The next day I shared with the volunteers the “Give Me This Mountain!” testimony, including how Hebron (the mountain city that Caleb reclaimed after declaring, "Give me this mountain!") in Setswana is Heberone (which sounds similar to Gaborone since “g”s are pronounced like guttural “h”s). [I just learned in September 2013 that in Hebrew, Hebron is pronounced with a gutteral "h", so if the Setswana bible had been translated from Hebrew instead of English, it would have translated Hebron as "Geberone"!] But back to that day in November 2011, one of the YFC volunteers told me that Gaborone used to be spelled Gaberones, and she directed me to where I could see a sign that spells it like that. So immediately after the training, I drove to the Botanical Gardens and found the “Old Gaberones Hotel.” Just a few meters away from that sign, I saw a sign for a plant which read, “Living Stones”!
That’s when it clicked! How I’d prayed the night before and “stones” came to my mind! I recalled that there is a verse in the bible that talks about believers being "living stones":
1 Peter 2:5 – “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus…”
The next day at church the sermon was about how believers are what build the house of God!
Another YFC volunteer who had been at the training told me a few days later that his pastor here in Gaborone had preached an entire sermon series on Hebron. He gave me all the audio recordings of the sermons. I picked one randomly to listen to on the drive home.
In that teaching about Hebron, the pastor mentioned David Livingstone and later that when God gives someone a vision, a team gathers around that vision to fulfill it. He went on to say that those people are living stones!!
Less than a month later, I went with friends on a short vacation to see Victoria Falls. We were staying in Livingstone, Zambia. It is named after David Livingstone, who was the first European to discover and name the falls.
When I was praying I felt led to the page in my bible that includes 1 Peter 2:5, the living stones verse. It was there that I had the realization that David Livingstone’s last name (pronounced “Livingston”) is really Living-stone!! (I know that as you are reading this, you probably made that connection much sooner, haha…but it was cool that my realization/revelation of that happened in Livingstone, Zambia!) So we are truly following in Livingstone’s footsteps as living stones! Even earlier that day, I had taken this picture underneath a statue of David Livingstone at Victoria Falls:
Later, I was reading in Ecclesiastes 3 one day and it’s the famous passage about a time to dance, a time to mourn, etc…and I noticed this one: “A time to gather stones.”
Yes, indeed. Now is the time to gather the living stones!
In December 2012, I visited my family in England (my dad was British). At the old stone church in a tiny village, my aunt introduced me to the pastor who, upon hearing I’m a missionary in Botswana, exclaimed that two other missionaries to Botswana had been at the earlier service! Then after church I was looking at the info table about the church, and I looked down to see this book right in front of me:
It’s a book entitled Give Me This Mountain by a female missionary to Africa, Helen Roseveare! In added “coolness,” at lunch another day shortly thereafter, a second cousin I haven’t seen in 15 years told me that she had to go get ready for the Benefit Ball at her church that night in Windsor, England. Who was the ball to benefit? Orphans in Botswana!!
Back in Botswana a few weeks later, we in the Unashamed Movement Botswana hosted our second-annual Up-Kgale Challenge. This year about 165 young people hiked the tallest mountain in Gaborone, Kgale Hill to worship, pray, and have fellowship on top. I led worship with guitar and then shared a 20-minute version of the “Give Me This Mountain/Hebron” and Living Stones testimony. I shared about David Livingstone and how we are like the Caleb generation, the living stones, following in his footsteps declaring, “Give me this Mountain!” to see the city transformed by Christ. Then Bobo (Unashamed Movement chairman and YFC volunteer) shared and led us in prayer for our city and nation. Then we had some more praise and worship and dancing. It was an amazing time!
Later that afternoon, I felt led to look at March 13’s reading in a Daily Bible in my room. March 13’s reading included this:
CALEB TAKES TERRITORY. "In accordance with the Lord's command to him, Joshua gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion in Judah--Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron. (Arba was the forefather of Anak). From Hebron Caleb drove out the three Anakites--Sheshai, Ahimann, and Talmai--descendants of Anak.”
-Joshua 15:13-14
Three days later, I was at CNA bookstore, and a new devotional called Time on the Mountain by Angus Buchan caught my eye.
I flipped to July 10 (the date that God confirmed His call on my life to Botswana and has brought it up MANY times in connection with Botswana). July 10’s reading was entitled “True Courage” and it quoted Joshua 14:12 – where Caleb proclaimed, “Give me this mountain!”
Less than a week after that, I was sharing with the Unashamed Movement committee about these things. Directly after that meeting, I drove to house-sit at the YFC National director’s house and felt led to look at their books. The first book I picked up was Once in a Lifetime: Seizing Today’s Opportunities for World Harvest, by David Shibley, and I opened right to the page about David Livingstone and how “a new generation must arise” who has the same passion and desire as Livingstone!
Then immediately after that, I felt I should look at Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson. I know it sounds weird, but the Holy Spirit often just puts a page number in my mind, and in this case “228” popped in my head. So I flipped to p228 and it was about dividing up the inheritance in the Promised Land, and more specifically on the next page it quoted Joshua 14:12 where Caleb requested Hebron: “Give me this mountain!” Wow!! So now, not only did I just see where it says a new generation must arise like David Livingstone (like how I shared on Kgale Hill that we are the Caleb generation rising up in Livingstone’s footsteps), but I opened to the passage about Caleb saying “Give me this mountain!” I looked and there are 1343 pages in that massive book!!
Then, as if God wanted to just BLOW my mind even more, the very next page number that came to mind was “1172.” I flipped there, and to my utter amazement, that is where it talks about LIVING STONES!! It’s only one verse in the entire Bible (1 Peter 2:5), and yet THAT is the page that came to mind…out of 1343 pages!!! So it was like a summary of my talk on Kgale Hill – David Livingstone, a new generation arising like Livingstone (aka the Caleb generation declaring “Give me this Mountain!”) as living stones!! I was just blown away and brought to my knees, just in overwhelming awe of God.
A couple weeks later, I was on Facebook, and I saw on the far right that someone had just posted a news article about YFC England’s new YouTube video series. So I read the article and clicked the link to watch some videos. One was called “Stones” and just published on You Tube the day before. You guessed it—it was about how we are Living Stones! Here is a still-shot I took of the video:
On April 1, I heard the new Hillsong track “Mountain” and the lyrics include:
For Your name, heart and soul
My life is Yours, a living stone
For Your glory, heart and soul
Surrendered all to build our home
Four days later on April 5, I was feeling a bit discouraged and thought maybe God might lead me to read something encouraging in the bookstore. So I went into Exclusive Books, and the first book I felt drawn to was the new NIV Life Journey Bible. As I saw it, “228” popped in my mind so I picked it up and flipped there. It was Joshua 14 where Caleb requests Hebron: “Give me this mountain!” (14:12). I actually teared up, just amazed by God and how He can perfectly encourage us!
Four days after that (April 9), I met with one of the young women I mentor. She told me that her denomination, Assemblies of God, had just celebrated their 50th anniversary in Botswana with a weekend conference. The theme of the conference: Joshua 14:12 – “Give Me This Mountain!” She had even written a poem about “Give Me This Mountain!” for it.
Around that time, I was invited to speak and lead worship at a July church conference in Otse, another village. The theme of that conference was: “Arise and Shine! Let the Caleb and Joshua Generation Arise and Take Their Position!”
The next section will show how the living stones thing is even more fitting for Botswana right now! It will be coming soon…
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