March 2003

Dear Friends,

Before we came to Lesotho in 2001, it seemed perfectly normal to pull the car over to the side of the road upon hearing a siren. It still does, but what is surprising is how commonplace it now seems to do so knowing that the siren does not indicate any emergency; it's just the police escort for the king, followed by the king driving by in his SUV. It's just part of the routine here.

Life in Lesotho reminds us to look for God's goodness despite circumstances. The New Year did not get off to a good start for the Morija Theological Seminary. During the Christmas holidays, the school suffered two break-ins, including a robbery of a large amount of cash. The robbers were caught, but the cash was not recovered. Also, one full-time faculty member and one part-time lecturer resigned from the school. These events were distressing for the school because of the already existing shortage of faculty and funds. On a more positive note, one short-term lecturer came to teach at the seminary for the month of January, and two part-time lecturers are here this term to teach New Testament survey and church history. Samantha and the two part-time lecturers have recently started holding a weekly Bible study with about ten of the female seminary students. Many of the seminary students go through their five years of study gaining a lot of "head knowledge" about the Bible but have little opportunity to study it on a personal level. We are happy to have the chance to encourage them in their Christian faith.

It's hard to quantify the accomplishments of 2002. Last year was primarily an organizing year in which we brought together about 20 groups of churches, non-governmental organizations, and community-based organizations to see if we could develop a sense of our common purpose of seeking to reduce poverty and hunger in Lesotho. We are now at the point at which we will be discovering how we can really work together toward that goal.

While our network purposely does not include international organizations, we are attempting to develop partnership with a few international NGOs. One of these is Dorcas Aid, a Netherlands-based Christian relief and development agency. They have gotten involved in the distribution of food and seed, in partnership with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). Together they have flown 30,000 kilograms of maize and other food to communities of need in the mountains. I find our network has a role to play in reminding people that while food aid is fine (when it doesn't create inter-village fighting), we have to look at and address the root causes of the problem, not just the symptoms. While it is important to feed hungry people, it's also essential to strive to create sustainable communities.

In previous letters we have mentioned a bit about the pervasive HIV/AIDS problem in Lesotho, and in southern Africa in general (published rates of infection in the range of 30-40 percent for Lesotho). A very poignant illustration of the scope of the problem was told to us this week by a friend who is a pilot with MAF. One mountain village he has been to has a total population of 200, only 14 of whom are adults. This is the kind of situation you would imagine for a country in a war situation. But here, the killer is AIDS, probably exacerbated by poor nutrition. This staggering reality is one that will likely be faced by more and more communities in the coming years. It raises many questions, such as how government and churches can assist and support child-headed households.

We regularly attend an international church, with a mix of national and international members. Though we've been in Lesotho over a year, we had until recently only attended one "local" church, which has a service in English, but with very few non-Basotho in the congregation. Knowing how much fuss is made over foreign visitors in African churches, and just preferring to go to a service in English, we hadn't ventured out much. Then a few weeks ago we accepted a longstanding invitation to attend Tlumetlu LEC, a church located in Ha Mantsebo, about 30 kilometers from Maseru, and pastored by Ntabanyane Tšeuoa, one of the JHAH Network executive committee members. The service was in Sesotho (the local language) and followed an order of service and hymns from a book that we did not have (congregants bring their own book to the service). So, having declined the services of a translator—we didn't want to disturb those around us—we struggled a bit (OK, a lot) to follow along. We also declined a request to sit up front on the leaders' platform, but when we were asked (forced?) to go up to the front to say a few words, Bob successfully, if nervously, greeted the congregation in Sesotho, introducing ourselves, saying where we are from and where we live, and how delighted we were to be with them (which was true). It was a very good service, with an excellent youth choir and a message by a man who spoke slowly enough that we could actually understand a fair amount of what he was saying. After a while, however, the service began to feel more like a meeting than a worship service. We saw that a few others were beginning to go in and out of the church and so at an opportune time, we were able to go outside, where we spoke to the pastor and his wife (they'd snuck out too, at some point). The service had indeed dovetailed neatly into a church meeting that was going to go on all afternoon. But the pastor's wife, Lineo, had prepared lunch for us, which we enjoyed immensely. Ntabanyane regretted that he had to go back into the meeting. We dubbed the experience "how to spend an entire Sunday at church without even trying."

For churches

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. If your church would like to pledge support to our work through Directed Mission Support, our account is number "D506337 - Robert and Samantha Franklin." This kind of giving is meant only for Presbyterian churches, not for individuals. For more information on how to pledge get a free copy of the 2003 Directed Mission Support book, PDS#68700-03-050 by calling the Presbyterian Distribution Service at (800) 524-2612. Or call the Mission Funding and Development Office at (888) 728-7228 x5659.

For individuals

For individuals who feel moved to contribute to the ministry of Joining Hands Against Hunger, send checks to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Central Receiving, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Write "Joining Hands - Lesotho - H000110" on the subject line. It's best to enclose a cover letter and write the same thing. Send a copy of that cover letter to the Presbyterian Hunger Program, 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202.

Khotso,

Bob and Samantha

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 44