I was preparing to do a blog highlight reel update from 2018 so far only to realize that I never posted an update on this blog for 2017, except for Youth Week 2017! So here, at long last, are the highlights from 2017:
Doors Opening at Schools to Minister to Hundreds of Students!
In early 2017, we started a new weekly club at a high school called MegaSize. In previous years, we have run the Youth Alpha film series at school clubs like that one that are optional for students, but in 2017, Alpha Botswana was granted permission to lead the Youth film series with all the students at Moselewapula Jr. Secondary School in Gaborone!
The program helps youth discuss topics such as, Who is Jesus? Why did Jesus die? Why and how should I pray? Why and how should I read the Bible? What about evil and suffering? YFC partners with Alpha by supplying volunteers to facilitate the small group discussions, and Alpha asked me to be the overall coordinator.
We met 235 students twice a week for two months for about two hours each time, consisting of games, singing, video teaching, discussion and prayer. The students gave good feedback, and it was evident that many youth grew in their faith.
Godchaser is pictured above praying with his small group. The young man third from the right in the blue shirt, Amadeus, is a German who served primarily with Flying Mission but volunteered part of every week with YFC in Gaborone and in Mochudi. The YFC Gaborone regular volunteers pictured are Godchaser Mogopodi, Katlego Gabana, Neo Khachana, and Roshnee Kwenane. Some of the other volunteers pictured in the last picture above (Holden, Anna, and Chris) were part of the World Race team of Americans that YFC hosted for a month. This was the second World Race team that YFC has hosted. It is always a fun month having them around, incorporating them into the ministry, and also having a chance to learn from each other and bless each other. I often share my testimonies with them during the month. Here is another picture of the World Race team (this time also including Tyler, Danielle, Hayley, and Kim), along with several of us from YFC Botswana:
Youth for Christ Botswana Board - Raising up Young Leaders
It is exciting that two younger YFC Gaborone volunteers have joined the national board, Reitumetse (Tumi) Keikotlhaile and Tshenolo (Bobo) Palai. Tumi actually came to Christ through YFC's Youth Week camp in Magaliesburg, South Africa and has helped lead the Botswana contingent who travel to Youth Week each year since at least 2012. Pictured below is the YFC Botswana board meeting in March 2017. Tumi is in front in the orange shirt.
Bobo, who wasn't able to make it for that meeting, has been an active volunteer with YFC since 2012 as well, in many different ministries--outreaches, prayer camps, school ministry, cattle post trips, radio ministry, etc. Pictured below is when we attended the YFC International General Assembly in Thailand, where Bobo receiving training in the Young Leaders track and we both served on the prayer team.
Pictured below is the YFC Botswana Leadership Team with Sheunesu Masuka, the new Regional Director for Southern Africa. From left: George (training then to be the next National Director), Maruping (Kgatleng District Centre Director), Sheunesu (Regional Director), me (Gaborone Centre Director), and Koekoes (National Director then).
Fighting AIDS using Radio Ministry for 7th Year
As you know if you’ve been following my story awhile, I have a heart to fight AIDS and help Botswana turn the tide and recover from it. Botswana has the second highest AIDS rate in the world (borderline third). When I first visited Botswana in 2004 (when it had the world’s highest rate), I realized the great need for prevention work among youth so they would make wise choices to help protect themselves from infection. I’m so grateful for the platform granted to YFC to lead discussions on Yarona FM national radio for 7 consecutive years, on Sundays during the Month of Youth Against AIDS. Again this year, I coordinated several volunteers to join on the various weeks as we discussed different aspects, and encouraged youth to abstain until marriage and be faithful once married.
In 2017's program, Olerato (to my immediate left above) and I, along with hosts Dikatso (aka Dee, who is also a YFC volunteer) and Trevor, also addressed a rising trend of young people getting into relationships with older people in exchange for money, phones, shoes, etc. How twisted that the older one is called a “Blesser” and the younger a “Blessee”?! It has almost become cool to have a “Blesser,” and one in four University of Botswana women admit to being in such a relationship. We shared statistics about how dangerous this is, due to the much higher HIV rates among the 31-49 year olds than the younger age brackets. For example, 43.8% of 35-39 year olds were HIV positive in 2013 (from Botswana AIDS Impact Survey IV, 2013). In Mahalapye village, a shocking 74.3% of women aged 30-34 in 2013 were HIV positive! Thus, when younger people have relationships with older people, it is very risky and will continue to spread HIV among the younger generation.
At one school, when I shared those statistics, and urged young people not to get involved in this whole “Blesser” trend, one student thanked me afterward. She said it corrected her faulty thinking that, somehow, it was safer to be with someone older than being with a peer. So we pray that what we shared on radio and at schools will encourage young people to avoid such relationships and to abstain until marriage.
The other volunteers who helped out over the month in 2017 were Bobo, Maranatha, and Jem (pictured above). Jem is pictured with me in the last picture above, and he is a British national who was born in Zimbabwe and who came to serve with YFC for about a month or so in February/March 2017. As well as joining our other regular ministry, he was able to share his powerful testimony on Yarona FM. It was truly a blessing having him with us for that time, and it was awesome to see how the Lord transformed his life on his trip to Africa (he spent time in other African countries before Botswana). Pictured below is when Jem joined us in celebrating Keffy's birthday (from left: Jem, Kelsey, Keffy, Gugu, Dudu...and in the bottom picture, Nametso replaced Dudu on the far right).
[An update on Jem is that after Jem's time in Botswana, he joined the Christian Union at the University of Glasgow and he and a friend have been organizing monthly worship nights there in Glasgow, Scotland since September!]
Teaching Orphans – Working to Break the Cycle of Poverty
One effect of AIDS over the years has been an increase in orphans whose infected parents have passed away. YFC, in partnership with a local church, Apostolic Faith Mission, runs a pre-school/daycare in Mochudi for orphans and vulnerable children, ages 2-6.
One of the subjects they study in school is Moral and Religious Education, and Jem and I were helping two of the students with that one time, which led to a discussion about beliefs. They both were interested in studying the bible, so we were able to provide bibles and bible studies for them. Another day, YFC was given the whole time to lead worship and share the gospel and testimonies with the students. Kelsey, a YFC volunteer from the U.S., did a great job sharing with them (pictured above).
Outreach to Children in Poloka Village
In late March 2017, I also took part in an outreach organized by my church, His People, to the village of Poloka (about 2 hours drive away). I was part of one of the earliest outreaches there, when we put up the fence around the property and leveled the ground where a house was later built for a local missionary. Here are a couple pics from that earlier outreach:
For this particular outreach, we just wanted to have a fun day with the children of the village to play games and also share the gospel with them and provide them with a meal.
YFC Family
One of my greatest joys is the friendships I've developed with YFC volunteers over the years. I really enjoy mentoring them and just living life with them. These ones (from left, Kelsey, Nametso, Gugu, and Keffy) ended up also being part of the Connect Group I led for our church, so we would meet weekly to study and discuss the Word and pray together.
They have become little sisters to me. Whenever it is one of our birthdays, we all go out to eat somewhere to celebrate. This was on Gugu's birthday in April 2017. We always have a good time together!
Here are some other pics from over the years:
Finding People in the Rural Cattle Posts who are Hungry for God
I was glad we could fit in another outreach to the rural cattle post settlements before I left on sabbatical. A team of 8 of us, including Keffy and Kelsey (who were just featured in a lot of pictures above), Bobo, Bobo's mom, Godchaser, Thuso, and Shosho, made the journey through the bush to stay at Bobo’s cattle post.
The night before, we had a powerful time of worship and prayer together at the YFC staff house in Mochudi. We felt God saying he was preparing the way for us, and would guide us to the people who were ready to hear the gospel, which was fitting encouragement since we decided this time to reach out to a settlement across the river that we have never reached before. The people there were quite receptive, and we ended up giving away all the Setswana bibles we brought along. We were also able to give away at least one piece of clothing or shoes to each person we met.
We have good times on cattle post trips singing worship songs together in YFC's Nissan Patrol 4x4 that I drive. One previous trip, we only took the Patrol, but on most trips, we try to take two vehicles. On the last day of this trip, we felt we were lost for a bit, driving on a sand road through the bush, but ended up at a settlement. There, a cattle herder we’d never met told us that he heard we had been sharing about God to the people across the river, and he’d been wanting us to come and tell him about God! Wow! Talk about God preparing the way! So we had a beautiful opportunity to share the gospel with him and the other two cattle herders who also happened to be hanging out there. All three of them were very receptive to the message and wanted to give their lives to Christ. What a beautiful sight to see Thuso from our team, kneeling down to lead the three of them in prayer!
By that point, we had run out of Setswana bibles, but we had two audio-bibles in Setswana that are solar powered (perfect because there is no electricity out there). So we gave one to a cattle herder from across the river, and one to a cattle herder from that settlement, and told them to share it with others in their settlements (it has a speaker so multiple people can listen to the bible at once). To cap off the trip, they let Kelsey and me enjoy a ride on their donkey cart!
Youth Week Committee Meeting in Magaliesburg, South Africa
The very next day, I headed to Magaliesburg, South Africa by car with one of the other Youth Week contingent leaders from Botswana, Obie, to attend the main Youth Week committee meeting to plan for Youth Week 2018. We had a great weekend reuniting with other Youth Week leaders from different countries and were rejuvenated by the beauty there and along the drive.
Joining Hands Missionary Conference – Cultivating a Missional Culture in the Botswana Church
The following week was the Joining Hands Missionary Conference, for which Bobo and I have been on the planning committee for the past few years. Joining Hands brings together missionaries working in Botswana so that we can join hands in fellowship and partnership to reach Botswana and beyond for Christ. For the 2017 conference, Kelsey and I led the praise and worship. I also was appointed to be one of the breakout session speakers, teaching on Prayer, Revival, and Missions.
A small team of us in YFC organized the dynamic Youth Missions Explosion event at the end of the conference, featuring several guest bands/artists, the powerful guest speaker for the conference, and a panel discussion that I facilitated with three Batswana youth who have been on foreign mission trips—Botlhe to India, Martin to Zambia and Malawi on the trip we did in 2014, and Khumo to Tanzania, and she was then preparing to go to Namibia, Zambia, and Tanzania again.
Botlhe on a previous trip (an update is that in 2018, Botlhe was part of the Explore Every Nation team that spent 10 months in mission training and going to countries around the world):
Martin (third from right with black vest) on our mission trip to Malawi and Zambia:
Khumo (second from left) on her first mission trip to Tanzania [an update is that in mid-2018, Khumo was accepted to a missions agency to be a longterm missionary in East Asia, so she is now preparing for that!]:
This is the fourth Youth Missions Explosion, where we aim to help Batswana youth realize that they too can be missionaries, not just foreigners who come to Botswana. It’s great to see it happening more and more, even with both Botlhe and Khumo going on subsequent mission trips. We also encourage the youth to give financially to missions, and this time we split the money the youth raised three ways:
1) Supporting Khumo on her mission trip to Namibia, Zambia, and Tanzania
2) Supporting two other Batswana young women from my church on a one-year mission trip to various countries
3) Purchasing more Setswana bibles for the YFC cattle post outreaches.
Botswana Musicians National Prayer at the Three Chiefs Monument
A few days later I saw the poster above online and noted that Youth for Christ was on the poster. I hadn't heard anything about it, but decided I best go. When I arrived a bit early, one of Botswana's famous music artists, Vee, saw me and greeted me (we met when I was the speaker at his church's conference in 2015). He told me that he was gathering musicians together for a time of encouragement and prayer, and many of them were not Christian. One of the other famous ones in attendance was Kast. He then asked if I would speak for a few minutes at the event!! So after freaking out a little bit, I said yes and sat down to pray and ask God what I should speak. I'm thankful I was at least wearing khakis (not jeans) because one of the Ministers of Parliament was there and they even had a red carpet for us, haha. A good motto as a missionary is RFA -- Ready for Anything, Anytime, Anywhere!
In my short message, I shared about how I'm also a musician, and shared a bit of my testimony of how I was given musical gifting by the Lord right after I surrendered my life to Christ. I shared that we are meant to use our gifts to glorify God and build others up, and that these nationally-known artists can use their music as a platform to shape culture in a positive way. The event went really well as we worshipped and prayed together, and artists repented of competition and decided to build each other up and support each others' successes instead of giving in to jealousy. Overall, it was really a cool experience, and I'm glad I went!
Other Good Memories Before My Sabbatical:
Here are some other pictures of some good memories before I left for my sabbatical. Hanging out with sisters, Lame and Dudu, who have become little sisters to me over the years--they were some of the very first YFC volunteers in Gaborone back in 2011 when I started rekindling the ministry there. They have each been such a blessing to my life and to the Kingdom of God.
Spontaneous worship in the car with Rosh and Neo outside Keffy's house while waiting to give her a lift somewhere.
Bike riding with Vivien at the Phakalane ponds and also cheering for her running her first 10K:
"The Last Supper"
The night before I left on my sabbatical in May 2017, we had a farewell dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I had won a gift certificate there at a concert that my friend Vivien sang in back in March. So we saved it for this occasion to gather with dear friends before I left for the States. They also blessed me by giving me a journal in which they each wrote a personal note to me and pasted lots of pictures of the people in Botswana who have become like family to me. It was really a blessed time with most of my closest sisters in Botswana (from left, Vivien, Nametso, Gugu, Kelsey, Keffy, and Kez).
I'll share more in the next post about my sabbatical and ministry the rest of the year. Blessings!
