A Busy Holiday!

In my last post I talked about some of the outreach events that we were having during the school holiday. This is a picture of one of them: game day! Here we are playing "Crows and Cranes"...every game that we played didn't use any equipment. I'm so glad that i worked M-fuge 2 summers!
Happy Easter! For Easter, the Botswana Baptist Convention puts on conference called Easter Rally. We had heard from other missionaries that the rally that it was going to be a unique cultural experience...and that was an understatement! We did have a lot of fun though getting to listen to the national preachers and praise teams from churches all over Botswana. Many girls from our Palapye Baptist Church were able to come and so it was a good chance to get to hang out with them. We also got to eat a lot of traditional foods. Mmmm...goat! This is Shawna, me, Crystal, and Kelly Easter Sunday at the rally.
Sometimes in ministry you have to expect the unexpected...at Easter Rally we discovered that there was no teacher for the older youth group during their Bible study time. While they sang one song some of the nationals and us j-man planned out an entire Bible study on reconciliation (the theme of the weekend). And that's how we ended up being teachers for the weekend...

After Easter Rally we had our cluster's AMTM (a big conference with missionaries from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, and Angola). On our way to the conference we kept on seeing these beautiful famous trees, the baobab.
This conference was a a resort called Tshipise with heated pools and tv! Too bad we didn't have much time to enjoy those things. However, the meetings were really informative (I'm serious!) and it was cool to meet many of the other missionaries in our region for the first time. This is a picture of the resort. If you look closely, you can see the monkeys climbing all over our car...they just roamed around freely! In the background are the rondavul-like cottages in which we stayed.This is a picture of all of the journeymen in our region...we're more often known as the journeygirls for obvious reasons. (front row from left to right: Kelly, Lyndee, Reema, Crystal, back row from left to right: Stacie, Hayley, Me, Brandy, Carmel, Shawna)

After our retreat with the other missionaries, we were able to take a couple days and travel down to Johannesburg, South Africa for the first time. Being in the city has been a wonderful break, but it has definitely made me miss home. We hit up the mall and the movies and the open market where we got to try our hand at some bargaining. But the best part has been staying with these amazing missionaries, Tad and Phyllis Tadlock (and their adorable teacup poodle Teddy), who have completely opened their home up to us. The truly have the gift of hospitality! In addition to letting us stay at the last minute, the have cooked for us, directed us around the city, and...let us use their WIRELESS INTERNET! As we have been spoiled these past two days being able to talk online and get emails when they arrive, we have joked that we forgot what communicating with people was like. (It's going to be hard to go back to the once a week, 15 minutes of dial-up again...) Tad even tracked down for me the only movie I've wanted to see since coming to Botswana (Syriana) and we watched it last night. I think I'm going to have culture shock all over again heading home today!

Anyways, continue to pray:
Pray for an important team meeting that is going to take place in Gabs next week.
Pray for the new school term that begins May 2.
Pray especially that I would be able to find time to have a Bible study with some of the students that have shown interest in learning more about Jesus.
Pray for the church as we continue to transition as some of the Brazilian missionaries leave.
Pray for me as I'm getting over bronchitis.

Pictures are here!

Rhino Park
Last month we went to the Khama Rhino Sanctuary in Serowe, Botswana. The Sanctuary is home of 33 white rhinos; we saw about 16—many of them from close up like this guy.

AIDs Awareness Rally
March was Youth Awareness of AIDs month. My school, Mmaphula CJSS, invited the Operation:HIV team to participate in a school-wide assembly. The theme of the assembly was “Commit to a Zero Transmission Lifestyle.” Many of the school’s clubs participated too. They sang songs, read poems, did dramas, and performed traditional dances. Our team did an illustration about a story of two students, Naladi and Tebogo, who are thinking about having sex. We had students from the audience come up and represent each character as we read this story:
"We are going to pretend that our two volunteers are boyfriend and girlfriend. Their names will be Tebogo and Naledi. They have been together for 4 months and they feel that they are hopelessly in love. They want to make a mature decision about beginning a sexual relationship, so they have talked about their desires. During their conversations, Tebogo told Naledi that he has had one previous sexual relationship – his ex-girlfriend. (bring another girl up to represent the ex-girlfriend) Naledi told Tebogo that she has never been in love before, so he thinks she is a virgin.

Before you make a decision about having sex, Naledi, we need to tell you something. Tebogo doesn’t know this, but while he was with his ex-girlfriend, she had sex with another boy while he was visiting his family in Mochudi. (bring a boy up to be this sexual partner) What Tebogo’s ex-girlfriend didn’t know is that this boy had sex with 3 other girls before her. (bring 3 girls up) Oh, and one more thing. Tebogo wasn’t completely honest about his sexual past. While he was in Mochudi he had sex with a girl at a chill session. And prior to that, he had sex with one other girlfriend. (bring 2 more girls up)

Now, Tebogo, we have some news for you, too. Naledi has led you to believe that she is a virgin by telling you that she has never been in love before. But even though she wasn’t in love, she had sex with 2 other boys. (bring up 2 boys) What Naledi didn’t know was that one of them had already had sex with a girl before her. (bring up another girl)

Now, you still have to make the decision about whether to have sex or not. Let’s help these students make a decision."

After the story we talked about how God created sex to represent the most intimate connection between two people. Sex is not only an emotional connection but a physical connection, which is evident by the exchange of body fluids. We then gave each of our participants a cup of soda and had them take a sip and then spit it into two communal cups. One cup represented Naladi’s sexual past and the other, Tebogo’s. We then asked the students representing Naladi and Tebogo if they would be willing to drink each other’s cup of spit. The students were completely grossed out by this idea! We talked about what would happen if one of the people whose “body fluid” (spit) was in the cup was HIV+. The students at the rally really liked the illustration showing the dangers of sex before marriage. We were able to challenge the students to make a commitment to abstinence until marriage—the only true way to lead a zero transmission lifestyle. This picture is of the students participating in the demonstration.


This next picture is of my littlest children’s choir. The kid’s favorite musical game to play is “Little Sally Walker.” It’s so cute when they try to sing it because they only know a few words…so it comes out like: “Little Sally Walker..da da hmm ma de…” They however have the dancing part down!


Every Friday we play soccer with the little kids from our church. Sometimes if we are running errands in town before we go to play I will wear a wrap over my shorts. Here, one of the kids, Shaddrach, has gotten a hold of my wrap and was prancing around pretending to be me. I just had to take a picture!


Right now the students are on “holiday.” They have finished their first term of the year and are on vacation until May 2. As I was saying goodbye to some of my boys in one of my classes this conversation occurred that is too cute not to share:
Mma Weaver: Well, I will see you boys next term. Be safe, okay?
Student 1: Mma Weaver, I love you!
Student 2: Mma Weaver, I love you too much!
Student 3: No, Mma Weaver, I love you three much!
Student 4: No, Mma Weaver, I love you four much!

During this break we are having several outreach events for the students. This Monday we are showing the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and having a discussion afterwards. Please be in prayer for this event.

Also be in prayer as Kelly, Crystal, and I travel. This month we have several meetings with the Baptist mission in Botswana and in South Africa.

Also please pray for Palapye Baptist Church. Two of the Brazilian missionaries who were instrumental in planting the church are going back to Brazil in May. Pray for this transition and pray that many of the Motswana will step into leadership roles.

Thanks for reading this long update!
Check out Crystal and Kelly’s blogs for more about what’s going on in Palapye and for more pictures:
cdabs.blogspot.com
believernbotswana.blogspot.com