Today is a most stellar day!! It’s my 28th birthday…and also the first time I played in a praise and worship band in Botswana! I’m helping to lead worship for a camp this weekend at a Christian school here in Gaborone. It’s the private school where I spoke to the whole student body (K-12) last September about my accident/recovery story.
A visiting team from the Phillippines is putting the camp on this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and the school leadership asked if I’d like to help. I was planning to help last year, but I got sick that weekend. There were over 800 kids from Gaborone that came last year though! So a similar turnout is expected this year, many of whom are unchurched kids. Yesterday I stopped by to meet the Filipinos and see how I could help out. They told me the different departments I could volunteer in, and when they mentioned the praise and worship band, I knew that’s where I would fit! After meeting the Filipinos (who are AWESOME people, by the way…I love working with them!), I watched several of their dramas that will be performed during the camp—powerful. In the afternoons, the Filipinos are teaching the dramas to students from the school who want to learn them…so the dramas will be performed by those Batswana youth. How cool that people from a former/current missionary destination (the Phillippines) are now going on mission trips to other places around the world? That’s how it should be. And it’s cool to partner with them, and to see their love for Jesus and the ways they can reach youth worldwide.
This morning, we had praise and worship band practice. They asked me to bring along songs I have, so I ended up providing all the music. For those who are familiar with the songs, we are singing “Trading my Sorrows,” “Every Move I Make,” “Taste and See,” “We Want to See Jesus Lifted High,” and “Go gona ya Tshwanang le Jesus” (There’s no one like Jesus). It turns out the other two band members that were recruited to help besides me and J.R. (Filipino) are Batswana guys I know from church who are also new YFC volunteers that I’m training! So that was cool to see them walk in and then we jammed together. So I play acoustic guitar and sing, J.R. plays keys or acoustic guitar depending on the song, Moses plays drums, and J.B. plays bass. It was truly an amazing birthday gift to be able to play/sing in a full praise/worship band again – as I said, it’s the first time since being in Botswana (and for that matter, the first time since December 2009 when I left Bethany College of Missions and my church in Minnesota). So yeah, a true blessing! And they have a really nice Yamaha keyboard, so I was able to play that for awhile too…and Moses played along with the drums which added a sweet effect. Students from the school were there with us, singing along and listening. They were making up worshipful lyrics to my original piano compositions while Moses added the beat. It was epic, haha. I’ve really been “itching” to use my music gifts more here in Botswana, and even on Sunday I was thinking how much I miss leading worship in a full band (not just myself playing guitar)…and then this opportunity came! God is so good.
I enjoyed some KFC and an ice cream in Gabs before I headed back to Mochudi for a run in the bush during a gorgeous sunset—one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in my time in Botswana, where the clouds across the sky turned a soft pink/orange contrasted with deep blue around it. And now the stars are amazing. My American housemate Katie baked me a chocolate cake and found Pillsbury chocolate frosting with which to ice it. A blessed birthday indeed.
Namibia!
My weeklong trip to Namibia was amazing! Five of us international YFC staff/volunteers (2 Americans, 2 Canadians, 1 Dutch) left our house at the lovely time of 5 am to catch the bus in Gaborone, whereupon we rode “cramped-style” for 12 hours to Windhoek, the capital city. We spent one night there in a hostel, then caught a combi (van) for another 4 hours through the Namib desert to the coastal town of Swakopmund. This experience altered my definition of desert. Botswana is largely the Kalahari Desert, but here you find shrubs and thorn bushes and some trees. This was sand. Purely sand. What came to mind as we drove through what seemed very desolate sand – no green anywhere – was, “It’s easier to endure the desert when you know the ocean is on the other side.” Fits with hard times in life too.
We did arrive at the other side of the desert, greeted by the Atlantic Ocean. Swakopmund is an old German colonial town, so there is ample German influence and architecture. It was a very beautiful, quaint town with a nice boardwalk pier out into the Atlantic, a lighthouse, markets, huge sandy beaches, and many nice restaurants. One is on the pier and another just next to it in a converted old ship. We spent most of the time relaxing on the beach, swimming (the first time I’ve swam in what is officially the Atlantic Ocean—the English Channel is, well, the English Channel and not technically the Atlantic), reading, journaling, praying, watching sunsets over the Atlantic, etc.
One morning we went “sandboarding” with a local company. It’s like snowboarding or sledding on sand, reaching speeds of 70 km/hr. I was not stupid enough to do that with my somewhat more delicate neck. But I went along to watch the others and to see the scenery. So they drove us out of town where it is the Atlantic on your right and endless sand dunes to your left. We hiked up into the dunes and the view was just amazing. It was like mountains of sand as far as the eye could see one direction and the ocean the other—a stunning juxtaposition.
I posted more pictures on facebook if you are on there in “Namibia trip” folder. The instructor invited me to go down with him both sitting on a board on a very safe, slower dune. So I enjoyed that one trip down, a free unexpected gift.
The next day I “enjoyed” a one-day flu or food poisoning experience (3 of us felt gross but I was the worst), so I stayed at the hostel that day. Besides the couple times I was really sick and felt gross, it actually was a really relaxing time where I spent a lot of time with God, listened to sermons on my iPod, and journaled. The others went 4-wheeling on the sand dunes that day, but said it probably would’ve been too rough for my neck anyway.
The next day I was feeling fine again—went swimming in the Atlantic again. I swam in part next to a break wall, so I could just float in the ocean. Never done that before because the ocean is usually too wavy—and I love to just float and relax. But I also like to wave crash, so Twila and I went further down the beach to where the waves were crashing and enjoyed jumping over/into the waves for a bit.
That morning, I also got my hair cut for the first time in Africa at a salon we found. Really great quality for a very reasonable price. That’s what I’m talking about! I saw a massage therapist’s office near the salon, and my neck and back told me to inquire within. I signed up for a half-hour neck/back massage (also reasonably priced). Amen. I used to get massage treatment twice a week for my neck/back until I left Minnesota, so this half-hour of course did not iron out all the knots and tightness I’ve accumulated, but it felt great and loosened me up a bit.
The last morning in Swakopmund, I walked/jogged out to the edge of the desert, where the sand dunes start at the edge of town, to see the sunrise and the river. The locals told us that there hasn’t been a river running there for 30 years because it’s been so dry, but this year the river is flowing due to abnormally high levels of rain. People were marveling and taking pictures of it earlier in the week, like the others saw a busload of people stop and get out to take pictures or something. So I figured I’d go take a gander too. Reminds me of all those scriptures about how God makes rivers in the desert, or streams in the desert (i.e. Isaiah 35, 43, etc).
Then it was another lovely 4 hour combi ride to Windhoek. I realize that sometimes I use the word “lovely” in all sincerity and other times I am being facetious. This would be an occasion of the latter. It wasn’t horrible, but “comfortable” isn’t a word I would associate with our drive. We stayed at a different backpackers’ hostel that night in Windhoek and got up wicked early again—a taxi picked us up at 5 am to be taken to the bus stop for the 12-hour journey back to Gaborone. All told, it was worth the long travel excursions for the beauty and respite we enjoyed in Namibia. After some really busy weeks of ministry lately, it was a welcome break for us all. Growing up on Lake Huron, I miss large bodies of water…so it was refreshing to be at the ocean.
Hope you are doing well!
Blessings,
Em
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