Botswana Bound

University of Botswana bound

The story behind this cow statue found just outside the newly built library is quite interesting - we learnt that for the building of the institution in 1982, community members, the Batswana, contributed a number of items such as cattle, agricultural products such as grains from farmers as well as cash to reach the R1 million which was required to build the university, making in the oldest higher education institution in  the country of Botswana. 

Here is Trushka playing around with some of the boys from the Naledi Community, a few km's away from the University. Locally known as Old Naledia, this is one of the largest and oldest township found in the country of Botswana - similiar to Soweto for South Africa. The population of this community is mainly constituted of poor residents living on the breadline - these are some of the kids of the community which come to the feeding station after school to their lunch time meal.

Kids enjoying a well prepared meal

One of the creative ways in which the Gospel is shared called the Solarium which is just a collection of random pictures which allows us to engage students in conversation about their lives, where they are going, what they think of God, etc etc. I love this as it allows us to engage  students on a very personal level and furthermore they are more yielding to opening up and speaking on a personal level.

We visited the small and humble Old Naledi Baptist Fellowship 

M.O.G (Men of God lol)

This team has to be on of the best and fantastic guys to fellowship with - there certainly has been a lot of learning and impartation. With high spirited conversation, there is never a dull moment with silence. This team has learnt alot in the couple of 10 days that we have spent together and we would do it again opportunity given!

Pula looks really different to rands - it got some used to before we understood what a Pula is and how to use it.

We were hosted by the Open Baptist Church and this is our rocking mini-van ... apparently I cannot call it a taxi because its not a 16 seater lol none the less, it has air con and for a country like Botswana that is all you need to survive the blazing heat. 

This is the seminary we spent our nights at. With waking up at 6am to start the day which would normally end at 1am, we went through the book of Ephesians.

UniBots main campus looks amazing

The motto of the university is Thuto ke Thebe which is Setswana for Education is a Shield and the Batswana students stand tall in that.

Alyssa learning some Setswana words from the kids from the community

Radio station interview at TrailFm

The girls just finish sharing with some of the students

Anele sharing with a student in the cafferia

Weekend off work we went to see 4 lions and play in water...yay

I saw up to 3 kids who were looking after their siblings - I asked about this and this is the general site - some of the kids are left to look after their younger siblings while the parents are not around and this is normally the entire day

Taffy Chifanuma

I call him 'Fanza'

Playing a Zulu game but kids are oblivious to the language and had to explain the game in my broken Setswana over 5 times but we had fun regardless

Sorry but this kids had to be a victim of our illustration when Enhle and Johan were teaching on 'Heaven'

Enhle teaching the kids with a translate who is the senior project co-ordinator at the feeding station.

The call to Botswana, turning Uni. Botswana and the community of Naledi our mission field at first seemed like a distant plan but when it became reality there was no way, and we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way  but to devote our time to praying and  sharing with the students and community members there. Dumela rra...dumela mma (good day sir...good day ma) is the first thing we were taught as we were going cross culture, the last thing we would have wanted to do is come forth as ‘typical South Africans oblivious to other people’. First day on campus was like learning how to ride a bicycle – as the wheels go forth, there is a need to gear up steadily however start on the first gear – get to know and have a picture of what, for the Batswana, God and religion looks like – and indeed within that day after speaking to just about 5 students, it was easily comprehendible and this is not standing from a judgemental angle... salvation was not understood, imputed righteousness was not understood, personal relationship with God and fellowship with the Holy Spirit – what is that???... Christ died...but why??? It became evident that the basic truths that God is love, man is sinful, we cannot reach God by our works, we are short of the glory of God, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for us to re-instate us in position where we are made right by faith, and we are His people – all that was not discipled into these students and students that we had spoken to mostly did not understand this.

The darkness on that campus was met with the light of God with the end of the trip, the team of 11 students had shared their faith with 146 students and community members, of which 52 committed their lives to Christ (we trust the Lord to continue working in their hearts) and with a physical healing manifesting in live view.

We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 1: 3

Last night I was reading the ‘Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seed’ in Matthew 13. From this trip, one would start praying for the fourth seed which fell in fertile soil and produced a crop hundred times more than that which has been sown but let us not forget the first 3 seeds – what I love is the truth of this passage that ye, though all will hear the same message, the same Gospel, the same Truth – not all will receive it the same – thus it became apparent to my team on how little time we had had but that is the importance of it all – by God’s calling, we are his servants and were we sent we go – the rest we leave to him, the rest we trust that He will rise up a community of labourers, to go forth and carry out the harvest. There were plenty of opportunities granted for us to interact and share our faith with the students of UB on so many different levels – we even received a radio interview on the national campus radio station, TrailFM – having been broadcast all over the University, the country and even Malaysia! How awesome is that!

By the end of our project, we had gained more understanding and wisdom of the Gospel for ourselves, unified in Christ more coming out then going in, witness the supremacy of our Majesty, made more friends than we can count, and grew in our walk! There  is a great sense of praise that has collected in our hearts and will be continually released

Guest Blogger - Mpumelelo Kunene

This is a blog entry just in from my MOTT, Mpumelelo 'Lelo' Kunene. He is a final year student just as I am but majored in Computer Studies. He has been over the past few years appropriately dubbed 'Radical Evangelist'. He plays the guitar, pretty awesome at it, loves ingaging in intellectual conversation and as he puts it "...with the aim of saving some." Here goes - this is the MOT from Lelo's lens:

For His Suffering - My First Missionary Journey (Botswana)

"That The Lamb of God might receive the full reward for His Suffering!" 

 The story is told of two Moravian young men who when they heard that a slave owner on a distant island had banned all missionaries from coming to his island that has three thousand slaves sold themselves to him so they can become undercover missionaries to these slaves. Not just a normal selling, they had sold themselves for life. When the ship came to take them, and as it pulled off the dock with them on board, looking at their families weeping, knowing that they'll never see them again and questioning the wisdom of it, they cried out:

" That the Lamb Of God might receive the full reward for His suffering!!"

 Those were the last words that were ever heard of from those men. This became the Moravian call for missions. God's Glory at the center. As I journey into Botswana for my first ever (well, technically not, we went to Maritzburg Campus a couple o' months ago to plant CRU) missionary escapade, I feel this burning in my heart. We will be going for ten days, first scheduled to preach at the University over there for about 5 days then the community for the remainder. The Lord has been faithful in providing for me and my teammates, we've all gotten the monies needed through Him speaking to His children for us. Honestly I must say, Kevin and Chad approached me with the Gospel in 2009 April, I never thought this is what I'll become.O, how He can change a life! To Him be the Glory for ever and ever!! We leave tonight, 10PM, from Durban to PTA, then from PTA to Botswana at 2PM on Monday (tomorrow). We come back on December fifth. Pray for us brethren, that the Lord uses these feeble bones and mouths of ours to proclaim the truth of His salvation, His mercy, to wrath deserving sinners. That He might save them, that Christ might gain for Himself a Bride that is beautiful and unstained, to the Glory of Him who is everlasting in mercy. Amen. However I have not been honest thus far in this post. You see, friend, I have a fear. A deep fear. I know that He can do whatever He wants on this trip, but it is afterward that I fear what He'll do. I fear that my time to leave my plans, school and work and ambition, might have finally come. I wonder if I am ready to be used of God in a more explicit way. This whole semester I've been feeling like a lamb being prepared for slaughter, with all this doctrinal study and the call to pray, its like I've been going through training. The essence of my fear is also a foundation for excitement: What will He do? What if He says I must stay in Botswana? What if He tells me, more vividly than ever before, to take up my cross, forget my life, and follow Him? He is a mysterious God, and in Proverbs two days ago I leaned that it is His glory to conceal a matter (Prov 25:2). Will I obey? I have no choice, I have been bought. He, only He, has the words of eternal life.

P.S. Botswana Bound RadEvang

Mission Outreach Trip Team (MOTT)

Meet my team. These are the warriors which are being sent to Botswana for the (MOTT) (okay I have been blogging about it for quite some time now and if you have no clue what I am talking about, you out to subscribe to get them delivered to your inbox lol)

This is the team in the forefront but there are much much much much more other guys who are driving this boat - people who have really stayed up and planned everything to the tee, our support structure the 2011|Interns (Erica, Kate, Lauren, Anele - sadly enough they won't be going us because the three ladies are setting back to their homeland (States) after a year of service and internship with CRU|UKZN and Anele is gearing and in preparation for staff next year - awesome champion right there!). Driving this team mostly with their prayers is the leadership team from the different campuses - they have been awesome with that. Office work has been done mostly but a part-time staff member of CRU - she has been taking care of our finances and has been doing a great job at it...love it! These 12 people have a trail of supporters who have been praying and giving towards the outreach project, just to humbly acknowledge them.

With exactly 7 days before our departure, we are in awe with the provisions that have been coming in mostly me I have to say - I'm pretty sure all these guys have stories to share on how from trusting the Lord for support to having to crunch their exams so they do not get supplementaries, they have just been given the strength to surface through it all!

{click on the image to enlarge it}

Lets review these two weeks

The past two weeks have been quite a joy ride and opportunity granted, would do them over again and again and again and again ...well you get the picture. Apart from tests which have been back to back as the varsity calendar comes to an end in preparation for the exams, let me bring you up to speed on how my past weeks have been:

• Our weekly meetings on campus with CRU and our students have been nothing but greatly awesome, a platform where we have learnt, been encouraged, rebuked, revived, affirmed, disciple with nothing short of spiritual growth – we just finished off a semester long series on 2 Timothy aptly titled: ‘Last Words’ which are basically the last words of Paul to his assistant Timothy.

• With that insight, getting our 2^nd Annual End of The Year Social (sending-off party for all the interns) organised. Ah man, this has been the most gruelling event I helped in organising – there was so much hardship endured by the organising team on this project (I could just base my whole blog entry on this) ...but I won’t – the Lords provision were all sufficient. The social was a great success and big ups to the Social’s team and everyone who is not part of the organising team that help in bringing it together. The food was awesome, the programme was fantastic, I totally enjoyed myself. Though some students couldn’t make it due to other commitments, those who did come made the social what it was. In anticipation for the coming year, there is so much I feel there is to be revealed to students, to interns, and to staff and those who are to join us. On the side, the new teams on most of our campuses are in place and they are what we call ‘Jesus Freaks!’
• Attended the 24^th Annual SASM (South African Society for Microbiology) Conference with my friend Tom– this being a day before the social event! This revived both our love for research in microbiology specifically looking into using this field in impact communities in a more sustainable fashion. There was a lot learnt on our parts with the presentations strikingly intriguing – obviously UKZN Microbiology rocked the presentations taking 1^st, 2^nd, ad 3^rd position amongst competitors including DUT and MUT. We down like that. The slogan stands –

Love-peace-MICROBIOLOGY

• Straight after that was an all-night pulled with Alyssa in getting the social video done. Man, was that a long one but the finished product was top notch. The video is attached at the end of the blog entry. That same morning FYI had to go grocery shopping with Johan for the social (like I said, I could base the whole entry on the social).

Still in preparation for the Mission Outreach Trip to Botswana, Gaborone at the end of our exams – just a heads up, some students and I including some of the interns from CRU will be heading up to Botswana from the 21^st Nov for a 10-day outreach in that community. Last month was reading a small devotion from ‘The Utmost for His Highest’ by Chambers and what caught my sight was the explanation of what the purpose of missions are and basically for me, what service to the Lord is all about:

“Personal attachment and point of view is one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary enterprise the great danger is that God’s call is effaced (removed) by the needs of the people until human sympathy absolutely overwhelms the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, the conditions so perplexing, that every power of mind falters and fails. We forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary enterprise is not first the elevation of the people, nor the education of the people, nor their needs; but first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ – “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.”

This couldn’t have come at a better time where I am learning off the character of a servant, how to serve, what the Lord desire is from me with what He has honoured as well as blessed me with both for my personal ministry (which I’m still coming to understand), my fellowship with Him and others. These coming few weeks are going to be challenging as most prayer will be directed to the following year.

B's desk

Random Zach

Last night as I was finishing of my school assignment I went over to browse on the net in his sequence: twitter (nothing caught my attention)-> facebook (still number caught me) -> email (a friend of mine, Tom, forgot to submit his report on Friday and needed help ... cool) -> campus crusade south Africa (still nothing) -> campus crusade south Africa Bostwana -> Christ Ambassador!

 This is a random blog of some random guy from some random place by the name of Zach, who this winter had trusted God leading him to sacrifice 5 weeks of his university holidays’ to sharing the amazing News of Jesus Christ. As I read through his blog, I was fascinated about how he had trusted in the provisions of God to send him to thousands of km’s away from home as a witness to the Gospel. Faithful servant – reading his blog it felt more like a well written novel of a life changing experience – not for him only but for every person he had met in his 5 week long project trip! As he says: ‘So many stories. So little time’  - these are stories worth sharing with everyone to glorify God, they are stories to share, a testimony in fact, of what we Christians have been called to do as a show of our servant hood. The realization of how this has been so amazingly knitting in well with the series we currently doing at CRU ‘Last Words’ which is a bible study on 2 Timothy – looking at the last words of Paul to Timothy as Alyssa and Lelo would put it and indeed it is – just put me in awe!

I just love this blog! After all its not just some random blog of some random guy from some random place by the name of Zach. He is after all a Christ Ambassad

Goodbye South Africa . . . Hello Bostwana

Take out the red, green yellow and what you have - Botswana's flag!

It's been in the talks for quite some time and excited have it finalised. 950 km's away from Durban, 360 km's from Soweto.  Gaborone, capital city of Botswana - our landing point . . . Bostwana here we come. The end of the year not only ends in a high as I finish of my undergraduate - which has been a thrilling experience in itself. There is alot of uncertainty to what plans will begin to unfold as the year progresses to the end but I am reassured by Mat 6:34 which says don't worry about tomorrow, let it worry about itself.

Anyway, speaking about Bots, ye, its happening end of November. This summer mission project/outreach will be about 9 days long after my exams are finished at the end of the year and I will be going with about 15 other fellow varsity students and staff of Cru on this project as we will be involved in evangelistic outreaches in the community of Gaborone including working at food stations, VBS (Vacation Bible School) with children, as well as the possibility of doing campus ministry. This is an amazing opportunity to teach and be taught and will certainly deepen my relationship with Him. There is alot which has to be done prior to actually boarding the bus jetting off to Bots with the most important is raising a support  team which will be praying for this project. Furthermore I am raising R3000 which will cover boarding, travel, food, etc. I am in prayer about this and that the Lord will provide. Undoubtably He will, I just need to allow Him to guide me in finding the people which will form part of my Support Team. I want to take this opportunity furthermore to challenge you - challenge you to join my support team by investing R100, R200, R300 or whatever you feel good about supporting me with.

There is a great sense of faith in wanting to do this project mostly because next year could possibly be another year of faithfully praying for support (I kid you not!) but still seeking guidance in that.

If you decide to become a part of my financial support team please let me know as soon as possible. Please email be bmadida@gmail.com or call me on 073 833 3345