CHOOSE TO BE DIFFERENT
BE ENCOURAGED TO LIVE A DIFFERENT POSITIVE LIFE

PERFOMANCE BY: TESTIFY, MASEGO MOTSWIRI, NDIKO MUZILA, AUDIENCE OF ONE, SALVATION CREW, THE VICTORS, CROSS ROADS, HOLY RULER CLAN, ANOINTED SAINTS, OB, COMPARE, FTN RALLY TEAM (with drama and dance etc); FTN POETS: DIKATSO, OAISTE and LAME AND SO MUCH MORE.

This is the speech that was delivered by Oaitse Phikane, one of our volunteers, at the Commissioning Service.

Face The Nation is truly a “God thing” that makes me speechless. I first learnt and heard about FTN in 2006 and 2007 when I was doing my Form 4 and 5 at Moeding College. The Rally Team presented drama and dance. We were all excited to see young people like us preaching Abstinence and most importantly preaching Christ. The people who were in the Rally Team included Kefilwe and Vivien and these women I still look up to, even up to today. In 2006 I remember one guy Clive came to my class and taught us life skills and study skills. These study skills included mind mapping, which I still use even today and it really helps. In 2007, a team of four ladies came to our school. The ones I remember are Noma, Neo and Amo. They were wonderful and introduced us to a message of Abstinence. I had an opportunity of signing up a True Love Waits card and making a pledge to be sexually pure until marriage, and I still have that card (at this point Oaitse held up her pledge card) and I am going to give it to my marriage partner, to show that I have been sexually pure, waiting for him.

In Moeding College 2007, I was the church prefect and Scripture Union Chairlady, therefore I worked closely with the FTN team. They taught me leadership skills and these ladies were always available to laugh, cry, eat and pray with me. They helped me to grow personally and spiritually and it was for these reasons that I wanted to enrol in the university to become part of this life changing program called Face The Nation. In 2009 I had the opportunity to be part of FTN and ever since FTN has become my second home. A home where I have been trained as a child to fear the Lord, to love Him and most importantly to serve Him with my all. FTN has opened my spiritual eyes and has trained me to be a servant to all. Teaching and doing counselling in Matsha College in 2009 and 2010 has allowed me to give back what was planted in my life in 2006 and 2007 to these precious kids. The study skills that Clive taught me in Moeding and all the teachings from School of Discipleship, I was able to invest into the lives of these kids. I am still in touch with many kids from Matsha and I mainly do counselling on the phone. These past 3 weeks were truly phenomenal. I am so grateful to God for using all the lecturers to speak into my life.

The first week with Student Leadership University was a great experience. These men of God challenged me to get out of my comfort zone and do my best for the glory of God. Fresh Start challenged me in the area of forgiveness. I have been hurt in the past and found it difficult to forgive because some of the people who hurt me are Christians. It was during the Fresh Start week that I got my deliverance and total healing. This last week has challenged me to actually dare to be different and to go out and live the talk. I have learnt that I am unique, fearfully and wonderfully made, so people should see Christ in my life. I am going to take all the teachings I got from FTN to reach UB for Christ, because “I am in UB, but not of UB.” I am so grateful to have a family like FTN and this is thanks to OBC for such a “Big Programme.” Some of the people who have kept me focused and nurtured my faith include my Prayer Partners in 2009 Mr and Mrs Ephraim Nkomo, my spiritual mothers, Sylvia Neo Kadi, Gail, Aunty Maria and Tirelo.

Their smiles and prayers have kept me going. Moruti Mokgwathise has been a father figure in my life. Face The Nation brothers and sisters in the past years, my current Prayer Partners Dr and Mrs Boadi, are truly a blessing. Mr Lenos Ngugi and my dear friend Lame have also played a role in my Christian walk, they are true prayer warriors. My prayer truly is to see FTN growing international. I am not ashamed to say, “I am what I am, because of Face The Nation.” Thank you. Oaitse was one of the 7 volunteers voted onto the committee of the FTN Club at UB for the 2011/2012 academic year.

Please continue to pray for the volunteers over the next two months before the new academic year begins. Pray that fires burning brightly will not go out, that volunteers will stay connected and hold each other accountable. Many of them have gone back into their home towns where they have little support from families, and as we know, it is often most difficult to live out your faith with family.
Thank you once again for your ongoing prayer and support.

Yours in and on behalf of Face The Nation
Gail Wingreen

As with previous years this was a joyous time of thanksgiving and celebration. The focus of the service was “In UB but not of UB.” We were grateful to have speeches from representatives from the Ministry of Youth, Arts and Culture and the University of Botswana. The name and impact of FTN is most certainly spreading and people at all levels of society are recognising the value that its message has in Botswana. Both the ministry and the University have expressed a desire to work more closely with FTN. This was followed by a lunch and a Prayer Walk of the campus with Prayer Partners and UB Staff Mentors joining us. Feedback from that has been very positive and that much more needs to be done in this area

Our missions Pastor Jeff Sukop led the devotion on the last day. A week earlier he said, “On the last day there is not really anything new that you want to say I would like for us to wash the volunteers feet.” The leadership of the church, FTN and the interns set up 8 bowls of hot water and washed 80 feet. It was a very moving time for “washers” and recipients alike. After that the leadership of FTN anointed the hands of all the volunteers with all and set them apart to use all that God has given them to reach out to the campus, their families and communities. This really set the tone for the Commissioning Service and the rest of the day.

I mentioned in an earlier letter that we had representatives from other like minded organisations train with our volunteers. This proved to be very fruitful. Some of our young men signed up to join a 12 week discipleship course with local missionary, Andrew Freeman, who has a passion for discipleship. Other volunteers signed up to assist with sports outreach programmes during the vacation with King’s Foundation. Youth For Christ is starting a mentoring programme whereby university students are partnered with a high school student. We had a HUGE response for this sign up. I hope to be able to give you positive feedback in the months to come. We are also in discussion with The Navigators and Campus Crusade For Christ as to how we can work together more closely on campus.

Over the 3 weeks of School of Discipleship we really pushed the need for a strong FTN Club on campus and the need for them to take ownership of it. During the last week many Club activities were decided upon. These included workshops on topical issues, door to door visitation, presentations at hostel meetings, a stall during orientation week, sports and fun days, distribution of a Christian newspaper called the Challenge, cell groups and all night Prayer vigils. Sign up lists were quickly filled and new ones had to be printed. By the end of the week the 2011/2012 FTN Club Committee had been voted in by the volunteers.

The third and final week of School of Discipleship was very special and very challenging. The focus for this week was surviving, thriving and impacting the university campus for Christ. It was really a pulling together of the first 2 weeks and dealing with challenges, temptations and goal setting that a universal to all young people and specific to students that attend UB. Our local lecturers dealt with topics of HIV/AIDS and all its related current issues, evangelism, being set apart, dress code, dating, marriage, pornography, alcohol and drug abuse and setting boundaries in a practical, no nonsense way. What amazed us was the way in which God confirmed things each day from previous weeks and days and that lecturer hadn’t been present to hear what had been shared that day. It was a dove-tailing and cementing on a common vision.

This poem summarises what happened at the School of Discipleship last week.
Freedom
I took wrong turns
Had no aim
But wanted the fame
I even changed my name
But things were the same
Crying out loud
And no one heard a sound
But clearly I was attached to the ground
How could this be
How could no one see
That I wanted to be free
This killed my self esteem

My eyes never dried of tears
And this multiplied my fears
They were supposed to be my peers
Far or near
It was so clear
I was in the wrong crowd
Though I wanted the crown

Burning up with anger
I couldn’t see the sign of danger
Forgot that He was born in a manger
That He is not a stranger
Died on the cross for me to live
All I had to do was believe
That He is able to retrieve
And from the pain I’ll be relieved.

Fear of the unknown
I had to be bold
Not to do what am told
The Bible I had to quote.

Trapped within my own thoughts
The mind, the heart, in battleship
Had to reach Bethlehem
Learn to choose
What to use
And what not to lose.

In my mind some things I had to delete
So to feel complete
For the answers were beneath
Had to dig deep
For me to see
That on the cross He did bleed
Just for you and me
To be free.

By ikatso Nkile
Face The Nation Volunteer 2011

This past week all schools in Botswana were closed due to a national strike and riots. The volunteers of Face The Nation have been much in prayer for the national situation.
As we look back over the difficult challenges and changes that we have had to face at FTN, we can see the hand of God. Had we gone ahead with sending the volunteers into the schools for a much shorter period of time, this most likely would have been cancelled now. The schools are very concerned about the mid-year exams and the impact that this strike will have on academic performance. We thank God that we did not employ 7 facilitators and make plans to deploy 140 young people across the nation with all the costs and logistics that would have been involved in that.

Another spin off effect of this is a remarkable story of salvation. FTN has been working with and counselling a young girl from a Senior Secondary School for the past year. It has been a particularly complicated situation for both the young lady and for the FTN people involved. Due to the closure of the schools she was invited to attend a few days of FTN School of Discipleship to gain a different perspective. This week she stood up and said, “I have had experiences that have controlled my life. I have been overwhelmed by them. Today I am renewed. I have given my life to Christ.”

Some of our afternoon sessions have been used to focus on the needs on the university campus and how FTN can have an impact there. In a group exercise each person was asked to write down all that they had to offer other people and then to give each of these things a colour. They then draw an outline of their hands and coloured them in, representing what they have to offer. In their assigned groups they then had to put the hands together into a collage showing how they can impact the campus for the Christ. The resulting posters were profound. The hands formed a star- we can shine brightly when we do everything for the glory of God. A flower beautifies. A flower attracts bees. We need to beautify UB and attract others to Jesus. A tree: when we remain planted in streams of living water, we will be a tree at UB, bearing fruit in season. Our world: As we offer our gifts and talents to Jesus, we can mould our world for Jesus-our world is UB. Reaching hands: We have received from FTN. We now must go and reach out to the campus and we will be blessed as we give. The cross: streams of water flow from the cross. Student Leadership university and fresh Start have been instruments for us to receive this water. We now have to channel it to those on the UB campus.