Rev. August Basson of Lesotho is working in a rural area, among the people with the Africa Inland Mission. The ability of the people there to sustain themselves is in jeopardy due in part to the serious problem of erosion. We in the West have made the switch to conservation agriculture (where the soil is disturbed as little as possible). Our experience in this field has 20 years of trial and error so we have learned a lot. The main thing is that it works.
Basson invited my husband to encourage and help him and the farmers in Lesotho. Early November saw us hit the road for the journey to Durban, South Africa. We had a couple of days to recover from the trip and then Anita Basson came to get us and drive us to Tebellong, Lesotho.
Minister's wives are amazing people! We were total strangers landing on her doorstep to be housed and fed for the next 10 days. The children were gracious and fun.
The men got busy doing farming things. The machinery was different, built for the small fields that are farmed there, but the principles were the same. The culture and ways of farming were different from our experiences here and that's what made it more interesting. The men were not there to teach or preach. They were there to encourage and work with the farmers, which they did. They had many animated conversations about the way we do things at home and what would work in the new (to us) situation.
I had the opportunity to dig up some rusty physiotherapy skills and worked with a young boy who now owns a piece of my heart.
It was a wonderful experience. I can highly recommend it. Go where you're asked. Do what you can and you will be a blessing as well as being richly blessed. There are a great many of us who are in a position to be able to take time to travel, explore and share. There is always the problem of knowing where our talents can be used and I'm not sure of the best way to solve that. Got any ideas?
