Greetings everyone!!! Lots of cool things to report!
Refresh Retreat – Learned of a Breakthrough!
YFC and a church in Gaborone partnered to put on the first ever youth retreat weekend in this area as a follow-up to the Youth Week camp in South Africa that YFC runs for nearly 1,000 teens from across southern Africa. About 60 youth attended, and six of us YFC Botswana staff helped out. I met the youth pastor of the church, and he was amazed to hear the fresh news that we as YFC have permission to go into the non-religious private school in Gaborone, talk with students and hopefully start a praise and worship band during their break times. Apparently, it has been near impossible to get into that school with a Christian organization. Our ability to minister there seems to be a true breakthrough, which was further confirmed when I spoke that night to the whole retreat—after I mentioned that we have an open door to start working at that school, I was surprised to be interrupted by cheers and clapping from the youth interns and several youth who had amazed looks on their faces! So praise the Lord for this breakthrough, and please pray that God would guide us in how to pioneer the ministry there and to find students to join me in a worship band. At the retreat, I befriended a student from that school named Linet who signed up to get involved in YFC, as did several other students.
Refreshing Fellowship and Recreation
The retreat was called “Refresh,” and its title was an apt description. It was quite refreshing to be able to meet and befriend so many youth and leaders from Gaborone, where I will be focusing my ministry initially. In informal fellowship times, I had the opportunity to share my Botswana calling story with a couple people and share my accident/recovery testimony with one of the worship leaders, who was fighting back tears at the part about extending mercy to the man who hit us. I was also able to lead a devotion time in the morning and had the privilege of counseling and praying with a teen girl who wants to live fully for Christ now every day. Though she lives hours away, she was thankful to learn that we can help disciple her with the YFC correspondence follow-up bible studies.
It was also refreshing to have extended times of praise and worship led by an extremely talented youth band and to realize that they play/sing many of the same songs here that I’ve led in worship in the U.S. I find it a beautiful thing that people from Botswana, America, and my housemates from Europe all know and are singing the same worship songs to our Lord. I hadn’t been sure how my worship-leading style would “go over” here, and was willing to adapt to the Botswana style of worship; but now I am excited to realize that it is primarily very similar with the same instruments (guitars, bass, drum-set, etc) and style of worship, even for the songs in Setswana.
The outdoor pool and the beautiful setting next to a river with wild monkeys swinging in the trees were other refreshing aspects. It was also the first time I’ve really felt the sensation of being cold while in Botswana, and it gloriously coincided with the ability to have my first warm shower here! Refreshing indeed!
4K race!
The last day of the retreat (April 18), five of us housemates ran in a 4K as part of the first annual Gaborone Marathon. My left knee had been giving me grief since my 27th birthday on April 6 (my body knew I got older, haha!) So because of that and getting sick, I hadn’t run since April 6. Thankfully, the 4K went well, and my knee has been fine. It was great to see the improvement from my last 4K race in October (my fastest time in training on April 6 was over 6 minutes faster than my time in October!). Praise God I’m feeling more and more back to “normal” in terms of physical recovery.
Divine Appointment?? Methinks…
So yesterday I found out I needed to get a document notarized. Unlike in the States where you can roll up to a bank and find a notary as easy as finding a cop in a donut shop, here you actually have to go to an attorney and they charge anywhere from $15-$45 just to notarize/certify a document! But I needed to get it done, so I drove my first solo trip in my car to Gabs (Gaborone) to find the attorney. The first one I tried to locate I could not find anywhere on the short street it is supposedly on. Thus, I called one that was nearby to ask how much they charge…the same ($15 per sheet). So I drove to their law office, finding it successfully. However, once back in the attorney’s office and ready to have it notorized, he realized that he had run out of his stamps/official seals. He apologized and sent me with a “messenger” (one of the secretaries) who rode in my car and directed me to a nearby attorney’s office where they could notorize my document. Notorization was successful. I asked the “messenger” where I was supposed to pay, and she said at her law office. Thus, we got back in my sweet ride and I drove her back to the original office. By the time I had locked my car and set the alarm (it was a bad area of town with lots of thieves, she said), she was already back in her office out of sight and the receptionist was yacking with another man. Thus, I just sat down, waiting…wondering…Who do I pay? Where do I pay?
Then the attorney (who’d run out of stamps) came out and saw me sitting there. He asked if it all worked out at the other law office (affirmative). Then I asked who I should pay, and he said, “Oh no, I ran out of stamps…you do not have to pay anything.” Sweetness! Then it gets better…so I’m walking out to leave and he asks where I work, or what I’m doing here in Botswana, and I replied that I work for Youth for Christ. “Oh! You should preach to me!...I’m wanting to learn more about God…we should have a conversation sometime because I am figuring out what I believe.” He had already given me his business card earlier, so he asked me to call and possibly we could talk more about God. I said, “So you are spiritually seeking?” and he replied, “Yes…and you’re a missionary…we should talk.” He said he’s gone a few times to a church in Gaborone (and it happens to be the same one I go to most weeks, the one we just partnered with to run the Refresh Retreat!). So we will probably see each other there sometime. I called him last night and shared that another YFC staff, George, and I could meet with him sometime after church or after work on a weekday in Gabs to talk more with him. He liked that idea, and we’ll be in touch to find a time that works!
How crazy-cool is that?! I rode home from the attorney’s office praising God for His obvious hand in leading me to that particular attorney. I had praise and worship music playing through the sound system wire I got for 15 cents last time I was in Gabs, just smiling in awe of how I just got a $15-$45 service for free and an open door to share more with a man who is spiritually seeking!! God is amazing! So some days it’s a taxi driver, other days an attorney…it’s cool to see who God has us cross paths with if we are willing to be His witness.
Upcoming Conferences and Trips
Tomorrow, I am attending the Botswana Department of Youth, Mochudi Youth Office consultative workshop as one of the two YFC representatives for an all day conference on the Draft Revised National Youth Policy. I honestly don’t know exactly what that means, but I’ll let you know on the flip side!
Then Friday, I hope to drive to a village about 1.5 hours away to meet up with the YFC Botswana dance/drama team. They are doing a weeklong outreach there, and I thought it’d be cool to go for a day or two to experience it (since it is similar to what I hope to do with a full-time team in the future here). So I will probably leave Friday, spend the night there, and come back Saturday.
Then Monday through Wednesday, I will be attending (and possibly helping to facilitate) a Botswana Missionary Conference called Joining Hands, where all the missionaries who work in Botswana get together and network to reach Botswana for Christ. It is the 13th annual conference, and it happens to be held at the same beautiful camp where the Refresh Retreat was! So, this means…beauty, monkeys, pool, warm showers, glory! And moreso, I am excited to learn more about what everyone is doing in Botswana and how we can work together to further God’s kingdom here. The missionaries in northern Botswana who I worked with in 2004 will attend. One of them is on the board of directors organizing the conference, as is Koekoes from YFC.
Alright, well, this has been long, but I doubt I will have internet access due to all these conferences and retreats until next Thursday. So, I figured a long one can tide you over til then (and explain what I’m doing so if you feel led to pray you can!).
God is good!
~Em
P.S. I needed to get another thing notorized just now, and I decided to try the police station here in Mochudi where I heard there is a Commissioner of Oaths (like a notary in the U.S.). A bank worker told me to try there (they didn't have a notary there). I figured I'd just ask if it was possible at the police station and how much it might cost (my housemates said they usually have to go to their embassy though one time the police did it, but in Gabs not Mochudi). But I figured it was worth a shot instead of driving back to Gabs and paying $15 for it at the attorney. So I just went there, and they had me come in to the police office and sit with the Commissioner of Oaths police officer. He asked why I didn't go to my embassy, and I said they haven't returned my call, and I was just checking to see if it were possible here and how much it would cost... He proceeded to just do it with no problem and didn't charge me anything! Sweetness.
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