Lesotho Recap

For our month in Lesotho, Team Golden Girls and Team Spice worked with an organization called Africa 4 Jesus in the Malealea Valley. A4J is run by the Mierkes, a family of four originally from South Africa who have lived as missionaries in Lesotho for 11 years. Lesotho has hundreds upon hundreds of villages tucked into the mountains that remain largely unreached by the Gospel. A4J’s goal is to reach 50 of these villages by building a network of missionaries with a mindset of passing on what they’ve learned. The hope is that each village will go on to pick another village to invest in, mentor, and pray over. This will allow the local communities to have full responsibility for spreading the Good News and raising up pastors and elders for their churches. I’m so grateful that we got to partner with this vision for a whole month. Dana actually made a video about the ministry, so take a look!

When we first crossed the border into Lesotho, we knew that we had a long and bumpy ride ahead of us. Most of the roads are unpaved and not well maintained. We also had to cross a broken bridge. This meant taking everything out of our van, walking across the cracked concrete, and loading back up into a different van on the other side. Once we got to Africa 4 Jesus, we were split up into different bedrooms where we had beds again (yaaaaay!) and then given a tour of the ministry base. We got to see the preschool, gardens, kitchen, and church sanctuary. It was very easy to make ourselves at home and immediately feel comfortable and safe. Most of our days in Lesotho were relatively slow. I usually started my mornings with the sunrise at 5:00am, some yoga, and lots of time reading my Bible. And I got to do all of this with the most incredible view!

Bishop, one of the four dogs that lived at the ministry, would usually join me in the mornings.

Our first week in the Malealea Valley was once again interrupted by COVID. We had to quarantine for a few days, but that didn’t discourage us one bit. We spent our time deep cleaning the preschool, weeding the playground, and having long worship sessions. It was during our Sunday worship time that the Lord revealed by most deeply rooted lie to me. As I sat cuddled in a blanket singing along to the song playing, Cass came up to me and told me about a vision she had. She explained that she saw me holding a cup, standing in front of God. God was holding a bigger, better, more beautiful cup and wanted to give it to me, but I wasn’t taking it. I had absolutely no idea what that was about, but I immediately started praying for clarity. Within a few minutes, God opened my eyes to the lie that had been root in my heart for years: I didn’t believe I was worthy of abundance. The entire idea of abundance was scary and uncomfortable to me. He kept wanting to give me His cup of abundance and I kept refusing it. I shared my discovery with the rest of the group and became determined to dig out this stubborn weed.

The next week, we were finally free from quarantine and moved on to helping at the local high school in the mornings. This involved an hour long walk through muddy fields to the school and then teaching three different groups of students. On our first day there, we just spent some time getting to know the kiddos and cleaning the school. We taught them a clapping game that we learned in Colombia and talked with them for a while. The next day, I stayed home with a migraine (not yay). The day after that, I led a drawing exercise that encouraged the students to consider how they viewed God. I struggled a bit to lead this hour-long class because Lesotho children are taught at a very young age that to be quiet is to be respectful. Also, they often get beat in school if they get the answer wrong which discourages them from answering at all. At times it felt a bit like pulling teeth when I would ask a question and only receive blank stares. However, once a few brave souls started to open up, it became easier for everyone. It was really beautiful to see how much detail they put into their work and how they saw God as their good, loving Savior.

Lesotho is one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever seen! We got to see the most incredible views during our walks to ministry.

This was my only day teaching as I spent the next two days preparing a Beauty for Ashes event for the girls at the school. We made adorable invitations and name tags and decorated the church sanctuary with Bible verses, balloons, and blankets. When the girls arrived on the day of, Cass (my fellow B4A coordinator) and I led them through another drawing exercise. We had them write out and decorate their favorite verse while I read a short teaching about identity in Christ to them. We served them lunch and snacks and then sat down to watch Luca before sending them home with some candy and encouraging notes. We had a few hiccups, mainly due to the fact that the girls showed up an hour later than we had intended, but overall, I would say that it was a success!

A bunch of the girls had verses from Proverbs memorized that they wrote out and decorated.

That same weekend, I had an incredible adventure day! Claudia, A-Stew, Claire, Sav, and I all spent two nights at the Malealea Lodge, a local inn that leads pony rides and other excursions. We arrived Friday evening right after ministry, enjoyed some drinks, and stayed up super late swapping stories and laughing until we cried. The next morning, we enjoyed an incredible breakfast and went on a horseback riding trip. We rode through the stunning countryside for two hours before getting to a steep cliff. From there, we got off our horses and we climbed down a narrow path to a cave and more winding trails along the cliffside. Our amazing guides showed us cave paintings and explained how and why the indigenous people would paint what they did on the rock walls. It was such an amazing time, and we took so many photos! We came back to the lodge for a late lunch and spent the afternoon enjoying the silence and peace; we were the only people staying there that weekend. After an incredible dinner, we headed back to our room for more chatting and a movie night.

My horse’s name was Sarah, and she was incredibly sweet. She loved being in the front of the line and would race past anyone that was moving too slowly for her taste.

Our last week of ministry consisted of village evangelism. It involved even more walking, although it was usually along the road and not through the mud. We split into teams and went from house to house talking to whoever was home. This isn’t my favorite type of ministry as it’s pretty awkward a lot of the time when you can tell that the people don’t really want you in their home and are just waiting for you to leave. However, one of my most memorable moments happened on our last day of ministry. As we approached the last house on our route, the elderly lady out front excitedly waved at us to come quickly. She was sitting in front of her house sorting through some type of grain. Behind her, two young children quietly played in the dust. We hurried over and sat around her as she burst into tears. She spoke no English, so we had to rely on our translator, Tibu. Through Tibu, she explained that her grandson had been shot and killed the week before. One of the little kids was his. Our hearts broke for this sweet woman. One by one, we moved closer to her. Sarah-Katherine sat at her feet and began to pray. Dana came up behind her, putting her hands on this sweet lady’s shoulders. I made my way over to the children.

For a while, I just sat with them. They leaned into me, and I prayed that the physical touch would provide some comfort. As we continued to bounce between praying and listening to the grandmother share her story, the kids began to open up a bit. They began to trace the flowers on my skirt, shyly smiling up at me. Then we began to collect rocks to build a large tower. They could’ve played that game for the rest of the day. Once we ran out of rocks that we could reach from where they were sitting, they started to run around the house, darting back and forth, bringing back any rock they saw. Soon, their laughter began to intermingle with their great grandmother’s soft voice. The older girl put on my sunglasses and modeled them for all of us as the younger one continued to bring over rocks as fast as possible.

As all this was happening, the sweet grandmother asked us to pray over her leg. She had some kind of injury that kept her from walking properly, so she needed a cane to get around. After we took turns praying over her, she slowly stood up. Cautiously she began to take one step after another. Then she began to pick up the pace, she jogged around the house and began to cry out with joy. She threw her cane down, grabbed Sarah-Katherine, and began to dance. The five of us, Tibu, and the children watched in awe. It took a second for us to realize that we had just witnessed a miracle but when it finally sunk in, we all began to laugh and dance with her. All too soon it was time to say goodbye to this precious family. The walk back to the ministry was surreal. I was overwhelmed by the healing I had gotten to witness yet also heartbroken that I would never see these people again. It was such a beautiful, bittersweet moment that I knew I would remember for the rest of my life.

This is definitely one of my favorite photos from the Race so far.

After our three weeks in Lesotho, we headed to Mbombela, South Africa for a week-long debrief with the rest of our squad. This was a week filled with amazing adventures, incredible worship sessions, and rest. After that, we moved on to Month 7: eSwatini! Stay tuned to learn all about the amazing time I’ve had here. Right now, I’m sitting in the Johannesburg airport about to board a flight to Rwanda. Please be praying for the next two months that we’ll be spending there!

Hello from Claudia and A-Stew! Thankfully our teams were together for both Lesotho and eSwatini, so I still got to see them all the time. A-Stew is living her best life being an incredible treasurer and friend. Claudia already has a job lined up for after the Race! Be sure to keep them in your prayers along with the Golden Girls. Also, be sure to check out Dana’s recap video for Month 6!