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To my faithful friends who keep praying for me.  How I thank you!!!!  Without your prayers and interest in what I am doing I don't think i would be as effective.  I feel like you all are a part of this ministry too.  I keep getting moved out of my comfort zone and I get asked to do things I would never be asked to do in the States.  It is both exciting and scary at times but somehow God gives me the strength and the know how to do what comes to me.

We are coming into fall here and it is soooo much more comfortable than it was for a while in the hot summer months.  At times we still have issues with running water and electricity but God has given me the ability to take it all in stride.

God has given me such a love for these people.  They are wonderful!!! They are kind and loving.  They have become my family on this side of the ocean.  Some call me mother, mama, ma, or mamy (that's the way they spell mommy).  Even people who dont attend church faithfully or at all come to see me and are interested in what I am doing.  I am praying that somehow God would help me to help the whole village of Bokaa...I am told there are 5000 who live here...I haven't seen them all but hope to in time.

I am working hard to learn the Setswana language and have come a long ways but still have a ways to go too.  If I ask what word in the sentence is for "you" for instance my coach tells me, "Ma Brown, it isn't like English...it is just the way we say it in Setswana.  There is no word for word translation.

I brought the game Skip Bo with me and  oh my, they love it. Since they have very little to entertain themselves with it is a winner.  I have had people 2 or 3 at times stop by and want to know if I have time to play a couple games with them.  I usually do because it is another way for me to interact with them.

My cookie ministry is something else.  Now it is no longer just the children...adults will say "ma Brown, can I have a couple cookies". I have never made so many cookies. I now buy flour and sugar in bags that are bigger than your 10 lb bags!  And in 2 or 3 weeks I am back to get more.  They like my muffins too.  This week I have made banana bread to serve to my Bible study ladies.  One thing that is strange to me...there is no all purpose flour sold here that I have seen...it is either cake flour or bread flour.

I had a wonderful Easter... Several churches meet together for what they call Easter camp, beginning on Thursday night, then all day Friday, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning and Sunday dinner the last thing before going home.  We did not stay on the grounds since it is only a 35 minute drive for us.  The speaker was Rev Patrick Pauls from Cape Town in South Africa...He was outstanding.  He does not speak Setswana, only English, so services had to be translated but that is not a problem...Many are able  to do that.

The African people cannot be still, stand still, or do nothing when there is music.  They have to move and they take literally what the Bible says about praising the Lord with song and dance.  Some are super charged but they are humble, in love with Jesus and want others to know Him as well.

Each morning started at 6:00 with devotions then breakfast....we would get there for breakfast.  We were served either tea or coffee and plain loaf bread...no butter, no jam or jelly, just bread, no sweet rolls etc.  I never heard one complaint.  That's just the way it was.  I did see many eat 4 slices of bread!  Lunch and dinner was HUGE portions of either rice, porridge or samp (samp looks and tastes like hominy to me) meat and vegetables.  By HUGE I mean a full half or more of the plate has the starch on it and it is heaped up too.   I have seen these tiny thin young girls eat huge plate fulls and I wonder where they put it all how do they stay that way.  Saturday night though it was like breakfast...something to drink and plain bread.  I never heard anyone say is this all we're having?  It was what we had and what they ate with a grateful heart.

I had a lady stop by my place this morning and tell me she has a friend who is quite depressed who called her for comfort.  My friend said I told he take her Bible and if nothing else just hold it and say they name Jesus and He will help you.  My friend is a new Christian and growing in the Lord.  I am working with a young man trying to encourage him to go on to school and make something of his life...he has such potential.   I have had many answers to prayer and God keeps stretching me as I work with these people.

Pray that I learn the Setswana language easily.  This 78 yr old mind doesn't always work like it used to.  And pray that I am effective in whatever comes my lot to do.  Many days I get up thinking I will do thus and so and my schedule gets all turned around .

I love you all and am so grateful for you my friends.
In His Steps
Elizabeth Brown