Joy in the Lack

Lesotho. A beautiful little country in Africa. 

Odds are you probably hadn’t heard of it before. Neither had we, but we sure have now. Lesotho is a country that sits within the country of South Africa. The second highest population for AIDS in the world, but one of the most beautiful places full of mountains.

Here in Lesotho, we’ve been staying at a missions house that host World Race teams as well as other mission organizations with a local church here called Harvester Hillock Bible Church. We live with a married couple Letsema and Mathabo who help us with language, cooking, and give us a space to just have relax and have fun with them. 

Days are busy here. Sunday – Friday are our work days, and Saturday is our Sabbath/Adventure day. Sunday’s consists of always having your testimony and a message prepared because most likely you will be speaking at a church somewhere in the community that morning. Church is anywhere from 2 to 4 hours and is full of singing, dancing, preaching, confession, prayer, and fellowship. It’s incredible. I’ve never seen church done in this way. 

Monday – Friday consists of a different schedule. Each morning our group of 7 splits into two groups. One group walks to Harvesters Bible School which is a school for kids grade pre-K through 7th grade connected to Harvesters Church. The other group heads down to the local hospital where people from the community wait outside a gate for the hospital to open it’s doors so that they can be seen by a doctor. 

During these visits each morning, each group must prepare about a 15 minute mini message, prayer, etc to share with each of these groups of people from 7:45am to 8am. I had the opportunity to spend a week visiting the hospital the first week here then the last two weeks at the school with the kids. At the school we sing songs with motions such as Father Abraham, My God is So Big, Jesus Loves Me, Way Maker, and Deep Cries Out. The kids LOVE to sing and dance. From there, we take turns giving a small lesson/devotion, and to end, someone prays us out. All the kids sing to us as we leave. It’s a very sweet time. For the hospital group, each person takes a turn preparing a message/devotional to share each morning. We hope that by praying over the group and sharing a word from the Lord that we are able to offer hope to those seeking healing. We pray that God would deliver them from their medical illness or hurt, and that they would come to know who their ultimate healer truly is. 

After coming home for breakfast, we all head back as one group to Harvesters Church where we have been gathering rocks from big to small to help lay a foundation for where the church wants to add on to it’s building. We do this until noon, break for lunch, then gather more rocks from 2 to 4pm. It’s hard work with nothing but ourselves. Sometimes we have a wheelbarrow, but mostly, we just find as many rocks as we can and carry them across the hill to the church. When kids walk by and ask what we are doing, how amazing is it that we get to tell them we are helping to build a firm foundation for a church. 

Outside of our daily schedule, there is always the random opportunities we get to be apart of. Sometimes on Monday nights, we get to go to Harvesters Monday night prayer group at 5pm to pray for others needs, our needs, the church, and the city and community. On Fridays at 11am, we get to go back to the school and prepare more games, lessons, songs, skit, etc for an hour assembly with the kids. On Friday nights at 5pm, we get to lead youth group at the church which is so much fun. We teach them songs, play games, and share a message with them. We also have had the opportunity to do prayer walks around town or when it’s raining to have prayer afternoons at the kitchen table together for the community. A couple of the girls even get the opportunity to teach at the school in the mornings. 

In all the business of ministry and manual labor, there has also been lack. A lack of water, lack of security, lack of resources, lack of Wifi, lack of air conditioning and heat. It’s not unlikely for the running water to go out and be out for days at a time. That means no water to wash dishes, wash clothes, shower, etc. There have been times when we felt unsafe at night, and we know that security isn’t something that is always promised. We’ve had no wifi, no air when it’s hot, and no heat when it’s cold. The one that gets me the most is the lack of resources. 

In the states, any of the jobs we’ve been doing, we have an unlimited amount of access to resources. In manual labor, we would have things like wheelbarrows, shovels, etc to help get our job done. In ministry, when preaching a sermon, writing a devotional, preparing a game for youth or kids, or whatever, help is literally a click or way or a drive to the store away. I can’t count the times I’ve driven to the store to buy this or that for youth that evening or when sermon writing for Sunday morning, I’ve had access to commentaries, dictionaries, previous sermons etc that can help me in preparing what to write. Here we have none of that. We have our bibles, our brains, and God which I’ve learned is all I need anyway. 

There is so much growth and joy in this lack. I have found joy in less. It’s almost easier to find God in the simplicity. We’ve had to get creative. We’ve had to actually trust God to sustain, protect, provide, and inspire and speak to us. Writing a sermon with no access to anything I’ve written before, playing a game with youth solely based off memory, giving a devotion fully relying on the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts and words has been so challenging and yet so so rewarding. 

This month has for sure had it’s challenges like life always does, but here in Lesotho, God is doing big things in this community and each of us on the race. He is teaching me how to fully rely on him for things like security, resources, and provision. All which a lot of us don’t really know or understand what it’s like to live without providing our own false sense of security or having a want for a resource and not an actual need. 

If you read my last blog, you know that in South Africa, I was in the midst of coming out of a difficult slump and learning how to fight for joy and celebration. God has been so faithful in showing me areas of my life where I can be thankful, have joy, and celebrate. He is restoring me in ways I can’t even begin to describe, and my time here in Mokhotlong, Lesotho has helped show me how to have joy; how to fight for joy in the lack, which actually isn’t really lack at all. It’s a lack of this world and much much more of being full in the love of Christ. 

Our first Sunday at Harvesters Church the pastor shared their verse of the year from 2021 and then the verse of the year for 2022. 

2021: Isaiah 43:18

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”

2022: Isiah 43:19

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

God is making a way. God is doing a new thing. It has sprung up, and I perceive it. I can see the new thing he is doing in me, those around me, this community, and those we are praying for back home.

I could write so much about this month, but for now this has been my experience in Lesotho, and I’m so grateful for it. Keep on the lookout for the next blog! I’m hopefully going to be sharing lots of photos from our time here within the next week or so!