!

We are so grateful for the thousands of members of Southern Baptist Churches that sacrificially give this time of year through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. 100% of that offering goes to the field to support us and others. Please give generously as your gifts are what enables us and 5,600 other missionaries to continue sharing the good news of Jesus. We are also grateful for all our other friends and supporters who have been encouraging us, providing for us, praying for us, as we have gone through this year of transition from Uganda to USA to Lesotho.

Daily by His Grace...

Qabane Valley

2009-12-18T15:50:00.014+03:00

Tuesday and Wednesday this week I went with a team to the Qabane Valley to do an assessment for a new airfield and health post. Qabane Valley is located in the Southern part of Lesotho up in the mountains. We went there as the District Health Management Team had identified this area as a priority #1 area as they have VERY difficult access to health care services. As you can see, this time we didn't ride horses but used one of the military helicopters. Although I am learning to really enjoy riding horses, I was told that even the experienced horse riders were having difficulty with the eroded terrain of this area. So, the five of us packed our gear and went via military chopper. For this trip it was myself, MAF Pilot Justin Honaker and his wife Amanda, and two from Mohale's Hoek District. We left Tuesday morning amidst dark clouds and wind, but the LDF pilot got us there safely. We actually landed right in the middle of the fields that Justin and Amanda would assess for the airstrip.

We carried our gear (backpacks, tent, medical supplies, etc)

around a donga (eroded valley that usually contains a stream) to the nearby village - 30 minutes away. We were met there by the

chief who naturally wondered who we were and why we were there. We talked for a while and he was quite pleased to allow us to pitch our tent there, to use his house for the mobile medical

clinic, and to have the pitso (gathering of villagers) at his village.

Within a couple of hours people had gathered and were ready to hear what we had to say. We were

joined by a member of the Qabane Community Council who has been lobbying for better health care in the valley. We held the pitso at an area of the village that was like a peninsula that overlooked the Qabane River. As our team was walking toward that area, Ntate

Mojakhomo told Amanda and Me' Tumeliso that they had to walk down on a lower path, not the one we were on. He then proceeded to explain to me that as we were walking next to the cattle kraal, the women could not walk next to it as there is the belief that they might somehow badly influence the fertility of the cattle. Once we got to the pitso area, we followed the usual customs of beginning with an introduction by the chief of the village, then introductions by each group, then a prayer, and then we began the discussions.

People were very interested in the fact that we wanted to help them with better health care. They had the usual questions about compensation of their land that would be used by the airstrip and health post. It was interesting to hear the chief that was in charge of that land tell the people that they shouldn't allow this land to stop them from getting important services like health care. Then people began to share stories of how difficult it is to get health care. They basically have two choices - go down the valley to Ha Sekake (gov't clinic) or across a big mountain to Tebellong Hospital (mission hospital). They shared how when they go to the gov't one, that they often find it out of drugs and there is no doctor there. Then they told us horrific stories of going the other way where they have had several women raped, others beaten and robbed, and others having their medications stolen. They pointed to one side of the mountain

that was 'the way of the rapers' and the other way as the 'way of the thieves.' They practically begged us to hurry up and get the airstrip and health post built. They were heart wrenching stories. On a really good point, the people were very interested and willing to do their part as far as the land and construction, but still had concerns about government compensation. The pitso ended with a verbal 'vote' that was an overwhelming "Eh, Ntate" (yes sir!).

So, now it was time to begin the mobile clinic and for Justin and Amanda to begin their work of airstrip eval.

They walked across/through the donga and began the tedious work of measuring

distances, slopes, angles, etc. Several guys

accompanied them and helped to put rock

'markers' at various places to denote possible boundaries of the airstrip.

Nurse Tumeliso and I began seeing the people that had gathered for the medical services. As I've shared before, we are still learning Sesotho, so Idid my best at offering a prayer before we began medical care. While we saw patients

(83 that afternoon), Ntate Mojokhomo was doing some health education and gathering information on the number of villages in the valley that would benefit (52).

We ended the clinic around 6PM and then set up our tent. Part of us stayed in the tent and others in the house. While cooking supper we

took time to 'debrief' the day and plan for the next. We had opportunity to

enjoy a beautiful sunset and give thanks to the Lord for the things of the day.

It's gets light around 4:30AM here so I was up and working on getting some coffee. We had our breakfast and then began a second day of mobile clinic by 6:00AM. We had seen about 80 patients that morning when a husband brought in his wife. She was crying and short of breath. She was saying that she was so sick and was going to die. Turned out she was so severely

anemic that she was in pending heart failure. She needed urgently to get to Maseru to the hospital for blood transfusion. We were very fortunate that the helicopter arrived about and hour later and we packed up our gear and took the lady with us back to Maseru. Unfortunately we had to leave behind about 60 people who had not been seen for medical care. We were back in Maseru in 35 minutes and the lady was transported via ambulance to the hospital. (The lady is doing better now having had blood.)

Now we have the task of getting reports written and finding funding to do the work. Pray with us that the government will be able to find the funding. I will be meeting the high level Ministry of Health officials early next year to present this area and about 4 others like it.

Thanks for praying! All for His glory...

Return to Ha Thaba Bosiu

2009-12-11T16:22:00.008+03:00

Monday we set off from Maseru towards the mountains.After climbing through two passes we reached the Mohale Dam and Reservoir area. We picked up the public health nurse (Ntate Khachane) from the Mohale Clinic and drove for an hour along the Mohale reservoir and up the Senquenyane River valley. The last 10 minutes was all up hill in 4WD as we reached the end of the road at Sekolopata. We were met there by our ‘transportation’ team of donkeys and horses. People from Ha Thaba Bosiu and surrounding villages had agreed that their part of our coming would be transportation, and they had kept their part of the deal. Supplies for the mobile medical clinic as well as our bags and food were expertly placed in gunny sacks and tied on the backs of the donkeys. Then it was our turn to get on horses and head out. Sally has decided that the old Steven Curtis Chapman song “Saddle up your horses…” should be our theme song. We were the ‘veterans’ of horse riding now as the nurse that came with us had only ridden once before. Hit the trail…This time we had gotten word that there was a way to get there without having to cross the Senquenyane three times, but only once. We were all for that as the last time we had near disasters with horses slipping on slimy rocks and Sally’s horse just not wanting to cross at all.

The path was good most of the way with one major river crossing and three smaller streams. Just about a mile from the village we encountered a rock slide that had reduced the comfortably wide path to a narrow 12 inches with about a 100 foot drop off. We chose to get off the horses at that point and walk/crawl across. Although we rode horses, Melvin (MAF pilot) rode his dirt bike. It was quite a challenge as the trail is not the best and crossing a river became quite the challenge. But by God’s grace we made it.

After 2.5 hours of riding we reached Ha Thaba Bosiu. They had expected us to be there in the morning in order to hold a ‘pitso’, a meeting of the villagers and chiefs to discuss the airstrip and health post concept. As we got there around 3PM (later than they expected), many had left and agreed to come back the next morning. After a brief meeting with the chief we were taken to the primary school where we set up shop. The headmaster of the school had graciously agreed to allow us to use two of the classrooms – one for the medical clinic, and one for sleeping in. We unpacked medicines and began seeing patients. As some had traveled by foot for several hours to get there, we saw them first so they could be on their way back. We worked up till dusk seeing 67 patients.

Then it was time to unpack our personal things before it got too dark. We had foam mats and sleeping bags for on the floor. Melvin (MAF Pilot) had brought two single burner cookers so we proceeded to make up some supper and coffee (I usually travel with my home roasted coffee and coffee press).Good food and good conversation. Good night of sleep (well as you can on a cement floor at age 50).

It was light by 4:30AM and we had patients lined up by 5:00AM. We got our breakfast andbegan clinic by 6:00AM. Around 9:00 AM people had gathered for the pitso near the chief’s house. We were a bit disappointed that only 8 of the 50+ villages has

sent representatives but it was still very informative. Lots of questions about who would pay for it, who will build it, how often will the ‘doctor team’ come, and what their responsibilities would be. We (the district representatives, the local council rep, MAF and LFDS as well as the chief) explained the idea of community participation being essential for success. We need them to ‘buy into’ the idea and provide voluntary labor and some supplies for it to work. Several of the ladies said they were ready to start building the next day if necessary. I really believe that they know the benefit that the health services will provide and want that for their families. In the discussions I shared that I was both a doctor and a teacher of God’s Word and one of them suggested that Sally and should just move there and stay with them as they needed a ‘priest and doctor.’ The more we asked we were able to find out that there was one Catholic group up the valley and one Protestant group in Ha Thaba Bosiu but no churches. It is truly a needy place both medically and spiritually.Before concluding the pitso, the chief insisted that all go up to the area where the proposed airstrip would be built. About 60 of us walked theone kilometer to the area and Melvin helped to show where the boundaries would be, and who’s field’s might be affected. Several questions ensued including concerns about whether or not the ‘wind’ from the airplane might damage their crops. They have experience with helicopters coming to deliver the money for old age pension payments in the village. Again the issue of who would compensate for the fields came up and we deferred that to the chief and local council to work out.After the airstrip pitso we were back to the school for the medical clinic work. Melvin headed out on his motorcycle as he needed to get back for flying.

Sally did the dispensing of medications along with occasional language assistance from the public health nurse from Mohale. She did a great job getting the right drugs with instructions to each and every patient. Ntate Khachane was also busy doing HIV testing and counseling. Ntate Mike was working with me (he was a nurse before becoming an information specialist) seeing patients. That day we saw 149 patients. While we were seeing patients, we also gave out gospel materials in Sesotho. In addition, I had gotten some Basotho Christian music and some shepherd stories that I put on our Saber MP3 player. People enjoyed listening to the music and the stories that shared the gospel. We ended the clinic that day just before dark at 7PM. Needless to say we were all exhausted, but happy to have served a lot of people. We had arranged to head back onWednesday morning but there was still the demand to see more patients. We began again at 6AM and worked up till 11AM. All in all we took care of 265 patients including one who was home bound and we ended up doing and IV and injections of antibiotics as he was so sick (TB/AIDS/Diarrhea). Just as we were about to prepare to pack the medications and supplies on thedonkeys, a lady came riding up on an horse with her 7 month old baby boy. He was sick with pneumonia and she had heard there was clinic. He was really sick and so

I gave antibiotic injection, liquid Tylenol, oral rehydration mix, and oral antibiotics to continue. I prayed for him and his mother, entreating God to show his mercy and his power by healing this baby boy. He really needed to be in a hospital on oxygen and IV fluids but with no airstrip there, it would be a 3-4 hour horse ride just to get to a clinic, not even a hospital. He was in no condition to endure such a ride. (I don’t know if he survived or not but will enquire the next time we are in Ha Thaba Bosiu).

We headed out on our horse and donkey caravan at noon. Three Basotho men accompanied us on foot to drive the donkeys along. We survived the land slide area and the river crossing and made it back to Sekolopata where the truck was parked. As we were about to leave we were met by the local chief who proceeded to tell me how she had not slept for two nights as she was concerned about the safety of our truck. I expected her to ask for some form of payment for this ‘trouble’ and she did indeed ask. She very politely asked if I had a couple of candies I could give her, which I gladly shared with her. She is a sweet old lady. From there it was back to Mohale and then to Maseru.

It was a successful journey as far as the pitsos we held, the clinics, and sharing the hope of Christ. We had several ask when we would be back and we are not sure. We may be back in January with a volunteer couple from the USA. Sally and I would really like to take the Jesus film there and do another clinic and health training. We are waiting to hear if the Lesotho government will fund the airstrip and health post so that we can begin that process.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T09:07:00.004+03:00

We had a great afternoon of fellowship and food with friends on Friday as we celebrated Thanksgiving. We had around 40 missionary friends and family over. We put up a tent for shade as we don't have any big trees and it gave us a place to all sit together.

Everyone brought their favorite dish, something that makes Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving for them. It was a quite a feast as you can see the table(s) were full. We had turkeys, yes turkeys. We could only get ones around 6-7 lbs (from Brazil) so we had 5 of them, along with all the other Thanksgiving trappings.

After a wonderful meal, we took time to share

as a group what we were thankful for. Sally had taken time to print 'thanks' verses as part of the table decorations. Reading God's word and sharing personal thanks was a great way to recognize a small part of what God has so greatly blessed us with.

The kids had a great time of hanging out together, talking, playing games, just being kids. A bit of sidewalk chalk added some fun and opportunity for artistic expression.

I enjoyed sharing some of my home roasted coffee as I prepared some lattes, cuppacinos, and espressos to go with the variety of amazing desserts.

Well, we didn't have a football game to watch after eating, but we did have some great time talking, laughing, and just relaxing and enjoying friendships. We did miss being with the Pepper and Jessup families, but we are thankful for our missionary family that God has provided.

As a prayer request, this Mon-Wed Sally and I are heading back to the mountain village of Ha Thaba Bosiu along with MAF pilot Melvin to meet with villages affected to hold a 'pitso' to discuss the impact of the proposed airstrip and health post. Once again we will be traveling via 4WD then horses to get there. Monday will be a 'pitso', with Tue/Wed a mobile medical clinic. Pray that the people will see and hear the love of Christ in all that we do. I'll post after we get back.

Cherry Festival MTB Race and Christmas Carols

2009-11-22T14:57:00.009+03:00

Saturday we got up at 5AM to head over to Ficksburg, South Africa (about an hour from Maseru) for the annual Cherry Festival Mountain Bike Race. We went with friends and colleagues Justin and Amanda Honaker and Bryan Eygabroad (MAF Missionaries).

I've been biking back and forth to work and doing some weekend rides for fitness and in an attempt to train. Justin and Bryan convinced me it was time to join them in the race.

We'd had three straight days of rains which made the race one of mud, mud, and more slippery mud mixed with an assortment of things from the fields and farms. I was hoping I didn't slip, slide, and fall off as one part of the race trail but us through the middle of a farm complete with various cow related obstacles.

I did the 20km race (my first MTB race) and the other two guys did the 40km. All in all there were close to 200 racers. Sally and Amanda saw us off on the race and then went into town to enjoy some cherry related delights and some coffee to warm up. The three of us completed our races. I think I actually gained weight on it from the rain and the amount of mud caked on my bike.

It was a great group of people to ride with and the scenery was beautiful. After the race and some photos, we ended up taking our bikes and our selves right into the lake (dam reservoir) to attempt to get the majority of the mud and other debris off ourselves and bikes. We followed that with hot off the grill boerwors and cokes and then headed back towards Lesotho. We stopped at Constatias to get some fresh cherries, some cherry jam, and a sheet of home made peach fruit roll up. It was just plain fun.

After cleaning up and a short rest, Sally and I went back across the border with Mike and Sharol Shutts (MAF Missionaries) to the Ladybrand Dutch Reformed Church for the annual Christmas Festival of Carols program.

It may seem a bit early for this, but we've been told that in Southern Africa the whole area shuts down for about a month surrounding Christmas/New Years holidays.

The program was a combination of Christmas music performed by the Free State Symphony along with three choirs. The music was great, with the audience joining in for

three of the songs. We especially enjoyed the last two songs - Silent Night and Oh Come All Ye Faithful - as we sang parts of the songs in English, Afrikaans, and Sesotho. It was a fine way to end the day.

Audio Bible and Fresh Graves

2009-11-15T11:29:00.010+03:00

I returned to Matsaile Village Health Post on Thursday after almost two months. Had a couple of things I wanted to check on since our last visit. One was our patients, and the other was the state of the audio Bible player I had left behind with a young man.

A few minutes after arriving in the village we were greeted by the area chief, Morena Tsepo

(Morena = Chief). He was quite concerned that we had not been coming, but was very happy to see us. We talked a bit about the concept of expanding the runway to make it possible to land both directions as well as the idea of building a health post structure at the runway in order to better serve the 7 villages. He pledged his support which is crucial as he is the chief-of-chiefs in this area of the mountains.

I was quite concerned about our patients as there are a number of people there with hypertension, diabetes, and mental health issues that need their meds on a daily basis.

Basically there are two options when we can't get there; go with out, the other is to walk about 4 hours crossing a river to get to a health clinic (Matebeng Village). It is quite interesting as this health post probably has the most elderly people that come to the clinic (an old man is called 'Ntate Moholo' and an old woman 'Nkono') and almost all have osteoarthritis (old age arthritis). They love to get what is the equivalent to BenGay cream along with their ibuprofen or panadol. I knew with our not visiting that many would be suffering.

As it turned out, some had left early that morning to walk to Matebeng as they had lost hope in our coming as we had failed to come three times before. But others were there and more came once they heard and saw the plane. As always, the people were very grateful for o

ur coming and providing this service. Our team that day was myself, a nurse, and a pharmacy tech (the one pictured). The nurse and I saw 53 patients that day, and Mabakoena

('ma-ba-kwey-na') dispensed meds to each of the 53. We enquired about those with chronic illness and were told that some went without, and others had made that long journey - basic

ally an all day walk to and fro. We are really thankful to be back flying again. After seeing the patients I had a good talk with the area chief - Morena Tsepo. We talked again about the concept of lengthening the gravel runway and building a clinic structure at the runway to serve the 7 villages.

But hey, what about that audio Bible thing? It is called the Proclaimer.

It's a battery powered MP3 player that can be charged by its solar panel, hand crank, or electricity. I had been bringing it and playing it for those waiting to be seen in the clinic. I had decided the last time to leave it in the hands of Ntate Tsupane,the young man that looks after the empty shell building that we use in Matsaile village. He shared with me that he loved it, was listening twice a day, and others were also listening to it. By the way, it contains the New Testament in Sesotho. Unfortunately, the OT is n

ot available in audio form in Sesotho. His friend (Shadrach) decided he should crank it as I took the picture. As many Basotho in the mountains can't read (or find it difficult to read the rather old Sesotho of the Bible), this tool is really valuable. In case you're wondering where it came from, there is a cool organization called "Faith Comes by Hearing" that gave us 6 of the units. I have shared them with our other colleagues in the mountains and they are now getting them as well. If you'd be interested to learn more or perhaps help them, please visit the web site (www.faithcomesbyhearing.com).

Well, the one thing I was not expecting to see when I got back to Matsaile were the 6 fresh graves, one being a child's. I found out that day that there was another one to be filled on Saturday as a village member had been emergency evacuated from Matsaile the

week before but had died at Queen II hospital in Maseru. His body was to be flown back there on Friday (MAF flies caskets as they can remove seats from the plane to fit it in). The six fresh graves were a stark reminder of the fact that

40-50 Basotho are dying every day just from HIV/TB. I don't have the details on what these six died of but you can be sure that HIV/TB had a part in some of them. The more sobering fact was that some of them may have died with out hearing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a push for me to work harder on language learning so I can clearly share the hope of Christ in their heart language.

As I was finishing with the last patient I heard the plane pass over the village. Melvin was able to land safely and so we began the 20 minute walk to the airstrip. Ntate Tsupane, Ntate Shadrach and 4 village health workers accompanied us as they always do, helping to carry the medical supplies, and as a gesture of kindness. The last photo I took reminded me that there are still 'dark clouds' on the horizon in Lesotho, as the King of Light is not yet shining in all areas of the mountains. That's part of the task that God has given Sally and I, to be light in Lesotho in such a way that people will see the good works and glorify God (Matthew 5:13-16).

Oh yeah, Sally is now out of her half-cast and now is doing exercises to get mobility back in her elbow. We go back to the orthopedic surgeon on the 25th. We continue to thank God that her arm is getting better each day.

Thanks for praying for the Kingdom work in Lesotho. We are so thankful for the support we have to be able to be here, to the thousands of faithful members of SBC churches that give each week to the Cooperative Program and to the annual Lottie Moon offering; and to those of you from other churches that help support us.

Daily by His grace...

Inside Out Safety

2009-11-06T14:21:00.002+03:00

Sally and I just finished two days of training with the MAF Lesotho team. The seminar taught by Mr. Kent from MAF-USA was entitled "Inside Out Safety" and had the purpose of helping us as a team to identify factors that affect safety in our individual lives and in our aviation operations. The title was catchy as it reflected the content of the materials that were focusing on internal issues as well as external factors that affect safety.

We did some fun exercises in small groups to teach us better ways to listen as well as communicate. You know how you can have someone talking to you and before they even finish you have ten questions or 2 solutions to what they are talking about going through your mind, and you miss the point of what they were really saying. Easy to do, but a hard habit to break...

I especially enjoyed the seminar as it took a completely reverse way of looking at safety as compared to the usual aviation safety seminars that begin with rules and regulations and standard operating procedures. This seminar started by looking at our inner self, how even our spiritual life has a definite affect on safety. How the ways that we treat (or mistreat) others affect safety. He then built from the inner self to the team dynamics, to the aircraft and its systems, to procedures and operations manuals to the overall system. I found it refreshing and challenging as I could see how important little things like really listening is. In aviation we all listen and repeat back critical information (like when the tower gives clearance for take off), but we need to use those same skills in how we interact with others outside of the airplane.

It was so cool to see the value that MAF places on family units in overall team and operational safety as all the spouses were required to participate in this seminar. It is a first to see that at aviation safety training, but so right. I think we all benefited from the training and we certainly enjoyed the fellowship time together.

The apostle James was right when he penned the words

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." James 1:19-20 ESV

Be safe!

Back Flying Again!

2009-10-30T11:12:00.005+03:00

We got word today that the government has finally paid the funds to MAF! Now we begin working out the schedule of getting patients and staff back to the mountains, and staff that are long over due for leave out of the mountains.

We have 7 nurses that are due back to 4 different health centers, as well as 21 patients that have been at the National Referral Hospital (Queen II) that are discharged and very ready to go home.

I can only say that the staff is so excited to know that they can now get back to doing what they are supposed to do. I am particularly excited about the second week of November when we head back to the two Health Posts (Matekane and Matsaile). The only health care available to those areas is when we come for the day, so I know we will be very busy. Thanks for praying for us.

Healing Arm, Hail Storms, and Heavenly Work

2009-10-29T12:53:00.007+03:00

Got back from the ortho yesterday and he said Sally is healing well. She has two more weeks of the half cast and then can begin exercising it. I think she has completely given up on my skills in using a curling iron or a straightener on her hair. The other day as I started to curl part of it she placed one of those silicon hot pads next to her cheek and ear - not engendering much confidence on my part. Hey, I have never burnt anyone with a heated hair device, but I do think that those straighteners could cook a small toasted cheese sandwich...Meanwhile, she is getting better, less pain, and her hair looked really good yesterday (with no help on my part).

I don't know if there is an international hail database but Maseru must be high on the list of places with hail. We have had 5 hail storms since March of this year. Last night's was quite the storm. I saw that it was getting dark and went outside to look to the West. I heard what I would have called the sound of a tornado had we been in the midwest. In about 3 minutes we had incredible winds and hail that ranged from pea size to marble with a few shooter marbles thrown in there. Couple of the MAF houses had windows broken out. Our friends about an hour from here had golf ball size hail last week. (I kid you not. They had some in their freezer they showed us). Although it is interesting, it is not good for the

crops as you can imagine. It is mid Spring here so many young plants are damaged including the young fruits (peaches and apricots). Unlike other areas of Africa, we have had good rains and we hope that there will be a good harvest this year. Remember, most Basotho are subsistence farmers and depend on each and every harvest to survive.

OK, so what's the "Heavenly Work" part of today's title? As you know, I am still not flying as the government has yet to pay the flying bill. So as I sit in my office at the hanger, I do still do medical work. In addition to the administrative aspects of LFDS I also see patients. Many are family members of staff or those that have come down from the mountains for other things.

Today I saw an older lady (65) for her hypertension and arthritis. She had not been taught about the need for daily medicine and so had been off her hypertension meds for 5 months! Needless to say her pressure was a bit high. Fortunately she had not had a heart attack or a stroke (secondary complications from uncontrolled hypertension is the second leading cause of death in women here). I treated her two problems, did some health education and then as always, asked about her spiritual life.

She lives in the mountains at a village called Lebekeng. There is a health center that our LFDS and PIH staff run. She shared with me that 'a long time ago in 1974 I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior.' As we talked about that and what she is doing now she shared that she is the pastor of her church called Rhema Living Church and that she has a project where she teaches and feeds orphans (and other vulnerable children). She was so passionate about her relationship with Jesus Christ and the work she is doing for the Kingdom. She shared with me about how there is no work for the people in that part of the mountains (except to farm) and that many kids go hungry as the families have no money for food. Then there are the kids that are orphaned. There is a good HIV/AIDS program at the Lebekeng government clinic in that village so once someone gets tested, they can be evaluated for the need for ARVs. After we talked some more, we prayed together, asking God to give her strength, healing, perseverance in her work.

I found it interesting that she named the church Rhema Living Church. I know there is some controversy between Evangelicals and Pentacostals over what the Greek word 'rhema' means, but in this case, I think she is getting it. The Word of God is clear on what we ought to do for orphans. How God conveyed that to her doesn't matter to me. What does is that she has a passion for orphans. God does call us to care for orphans and widows, as well as those that are weak, poor, and suffering injustice. I thank God for Me' Masemphe and her love for kids. It is just so interesting to me that for the past two weeks Sally and I are involved in a Bible study on 'Loving Justice.' It is so good to see what God sees as priority being done as ministry by Me' Masemphe.

I look forward to getting back to Lebekeng Village next month (provided we get flying again) to go and see the Rhema Living Church Centre for Orphans. May God bless His children...

Dislocation Fracture of Sally's left arm

2009-10-17T20:53:00.001+03:00

Sally and I were in Bloemfontein today (about 2 hours from Maseru) to do some shopping and Sally slipped and fell and ended up getting a dislocation fracture of her Left elbow. We went to the ER and were attended to. The good thing was that in the process of doing the X-ray the dislocation went back in place and so no need for surgery. SHe was evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon. She has to have her arm immobilized for the next 4 weeks with a half cast and sling. Pain is not bad when she is not moving around but more when she moves around. There'll be no driving for the next 4 weeks as we have a standard transmission truck.

Appreciate your prayers for Sally, for quick healing, and for patience while she is in the cast/sling during the next 4 weeks. We go back to the orthopedic surgeon OCtober 28th.

Certainly not what we planned for the day. We are so thankful that we were able to get good treatment in a timely manner. It was kind of ironic that we went through several hours riding horses through the mountains last month with no problems and then had this happen. Well, our Lord says to give thanks in all things, so we are doing that.

LFDS still grounded...

2009-10-15T15:13:00.002+03:00

Well, it's now two weeks without flying. The government hasn't paid the LFDS flying bill to MAF so we continue to sit. It's getting bad as the patients that need to come to the referral hospital here in Maseru can't come and the places where we would be going to provide care and treatment are being left out. I continue to remind the appropriate authorities that this is serious.

I'm getting a lot of language learning done and office work. Making plans for the next 6 weeks to get back to Ha Thaba Bosiu for follow up airstrip evaluation. We have two other areas in the SouthEastern part of Lesotho where we are doing a similar thing of looking to build an airstrip and health post. We will go with a MAF pilot to those two places the end of October and mid November.

Really wish I had more exciting things to report, but this is the reality. Pray that the bill will be paid so we can get back to the mountains with medical care and treatment and the hope of the Gospel.

Praise God We're Back Flying Again (at least some are)

2009-10-06T10:31:00.003+03:00

Monday was a full day of flights for the MAF team. Praise God! Although the accident investigation by MAF-USA is not completed, it was determined that it was safe to resume flight operations.

Unfortunately as LFDS, we are not flying. Why, you ask? This came about as there is a 3 month back log of flight bill payments that are overdue to MAF. MAF provides the flight operations to the Lesotho Government for LFDS and other agencies. We are hoping that the payments will be processed this week so we can resume our flights to and from the mountain clinics. As a note, MAF is still providing the emergency Code-1 flights for those life threatening emergencies.

Meanwhile I am catching up on administrative duties and working on plans for exploring two other areas where we might be placing an airstrip and health post. It is exciting to work on these plans as I know it is going to give us opportunity to provide better health care and share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the afternoons, Sally and I are continuing our language studies. We have a great language teacher that makes the process fun (even though it is mentally painful). We are making progress, but like a lot of things, the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know that much. But we are thankful that Basotho are gracious towards us as we use our language skills and they are very happy that we are trying.

Hey, thanks for praying for the MAF team and for Sally and I.

Pray for our LFDS/MAF Team

2009-09-24T18:29:00.002+03:00

On Wednesday afternoon there was a MAF airplane accident at one of the mountain airstrips called Methalaneng. We praise God that no one was injured (Pilot and 4 passengers). I was not on the airplane. It was NOT pilot error and is was NOT an airplane malfunction. It was a sudden burst of air from the side just at the point of landing. The MAF pilot did an outstanding job of preventing a potentially disastrous outcome.

An official MAF USA accident investigation team will be arriving on Monday morning. They will go to the airstrip via helicopter on Tuesday. We will not be flying until the investigation team gives the go-ahead to resume flights. For life threatening emergencies (what we call 'Code-1') the Lesotho military will use their helicopters to cover for us.

Please pray for the team as we all deal with this accident, with people's fears, with trusting God every moment. We are so grateful that He is in control of all things. We know that God is in control of all things and we are trusting that His name will be glorified in all of this.

As I sat with our LFDS staff today and talked through this, I shared with them Psalm 23. I asked them to listen to it anew as they reflected on what had happened. What was so cool was that their primary concern was how was the pilot and the passengers, and what were we going to do about the emergencies. They were not thinking of themselves but of others, just as the Lord instructs us to do. We closed our meeting with a prayer by one of the staff. Although I could not understand all that she prayed (remember we are still learning Sesotho) I did pick up enough of it to hear her passion regarding how good God is, how much we need His help, and how thankful she was.

Thanks for joining us in prayer...

31 Villages Desperately in Need of Health Care

2009-09-19T14:38:00.016+03:00

On Sunday we (Sally, Danny Hulls - MAF Chief Pilot, and myself) drove about an hour from home to the mountain area of Mohale Dam. We

met up with the three men from Berea District who were instrumental

in identifying the area we were planning to visit. We mapped out our plan and set off on Monday morning further into the mountains.

It was paved road for about 20 minutes then gravel that deteriorated to 4WD only. After one hour we reached the village of Sekolopata where we left our trucks and hired Basotho Mountain Ponies.

We headed off up the Senqunyane River Valley towards the village of Ha Thaba Bosiu. It was up and down, four times having to cross small streams and the larger river. We passed by several villages and met a few people along the way. As it is Spring here, we passed by fields that were being plowed by oxen teams (4 oxen, one man guiding the plough, and one man driving the oxen).

At one point we had to dismount our ponies and lead them across a rocky stream as they refused to cross with us on them. Turns out they are pretty smart as we found it very slippery. I also found out that getting back on a horse while wearing a back pack was not easy. The horse decided it was time to take off and I found myself looking up at the sky, flat on my back (actually, flat on my back

pack) with the horse happily walking away. I'm sure it had a smirk on its face... A second attempt found me on the horse, trying to get my foot in the stirrup while I held on tight to his neck. Sally found it quite amusing, and I guess I'm learning about riding. (We really should have taken riding lessons while we were in the US last year.)

After nearly two and a half hours of riding we reached the area we had identified as a potential spot for an airstrip and the village of Ha Thaba Bosiu. As you can see it looks pretty flat, but remember we would like about 2,000 feet of runway.

We were about an hour behind schedule and so we decided to split up our team. MAF Pilot Danny and Sally stayed at the airstrip area and the four of us headed on to the village (it was down a rather steep path towards where two rivers meet). Danny began to assess the area for the airstrip. It involved walking up and down the area to find the optimal angles for approach and takeoff, most favorable winds, and the most level area. He took a bunch of GPS locations and used an inclinometer to measure the rise of the terrain. Meanwhile, Sally was spending time walking and praying for this area while watching over their two ponies. She met a young woman with

a child on her back and talked a bit. The lady told Sally that she was on her way walking to the closest clinic which was where we had come from that morning. Recall we had driven 1 hour by truck and 2.5 hours on pony and she was walking! Come to find out, people would even walk the whole day to reach the closest health center. Sally spent more time praying for the people of this area and praying that God would give us wisdom on how to minister to their physical and spiritual needs.

The three men from Berea and I got to the village and were fortunate to find Chief Majara there. As there really is no easy way to get a message there (no cell phone coverage), the chief and those in the village were surprised by our visit. We sat at his homestead with two other men as well as the chief's wife and friend and explained who we were and why we were there. We enquired as to how many villages were in the area and if he

thought they would benefit from a health post and airstrip. After some discussion, they came up with a list of 31 villages that would directly benefit. They agreed to get us the names of all the villages and a census of those living there.

I also shared with them that I was both a doctor and a preacher of the gospel. They were curious as to what church I belonged to and if I planned on making them change their religion. I explained that I was not interested in that but in teaching them about Jesus Christ and following His ways. They were interested and like the idea that we could provide both medical care and Biblical teaching.

After an hour we headed back up the hill to find Sally and Danny to find out if the area looked promising for building an airstrip. We were happy to hear that the preliminary assessment looked good, although it would involve leveling one area and moving dirt to another part to make the airstrip. There's much more to building an airstrip (MAF has clear guidelines on it) but at least it looks like a favorable area that would give us access to the villages. We all got back on our ponies and began the long trek back to Sekolopata. I don't know horses well but I sure sensed that they were glad to be heading to their home and we were ready to go back. It was a beautiful ride back. We reached Sekolopata where we had left the trucks and then drove back to Mohale. It was just getting dark as we arrived there. We had supper together and talked about the survey trip. We were all pretty excited about the possibility of opening the area not only to health care but to the gospel as well. It was back to Maseru the next morning for Danny, Sally and I, and on to Teyateyaneng (Berea District) for the other three.

We are so thankful for what God allowed us to do and to see. We continue to pray for wisdom on how to proceed. I want to start building next week but I know that we have to go through the proper government channels for approval and for funds. It may be possible to ride into the area once a month to do a mobile medical clinic and evangelism while we work on building up the airstrip. I know we need patience, but I also know the desperate needs (both physical and spiritual) of the Basotho living in the 31 villages in the Ha Thaba Bosiu area. Please join us in praying for the people of that area, and for what we will do next.

All for His glory...

Building and Airstrip and Opening a New Health Post

2009-09-12T12:53:00.005+03:00

As you know, I serve as the director for Lesotho Flying Doctor Services (LFDS). LFDS has the mandate though the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to provide health care in remote areas of the Maluti Mountains in a coordinated effort with the Mountain Districts and their District Health Management Teams. This Sunday through Tuesday, Sally and I, Danny Hulls (MAF Chief Pilot) and two from Berea DHMT will be heading deep into the Maluti mountains. We’re off to do a site evaluation for a possible new health post and airstrip.

This has been a real learning process so far. I met with the Berea District DHMT two months ago to hear about their proposal. They had done an analysis of the health coverage of their district and found that the far Eastern portion was in desperate need. On the map it was designated as a "Cattle Post" which meant it was only temporarily inhabited when the herds boys would take the animals there to graze. Late last year they sent in a team to do an analysis of the area and found that it wasn't just a cattle post but had many villages. In the process of visiting many of the villages and talking with people they discovered that there was no health care available in that area and that people were walking anywhere from 4-6 hours to get to a health facility! Can you imagine walking that far, let alone that far when you are sick? Basotho are strong and tough people.

To reach this area, you have to take the paved road from Maseru to the Mohale Dam area, then switch into 4WD to take the gravel road/path to the end. Then if the road hasn’t washed away you are at Ha Thaba Bosiu, a village at the junction of two rivers. From there the valley extends NorthEasterly and contains several villages that desperately need health care. (If you like Google Earth do a search for “Ha Konyama or Maime, Lesotho” and you will find yourself part way up that valley.) Once we get to Ha Thaba Bosiu we will take mountain ponies up as far as Ha Mothakathi to assess the villages and to get a better estimate of the catchement area for this health post.

Our task is three fold - Airstrip placement, looking for a place to put a Health Post, and Spiritual Assessment. I have zero experience in building an airstrip and so we are really blessed to have Danny as part of the team. He will be evaluating the spot near Ha Thaba Bosiu that looks to have potential for an airstrip. We would like at least a length of 2,000+feet with a good approach and departure path for the aircraft. I have flown over the area many times on the way to other clinics and it appears to be a good area to build. Several of the MAF pilots have flown over the area to do what is called an ‘airstrip evaluation’ to see if it looks promising. Several factors play into picking the site such as altitude, obstacles, slope, and especially prevailing winds. So if it looks good on the ground, then the area chief of Ha Thaba Bosiu would have to ‘give’ that land to be used as an airstrip. In Lesotho, all land belongs to the King (King Letsia III) and his spokesmen are the area chiefs. They have the kings authority to allocate land for various use. Then begins the job of surveying the airstrip and clearing the area to make a gravel or grass airstrip. (More on that when we actually begin the process).

The second task is obtaining permission to begin a health post. The plan is for our LFDS Doctor Team to fly in once per month to provide diagnosis and treatment. We would carry in all the medicines and staff to conduct the clinic. In addition, our Public Health Care team will come once per month to provide immunizations to under 5 children and to do prenatal/post natal care. We would space those visits about two weeks apart. Twice per month doesn’t sound like much, but it is will provide on-the-spot care and preventive services that they currently don’t have. The long range plan would be to develop it to a health clinic with full time staff.

So you might ask, where will you conduct the health post activity? Good question. In the two health posts that LFDS currently operates we use what is available. In one we use a vacant shell of a house and the other is a two room building (roughly 10x20) that belongs to a village church. One of the Berea DHMT members said that the village would likely allow us to use one of the buildings or we will work with them to build something. It’s all up in the air right now, but also part of what we will talk about during this visit. I did have a meeting recently with the Ministry of Health where we discussed finding funds within the Lesotho government to build these new health posts and to put up some structures in the two existing health posts. How ever it happens it is essential that the villages served 'buy into' the plan so the health post becomes theirs. That might involve providing labor, providing stones, carrying water and various other ways to contribute to the health post. We will also be assessing whether the villages have village health workers and what level of basic training they have. It is an area that Sally will be involved in doing health training evangelism and total-health storying that has an evangelistic and discipleship component.

The third task that excites Sally and I even more is the opportunity to get into this area to begin a spiritual assessment with the goal of a total health package. We firmly believe that true health involves physical, emotional, and spiritual care and healing. We would ask you to pray with us as we do this assessment and consider whether or not we will begin to go to this area once a month (even before the airstrip is done) to do a mobile medical clinic along with evangelism and discipleship.

We are asking that you pray for our safety as we do the 4WD, Pony, and hiking to this area. That we will have clear spiritual discernment as to the situation on the ground, where God is already at work, and where we might join in. We will take lots of pictures and post something as soon as we can next week.

A very quiet house...

2009-08-28T18:50:00.012+03:00

Things are really quiet here at the house now. Just Sally and I and the two dogs. Things have been loud and fun over the past weeks. We've been so busy with Megan and Kelly here that I haven't updated our blog. I know, pretty lame excuses for not blogging…So we’re lousy at blogging. Actually we have been having so

much fun with our two daughters being here this summer (our winter) that I haven’t taken time to update. Yeah, another excuse…So now I have no excuse as they are not at the house now. Megan is back in Dakar Senegal for a second semester study abroad. She's really excited to be back in Dakar again, especially after winter here (it's in the high 80s in Senegal).

Kelly's back in the USA to begin her second year at Taylor University in Indiana. This weekend she's with her brother Adam in DC for a visit before she goes back to school. It was a really cool surprise gift that her aunt and uncle gave her in order to see her brother. Adam has begun his MPH/PA graduate program at George Washington U

niversity but had a weekend available to show his little sister around the sights of DC and have some fun.

Just before Megan and Kelly left for the US we had a great weekend in the mountains of Lesotho with the Dial and Flora family – part of our mission family. We celebrated Alan’s birthday, the Flora’s anniversary, and Annah and Gracie Flora’s GA advancement (GA is a Baptist program called Girls in Action and teaches about missions). We had an amazing time together meeting as a team and as friends. At tons of food, laughed a lot, prayed together, and talked about ways to get the gospel good news message to the Basotho people.

So now, it’s time for Sally and I to get back to intense language study (Sesotho) and cultural learning. Next blog I'll share what the future holds for Lesotho Flying Doctor Services.

Walking and talking about God…

2009-06-25T14:44:00.009+03:00

We recently flew to Matekane health post as a regularly scheduled doctor team visit. I finished a bit earlier than normal that day. One of the patients was still around outside so I spent some time talking with him. He is a local pastor of a village church. He spoke both Sesotho and English. We talked about how amazing the story God's plan for rescuing mankind is. We spent time sharing about the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, about how amazing He is, and how life-changing it is. We prayed together and then he headed back to his home.

I had some time before the MAF plane would be back to pick us up so I decided to take a hike up and over a hill around the airstrip. Two young boys decided to join me in my hike. I greeted them in the best Sesotho I could muster up and they laughed. As we walked, they proceded to teach me some Sesotho, and I taught them English. We reached a spot off to the side of the end of the runway, and sat to eat some nuts and raisins I had packed in my bag. I pulled out my Sesotho Bible and did my best to read them some stories. They enjoyed my reading to them, and even helped a number of times when I wasn’t sure about how to pronounce a particular word. I could see their eager desire to hear more and learn more, but my language skills are still too limited. I encouraged them to find someone in their village to continue to read Bible stories to them.

For those of you that are pilots, I wanted to share with you a picture of one of our landing aids. This particular airstrip is situated at the edge of a 1000+ft cliff. (The picture is looking off the end of the runway!) Some years back a MAF pilot set up this VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) to assist in making the right approach to the landing. For non-pilots, it helps to make sure the plane is descending at the right angle to end up on the runway and not on the side of the cliff. You might be wondering why the holes in it. When it was first put up (without holes) it kept being stolen to use as roofing material. Now, no one wants to take it...

As we walked back to the health post, we saw that the cows had gotten into the area where some ladies were thrashing wheat. I thought 'this is a disaster, we should go help them run off the cows. What's wrong with the shepherd boys...' Boy was I wrong. The ladies had actually asked the support of the shepherd boys in getting the cows there to walk on the wheat, doing the thrashing for them! It works. They use the wheat for making a delicious whole wheat yeast bread (phaphatha). I decided to try my hand at keeping the cows going in circles to walk on the wheat but I found I wasn't very adept at that. Guess I better stick to practicing medicine and sharing the Jesus story...

We headed back to Maseru after a great day of treating patients, and learning more of the beautiful Basotho culture. Beginning July we will be visiting our two health posts three times per month (twice for the doctor team and once for the public health team). Thanks for your prayers, your notes of encouragement, and your support!

In Our New House

2009-06-22T06:55:00.005+03:00

We have moved from our temporary apartment housing into a house now (If you are interested, here are the Google Earth coordinates. 29 19'39.36"S, 27 28'54.59"E) If you copy and paste these in you will be at the house.

It’s situated in a part of town that is quiet, with a view of the hill that they are building the new Lesotho Parliament Building on.

We received our 20 foot shipping container from Uganda with our things we packed last June. It took us (9 guys) 4 hours to unpack what took 2 weeks to pack. Everything arrived intact, and still smelling like Uganda.

We are just about unpacked and re-assembled now and thoroughly enjoying the place. God has blessed us with a great house to make our home.

As medical missionaries with the International Mission Board, we are thankful for each individual and family in our SBC churches that sacrificially give to support us through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Offering. Thank you for helping us to be here.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T16:17:00.006+03:00

We (Sally and I) are truly blessed. We have both grown up in loving families that have strived to honor God in words and actions. We have grown up knowing that our mothers loved us unconditionally, cared for us, and sacrificed many things for our good. Even though it is totally inadequate, we want to say 'thank you' to Mom Jessup and Mom Pepper!
You have inspired us, loved us, blessed us, protected us, prayed for us, and most of all, set a great example for us of a loving parent. We can say without a doubt that much of who we are today is because of you and your love for God. And you continue to bless us by loving our kids and showing them what it means to be a godly woman.

I (Larry) want to tell all of you how proud I am of Sally. There's a lot of reasons, but today particularly, I praise God for the amazing way that she has raised our three kids. She is an amazing mother to them, following in the example of hers and my mom (and other godly mothers you can read about in the Bible) through loving, caring, helping, listening, teaching, and praying daily for the kids. She has set for them a great example of a godly mother, much like the description in the 31st chapter of the book of Proverbs. I love you Sally!

We are very proud of our kids, and I know that much of who they are today and who they are becoming is because of what Sally has done over the past 23 years.

I want to close with these thoughts. I have been blessed to have a godly mother, a godly mother-in-law, and a godly mother of my children. It is something that should never be taken for granted. We are realizing just how many kids here in Lesotho have not had the privilege we have had to have loving mothers. The last estimate I heard was that of 250,000 orphans! Kids that desperately need a godly mother to care for them and love them. This past week as we left a mountain clinic the pilot pointed out a village that was discovered to be totally void of adults as they had all died of HIV/AIDS (or had left). A village full of orphans that were trying to take care of each other. When the Lesotho government realized it they did garner up significant support to help these kids. My point is that there are likely other villages heading towards that same state. Progress is being made in treating HIV/AIDS but many are still dying (4/hr). Join us in praying for these kids. Pray that the hearts of many people will be opened to find ways to love these kids. I don't know the answer to this challenge, but I do know that the Scriptures tell us that God is the Father to the Fatherless and cares for orphans. Pray that these kids will experience God's mercy, forgiveness, and grace today.

Home from the Hospital...

2009-05-08T18:52:00.007+03:00

Praise be to the living and all powerful God! Sally and I wanted to share some good news on an answer to prayer. Today we saw the infant and the 4 year old toddler go back home to their mountain village. They were flown back by the same MAF pilot.

If you recall from our last blog (4/25), we had told you about the infant with severe pneumonia, gasping for every breath, whom I was certain wouldn't survive, and the toddler with sudden onset paralysis. We flew them to the airstrip in Maseru and took them by ambulance to be admitted to Queen II National Hospital pediatrics ward. We are so thankful for the care that was given to them (thanks Dr. Raj and team) and for the answered prayers for their recovery. After 4 days on oxygen and antibiotics the infant was able to go off oxygen and breath normally. She was cared for by her elderly grandmother the whole two weeks. The little boy gradually regained strength in his legs and hands and was able to stand by today. We are praying that he will recover the rest of his leg function in the coming days and weeks.

I shared with the grandmother and the aunt how there were people in the USA praying asking God to help these kids recover. Their faces lit up with a smile when they heard that. Tonight they are back in the mountains, and I am certain they have some stories to tell. I hope to see them next month when we make our visit to the health clinic at Matekane Village.

And another good thing, I finally got my official letter from the Ministry of Health appointing me as Medical Director for LFDS. Sally and I worked this afternoon arranging my office over at the hanger to make it more efficient as I serve both as doctor and administrator. Pray that I will have wisdom in all my decisions and really reflect the love of Christ to all our staff and patients.

If you would, continue to pray for the MAF team (pilots and mechanics) as they keep the aircraft in tiptop shape and fly safe. Some have said it is one of the most challenging areas to fly in, yet they do a fantastic job. And thank God for his loving provision of healing for these two kids. God bless you and stick with us as we continue to pray to see God's kingdom advance in Lesotho.

Khotso, Pula, Nala (Peace, Rain, and Prosperity).

Why Lesotho Flying Doctor Services?

2009-04-25T14:57:00.008+03:00

You might wonder, why the need for LFDS? Let me share a bit of what happened this past Thursday. The doctor team (myself, nurse, and pharmacy tech) went out to Matekane village for a regularly scheduled LFDS visit to that health center. The clinic falls under the supervision of Quacha's Nek health district in South Eastern Lesotho. It is staffed by nurses and is over 6 hours by truck (and another 6 hours from there to Maseru). As it has no doctor we go there every three weeks. It took us about 1 hour by plane to get there as we stopped to deliver a staff member back at another mountain clinic and drop off supplies. We arrived around 9:30AM and began seeing patients.

I diagnosed a variety of problems in both adults and children that day, but three were very sick. The first was a 4 year old who had developed paralysis of his legs and hands over the previous two days. He very likely had a complication from a recent infection that then resulted in an immune system attack of his own nerves. The danger was that this could quickly progress to involve his breathing. He needed to get to a hospital soon. Not long after that I saw an 8 month old girl who was being taken care of by her grandmother. Her unwed mother was working in South Africa and had left the baby in the village, with no support for the old grandmother. The baby was underweight and was HIV infected (30% of untreated HIV mothers will have HIV babies). The baby was breathing badly and dehydrated. We didn't have IV needles for babies so we had the grandmother spoon feed the baby normal saline IV solution by mouth (you can use a salt/sugar solution - ORS - but we didn't have that either). The baby needed IV antibiotics, IV fluids, and oxygen, hence the hospital. We did have injectable antibiotics to get her started. The third kid was a small 13 year old girl that had been diagnosed with suspected meningitis 10 days prior but the father had not understood the danger and had kept her at home. He had given her the oral meds (following the first injection), but had not taken her to the hospital. Now she was presenting with complications of inability to talk and paralysis of her right arm (complications of meningitis). She needed to be admitted for two weeks of antibiotics.
So what do you do? Or should I say, what did we do? Well, Matekane HC doesn't have cell phone coverage or a radio so we had to wait for the plane to return. The health center is about a mile walk from the airstrip so we told the mother with the four year old and the grandmother with the infant to start walking. There wouldn't be room for the third patient so the father said he would ride his horse with her to the hospital. That would men riding till dark, sleeping along the way, and continuing the next day for about 6 more hours to reach the hospital in Quacha's Nek!

Meanwhile, MAF pilot Melvin Peters arrived around 3PM expecting to pick up the doctor team. He had come from another airstrip with a patient with a broken leg and instructions to stop and get another emergency at another mountain clinic. That's four emergencies (what we call Code-1) in one day plus the one going by horse. So we loaded up the 4 year old and mom, the 8 month old and grandmother, and the pharmacy tech. They would have to stop off to get the other emergency patient (a 70 yr old man with pneumonia) on the way back to Maseru. As they took off I took time to ask God to give them safe passage and that God would spare the lives of the sick. I especially appreciate the logo on the tail of all the MAF planes depicting a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. It would be by His mercy that the patients would live...
So that left the nurse and I without a way back to Maseru. But no problem. The clinic has a small guest room (for visiting nursing students) that I could sleep in as they had no students. And the nurse stayed in the house of the nurse that lives at the clinic. It was my first night to sleep in the mountains at a clinic. I walked over to the village store, got some sorghum instant porridge, milk and some cookies and had supper. The clinic had sheets and two heavy blankets for me so I was set for the night.

The next morning I got up at 6, had some left over porridge, had time for bible reading and prayer, especially remembering the Code-1 patients. The earliest the plane would be there would be around 9:30. Melvin arrived and flew us back to Maseru via another clinic where we dropped off supplies and picked up a staff member.

Later that day Sally and I went over to the hospital to check on the sick kids. Both were alive and doing OK. The baby was better on IVs and oxygen and the 4 year old was no worse (the paralysis had not progressed). It will likely be a week or so before the kids will be ready to fly back to their village. We thanked God for protecting and healing, and for the LFDS program. That's a long answer to the question, but gives you an idea why LFDS exists. If you will, take time to give thanks for God's provision of safety and that the kids will heal. Thanks...

Awakened in the night

2009-04-22T21:21:00.002+03:00

Last night was interesting. Around 3AM local time I was awakened by the sounds of automatic and semi-automatics weapons at a distance. It went on for what seemed to be about 15-20 minutes, then stopped. In our 12 years in Africa I have to say that it is not unusual to hear gun shots in the night. But this was a bit different as it was more extended with automatic fire. We are currently staying in housing consisting of a two story townhouse flat. Our bedroom window looks out over an open area (the municipal golf course) and so sound travels. On nights when there is a big party at the Maseru club (about 1/2 mile away) it sounds like they are in our back yard. So being awakened by gun fire was not too surprising, yet we know it is serious. We regularly pray for peace to prevail and God's ways to be followed, but we also know the history of many of the African nations.

According to the local papers and some of the Basotho we have talked to, there was an attempt on the life of the Prime Minister at his house (in the middle of Maseru town). There was also unrest near two of the military barracks. The one barracks is at the airfield that MAF and the military share. Good news is that the Prime Minister is fine, and as far as we can tell, only a few were killed. According to the 'word on the street', the opposition party is still not happy about some things that were decided in 2007 and decided to take matters in their own hands.

I car pool with some of the MAF team to work in the mornings and we drove past the PM's compound and saw bullet holes in the gated area and lots of soldiers with weapons visible. There were several police/military check points on the road, but things were calm. By midday things seemed to be back to 'normal' for Maseru.

Not to worry about things here as we place our trust in the Lord who is sovereign. We have placed our lives in His hands and trust him for our safety. We do continue to pray for this nation that the people would repent and turn to God to experience 'life abundantly' as the Gospel writer John records. That 'abundant life' is the kind of life that God intends for all people that choose to follow him. The root word is descriptive of 'a god-designed life that is full' not so much 'biological life.' And so we continue to place our faith in Jesus Christ and follow his ways (I like to call it the Jesus-agenda) seeking the abundant life. As you have a few minutes, take time to pray for God's peace for the Basotho and for the country of Lesotho.

Daily by His grace...

Flying to work!

2009-04-08T20:49:00.012+03:00

This week I began flying to work in the mountains. I am in a handover 'learning' period with Lesotho Flying Doctor Service (LFDS). You might notice TWO things on the logo. One is that it is 'doctor' not 'doctors'. LFDS began over 25 years ago when a missionary doctor pilot who saw the vast spiritual and medical needs in the mountains began flying there to provide health care and evangelism. LFDS has matured now to the point where it is a part of the Lesotho Ministry of Health and a key component to providing comprehensive health care in the mountains. But it still has only one doctor. We do have many other staff that make up the team. The second thing you might notice is that right in the middle of the logo is 'MAF'. Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) is what makes LFDS "flying" and not Lesotho Walking Doctor Service. Sally and I are so blessed to work with the MAF team (more on MAF in another blog). They are a great group of pilots and mechanics that love the Lord and are committed to an excellent flying program. On Monday the "Doctor Team" (myself, a nurse, an ophthalmic nurse, and a dental technician) flew about 30 minutes into the mountains to a village health center called Lebakeng to provide health care. Patients had been scheduled to come that day to see our team.

The next day MAF pilot Christiann Haak flew myself and the Primary Health Care team to a small village called Matekane. Our team on Tuesday consisted of a nurse who is trained as a midwife and in public health, a nurse assistant and myself. Matekane Health Post is not a clinic, but a health post that is run on a twice monthly basis by LFDS.

We use the house of a local pastor to run the clinic. We saw 25 women that day, about half for family planning and half for pre-natal care, and then 22 of their babies/kids for health check and immunizations. Lesotho is quite advanced in it's immunization program providing the latest suggested vaccines for it's kids!

Well, I kinda got ahead of myself. After landing at Matekane,

we walked over to the house and found just a couple of women there. We waited for about half an hour and by then there were about 20 women with their children tied on their backs. They wait to hear the plane fly over and then they start walking from their villages to the health post. The Public Health/Midwife Nurse then began health education discussion, explaining to them the new program that will provide cervical cancer screening, some discussion about breast cancer, and discussion about HIV/AIDS. Me' Phomane ('may poh-money') is quite passionate about her teaching and the ladies really participated with a lot of great questions.

After that it was time to start weighing babies, giving injections, and

examining and counseling women who were pregnant or were trying not to get pregnant. Me' Leonia (teal colored shirt) loves the kids and is so good at giving injections. She was assisted by a village health worker Me' Balantyne (red vest).

As a village health worker Me' Balantyne helps to mobilize the women in her village and surrounding area to attend the free pre-natal and immunization services as well as doing teaching about HIV/AIDS. Just recently the Ministry of Health began a program to provide a small incentive to Village Health Workers consisting of about $3/month.

Well, we finished our work around 3:30PM in time for MAF

Pilot Christiann to come and pick us up. As we took off from the grass airstrip, we could see two women by heaps of wheat hand thrashing it. The harvest was pretty good this year as they had decent rains. Praise God for good harvest.

Today I went to Manamaneng Health Center.

It is one of the Health Centers in the mountains that Partners in Health (PIH) is working with LFDS to provide HIV/AIDS services. I'll share more about PIH and LFDS work in a later blog. I was blessed to work with a Mosutu doctor (George) who had just been posted to Manamaneng last week. The health center has a small staff of LFDS and PIH employees that provide the day-to-day care in the clinic. They really care about their patients. The clinic serves about 12,000 people from the surrounding villages. LFDS not only provides full time staff at the clinic but is responsible for getting the drugs/supplies/coal to the clinic. How does it get there you ask? MAF under contract from the Ministry of Health airlifts it there through the MAF/LFDS program.

By the time MAF pilot Justin Hanoker came to get us the winds had picked up and we were taking off with a 15 knot quartering tail wind. He did a great job getting us safely back to our base in Maseru at the airstrip that MAF shares with the Lesotho Air Defense Services.

The 'doctor team' heads to the mountains again tomorrow and then we are off for Easter weekend. Sally and I head to Johannesburg, South Africa for our mission's annual meeting. Meanwhile, every day Sally and I work on our language study and cultural learning. Boy we have a long way to go...

"Stay in Low Gear"

2009-03-17T23:38:00.021+03:00

So how do you get to the villages up in the Maluti Mountains? You either fly, or 'stay in low gear.' In about a week we will begin working in the mountain clinics and our normal mode of travel will be a single engine plane, but for this trip we drove. We left Maseru on Saturday and headed up the mountains to spend some time with our missionary colleagues, Alan and Babs Dial and their boys, Mahau and Daniel. To reach their village of Katseyou must drive 4.5 hours. The first hour is in the low lands, then you turn toward the mountains and begin climbing. We went up and over three passes, the highest being ~9,500 ft. The road is paved, but often very steep, hence the 'stay in low gear' signs. Most of the time we were only going 25-30 mph. We drove through rain most of the way, but then it cleared as we reached Katse Village. Katse is where a huge dam was built to make a reservoir for fresh water. All of the water is piped down to Johannesburg, South Africa. The reservoir is huge, and beautiful. When the dam was being built, housing was built for the engineers and other supervisors. After construction of the dam, the housing was turned over to the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority. The Dials live in one of the LHDA houses. The Katse area of the mountains is one of the most densely populated.

On Sunday we attended the Khloha ntsa Baptist Church. It is pastored by Maruti Phoka. Maruti means teacher and is the word used for pastor as well. He and his wife live about 100 yards from the church. He farms about 8 plots of land, has a couple of cows, and some sheep. He is extremely hard working in his family (they have 4 kids), and in his church. The church service was 2 hours and consisted of a lot of singing, of testimonies of what God has been doing in their lives, and a sermon. Alan has been working with 5 pastors in the area doing pastoral training and mentoring them in evangelism and church planting. Babs has been doing Chronological Bible Stories as a way to teach the bible to a largely illiterate people.
We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the Dials, seeing what God has been doing in their lives and in the lives of the Mountain Basotho. There is lots of work to do there in spreading the good news of Jesus, and then teaching them to follow him (see Matthew 28:18-20). Pray that God will give wisdom and strength to the Dials.

On Monday morning we 'toured' the health clinic at Katse Village. It is a well equipped clinic that served as the clinic during the construction of the dam. Unfortunately it has not had a doctor for several years. Even though it is at the end of the paved road, no doctors want to be posted there. We won't be flying there as part of LFDS as the program does not service clinics that are close to a good road. Pray that God will provide a dedicated compassionate doctor to work with the nurses at the very well equipped clinic. Thousands of needy Basotho could be served by the clinic.

After the clinic 'tour' we headed back over the three passes and down to the lowlands of Maseru. Along the way we passed several large and small water falls. The beauty of it all reminded me of how God is both creator and provider, that from Jesus flow streams of living water.

It was exciting to know that our friends are there sharing Christ in the Katse area and surrounding villages. Next time we see Katse, it will likely be looking out the window of the MAF plane. Enough for now. Next blog we'll share some fun from language beginnings. And don't forget to "Pray for the Mountain Basotho" using the daily video clips.

Welcome to the capital…

2009-03-13T21:44:00.006+03:00

We are ‘learning’ to live in Maseru, the capital city. We have had an amazing welcome by our IMB mission family and by our new mission family, the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) team. They are all helping us to get settled in. We are currently in a 2BR apartment until we can find a house. Housing is very difficult to come by so pray with us about that. We have learned that there are a lot more ‘things’ available here compared to Uganda. We are grateful for the additional choices in foods, and supplies.

This week Mike Shutts (MAF) took me to be introduced to the Director General (DG) of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to discuss my working in Lesotho. There are a few details to take care of, but none seem too difficult. I have paperwork to get through the system to make me legally registered with the medical council. In addition, next week I get to sit before a medical committee to be examined to determine if I am really who my documents say I am. The DG has suggested that I work together for one month with the doctor currently assigned as director for the Lesotho Flying Doctors Service in order to ‘learn the system’ before taking over. At that time, the other doctor will be reassigned to another area of Lesotho.

In case you were wondering what has been happening regarding HIV/AIDS. In 2007 (most recent statistics) there were over 18,000 deaths due to HIV/AIDS. That’s 2 people dying per hour! Now consider that our best estimates for the Maluti Mountain Basotho show that <2% are saved Christians. You can do the math, but that is more than 17,640 that died in 2007 without receiving the forgiveness and grace that Jesus Christ offers them. There is a definite urgency for the work in the mountains, both medical and spiritual. You can not separate them. So, by God’s grace we continue on in this calling from God to bring complete ‘healing’ to the Mountain Basotho through medical and spiritual care.

As you can imagine, in order to do the work here we need to know the language and culture of the Basotho. So, Sally and I have begun the arduous, but extremely important process of listening, observing, learning about the Basotho and their language, Sesotho. Although it too, is a Bantu language like the one we spoke in Uganda, there are essentially no shared words. It’s going to take daily study and practice, and immersion to learn. So, here we go! So far we know how to say a basic greeting and thank you. It’s a start…

Pray for us as we begin language learning
Pray for us to daily depend on God for strength, not on our own self

This weekend we are heading up the mountains to Alan and Babs Dials place. (You can find it on Google Earth as "Katse Village"). We want to see firsthand just what great things God is doing in the mountains among the Basotho. The Dials have been serving there for 5 years. Pictures about the Dials family and the mountains to come next blog.

Don’t forget the check out the “Pray for the Basotho” daily mini-video to show you more about the Maluti Mountain Basotho. (look on the right side of our blog)

We are in Lesotho!

2009-03-07T17:44:00.002+03:00

Wanted to let you know we arrived safely in Maseru, Lesotho with all our luggage and in good health. I'll post some pictures later.

Most importantly we wanted to remind you about "PrayfortheBasotho" link that is on the right side of our blog. It is a great way to get to know the Basotho people and their many needs. Each day is just a few minutes of excellent video to view. Go ahead and take a look at it...

On our way to Lesotho!

2009-02-19T21:47:00.005+03:00

We’re on our way to Lesotho!

Seven months have flown by and it is time to say farewell and head to Lesotho. It is one of the hardest things we have to deal with as cross cultural missionaries. Seems like we are always saying farewell. We are thankful that God promises to give us the daily grace to make it through each day of packing, saying farewells, and traveling. It has been so good to be here to be with family, meet some of the newest members of our extended family, welcome new people into the family through marriage, and just enjoy the beauty of Michigan. We’ve been blessed to have a house (Clarksville Bible Church mission house) just 2 blocks from Larry’s parents for the past 7 months.

Our family is about to be spread around the world. Megan is in the middle of her semester studies in Senegal, West Africa. She is loving the West African climate, the people, her new friends, and the studies. We’ll see her next May in Lesotho, then she’s off to Vietnam for a second semester abroad. She loves new languages, new cultures, new people, and life in general…

Adam is half way through his year working at Miriam’s House/AmeriCorp in DC. Last weekend we visited him and got to walk the George Washington University campus where he will do his MPH/Physicians Assistant study program (begins this August). It was exciting to be there, see the facilities (only 5 blocks from the Capital), eat some great food, visit some of the Smithsonian museums, and most of all, just hang out. He has some really exciting times ahead of him. We continue to pray that many people will be impacted by his love and compassion for the hurting and disadvantaged/disenfranchised.

Kelly’s enjoying her time at Taylor University in Indiana with her growing entourage of friends. She hasn’t fully decided on her focus of studies, but is doing a great job getting her basics in. When you grow up in Uganda, you don’t get to start driving like you do here in the US. Our mission doesn’t allow kids to drive our vehicles so her first experience was last July! The great news is that she got her Michigan driving license this Christmas break. Her day for her driving test turned out to be a small Michigan blizzard but she endured it and passed. We’ll leave the car that Adam had with Kelly so she can carry on the Pepper tradition of road trips. Adam is busy convincing her and some friends to plan a trip to DC soon.

It has been good to be here in the US the past months. As we look back we see God’s hand in the timing of this stateside as it has allowed us to be near excellent medical facilities when Sally had retinal tears that needed expert care, and for Larry’s dad in his varied medical issues. Although we had not planned on spending so much time in ERs/hospitals/doctors offices, it was God’s plan and we are grateful to have been here. Mom is doing really well and Dad continues to improve emotionally and physically. We have learned that recovery from depression is a long slow process. They continue to live in their home for now.

As you might expect, we do have a few ‘unknowns’ in our life right now. As of today, we don’t have a house in Maseru, Lesotho. Our team there is looking and we know that God will provide. We have a shipping container of our things that we packed in Uganda, but can’t ship it until we have an address and work permit in Lesotho. The same applies to our crate that we packed here in Michigan. We’re not really sure what the first weeks in Lesotho will entail besides beginning to learn a new culture and new language (Sesotho – a Bantu language). Although we have a number of ‘unknowns’, we are at peace in our hearts because we know that we serve a living God who does know all things, is working out things for our good and his glory. In addition, the amazing blessings we have seen in the past that were based upon his promises, his person, and his graces will be there fresh each morning as we go through the coming weeks.

Thanks for praying for us and for God’s work in Lesotho. We’ll make the next update from Leso

Our kids scattered...

2008-09-16T17:09:00.007+03:00

Well, after a quick trip to Arkansas to celebrate Sally's grandma's 100th birthday, we finally got all three of our kids settled in their respective places and states. Kelly-Indiana; Megan-Michigan; Adam-Washington, DC

Kelly has begun her Freshman first semester at Taylor University (www.tayloru.edu) in Upland

Indiana studying biology. Sally, Kelly and I attended the parents/student international/MK orientation the week before classes started. They have an active Mu Kappa chapter that provides a way for missionary kids to get together and share experiences and struggles. We had a great summer picnic of hotdogs, hamburgers, and lots of other foods to get the year going. We're grateful

for the Daudts who serve as Mu Kappa chapter advisors for opening their home to all of us.

The Taylor campus is really beautiful and spacious

It is out in the 'country' of Indiana surrounded by some corn and soybean fields. Upland is a quaint town with some essential things like an ice cream shop. Not far from campus is Paynes coffee shop where they roast their own coffee and have a true coffee shop atmosphere.

We couldn't resist the pic of Kelly and the bronze of Sammy Morris,

one of the early students at Taylor that came

from Africa. You can read more about him at Wikipedia.

Megan has begun her third year at

Hope College with a double major - International Studies/French. This year she was an essential part of the international student orientation for Freshman. She had a great time facilitating small groups talking about the challenges of entering the new culture of the USA. We are enjoying being an hour away so we get to see her more often.

Adam is now living in Potomac, MD and working downtown Washington, DC. For the next year he is funded by AmeriCorp working for the National AIDS Fund. His job entails working in a home for women with HIV/AIDS (Miriam's House). He's pretty excited about the job and is getting used to the 1+ hour commute every day. He is currently applying to Physician Assistant programs for next year. Adam is living with 4 other guys in a house in Potomac, including his long time friend from Africa, Matt (he works at

NIH in malaria research). We were glad to help Adam move in to his new place and look forward to being back there in October to see where he works.

So, our kids are scattered, but settled in now. Sally and I are living in the Clar

ksville Bible Church mission house in Larry's home town, just

two blocks from his parents. Larry's dad has been going through some really tough physical and emotional times so it has been good to be able to help them. Remember to pray for Leo and Wanda as they deal with this process of aging.

Our schedule has us traveling a lot to various states/churches/mission conferences. We'd love to hear from you and maybe we'll be in your state. Meanwhile, we trust daily in God's sufficient grace...

Kelly Graduates from Rift Valley Academy

2008-07-12T21:46:00.002+03:00

Praise God! Kelly graduated today from Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. Four years of hard work at boarding school. We are so proud of Kelly. She and her 78 classmates had a great day of celebrating the goodness and faithfulness of God over the years of schooling at RVA. RVA is a African Inland Mission school established in 1909 providing schooling for kids in grades 1-12. Kelly began there in 9th grade after being home schooled by Sally at our home in Uganda. For Kelly it meant being at boarding school 9 months a year and home with Sally and I the other three months.
Kelly had great roommates but has really been blessed to have Daniela the last two years. Daniela’s parents serve as missionaries in rural Malawi. Kelly and Daniela have become great friends over the year sharing their lives at RVA and their cultures as well (American and Dutch).
It was a great day for our family to all be there today. All three of our kids have graduated from RVA so it was a nostalgic time for Adam and Megan as well.
Although it is an emotionally charged day with Kelly leaving her ‘home away from home’, her many friends, leaving Africa, it is also exciting as our family will spend a relaxing week in Ireland before heading to Michigan.
Join us as we praise God for his faithfulness, steadfastness, and grace.

A Party to Celebrate the Goodness of God

2008-07-05T08:02:00.005+03:00

The last weekend in Mbarara we had a great two days of celebrating what God has done in and through our lives over the last 12 years. We invited friends, colleagues, clients, mission family, and many others to celebrate Jesus. Denis and Rose Lukaya generously offered us the venue and others helped us decorate. We had fun and games, heard the children's choir sing, two other choirs, sang praises to God, danced, ate, and had a great time recalling what God has accomplished. It was a time to celebrate both what God has done in our family life as well as in ministry.
It was especially fun to see several of our former students and church members come back for the weekend. We recalled the early days of University Baptist Church Mbarara as well as the beginnings of student work. Sally and I praised God as we saw fruit of what God called us to Mbarara to do. Former students now professionals in areas all over Uganda holding firm to the truths of God's Word and Way.
Needless to say there were lots of stories and smiles, and lots of tears as we said farewell to our friends. Saying farewell is something that we have come to know well in missions work.
Saturday evening we had a great time of fellowship with some of our mission family recalling stories of our life in Uganda. We are so thankful that God gave us a loving mission family in addition to our biological family.
Sunday was a great day of worship at UBC Mbarara. Several former church members stayed the weekend to be part of a large praise and worship team. I preached my final sermon to my 'flock' encouraging them to "Contend for the Faith" and keep Jesus the supreme satisfaction in their lives. I have to admit it was very hard to speak those final words to a church family that I have come to love so much. As I preached I handed over the flock to our new full time pastor Enoch. He is a man of God who we are confident will lead and feed the flock now. Remember to pray for him and the flock.
We're now in Kenya at Rift Valley Academy (RVA) preparing for Kelly to graduate (July 12th).

Help Packing a Container for Lesotho

2008-06-21T17:25:00.004+03:00

Our things are packed up our things for Lesotho. Although we will be in the USA till next February, we packed up our things in Uganda to be stored and then shipped to Lesotho in January. We are blessed to have the opportunity to ship a 20 foot shipping container to Lesotho. We've had help from friends and family. It began with packing some things in boxes, others with padding, and then thinking it over like a big puzzle.
After packing a bunch of heavy items, our friend Ralph came over and helped me build a frame and box to enclose them and to pack on top of. Adam tested out our work by sitting on the couch on top of the box.
We've packed from bottom to top to utilize the space well. Part of it has been roped off and part was enclosed by a partial wall. In front of that sits the washer, dryer and stove. We enclosed them in another wooden structure in order to have a place to pack recliners. Mattresses and other flat lighter things went up on top. It was a lot of trying different things to see what fits best. After months of planning and two solid weeks of packing, it is DONE! We sealed the doors, put on the locks, and now it sits in Mbarara, awaiting the truck. From Mbarara it will travel over some pretty rough pot hole filled roads to Kamapala to sit at our mission compound until January. Then it goes back on a truck to Mombasa, Kenya, by ship to Durbin, South Africa, and again by truck to Maseru, Lesotho (roughly 4 week trip).
We trust God that some day in February we will see our container with our personal and household things and have the fun of unpacking. By the way, some have asked us if we know where we will live in Lesotho and the answer is in Maseru, the capital city, but we don't know yet the house. We'll post something once we know (most likely later this year).

New Full Time Pastor at UBC Mbarara and Last Day in HIV/AIDS Clinic

2008-06-05T18:03:00.002+03:00

This past week was an exciting as well as somber one. On the exciting side, we have now voted as a church family to extend a call to Mr. Enoch Kategaya to be our full time pastor. Enoch has been a member of our church for several years and works with the Words of Hope HIV/AIDS home visit program. He recently completed his bachelors of Social Work Social Sciences at Makerere University (Kampala). Enoch has a clear calling from God to the pastoral work of leading the UBC family. Having grown up in our church he has been a part of the youth programs, the university student program, and the Runyankore congregation as well. I look forward to walking alongside Enoch over the remaining month as he takes over as pastor. Please join us in prayer for Enoch.

Wednesday was my last day at the ISS Clinic (ISS stands for Immune Suppression Syndrome) at our hospital. As I finished seeing the last patient I sat alone in the room and reflected on what God has done since 1997 and spent some time in praise and prayer. It was early ’97 that I came to realize that unless someone did something for people with HIV/AIDS then many, many would continue to die. At that time the hospital unofficial policy was to let them die as we had limited resources and needed to spend it on those that would live. By God’s guidance and power I began to treat inpatients with respect and compassion and in late ’98 began an outpatient clinic.

We began one afternoon per week with a volunteer counselor. It soon grew to two days a week, and then three. By then we had arranged to have a 20 ft shipping container donated (see picture) to use as clinic. We then were able to get funding through the US Ambassador’s fund and our mission to add on to the container. Then in 2006 we were able to get funding through JCRC (Joint Clinical Research Center Kampala) to build a larger structure to accommodate the large number of families we were treating. Over the years we have enrolled 15,000 clients and now care for 8,000+ with 3,500+ receiving free anti-HIV drugs. It has been a great working partnership with several groups that has helped us provide compassionate care to families (Ministry of Health, JCRC, UCSF, Mulago Mbarara Joint Aids Program, Family Treatment Fund, Canadian African Prevention Trials Network).

As I think back about the early days it was one of death and dying. I saw many of my patients who had become friends die as there was not affordable treatment. Gradually over time the cheaper drugs came available and the clinic became one of emotional highs and lows as I saw some patients recover and get better through treatment and others still die. I survived spiritual and emotional challenges by daily depending on God’s grace so I could provide hope for those living and hope to those facing death. It was during that time that God gave me a vision to begin a home visit program in order to have more time for spiritual care. That program (Words of Hope) now serves thousands of clients and their families in the Mbarara District. We have great team of 5 Ugandan counselors and two missionaries that go out Monday-Friday to encourage, train, and love people with the love of Jesus. Many have come to faith in Jesus, groups have been discipled in following the teachings of Jesus, and even three new churches started. Glory to God!

17 Baptist Church Leaders Get Trained

2008-05-25T13:41:00.001+03:00

This past week our church hosted pastors from 16 different churches in our association for continuing leadership training. Ten hours a day for 5 days they utilized their Bibles and a book “Foundations of Faith.” It was an interactive training whereby many questions were asked and answered via group discussion with the final authority being the Word of God. This is the second in an 8 part training series that the association is doing to provide quality biblically based training to our church leaders. One of the criteria for continuing in the training is that they must show that they take this material and knowledge back and teach it to their church members. In January they studied “Following Jesus.” This meeting began with some exciting testimonies on how members in their churches were excited to be taught from the Bible what it means to follow Jesus and his way. With each church contributing a portion, it costs approximately $57/pastor/weeks training. Our special thanks to the saints at University Baptist Church in Houston Texas for generously providing the funds to enable the association to do four training sessions like this one.

Words of Hope Home Visit Update

On Thursday Enoch and I headed out of town to do home visits of families affected by HIV/AIDS. Our first home visit of the day looked to be a bust. The person we were planning to visit had moved! (This happens often due to financial and social reasons.) There were several people in the yard and so Enoch asked if we could talk with them. By the time they were all seated on the grass, we were faced with the elder M’zee (oldest man), his 70 year old mother, his wife, a friend, 4 youth, and 6 children. Enoch and I introduced ourselves and with the permission of the M’zee we shared a bit about HIV/AIDS and answered several questions. Then we talked about ‘hope’ and the reasons for lost hope. This gave us the opportunity to share the hope of Jesus Christ through sharing the story in John’s gospel, chapter 3, about Nicodemus’ visit to Jesus at night. Again, after many questions, we asked if anyone would be interested in placing their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The man’s wife stood up to say ‘yes’ that she wanted to do just that. It was great! What we thought initially to be a ‘bust’ was what we call a ‘divine appointment’ to be there and share the hope that comes through knowing Jesus.
The really cool news is that we saw the same thing happen later that day as we went to visit Robert and he had three neighbors with him. We began to visit with him and his neighbors and had the opportunity again to share the truth of God’s word. All three of his neighbors heard and said they wanted to put their faith in Jesus. The really cool thing is that they had been watching Robert’s life and had seen a real change in him and a genuineness that they too wanted. His life witness was a key factor in their decision.
Enoch and I will head back to these two homes next Thursday for follow up to see how they are doing and to share some more basics of the life of following Jesus.

Adam's graduation and Holland Tulips

2008-05-16T17:07:00.003+03:00

We just returned from a crazy 13 day trip to Michigan to see Adam graduate from Hope College (BS Biology) and see some of our family. We are really proud of Adam! It was great to see him graduate after 4 years of intense work, and a lot of fun with his friends too. He plans to work in DC with AmeriCorp for the next year working in HIV clinics. We also had some time to see Larry's parents and Sally's mom. Needless to say they are proud grandparents...
The grad coincided with the internationally famous Holland Tulip Festival. There were hundreds of thousands of tulips blossomed, and the famous Dutch wooden shoe dancers.

Picture of Lesotho

2008-05-16T16:04:00.000+03:00

We're headed to Lesotho in February 2009.

Our New Blog

2008-05-16T15:56:00.000+03:00

Well, we've decided that a weekly blog would be the best way to let you all know what is happening in our life right now. This hopefully will work out as we are not the best at mail newsletters. (: We should have some pictures up soon as well as an update.