When God Opens Closed Borders

As soon as the borders opened to South Africa towards the end of last year, we began making plans to try and visit our partners in Lesotho. We figured January would be a great time so that we could kick off the new year together and make plans, set goals for all that we would seek to accomplish in 2021. With COVID lingering and even worsening as we got closer to Christmas, we decided it would be better for me to travel alone without Allison and the boys, to limit our exposure to the virus while traveling.

As time got closer for me to travel, things started escalating in South Africa. They went into a partial lockdown the week before I was to travel. We prayed and sought the Lord as to whether I should still plan on traveling. Things still looked okay in Lesotho, there was no lockdown there. “If I can just make it to Lesotho, everything will be fine”, I thought to myself. Weighing the risks of exposure to COVID and possibly getting stuck in southern Africa for longer than I wanted to, we discerned that God wanted me to travel. We could hear from our partner churches on the ground that they needed encouragement and there was a great deal of fear surrounding the virus and the role of the vaccine. With that in mind, we felt it was necessary to go and encourage them, and be edified by each other’s faith. Also, we had been executing a large-scale feeding program with our missionary team since July and we desperately needed to work through some of the logistics with them for the new year. If God wanted me to make it there, He will provide a way. But we won’t know if I don’t try.

Sitting in the Atlanta airport, after being delayed a day because of COVID testing, the news came through to my phone. “South Africa closes all 20 land borders”. This included the Lesotho borders, even though it is a landlocked country inside of South Africa. We still believed God would make away. Our back-up plan was for me to fly in and out of the country since they hadn’t closed the airport or air borders yet. After my flight to South Africa, I waited there for two days to get test results from another COVID test to enter Lesotho. The news came through that Lesotho had just shut down the airport because of increased infections. There I was, having traveled all the way to South Africa, and I'll be honest, my faith was wavering as to if I had made the right decision. “God, please make a way for me to cross into Lesotho. I trust you. If it is your will, please allow me to get there and back safely.”

The next morning, my test results came back negative, so I hit the road immediately to the Lesotho border. Several hours later I made my last turn down towards the river bridge border crossing. I stopped to send out a message for everyone to pray. First as I stamped my passport at the South African border post to exit, the immigration officer allowed me to leave, but stated I will not be able to re-enter South Africa until Feb 15th, a month later. I swallowed hard and prayed in my head, “Please God make a way for me to come home, Allison will not be very happy if I’m stuck here for a month!” On the Lesotho side of the river, they examined my passport, asked the reason for my travel, and then without any more questions they exclaimed, “Welcome back to Lesotho!”

One of our great friends and pastors in Lesotho and his wife were waiting for me there at the border to make sure I made it through okay. We greeted each other from a distance, using every ounce of self-control we could not to run and embrace each other with a huge hug. We then caravanned 4 hours up the mountain pass to our home at Katse.

The next morning, I went to visit both churches. It was a Sunday, but because of the lockdown everyone was at home. I went and visited with both of our pastors and their wives, and heard everything about what had been happening in the lives of the precious orphans we serve. 2020 had presented so many challenges, especially for them and their caretakers. As we shared about all the challenges, our conversation quickly turned to God’s faithfulness and goodness, especially in the lives of the orphans at the care center. We heard reports of the spiritual maturity of not only our older kids, but even the young children! School had been out for the majority of the year. Because of this, they were spending so many more hours at the care centers, and they had all memorized dozens of verses over the course of the year! They were also insisting on going and sharing the gospel with their neighbors and peers, and had led many of them to Christ. Pastor Phoka described each Sunday like it was a conference every week, the church was busting at the seams with young people, and even many more adults! He said that several men had accepted Christ, which is a true miracle in Basotho culture. Even a man that I had shared Christ with years ago who was abusive towards his wife had repented and began attending church. I fought back so many tears as we visited. God is so good.

Perhaps the most encouraging update to receive that day was about a girl named Ntabeleng (pronounced Entabeling). She is the oldest from that care center, and was one of our very first children to add to the care center when we began in 2015. Ntabeleng lives with her grandmother who accepted Christ a couple of years ago through the ministry of the care center. Ntabeleng is writing her final exit exams for high school in February and pending her results, will be our first orphan from the care centers to have the opportunity to attend University next year! On top of that, we have over a half dozen other kids that Lord willing will be going to university in 2022. To attend university is such an unreachable feat for so many children in Lesotho, especially orphans living in rural villages like our kids. The fact that many of them have the prospect of going to University is a miracle, and such a testament of Gods faithfulness in the lives of the orphans in Lesotho. Aside from them knowing God and understanding his love for them, it is one of our highest hopes and dreams for our kids….and we are finally beginning to see those hopes realized! As God’s word proclaims at the end of Psalm 10:14, truly, “GOD is the helper of the fatherless”.

There were so many other amazing updates throughout the week. Over the course of the year, we were able to add more children to the care center including a set of twins who are HIV positive. When they first started coming to the care center, their clothes were tattered and they were very skinny and malnourished. As I sat there and looked at them, there were wearing brand new shoes and clothes that the care center had given them for Christmas and they had gained so much weight; they looked just like all the other children. I was so proud to see how the leaders of these churches and those who work with these children everyday had worked so hard over these difficult months to provide for these children like their own.

As the week came to a close, I travelled back down the mountain and prayed as I approached the border. “God, please make a way for me to cross the border and make it home safely”. It was still the night before in America and I had asked so many people to be praying. I could feel their prayers as I approached the immigration window. “Hello, how are you”? I said in a very polite voice to the immigration officer. It was the same lady who had told me a week before she would not allow me to pass back through. She sternly responded and said “I remember you, I told you you could not pass back through until Feb 15th”. I pleaded with her for about 20 minutes to no avail until she sent me away to my car to wait for the supervisor. As I returned to my car, my Pastor and Friend Molapo waited for me there. “What did she say?” he asked. She said no. But lets be patient and wait for an hour, and lets continue to pray.” So we continued to pray. About 10 minutes later, someone motioned for me to come back up to the immigration window. As I walked up, the same immigration lady said to me, “because of what you are doing there in Lesotho, I will help you get home to your wife, but this is the last time you can cross here until the lockdown is over”. An incredible smile swept across my face and my heart almost leapt out of my chest. “God bless you so much, you have done a wonderful thing. I will never forget your kindness”, I told her as I scrambled to get my passport and other papers together.

God had done it. He had allowed me to cross the borders even though they should have been closed. A few days later I arrived back in the United States and began to share all that God had done. I was reminded of such an important truth through this crazy experience: God doesn’t need Reclaimed to care for the orphan in Lesotho. He is going to do it regardless of what happens to us. He only asks that we join him in HIS mission, which is to defend these precious children. Over the past year while we were worried about getting to Lesotho to help, God had been working in the lives of our precious children in Lesotho all along; through his Saints, the Church, who give of their time and resources every single day to strengthen and defend the orphan. I was freshly reminded of this truth; Reclaimed only exists to strengthen and equip the Church, God’s people, for this amazing task, to take care of the orphan, the widow, the alien, and the poor. This year, would you consider joining us in this great partnership with God?

In Christ,

Brett Barnhill
Executive Director
Reclaimed