Lesotho Trip Book Extract

 

Extract from my book on our Lesotho trip.

When I think about how we were able to go from village to village, community to community to minister and always meet up with a lot of people, then I now realize that Seth must have notified everyone in advance of our plans (his plans). No telephones or cell phones around those days so he must have journeyed all over the place in advance to organize everything. That was a masterpiece all on its own those days.

The places we ministered at were spread out all over the countryside and involved a lot of hiking across rough terrain. Seth did it all so that us city folks could just pitch up and minister without a hitch.

Our first ministry our was around the vicinity of our base camp which was quite hilly - up and down the mountain side - looking for shepherd boys and locals to minister to. Our leader, Pastor Mark carried a loud hailer. He would speak into it and his voice was carried great distances to people on the hills. Then we would walk or climb to where they were and speak with them. Quite often it meant that we would take a while to get to where they were. We would then give them a short message or pray for them.

Ministering in those conditions was quite arduous but always rewarding. Shepherds and other folk were very open to us and we actually enjoyed sharing the good news of the Gospel with them.

That was how the mission trip started with us ministering to one or two people at a time in the hills. Afterwards, we would hike for an hour or two by going over the top of a mountain and down through a valley on the other side, then halfway up another mountain to a very small settlement. By the time you reach a hut and people come out to greet you and you are a bit exhausted but they offer you a drink and something to eat. Then you get to share your message right inside their huts and often pray for the sick because there are no doctors around.

So, your ministry is very similar to what Jesus did in the Bible. Only, there in Lesotho you travel across rugged terrain a lot of the time. No 4x4’s, just walking great distances.

Sometimes you get to minister to simple folk that live in very remote areas and they are very hospitable.

On another day our whole group left our base camp and hiked down the valley where we had arrived and then walked to the next village. On the way we crossed a stream of ice-cold water that meandered down the hill-side.

We couldn’t resist removing our shoes and walked through the icy stream to the other side. We sat down and put our shoes back on and carried on towards the next village. It was an unforgettable experience which I can relive to this day.