Book Excerpt: “We Have Learned Together about Worship, Marriage, Prophecy, and Burnt Offerings.” In Unless a Grain of Wheat: A Story of Friendship between African Independent Churches and North American Mennonites

My grasp of the history of the partnership between Mennonites and the Spiritual Healing Church in Botswana is limited, but here is what I understand. During the period of struggle in the then called country of Rhodesia, there were cross-border incursions into northeast Botswana, so the base of operations of the Spiritual Healing Church was moved from the village of Matsiloje near the Rhodesian border to the town of Mahalapye. It was there that our church encountered a threesome of Mennonites who met with our elders. Our founder, Prophet Mokaleng, had prophesied that one day, white people would come to work with us. This meeting was taken to be the fulfillment of that foretelling.