Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Well, we made it to the Mountain Kingdom. Tears filled my eyes as I began to see the beautiful, rocky mesas appear to the East as our airplane flew closer to the land of my dream. I have been waiting for this moment for a whole year, trying to get back here. The Moshoeshoe I International Airport was as I remembered. As we walked off the plane onto the runway, the cooler air was refreshing, and you could tell by the green color everywhere and puddles that the afternoon rain had already come.

As we crowded into the small reception area, we found the customs forms that must be filled out on ledges along the sides of each wall. One stack of forms was covered with ants and we had to brush the ants away to find room to fill out our paperwork.

Matthew, Derek, Ray and Sue were there to meet us—so great to see all of them! After big hugs all around, we got our luggage and 2 pieces of luggage (Sonya’s and Matthew’s camera case) from the previous flight which had been too full to hold all the luggage so had been sent on our later flight.

Matthew drove the rental car for our team while Derek took pictures through the window and windshield. Matthew did great, especially considering the driver’s seat is on the right side of the car and he was driving on the left side of the road! As soon as we left the airport, we experienced the characteristic pedestrians all alongside the road into town. Everywhere I have ever been in Africa, you can always see people walking on the roads—men, women, boys and girls. The children in uniform were walking home from school, the ladies in their dresses, the blanketed shepherd tending his flock with his staff (that is the stick kind!). All sights reminded me that we were surely in Africa. Ray and Sue were so gracious to lead us to the hotel.

After checking in, and greeting my long lost friends whom I had been separated from all day, Matthew and Derek took me to Command Central, Room 407 at the Maseru Sun Hotel, which they had turned into a miniature version of the Bat Cave (this is what we affectionately call the VC.TV studio at Victory). There were power chords and big screens everywhere. They had also commissioned the tiny TV in the room to be used as a monitor for a lap top. These guys were serious about their work and they had a plan! After seeing this complicated but clever set-up (why am I not surprised?) which reminded me of scenes from “Mission Impossible”, a discussion ensued about how to keep this equipment secure. The rooms here have real keyed locks (by the way, all the doors to the rooms and bathrooms were installed upside down….strange), and we debated the suggested strategy of just always keeping the Do Not Disturb sign on the door hoping that the maids wouldNEVERcome in vs. asking the hotel manager to help us with extra security, and we decided on the ‘No Tell’ policy to be combined with fervent prayer. I don’t know how Matthew and Derek will get clean towels, but I’m sure they’ll figure out something.

We had dinner at the hotel and then went back to Command Central for devotions, a review of our schedule for the week and prayer. God is speaking to us as we had a great discussion clarifying our vision. We keep going back to The Dream as this is the most detailed guidance we have and holds the main clues as to what God has in mind. We have formed sort of the beginning of a Mission Statement that we know our purpose here is to help the exploited children of Lesotho—the children who are exploited by HIV/AIDS and have been orphaned because of it, and the children who are exploited by the sex industry. Our desire is to form an organization or network that can (1) rescue these children, (2) shelter and feed these children (3) educate these children, and (4) rehabilitate (maybe not the right word—to teach them a life skill and how to make a living and become productive, healthy members of society) these children.

This team is such an encouragement to me as I am sometimes a reluctant leader. There is not doubt that God gave me the dream because I have influence and the ability to mobilize others to get on board. Even though that may be ALL I have, it seems to be what is needed at this time to help get the job done.

Barb, Sonya and Teresa had ‘God encounters’ with different members of the community on the flight here, one of whom was a standby passenger that got my seat, including a banker who wants to get involved financially in helping and the builder of a hospital. They are following up with meetings with these individuals this week.
God is good! Praise His name forever!

We have a big day today…will update later. Love to all…..