Proud to be an American

This weekend we headed down to Gabs for a fun weekend with just the Botswana Journeygirls. We went to a musical, the movies, and we hit up the American Embassy's 4th of July Shindig. It wasn't as exciting as it sounds, but I did get an (overpriced) American hotdog and I got to take this great picture!

Happy Birhtday Me!

July 5th I celebrated my 24th birthday! Following tradition, of course we had a theme party to celebrate! The theme was indie music! So if we were indie musicians this is what we would look like...
Thanks so much everyone for all the phone calls, gifts, cards, emails, facebook messages, etc. Thanks for helping to make the day special!

Face the Nation Rally

This winter a group of University of Botswana students have been participating in a program called Face the Nation. The group is teaching True Love Waits materials in Senior Secondary schools all over Botswana! There is also a rally team that has been traveling around the country and putting on abstinence programs in schools and churches and around the community. This week the rally team was in Palapye and they had a rally at our church! Here's some pictures from that event:
The Face the Nation group has had an amazing response to both the rallies and the classroom teaching. Many students all over Botswana are making commitments to remain and abstinent until marriage and many are also making a commitment to follow Christ! Pray for these nationals as they continue to minister to students this winter!

Operation HIV Leadership Retreat!

This past weekend we held an Operation HIV leadership retreat; as our time in Botswana is coming to close we are beginning to hand over more and more responsibility to the nationals. After a vision meeting about the future of Operation HIV, the group decided that they wanted to elect leaders. This seminar was in response to this request. The group met a Camp Itumela to learn about what it means to be a godly leader and to participate in team building activities. We played games like the human knot and trust falls.

We had time of personal bible study and reflection.

We had sessions examining what the Bible says about leadership and we studied several prominent biblical leaders.

God really blessed our time together! Here’s the whole group acting goofy.

After the seminar we discussed what kind of positions the Operation HIV team needs to have and next week we are meeting to nominate and elect new leaders. Please be in prayer for Operation HIV as we elect leaders and transition to the nationals taking even more responsibility and ownership of the group!

Cape Town!

In June, Kelly, Crystal, and I joined Crystal's family for vacation in Cape Town, South Africa. It was really cold, foggy, and rainy (which often thwarted our plans) but we managed to a lot of Cape Town’s famous attractions. Here’s some of the places that we visited.

Castle of Good Hope

This castle was a fort before it was made into a castle and it is the oldest building in Cape Town.

Here we are with Crystal’s family in front of the castle.

Here I ring the bell that warns Cape Town that trouble is coming.

Ostrich Farm

We went out to an ostrich farm to see how they raise ostriches for meat and skins. It was breeding season and during breeding season the male’s skin turn bright red like this ostrich!

We also got to "ride" a real live ostrich!

Table Mountain

The giant Table Mountain provides a beautiful scenic backdrop for the city of Cape Town. Because of the fog, most days the mountain wasn’t visible. But fortunately one day it cleared up and we were able to go to the top of the mountain!

We got to ride these cable cars straight up the steep incline.

Here are some pictures of Cape Town from the top of the mountain.

Robben Island

Robben Island is the island where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held during the time of apartheid. We road a ferry out to the island and then toured the prison.

This is the quarry in which the prisoners mined limestone everyday. There was no real demand for them to mine the limestone; they just made the prisoners mine to keep them busy. In the back of the picture is the cave where they stored their tools. In the foreground is a picture of a pile of rocks; several years after the fall of apartheid the prisoners all reunited here and laid a stone in the pile to celebrate their freedom.

The tour was led by a political prisoner who told stories of his time in prison. Our guide was at Robben Island for 8 years for “terrorism.

Here are the things from Nelson Mandela’s cell and a picture of his cell in the maximum security prison. Waterfront
This is the Waterfront from which the ferry to Robben Island leaves (along with other boats.) Table Mountain is in the background. Here we are posing with South Africa’s famous political leaders.

Boulder Beach

At Boulder Beach we got to see penguins! Crazy to think that Africa has penguins! Here I am posing with a penguin.

Here are some pictures of us hiking around the boulders.

Here are some more pictures of penguins. Lazy penguins hang out on the beach. Check out the little baby penguin!

Cape of Good Hope

We drove out to the Cape of Good Hope and then hiked out to Cape Point. It was a tiring hike! We hiked down to this beach.

See, here I stand on the beach to prove it.

Here’s a fun picture of the water splashing breaking on the boulders behind us.

After we reached the point we were absolutely dead! Here Kelly flashes the victory thumbs up!

Here I pose with the sign. The cape is the most south-western point on the continent of Africa!

On our way out of the park we saw this family of baboons just posing for pictures.

Chapman’s Peak
We then took this scenic (a.k.a twisty and scary) route through the mountains to watch the sunset by Chapman’s Peak. Canal Walk
We also got a chance to go to the mall and see a movie. Look at how huge the mall is! Maybe it doesn’t look that big to you all, but I’m in Africa! So that’s my Cape Town vacation! Hope you enjoyed!