June 4-‘SERVE DAY’ #servelikesarah
Where: Gaborone Baptist Church
When: 9am-1pm
In honor/memory of Sarah Harmening, we will be hosting a Serve Day at Gaborone Baptist Church on June 4 from 9am-1pm.
In June 2017, Sarah was on her way to serve in Botswana on a mission trip when she lost her life in a bus accident. Sarah loved the Lord with all of her heart, so let’s take this day to #servelikesarah.
We will be doing projects in and around the church, so come prepared to serve.
I love my Fridays with the precious kids that come to childrens ministry at Gaborone Baptist Church. This past week we read in Matthew 6:25-34 about how God loves the birds and makes sure the birds have food. They don’t worry about it!! God knows what we need too and we are more important that the birds to God. We did a game where the kids had to transfer mini marshmallows with chopsticks from one bowl to another as a birds beak would pick up food.
Outside of our gate there is an area that is not maintained by anyone and remains quite unkempt. We decided to clean it up and spread the message of God’s love. So many people pass through this area on a daily basis, pray that this area would be a ‘light’ to those who needs to know that God loves them. It’s amazing what a little paint, vinyl, plants, and trimming of grass can do to an area ❤️
I recently read a post about the University of Botswana and found it so interesting how the country came together and built this University by donation of cows. We currently have an open position for ‘Campus Connector’ at this amazing university, please pray with us for this position to be filled with the right people that will help make Christ known on campus.
In 1966 when Botswana gained independence it was the 2nd poorest country in the world and had no University of its own as it did not inherit any Colonial Infrastructure. Botswana government sent its students to University of Lesotho (BOLESWA) which later was nationalised and Botswana students expelled. This started the One Man, One Beast (motho le motho kgomo) movement spearheaded by President Sir Seretse Khama in 1976 with Motto of Ipelegeng (Self Reliance). Batswana made contributions of all types (including cash, cattle, grain) towards accomplishing the set target of one million rand which is why a Cow became the symbol of the university. By 1982, the University of Botswana became a reality and remains the oldest institution of higher education in the country. Today the university of Botswana is ranked among best in Africa especially with its infrastruture which includes:
🔹 2nd Biggest Library in Africa
🔹 High Tech Teaching Hospital
🔹 Indoor Sports Arena + High Perfomance Center
🔹 Olympic Size Swimming Pool
🔹 Stadium
We love the high school kids that come to our house once a month for Fusion. In April we discussed what Easter means and had some Egg-citing activities.
While we were in South Africa we were able to visit with some sweet friends. We love visiting with our friend Helen’s mom and she is always so welcoming. We also were able to visit with our dear friends Natascha and Dayne and our precious god daughter Aviah.
So thankful for friends ❤️
Raising teenagers is not for the faint of heart. We have our moments, but I love watching our teenager grow into such a beautiful young woman. She is probably the messiest person I have ever met and this drives this OCD mama crazy, but her love for art and just being with people warms this mama’s heart.
She decided she wanted to learn balloon animals and it took her all of 5 minutes to figure it out. Her music and artistic brain amaze me and God had amazing plans in store for this teenager. Watch out world!
We hope you had a great Easter celebrating our risen Savior. Easter is always a busy but great weekend with our annual Easter Rally. This year instead of one gathering for all the Baptists throughout Botswana, they did separate gatherings all throughout the country. Although we missed all being together, it was a wonderful opportunity for more people to attend as not having to travel so far. We thank God for these opportunities!
We had such a great time at a mall that had some optical illusions we could have some fun with. Reminder that things are not always as they seem 😊
We hosted a Prayer Retreat in Port Edward, South Africa the first week in May and were with our colleagues from Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia.
We were able to recognize those who have reached milestones in their years of service and included Brent who has served 15 years with the IMB and Ellie who has served 5 years. We were also able to celebrate the 37 years of faithful service of our colleague Ramona who serves in Zimbabwe and will retire later this year.
We had theme nights including glow parties, western night, favorite holiday, and backwards night. We enjoyed doing ‘Praying through the Psalms’ and celebrating all the Lord is doing in our countries of service.
Thankful for these colleagues who have become family ❤️
