Leading Worship...Awesome Camp...Teaching in Schools!

Greetings all!

Transformer Camp!

The camp last weekend went really well. It was a one-day evangelistic camp that we put on three days in a row. We had a full worship band, dramas, dances, games, rap, “magic” show, and speakers. Last Friday, April 8, it was for the whole student body at the school. Then Saturday and Sunday it was opened up for youth from outside the school, mainly from Gaborone. There were about 550 youth from outside who came, and then 365 secondary students from the school.

So all told, about 900 youth experienced the camp that was run by the visiting mission team from the Philippines, with help from local Batswana, the school staff and me. About 200 of the youth decided to give their lives to Christ. A group of counselors (which included me) then followed-up those students who prayed to trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior by counseling them and explaining the gospel clearly again, answering their questions, etc. It’s cool that one of the Filipino guys who did the “magic” and ventriloquism used to be a pickpocket and steal cell phones in the Philippines, but he attended one of the same camps in 2007 there and came to faith in Christ. Now the Lord is using him around the world to bring joy and to be a living testimony of Christ’s power to transform lives. One of the students who rapped about Jesus came to faith in Christ through the camp last year.

Girls Club Field Trip to the Camp

In Mochudi, we recently started up a Girls Club at the YFC office on Saturdays. I am not officially part of the planning team for that because often on Saturdays I have volunteer trainings and events in Gaborone (and also the abstinence club at 2:30pm). However, I like to go when I can just to interact with the teen girls and build friendships. I invited the Girls Club to come to the camp in Gaborone last Sunday. The girls were so excited when they heard about it, they screamed and jumped up and down! It’s not often that young teens from Mochudi can go to Gaborone at all, let alone for a free camp! So I drove a handful of them in our YFC SUV so they could attend the camp. Five of them went forward to pray to receive Christ! Praise God! They really loved it.

I also invited Tumelo, the girl I’ve been taking to counseling. At that point she had been living at a friend’s house all week due to a disagreement with her mother. She wanted to come along, so she came to the camp as well! Though she did not pray to trust in Christ, it was a positive sign that she wanted to come to a clearly Christian camp. A few days after the camp, she moved back home with her mother, but she could really use prayer. I won’t go into all the details, but just pray that she makes wise decisions and that her relationship with her mom can be reconciled. And let’s continue to pray that all the seeds that have been planted regarding Christ can take deep root in her and that the flower of faith (tumelo in Setswana) will come forth.

More Opportunities in Schools

We already had it worked out that we would be teaching in two different schools—one in Mochudi, and one in a nearby town called Borwa—last week and this week. Last Monday at noon, the school in Mochudi asked if we would be willing to come and teach 4 separate classes the next morning at 7:55 am on a different Lifeskills topic. So we rose to the challenge of the last-minute opportunity and four of us prepared to teach on goal-setting – helping them to discern their vision/dreams in life and how to set goals to achieve their vision. Then on Wednesday, I taught at the school in Borwa on self-esteem and their value and worth. So last week, I had the opportunity at these schools to teach youth that they are not a mistake, but rather they are of extreme value to the God who created them and has a purpose and a dream for their lives. Those are lessons I love to teach!

Begging for more teaching!

At Borwa, I finished my lesson as the class period ended, but the students were still sitting there as if class wasn’t over listening attentively and waiting for me to continue. I asked what time the class ended and they said, “Oh, don’t worry, keep going!” I looked at my watch and confirmed that class was over. I found out that their next class was there in that same classroom and their teacher would come to teach them. “Do you want me to keep teaching until your next teacher comes?” I asked. “YES!!!” they yelled back enthusiastically! So I kept teaching, sharing the dangers of premarital sex, even with condoms, in this country where the HIV rate is so high, and that if they know their value, they can stand against the peer pressure to engage in risky behaviors like that. Then once the next teacher arrived, I concluded and left, as they waved and yelled “Bye!! Wow…that was an encouragement that my lesson was not too boring, or even just bearable for them, but actually enjoyable. It’s times like those that I remember why I like to teach. I am scheduled to teach that same lesson today, tomorrow, and Wednesday at that school in Borwa to different classes.

Volunteer Training in Gaborone

Last Saturday morning, I led another volunteer training in our centre in Gaborone. It was cool to see this week on facebook, that one of the volunteers had put a quote from the training as her facebook status:

“One of the greatest joys of life is knowing that a teenager or person in whom you have invested has grown up to be a mighty man or woman of God.”

All-Night Praise & Worship Event at YFC!

This Saturday, I didn’t lead a volunteer training because I was up all night Friday night…literally. We held an All-Night Praise & Worship event at the YFC office in Mochudi. Despite the rains, people showed up in large number. We didn’t actually count how many were there, but we had 90 chairs and they were pretty much all filled! At one point, everyone started dancing what seems to be Botswana version of the Electric Slide. It was cool!

I helped lead the worship for that, and also spoke in the beginning to encourage the youth from different churches to join together to pray regularly. I shared how God had really been putting it on my heart, and also Maruping’s, to restart up the prayer movement at our Mochudi office. So we will start it again on Tuesdays at 5:30pm.

Saturday (after sleeping til 1 pm after the All-Night Praise & Worship), we led the Real Life Revolution club at the Senior Secondary School in Mochudi. It went well—I think the students enjoy it and will find it a place where they can be ‘real’ –discuss real life issues that affect them and find positive peer pressure to encourage them to do what’s right. Pictured below are some of the members--

So, all in all, God is at work here! E.J., the YFC director, said recently that right now is the most ministry that YFC Botswana has ever been doing at once in its history. We just gained two three new Batswana staff to help us, which is a huge answer to prayer. Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement. It is making a difference!

I hope you have a most blessed Easter, recalling the loving sacrifice Christ made for us to enable us to have life to the full…and then life eternal. He has triumphed over the grave, and so shall those who are connected to Him!

Blessings, Em

P.S. Here is an intriguing reflection on the Triumphal Entry celebrated yesterday on Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and all the people were shouting “Hosanna!” and laying down their palms on the ground before him:

From The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer --

“It’s ludicrous for any Christian to believe that he or she is the worthy object of public worship; it would be like the donkey carrying Jesus into Jerusalem believing the crowds were cheering and laying down their garments for him.” –Charles Colson, p167

“Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and even my life itself. Let me sink that Thou mayest rise above. Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, ‘Hosanna in the highest.’”