A little about me

This was a questionnaire form our supervisor wanting to know how we were growing, and what is going on for us spiritually.  I wanted to also give those whom are praying for me an update as well.  I give you this update for two reasons, to show that your prayers have played a major part in it, and so that you will keep prying for me b/c it’s a daily struggle growing in my walk with the Lord!!  So here are some questions and answers.

 

What are the top three areas where you feel you have grown? Explain. 

My prayer life- I have always been one to pray, I love to pray and I tend to feed off prayer.  While I have been here though, my prayer life has moved from more of self-prayer to praising the Lord and interceding for others.  It has been nice to wake up in the morning praising my Lord in prayer with words of praise and thanksgiving, and then before moving on I will check my spirit to make sure there is nothing that is offensive within me.  I then intercede for whoever the Lord puts on my heart, and at the end of my prayer I will lift up request of the Lord.  I would use to consume my prayers with “Lord help me with this or that”, or for blessings, now if I pray for myself it is a request of His voice, for a clear picture of His will for the day, and for more faith and love!!  Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way trying to make myself look good, I still struggle with this, and it is easy for me to go back to just praying for myself.  But the Lord has been gracious to me in pointing me in the right direction of prayer.

 

My desire for the word- this has been the biggest growth in my life.  I will have to honestly and sadly say I have never read through the whole bible.  I have only read maybe 7 books of the OT!!  I have no excuse on why this is, just being lazy and not interested really.  However, this is no longer the case.  When I got here in Botswana, the Lord put a burden on my heart for reading through the OT as well as memorizing scripture, mainly long passages of scripture.  I use to only read around a chapter or two a day, and even when I only read so little I didn’t take too much time to really study it (now this wasn’t always the case, just a majority of the time).  Here in Botswana, I have been reading anywhere from 5 to 20 chapters a day, mostly 10.  Like I said the Lord has given me such a burden to read the OT, which has now turned into such a joy for me!!  It has been so much fun and enjoying to read the OT.  It is like when one reads a book and can’t put it down- I have that disease.  I have also taken different parts of the bible to study, lately I have been in Matt.  I don’t say any of this to brag, just to show you that the Lord is behind all of this!

 

Being flexible- This was my biggest struggle that has turned into a blessing.  My whole life I have been put in the spot light, which has probably been due to having a pastor for a dad.  In doing so, I have been use to being the center of attention for the Lord, and many times I have placed myself before others thinking it was what the Lord wanted, many times though that was not the Lord’s will!!  The Lord has done a work of humility here for me!  My place here in Botswana is not the mouth or the head for that matter.  The Lord has called me into a lower position, which really isn’t low unto the Lord- just in worldly eyes (us who are still immature in our walk!!).  The Lord has put me in a position where I am in the background doing the dirty, but needed, work.  At first this was tough, but it has become a gradual joy!!  Instead of being jealous of my brothers here, I have become happy for them!!  Trust me this was a God thing!!

 

2) What are the main challenges you have faced in ministry?

 

The two biggest challenges have been staying focused and truly having the right heart.  Even though there are not as many distractions here as there are in America, there are still distractions, and they have the same effect on my spiritual life.  There have been times that instead of being in prayer or reading or just simply telling others about Jesus I would choose sleep or many times just think dumb things.  I know that sounds silly but it is the truth.  It is getting a lot easier to stay focus though.  Having the right heart has been a constant problem.  Whether it was with the team or just simply doing the work of the Lord.  With the team I have had a little trouble getting accustomed with how they work.  But that has almost become finished with.  I know all of them well, and the fact that we never got into an argument or a drawn out complaint against one another has helped us all stay in good, close relations.  The Lord has defiantly blessed our team with great unity and love for one another.  There are times when we butt heads though, which would not be normal if it didn’t happen.  And when those times come in it is usually when my heart is not right!  Ministry part, well there have been many times when we would get ready to go out and prayer walk or go and talk to the kids in school or simply just go and witness to people that my heart has not been right.  Whether its because I’m tiered or I just don’t feel like walking in the heat through the sand, or I don’t want to have to deal with the drunks, many times my heart has not been right.  I have found many times I will have to take a step back and really get my heart right before I do many things here and I makes me sad because I wish I was always pumped to do the Lords work!!  There have been many times my heart was ready, and it has been awesome, but my flesh has really tried to do battle with my spirit!!  Anyway it is getting better and the Lord is really making my flesh weak!!

           

     What are the main challenges you have faced in your living situation?

I really can’t put anything here.  Our living conditions have been great.  The only thing I can think of is there have been times when I didn’t sleep as good as the other nights.  To be honest though, our living is great, and I will have to give the Lord all the credit on why I can’t complain about anything!!

 

4) What are you learning about yourself through team living & team ministry?

Through team living I have learned that I am selfish!!  I have learned that I’m not the servant I made myself out to be.  But the team has been gracious to me and has been willing to help me out with this problem in many different ways haha.  The ministry part has taught me so much.  I have really found my spot here on our team.  I guess you can kind of call me the middle man.  When we first got here I try to be the center of everything, the leader/head and mouth.  But the Lord quickly humbled me and reminded me that I’m here for Him and not myself and that He had another position of the body for me.  I quickly found myself in a position I’ve never been in.  And I love it because it is where the Lord wants me and has put me!!  I speak when I feel lead, I pray when others speak, I lead when its needed, but mainly I get in the background and just coat the whole thing in prayer while the Lord uses one of the others to be the mouth and really take over!!  I’ve never been this part of the body, but it has taught me so much about the Lord!!

 

            This is just s summery of what the Lord is doing in my life right now.  Being here in Africa has been not only a great experience but also a huge step in my walk with the Lord.  It has pushed me to limits I’ve never been before.  It has gotten me out of my comfort zone at times.  It has taught me how to have a genuine quiet time.  It has increased my prayer life.  It has helped me in becoming a better worshiper.  It has taught me how to hear the Lord’s voice.  And so much more.  I want to thank you all for your prayers and support.  Without it I know I would not be able to make it another day here.  God bless!!

      In Him,

         Hunter Clark

 

Round 2 in Kang

The song “Lord Prepare Me” was the unannounced theme of these past two weeks in Kang.  If you are not familiar with this song or if this is the wrong title of this song I will write out the words.  It goes like this:

      “Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true, with thanksgiving, I’ll be a living sanctuary for you”  (repeat as many times as you want!)

            It is a very simple song, but a very huge request to the Lord!!  While we were in Labotse, we were going to the school to speak, playing on the soccer team, encouraging other believers, being encouraged by other believers, but other than that we had a lot of R and R (resting and relaxing).  During this time we were spiritually fed, reading the word and praying for hours, amazing bible studies, as well as just a lot of personal time of whatever you wanted to do whether that was reading, writing, playing with the kids, walking into town and meeting people, prayer walking, or just whatever you desired.  And all of this was great, and was very needed!  But Kang life is almost completely different.  Probably b/c we did more feeding than being fed!!  In doing so we daily requested of the Lord to prepare us for all that that day had in store for us.  We needed to be prepared for everyday because a couple of curve balls (whether it was the devil attacking us, or just battling with our weak flesh or simply anything and everything that would throw us off course) would always be thrown our way, and  we couldn’t make it on our own, we were always needing the Lord’s help, and this is how this song became our unannounced theme while in Kang!

            From day one in Kang we hit the floor running.  This was the second two week segment we were in Kang so we had an idea what to expect (sort of- we knew only what the land looked like, where we would be living, where the food store was, who are neighbors were, and the new believers that were growing daily in the Lord-we kept in touch with them by different ways while in Labotse- other than that we had no idea what to expect)! The first two people we saw were Kabo and Morrepettie. [ Just to give you some names you can be praying for.  These are new believers both from the first visit and this visit- Kabo, Morrepettie, Jones, Reccardo, Ganzi, Sharan, Kathryn, Hope, Martin, Shakes, and Bonan.  Thanks}  After seeing them we all got together and had bible study, prayed, and talked about life!!  The next day was Sunday so we had church and to our surprise we had about 17 people under the tree in our yard!!  Without being there for a week (we also went for one day the week while in Labotse to have church with them) many came to praise God and learn more about Him!  It was to our encouragement and joy to see that many people.  That Sunday we caught back up with everyone, and had a great time hearing how the Lord was speaking to each one specifically. 

            The rest of the week was filled with much prayer walking, many bible studies, and more evangelizing than I’ve done in my entire life!! Everyday we would start out the day with a good solid quiet time, we would then go and prayer walk until noon or we would have random bible studies during this time, after lunch we had a bible study everyday with Kabo, Morrepettie, and sometimes Jones and Reccardo while the ladies had their own bible studies- these bible studies have really helped these new believers become more equip and understanding what it means to be a disciple of Christ, after this we would either show the Jesus film at different  places in the village or we would have a group prayer and praise time. 

            During this week Jones became born again- it was something we had been praying for daily!!  His gentle, but bold spirit along with his desire for the word and praying has really made him a strong warrior for the Lord.  Also during this time Jones’ mother became born again which was also amazing since she could not speak English nor Setswana- Jones told her about Jesus and she, without hesitating, gave her life to Jesus saying He is her Lord!!  Wed that week we had a worship service, where we sang songs, spoke words of praise and thanks to the Lord, finishing with much prayer.  Kabo, Morrepettie and the Ladies all showed up and it was powerful!!  The presence of the Lord was very thick and tangible!! 

            The next week was very similar to the first one.  Although there were a couple of differences.  Allison got sick and had to go to Gabs with Mr. Robert and Mrs. Margrett while leaving us boys in Kang for two days on our own.  During this time we really made many new friends, we added more bible studies, led the worship service that wed, and showed the Jesus film in a place we’d never been before (where we met Reccardo).  During this time we met Reccardo, who became born again as well as became a dear friend to us!!  Reccardo is in school there in Kang (its like a in between high school and college school- he is 20).  After that night he didn’t leave our side.  He wanted to know everything he could about the Lord!!  He later became born again and is now growing daily in the word- it is so encouraging to see all of these new disciples of Christ growing in the word daily!!  His story is very remarkable and it is only by the grace of God that he is still alive today and not headed down the wrong path!!  Without going into much detail, at the age of 6 his dad left them, he had to take care of his mother who was drunk all of the time and spent their food money on alcohol, his brother was in a gang type thing where he stole and did many terrible things, this same brother put a gun to Reccardo’s head many times b/c Reccardo tried to tell him to stop doing the things he was doing.  Reccardo, without a hope or bright future told me he wanted to die at times, but that now know that he does have hope and has someone who loves him no matter what, he has a new attitude about life!!  This is just one story out of a handful of these believers here.  It is amazing here seeing how the Lord is working.  At church this past Sunday Hope became born again.  Hope is a girl that was run down by Reccardo because he wanted to tell everyone about Jesus, and when he saw her he ran across a field to tell her about Jesus, and now she is born again!!  Also Ganze was there who also became born again the first week when Jones did.  He stood up and asked if we would pray for his family and his friend- he wants to share the good news also!!  Basically the Lord is doing a might work in Kang.  Even though we are not there we pray for them daily, and we know they are continuing to meet daily for bible study and are still growing daily!!  Please pray for our new brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as the church that is newly started there- thank you!!

   God bless