Botswana

I'm home!

2007-11-09T18:32:00.001-05:00

I safely arrived home on Thursday, November 8. I've been enjoying eating some American food and visiting with family and friends. This weekend I travel to Richmond and to VA Tech to see my grandparents and brother! I am looking forward to seeing as many of you blog readers in the months to come! Thanks so much for all your prayers and support as I served in Botswana! I love you all!

London!

2007-11-09T18:01:00.000-05:00

After missing my flight in Johannesburg, I finally arrived one day late to meet Andy in London. We had so much fun touring around and visiting with my awesome friend Michelle (from my college Small Group)! Here are a couple pictures from that time.

This was the first picture taken of me and Andy at the airport...just seconds after we had seen each other for the first time in 2 years!
We rode on the London Eye (the crazy ferris wheel) to see London from above.
This is me and Michelle.
One day we went out to Windsor to see the palace. The queen was in residence while we were there. Andy listens to the tour tell us all about the royal palace.
I stand in front of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Andy poses with the Tower Bridge.We watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

Andy and I pose in Hyde Park.
London was sooooo much fun!
Michelle is living in London while studying Global Politics at the London School of Economic. She has a great blog to read: michelleatlse.blogspot.com

Goodbyes in Gabs...

2007-11-09T17:23:00.000-05:00

After leaving Palapye, Kelly and I went down to Gabs to hang out for a few days and to say....more goodbyes!

Here's us saying goodbye to Tshepiso and Lynx.

Our friend Tsholofelo moved to go to school in Gabs about a year ago. We've gotten to see her a few times in Gabs.

I also had to say goodbye to my dog Lula. Tshepiso is going to take good care of her.
Here's the mission family and Kelly and I at the airport. I am going to miss my mission family so much! Thanks for everything you do!

Dance Party!

2007-11-09T17:07:00.000-05:00

To say goodbye to all the children we had a dance party at the church! Check out some of the kids moves.

Here's Bebeto and Kelly and me. Bebeto does a great Michael Jackson impression.Here I pose with some of the kids.

The youth helped me to make recordings of some of the traditional Setswana songs so I can remember them once I leave Botswana.

Goodbyes!

2007-10-26T18:18:00.000-04:00

This past week was a week of goodbyes. In Batswana culture it's polite to go around and visit people at their homes and say goodbye so Kelly and I spent our week visiting different friends everyday. Here are some pictures from our visits.

These are two of the girls, Bame and Shannon, from a youth group that Kelly started at a private school in Palapye. Working with the private school girls was at times like working with American teens again. Haha.

This is Thato. She's our friend that runs a guest house called the Secret Place. If any of you ever visit Palapye, the Secret Place is the place to stay.
This is T-Boy (my left) and his brother Hendrick. T-Boy is the most clever student I have ever met and he knows his Bible so well. When I first came to Botswana, T-Boy was like 6 inches shorter than me! It has been so exciting to see him grow both physically and in his faith!
This is my friend Pere and her family. Pere is such a servant to the church and to others!
This is Neo. Neo loves to write songs and sing. Together we worked to record an album of her songs so she can sing at church and other community events!

This is Leslie and Baikganetsi's family. Leslie (holding the baby) is currently taking his exams to see if he is eligible to go on to university!
Kelly with Maipelo's family. Maipelo is one of Kelly's former students and her mother Sally used to clean for us.

Gofaone and I pose in front of her mother's decorated yard. Gofaone has been very active in the church over the past 2 years and is a good friend.

Cecilia and me. Cecilia recently got a new job! She also in charge of training new members of Operation HIV. She's super busy!
I am going to miss all these special friends!

Goodbye, Mmaphula CJSS!

2007-10-26T09:10:00.000-04:00

This month, I had the opportunity to teach a few guidance and counseling classes at my school, Mmaphula CJSS in order to say goodbye to all my former students. I'm going to miss all my students! Here's one class, class 2F!

Also, we had a party on Monday for my last day of the True Love Waits Club. The students were excited to each receive an abstinence book called "Choose Freedom" that we had been reading throughout the year. Pray that these students will continue to remain committed to abstinence!

Here's the entire club!

This is one of my favorite students Olie.

Youth Day!

2007-10-26T07:19:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday Palapye Baptist Church and Radisele Baptist Church (a neighboring village) came together for a huge youth day! Around 70 youth came for games, music, food, and teaching on purity! Remaining sexual pure is a big issue that Batswana youth face; we talked about what it means to not only abstain but to live a pure lifestyle and how to deal with temptations. Several of the girls helped Mma Moruti (the pastor's wife Cenilza) to cook a traditional meal and then at the end of the day, the youth had designated some time to publicly say goodbye to Kelly and me. It was a great day!

Here's the entire group standing in front of PBC.

Some of the girls make "papa", a starch that usually accompanies every meal.

Kelly and I try our hand at making some papa.
Isn't this the biggest pot you've ever seen? There was so much food left over!

Gofaone and I try to eat all the contents of our overflowing bowls!

Everyone loves the Hoola Hoop. Tumisang shows us how it's done.

Happy 2nd Anniversary, PBC!

2007-10-26T06:56:00.000-04:00

In October we celebrated the 2nd anniversary of Palapye Baptist Church! There was a Brazilian volunteer group that held a dental hygiene program for the youth. One of the Brazilian guests preached on Sunday and helped with baptism. Here are some pictures from the day!

The worship team has grown in size!

The members of the church who were baptized pose with the pastors.

Andrew's Wedding

2007-10-18T23:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went to the village of Madinare outside of Selibe Phikwe to attend Pastor Andrew’s Wedding. Andrew has been assisting our Pastor Alceir at Palapye Baptist Church over the past year. He married a girl named Lucy in a nice, albeit long (2.5 hours!), service. In Botswana, weddings are quite an event. There are celebrations in both the bride’s home village and the groom’s home village.

Here’s how our day went in Madinare:

First we attended the church service that was held at a school. Here Andrew and Lucy stand in front of the congregation ready to say their vows to each other.

Afterwards, the entire wedding party and guests caravan to the photo spot where pictures are taken of the bride and groom. Andrew and Lucy pose for their pictures.

Here are their cute flower girls.

Next, it is on to the reception at the home of the bride’s family. They set up a big tent and cook enough food for the entire community. Anyone can come and celebrate the marriage! The wedding party sits at a special table under the tent.

Here’s our group that came from Palapye Baptist Church to show support to Andrew.

We were moved to the special tent for the wedding party and special guests (I’d like to think that it was because we had traveled from Palapye to come to the wedding, but it was really because Kelly and I are white). Our friends from church were very excited to be under the special tent because it meant that we got to be served first. Pere joked that she is going to miss us when we leave because without us they will never be moved to the good tent. Here Lebo enjoys her huge chunk of goat’s meat!

They cook an entire cow to feed all the people. My portion of meat was attached to the lining of the stomach! Here’s what was left of the cow.

Lebo and Neo enjoy the wedding.

Pere and I table dance.

All in all it was a fun wedding!

After the wedding our missionary friend Staci Powers came to stay with us for a few days. We had fun spending time with her!

Things are kind of crazy in Palapye right now! We are busy packing and saying goodbyes. Please pray for me as I begin to say goodbye to students and friends in Palapye. It is hard to believe that I will be leaving this place that has been my home in only 2 short weeks.

2007-08-31T09:39:00.000-04:00

Goodbye, Crystal!

2007-08-31T09:31:00.000-04:00

Crystal is leaving Africa on September 3! The church had a goodbye party for her this past weekend. We are going to miss her here!

Crystal says goodbye to some of the kids.
Lebo and I make ourselves sick by eating too many Brazilian style hotdogs!

Chobe!

2007-08-31T09:11:00.001-04:00

The American volunteer team that helped out with the youth rally invited us to visit Chobe with them for free! It was our last chance to go on safari before we leave Botswana. We got to see tons of lions (in the early morning so we couldn't get any good pictures) and tons of elephant! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Shawna, me, Kelly, and Crystal pose in Chobe National Park.
Elephants bathing in the river.
This elephant showed us who was boss! He looked straight at us and flapped his ears!
This giraffe is bending over to get some water!
The buffalo is dangerous because it's actions are unpredictable. This trip was the closest I had ever been to the Cape Buffalo.

National Youth Rally!

2007-08-31T08:48:00.001-04:00

The national youth rally was this month. Twenty-nine youth from our church attended that rally! (This was the largest number from any church in all of Botswana.) We rented a bus to travel up to Francistown. On the way up a part fell out of the bus and we had to stop on the side of the road for a little while for the driver to "fix" the problem. It's always an adventure in Botswana. Check out some pictures from the rally!

Here Neo, me, and Onalenna enjoy our bus ride.

The younger youth get ready for the recreation competition! The blue t-shirt that two of the girls are wearing is the t-shirt for the retreat. It says O tsogile! (or He is risen!)
Check out Neo's team spirit! She won an award for most spirit during the recreational competition!
Here our youth present a musical item at the youth rally.
Here is a picture of Kelly and Shawna and me on the hill overlooking Francistown.

Somerset Baptist!

2007-08-31T08:30:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of August we had an American volunteer team from Kelly's home church, Somerset Baptist. They did some leadership training with the youth and taught the youth how to hold no-cost youth outreach events. They also put on a VBS for the kids with the help of our youth. Here's some pictures from their time in Botswana.

By the third day there were about 150 kids at the VBS. Here they are watching a skit.
This is our Pastor Alceir.

Here is a picture of the American team and some of the youth that helped with the events of the week!
This is me and Bebeto's younger brother Kago. Isn't he cute?

Prayer Requests!

2007-08-07T09:46:00.000-04:00

Pray for Crystal as she in Johannesburg dealing with medical stuff. Her e.coli has come back! Pray that the doctors she sees would be able to figure out how to best treat her! Pray that she would be able to return to Botswana soon so she can spend her last month in Palapye instead of the hospital!

Pray for the American team from Somerset Baptist Church that is going to be ministering in Palapye this week!

Pray for the youth as they work out final arrangements (funds and transport) for attending the national youth rally next week. Pray that God would speak to each of them during the rally.

Random Pictures...

2007-08-07T09:38:00.001-04:00

Botswana is famous for their baskets! Here is Shawna posing in the basket shop.

On the way home we stopped at missionary Brian Beadle's house for lunch. We got to pose with his infamous hand chair.

Upon arrival home I found this large cow leg just chilling in our yard.

Maun and the Okavango Delta!

2007-08-07T09:11:00.000-04:00

Last week we visited missionaries Jeff and Staci Powers in Maun, Botswana. We we able to talk with the church in Maun about Operation HIV and how they can start an HIV/AIDS outreach ministry in their church. Afterwards, we went camping with the Powers atMoremi in the Okavango Delta. Here's some pictures from our trip!

We get ready to speak at Maun Baptist.

After arriving in Moremi and setting up camp, we are ready to head out on our first game drive.

Here's the Delta.

Check out these animals...
This is a group of male impalas that were having fun fighting each other. We saw one get a nice poke in the butt from another one's antler.

This zebra has obviously been in a fight with something that left it's butt scarred.
Jeff chased down this young male lion. He was in a hurry somewhere and we tried to follow. They just don't make enough roads in the game park!
I can't remember what kind of bird this is (Sufjan would be disappointed), but I thought it looked cool.
This crocodile was just sitting and sunning. These hippos were also lazy and enjoying the sun.

Here we are on a game drive.

To enter the park from the North you have to drive over the water on this rickety log bridge!

We had a lot of fun camping and seeing animals (probably for the last time) and hanging out with the Powers!

Providence Volunteer Team!

2007-08-07T08:32:00.000-04:00

In July we were blessed with opportunity to have an American team from Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina come and serve in Palapye. This was probably the largest group of white people Palapye has ever seen! The team did a variety of different things while they were here... Check out some of the highlights.

The team held VBS at 2 different locations in Palapye. Over 500 kids came and heard the message of Jesus Christ.

The team also got to work with some of the kids from our church. Bebeto took a special liking to David.

They were able to speak to youth about abstinence. Several team members participated in an assembly at a private school and they were also able to do an abstinence presentation at the church. Here the girls at the church participate in discussion groups.

The youth are raising money to go the annual youth rally, so they held a talent show fund raiser while the team was here. For the last several months my friends Gofaone and Neo have been writing their own songs and we've been recording them on my computer so the girls can make a CD. They sang on of their songs in public for the first time at the talent show! I was so proud!

The team also did some service projects like picking up trash and cutting firewood and they prayerwalked and visited families in their homes. We kept everyone busy that week!

The Palapye youth had so much fun helping out with the team! To thank them for all their hard work the team took the guys out for ice cream and had a spa time with the girls. It was fun to watch these girls get pampered like they never have been before...(some of them were a little wary of the massages...haha)

Also that week we had the unique opportunity to learn how to traditional dance. Our friends Refilwe and Tshepiso tried to teach us how to drop it like it's hot, traditional style. Most of you know that I can't dance at all...but check out me trying.

After ministry in Palapye, we were fortunate to be able to join the team in South Africa for some vacation time... I got to go on a water slide for the first time in years!

We had a lot of fun with Providence! Thanks for all your help, guys!

Baby!

2007-08-07T08:28:00.001-04:00

A couple of months ago a girl from our church, Dineo, had a baby boy. Here I am holding the baby Tumelo.

Proud to be an American

2007-07-10T04:28:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-07-06T08:34:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-06T08:20:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-07-06T08:09:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-07-06T06:59:00.000-04:00

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!

Please Help Andy Brown!

2007-06-06T05:51:00.000-04:00

My wonderful boyfriend Andy Brown is running in a marathon to raise money for cancer research! If you'd like to donate money please continue to read on! There is a link in the bottom of this blog post where you can visit his website in order to donate online. Thanks so much for supporting him!

A message from Andy:

Greetings!

Recently, I have decided to run the 2007 Dublin Marathon with Team in Training. This special organization's mission is to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society find a cure for blood cancers and improve the quality of life for patients and their families. Their efforts to fight leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma have already raised millions of dollars and given hope to the patients and families who are on the front lines of the battle against these diseases.

This year, I will be helping by raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and participating in their Team In Training as I compete in the Dublin Marathon. This is the first marathon that I've ever attempted, but with the help of the Team, I can make it to the finish line. And with your donation, we can accelerate cures for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma!

Please use the link in this post to donate online. It is quick and secure. You will receive a receipt and confirmation by email of your donation and I will be notified as soon as you make your donation.

On behalf of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, thank you very much for your support. I really appreciate your generosity!

You can learn more about my efforts and make a donation by visiting my Web site:

http://www.active.com/donate/tntenc/tntencABrown

Other Touristy Stuff

2007-05-29T20:38:00.000-04:00

Another day we rented a taxi and went all over Nairobi doing touristy stuff. First we went to this famous bead place called Kazuri, which means “beautiful, small things” in Swahili. Women handmake these beautiful beads. They also make pottery. We got to see the process.

Here the women are molding beads out of clay.

Then they cook the beads and paint them and cook them again. Here are some finished beads.

The finished beads are turned into jewelry and shipped all over the world.

After visiting Kazuri we went to the Elephant Orphanage. The orphanage finds baby elephants that have been abandoned by their mothers and brings them to the center to rehabilitate them and then reintroduce them into the wild. Once a day they let visitors come and see the babies and hear about how they take care of the babies.

The youngest babies were 5 months old. They were very playful and kept escaping their roped off pen and coming into the crowd to make friends with the guests! Here the speaker explains that the babies need to wear these blankets to stay warm. In the next picture, a baby is drinking water.

Next, they brought out the older babies. These elephants were between one and two years old.

They had to feed them with bottles.

Here I am with the elephants!

After seeing the elephants, we went to Limuru, Kenya to a tea plantation. We were feed a huge meal (that included fresh raspberries and homemade ice cream for dessert!) and then were given a tour of the plantation.

Here is the farmhouse and tea plantation.

I learned a lot about how tea is grown and even managed to drink an entire glass of hot tea (which is quite an accomplishment as I absolutely hate tea!)

At the house, there was a family of monkeys that hung out on the roof hoping to be fed. They were quite entertaining to watch!

We had quite a fun trip to Kenya!

Giraffe Center

2007-05-29T20:34:00.001-04:00

One day we were able to meet up with my friend from home, Becka Dutton. She is volunteering at a school about two hours outside of Nairobi and was able to come to the city to visit me! She helped us maneuver the public transport and we went to the Giraffe Center. At the Giraffe Center you can feed the giraffes! They are friendly as long as you are paying attention to them; one giraffe head-butted Becka because she stopped feeding her!

Here’s Becka feeding a giraffe.

We got up close and personal with Daisy.

Anyone ever kissed a giraffe? I have!

Kenya!

2007-05-29T20:31:00.000-04:00

After Women’s Conference, Kelly, Crystal, and I stayed in Nairobi for a few days to vacation. Here are some pictures of the sights around Kenya. Look at how green everything is compared to Botswana!

Women's Retreat

2007-05-29T20:28:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of May, the CESA region (Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa) had a women’s retreat in Kenya. It was a fun time to meet women who are serving all over Africa! Our speaker was Cynthia Heald, a Christian author, and she talked about contentment. We participated in group worship, workshops, and other fun activities like going to Nairobi for the famous Masai market and having a banquet in which you dressed in the traditional clothing of your people group. Unfortunately, my camera was broken so I don’t have many pictures of the meeting, but here’s one of Brackenhurst International Center where the conference was held.

A couple of prayer requests...

2007-04-27T09:10:00.000-04:00

Pray for the women of the CESA region as we travel on Tuesday to a women’s conference in Kenya . I will be in Kenya for almost 2 weeks! Pray that this would be a time of spiritual refreshment and fun fellowship with the women in the region.

Pray for the Operation HIV team as we are gone. Pray that they would continue/start the Bible studies with some of the people that were tested for HIV. Pray also that the True Love Waits Clubs at the schools would start okay without us. (The students begin their 2nd term next week while we’re away.)

I got bumped…well, I did the bumping…

2007-04-27T09:05:00.000-04:00

They don’t call them car crashes in Palapye. When you are in an accident you say, “We bumped.” That’s what happened to me last Saturday. I was in my first car accident ever. I was driving down the tar road and at an intersection another truck ran the stop sign and I crashed into the side of his vehicle. It was quite scary but God protected me! I was not hurt, but just sore for a few days afterwards. The family of three in the other vehicle all sustained minor injuries and were released from the hospital shortly afterwards.

The accident itself proved to be quite a cultural experience. Immediately people showed up to help the other family get to hospital. Figuring the police would need to see what happened, I left the car in the middle of the road while I and about 50 onlookers (that came out of nowhere) waited at least a half hour for them to show up. The first thing the police officer said to me was, “Why is your car still in the road? Move it!” However, we still had to wait for a tow truck to show up so the car could actually be moved because the front half was smooshed in and it couldn’t be driven. Then I had to go to the police station and give a statement (which really was me just signing a paper because the police officer never really asked me what happened). On Monday, I had to go to the Ministry of Road Transport where the car had been towed. Some people inspected both vehicles and then the officer sat me and the driver of the other vehicle down to charge one of us with the guilt. Luckily during his “investigation” the police officer discovered that the other driver was at fault and fined him 200 pula. (Typing it out, it sounds like a rather simple process, but we were at Transport for several hours waiting for things to happen.) And still I can’t pick up the accident report so they can begin to get the car fixed until the guy pays the fine…and who knows when that will happen? I just have to keep physically going and checking at Transport because I’m told there’s no where for me to call to find out. Fun times. Dealing with the police is not my favorite thing to do…

Regardless, I’m so thankful for how wonderful my missionary family and church family in Palapye was after the accident! It was such a comfort to know that I was being prayed for and checked on (the Batswana always visit the homes of people that are sick or hurt, so I had quite a few guests coming and checking on me).

So…here’s the damage to the vehicle!

AMTM 2007

2007-04-20T22:13:00.000-04:00

This past week we had our annual mission team meeting in Rustenburg, South Africa. Missionaries from our Zimtswana Cluster, which includes missionaries from Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa, and the Angola Cluster met together to be trained in a fairly new evangelism and discipleship tool called T4T or Training for Trainers. The idea is to start groups and train members to start their own groups to train members to start their own groups, etc. We practiced several stories and learned how to develop our own version of “Creation to Christ” (a 10-15 minute gospel presentation using stories from creation to Christ) incorporating stories that will speak to the issues our specific people groups deals with. I can’t wait to try some of this T4T stuff with a group of my former students!

We were given the opportunity to go out into the squatter camp called Freedom Park in Rustenburg and witness to the people there. I will try to get a picture of the squatter camp to post eventually, but it’s amazing how many people in tin shacks you can fit into one area! These are people coming from all over southern Africa to work mainly in the mines. My partner and I were able to talk with men from Mozambique and a Xhosa woman, but the language barrier proved to be a difficult thing for me. After about 2 minutes I run out of all the phrases I know how to speak in Setswana! But what an amazing opportunity for ministry the missionaries from Rustenburg have in these camps. There are already a few T4T groups going! Please pray for missionaries John and Jennifer Putman and Journeyman Stacy Carter and Kristy Burgess as they work in Rustenburg.

We also had some time for cutthroat mission competition! All the missionaries were divided into tribes to participate in games in order to win a big box of American food, CDs, DVDs, and more! Unfortunately my team Bluzungu didn’t win, but it was still fun to see crazy things like this! Missionaries Tim Cearley and Dennis Janz try to pass a cheerio on a toothpick to each other.

The annual Journeymen picture! (top row from left to right: Stacy, Kristy, Lyndee, Carmel, Me; bottom row: Shawna, Crystal, Kelly)

This was the best AMTM ever! (Never mind, that I’ve only been to one other…) It was an amazing time of spiritual refreshment, training, and fellowship with other missionaries. I am going to miss my mission family so much when I leave Botswana later this year!

Lion Park

2007-04-20T22:09:00.000-04:00

Before our annual missions meeting we went to Johannesburg to relax a little. While there we decided to go to the Lion Park. The lions are not tame, but they are in cages in which you can drive your car around. The lions will come right up to the car! Check out these close-ups!

We also got to pet baby lions! Aren’t they adorable?

Check me out feeding this giraffe!

The ostrich was a little trickier to feed. He comes at you so quickly with the open beak! He bit both Kelly and Crystal!

Easter Baptism!

2007-04-20T22:07:00.000-04:00

On Easter Sunday we had a baptism service! It’s beginning to get cold here and the water had been sitting overnight in the baptismal pool; the conditions made for one of the most amusing baptism services that I’ve ever been to. Almost everyone cried out in shock as they entered the cold water and there were plenty of humorous faces made while in the water. Nonetheless, we rejoiced with eight new believers!

Here’s T-Boy as he comes up out of the water.

Happy Birthday Kelly!

2007-04-20T22:03:00.000-04:00

Following in our tradition of themed dinner parties to celebrate birthdays in Palapye, on April 6 we had a “fashion-forward” dinner party for Kelly’s 30th birthday! Shawna was able to join us from Lobatse. Here’s some pictures from the party.

Kelly gets ready to blow out the candles on cake #2. That morning I had baked an American FUNFETTI cake and left it on the counter. During the day our dog Jabu somehow got into the house and ate the entire thing! I was so angry!!!! It was FUNFETTI!

We all pose in our “fashion-forward” outfits.

Trip to the Big City!

2007-04-06T10:03:00.000-04:00

The last weekend in March we took a trip to Gaborone with our friends Pere and Gofaone. These girls had been asked to train members of three churches in prayerwalking then the members were going to prayerwalk an area of Gaborone called Broadhurst. They were extremely nervous about teaching people from the city but were excited about the opportunity to share some of the information that we’ve been learning in our Operation HIV training sessions.

We went down to Gabs a day early and took the girls to see/do some of our favorite things in the city. We ate at Debonairs (a pizza place) and went to see a movie (Dreamgirls). This was the first time the girls had ever been to a movie in the theater, so we had to take a picture!

This was also the first time the girls rode an escalator! It was quite amusing!

The next day Pere and Gofaone trained about 30 people in prayerwalking and then we participated in prayerwalking Broadhurst. The girls did an amazing job! We were so proud of them!

Purity Weekend!

2007-04-06T09:58:00.000-04:00

A couple weekends ago we were asked to help out at a youth retreat in Gabs for missionary kids and other international students. Crystal and I rode the bus down to Gabs and met up with the youth at Mokolodi Game Reserve. The theme of the weekend was purity; we watched several video segments by Pam Stencil (a Christian speaker on abstinence) and then had breakout sessions. The youth had also put together a praise band! It was a lot of fun to get to spend some time with the MKs and their friends. (I had forgotten how late American teens like to stay up…and how loud they are! Haha)

Here’s some pictures from the game drive we went on…

MK Kayla and I enjoy our game drive!

I saw my first cheetah! So you can’t tell, but he’s actually in a cage…maybe one day I’ll see one in the wild.

Do you know your status?

2007-03-23T22:58:00.000-04:00

We are trying to encourage all of the members of Operation HIV to get tested before the next testing day at the church, that way they can help out instead of standing in line all day. So Crystal and I went with some of our fellow team members to get tested at Tebelopele. Now I can say I know exactly how someone feels as they are getting testing and waiting for their results! Even though I knew that I should have nothing to worry about, I still found myself nervous as I entered into the Tebelopele building that day…

First you have to go through pre-counseling where a qualified counselor explains the process of getting tested and talks about HIV and what getting a positive or negative result means. She gives you a card with a number (that looks a like a tiny passport) to help with anonymity.

Next you go into a lab where they prick your finger and you bleed onto a card and this plastic piece.

Then you wait for 15 minutes for your results to show up.

Finally, a counselor calls you into a room to show you your stick and little plastic piece. If it has one line then you are HIV negative; if it has two lines, then you are HIV positive. You talk about your results with the counselor and discuss the next steps. If you like, you can get your tiny passport stamped with your results.

Here I hold up my passport! I’m HIV negative!

Here Cecilia, Crystal, Pere, and I all hold up our negative results!

Our next steps? Keep abstaining.

HIV Testing Day at Palapye Baptist Church!

2007-03-23T22:53:00.000-04:00

Thank you so much for your prayers for our first HIV testing day at Palapye Baptist Church on March 18th. The day was eventful and, of course, nothing like we planned or hoped, but we are positive the Lord is going to do amazing things regardless!

We had roughly 100 people show up to get tested for HIV (not counting our own church members), however, Tebelopele, the organization doing the testing, only sent one counselor. Because of this, unfortunately only 20 people were able to get tested. It was a surprise and a disappointment to all of us, but I was so impressed how our church and team handled the situation. The members of Palapye Baptist that wanted to get tested gave up their spots to allow the visitors to test first. The team kept busy talking to visitors, handing out squash (a kind of drink like Kool-Aid) and chips, and signing people up to have Operation HIV visit them in their homes and share Bible stories there. We were able to explain to those wanting to get tested the problem and most agreed to come back for another day of testing that will hopefully take place sometime in April. Even though the day didn’t go exactly like we desired most people had very positive comments about the church and said they would like to come back and visit sometime.

Here are some pictures from the day!

The lady from Tebelopele gives instructions to the group waiting to be tested.

Gofaone, Crystal, Pere, and Tumisang discuss visiting people from the list of names we received.

This lady was very excited about her results!

Here’s our entire Operation HIV in our fancy Operation HIV t-shirts and badges!

THE SHIRT

2007-03-13T23:07:00.000-04:00

After living in Africa for a while I began to notice that a particular shirt was awfully popular for African males. At first I thought it was perhaps just a shirt that Batswana men enjoy, but as I have traveled around southern Africa there have been shirt sightings in Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. One day in Francistown we counted 12 different men wearing the shirt. This has led us to conclude that this shirt is indeed the most popular African shirt.

Take a look at several different shirt sightings (in some of the pictures you may have to look very closely):

Anyone care to buy a shirt?

I couldn’t resist!

Women's Meeting

2007-03-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

Our church has just begun a women’s group. We had our first big meeting a few Saturdays ago.

Here’s a picture of the women’s meeting about 20 minutes after it was supposed to have begun:

One thing to which we’ve had to adjust is that nothing starts on time!

Here Crystal tries to keep cool by standing in front of the fan while we wait. For those of you that are curious, yes, it still is ridiculously hot here!

Once the meeting began, it was really nice. The theme was praise and worship and we enjoyed a time of singing and fellowshipping together.

Here’s some of the youth girls:

Here is our friend Cecilia with Crystal. Lately Cecilia has been having trouble with her heart. She is currently on blood thinning medicines in an effort to help her heart pump the blood better. Please be in prayer for her as she visits the doctor again soon.

An exciting outing…

2007-03-13T22:55:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of Kitso and Nomsa. These girls used to live in Palapye but have now moved near Mahalapye (about an hour or so away). We decided one Saturday to take a group of our friends to go visit these girls to see how they were doing. We were leaving Kitso’s house in the truck and suddenly heard the sound of crushing metal. When we pulled the truck up we realized that we had hit the water pipes and water was uncontrollably spraying from the pipes. It’s Africa, so everyone walking by tried to help and after much tugging on pipes and numerous people getting soaked, the water became a small trickle. The family was really nice about it even though they were going to have to wait until Monday to get it fixed! We were simultaneously embarrassed and amused…but like I said it’s Africa…crazy things like this seem to happen and no one really cares.

Here’s a picture of some of the group that went on our crazy outing.

Valentine’s Day Party

2007-03-13T22:53:00.000-04:00

A week or so after Valentine’s Day we hosted a girls’ party at our house. We played games, made this lovely Valentine’s Day craft (the heart baskets some of the girls are holding), and watched a girly movie. One of the games we played was “White Elephant.” The girls hated it and told us that we could never play it again! Haha. Here’s a group picture from the night.

White Water Rafting Pictures!

2007-03-13T22:39:00.000-04:00

Remember way back in November when I went white water rafting on the Zambezi River? Well here are some pictures from rafting (finally)!

Here’s our fearless rafting crew with our guide Dougee.

Here’s our view of Vic Falls from the raft.

We saw this dead crocodile before hitting any rapids…ominous sign?

Stacie, Crystal, Shawna and I swim in the Zambezi!

2007-02-21T21:59:00.000-05:00

I’m sorry I haven’t updated my blog in forever! Things have been kind of crazy in Botswana lately. After getting back from Prayer Retreat in January, we began to implement our new version of Operation HIV. At first, things seemed to be going fantastically—doors seemed to be opening wide for us to be involved in the schools again and for our church to partner with the government home-based care program. Lately, this has not been the case…we can only attribute this to spiritual warfare. The schools are being difficult in allowing us to actually begin the new abstinence clubs they said they wanted us to do! The government home-based care program now refuses to allow our church to volunteer! The plans that we had made to organize a free t-shirt incentive for the HIV testing day at our church fell through! (Praise God this problem has since been fixed!) I could go on and on about several other problems we’ve been encountering lately, but I won’t. Please be in prayer for Operation HIV. It is obvious that Satan doesn’t want this ministry to succeed. We are just so thankful for our amazing team of nationals who are still so excited about the program and are fervently praying for the ministry. Pray that we will not be discouraged by these obstacles but continue to persevere in the implementation of Operation HIV. Pray that God would continue to burden our hearts for the people of Palapye, especially those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

We have been able to have several successful training sessions lately. We talked about how to prayerwalk, different ways to share your faith, how to chronological Bible story, how to lead and plan a school assembly, and more! Here are some pictures from our training sessions:

We have also been up to Francistown to visit our missionary friends the Carruthers. At the beginning of January we were able to assist them with a volunteer team from Georgia . Along with the team, we visited people’s homes to assess their openness to having a seeker-type Bible study meet in their homes. We were able to have many great spiritual conversations with the Batswana we visited. Missionary Kelly Carruthers has been able to use this information to start several new bible studies in the last month! We visited the Carruthers again for the Super Bowl and their daughter Kayla’s 14th birthday. We didn’t have any candles so Kayla pretends using our fingers as the candles (a little trick I learned from the Upshaw family!)

We got a chance a couple weeks ago to escape some of our busy-ness and go to the nearby Rhino Sanctuary. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing the sun set while watching a herd of zebra play next to the watering hole.

Of course, we’ve had some time to hang out with the kids at the church!

Please continue to be in prayer for Operation HIV and the ministries at Palapye Baptist Church. Also please pray for the Baptist Mission of Botswana. Last weekend we met for almost two days to talk about how we can best reach the Tswana people of Botswana. We are meeting again in a couple of weeks.

Children's Party

2007-01-13T12:13:00.000-05:00

Before we left for Mozambique, we helped out with the children's party at church. The kids got small gifts, cards, candy canes, and lots of food. Just look at this little girl stuffing her face with cake!

Here's a picture of our friends Gofaone and Pere that was taken at the party. These two girls are an amazing example to the younger youth and children. They help us out in every way imaginable. Their friendship is a big blessing.

Fake Christmas!

2007-01-13T12:07:00.000-05:00

Monday, December 18, we had "fake Christmas"! We cooked a big meal (including a turkey) and opened all our presents.

Here we get the turkey ready for cooking.

Here's our Christmas feast!

Here we are decorating Christmas cookies.

Thanks so much to everyone who sent me Christmas cards or gifts! I really appreciate everything you all do for me!

Baptism and Kid’s Pageant

2007-01-13T11:31:00.000-05:00

So here are a few pictures of some things that happened before we left for vacation...

Sunday, December 17, Palapye Baptist Church had baptism. Six people were baptized including two of the boys from the children's ministry, Bebeto and Otsetswe!

Bebeto gets baptized.

Also that morning the children put on a children's pageant. Many of the kids can't speak English, but they proudly memorized their lines and delivered them perfectly. They even had costumes! Gofaone, Pere, Tsholfelo, and Leslie planned the program all by themselves! It's very encouraging to see the nationals take this initiative!

Mary, Joseph, and the donkey.

The Wisemen and King Herod.

The Whole Group.

More Meat!

2007-01-02T17:53:00.000-05:00

Today we hung out in Jo-burg and went to this restaurant called The Carnivore! It specializes in game meat. I ate ostrich, kudo, hemsbok, impala, warthog, crocodile, eland, lamb, pork, and chicken. (That's a lot of meat). Here the guy cuts me off a slab of meat!It's always fun to ride hippos! Don't let them mislead you...hippos are the deadliest African animals.We also went to the Apartheid Museum. I haven't been to a museum in forever! Upon arriving, you were classified either white or non-white and had separate entrances. I wish we had had more time there!
Tomorrow it's back to Palapye after a long and refreshing holiday away!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T17:44:00.000-05:00

For New Year's the hip young single missionaries went to a place called Monte Casino. There we enjoyed a lovely meal of meat. We ate at a restaurant called The Meat Co. Journeyman Nate tricked me into getting a piece of sirloin that weighed 500kg!! (ok, really only 500g...the metric system is so confusing!) Here I am with my incredibly large piece of meat! Yes, I ate the entire thing! I love a challenge!
This picture is just too good not to put up! (Kelly, Reema, and me)
The cool young single missionaries.

Prayer Retreat!

2007-01-02T17:37:00.000-05:00

After Mozambique we went to Johannesburg for our cluster's annual Prayer Retreat. It was a great time to be with other missionaries and hear their exciting stories about ministry all over Southern Africa.

Here's a picture of missionaries and their kids playing crab soccer. (The journeymen were in charge of games...haha). We also got to enjoy some of the other niceties of Johannesburg! McDonald's is quite a treat! (Never thought I'd say that!)

I like to spend some time in Mozambique...

2007-01-02T17:23:00.000-05:00

After a long journey we arrived in Vilanculos, Mozambique. Here's some random pictures from our vacation!

This is the house that we stayed at in Vilanculos. It was huge and absolutely gorgeous! We even had our own private pool! The only problem was that the power went out every night! That's Africa for you...
Kelly, Crystal, and I eat some stuffed crab. We enjoyed a lot of seafood this week!
One morning we got up really early and watched the sunrise. The sun rises here at about 4:30am. Needless to say, we all went back to bed afterwards.
Crystal and I pose in front of the beautiful Vilanculos beach.
We bought 10 crabs for less than $2 (US) and decided to try our hand at cooking some seafood dishes. We had some amazing crab casserole!
One day we went out to the "boat graveyard." When the tide comes in, all the boats are in water. But during the day you can walk all around them. Obviously this ship doesn't go anywhere.
That night we cooked coconut shrimp and cajun seafood pasta. It's a lot of work when you have to shred the coconut straight from a fresh coconut!

Christmas Day!

2007-01-02T17:13:00.000-05:00

Christmas day we went out to Benguerra Island off the coast of Mozambique. We hired a speedboat and spent some time on a deserted island and snorkeling. We also got to see dolphins and look for pansy shells (sand dollars). It was quite an untraditional Christmas! That night we dressed up and went to eat seafood (of course)!

Snorkeling! We saw tons of fish and even got to hold some weird sea creatures whose names I can't remember!

A tired Emily poses with the island in the background.

The J-girls looking hot at Samara's for Christmas dinner!

Tofu Beach!

2007-01-02T16:56:00.000-05:00

After we left Vilanculos, we headed down the coast and went to another beach called Tofu beach. Our residence was not quite as luxurious as in Vilanculos...we stayed in a backpackers lodge right on the beach.

Tofu beach --the most beautiful beach in all of Mozambique! Look at those waves!The shack we stayed in at Tofu...yes, it's made out of reeds and no, that does not make it any cooler at night!
Crystal, Reema, and Shawna braved the waves and learned how to surf!

Real Africa!

2007-01-02T16:43:00.000-05:00

For Christmas the Journeygirls went to Mozambique. Upon arrival we realized how different Mozambique was from our "westernized" Botswana. Mozambique is "real Africa"! Here are some interesting pictures we took along the journey to Vilanculos, Tofu, and Maputo.

Women carry water jugs on their heads to get to water from the communal tap.

Traditional Mozambique houses.People selling things everywhere on the side of the road.

Buses piled with luggage and other things...sometimes people...sometimes even goats!

Prayer Requests!

2006-12-14T16:15:00.000-05:00

My roommate Crystal Dabney had her tonsils removed Nov. 29. Pray for her speedy recovery.

My friend Nomsa’s mother passed away November 27. The stress of her death caused Nomsa’s pregnant sister to go into labor early. A month premature, the new baby boy is doing fine. Please keep this family in your prayers during this difficult time.

Pray for Palapye Baptist. As we integrate our program Operation HIV into the church and start new ministries pray that we can better respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis in our area and reach our community for Christ.

Pray for our students that are on summer vacation right now. Pray that they would continue to stay strong in their commitments to abstinence and that they would make wise decisions.

Pray for safe travels and a relaxing time as the Journeymen in Botswana head to Mozambique for Christmas. Pray for us and our families as we spend the holidays away from home.

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-14T16:09:00.000-05:00

Take a look at our 25 pula Christmas tree!

We tried to decorate a little bit for Christmas. Even the dogs are getting into the Christmas spirit!

Lula's Scare...

2006-12-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

One day a couple weeks ago I was working on some things inside and Lula was playing with the other dogs Nina and Jabu outside. When she came to the door her entire face was swollen like this!

We called the vet and then rushed her to the pharmacy to get her some steroids to stop the swelling. She looked pitiful. We still don't know what caused it.

But now she is doing much better...

Getaway Zimbabwe 2006!

2006-11-23T09:31:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago we were so blessed to have the privilege to visit Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and stay at the beautiful Elephant Hills Resort. Many of you that have talked to me recently know about the struggles we are having in the village currently. The week before we went to Zim we didn’t have water for 5 straight days…and in the summer heat with no AC this makes for some miserable days. We were excited about a vacation!

But the thing that made this vacation so special is that we were invited to Vic Falls by the Christian Hospitality Network. CHN is an association of Christian-owned inns that give rooms, rest and relaxation to pastor and foreign missionaries at little to no cost (ww.ChristianLodging.org). Each year they sponsor a Getaway for missionaries; and we lucked out that this year’s getaway was in our region.

In addition to paying for all our meals and lodging, CHN gave each person vouchers to use on other activities like bungee jumping and white water rafting. They also gave us so much free stuff like bags with goodies that we can’t get in Africa (chocolate chips!) and they had arranged for friends at home to write us encouraging letters that we received one night. (Thank you everyone who wrote me a letter! They were so special!) It was such a blessing to be a part of this Getaway and it was great to meet other missionaries in the area!

So here’s what I did on my vacation:

On Tuesday, Crystal and I spent our time walking around town. First, we hiked out to the bridge that spans the gorge connecting Zimbabwe and Zambia. You can walk across the bridge into Zambia to get a better view of the Zambezi River and the brave bungee jumpers. We saw one guy jump off the bridge and even though we had no idea who he was I found myself getting nervous and my stomach knotting as he prepared. We also spent some time in “No Man’s Land.” In the middle of the bridge there’s a strip of concrete that is considered neither Zimbabwe nor Zambia. Here I stand in “No Man’s Land.”

After hitting up Zambia, we hiked out to the “Big Tree,” the largest baobab in southern Africa…possibly the world?

Then we went to the market and spent the afternoon bargaining with the Zimbabweans. I am amassing quite a collection of African curios, but you always seem to come away from the market with more than you wanted because it was “such a great deal!”

In the afternoon, Crystal and I met up with Kelly and Shawna (who had been jumping across the gorge on various ziplines and cables all morning). We went into the Victoria Falls National Park to view the Falls. It is the end of the dry season, so there is considerably less water in the falls than there was in July when I went with my family. The Zambian end of the falls is so dry that picnickers hike across the top of it and picnic on the islands. This is a picture of the Main Falls.

Here we stand in front to the dried up falls.

This picture was taken in the same place in July. See the difference in the amount of water? Crazy, huh?

That night we were so tired from walking around all day, but the next morning Crystal, Shawna, Stacie, and I got up early to go white water rafting on the Zambezi River. (In this picture you can see the gorge that we had to hike down into and then one tiny rapid that is so small it didn’t even have a name!)

The hike down the steep gorge with all our gear was intense. There were slippery rocks, creaky ladders, and steep stairs without any railings. By the time I was in the gorge I were just so relieved to be there that I could care less about the giant Class 5 rapids to come. We got into our boats, met our guide Dougee, practiced paddling, pretended to get thrown from the raft, and swam in the Zambezi a little. Then it was time to hit the rapids.

But before we even get to the first rapid, we see a giant dead crocodile floating belly up in the water. Ominous sign of the day to come?

Now I won’t detail all 21 rapids that we did, but I will tell you about two of the most fearsome and dangerous Class 5s.

On a rapid called Midnight Diner featuring the giant Mancha wave we had watched raft after raft flip over. All we could see were floating heads in the water and kayakers frantically collecting swimmers. I wish I could tell you what happened next, but even after watching the DVD we purchased of our rafting trip in slow motion I’m still not quite sure. One moment I’m fiercely paddling and trying to get down, the next I’m underwater for what seemed like an eternity. When I hit the surface, disoriented and somehow still holding my paddle, I look around and see several of our raft-mates scrambling for empty rafts and kayaks. I swam to a kayak and grabbed on and was safely brought to a raft. No big deal. As we discovered later, ours was the only raft that didn’t flip over…we just lost most of the paddlers.

The last and most perilous Class 5 rapid was called Oblivion. On this rapid 85% of all rafts flip and it is considered in the entire world as the rapid you’re most likely to flip on! Imagine knowing that information going into it? One raft had flipped already. One boat had chickened out and taken an easy way around the rapid. And now it was our turn. We get up on the rapid and paddle through two giant drops. Water is pelting us from all sides as we approach a huge wave. Dougee yells for us to all get down. The next thing I know our raft is floating over smaller waves of water and everyone’s cheering. We had beat the odds and remained upright. The only problem was…we had lost our guide! Luckily we found just him hanging onto the side of our raft.

When we weren’t paddling through rapids, there were stretches of calm water and smaller rapids that we were even able to hop out and float through. As we swam along the river we even saw several small crocodiles sunning on the banks!

We had all been dreading the end of the day. Exhausted, sunburned, and sore we had to hike out of the gorge (with all our gear). The incline was nearly vertical and I was so tired that I could barely make it a few steps before needing to stop and rest. I thought I would never make it up the mountain as I watched the guides and kayakers carrying boats and gear pass me like the climb was nothing! Finally after about 45 minutes I stumbled to the top and dropped my life jacket, helmet, and paddle and received my reward: a nice cold Fanta orange in a glass bottle. Rafting was so much fun; quite possibly one of the most awesome things I’ve ever done. But I was thankful I didn’t have to get up the next day and do it all again!

(Stacie took an underwater camera so eventually I’ll have pictures from the trip, but it will be several months.)

Thursday, we packed up all the stuff we had accumulated and began the long journey home. There’s a stretch of road in Botswana from Kasane to Nata that you always need to keep your eyes open for animal. On the way back we saw a mama ostrich with about 5 babies and three different groups of elephant. This guy was just standing on the side of the road waiting for his picture to be taken.

Ok, so that was my vacation to Zimbabwe. Now we’re counting down the days until Christmas in Mozambique…

“I like to spend some time in Mozambique

The sunny sky is aqua blue

And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek.

It's very nice to stay a week or two.”

Costume Party!

2006-11-11T03:08:00.000-05:00

Sad that we were going to miss out on dressing up for Halloween this year, we decided we were going to have our own costume party at Palapye Baptist for the youth. We played games and danced to Vee (Botswana’s most popular music artist) and of course Michael Jackson! Having never been to (or even heard of) a costume party before, the youth did a great job coming up with creative outfits! Here are some of my favorites!

Gofaone as an angel.

Tsolofelo and Kefilwe as king and queen.

Pere as a pregnant Motswana lady and Cecilia as a power company worker.

Even my dog Lula got into the costume party spirit! She went as a Motswana in traditional clothing. She even carried her baby on her back like the women here.

Here Bebeto, who was too young to attend to the party, tries to get a peak at some of the costumes.

And of course, the Palapye girls impress as an 80s dancer, a punk rock star, and a pirate!

Some Prayer Requests!

2006-10-24T06:40:00.000-04:00

Prayer Requests:
-The students signed True Love Waits Commitment Cards last week. Pray that the students will be strong in this commitment.
-Pray for the Form 3 students (~10th grade) as they begin exams. These exams determine whether the complete their schooling this year, or whether they can go on to senior secondary school. Pray especially for Gofaone, Oreeditse, Gaone, Tumisang, Wangu, Onalenna, and Esther. These are some of the girls I’m especially close to and they are very nervous.
-Pray for Kelly, Crystal, and I as we are trying to think of ways to improve our program, Operation:HIV (He Is Victorious), so that we can better serve the community and better incorporate nationals from our church.
-Pray for me as I struggle to potty train my new puppy.
-Pray as I visit some of the homes of the kids in my Bible study. Pray that I will have the opportunity to share Jesus with these students’ families.

Life Changes!

2006-10-24T06:25:00.000-04:00

Last week was a week of many life changes. Well, just two. I haven’t gotten my hair cut since getting here in January. Now that it's gotten ridiculously hot again my long hair was driving me crazy. I decided to cut off 10 inches to donate it and get my hair cut really short. I figured if I didn’t like it, it’d have time to grow back before coming home… So here’s my before and after:

The second change is the new addition to my household. Lulabelle (the Burninator) is supposedly a poodle. I don’t think she has a bit of poodle in her. She looks more like a Chiuwawa to me. Any guesses? In the first night I cleaned up 4 accidents in the house and she threw up in my bed. I’ve got my work cut out for me. Training tips? When she’s not expelling things from her body, she adorably curls up in my lap and sleeps.

Happy Anniversary Palapye Baptist Church!

2006-10-16T09:28:00.000-04:00

This week marked the 1st anniversary of Palapye Baptist Church. To celebrate we held special prayer meetings each night of the week.

On Saturday, we had a fluoride clinic for the kids.

And on Sunday we held baptism for the first time on the church property. Before, we had been transporting everyone to a camp across town that had a swimming pool, so it was really special to be able to baptize at the church. Bro. Thabo spent the entire week building the baptismal pool outside the church. And Sister Cenilza sewed baptismal robes. Here are some pictures from the service.

Happy Independence Day!!! Pula Botswana!!!

2006-10-16T09:12:00.000-04:00

Saturday, September 30, marked Botswana’s 40th year of independence. We celebrated by attending a party at the kgotla (the village meeting place). Many groups performed for the village leaders, including the traditional dance group from Mmaphula CJSS (where I teach). Here’s them performing:

Here’s a picture of me with the girls:

We also met the chief of Palapye. He asked us how the war in America was going. Here Crystal, Kelly, Maria (a missionary from Brazil), and I pose with the Chief Ndebele.
Pula Botswana! (which literally means “rain Botswana” but the sentiment is more like “live on and be prosperous Botswana!”)

Timber!

2006-10-09T10:31:00.000-04:00

So our neighbors were cutting a tree down and a branch from the tree fell onto our cinderblock wall. We discovered that we are not truly surrounded by an indestructible goliath of a wall.

This was the damage that one branch did! Luckily the next day some people came to fix it, but the dogs had to spend the night on the chain. They were not too happy. Here’s a picture of our ferocious guard dogs Nina and Jabu. (Looks are deceiving…After a mishap last week with the dogs attacking a child, the rumor in Palapye is that the white girls’ dogs killed someone.)

Why white girls shouldn't wear braids...

2006-09-16T05:13:00.000-04:00

Prayer Requests!

2006-09-16T05:07:00.000-04:00

Some prayer requests:

-The third term of school began Sept. 5. Pray hard for the students of Mmaphula CJSS during September and October as they are learning about God’s plan for sex. In a few weeks they will be asked to sign commitment cards if they are willing to commit to remain abstinent until marriage.

-Pray for Palapye Baptist church as it celebrates its one year anniversary in September. Pray that the church will continue to grow both spiritually and physically.

-Pray for the Journeymen in Palapye (Kelly, Crystal, and me) as we are making important decisions about future ministry opportunities in Palapye.

Happy Birthday Crystal!

2006-09-16T05:04:00.000-04:00

Crystal turned 24 September 5^th. We had a pirate themed party for her. Yes, we have to make our own fun in Palapye.

The Dikupa Wedding

2006-09-16T04:53:00.000-04:00

I went to my first Batswana wedding! Weddings are a huge joyful celebration with lots of eating and dancing. There are always two parts: one party in the girl’s home village and one in the guy’s home village. Anyone in the community can come—it doesn’t matter if you are invited or if you actually know the bride or groom. We had never even seen the bride or the groom before we attended their wedding! This was the second half in the groom’s home village.

Because this was a Christian wedding, there was first a ceremony that took place at a church. The bride and groom and the rest of the wedding party sat in the front while the pastor gave a message. Afterwards, he showed the marriage certificate and the couple kissed. Then the congregation danced and processed in a line to greet the couple as everyone sang traditional Setswana praise songs. Next the wedding party danced out of the church together. The bride wore a wedding dress and was attended by bridesmaids who worn fancy dressed made out of the same color fabric. In this way, it was similar to an American wedding. The groom and his groomsmen also wore tuxedos.

After the ceremony, everyone loaded up in cars and drive to a scenic spot. Everyone sang and danced while a photographer took pictures of the bride and groom and wedding party. Then we all drove to the groom’s house for the reception.

The family and friends of the bride and groom had been working all day to prepare a huge meal for everyone. Large tents were set up in the compound to accommodate the people. We sat and fellowshipped all afternoon and waited to be served. We were given a ridiculous amount of food: rice or samp (a kind of soft porridge with beans) with a tomato and onion sauce, chicken, seswaa (shredded beef), beets, slaw, potato salad, apple salad, and pudding with cake. I love traditional Batswana food (minus the beets)!

The wedding was beautiful and a neat experience even though we didn’t know anyone there!

One horribly funny story: In the middle of the meal Crystal says “Ouch! What just hit me?” She looks down and the wedding cake (which had been precariously balanced on a cake stand) has fallen off the table and rolled and hit Crystal in the leg! Someone quickly picks it up, brushes it off and sets it back on the table.

Maun and Makgadikgadi.

2006-09-16T04:45:00.000-04:00

August 25-30 Crystal, Kelly, Shawna (J-man from Lobatse), and I went to Maun to visit career missionaries Jeff and Staci Powers. After getting a glimpse into their ministry in Maun, we all went camping in the Makgadikgadi Pans. Jeff is a big hunter and they own a game viewing vehicle. We rode all over the Pans in search of a lion we heard roaring the first night. Unfortunately we never found the lion, but we did a lot of evidence that he was around:

I have never seen so many zebra in my life! Because it is the dry season all the animal gather at the water hole to drink. Here zebra fight to get water from this small puddle.

Here, I enjoy a piece of zebra jerky as we look at all the zebra.

One of the coolest things we saw was this zebra stampede. All of a sudden over a thousand zebra come running up this hill and right in front of our vehicle. It was like a large zebra traffic jam.

In addition to zebra we saw hippo, elephant, kudu, impala, wildebeest, jackal, warthog, crocodile, a bush buck (a very private animal, very rare to see), a black mamba (the first snake I’ve seen in Botswana!), giraffe, vulture, and tons of other birds.

Youth Rally

2006-09-16T04:30:00.000-04:00

August 16-20 was the annual nationwide Botswana Baptist Youth Rally. Palapye Baptist sent 24 youth north to the village of Tati Siding by train to attend the rally. Many of the youth had never ridden in a train before and some had never left Palapye, so it was an especially exciting trip for them. Here Kitso shows her excitement next to the train tracks.

In many ways this camp was like many retreats in America; there were Bible study sessions, conferences, workshops, nightly worship, and fellowship activities. This is a picture of some of the youth performing at the rally.

But in many ways the camp was extremely “African.” I know I don’t often use the blog to reflect on what God has shown me through my time here, but I just have to share this. We as Americans take so much for granted.

First, everyone is responsible for providing their own transportation to the rally. Most churches have church vans or the capability to rent a vehicle to take their kids to camp. Most churches have a youth minister or someone in charge of taking care of logistics of a trip like this one. Botswana churches have neither. Youth rode public buses or the train to Tati Siding and then had to walk about a mile from the bus stop or train stop to the school where the rally was being held. (This is of course after asking a random person around the village where the school was because another thing Botswana doesn’t have is maps and street signs.) Remember, that each of the youth had their bags for the entire week that they also lugged this mile to the school. Luggage included various duffle bags and shopping bags because most youth didn’t have fancy suitcases. Working M-Fuge, I saw students bring like a huge suitcase and a backpack and a pillow and a sleeping bag and maybe even more for a weeklong camp. Most of our youth had a small duffle that held everything for the entire week (including bedding and a plate and cup for meals). Some of our youth that came wore the same outfit everyday because they don’t have anything else to wear. Some of them didn’t bring bedding because they don’t have any to spare at home.

Anyways, we got to the rally in the afternoon well after registration was supposed to take place and nothing was going on. We put our stuff in the rooms (large rooms with bunk beds) and just waited. Finally after a couple hours the people showed to take our money. The rally cost 100 pula, which is about $20. While this may not seem like a lot of money to us, the youth had to work for months to be able to save the 100 pula to attend. They sold candy, did yard work, cooked meals, washed dishes, held a talent show, and still many could not afford to go. This 100 pula paid for all the meals for the week, the lodging, a t-shirt, and the program fees. As the evening went on, they had more girls show up than they had beds for. Girls were asked to share their twin beds so that everyone could have a place to sleep. The bath houses didn’t have electricity and few people own flashlights so using the toilet at night was difficult too. Basically, if you put an American youth in this situation, they would complain the entire week. At mealtime the youth took turns serving. We all lined up and were given papa (a hard porridge) and a small piece of meat. There were no choices; you either ate it or you didn’t. Sometimes food ran out and everyone didn’t even get to eat. Those that didn’t bring plates had to wait until someone was finished and then use their plate. After the meal, you were responsible for washing your own dishes.

Nothing was on time ever. There was a schedule to which we rarely adhered. The first time we were supposed to have workshops only two of the eight were offered because the teachers had not shown up. The conference times were the same way. Many leaders did not show up to teach.

The second day the youth executive committee had to deal with another problem. The school had doubled booked and another group was supposed to be coming in to have a conference the next day. The wanted nothing to do with fixing the problem and asked the two groups to handle it among themselves.

When the t-shirts finally came in, they were not the right colors that had been ordered and so most people had to settle for a different color and size than they had asked for.

I could go on but basically in the eyes of an American this rally would have been considered a disaster. It would have been every youth minister’s nightmare. They would have had a multitude of complaining students and chaperones on their hands.

Yet I was completely humbled by the attitude that these Botswana Baptist youth exhibited. So many of them commented on how nice the facility was (to which I was secretly thinking “really?”) They loved the food and didn’t care that there was only one option and only water to drink. They enjoyed the conferences and workshops and weren’t at all upset that they didn’t have very many options. They wore the same clothes almost everyday and didn’t care. They didn’t care that they were responsible for cleaning their rooms and the bathrooms everyday. And most of all they loved the worship and getting to praise God with youth from all over the country. Despite all the glitches in the program, God was at work in the lives of the youth. The theme of the week was based on Ephesians 4:1 which says we should walk “worthy of the calling.” As a journeyman, I was privileged to be able to pray with students during the invitation times each night. So many youth gave their lives to Christ and many others committed to live a life that would be worthy of the calling that we have received as Christians. Youth Rally was an amazing experience from me and a reminder of how much we as Americans really do take for granted. I wish daily that my attitude could be more like these Batswana that simply longed to worship and did not let circumstances prevent them from allowing God to work in their lives.

Crystal, Kelly, and I get ready to make the mile hike back to the train to head home.

The Church!

2006-09-08T07:17:00.000-04:00

I spend so much time talking about church activities that I figured you might like to see a picture of the actual church building in Palapye. This is a picture of the Palapye girls in front of Palapye Baptist.

The visit from my family!

2006-08-10T10:10:00.000-04:00

My family came to Botswana to visit! Here’s some of the things we did:

On Sunday we had some of the little boys over from our church. Matt rode in the back of the truck with them. It was quite an experience. These kids are so precious, but so poor. They are dirty and wear dirty tattered clothes and barely have enough to eat. So we cooked them this huge meal and then we settled down to watch Spiderman. Soon the boys began to explore our houses. Now, none of the boys have indoor plumbing and so the bathroom was mesmerizing to them. After all of the boys began disappearing into the bathroom we began to wonder what was truly going on in there. My dad tried to open the door and was told to “GET OUT!” All the boys were “bathing”! They had discovered the shower and decided they wanted to be clean. So we gave them some towels and when they came out all nice and clean they began dancing around. It is amazing to see the excitement a simple shower caused!

My family was able to attend a few classes with me before our term ended. Here’s me doing something very teacher-like, writing on the chalk board.

For a little vacation away from Palapye we went north to Chobe National Park. We stayed at this beautiful lodge called the Chobe Safari Lodge. The lodge offered several excursions that we were able to go on. We went on a game drive and a boat cruise and saw lots of animals: lion, giraffe, hippo, elephant, warthog, buffalo, zebra, impala, antelope, baboons, and more. This little guy trapped dad on the balcony of our hotel room!

Then we were able to go to Namibia for a morning and see what a traditional village looks like on the Impalela Island. Here, I’m giving the kids some candy.

On our last day up north we crossed into Zimbabwe and went to Victoria Falls. Now, I’ve been to Niagara Falls before, but Victoria Falls was so much bigger! It was amazing. Here, Lauren, Matt, and I sit at Danger Point!

When we arrived back home, we had three days of baseball camp at our church. Many of the kids had never played before. It was fun to see them learn how to hit the ball and to use a glove. The kids really enjoyed playing and by the end of the camp they were able to play an actual game!

My family also got to help distribute the care packages that First Baptist Springfield put together. Thanks so much FBCS! As you can see from these pictures, the kids really loved the gift. They were so proud of their new socks and underwear and toothbrushes and toy cars!

On Sunday, Dad preached at Palapye Baptist Church!

The last two days Crystal, Kelly, and I were invited out to a local Junior Secondary School to do a seminar on abstinence and helping students learn how to say no to sex before marriage. Here we are putting on the assembly. Many of the students stayed after to ask questions!

Here’s a few random pictures too cute to leave out!

This is me in front of my mail box! Thanks for all the letters and packages you send! Keep it up! It is such an encouragement to me. If you’ve forgotten the address it’s:

Emily Weaver

Baptist Mission

P.O. Box 10616

Palapye

BOTSWANA

Finally this is a picture of me holding up a dead chicken our dogs killed. They may look sweet, but man they can be ferocious.

Here’s some ways you can be in prayer for me in the next few weeks:

- We have a countrywide youth rally next week. Pray that the youth will be able to raise the funds to be able to go and that the rally will be a great time of spiritual renewal and growth for them.

- The students are out on holiday until September 5^th. Pray that they will make wise decisions during their break.

- We have had an extremely busy winter here in Palapye with many guests visiting. Pray that we will find time to rest during the holiday.

- Pray for the children that received the care packages. May they know how much they are loved by us and especially by God!

- Pray for the future of the program in which I teach, Operation:HIV. The missionaries that began the program have retired this month and the national convention is looking for someone who can take it over.

Happy Birthday Me!

2006-07-21T06:14:00.000-04:00

One day I was minding my own business teaching class and another teacher interrupted and asked me to be a judge at a beauty contest. So here I am being a judge. You can see all the contestants for Miss Home Economics Regional in the background.

Happy 4th of July! We tried to have a traditional cookout on the 4th and sing all the patriotic songs we knew. Our "hotdogs" ended up looking like this and were not as awesome as we'd hoped.

July 5th was my 23rd birthday and everyone here made it very special. The girls cooked me a fancy meal, Tshepiso and my class 3E threw me a party, and the church all wrote birthday cards. Thanks so much for all the birthday emails and cards that I've received in the mail. I really appreciate you all thinking of my on this special day!

Our church had a talent show to raise money for the youth rally in August. These boys showed off their traditional dancing skills.

We had an American team from Georgia ministering alongside us for the past two weeks in Palapye. Here they are performing a skit at an assembly at a junior secondary school. It was such a blessing to have them stay with us. Many kids expressed interest in being born again and we're excited about the opportunities they have created for us to do some discipleship and follow-up in the schools.

And lastly, my family is coming TODAY! I am now on my way to pick them up at the airport!

As always, thanks so much for all your prayers!

Busy-ness! (Late Update from June!)

2006-06-20T09:56:00.000-04:00

Have you ever been so busy that you haven’t had time to stop and breathe?

I feel like that’s been me the past few weeks.

June started with Teacher’s Day, a national holiday to celebrate teachers all over Botswana. After being in an early morning motorcarde, we went to a program at the kgotla (pronounced ho-ta). The kgotla is where the chief of the village hears cases, honors villagers, and takes care of other business concerning the village. There was traditional dancing, singing, poetry, and speeches. Afterwards all the teachers in the area gathered at a lodge for a afternoon of food and fellowship. We even got to take a row boat out on Palapye’s only lake! (Note: Motswana in my area are not real familiar with water sports, so my advice is never get out in a boat with a Motswana. You will be out in the middle of the lake spinning in 4ft. of water for hours!)

Next William and Mary student, Kaity Smoot, paid us a visit. She’s doing her Monroe project on Botswana and the economy and wanted to check out the village for a few days. She got the unique opportunity to go with us to a funeral. This was the first funeral we had attended in Botswana. The funeral really lasts for several days. You have prayer for several days that leads up to a day of all-night prayer and then the burial the next morning. Women at the funerals must wear long skirts and have their hair entirely wrapped up. In this picture some of my students are wrapping my hair for the funeral.

Also this month we were able to visit the village of Lecheng and see the ruins of a David Livingstone church and hike out to a waterfall. This is a picture of the Operation:HIV team in Palapye standing among the ruins of the church. (Kelly, Tshepiso, Me, and Crystal). This site was the home of the Bangwato tribe and the church was built from 1891-1894. Tshepiso is a descendent of this tribe. Then we hiked out to the waterfall, which surprisingly had a little water left in it even though we haven’t had rain in weeks.

Are you all watching the World Cup at all? Botswana has one television station and it only shows the World Cup now. So we’ve become fans like everyone else here. At soccer we had our own World Cup. The kids got a partner and tried to get a goal before anyone else. The last team to score a goal each round was out. Italy won our World Cup! We’ll see if they can win the real one! Here the kids are gathered around the radio listening to a World Cup game after they have scored there goals to push them through to the next round.

Prayer Requests:

-We have a team from Georgia coming to serve in Palapye from July 5-19. Pray for their safe travel and their preparation as they get ready to come and serve.

-Pray for the students in my Bible study, that they will come to know Christ.

-Pray for Tshepiso as he’s making decisions about his future and where God wants him to school and to serve.

-Pray for Palapye Baptist church as we continue to transition.

-Pray that we can find some time to relax and not become overwhelmed with all of our responsibilities as of late.

Jell-o!

2006-05-28T08:19:00.001-04:00

Dwight: He put my stuff in Jell-o again! That’s real professional. Thanks. It’s the third time and it wasn’t funny the first two times either, Jim.

…

Michael: What is that?

Dwight: That’s my stapler. (Dwight tries to take stapler out of Jell-o)

Michael: No! No! No! Do not take it out! You have to eat it out because there are starving people in the world and I hate to waste that kind of food.

Dwight: …Can you reprimand him please?

Jim: (Eating Jell-o) How do you know it was me?

Dwight: It’s always you. Are you going to discipline him?

Michael: Ooo discipline…kinky. All right here you go. The thing about a practical joke is you have to know when to start and when to stop. And yeah, Jim, now is the time to stop putting Dwight’s personal effects into Jell-o.

Jim: Ok. Dwight, I’m sorry because I have always been your biggest flan.

Michael: O..haha. Nice. That’s the way is around here…just kind of goes round and round and round.

Ryan: You should have put him in custardy.

Michael: Hey yes! New guy! Score!

Dwight: Hey that’s great. I guess what I’m most concerned about is, umm, damage to company property. That’s all.

(long pause)

Michael: Pudding…pudding. I’m trying to think of another dessert to do…

Winter's coming!

2006-05-26T12:49:00.000-04:00

So we have been back in Palapye teaching for the past few weeks. Our 2^nd term began and we are focusing on relationships—relationships with family, friends, and boyfriends/girlfriends. This semester has started actually started out rather slowly. I still feel like I’m getting back into the routine of classes since I was away for the majority of April. We are busy trying to get things in line for a volunteer group from Georgia that is coming for two weeks in July and then my family coming the day after the volunteer team leaves! We’re really excited about the upcoming ministry opportunities in the next couple months.

While you are all enjoying the beginning of summer weather, we are beginning our winter season. It’s much colder than I anticipated! I only have a little space heater that doesn’t work so well all the time. I am learning the joys of sleeping with a hot water bottle and about 6 blankets! Some of my classrooms are outdoors and I’ll be standing up teaching in my heavy coat while the kids huddle together, sitting on their books so their bottoms don’t touch the cold cinderblock benches. It’s pitiful! Sometimes it will be warm during the day, but once the sun goes down…brrrrr! And it’s always colder inside than outside.

Anyways, enjoy some pictures and stories from May!

A couple of weeks ago we were traveling from Palapye to our team meeting in Gaborone. About 30km outside of Palapye we got stuck in stand still traffic (which rarely happens here!) As we inched along for about 30 minutes, not knowing what the hold up was, people began to get out of their vehicles and walk along road. Finally we called someone over to the car to ask what was going on. He told us that there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease and all cars were being stopped and checked for “cloven hooved animals and their products” (aka beef and dairy). Plus every car had to drive through a special pit filled with some chemical that prevents the spread of this deadly disease and every person had to step onto this mat soaked in the chemical. Palapye didn’t have milk for a few weeks. We took this picture at our grocery store.

Last weekend we had a party with some of the youth girls from our church. We cooked all kinds of “American” appetizers and played games and watched a movie. FYI Batswana are not very good at games like charades. We had settled down to watch The Wedding Planner and suddenly all the power went out! We looked out the window and could see that my electricity in my house next door was still on. But Kelly and Crystal’s house had run out of power! (We buy power from the gas station. You pay at the counter and they give you a code. You enter the code into this box on the wall of the kitchen and magically you have electricity!) We had to run to the gas station to buy power so we could finish the movie! While we were rather embarrassed that we had run out of power, the girls didn’t care at all. Most of them don’t even have electricity!

This is a picture from Sunday morning worship the first day that we were in our brand new church building! It’s still missing half a roof, half the children’s room, and the electrical fixtures, but we’re able to meet inside now!

In some of my more recent blog updates I had asked for prayer for the transition time for our church as some of the Brazilian missionaries go back to Brazil. They left Palapye on Friday, May 26. Last week we had a huge Farewell Brai (Cookout). We were really impressed with these guys pictured (from right to left: Shadrach, Koko, T-Boy, Bebeto, and Otsetswe)—they had all bathed and put on their best clothes for this fancy occasion. They were so proud to be a part of the party.

One of our littlest boys Denies, is always really dirty and wearing clothes with holes, but even he put on his school uniform to come the party. Here he was given a special role helping Crystal and I with braiing the meat. I wish that you all could see these kids. They are so precious. We may not always understand each other, but they can see how much we love them. So many of them just need someone to love them!

Please pray for these kids as it is getting cold and many of them are still running around barefoot and in shorts.

Please continue to pray for this transition time at our church.

Pray for the church building to be finished quickly.

Pray for the students at Mmaphula CJSS, especially the ones that have shown interest in learning more about God. I have my first Bible study with these girls this week! Pray that the girls would actually show up and that they would be open to hearing and receiving the Gospel.

Pray for my teaching partner Tshepiso who feels called to be a pastor. He has some decisions to make soon about his schooling and needs wisdom and discernment to make them.

Pray that we’ll get a phone line in our house quickly, as we’ve been living there for 5 months and still have yet to get one.

Thanks as always for checking up on me!

A Busy Holiday!

2006-04-26T17:24:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-04-08T06:22:00.000-04:00

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

Some pics!

2006-03-11T05:07:00.000-05:00

This is my teaching partner Tshepiso. He is holding a giant dung beetle.
These are some giraffes at the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa. There we saw lots of animals like zebras, jackals, spring buck, impala, elephant, and even lions!
It was really cold on our game drive and it rained! Luckily Kelly had brought her poncho! Crystal, Kelly, and Shawna (a journeyman from Lobatse) demonstrate how to share the poncho.
These are the kids in my children's choir. They like to sing really loud! They especially enjoy the games "Little Sally Walker" and the "Hokey Pokey" which the pronounce the "hoookey pooookey."
This is me and my best friend Bebeto. He likes to tell me when I should stand up and sit down during church, and helps me out with the words to the Setswana songs we sing.
Our church had its first Baptism service in February. Here a member is being baptized and those that are looking on are the others waiting to be baptized! We went to Camp Itumela and used their pool for the service.

Camp Itumela!

2006-02-08T07:50:00.000-05:00

On Saturday we went with our church, Palapye Baptist, and some other churches in the area to Camp Itumela. There we participated in worship, a trivia game, a treasure hunt, swimming, and a movie. The churches really enjoyed the fellowship time together. This is a picture of me and some of the youth from Palapye. Everyone really enjoys having there picture made!

This is a picture of me in front of a tree that has Weaver birds' nests hanging in it. The Weaver bird males make the nest and the female birds will choose their mate based on how well made the nest is. She will then knock the others out of the tree.

Mmaphula CJSS!

2006-02-02T15:17:00.000-05:00

Many of you know that I am working as a guidance and counseling teacher at Mmaphula CJSS! So far I am really enjoying teaching (except for the early classes...however, my earliest at 7:00am was changed from to 12:25pm from now on...praise God!)
This week I got a teaching partner...a Motswana guy named Tshepiso. He is a tremendous asset to the class. In addition to being a wonderful teacher and an amazing example for the students, he can tell when the students aren't understanding my English and help them to understand the points in Setswana. He has also been helping me understand culture better and will call me out if I'm doing something wrong. It's been great so far.
This is a picture of my school! You can pray for the students here, especially as we begin counseling some of them individually this week.

2006-01-25T14:13:00.000-05:00

Here's my address!

Emily Weaver
Baptist Mission
P.O. Box 10616
Palapye
BOTSWANA

Here are some tips for mailing stuff to me:
You need to send it priority mail. (make sure that this is the mail that goes on the plane—air mail, not the boat—freight mail.)
If you are mailing a box, it is best to double box and to write “used personal items” on the customs form. (They say it’s best not to list everything in the box, but write whatever you feel comfortable writing)
If you are mailing new things, make sure you take them out of their original boxes or take original tags off of them (i.e. if mailing like a new CD/DVD take it out of the original case and put it in a slender generic jewel case…especially open new electronic items because in their packages I’m told they will cost me $25 to pick up)
Things mailed in large envelopes get here faster than boxes
Tape up every side of the envelope so it cannot be slit open easily by people looking for money.

Thanks and I look forward to receiving mail soon!

Pictures of Palapye

2006-01-22T20:10:00.000-05:00

View of Palapye

Emily's House

For more pictures of Palapye, please visit Kelly's blog: http://believernbotswana.blogspot.com/

First Days in Botswana

2006-01-17T16:14:00.000-05:00

Because of limited access to the Internet and a very full schedule in these first few days in Botswana, Emily has not been able to update her blog. We are Emily's family, and we have spoken with Emily two times. She has asked us to pass along some news to you. If we get something confused here, Emily can get it straight when she's able to communicate personally through this site!

Emily arrived safely in Botswana on January 4, very tired after a 35-hour journey. All of her nearly 200 pounds of luggage also arrived with her! The first few days were spent in the area of the capital city of Gaborone. Emily, along with her fellow Journeyman Kelly, traveled to the city of Francistown on January 7 for a week of "crash" lessons in Setswana, the national language, and training for their assignment. On January 14, Emily made her way to the town of Palapye, which will be her location of ministry in Botswana.

Emily is teamed in Palapye with Kelly and another Journeyman, Crystal, as they work in the schools and a local Baptist church in the area. Crystal came to Botswana last fall, and she has been serving in Gaborone. Emily met Crystal last spring when they were in the same orientation group at the Missionary Learning Center. Over this past weekend, Emily moved into the small block house that will be her residence. Her house is one of three new houses in a compound enclosed by a brick wall. Two guard dogs also call the property their home. Until the security system is installed and activated, a security guard is present, too. Emily is the occupant of the house with the kitchen. Kelly and Crystal share the house--which is just a few feet away from Emily's--that has the living room. The third house is currently vacant. Emily has for the most part been eating American-style food, but she did have a meal with pani worms, which involves some caterpillar-looking things cooked in tomatoes and onions. On Monday night Emily made spaghetti sauce from scratch. She tells us we would be impressed with the cooking skills she is demonstrating.

This week Emily has begun her teaching assignment in public schools in the area of Palapye. She is teaching a course called "Guidance." The core of the course is the "True Love Waits" curriculum. She is teaching students in Form 1 and Form 3. These are students comparable to our 7th-8th graders and around 10th graders. Form 3 is the last level of the students' formal education unless they pass an exam and continue on to Form 4 and Form 5. Then there are additional exams, and about 2% of the students are accepted into the university. Emily has 9 classes during the week, which run 40 minutes each. Each class has 40-45 students. She will also be counseling one afternoon a week and will help out with some of the clubs at the school. The schools are on a six-day rotation, so her schedule will change from week to week. She will have off day 6 of each rotation. Emily is teaching her classes in English, which is the official language of Botswana. She says that she has to try to imitate the students' Batswana accents in order for them to be able to understand her English! (We have learned the country is Botswana, but Batswana is the collective term for Botswanan citizens.)

On Sunday, January 15, Emily attended the church with which she and Kelly and Crystal will be working. The church is led by Brazilian Baptist missionaries. The church met in a tent with about 30 people present. The service was in Setswana and English.

The possibilities for communication are certainly more limited for Emily in Botswana. There is no landline capability at their residence. Emily has purchased a cellphone, but it costs $1.00 per minute to make even a local call. Without Internet access at their compound, she will need to use an Internet cafe in Palapye. She understands there are a couple of them in town.

We have told you probably more than we know and most all of what we remember. We hope before too long Emily will be able to update us all firsthand by her blog, including some pictures. Emily continues to be grateful for all of your prayerful support!

Last Day in the States!

2006-01-02T15:09:00.002-05:00

This evening (9:40 p.m., Monday, Jan. 2) I leave for Botswana (by way of Germany and South Africa)! I will arrive in Gaborone on Wednesday afternoon sometime (Wednesday morning U.S. time). Please be in prayer for Kelly and me as we travel and also as we arrive in Botswana and begin to get adjusted to our new home. Thank you for all your support thus far and I look forward to being able to update you for the first time from Botswana!

New York!

2005-12-22T01:25:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures from my recent trip to New York city with my dear friends Andy, Karen, and Rob.

We went to the Empire State building!

The Blue Man group was unlike any show I've ever seen...absolutely amazing!

The Christmas tree at Rockefellar Center.

Watching the Today Show!

Being anchorwomen at NBC studios.

Attending the Late Show!

Missionary Graduation!

2005-12-21T17:37:00.000-05:00

"Missionary school" is over. Thanks to all those who came to the commissioning service on Thursday, Dec. 15. I counted and there were 21 guests just for me! I think that may have beat every other trainee. The time at training passed so quickly, and now in a few short weeks I'll be reunited with my teammate Kelly and we'll be leaving the country! Continue to be in prayer for me as I begin to say goodbyes to family and friends. Also begin to pray for this transition time to the field.

Some prayer requests!

2005-12-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

Pray for:

- Tim Cearley, Diane Shreder, and Mme Motsamai as they are in Palapye looking for housing for Kelly and I.

- The Batswana Baptists as they think about also moving another Journeyman, Crystal, to work in Palapye with us.

- Our language learning. We are going to spend our first few weeks in Gaborone, Botswana studying Setswana which will be more necessary to live in Palapye. Also, we will need to be brushing up on Spanish, as the Brazilian missionaries speak Portuguese and Spanish! (Some people speak English, but not everybody...so communication is a definite prayer request...)

- Ask God for clear understanding with all people involved in our move: local pastors who live 30 mins to an hour away. The older Brazilian leader, Otilia, as she coordinates the church work. Fabiano and Patricia, as they work in discipleship with the youth (leaving in March for Seminary training.) Elcear and his family as they come from Colombia/Brazil to live in Palapye in January and pastor the church.

Regional Week and more...

2005-12-08T14:39:00.000-05:00

This past week was our regional week--the week where just the CESA (Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa) people get to hang out and be cool together while learning more about our region. One way we did this was to help cook an African meal with our Richmond Associates, Bob and Linda Allen. These are some pictures of us making food from scratch.

In this picture I am burning Spencer with grease...that is why he is making this weird face. Spencer is going to Uganda to do student ministry.

The meal turned out to be really delicious. We had several foods of which I don't remember the names and we got to eat with our hands (even messy things like rice, beans, and meat!) If African food is anything like Linda's cooking, I'm going to enjoy African food a lot. However, I'm thinking Kelly and I are going to need to hire someone to make us food, as neither of us can cook.

In other news, my computer has been messing up some and I talked to Dell and they came out and did this! I had never seen a laptop completely torn apart. They put in a new motherboard and the speakers still won't work right! (They are coming again to put in new speakers soon...hopefully that will work!)

Palapye!

2005-11-30T19:25:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much for all your prayers! I received official word today that Kelly and I are going to be placed in a "village" called Palapye, Botswana located about 3 hours north of the capital Gaborone. Village is in quotes because it is really like a small town in America--about 22,000 people. Botswana's only power plant is located just 5km outside of the village and there is also a coal mine nearby. Most of the people that live in the village work at the coal mine or the power plant. There is a new church plant there that was started by Brazilian missionaries and we will be working with them in addition to doing True Love Waits in the schools. That's all I know for now. There's not much on the internet about the village, but I did stumble across this picture that may give you a better idea of what the village looks like. Missionary Tim Cearley will be visiting Palapye in the next few weeks to find Kelly and I housing and to give us a better picture of what the village is like and the ministry already taking place there. You can begin praying for this trip and continue praying for Kelly and I as we anxiously await any bit of info! Thanks!

A Lot to Be Thankful for...

2005-11-29T18:42:00.000-05:00

Continue to pray as Kelly and I wait anxiously to hear about where we will be placed in Botswana!!!

Happy Thanksgiving a little late! On Thursday I was lucky enough to be able to get off the MLC campus for the day and spend Thanksgiving afternoon with the fam. The ridiculous amount of homecooked food was a wonderful change from cafeteria food. Fellow Journeymen "C", "E", and Kelly joined the Weaver/Skinner clan for the festivities. The other girls were very amused at how our dog Patches posed for every picture!

After our whirlwind trip to Springfield, we returned home only to return to DC the next for our "DC Trip". In DC we had several tasks like riding the metro, eating food from our area of the world, praywalking, etc. We were grouped witin our region, so Kelly and I paired up with the Carl and Kay Garvin, a Career couple going to do student ministry in Tanzania. We spent the majority of our morning traveling and walking around the Adams-Morgan area of DC (an international hub) looking for an open African restaurant. However, we ended up eating a tiny restaurant off of 7th street called Sumah's. We all ate chicken with varying sauces: jute leaf, peanut butter, cassava leaves, jolif rice. The food was really good and we had an opportunity to talk with several customers, workers, and the owner about our upcoming moves to Africa. Plus the owner told me if I bring him back a diamond or a lion cub from Botswana I can get free food from Sumah's for the rest of my life! Even though I go to DC regularly, this trip was a really neat time to focus specifically on my people group the Tswana and praying for them.

This is just another picture of Kelly and I in DC.

Saturday we had our infamous chicken killing class. Fellow missionary to Africa, Drew Blessing, taught us two ways to kill chickens and skin them. Hopefully, I won't have to do this in Botswana...but I figured it might be a good thing to know! Don't worry, I refrained from putting any of the really gory pictures up, so don't be afraid to scroll down...

This is Harrison Blessing--the cutest kid at the MLC. He enjoyed watching his daddy kill chickens!

This is my other apartment-mate Kristen and Kelly and I wearing our matching "Modest is Hottest" t-shirts! We saw a girl wearing a shirt with this slogan and just had to have some made for ourselves. Kristen is going to be an overseas correspondent writing for the IMB, so maybe you'll come across some of her articles in the Commission magazine over the next few years!

Look forward to a new post soon about an African feast and computer mania!!!

Shout out to the FBCS Youth Group!

2005-11-22T16:38:00.000-05:00

Special shout out to the youth group at First Baptist Church who made this picture possible by supplying me with all kinds of crazy gifts from the Dollar Store! You guys rock! Thanks for all the prayers and encouraging notes!

Missionaries, Anthropologists, and Skunks

2005-11-22T16:26:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry! I have been really busy and have gotten behind in my postings! So I apologize that this is a random sampling of some things that have happen in the last two weeks or so...some serious stuff first and then a few funny stories and then some prayer requests...

A few weeks ago we had a special "mapping ceremony" where we got to place our pictures on this giant map of the world in the Global Center. It was a really special time to look at the world and see all the places to which we are being sent out and marvel in anticipation of the awesome things that God is going to do through the 200ish people going through FPO (Field Personnel Orientation) right now. This is a picture of Kelly and me in Botswana.

This past week has been devoted to the idea of "who they are." We have been studying about anthropology and worldview. Being an anthropology major in college, I was really excited to again be taking classes on culture, but these classes forced me to look at culture in a different way. For example, I took a class on tribal religions and we were given scenarios to read and decide what we should do. My scenario was about a young national pastor who was getting married and before you were to perform the ceremony a bull was sacrificed to the ancestors. We were to talk about what would be an appropriate Christian way to respond to these rituals. I had to think a long time about what I would do because the anthropologist in me would be all about some participant observation: to have a notebook out and be writing a detailed description of the ritual to later analyze, along with my other fieldnotes and transcriptions from interviews with other participants. I always thought I had a good handle on integrating my faith and my studies, but I am learning that there are many issues dealing with ministering to another culture that I hadn't thought about.

Now something completely unrelated. Have you ever seen a "gourmet Arby's"? It's like normal Arby's but also has a salad bar, a burrito bar, all kinds of roasted chicken dishes, and vegetables. Plus you sit at a table and they bring your food to you! We have been to the Arby's a few times and this is me eating a fajita there. (Check out my nose piercing. I don't really think you can see it, but it's awesome!)

Being a Journeyman at the MLC is way fun because there is always something to do...it's almost like being in college again, but out in the middle of a cow pasture. We have taken to playing charades. You try acting out Jumanji, The Origin of Species, or The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (my favorite guess for this one was "the relationship between him and her pants"?!) This is me taking my turn acting something out. Anyways, we had finished up playing last weekend and I was leaving to go back to my quad around 12:30. I wasn't paying attention and all of a sudden I come upon a real live skunk sitting right in the middle of the path!! He lifts his tail up and I scream, thinking "surely I am going to be sprayed!" That stinkin' skunk chased me all the way down that path. I looked ridiculous running from this striped critter. Finally he turned around and let me go on home but my heart was beating so fast and I couldn't stop laughing to myself. I wish someone had been with me.

Here are some specific ways that you can pray for me right now:

-Pray that God would continue to prepare a place for Kelly and I to serve in Botswana and that God would continue to give us patience as we wait to hear where we are going

-Pray for safe travels and happy holidays as Kelly, "C", and I go to Northern Virginia for Thanksgiving with my family

-Continue to pray that I would be able to absorb as much information as possible from our classes at MLC

-Pray for energy for me. Last week we had shots and I got sick from the yellow fever immunization. Since then I haven't had that much energy and last night I had a fever again.

Thanks to all you who have have written! It means a lot to me! Keep the mail coming!

And Here's Some Substance

2005-11-09T19:01:00.000-05:00

First, I'd like to start off with a disclaimer: Kelly did not actually kill the snake in the last post. (Mom, it was a joke. There's this scene in The Gods Must Be Crazy where's there is a snake killing and Kelly's brother told her that she had to learn how to do that...) Sorry for the misunderstanding. I promise I will no longer confuse people with my unusual sense of humor...(ok, now that is a lie...) But moving on...

Yesterday morning I was drinking my daily chocolate milk for breakfast. I opened up the carton and took a sizeable gulp and immediately began to choke! THE MILK WAS SOUR!! I managed to run to the trashcan and spit it out (setting a good example for the kids around the table). I looked at the sell by date and the milk was supposed to be good until Nov. 19! (I felt like that scene out of Napoleon Dynamite where Napoleon tastes all the milk at the FFA competition and he's like "this one taste like the cow got into an onion patch") This morning I was opening up my chocolate milk to give it another go and this guy at my table was like "You better smell that, yesterday some girl threw up from the sour milk!" and I was like "That was me!" Then he said that he also heard the girl who had the bad milk was "extremely poised" throughout the whole situation...so at least that was nice.

Also yesterday was our first immunization clinic! I got shots for Rabies, Polio, and Hepatitus A. Here, Kelly and I are posing with our awesome bandaids from our awesome shots that are going to keep us safe from disease in Botswana. Each day I am more and more amazed at the generosity of the IMB. They spend about $1200 per person on our innoculations. Most sending agencies require their personnel to pay out of pocket for their shots, but because of the money people like you give to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas offering the IMB can afford to pay for our shots. So thank you for your giving! I am an example of how your money is being used! (Scary to think, huh?)

But seriously these past few days truly have been amazing. It seems like everyday God is constantly affirming His call on my life to serve overseas. I remember being a little GA and thinking that missionaries were so cool, and now I'm employed by the IMB and write on the occupation line of forms: missionary. It still seems so strange. I am so excited to get on the field, but at other times I seem so not ready as daily God reveals my own inadequacies apart from Him.

The strategy of orientation is first to focus on who we should be, then who "they" are (focusing on our people groups), and then seeing how to bridge the gap between us and them. Right now we are in the middle of examining our own lives...God is teaching me a lot about resting in Him more and finding out the greatness of His loving heart. Jean Pigott summed up my exact musings circa 1876 in his hymn "Jesus, I am resting, resting."

Literally though I have been "resting, resting" during a lot of the sessions (which may seem funny, but is really not at all.) I appreciate the prayers of those of you that have already talked to me about this unfortunate problem, and the rest of you that have been asking for specific ways you can pray for me this is one: Pray that I stay awake so I can glean all the information I can from training and that I would be more focused on God. (Mom, why did we never get me checked out for a sleeping disorder?) Also, you can pray for the Tswana people group in Southern Botswana. Kelly and I still don't know where we are going to be placed specifically, but we know that it will be with this people group.

Finally, I'd like to assure many of you who have commented to me that I only talk about Kelly that I do have other friends here. We are all assigned different security levels and so some people can't have their picture taken based on their security level. Therefore, you get to see a lot of security 1 Kelly and me. So we devised this way to show you our other friend who is awesome, "C."

Let me know how this post goes for you. It is an answer to many people's concern that I should add some actual substance to my postings rather than just talk about what we've done and tell crazy stories.

This week in training...

2005-11-05T18:52:00.000-05:00

Here's some pictures of my new home for the next few weeks! Yeah MLC!

Isn't this sunset beautiful? Kelly took this the other day. MLC is gorgeous right now with all the leaves changing. Today we had ESL certification training and it was so nice outside the instructor let us out early to enjoy fall!

So the first week of training is over! We've scavenger hunted, made learning goals and personally assessed ourselves, prepared personalization reports, researched our countries, opened missionary bank accounts, met with our regional reps, had fitness testing, went on a personal retreat, attended sessions on grief, excercised every morning at 6 a.m., and completed other missionary-type activities. We've enjoyed late nights of talking, early mornings of walking, excursions off campus, and general all around silliness. Next week I think we are starting a hip-hop dance club. (Maybe a little Diverse City tribute...)

I also found out this week that I'm going to have to learn how to drive stick shift...on the left! And we're going to learn how to kill chickens! Training is quite an adventure! Like today, when we went on a walk and Kelly picked up this snake (by her foot) and killed it with her bare hands similar to in "The Gods Must Be Crazy" (filmed in Botswana...so if you want to watch a hilarious movie about my soon to be new home, check that out!)

Training has officially begun!

2005-11-01T20:33:00.000-05:00

Today was a day of firsts. It is the 1st of Novemeber and the first official (half)day of training. This afternoon we had our first sessions and got bombarded with all kinds of confusing information about banking and we met with our small groups for the first time. It has been cool to get to talk with people that are going all over the world and meet not only other Journeymen but also Masters (the 2 year program for retired folks) and other career missionaries all training at the same time.

This is one of my dear apartment-mates Kelly Woody. (Yes I do have a room of my own!) She is also going to Botswana to serve on the HIV teams. We are still uncertain where they are going to place us, but we heard from the field that they're talking more about putting us in the village. We will just have to trust and wait to find out more.

I would like to say that today was my first piece or mail...but alas, I fear that will be my new "missionary shoes" I had to order. (A pair of Chacos...all the cool missionaries are doing it...)

But in the meantime we also had another crazy first...the first time to check out the "squatty potty"!

So we're still working up to actually using it...but sometime during training...

Always a Procrastinator

2005-10-28T13:04:00.000-04:00

On Sunday I leave for training at the MLC! Despite how much I procrastinate about doing paperwork, sending out prayer cards, writing proposals, etc. and despite how much I like sleeping in on a daily basis, I am looking forward to training and being a "student" again. You all can write to me during training--I really like to get letters and packages!

The address is:
Emily Weaver
Missionary Learning Center
16492 MLC Lane
Rockville, VA 23146