Children's Ministry

Children's ministry is what I (Amanda) LOVE doing! I was so honored to be invited to share with Lobatse Baptist Church this past Saturday about children's ministry and to give them a few tools to help them in teaching the sweet children at their church. Will you join me in praying for this church as they have a passion in reaching the children and that God would use each one of those who attended to impact the children in their community?

The crew that attended our session

Baptism in the Village

This past Sunday, November 27, we went out to the village of Ditshegwane where we have a new church plant to hold a baptism. Two other village churches also joined us (Calvary Baptist and a new potential church in Dutlwe) and we baptized several people who have accepted Jesus into their hearts. Our son Bradyn also wanted to be baptized. He was saved over a year ago and has been too afraid to do it, but asked to be baptized earlier in the week...so proud of him!!

Building the Baptism

The church

The pastors demonstrating what to do when you are baptized

Getting water for the baptism

Bradyn getting baptized

So thankful for a daddy that is such a great example to his son

The pastor of the church and his son James

The 3 churches together

Our family-we love this village so much!!

Friends

These churches are living out Matthew 28:19-20. Calvary Baptist Church pastored by Moruti Thokwane in Molepolole along with Cool Spring Baptist Church in Virginia  have partnered to reach the village of Ditshegwane (Dee-say-wah-knee). There is now a new church plant there, praise the Lord. Then the village of Ditshegwane wanted to reach one of the next villages over from them called Dutlwe (Doo-Kway). Soon there will be another church planted there. They have been planting many gospel seeds in Dutlwe and last week when Brent told them the story from Matthew 7:13-14 about the wide path/narrow path ALL 15 who attended the bible study accepted Jesus.

School Kits for Kids

We held our annual end of the year party for the children at Gaborone Baptist Church. Thanks to Baptist Global Response (BGR) we gave 160 kids school supplies. Many thanks to everyone who helped!

Sack races

Some helpers decided to have a race off

Let's dance

Singing together

Handing out school supplies

What a fun day for these kids and they are ready for the new school year starting in January!

Thanksgiving 2016

Waking up on Thanksgiving morning, I immediately was wishing we were with family. Holidays are definitely the hardest time to be overseas, BUT instead of focusing on all the things we don't have, we chose to focus on the many things that God has blessed us with.

Since the rest of our mission family left earlier this year, we decided to host Thanksgiving at our house. We invited one other American couple and three other families from around the world. We even found some turkeys and ham after much begging and pleading to the grocery stores to please get some in before Thanksgiving. As we sat around the table we gave thanks for all the many things we have been blessed with.

Giving thanks

Sweet Friends

Making pine cone turkeys

Writing 5 things we were thankful for

Turkey hats and Word Searches

Happy Thanksgiving from Clementine who really enjoyed it!!

Bradyn's birthday...finally!

Bradyn had his 6th birthday on October 12...yes my baby is 6! All he wanted to do was take his 2 friends-Abe and Micaela to the Lion Park which is a water park just outside of the city. Unfortunately October was quite busy so we finally were able to celebrate his birthday on November 19. He wanted a lego batman party and that's what he got. What a sweet little fella we have!

Our sweet 6 year old

Friends deep in conversation on the tea cups

Taylor's best friend Molly on the swings

Bradyn, Micaela and Abe

Birthday boy

Family photo with the birthday boy

Bradyn and Abe

Happy birthday, Bradyn!!

Getting ready to go down the slide

Father and son :)

underwater fun

Cool Spring Women's Team

We have had a partnership with Cool Spring Baptist Church in Virginia for the last several years. They normally send about 3 teams a year to work with us and especially to target the village of Ditshegwane (Dee-say-wah-knee). They just sent an all women's team and we just had the best time together. I will try to tell the story in pictures below but it just doesn't fully capture all of the many things the Lord did in the hearts of so many on this trip.

Bible study in Ledumang, a neighborhood right near our house.
This group meets once a week and were so happy to have visitors.

Going out and doing evangelism in Ledumang (Lay-doo-mah-ng)

Children's Friday ministry

Sunday School at Gaborone Baptist Church

We attended a Herero wedding for good friends-Hilda and Onks

All of the aunts at the wedding wearing the very distinct hats you
find in the Herero culture

The men also wear hats and walk with canes, so classy

We then traveled out to the village of Ditshegwane for 2 days and spent time with the ladies of this church. It was such a wonderful time of fellowship!

We started the day with jazzercise led by Tammy

We did crafts

Bible storying

The team brought reading glasses for the ladies, when 
one lady put on her glasses a huge smile came over her 
face and she said "I can now see to read my bible".

We taught the ladies some American recipes and they shared some
of their African recipes. It was so fun to learn from each other!

The church ladies and children meeting under the tree...this is the church
meeting spot.

This is the plot of land we will move to soon and put up a tent.
It was so awesome to pray over this land with the women from Ditshegwane
and the women at Cool Spring who have been with this church from the beginning.

We are so thankful for these ladies who came and loved on our family
and the people of Botswana! We were truly all blessed!