Dumelang! [again this is posted later than it was written..for some reason it wouldn't allow me to post it earlier...Written last Sunday]
Wow…this is gonna be a whirlwind of awesomeness!! So here we go…
Where to begin? Well, I’ll start with how we taught at one of the Junior Secondary Schools in Mochudi this past week. I taught two classes on Monday, and to summarize quickly since I have more exciting stuff to share, it went quite well. We were helping them know the truth about their value in God's eyes and replacing the lies they believe about themselves with truth from His perspective. Thanks for any prayers. While there on Monday, some of the Scripture Union (S.U.) club members recognized me and were asking why we haven’t had the club in so long. The teacher escorting us heard some of them calling to me about S.U. and said that she thinks we can re-start the club next week! The school schedule is still the same, but she thinks the school will allow the S.U. to meet during the last hour of the school day! We haven’t been able to have the club since July, so this was a great thing to hear. Thursday we also started leading the morning assembly for that whole school. They’ve invited us to share every Thursday morning.
More Open Doors!
At the only senior secondary school in Mochudi (the whole district/county for that matter), we are also exciting about the open doors! Due to exams Friday, it looks like I will speak to the Christians during the last hour of the school day this Friday. The abstinence club will likely start the next day or perhaps the following Saturday. Friday I called the guidance/counseling teacher to ask about scheduling for that, and she said she’s been meaning to ask if we at YFC could lead the morning assemblies with the whole student body on a regular basis?! She has invited us to share twice a week! I assumed that we would have to focus only on Life-Skills (i.e. honesty, integrity, responsibility, making healthy choices, withstanding peer pressure, abstinence, etc) and not be openly talking about Christ. But she said, and I quote, “Encourage them to give their lives to Christ, to live for Him.” Wow…can you say “OPEN DOOR?!!” The abstinence club will be the first club YFC has ever had at this school and I believe this might be the first time we’ve had the opportunity to speak at the assembly to the whole school (1700+ students)!
Healing – Physical and Spiritual
Last post I mentioned and requested prayer for Slim’s friend and her brother. Sunday night when the friend called Slim she was in tears as her little 11-year old brother was in the hospital, unconscious and not moving (from a stroke). Things didn’t look too good. Slim’s friend also has been suffering from epileptic seizures, typically 6 a day (3 sets of 2). We hadn’t heard a conclusive update until Slim was able to travel down an hour south to where they live on Wednesday. She called me that night to share the amazing news – her friend hadn’t had a single seizure in a few days and her little brother was fine. Really. He was out of the hospital and back in school on Wednesday!!! It was like it had never happened! Praise God! Thanks so much for any prayers you offered! Slim also found out on Wednesday that her friend has started going to church and seems to really believe!!
This seems to be a trend. After Slim’s radical transformation, it seems that others around her are changing too. One of her main friends from the school in Mochudi has stopped drugs/alcohol too and has started going to church! This was a guy who she said had been a really bad influence on her. Then Slim’s uncle, not knowing that Slim has been transformed, called and invited her to go to hear a famous Christian preacher. Slim thought he was joking because he was definitely NOT a church-goer or a Christian. But he wasn’t joking—he has been transformed by Christ as well! When she told him she is now following Jesus too, he thought she was joking. They both couldn’t believe that the other one is now following Jesus!
Slim wanted to start the follow-up bible study course that YFC offers, and she already finished the first study in one night and wanted the next one. She still has a bible study/fellowship/prayer over the phone in the middle of the night since it’s free then…except now instead of just two of them, there are four young people having conference call fellowship over the phone every night at like 2 am!!
An Unbelievable Turnaround!
Three weeks ago on the 3-year anniversary of my accident, I took the Mochudi student to counseling again for the first time since the first week of December. Just for ease of telling the story, I will call her Tumelo, which is not her real name. [It was through Tumelo that I met Slim, her friend who went to the same school in Mochudi]. On the way back to Mochudi after counseling on February 3, Tumelo picked a song called “The Lost Get Found” by Britt Nicole. She absolutely loved it, played it on repeat the whole rest of the ride, singing it at the top of her lungs by the end! Here are the lyrics:
Hello my friend
I remember when you were
So alive with your wide eyes
Then the light that you had in your heart was stolen
Now you say that it ain't worth stayin'
You wanna run but you're hesitatin'
I'm talkin' to me
Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
'cause somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found
So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
There's a girl on the streets, she's cryin'
There's a man whose faith is dyin'
Love is calling you
Why do we go with the flow
Why take an easier road?
Why are we playin' it safe?
Love came to show us the way
Love is a chance we should take
I'm movin' out of the gray
Don't let your lights go down
Don't let your fire burn out
'cause somewhere, somebody needs a reason to believe
(Stand out)
Why don't you rise up now?
Don't be afraid to stand out
That's how the lost get found
The lost get found
So when you get the chance
Are you gonna take it?
There's a really big world at your fingertips
And you know you have the chance to change it
Tumelo’s counselor called me in between that session and the next one because she wanted to hear my perspective on how she seems now. She said that it seems like Tumelo has had “a complete turnaround,” and according to her psychology training and the normal stages of progress, Tumelo was far from this point when she last met with her in early December. The counselor found it hard to believe that it was for real, and asked me what I thought. She thought perhaps Tumelo was faking having forgiven the person that hurt her (in order to perhaps dodge the issue) because it seemed very unlikely that she could have changed that much since December and truly forgiven the person. When the counselor last met with Tumelo in early December, Tumelo seemed far from that point of forgiveness, but now she seems to be great friends with the person she had been hating. I said I wasn’t too sure, but it didn’t seem like Tumelo was faking anything. I told the counselor about how Tumelo played that song on the way home over and over again.
Last week seemed the same way—Tumelo kept playing that “The Lost Get Found” song and other Christian ones, like “Oh Happy Day.” Then this past Thursday, was her 18th birthday…an awesome day. I picked her up from school, and on the drive in, she discovered another favorite song, “Sweet Sweet Sound” by Sarah Reeves:
I am an instrument of the living God
My life a melody to His name
More than the songs I sing
Worship is everything
I live to glorify my King
Hear the song of my life
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
I raise this anthem high
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
Through all the mire and clay
You're washing me with grace
You carry me, oh Lord, through it all
So I will testify even in the fire
I live to praise my Savior
She also played several other clearly Christian songs, including one called “I Believe” about believing in God. After I dropped her off, I drove to a nearby mall, where Slim met me (as we had planned covertly). We ordered pizza and took it back to the YFC centre in Gabs (in the same property complex where Tumelo gets counseling) to surprise Tumelo. I dropped Slim off with the pizzas so she would enter separately and Tumelo wouldn’t see her or me carrying pizzas. Then my housemate Katie had baked some brownies for her the night beforewhich I cut into a heart…so like a brownie cake. Once Tumelo finished counseling, she came across the courtyard, and I let her into the YFC office. Slim was hiding and came out with the brownie cake to surprise her. They hadn’t seen each other since late November (Slim already graduated) so Tumelo screamed from surprised delight and they hugged. A beautiful success! Then as we enjoyed the pizza, Slim invited Tumelo to an upcoming church camp – the same place where God really transformed her life. Tumelo didn’t seem opposed…I think she might have even said she would go. Let’s pray that she will!
Then on the drive back to Mochudi, while “The Lost Get Found” was playing, Tumelo turned down the radio to tell me, “This song got through to me. I hear about God, but this song really got through to me, and it encourages me so much. That and the one I found today [Sweet Sweet Sound]. That’s why I keep playing them over and over. They do something in my heart.” Since the door was open, I asked her how she feels about God these days. She said she doesn’t hate Him anymore and that all the blame she had put on Him has fallen away. She said she hasn’t fully accepted Him yet, but she is on the journey toward that! She said she would like to learn more about the Bible and someone to coach her in that. I told her about the bible study course that Slim just started and she seems interested. This fits with what the counselor had told me that Tumelo had said the first time back on February 3—that she wants to give God a chance and try out the Christian thing. Given that Tumelo seemed to not only be reconciled and “not hating” the person she had so intensely hated, but now she was willing to give God a chance, whom she had also hated when I first met her, it’s not unfounded that the counselor found it almost unbelievable. I mentioned that her friend Slim has had a huge transformation, and Slim’s been praying for her hard-core!
The counselor met with me Friday to tell me about Thursday with Tumelo. She told me that now she realizes Tumelo hasn’t been faking it—she really has forgiven and been reconciled with the person she hated…(much faster than the normal process according to her psychology studies), and she seems serious about giving God a chance in her life! I told the counselor about our conversation about God on the ride home, and how we saw a rainbow as we drove into Mochudi. It seemed like a smile from God…I know I was smiling listening to Tumelo say those words and sing along to those songs. Even before hearing the counselor’s confirming words Friday, I could just sense that she is “for real” and not faking it. I spent about an hour under the stars Thursday night barefoot in the sand with my guitar singing praise to the King, the Redeemer, the One who can soften even the hardest of hearts and transform lives. I think back to when I first met this girl…a suicidal, emotional wreck filled with hatred who wanted nothing to do with God. How cool that her change has been so drastic that the counselor could hardly believe it—“a complete turnaround.” What a privilege it has been to see her transformation. “Tumelo” means faith in Setswana, and it is my hope that she will come to an unshakable faith in Christ. Let’s continue to pray for her as she is nearing that faith…that nothing would hinder her from fully embracing Christ.
Open Doors with College Students!
I’ve briefly mentioned before how I’ve felt God guiding me to start a mentoring program in Gaborone. I hope to share the interesting details of that guidance sometime, but for now, I’ll just share how it’s going getting it started. I thought it would be good to have college-age Christians each paired-up with someone younger, such as a secondary school student in Gaborone to mentor them like a big brother/sister. So I realized that the college students involved in my church’s AIDS prevention program Face the Nation would be great mentors. I talked to the Face the Nation leadership and they thought it sounds like a good idea to let them know about the option. They gave me the contact info for the leaders of the Face the Nation club at the University of Botswana. Right now they are meeting in weekly cell groups, so I’ve contacted the cell group leaders and have been speaking at the cell groups introducing the mentoring program and recruiting them for that and/or volunteering with YFC in other ways. Last week, I spoke at one cell group, Friday at another. Monday and Tuesday are set up for me to share in those cell groups too. The response has been very positive, as most everyone has either wanted to be a mentor or volunteer, or both.
Friday, after I finished sharing with the cell group, I was walking back through the student union and a poster on one of the many bulletin boards caught my eye. It was advertising a prayer meeting on campus. As I took down the number on the poster, a guy standing nearby asked, “So, you are a Christian?” I agreed, and returned the query. He is, and it turns out he was a Face the Nation volunteer last year. He asked if I had been at the Face the Nation School of Discipleship last year. Indeed, I had been there several mornings to sit in on lectures and to visit those for whom I was a prayer partner. When I told him I was just at a Face the Nation cell group sharing about a mentoring program, he said, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard about this—where they’ll pair a college student with a secondary student from Gabs?” So he must’ve heard it from someone in the first cell group last week. He said he’s been helping to mentor students he met last year in the schools during their Face the Nation outreaches. He really wants to be a part of this new mentoring program, so I pulled out the sign-up sheet in my bag for him to sign (his name is Lucky, by the way).
I mentioned how we will have volunteer training on an upcoming Saturday, and he mentioned that he has worship band practice on Saturdays. So then I also brought up how I want to start up a worship band at YFC for prayer/worship nights. He seemed interested in that too. Then he mentioned that he couldn’t meet this Saturday (yesterday) for training because he will be at a gathering for Christian tertiary (university/college) students from the Gaborone area. I asked if the Christians from the various colleges and institutions often gather together for fellowship. He said that this was the first time and that I should come—the mentoring program might be something I could share about there (at the Botswana College of Agriculture).
Afterward, I wondered how I would share with everyone there…especially if I arrived and couldn’t find Lucky. I wasn’t about to stand up and make an announcement out of the blue without being invited. And even if I could find Lucky, would he be able to help me make that announcement? But I just went yesterday morning because I figured it could work out somehow. I prayed that God would work it out so I could share about the mentoring program. It turns out that Lucky was the lead singer on the worship team up front with an amazing voice! Then when the worship team sat down, it turns out I had chosen the seat right next to his! Later, when he was up front again, I saw him whispering to the emcee. Then he came down and asked if I would like to share for 5 minutes with everyone? Yes! So they invited “Sister Emily” up to the front podium and handed me a mic to share with everyone about the mentoring program and volunteering!
Then I had the sign-up sheets at the back, and 15 people signed up to be involved! Several of them go to Gaborone Institute for Health Sciences, which I didn’t even know existed, but it is within 1km of the YFC centre in Gabs! I don’t think I could have orchestrated a better scenario if I’d tried. I wouldn’t have even known about all these colleges or how to find Christian volunteers in them had I not happened to meet Lucky Friday. One could say it was indeed lucky that we happened to meet and start talking next to a bulletin board the day before this first inter-college fellowship gathering…that he happened to mention it and invite me…that he happened to be the lead singer up front who could speak to the emcee to invite me to share with everyone. But I can’t say it was lucky. That would seem to deny the divine orchestration. I can’t help but see this “random” meeting with Lucky as a divine appointment, part of God’s design to further His purposes.
This week has been an amazing, wild ride with God! I love it. One of the Face the Nation cell group leaders told me a couple weeks ago, “You are in the right place at the right time!” As time goes on, that seems to be confirmed more and more. Just after meeting Lucky on Friday as I walked to my car on the University campus, I couldn’t contain the smile just thanking God for His obvious hand. Now I have all the more reason to be thankful and in awe of His goodness and orchestration. It’s times like these that I understand more poignantly the scriptures that speak of how He goes before us and that the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord. It was right after meeting Lucky that I stopped by and talked to Tumelo’s counselor to hear that good news. You could safely assume that I played a lot of praise music on the drive home!
There’s even more to share, but this has been long enough. Thanks for your continued interest and prayers. God is at work here…and it’s a privilege to partner with Him and be along for the ride!
Many blessings,
Em
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