More 2016 Highlights!

Here are some more highlights from 2016 (some of the first pictures/stories were on a previous post, but I accidentally deleted it...so here they are again, with much more afterward):

CrossOver into 2016

On New Year’s Eve, the Unashamed Movement (which includes several Youth for Christ staff/volunteers in the committee) held the annual CrossOver party. The aim is to create a safe, Christian alternative to the parties across the city. I sang with guitar and led worship during the event, which was covered by BTV (Botswana Television) and featured on the 9pm national news! We really interceded for the nation around midnight, and that is what BTV captured (as well as an interview with Bobo)!

One beautiful highlight for me was seeing one of the YFC volunteers whom I mentor, Nametso, reaching out to a lady who had come off of the streets with her baby after being left stranded, looking for a safe place to rest in the middle of the night. Nametso shared the gospel with her and prayed with her, as well as provided her a comfortable chair and some food to eat. The lady gave her life to Christ!

Youth Week 2016 – 200-strong Botswana Contingent!!

I was one of the contingent leaders in charge of about 200 young people (3 coach buses FULL!) from Botswana traveling to South Africa for the 53rd annual Youth Week camp run by Youth for Christ! It was an amazing time with 800+ youth from across Southern Africa, including a worship band of Botswana youth.



Two other leaders from Botswana and I were invited to be on a panel discussion during the Girls Talk, and it was really a deep, special time encouraging the 400+ girls. I shared some of my own testimonies and encouraged them that they are precious jewels—no matter what has dirtied them (their own sin or sin done against them), nothing can change their inherent worth, and Jesus can wash them clean and polish them to shine again. I also taught an elective class on how prayer can shape history, which seemed to really inspire some of the attendees to mobilize prayer in their areas.



As leaders, we were available to pray for and/or counsel youth, and it was just beautiful to see several young ladies brought to tears as I shared scriptures with them or spoke truth in my prayers for them. Also, I saw God move powerfully to heal two young ladies. One couldn’t feel her arm for about 30 minutes (the night before, she had to be rushed to the nurse because she couldn’t breathe – as in past years to those having asthma attacks, I sang the “lullaby from God” to calm her down while the paramedics came, which stabilized her breathing), but immediately when we started praying for her arm, she could feel her arm again (she began crying immediately due to the “pins and needles” sensation of feeling returning) and has had no more problems since! The other girl was set free from an issue that plagued her for three years! God is truly amazing!





Fifth Annual Up Kgale Hike

Back in Gaborone, later in January, the Unashamed Movement held our annual Up Kgale hike. I led the praise and worship and shared a short message encouraging us to intercede daily for the nation at 9pm. From that night we started posting prayer points nightly for where the national torch was located that day as it traversed the whole country during this Jubilee year (Botswana turned 50 years old on 30 September 2016). I will share more below about the roving torch.


We also were blessed to have a short message by Jacob Ramothudi and from Bobo, who were both appointed to the 11-member Botswana National Youth Council. It was great at one point that an older pastor who hiked with us, Pastor Radibe, prayed for the two of them as representatives of all the youth.


Kubamba Krew from Kenya
In February, we hosted a team from Kenya called Kubamba at the Youth for Christ staff-house in Mochudi. Though they were only here for a few days, they ministered at 4 schools in Gaborone through dance, hip/hop, dramas, and testimonies.


One cool story to interject: When we were at the YWCA School setting up, a lady came up to me and told me that she was one of the people I had prayed for after speaking at her church conference the year before. She had been pregnant at the time, but had lost her previous baby very late in pregnancy, and therefore had asked for prayer for her new baby to be born healthy. That night, one of the other Unashamed Movement committee members had been there at the edge of the hall (she couldn't hear what was being said nor was it noticeable the woman was pregnant) and felt the Lord speak to her that there was something wrong with that lady's womb, but that God was healing her as we prayed for her. So...now this lady saw me at the school and came to share the good news, that she has a healthy baby boy! Praise God!



Fifty+ housemates in seven years!
The day the Kenyan team left, a World Race team of five American females moved in to the YFC staff house for a month! The staff house is quite the revolving door of people. Since I moved in almost 7 years ago, I have lived with 50+ housemates! That is only counting YFC volunteers who stayed more than a month (not the short-term teams like the Kenyans, Americans, Dutch and Canadians!). They have hailed from Germany, England, Canada, Holland, U.S., South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia! It’s been an enriching experience, but you can also imagine how it’s a lot of hello’s and goodbyes (which is why I am thankful to have some really great Batswana friends who are always around)! Over the past 7 years, there have been times when we’ve had 9 or 10 volunteers all living in the house, and times when I have been alone for weeks at a time (longest was 5 weeks). Currently, there is just one other housemate, a 20-year-old American named Kelsey:

Kelsey arrived in mid-January this year and plans to stay until the end of 2017 or early 2018. She does lots of different ministries, including helping with the Gaborone ministry a couple days a week. It's been cool getting to see God working in and through her, as with the other volunteers with whom I have lived and ministered.

Passion World Tour
Later in February, Kelsey, Bobo, Keabetswe, Nina and I decided to take a roadtrip to Pretoria, South Africa to attend the Passion World Tour with famous worship leader Chris Tomlin. It was amazing to worship and pray together with about 40,000 others. At one powerful moment, we all knelt down to pray together for South Africa.



Teambuilding Workshop
In March, YFC was invited to facilitate a teambuilding workshop on a Saturday for all the teachers, administrators, and other staff of Gaborone International School. The Regional Director for YFC in Southern Africa, E.J. van As, trained about 15 YFC Gaborone volunteers in advance to help him facilitate the training.

We had a lot of fun doing it, and trust that it helped the school become a more encouraging environment for the teachers and students.


It was also a nice chance at the break times to have fun with the YFC volunteers:


Other School Ministry Highlights
In Youth for Christ Gaborone, we lead or assist regular weekly discipleship clubs in a few schools in Gaborone and also speak to entire student bodies or large groups of students on different issues.

This year, we’ve spoken at several schools, including the two largest senior secondary schools in Gaborone, on topics such as abstinence and HIV prevention, drug abuse, goal setting, the gospel and our testimonies.

At these schools, I also usually sing and play guitar, and one or more of the volunteers (i.e. Wehe or Fairhope) ministers through Christian rap. We sometimes partner with other like-minded organisations to reach the youth, such as The Liberty Program (which Bobo started with the GodChasers to specifically address the issue of drug/alcohol abuse) and Misfits (a music/dance group founded by DJ Riley, who was trained in Kenya by the same Kubamba Krew group that we hosted in February).


INFERNO – Gathering together to rekindle our hearts for Him and for His world

Weekly we are still holding the INFERNO prayer meetings. Inferno is a partnership between Youth for Christ and the Unashamed Movement. We have praise and worship with guitar and Kelsey plays a wooden cajon drum. Then we spend time praying for each other, for the government leaders, for the youth of the nation, for rain, and for issues happening worldwide.

We started the meetings back in 2012 at the Youth for Christ centre, but since we had to move out of that venue, the Lord orchestrated a connection with a school called Interlink so that we can hold our meetings there free of charge. It was really a divine connection!

I had no connection to the school at all, but it had come to my mind to just take a letter about YFC and go there on a Thursday to see if it might be possible to host INFERNO there. The day before, the YFC National Director, Koekoes van As, asked me if I’d ever heard of Interlink? She had just met with the administrators and found out they are Christians who want to partner with YFC! So we had a meeting all together, and it turns out that the exact time we usually have Inferno (1-2pm) is when they have an optional spiritual hour for the students, so we could have INFERNO then in the school hall during the school day! How amazing! People are welcome to come in from off campus, but also the students are welcome to attend.

At least 3 students have given their lives to Christ after just coming to check out what INFERNO is! We also have had opportunities to share the gospel and our testimonies to the whole student body at assemblies and last year at one of their camps.

In the picture above, Fairhope was rapping his single Johane 3:16 based on John 3:16. It's an awesome track, and he even filmed part of the music video at YFC with Kelsey and me. We played it on repeat from my car sound system while he was filming, so I have heard it a million times, haha, but still love it.

When Keffy, Gugu, and Nametso stayed the night one time, they helped me translate the Setswana lyrics into English. Enjoy the music video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKasEm-7qZM&feature=youtu.be

By the way, it's been exciting to see the Lord opening up bigger platforms for him this year, including being featured on BTV, national radio, in the national newspapers:

Fairhope is also a featured artist on the Christmas Day Bash and the Mega CrossOver event with famous artists, even from different nations. Also, DJ Riley and MVP will be performing at the Mega CrossOver as well. Last year, X-Caliber, a group who have also volunteered with YFC and Unashamed Movement in schools and events, was featured. Earlier this month they were invited to do an interview on a radio station in Mafikeng, South Africa. It's exciting when the artists we know are recognized and featured at a national, even international, level. May they continue to shine His light unashamedly!

Back to Fairhope (whose first name is Martin)...he really loves the Lord and raps out of a true experience of His grace. He's come to the annual prayer camps run by GodChasers and YFC, as well as the mission trip to Malawi & Zambia and the first cattlepost outreach we had in 2014. Even the other day, his Facebook post was encouraging us to take time each day to be in the word and prayer, even during these busy holiday times. It's been a joy to minister alongside him and the other artists like X-Caliber, DJ Riley, and Wehe. I look forward to reaching more youth with the gospel together.

Prayer Patriots Camp - Time Set Apart to Intercede for the Nation
Speaking of the prayer camp, this year we held another Prayer Patriots Camp in partnership with the GodChasers. Twelve of us camped at Mizpah Farm in Mahalapye and spent a week praying and fasting for the nation of Botswana. We fasted during the days, taking turns cooking dinner to break our fast each evening. We had a prayer room where two of us were always praying during the watches (12, 3, 6, 9...) throughout the 24 hours. We did a rotation so we all prayed at the different times. We all joined together for corporate worship and prayer twice a day.

In the mornings, we worshiped and prayed together in the dry, sandy riverbed. Apart from the two corporate times of worship and prayer and our daily hour-long slot in the prayer room, we had personal devotion time, walks/run along the riverbed, reading books, fellowship, cooking dinner (and enjoying it!), teaching on prayer, etc.

We also were invited by the hosts of the mission station to lead the Sunday church service for the local children and youth. So we led them in praise and worship, and Bobo preached to the older kids, while some of the team taught Sunday School to the little ones.

The camp was an amazing time where we really encountered the presence and guidance of the Lord, and I am just encouraged that young people would pay money and give up a week of their time to fast and pray for the nation. We trust that our intercession for the nation in this Jubilee year was effective. Since this is Botswana's Jubilee, Bobo and I decided to blow shofars during one of the corporate worship times as we prayed for Botswana to experience freedom and restoration.

Leviticus 25 speaks about the Year of Jubilee and blowing the rams horn (trumpet) throughout the land to proclaim liberty and restoration. Bobo and I bought the shofars earlier in the year in March, when the Africa House of Prayer decided to host its annual conference in Botswana, due to this being our Year of Jubilee. Several of the YFC volunteers attended to learn more about how to effectively intercede for Botswana and the world.

National Roving Torch -- Botswana's Jubilee Year
As I mentioned above, to help celebrate Botswana’s Jubilee 50th year, President Ian Khama lit a national roving torch last year on Independence Day (September 30, 2015) at the National Stadium. The next day the torch was lit at the national monument in Gaborone called the Three Chiefs, where we have started our prayer walks the past few years. Since Bobo was on the BOT50 committee as part of his work with the Botswana National Youth Council, he was asked to pray over the torch on 1 October 2015 at the Three Chiefs Monument.

From there, we drove in a police escort to the edge of Gaborone, in an area called Village, to walk with the torch to the bridge to Tlokweng, where the people there were waiting to receive the roving torch. As we marched, people started singing in Setswana, “We are walking in the light of God! We are walking in the light of God!”

Youth Commissioned to Pray with the Roving Torch
Within the next couple weeks, we were contacted by members of the National Prayer Team. In past celebratory years (i.e. when Botswana turned 40) there was also a national roving torch, and members of the National Prayer Team accompanied the torch to pray in each kgotla (village meeting place/court). Since the last time, they had gotten a vision about it being youth who should accompany the torch at 50 years and pray in each kgotla. Therefore they organised a commissioning prayer service for some of us from the Unashamed Movement, YFC, Scripture Union, etc. At the service, Bobo, I and a few others were both invited to speak, followed later by the president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana, Pastor Matlhaope, who prayed over us as representatives of the youth in Botswana and of the Church in Botswana.

The Daily News national newspaper wrote an article about it and the Botswana government Facebook page also shared the article, along with pictures from the prayer walks.

A few of us met with the relevant leaders at the Ministry of Youth, Sport, and Culture, but as it turned out, the government only provided transport, food, and accommodation for one young person to join the torch entourage at a time, for 3 weeks at a time. Given my other responsibilities, especially directing YFC in Gaborone, this was unfortunately not possible for me. It was also difficult for Bobo with all his other responsibilities. However, Boago, who joined the Unashamed Movement committee in 2016, was able to go on the 3-week trips for some of the year, alternating with youth from Scripture Union and the National Prayer team. It’s pretty amazing to think that the whole Body of Christ in Botswana was being represented by that one young person, not a famous pastor or bishop!

Last year during a missionary training course called Kairos, I felt the Lord saying that we should post prayer points on Facebook for various places across the nation. I have a Botswana map in my room and thought we could stick a target on a village and post prayer points for that place. This was before I knew about the roving torch. So once I learned it would go throughout the whole land, the Lord led us to post prayer points every night for whatever village(s) the torch was in that day.

We encouraged people to pray at 9pm for that place, following the example of how people during WWII in the Battle of Britain prayed every night at 9pm for the RAF to win the battle. The Lord has greatly encouraged us with that RAF story of the power of intercession to shape history, so the “target” we put on the Botswana map was the RAF symbol:

You can read more about how the RAF story has been connected to us in Botswana by clicking on the tab at the top of this blog: The Prayer Force – Encouragement from the RAF.

Most of the time, the torch was only in a village for one day and then moved on. Therefore, it was not always evident what difference our prayers made. However, when Boago was in Bobonong, the torch stayed a second day, and the change in the behaviour of the youth was remarkable. Normally known for unruly youth who drink and litter, the leaders were astounded that there had been no misbehavior or empty bottles or litter! Here is what Boago posted:

Boago Matshuba
The MC states that the youth of Bobonong behaved well yesterday night as no empty can/bottle of liquor was found when cleaning the ward. There is no report of negative behaviour that came about!! Parents are happy ☺ We thank God for this and all that He will do in this village.

Throughout the year, Bobo, George (also in the Unashamed Movement committee and YFC), and I took turns posting the prayer points every night. Boago would update us with prayer requests while he was out in the villages, and otherwise, we just asked the Holy Spirit to guide us in posting the prayer points. We would often post points specific to that village and then generally for the nation. It was cool that one time I felt led for us to pray for nurses, only to find out later it was international nurses day!

Pictured above is when the torch was in Jwaneng and Bobo was able to be there. When the roving torch was in Mochudi, I had the opportunity to sing the Setswana worship song I wrote. It was great to be able to take part in something like this.

Another thing that was beautiful to see this year was how different Christian organisations, churches, and leaders (i.e. Scripture Union, Unashamed, Youth for Christ, Alpha, Intercessors for Botswana, Heaven's Saints, Evangelical Fellowship Botswana, National Prayer Team, Jesus Generation Movement, etc.) were coming together to plan prayer for the youth. I was part of that committee that helped organise the All-Night Prayer during the Month of Youth Against AIDS in March.

That committee went on to organise the Jubilee All-Night Prayer for youth at the National Stadium at the end of August. Bobo and I shared about the Year of Jubilee and the event on Yarona FM national radio.

Though the attendance of the event definitely did not fill up the stadium and there were some logistical hiccups, I was encouraged by the tenacity and passion with which the youth worshipped and prayed all night! We even had times when we marched or ran around the track in praise to God.


A highlight was when the older church leaders prayed over us as young people and in essence, passed the baton to us to lead the nation for the next 50 years. How powerful when Pastor Kgwarapi shared how he had come to Christ inside that very stadium when evangelist Reinhard Bonnke held his first crusade in 1974 (Reinhard Bonnke’s ministry, Christ for All Nations, has now reached over 100 million people, but he says its womb was that stadium in Gaborone, Botswana!).

I shared in the page I wrote about my new name Ember (you can click on the tab at the top to read more) how I first learned of Reinhard Bonnke the very same day in 2009 that I felt God was shifting my focus to Gaborone…only later to learn that Bonnke’s ministry was birthed in Gaborone!

When Reinhard Bonnke was leading that crusade in the Botswana national stadium, he even called out Pastor Kgwarapi by name (Johannes) and felt the Lord had called him into ministry. He has since become one of the most prominent, well-respected pastors in the nation. So it was a spiritually significant moment, when Pastor Kgwarapi, laid his hands on our shoulders in prayer to hand over the ministry to us as the younger generation to keep running with the gospel for the next 50 years!

Pictured above are Pastor Kgwarapi (right) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana president Pastor Matlhaope (left), holding up the flag in earnest prayer for Botswana that night in the stadium.

About a month later, in that same national stadium, there was a national church service of thanksgiving, welcoming back the roving torch to Gaborone.

Bobo went to be at the border of Gaborone when the torch had returned there after almost a year’s journey throughout the whole land.

Then it was brought to the stadium. It was beautiful to see Christians from all different denominations worshipping Jesus Christ together! Pastor Kgwarapi was the main preacher for the day. In the afternoon there was a gospel music festival, where Fairhope also performed.


The celebrations in the following days and on 30 September 2016 when Botswana turned 50 years were amazing, and the country was decked out patriotically with flags and zebra statues everywhere (zebra is the national animal)! Something noteable that occurred was that in that same national stadium on Independence Day, President Ian Khama ended his speech with a prayer, saying that we are His people and asking that God would guide us to walk according to His teachings! Amen!!!

JESO O RENA MO BOTSWANA!
A couple weeks later, the Unashamed Movement held our annual prayer walk again proclaiming JESO O RENA MO BOTSWANA (Jesus Reigns in Botswana)!

An exciting thing this year was that one of the young people who heard me speak on intercession at Youth Week Camp in January had kept in touch with me since then and was inspired to start The Unashamed Movement in South Africa. She rode the bus up to Gaborone from Johannesburg so she could attend our prayer walk and learn how to organise one in Johannesburg!

More 2016 Highlights...
It's been amazing seeing God at work this year, and such a privilege to partner with what He is doing. It's great to see how He is developing the youth into mature leaders. I am truly grateful for all those who partner with me through prayer and/or finances so that I can continue serving here in Botswana. If you didn't see the previous post yet, there you can see other highlights from 2016...and there are still yet more highlights to come in my next post!

Have a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!