Teaching Starts with Learning Humility

We invite you to share with your congregation the following story from Monica Shank, Witness Intern to Botswana. The story should take no more than 2 minutes to read aloud. You might also wish to include the story in your church newsletter.

Botswana: Teaching Starts with Learning Humility

“Face the Nation” is an HIV/AIDS initiative lead by Open Baptist Church in Botswana where Glyn Jones and Susan Allison-Jones live and work with Mennonite Church Canada Witness. This past summer, Monica Shank, a university student from the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario joined the Allison Jones family for a 12 week student internship. She spent her first few weeks with the “Face the Nation” program where she quickly learned about African Traditional Religion, transmittable diseases and the AIDS pandemic, discussions about issues facing Botswana’s youth, and solid Biblical teaching. Monica also gained an instant social network of local youth and a solid church community.

From there, Monica joined Botswana university students in going out into St. Joseph’s College for HIV/AIDS awareness raising, abstinence advocacy, and Bible-based peer mentorship. She quickly realized that if she really wanted to inspire youth to change their behaviour, she had much to learn about the real issues that Botswana youth were facing. Unlike the Botswana university students, the unique challenge for Monica was to clearly articulate what she knew about life values in a way that made sense and that was appropriate to the culture in Botswana.

Monica shares that many of her most rewarding cultural learning experiences came through the many friendships that she developed, particularly through the network of quality Christian youth from “Face the Nation”. She says that she was able to take ownership of the work and get involved and immersed in a way that her previous group short term missions project never allowed. This internship made her sensitive to the needs of people around her, and made her aware of the humility needed to be open and serving in all situations. She had to throw out some basic assumptions she made about the world and drew closer to God in a whole new way. Monica is excited to see where God calls her as she continues to walk with more of a servant’s attitude and open heart.

–Adapted from a report by Monica Shank and Allison-Jones prayer letter #4.4. This story is part of Equipping #80 October 2007