Dumelang,
I mentioned last time about focusing on the “one” and loving kids individually. I felt like I got to do that for a couple kids on Saturday when I volunteered at the Baylor Center Teen Club for HIV+ youth in Gaborone. It meets monthly for about 4-5 hours. They split the teens into two groups (younger and older), and one group has a life-skills teaching one month while the other has a fun activity. This month the older youth learned about teen pregnancy while I went with the younger group to the library and the national museum. We had worksheets for them, like a scavenger hunt to find the answers.
On the walk downtown from the Baylor Center, I walked in the back with a 13 year old girl who walked with a limp. So we had a good 15 minutes to talk. It turns out she goes to one of the schools where YFC is about to start up a club and where the South African YFC dance/drama team performed in March. Her face lit up when she remembered that. She found it hard to believe that the woman in one of the dramas could forgive someone who killed her husband and son (it’s based on a true story from South Africa where a woman forgave the murderer of her husband and son and asked to take in the murderer as her own son…and they embraced in tears in the court room). I shared that it was because she had experienced forgiveness from Christ that she had the grace and ability to forgive.
I shared how it was powerful to me – in fact, the first time I saw the program had been at her school and it had brought tears to my eyes—especially because it hit home with how I also had been led to extend forgiveness and mercy in a court room and embraced the man who hit us on the freeway. So I was able to share a bit of my story with her too.
Later, after lunch, a quiet sad-looking young boy from the club came up to me and asked if I could help him – he wants to share something with his classmates at school, but wasn’t sure how. When I asked what he wants to share, he pulled out a tattered notebook and had me read his handwritten paragraph. I read about how he has never met his dad and doesn’t even know who he is. He has a sister, but she and his mother died on the same day in 2001, and now he is alone.
Wow…and don’t forget, this is a boy who is HIV+ positive himself. What do you say to that?! After saying, “I’m so sorry…” and placing my hand on his shoulder because I was at a loss for words, I gently asked some more questions and found out he lives with his aunt and uncle. It seems like it was a matter where the mother died in childbirth with the sister and then the baby did not survive longer than that same day. Only one close friend of his knows about his mom and sister, but he wants all his classmates to know. I asked him if it’s hard for him to talk about it since he showed me the written page instead of verbalizing it to me, and he agreed that it’s hard for him to talk about it.
So we worked out different possibilities that he could run by his teacher (who knows the situation) for how he could show his classmates what he had written. I warned him that his classmates may not know how to respond and may laugh—he said he doesn’t care how they react; he just wants to tell them. I encouraged him to talk to his teacher and go for it if he feels it is what he needs to do. At the time, I didn’t mention that I’d be praying for him, but later I tried to find him to tell him, but he was already gone or in a meeting. But I have been praying, and I will look for him next month to see how it went and how he’s doing.
Then on Tuesday, I got a text message from one of the three Face the Nation volunteers for whom I’m a prayer partner (she is a 20 year old university student who will be teaching the AIDS prevention curriculum in Molefi School in Mochudi starting in about a week). She let me know that her grandma had passed away. This is one who has already lost her mom 10 years ago, and this is her maternal grandmother who has acted like a mother to her since then. She has been a rock of refuge to her and her siblings.
And in the same week, two of her other extended family members died. A little girl distant relative was buried last weekend, and this weekend she will attend two funerals—for her grandmother and her cousin’s wife. Yesterday I was able to meet with her, hear more of the story, and to pray with her. She said she cannot sleep much at all but that God is helping her through. So if you feel so led, prayers for her and her family are certainly appreciated.
For some more uplifting news, there is a teacher at Molefi School in Mochudi who works with blind students in the school. She wants to help Face the Nation reach them more effectively and work with YFC to help follow them up. Persons with disabilities are so much more vulnerable than the able-bodied and this then makes them more vulnerable to becoming HIV+. Since much of Face the Nation’s curriculum is very visual, they are working together to organize extra sessions for the blind students. The volunteers will work with the Special Needs educators to achieve this.
The teacher wants to translate into Braille the follow-up booklet “Choose to Wait” which is given to every student that signs an abstinence pledge card. YFC was instrumental in the creation of that booklet and so George gave her the contact info of the publishers so she can start the translation work. This is also exciting because we can give them to the kids at the School of the Blind in Mochudi, where YFC works on Mondays!
Also, at the same school where we helped Face the Nation gain access to test out the computer-based HIV prevention curriculum with our PACT club members, we also were able to secure an opening for the Face the Nation dance/drama team (they call them rally teams) to perform for the whole school on Wednesday. It was their first performance and a time to gain experience and be critiqued. Here is the report sent out by Face the Nation:
These teams gained some valuable experience by doing a rally at the school. They were very nervous but did well. All five of our previous rally-team leaders, two seasoned ex rally-team members and one rally-team coach were in attendance to critique the performance. I am always amazed at how God uses us in spite of ourselves, our weaknesses, fears and shortcomings. His plan is to use man to reach man. He has no plan B. God came through for us and we had a number of young people counselled, 27 gave their lives to Christ and most of these also signed abstinence pledge cards. They will be followed up by Youth for Christ, who go into that school on a regular basis.
The whole student body is only 78 students, so over a third of the school gave their lives to Christ!! So now George and I are praying about how to follow them up and disciple them.
Also, prisoners at four prisons nearby who saw the outreach by Canadian YFC singer Sam Rolland have started the YFC follow-up bible study course. Prison fellowship staff also want to make the bible studies available to the children of prisoners as a means of reconciliation between the embittered children and the imprisoned parents. So that’s an exciting open door!
Now I am off to a True Love Waits training so I can be certified to teach follow-up in schools after Face the Nation leaves or just in general if a school wants abstinence teaching. I was invited to attend it by the Face the Nation staff, and so I’m excited to learn more.
If I don’t write another update before Tuesday, prayers are appreciated for our first time at the other private school where we’ll be leading worship and sharing a short message in the auditorium on Tuesday morning. Exciting times!!
Blessings,
Em
P.S. Believe it or not, it gets cold here. My toes were numb yesterday for a few hours. It has been dipping into the high 30s and low 40s Fahrenheit and buildings here have no heat or insulation. So from chilly Botswana, I say “Go siame!”- go well!
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