The Turner Adventures

Monday, February 17, 2025

Valentine’s Day

Here’s a glimpse into Ellie’s Valentine Drama…I promise she still came home in good spirits 🥰

Last week Wednesday. Ellie asked a boy to be her valentine and he said yes and she was so excited (yes I confirmed she was the one who asked him 🙈). I picked her up Thursday from school and she said ‘I broke up with my valentine but it’s ok another person asked me to be their valentine.’

I asked her why she broke up with her valentine and she said, he actually broke up with her and asked someone else 😢

She said another little boy came up to her and asked her to be his valentine right afterwards and she said ‘I couldn’t say no, it would’ve broken his heart.’ She said after she said yes and was walking away he was jumping up and down excited. So sweet.

Next day (Valentines day), she made a Valentine for everyone in her class and also for this little boy who asked her to be her Valentine. She eagerly awaited his arrival to give him his heart with a lollipop as he is in a different class and she said she gave it to him and he gave it back to her. So sad, hard lessons to learn as a 2nd grader…

Waiting to give her Valentine to her Valentine

Making Valentines for everyone in her class

Fusion-high school program

We love the high schoolers who come out each month to hang out, learn more about God, and dive deeper in their small groups. At the beginning of the year we challenged the kids to come up with ONE word that they wanted to define their 2025, but also challenged them to look at their life and see if possibly there was ONE thing holding them back from their relationship with the Lord like the Rick Young Ruler from Luke 18:18-27. Continue to pray with us for these teens forsake all the world has to offer and to fully follow Jesus.

Words of the year

Small group time

Writing their words of the year

Worship time

Thrive-Pediatric Oncology Ward

Our Journeygirl Kenna and I get the privilege of volunteering for a program called Thrive and each week we do music and play therapy with the kids in the pediatric oncology ward.

Thrive is an independent project, started in 2018, that brings play opportunities to children in the oncology and hematology ward at Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital (SKMTH).

We partner with Sensobaby whose goal is to nurture positive relationships through play and holistic development and Global HOPE (Hematology Oncology Pediatric Excellence) which is focused on building long-term capacity to treat and dramatically improve the prognosis for children with cancer and blood disorders in sub-Sahara Africa.

The children we work with are an inspiration. They show bravery, determination and resilience every day. Through volunteering with the Thrive program, we can bring moments of fun, playfulness and relief to their day.

Some of the volunteers

We hosted a training and building up our volunteer base

Gaborone Baptist Church Kids Ministries

School Systems in Botswana are year round. because of that, kids finish their school year in the beginning of December and only start back mid-January. Most kids are sent to their home villages for the long holiday while their parents are still working in the city and then they all join up in the village for Christmas.

Our children’s programs are put on hold over this long break, but we were excited to welcome the kids back to Sunday school and Friday children’s ministry.

Sunday school

Children’s Friday Ministry

Seminary-Dr. Chuck Lawless

We were so thankful to have Dr. Chuck Lawless from Southeastern Seminary/IMB visit the Baptist Convention Seminary here in Gaborone, Botswana to teach a week long Master’s Level Class on Evangelism. We only had a few students that had to attend the class for their Masters credit but the class was full of people who wanted to come and learn.

Hiking Kgale Hill with some students

Church Planting-Dutlwe

Brent partners with Pastor Thokwane and goes to the village of Dutlwe (Doo-way) on Wednesdays and continues with church planting efforts. The group meets under a tree and studies the Bible together. The other day when they went out, there were 30 people waiting under the tree for them. Please continue to pray for the people in Dutlwe to continue to grow in their faith and those who don’t know Jesus to come to a saving knowledge of Him.

Passion-South Africa

What a blessing it was to get to attend Passion in Pretoria, South Africa. We went with our friends and just had the best time worshipping and listening to Louie Giglio, Tim Tebow and his wife Demi Lee Tebow (she is from South Africa and was Miss South Africa and Miss Universe).

The girls had a blast!!

We went with our friends David and Dalilah and their daughter Jesse who is Ellie’s best friend

We were blessed to get to hear Louie Giglio

Ellie made it for about half of the concert

Before the concert

Our Journeygirl Kenna got to sing in the choir with Passion. You will see her on the big screen at :21 seconds 😊

Enjoying a little Krispy Kreme while in South Africa

1st Day of School 2025

I am not sure how we got to the point where we have a 12th grader, 9th grader, and a 2nd grader in the house but here we are 😊 Ellie and Bradyn’s schools are both year round and starts January and ends in December. We are thankful for both of their amazing schools and friendships they have made there.

Ellie’s first day of school

Walking into school and meeting her new teacher

2nd grade classroom

Bradyn’s first day of school was 2 days later than Ellie’s so we had to take the pics again 😊

And then we realized we left Bo out so had to do them again. Bo always photo bombs school pics

Ellie’s self-Portrait

Ellie drawing our family ❤️

Pula 🌧️

Pula, pula, pula 🌧️ We have been in a severe drought over the past couple of years, so when the rains came this past December, everyone was so happy!! Rain is such a blessing that the Setswana name for ‘rain’ is ‘pula’ which is also the name of our currency. Our rainy season is normally October/November to February and I am so happy to say that as we find ourselves in mid February, we are still getting rain. What a blessing!!!