2019 Highlights - Part Four!

Hello again!

Finally wrapping up the ministry highlights of 2019 (a year later, haha).

Hosting the Year-of-Your-Life Team from Pretoria, South Africa
In the past, YFC has partnered with the Year-of-Your-Life gap year teams (for Americans who may not be familiar with "gap year," it means the year right after high school) from Pretoria, SA, mostly in providing ministry opportunities for them, i.e. they often visit hospital patients with us. This time, however, we also hosted the team at the YFC staff house in Mochudi.

They served in different ministries with YFC, including at the Kiddies Mingle Club and at the African Havens Kgatelopele after-school tutoring program in Gaborone. They led dances, skits, and games, and the kids really enjoyed it. We also had a time of worship and prayer with them together atop Phutadikobo Hill in Mochudi.

The last pictures above were with the YFC volunteers (Jennifer, Thea, Noemi, David, Rejoice, Lesedi, and Pearl) and the Year of Your Life team after the Kiddies Mingle club. Pearl was their supervisor in Botswana, coordinating their trip as part of her work as a youth pastor, though she is also a YFC volunteer too.

Visit from Mina from Minnesota
Just days after that team was here, Mina, a friend and ministry partner, visited from Minnesota for a couple weeks. On her first evening, after she sat in on the Joining Hands Missionary Conference committee meeting, Mina, Bobo, and I hiked Oodi Hill nearby to where I stay.

Mina wanted to just see and be part of regular ministry so she accompanied me and also helped out where she could. Below is us with a few of the beloved YFC volunteers, Thabang, Katlego, and Jennifer, after the Inferno weekly prayer/worship meeting at Interlink and then at the weekly Legae Academy Bible Club.

Mina joined us for the Unashamed Movement committee meeting, which we decided to have at the Yacht Club so she could see the Gaborone Dam.

There were other ministry things we did together, such as the first Youth Week cabin leader training, the African Havens Kgatelopele tutoring program, organising with and directing Jeff Sukup to a man's house in Mochudi to fix his hand-pedaled cart (he lost his legs due to polio and I arranged with Jeff to acquire and help assemble the cart for him in 2015 I think), etc., but we don't always take photos (or in some cases can't share them for privacy of the people). Mina also accompanied me to church and met the worship team at rehearsal:

It just so happened that her visit coincided with the first time the worship team led "O montle," the Setswana worship song I wrote, so that was pretty cool for her to be there for that.

We also wanted to give her a taste of a braai (BBQ) on the farm, so we went to Bobo's family farm outside Mochudi with Gugu as well and we had a delicious braai there with Bobo and his mom. It was a beautiful time -- I saw a shooting star too!

One thing Mina really wanted to do while in Botswana was to drink tea at the President Hotel at Main Mall, like Mma Ramotswe did in the "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" book series based in Botswana. So even though my car had broken down the night before on the way back from Bobo's farm, we took a cab to ensure we could have that cup of tea together there.

Near the end of her trip, Mina generously treated me to join her for a couple nights at Madikwe Game Reserve, just over the border in South Africa. That was a lovely experience, and we got to see many animals and enjoy good food together and beautiful scenery.

Visiting Team from Bloemfontein, South Africa
While Mina was still here, a team from Bloemfontein came up and camped at the YFC office in Mochudi for a week. They have been doing that for years and then joining in with ministry. People from their church had made many teddy bears for us to give out at the hospital in Gaborone to the children. We gave out teddies to 90 children and prayed with each of them and their parent(s)!!

Moving Time!
After Mina left, I moved to a studio apartment still in the same town just outside Gaborone. There’s a whole amazing testimony behind that and how God led me to this place—that may be its own blog post in due time.

YFCI team from Canada & Australia – Rekindle Prayer & Evangelism Training
I was super stoked about the visit by some Youth for Christ International (YFCI) prayer team members. Since 2014, I've been part of the YFCI global prayer team, and I already knew the main leader, Adam, from when he helped lead a YFC Canada mission trip to Botswana in 2010. I met Lyndal from Australia when we served on the global prayer team at the YFCI General Assembly in 2017, and reunited with her and met Kim when we had a Global Prayer Leaders retreat in Canada in 2018. I think Todd was also part of some outreach ministry we did there in Canada, but I didn't get to know him personally til their trip here, as well as Chris. But it was awesome to get to know them and reunite with the others-- we had a great time together.

We organised a prayer & evangelism training conference called Rekindle, where we had teaching sessions and worship for 2 days. It was such an amazing, encouraging time together. Even some fellow YFC staff came all the way from Zimbabwe to join for the training!

Rekindle Outreach at Main Mall
On the third day, we went to the Main Mall in Gaborone and had a bit more training on how to share the gospel using the Three Circles method.

Then after praying we split into groups of 2 or 3 and went out to interact with people. We would start by asking them, "If God could do any miracle in your life, what would you want Him to do?" Then we would pray for that. We also shared the gospel and testimonies if the people were interested. When we reconvened, we were overjoyed to hear what God had done in that one hour!!

Four people prayed to give their lives to Christ! One woman had a painful, itchy cyst on her neck that was going to be surgically removed, but after Todd prayed for her in Jesus’ name, the pain and itchiness stopped. Then her daughter exclaimed, “Mommy, it’s shrinking!” I called her later to check how she’s doing, and she said the cyst was disappearing, getting smaller every day and still no pain or itchiness! Another man was sitting down because his hip was so painful (he described it as bone-on-bone) that he couldn’t keep walking, but after some of our team prayed for him, he said the pain was gone and he walked away!! Another older lady said the pain in her knees was excruciating (she labeled it 10 out of 10), but Kim felt led to ask the other lady they had met, and shared the gospel with, to pray for her. After she prayed, the woman said the pain went down to 0 out of 10, and was moving her knees around almost dancing!

When Susan from YFC Zimbabwe and I asked a university student named Zanji what miracle she would want God to do in her life, she said that her dream is to study medicine, so the miracle we prayed for was God to open up the door for her to study medicine—she had been trying to get into med school for 3 years without success. Just 6 days after we prayed for her, a university in Ukraine sent her an invitation to study medicine! She was so excited and sent me a picture of the invitation letter (which she is cool having posted here as long as her personal details are blotted out):

Zanji and her friend Thato, whom we also met that day at Main Mall, joined us for the Up Kgale prayer hike on Kgale Hill (described below).

After we debriefed and shared all the amazing testimonies of what God had done during the outreach, Lyndal also wanted a pic at the Mma Ramotswe Tea Corner, there at Main Mall. Then I took the team to the Gaborone Game Reserve and then we had fun fellowship and prayer together where they were staying. Their visit was such a blessing and encouragement!

Up Kgale 2019 – Worship & Prayer atop Kgale Hill
We in the Unashamed Movement Committee had been planning on doing another JESO O RENA MO BOTSWANA prayer walk before the presidential election in October. Here is a picture of some of the committee at our meeting in early August.

However, our plans for the prayer walk were foiled--after writing and delivering all the letters to the various government departments/venues to get approval, we learned that the police were unable to give us an escort on the day we had chosen (the Saturday before the election) because that was the day all the police had to vote themselves. Long story short, we learned that late so there was no alternate date to get everything ready before the election, so we decided to hold an Up Kgale hike and pray for the nation and the elections atop Kgale Hill.

When we arrived at the foot of the hill, we found the entrance to the trail cordoned off because the quarry was going to do a blast. They did not give notice of this the day before so it was a surprise and it delayed us for almost two hours I think.. so unfortunately some people who got there early turned back and went home because the person was telling them to do so...and others weren't able to stick around so long and had to leave before we finally gained access to hike. However, there was still a faithful remnant who hiked, worshipped, and prayed and we had a great time!

African Havens Volunteer Planning Retreat
In early November, a group of us stayed in a chalet at Mokolodi Game Reserve for our annual African Havens volunteer planning retreat. African Havens is the non-profit social involvement arm of our church, His People, which includes the Kgatelopele after-school tutoring program and the camps for orphan & vulnerable teens. At the retreat, we reflected on the year and made plans for the coming year, as well as enjoyed some praise & worship, teambuilding, and fellowship.

We also enjoyed the beautiful scenery there!

African Havens Camp in Lobatse
We organised and led the camp for the African Havens youth less than a month later in Lobatse, Botswana. We were glad that most (29) of the orphan/vulnerable teens who are in the Kgatelopele after-school tutoring program year-round could attend the camp. The theme was Sexual Purity, and we showed them an informative video, facilitated separate girls/guys discussions, and also had a panel discussion answering questions they had written anonymously. It was powerful that 24 of the 29 decided they wanted to publicly make a pledge of purity.

During the weekend camp, we also enjoyed aerobics, an inflatable water slide, swimming, and a cookout competition (unfortunately, I can't share most of my photos because we aren't allowed to post pictures with their faces being recognizable in order to protect them). Also, like the two previous camps, I led them in rehearsing a song that they sang beautifully in church on Sunday morning.

ROAR Camp 2019 in Gaborone!

The 8th annual YFC ROAR Camp in mid-December went really well. I ended up having to take more of an overall leadership role this year because George (YFC Botswana's National Director) was unable to attend due to his battle with cancer and I was the only senior staff member present. Thankfully Gugu, one of the longtime volunteers, was the Camp Director again to share the leadership load, as well as Karabo (the only other YFC Botswana staff member) and the team of YFC Botswana volunteers from Mochudi and Gaborone. Also, our YFC Botswana team was assisted by a 10-person team of young volunteers and their leader Warren from YFC South Africa, which was very much appreciated.

We enjoyed daily devotion discussions, praise and worship, powerful speakers, games, sports, swimming, bible quiz, movies, a bonfire, etc. Special thanks to Pastor Blake Young for being the evening speaker all week, and to Reitumetse (Tumi) Keikotlhaile and Kagiso & Nametso Kelentse for being the morning speakers. Also special shout out to the worship band from AFM Gaborone youth! And thanks to all the YFC volunteers from Botswana and South Africa who helped make it possible and a success. It was beautiful to see that twelve youth either gave their lives to Christ or rededicated at the camp!! Here are some testimonies of the campers:

"I gave my life to Christ…We learned how to be pure in God and also how to cope with life’s situations…I wanna live for God"

"The camp has made me much closer to God and I rededicated my life to Christ. I got back my roar and I am willing to keep it and continue roaring throughout my whole life. This is my first roar camp and it has really touched my heart and I am grateful for it so I want to say thank you and God will bless you for all your works."

"ROAR camp helped me find my roar and gave my life to Christ and helped strengthen my relationship with God. I would like to share the knowledge I learned about God and Jesus to people out there and I would like to use my roar to disciple, save and change people’s lives."

"I came back to Christ Jesus."

"My life would never be the same again. Roar Camp changed my life."

"I learnt how to overcome temptations. How to maintain/keep my ROAR. ROAR CAMP WAS AMAZING"

Youth Week 2020 Preparations
We in the Youth Week committee held the Youth Week cabin leader trainings every other week from September into early December to prepare the leaders in basic counselling, first aid, how to share the gospel, etc. and teambuilding. We were preparing to take 210+ youth and leaders from Botswana to the annual YFC camp in Magaliesburg, South Africa!

Closing Thoughts
As I mentioned above, this part of 2019 was not all good highlights, as YFC National Director George's cancer worsened and spread to his brain (it was first diagnosed in March 2019). He had radiation treatment on his brain in late September as well as continued immunotherapy in South Africa, but the melanoma was spreading to several parts of his body. Nevertheless, in true George fashion, he was staying positive, caring, and firm in his faith. And despite it being hard to see my brother/friend suffering, there were many causes for celebration in the lives of my Botswana family in the last part of 2019. Perhaps I'll share more about some of them another time, but this has been long enough!

We thank God for all the ministry opportunities He opened for us in 2019 and for all the YFC staff & volunteers who served, all the visiting teams who helped us reach and bless more children and youth, and all those who support the ministry through prayer and/or finances. It's a privilege to serve together and partner with the Lord is His work in Botswana!

Until next time, take care!