I have come home from my sixth trip to Africa and it never gets old.  Few things compare to sharing a close, blood-like bond of brotherhood in Christ with people so vastly different than yourself.  Yet that is exactly what happens when we are connected to the Vine.

This trip centered around our annual short term missions trip with athletes from Wabash College. It’s a favorite of mine simply because of my ability to participate along side a movement of the Spirit – in a most unlikely situation.  You see, Wabash is an all-male university with high academic credentials as well as a reputation for heavy partying. Six years ago my college roommate, Neal Neathery, coached the football team and began voluntary chapel meetings prior to every football game.  At first, five players reluctantly showed up.  Six years later 95 out of the 109 players are enrolled in weekly Bible study and the team has embarked on their third short term missions trip with OneWay to Botswana.  The campus is in a revival.

On the mission field, this team is such a blessing to the villages and the youth in the area our full-time missionaries minister in.  You can see on the kids’ faces the team’s arrival is a highlight of their year. The platform these men have leads the way for one of the clearest and most effective communications of the saving power of the gospel I have ever seen.  And for a few of the Wabash men who came on the trip unsaved themselves, well, the final day we celebrated with a baptism service welcoming them into the family of Christ.  Like I said, few things compare to sharing life in Christ   -Jim

Every post should start off with a picture of an airplane. Before the team arrived, we took a flight over Botswana’s Okavango Delta, the world’s only inland river delta and saw from a bird’s eye view elephants, buffalo and hippos.

This river delta pours itself onto a desert for two months out of the year and turns a brown, arid wasteland into a lush green haven for wildlife.

And where there is wildlife, there are people.  Notice some of the huts that are being constructed.  There are few mortgages in Botswana and most people do not have bank accounts.  So when you need to build a house and have enough money to afford a single cinder block, you buy the brick and immediately mortar it to your foundation.  When you have enough for another brick, you do it again.  In a year or two, you have a completed one room house.

Here some of the Wabash men learn some African dancing.  Now you know why I like to be the one taking pictures.

Then men memorized Bible stories, which after the sports camps they would share them with the village or school.  Here, a Wabash man teamed up with one of our African missionaries and together practiced sharing the story in both English and Setswana.

Ever play the game Sharks and Minnows with 400 kids? We did!

At a village named Sehithwa, over 700 kids aged 6 to 18 showed up.  Here two school teachers, along with many students accepted Christ.

Always a favorite is the prison.  This quite possibly is the most fruitful time of the trip as these men are broken and very receptive to the gospel, two key ingredients to eternal life.

How many Wardens in the US would welcome the gift of Bibles and freely distribute them the prisoners.  I don’t know the answer, but in Botswana Bibles are gold in the eyes of the prison officials.  This man told us he has never seen a freed inmate come back to prison after they accepted Christ behind bars.

Because we lacked adventure in our week, we set out with our 4x4s after a village meeting into the bush to catch glimpses of some wildlife

It’s hard to miss sighting an elephant when he’s ten feet from the truck

And the week ended with professions of faith in Christ from some of the Wabash men.  Of the 23 men who came of the trip a few did not have Christ in their life.  We chose to take them with the hope that God would work in their life through the other men and the experience.  He did.