Maun

As we got to Maun we didn't really know how we would fill our week but we knew that the Lord would help us in that. We didn't have to stay in a tent for the first time in 5 weeks...we did still sleep on a floor but it was better than the tent. During the day it was quite warm but at night it was very cold and we froze in our sleeping bags. The day after we arrived we went on a safari and had to leave at 5 in the morning. As we got into the safari truck, which was just us and our guide, it was an open truck and well it wasn't warm. We all froze until the sun came up about 2 hours later. It took about 2 hours to get to the begining of the park. Before we even got to the park though we saw 3 of the 5 "big 5". First we saw the water buffalo, then we saw a giraffe and finally and the most awesome in my opinion was the lion. They said it was rare to see the lions before the park but we didn't just see them...we saw a male relaxing in the grass and we drove slowly up to him. We got within maybe 10 or 15 feet. We stayed there for a bit and it seemed to just pose for us it was amazing. After we started to go to the gate of the game park our leader realized she dropped her camera and we all looked back and there was the lion walking across the road we just where at..maybe 500 yards behind us. As we drove back the guide got as close as he could to give us more opportunities for pictures and to get the girls camera back which was in the middle of the road. After we went into the park we saw many other animals but it wasn't until we saw the hippo that made the biggest memories... Mohape first pointed them out and our guide was, "they are out of the water? oh crap." He went on to say that hippos don't having things between them and the water and well we where very close to being that thing. Our guide decided to gun it and try to get away from the hippo before they noticed we where in there way but one of them heard us. As we gunned the truck the hippo started charging us. I was in the very back leaning out of the truck and taking as many pictures as I could but then it got closer and closer and the girls started to scream. As the hippo started running at us and got within 5 feet I thought it may hit us so I then jumped in the truck and ducked but at the last second the hippo changed direction and ran into the water. Although it was a little scary it was also awesome to have a hippo run at us...great memories. Although nothing the rest of the day topped that we did see a few elephants. We got very close to this old male and actually got near him when he was releaving himself which was hillarious. He got within 10 feet or so and it really shows the amazing grandure that they have. Later in the day we also found about 10 lions lying on eachother and on their backs because they had just eating a water buffalo that was nearby. They where just relaxing and being lazy so eventhough we got really close they didn't even move. After that we didn't see to much else but just seeing the lions, elephants and a charging hippo it was so worth it! On saturday we did more yard work and just relaxed. On sunday we went to a local church where I told my testimony and talked about the importance of taking a step of faith with God and how he will bless you in that. We also helped with the kids church and after the church a random man in the congregation handed me 1000 pula and said he wanted to bless our team with that. 1000 pula is about 175 dollars. On monday we did yard work then went to a school to do a bible story and found out that prince harry and also the jonas brothers are in Maun and specifically the Jonas brothers are playing at this school...The school was the nicest school I had seen in a long time in the states or here. As we prayed to see what God wanted us to do with the money we felt that God wanted us to go to this local botswana hangout restraunt called choice and pay for different people's meals then sit down with them and tell them about the gospel. Before we did that in the afternoon we did a bit of street evangelism which for me is hard to do but the Lord blessed us and we talked to these two college students for about an hour. That night we ended up going to that restraunt...choice. This was also somethign I was nervous about because walking up to people is not my forte but I went with it. As I went up to talk to two guys they where shocked that they wanted to pay for them and although they where not that talkative I was able to talk to them about God for 45 minutes. After that I went to talk to another guy that was drinking by himself and he was way more talkative. Josh, Mohape, and myself talked with him and enjoyed hearing about his life and eventually told him about God. Its amazing how open the people in africa have been about hearing about the Lord. If we did the same thing in the states it would have never worked. As I talked to these guys our other teammates talked to other people and we ended up talking to about 10 people that night. The next day we did what do you know...more yardwork..I must be in shape now! After the yardwork we met up with a few guys that Josh had talked to the other day and the girls talked to a few people that they met with the night before. As we eventually found the guys we where to talk more about God with a few more where interested in coming including one guy that knew the bible very very well and was preaching to me. Once we all sat down another guy showed up and found out about what we did last night and walked about 2 hours just to talk with us and so he sat down and we all talked about God. There was about 9 of us at this small table enjoying botswana food and talking about the Lord. Out of the guys that where most interested was the preacher and the guy that walked 2 hours to see us. After the others left these two sticked around for awhile to talk longer. I feel blessed that because of listening to God we where able to meet and talk to these guys. Just before we parted Josh gave the "preacher" his bible and the other guy was really excited about what we where doing and was interested in joining YWAM eventually. The next day we left in the morning because we wanted to drop by Ghanzi, our first stop, to see a few people we met with. When we got there we went to talk with the paralyzed kids again and we all felt that they should take off the bands that they had around their waists. They had got them from the Zion church and basically came from a traditional healer or witch doctor. We knew that the bands can come with many demons and felt they needed to take them off and burn them. We talked with them for awhile about it and eventually took them off which was very encouraging but once we started praying I felt they needed to burn it and not just place it in the room. I then mentioned they needed to burn it but as I told the mom she told me she had to tell the dad and then when the dad came back he said he had to talk to the church. At that point we realized they where only trying to please us by takign them off but they truly didn't trust that we where telling them the truth and they trusted those bands more thang God's healing. At that point we all prayed then said bye but all felt dissapointed and frustrated that they had only done it to please us. We feel sad that that happen but we know that we did all we could in the time we had. We just slept on the floor in the same house we stayed at when we where there the first 2 weeks. That next day we tried to leave for Rustenburg, South Africa and so we left early in the morning. We where suppose to be in rustenburg at 1pm but we didn't show up till 10pm... When we got to the boarder we all got through except for mohape because he had a temporary passport which is basically this piece of paper that anyone could have copied...can't believe he got all the way to botswana in the first place. Anyways South Africa changed the law while we where in Botswana and they refused to let him in. They told us that he would have to go to the south african embassy in Gabarone, Bostwana...which is about 2 hours away from where we where. So we rushed there to hopefully make it before it closed. Once we got there we found out that not only was it closed at 11am (we showed up at 5pm, and where told it was open till 4pm), but it was closed for the next 3 days because of holidays. We had to make a decision either drive back and stay with a missionary there..(hopefully), or to drive to a different boarder post and pray and pray that they would let him in at least to get to his home in Lesotho. When we eventually got to the boarder post two girls and mohape went to each post and had to tell them the story of where we had been to try to get across the boarder and each post said, well I am pretty sure they will say no but you can try. They eventually got to the end and got a lady to say yes he can have 3 days to get back to lesotho...which is surrounded by South Africa. When the rest of the team showed up and got to the south african side the same lady wasn't there....and they wouldn't let him in. So again we all prayed and explained to them what we had to do and eventually they did give him 3 days to get back to Lesotho. That night we drove to Rustenburg and just crashed. We realized mohape had to go back to lesotho ASAP now or he would be arrested but at least we got through! Hello South Africa!