Here are the next set of highlights/pictures from 2018. Enjoy!
Youth Week 2019 Loading Event!
In August 2018, we held the 3rd annual “Youth Week Loading” event in Gaborone, in partnership with Open Baptist Church. This year we invited not only a Youth Week speaker from South Africa, Pastor Chaeslin Trollip, but also the worship band he leads. They had led worship at Youth Week that previous January, most memorably when we had an outdoor worship night:
We hosted the 8-member team at the YFC house in Mochudi. They ministered at the Friday night “Youth Week Loading” event, which was hosted at Open Baptist Church, who also partnered with YFC in the event. About 135 youth attended and 10 responded to the altar call to give or rededicate their lives to Christ!
Donovan from the team also rapped, and there were also a few locals who ministered through rap, i.e. Obie, Fuego (Peabo & Emmanuel Mogapi). Also shout out to local Anesu Dumba who joined their worship band on keys. And special thanks to the other Youth Week committee members who helped organize the event and lead the Youth Week preparations last year-- Pete, Tumi, Obie & Queen, Dikatso, Palesa, Bonno, Brian, Josh, Thoriso, and Neo.
Leadership Training
The next morning, the team from South Africa facilitated a leadership training for YFC volunteers, which was very engaging, insightful, and fun. Pastor Chaeslin shared leadership advice and Nady facilitated a team-building exercise (which really was an exercise!) where we had to lean back on the person behind us and the first team to fall would lose. After a few minutes, when one girl was struggling, it was great to see the other girls cheering for her and encouraging her not to give in.
After that, I took the team to the Gaborone Dam for a little sightseeing.
That night the Youth Week committee also organized a braai (BBQ) at the YFC staffhouse where the team was staying. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't attend, but they had an amazing time!
The team, including Anesu, also led the praise & worship and preaching at Open Baptist on the Sunday morning. They were very well received, already getting invitations to return to the church!
After church, I led them to the Three Chiefs Monument before they headed back to South Africa.
YFC INTERNATIONAL (YFCI) PRAYER LEADERS RETREAT
In September, I attended the YFCI Global Prayer Leaders Retreat in Canada. For a few years now, I have been part of the YFCI global prayer team, which entails serving on the prayer team at YFCI General Assemblies every 3 years, keeping in touch via a monthly Skype call, and leading prayer in our respective areas. In mid-January 2018, I was appointed the co-Prayer Coordinator of Youth for Christ Botswana. I have still continued as the Gaborone Centre Director, but now also focus more on mobilizing and organizing prayer. The retreat in Canada gathered YFC prayer coordinators from 6 nations on 4 continents to pray and strategize together.
We were blessed to meet and be encouraged by the YFC International President, Dave Brereton, as well.
We also visited the local YFC center in Peterborough, where they prayed for us, and we also engaged in some street ministry. We broke into teams and went throughout Peterborough getting in conversations with people and praying for them if they wanted prayer.
We stayed at a beautiful retreat centre in Ontario called Kingfisher Bay Retreat, and I loved the opportunity to kayak on that lake!
We also were blessed to be a part of an interdenominational event in Peterborough called “Gather the Intercessors.” I was invited to share for about 10 minutes how the Lord has been moving in Botswana and our prayer initiatives. I also was able to share briefly about the historical example of the Royal Air Force, which is an encouragement on how prayers can shift history. For more details on that, click the tab at the top of the page that says The Prayer Force: Encouragement from the RAF. We then broke into different groups to intercede for the different wards of the city.
The last two nights we stayed in host homes, and mine (the Moelkers') was right on another lake. What an amazing sunset we enjoyed! I had a lovely chat with Alem, the YFC Ethiopia National Director/Prayer Coordinator, in those chairs on the dock.
While in Canada, I spent a night with Twila and enjoyed a bonfire cookout with her, Dan, Marg and her boyfriend. Twila, Dan, and Marg all volunteered with YFC in Botswana years back so we were all housemates at one point. Another guy, Micah, stopped by as well, whom I'd met at the General Assembly in Thailand in 2014!
While waiting for my bus, I happened to spot Elvis, haha:
It was also such a blessing for me to swing by and visit family, friends, churches, and doctors in Minnesota and Michigan while I was in the global “neighborhood.” Unfortunately, I don't think to take pictures with people most of the time, but I have a few. It was great to see my niece, Sawyer, again and her parental units Ryan and Amanda :).
Several friends in Michigan came to a gathering at our home, but I only managed to get a picture with Emily, my friend since childhood:
I spoke 3 Sundays in a row at churches, and also spoke to two youth groups. It was cool to also attend a baptism service at the Mississippi River with my Minnesota church family:
A stranger kayaking in the Mississippi took the following shot of us and somehow got it to us:
It was also great to visit some of my favourite places in nature. I always like to visit the bench where I found my name carved in 2009! You can still see it :). For the amazing testimony behind that, click on the tab at the top "Ember New Name Testimony (shorter version)."
Here are trails that I got to bike on again along the Minnesota River. They are near Bethany Global University, where I lived for most of 2006-2009, so I used to love biking there. One of my Bethany professors, Carol Freeman, graciously allowed me to ride her bike:
These are pictures from my hometown of Lexington, Michigan:
PARTNERING IN A NATIONWIDE OUTREACH TO EVERY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
Several YFC volunteers took part in a nationwide outreach week in mid-September, spearheaded by Scripture Union (SU) and Seeds of Gratitude Foundation, with YFC as one of the partners. I served on the interdenominational planning committee which met fortnightly for months. We also had large group workshop trainings a few times to prepare everyone who would be going to the schools. I was appointed as the MC for one of those gatherings, and despite my introverted reluctance, I actually enjoyed it once I started. I flew back in to Botswana from North America on the second day of the outreach, so I joined a team locally at Naledi Senior Secondary and also helped for a day at Mogoditshane Senior Secondary.
A highlight for me was sharing the gospel and my testimony at Mogoditshane Scripture Union (SU) club—three students gave their lives to Christ, and about 15-20 expressed the desire to fully surrender their lives to Christ!
Somehow that last picture made it in the national newspaper:
Across the nation, 27,612 students indicated they wanted to follow Jesus! Also, 1,149 students came for one-on-one counselling with one of the volunteers. Besides encouraging students to get involved in the Scripture Union club at their schools, Bible study books called Dive In by local author Ashley Thaba (you can see above in the newspaper picture) were donated to each school to help the students grow in their faith. Overall, the program was a great success as we had the government’s blessing to share the gospel to all the students! We had a celebration meeting in October to praise God together, share testimonies and also to help plan the way forward to help the students grow in their faith (i.e. follow-up trips, donating bibles to students, etc).
Some Amazing, Timely Encouragement!
During that outreach at a Scripture Union event at Naledi Senior Secondary, I sang one of the Setswana songs I wrote. While I was tuning my guitar beforehand, I got in a conversation with a couple of the other volunteers about how it’s best when we do an assembly at a school where youth indicate their desire to give their lives to Christ to be able to meet them right afterward at a club to ensure they understood the gospel and help them learn how to grow in their faith. I gave the example of when we shared at Moshupa Senior School (about an hour from Gaborone) in 2015 and were able to lead the SU club immediately following the assembly. Within a few minutes of saying this, a young man walked up to me. He said he remembers me from when I came to share at his school in Moshupa! I told him (Kabelo) that we had JUST been talking about that! I asked if he had come to the Scripture Union meeting right afterward, and indeed, he had. So that was amazingly timely encouragement!
Later over lunch, Kabelo told me he became an SU volunteer right after high school and helped start an SU club at a primary school near his home! It’s always a blessing to see youth growing in their faith and then reaching others!
A “Magical” Outreach with an American Team
In September and October, YFC hosted a team led by Bob Bishop, aka Mr. X, who uses apparent “magic” (though of course it’s not really) to excite kids about mathematics, inspire them in their studies, and share the gospel. We organized openings at schools and churches for the team—Bob & Miriam, their daughter Brittany, and friend Jaden. When I met with the headmaster of Interlink school, where we have our weekly prayer meeting called Inferno, to see if he would be interested in Mr. X sharing to the students, he told me they were planning an annual Mathematics Day at the University of Botswana but still searching for a speaker! Enter Mr. X! The headmaster said it was a divine appointment. So Mr. X was able to share at that Mathematics Day with students from at least three high schools.
Also in Gaborone, we arranged for the team to share at 3 other schools, 2 churches, and to the orphans and vulnerable teens in the African Havens tutoring program run by my church, His People Gaborone (the same teens that I teach music once a week).
The team also donated “Shoes that Grow” (durable sandals that adjust to larger sizes as the children’s feet grow) to underprivileged kids in Gaborone and to the orphans and vulnerable children who attend the Tapologo Day Care Centre in Mochudi, run by YFC and AFM Church. Mr. X also shared the gospel with the daycare kids using a cool gospel cube with pictures. Due to laws to protect orphans, we cannot show their faces, but you can trust me, they are beautiful kids!
The team also gave each child a bead bracelet, where the colors help explain the gospel message.
We truly enjoyed having the American team with us. We took them to a Zebras national football team match at the National Stadium, and the Zebras won! Notice the purple Jacaranda tree in bloom in the first picture, and the goalie flying in the last picture!
We hiked up to the Phutadikobo Hill in Mochudi for a prayer meeting just before the team left.
A Special Visitor
Overlapping with that team's visit was another visitor--my dear friend Glenda from England! She was married to Ken, one of my dad's best friends, so I grew up visiting Ken and Glenda and staying at their home in England since I can remember. They also came to stay with us in the USA. Even now, I always try visit Glenda whenever I go to England. So it was such a blessing to have her come visit me here in Botswana and meet my Botswana family here and see the ministry.
One of the evenings, Glenda, Bobo, and I went for a game drive at Mokolodi Nature Reserve near Gaborone.
It was truly a joy spending time with Glenda!
That's all for this post...thanks for reading/viewing! I am grateful to God for all the people I met (or reunited with), great experiences, and the ways we saw His hand at work in that season of 2018! Check back soon for the 2018 Highlights Part 4 to finish out the year in review.
No comments:
Post a Comment