There is positive vibe in the in the air. The Buzz word on the everyone’s lips is the launch of our FTN club on campus.

I thought that there would be feverish activity, as ideas and plans were being made. But there is an amazing group of people who are organising this launch,who shock of all shocks are so organised. The ideas still fly about the air but they are well thought out, without an air of frenzied-last-minute-things-are-falling-apart feel.

Different people are assigned tasks which they follow through with, and above all they all do their bit cheerfully. I kid you not. I spent some time with the guys in the FTN club committee and they are just so cheerful, pleasant and purposeful. They are enjoying themselves.

Their enjoyment is infectious. I really am looking forward to the launch, especially since our patron Sir Ketumile Masire will be giving the Keynote speech.

All i can say is thank the good Lord:-)

I will keep you posted.Be blessed

We have been busy wrapping up on the active phase for 2008.

Some interesting facts:
55,000teenage students were reached

Rally teams travelled some 5,330 kilometres (3, 331.25 miles)

10 114 abstinence pledge cards were signed.

2 392 commitments to Christ.

28 government senior secondary schools and 1 private school were reached.

68 rallies were held through out the country.

42 different churches were represented amongst the volunteers

As we start focusing on FTN 2009, we are mindful that this indeed remains God’s program. We feel humbled and privileged to be a part of it and we are excited to see what new heights God is going to take Face The Nation to.

Suzanne Taylor from Johnson ferry Baptist Church in Atlanta, joined FTN for 5 weeks to do filming and travel with the North Rally team this year.

National Geographic notified her that she has received the internship to work as a Production Assistant with the TV group. 2 people were short listed for the position and her experience in Africa, with FTN clinched her the position.

Well done, Suzanne

This is our most exciting recent development!

The concept of a club on the university campus was
birthed this time a year ago.

A number of people have worked exceptionally hard
at bringing this to fruition.

Our thanks go to our church elder Akin Adedoyin and to
other OBC members who are also on the UB staff for putting
the constitution together and making this happen.

Brian Lee, a US volunteer 2007, from Johnson Ferry
Baptist Church is doing some credits for one semester at UB,
with his aim being the establishment of this FTN Club, the
training and mentoring of the committee. He is doing a great job!

The official launch of the club is Thursday 25 September.
Former President Masire, who is the patron of Face
The Nation will be our keynote speaker.

We are also expecting a number of dignitaries from
both government and the University to attend this function.

We are excited that FTN is being taken to yet another level.
We are thrilled that the volunteers are taking ownership of
the programme.

We are prayerful that the message of hope and
behavioural change through Jesus, is going to reaching
another sector of the population of Botswana.

We are trusting that the club will put us in a stronger position to obtain funding for FTN.

Last month Tirelo Ramsden, our office administrator, tied the knot with Peter Miano. Both Tirelo and Peter were facilitators during FTN 2007 and their romance blossomed during the FTN active phase.

Congratulations you two:-)

This though is not the first FTN wedding. Ngugi and Lieki, who were both facilitators in FTN 2007 got married this year March! Exciting stuff!!!

Send us Lord…..

Being on the road as a member of the rally team wasn’t always great but we had the privilege of seeing Scripture come alive. Scriptures like, the joy of the Lord is my strength, God honours obedience more than sacrifice, unless the labourers work with and under God they work in vain.

What I learnt about God is that God just is. God can work with and without man. God brought me to a place where I realised it’s not the dancing or the dramas that drew the kids to him but He draws, by using the dancing and the dramas. From that I learnt that you have to take your quiet
times and devotions very seriously and your first priority is seeking God. So that when you perform you become invisible and your maker is visible.

In one school in Letlhakane, I counselled a lot of troubled young ladies, some had been raped, and when they reported no one believed them, not even their parents because of their past lives, some where abandoned by their parents and others were without parents. These kids had nothing and they were hurting, and you’d think they would want nothing to do with God and we had to tell them God loves you, that was hard. But this is where I realised that God works when and where he wants because these were the very same girls who came crying, saying “I don’t understand it but when you were performing I felt something different and I want it” Wow! Not man but God. Now they are walking with God and their lives are not perfect but a lot better than before.

It’s very easy to adopt these kids and you can’t help but love them and when they find Christ they don’t want to let go of him because they have found life. Even when they get off track, they never go back as far as they were before.

It was really awesome going back to the schools and finding students with worn out abstinence pledge cards from last year and they were still walking with God. They are proud of themselves. Abstaining has become cool in the schools and it is cool.

Pastor Norman talked about prayer and how prayer back home made a big difference for the volunteers on the field. That is so true. The spiritual war fare was so tangible this year and it can only be the hand of God that took and lead the rally teams all around the country safely. God woke us up one night at 3a.m to pray because we had forgotten that we were in the fore front. Every time we did a rally God broke down walls and the devil threw stuff at us but the prayers of the saints were at work way before we started. Thank you for the prayers and the encouraging smses. Please send more next year and the year after that.

Living a life of moral purity is impossible in the eyes of man but nothing is impossible with God. There is evidence of God’s marvellous works and I am glad to have been a tea spoon in his kitchen

My testimony of Face the Nation 2008
By Onnetse (Kez) Samagabadi

Saturday the 3rd August 2008 saw FTN 2008 volunteers gathered together for the last time.

It was a time of sharing, swapping war stories and generally comparing notes on some generally hair raising experiences that all the volunteers had gone through.

Like the time the North rally team was traveling from Kang to Gantsi and their trailer had a tire burst!!! The phh-a-a-t, phh-a-at, phh-a-a-t they all heard was the tattered remains of the trailer’s rear wheel.

Or the time in Letlhakane they lived in a real , honest to goodness haunted house!!! The minute their rallies were finished in the left town and didn’t go back to that house!!! They did pray for it but decided that they could handle only one battle a time .

Although there was a good response to the abstinence message and large numbers of youth were making pledges for sexual purity, there was a deplorable lack of interest in the salvation message. The Palapye team had even sent prayer requests so that this situation could be remedied.

Well, the prayers have been answered and the latest report is that 278 students have committed their lives to the Lord in that one school!!!!

A staff member in one school, on reflecting on the positive influence of FTN in the school, said that the year before FTN volunteers were sent to his school there were 35 reported cases of pregnancy. Since the programme has started in the school the rates have gone down to almost zero. FTN is really making a huge difference.

World Vision in connection with Willow Creek church in the US has held an international competition for churches who are taking an initiative against the AIDS pandemic. It is called the Courageous Leadership Award. Open Baptist Church entered Face The Nation for the competition. I quote from the letter received from them today….

“Through what has been a thorough, careful, thoughtful and prayerful process, we have finally identified our top three finalists. While Open Baptist did not qualify in the group of finalists, the Selection Committee felt that it deserved a Special Recognition Award. Both Committees were impressed by what your small church has been able to accomplish and they loved the local school emphasis—educating the next generation. Well done!

The awards will be presented at a dinner……… Open Baptist will be recognized at that dinner. The winners of the 2008 CLA will be announced during the Leadership Summit session the next day in front of 80,000 church leaders from all over the world. As a Special Recognition church, Open Baptist will also be featured on the Courageous Leadership Award website.

Congratulations!! We wish you God’s best as you continue your efforts to be the hands and feet of Christ addressing the greatest humanitarian disaster this world has even seen.”