Mountains

It has been a while since I have been on line. I have gotten myself a bit too busy, and have neglected putting together an entry. This one feels rushed but, nontheless, ...

November 01, I was back at Thaba Bosiu for my day of solitude and prayer. (In October I was not able to go to Thaba Bosiu, and so hiked to the top of a small mountain here in Maseru.) Back at Thaba Bosiu I learned something new - on weekdays the mountain doesn’t open until 8:00 a.m.! Thaba Bosiu is a historical site and visitors are charged 10 Maloti to visit it. There was no one to take my money before 8:00 and the security guard at the info centre, though most polite in Sesotho and limited English, advised me that I could not go up. So I drove off down the road and enjoyed a couple of hours of wandering, thinking, writing, thinking some more – like, “If these sprinkles turn to rain and I am still on this stretch of road I will be here a lot longer than I had planned!”

I was back at the mountain shortly after 8:00, and after paying my fee was on my way up. It was threatening rain so I headed to an area where there is a large overhang. There were no motor cross bikes this time, just the cacophony of cow bells wafting up from the valley below.

I think what I enjoyed the most this time was just the solitude. Work has been very busy for me the last while, and the solitude was most refreshing. I read, talked to God, slept a bit, but mostly just rested. Towards the end of my time I felt encouraged, and refreshed, as well as challenged. As I prepared to descend there was a song in my heart:

how can i keep from singing your praise
how can i ever say enough
how amazing is your love
how can i keep from shouting your name
i know i am loved by the king
and it makes my heart want to sing Chris Tomlin

I needed that encouragement and refreshment, but dear God, why the challenge?

Why is it that we human being so often grumble about what we don’t have rather than rejoice in what we do have? And just because one is from a poor African nation, one in not immune from grumbling. Amongst our staff we have grumblers and complainers too, and their attitudes are a drain on others and have been a bit of a discouragement for me. And then us white volunteer staff are not immune from grumbling either. The challenge that God confirmed for me on the mountain is that I need to do something, that I need to confront attitudes that do not bring glory to God. But why me, God??

It would be so easy to turn away. Who am I, a white person from a privileged western country, to confront people, especially the Bo’m’e, about their attitudes? I have no idea of what their lives are like. But God won’t let me squirm out of this challenge.

God has poured blessing upon blessing upon Beautiful Gate. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have come in – but for the building projects. Even the latest newsletter appeal brought in $10,000 for a future project I don’t think we even need (God obviously sees it differently) but few funds for day-to-day operating costs such as salaries. So I am sure it is difficult for the Bo’m’e, earning $100Can, to understand why there is not more for them and to grumble a bit

So God, what is my piece in this? Somehow I need to build on the many, many positives I see here, and on the wonderful work that the Bo’m’e do each day, often under the trying conditions that they have endured. Yet, I also need to invite them to praise God for what we have at Beautiful Gate, and to share in trusting and looking to God to provide, not to Ray (the founder). Like the Israelites who needed to learn it was not Moses they were to look to, but to God, so with the Bo’m’e and the rest of us who are often quick to complain.

So that is my challenge. An opportunity to speak to the Bo’m’e is coming, and to my other colleagues it is taking opportunities as they arise. Pray for me that my words will be compassionate and helpful. (I was not the most helpful when commenting to my boss on his sometimes ‘seagull’ management style, and I had to go back to him and apologize for not explaining why it is a less productive management approach.) Yet God has been faithful and I am encouraged as he has used my words in other circumstances to prepare the ground for reconciliation and understanding between individuals.

So Lord, may I have your wisdom and your love, but could you offer somewhat less of a challenge during our time together on December 01.

~ Benno ~

(Thabiso, Wendy introduced you to him, was also in my prayers there on the mountain, and I am delighted that we are again in touch with him.)