Leaving Botswana in 2002 to begin a seminary degree in Texas was difficult for Otlaadisa “Jack” Rantho. Besides the inevitable cultural and academic adjustments he faced, he was leaving his church in Lobatsi without a pastor.
Degree – Rantho receives a diploma from Southwestern president Paige Patterson.However, in venturing to Southwestern Baptist Seminary, Rantho wanted to prepare for the task of planting and developing churches in his home country.
Rantho completed the first step toward his goal in December when he received his advanced diploma in theology from The College at Southwestern.
From the time he was saved in 1992, Rantho has been filled with zeal to share the gospel with as many people as possible. As a student, Rantho’s passion for evangelism has continued unabated.
Growing up, Rantho was exposed to Christianity in the grammar school he attended. He owned a Bible and took it with him wherever he went, but it had no place of importance in his life.
After he graduated from secondary school, Rantho worked for the Botswana government. He had a Christian roommate who never told him about Christ.
Rantho enrolled in Jwaneng Technical College in July 1992. He made yet another friend who was a Christian.
“This friend never shared the gospel with me, either,” Rantho said.
Rantho said it was by “accident” that he found himself at a showing of the “Jesus” film. Dubious about its message, he signed up for a Bible study with less-than-noble intentions: He wanted to more capably refute Christianity.
Two weeks into the Bible study, however, Rantho realized he had no good reason for his distrust of faith and decided to attend a Christian fellowship at the college.
After the fellowship, the leader of the group, whom Rantho hadn’t liked, thanked him for attending the service.
He found himself convicted by the kindness and respect he was shown by someone he had been trying to refute.
Rantho returned to the fellowship the next week. “That was when I committed my life to Jesus Christ,” he said.
Three months later, Rantho realized there were many people like him who were surrounded by the gospel but had never truly had the message explained to them. And he also did not want to be like the Christians he had met who never shared the gospel with friends.
Rantho began witnessing on the college campus, and starting fellowships at other trade schools.
After he graduated in 1996, Rantho moved to Lobatsi, Botswana. He pastored a group of three to five Christians, helping Robert Fortenberry, a Southwestern graduate serving as a missionary. Over the next six years, the church grew.
Although his primary focus was on leading the church in Lobatsi, Rantho planted five new churches.
Rantho soon felt God leading him to pursue theological education. He had visited Southwestern in 1998 when youth evangelist Louie Giglio, a graduate of the seminary, invited him to a Passion conference in Fort Worth.
Rantho sent an admissions application to the seminary in 2001, but immigration laws dictated that he had to explain how he would pay for his education.
With Fortenberry’s help, Rantho sent out e-mails seeking support. One of the churches they e-mailed was Sandy Hook Baptist Church, Fortenberry’s home church.
The Mississippi church responded to the need. Within a week, it had committed to underwrite Rantho’s education.
At Southwestern, Rantho’s outlook is simple: “School is important, but it doesn’t replace people.”
Rantho develops his ministry skills by leading Bible studies at Christ Memorial Community Church in Fort Worth. He teaches Sunday school once a month.
Rantho has enrolled in the seminary’s spring evangelism practicum the past two years. Last year after preaching a revival in Wyoming, fellow students selected Rantho for the Todd Brooks Riza Award as the one who demonstrates genuine compassion for non-Christians.
“I should realize that I could die at any time,” Rantho said when presented with the award. “So I have to do my work of making disciples while God has still given me an opportunity.”
After the practicum, Rantho and fellow student Mark Chen began a ministry in communities surrounding the seminary.
Despite a 12-hour class load, Rantho prayerwalked through neighborhoods with Chen each evening during the summer of 2004. In the fall, the men were joined by another student and they began to evangelize from door-to-door. As the ministry grew, they asked residents if they would like to begin Bible studies.
Rantho’s neighborhood ministry, which began with a core of three men, now has as many as 15 volunteers.
Rantho will continue his education at the seminary, working toward a master of divinity degree. He hopes to return to Botswana to plant and develop churches.
“In Botswana, people are hungry for the gospel,” he said, noting that there are too few church leaders.