Feb Prayer Letter - #feesmustfall

Registration at North-West University is set to begin next week, God willing. You may remember last November when the students protested/rioted over anticipated fee increases at universities all across South Africa.  After two weeks of protests, the government promised a 0% fee increase for 2015 so the protests were called off and the students were able to finish their exams.  The ultimate goal of the protesters, however, was completely free university education and now students around South Africa are again protesting and interfering with registration for the new academic year in an effort to obtain that goal.  NWU’s registration process begins next week so we will soon know if our university will once again be involved in the protests.

Rumors are rampant among the students and staff with some saying that protests/strikes during registration may close the university until next term (July).  Thankfully, I can rest in the knowledge that no matter the outcome, it is all in God’s hands. Sadly for me and the evangelism students I work with, if registration is affected then our planned outreach will likely be canceled.  Several students are coming back a week early to help with the outreach to first-years and Dr Gestring is flying in from the US to help as well. We are praying that registration and orientation continues as planned.

If the protests do occur please pray that they will stay peaceful this time.  Pray that no students, police, or staff will be injured, that no property will be damaged, and that I will be able to stay in my on-campus housing. 

If the protests do not develop on our campus, please pray for the students participating in our outreach.  Pray that incoming students will be prepared by God to hear of his love and salvation.  Pray that strong relationships will develop between the incoming students and those students participating in the outreach. Pray that the outreach students will be bold in sharing God’s word to those around them.

As usual, up to the minute details will be posed via my Facebook page.  You can also follow along with the national protests online by searching for #feesmustfall.  Please keep us in your prayers.

Jan Prayer Letter - Botswana

Happy New Year!  Have you made any New Year’s resolutions?  I’ll admit, I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolution although I greatly admire those who make them and manage to keep them. 

Christmas here just didn’t feel like Christmas with the weather in the 90’s and 100’s, but I did manage to do some baking and candy making.  I put up a tree and a few decorations and broke out the Christmas music, but kept expecting Christmas in July car sales advertisements on TV.  In traditional South African style, the clinic went to half days in December and was closed for over a week during the holidays.  Many of the businesses here shut down or run minimally during the month of December, which can be very inconvenient.  We even had difficulty getting our medical supply orders as those companies also shut down for several weeks.

Thankfully, everything else is getting back to normal on campus.  The students finally finished their exams about 3 weeks late (due to the protests) and are now home for summer break.  They should be arriving back around the end of the month, but until then, the campus is very quiet.  While they’ve been gone, the security gate by my house has been repaired (it was severely damaged by the student protests) as has the main university gate. 

            One goal for the free time I had during the holidays was to practice my evacuation route into Botswana.  I took the opportunity to visit friends in Lobatse, just across the border, for a weekend and managed to survive the border crossing with minimal hassle.  A bit different than the US/Canada border!  On arriving at the South African side of the border you park and enter a building to have your passport stamped and car registration details recorded.  After finishing there you go through a car inspection and then drive to the Botswana side to go through it all again.  Stand in line, get passport stamped, stand in line, record car license and registration details, stand in line, pay a fee, etc.  Thankfully, I am now familiar with the process in case I need to leave South Africa quickly.

The area across the border is much more beautiful than Mafikeng with rolling hills and lovely scenery.  Sadly, my friends there are leaving this month to move back to the US so I won’t have a good excuse to visit in the future.

Please continue praying for the new student outreaches that will be going on the last week of Jan and the first week of Feb.  Please pray for open, prepared hearts and willing spirits.