Field News

Read below about the big happenings at Love Botswana Outreach Mission in 2006. We are honored to be a part of what the Lord is doing here in Botswana. Click on the logos on the left to go to the individual pages of each department in the ministry.

Love Botswana Outreach Mission
Department: Love Botswana

Our newly re-stated Core Values, Vision Statement and Mission statement are spuring us onward to newer and greater things of God. Our Vision Statement "Launching Leaders, Building Nations" keeps us reminded of the simple goal in everything we do. Our Mission Statement "As a ministry our mission shall be to inspire, build, and launch people through faith, integrity, relationships and excellence that will purify, transform and ignite individuals to impact the nations" keeps our eyes focused on the specifics of what God has called us to do. Our Core Values, Faith, Integrity, Relationships, and Excellence remind us of the basic tools to use in seeing our mission and vision statements become reality.

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Winter Outreach In Rural Areas
Department: Love Botswana

Our outreach season (May through September) was immensly fruitful and timely. God brought over 275 people to Botswana to work with us in reaching the people here with the Gospel. Our primary focus was in Sehitwa where we recently planted a church, however we were also able to minister in the precious villages of Shorobe, Budibang, Komana, Toteng and more as well. The teams that came ranged from all across the USA.
Faith Family Center, Austin, TX - lead by Cheryl Johnson
Resurrection Fellowship, Loveland, CO - lead by Mark Lucks
Resurrection Life Single Minded Missions, Grand Rapids, MI - lead by Jackie Fron
The Woodlands Methodist Church, The Woodlands, TX - lead by John Hull
Thanks to everyone who came with these special teams. Botswana has been served and blessed in a powerful way by the hard work done.

Special thanks to Sarah Lam, Carly Clement and John Emerick for the amazing service they gave in coming to serve with Love Botswana as summer staff. Our outreach season could never have been successful without the tireless hours of service by these wonderful people giving of their time.

This past outreach season, Teen Mania had the amazing opportunity to again partner with Samaritan’s Purse and offer gifts to children in the village of Shorobe. Samaritan’s Purse receives gifts from around the world and sends them to various locations in developing countries for distribution. As the truck rolls into the village, the children bounce around in uncontrollable excitement wondering what is in the many boxes. As missionaries tell the beautiful gospel story and then begin to hand out beautifully wrapped gifts, the enthusiasm of the children is unexplainable. The gifts are unwrapped, then the children jump around and hug the missionaries, trying to show them how grateful they truly are for these gifts.

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Administration took leaps forward toward a more effective mission
Department: Love Botswana

Our behind the scenes administrative missionaries were kept very busy this year making sure that all the many facets of the mission ran smoothly and efficiently. Among the many accomplishments of the year we had a fantastically successful "Strategic Planning" meeting in October and we were able to re-cast the vision of the mission as a whole and re-develop our Core Values, our Vision and Mission statements, and make an overall move toward a smoother organization.
Ms. Jackie Fron came and volunteered from August-October and assisted in the planning and implementation of our "Strategic Planning" meeting as well as help in numerous other ways. One area that was a great blessing was in developing a Personnel and Policy Handbook which, due to our growth, was an essential component to our Human resources department. Based on this model for handbooks are being developed for the various specific departments in the mission.
Due to our explosive growth over the past two years we have been stretched and challenged on a nearly daily basis in our administration of and leadership over the many new avenues that the Lord has opened up to us to reach more people in new and exciting ways. The number of staff and volunteers has nearly tripled over the past two years and with all those new people come new opportunities and new challenges.

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Thanks to all of the volunteers of 2006!
Department: Love Botswana

We had a total of 14 amazing people gave their time and hearts to working with us in all of our different departments. We want to say a HUGE thank you to them all for all the work they did and all the sweat they gave in blessing the people of Botswana. They are:

Kabelo Mashumba- from Botswana served with LBBI and Village Church. Served from January- December

Juby Peacock- from Botswana served with Mercy Ministries Reach4Life and Outreach. Served from July-November

Vehae Tjiriange - from Botswana served with Mercy Ministries Reach4Life. Served from August- September

Caroline Myers - from California worked with Mercy Ministries and Children’s Church. Served from January -March

Johanne Koll-Hansen - from Norway, worked with Mercy Ministries. Served from January - April

Katrina Spears - from Wisconsin, worked with OIS in the PE Department under a student teaching program with University of Wisconsin- River Falls. Served from May- August

Jackie Fron - from Michigan, worked with the Human Resources Department of the Mission. Served from August- October

Bjarte Solheim - from Norway, worked with Mercy Ministries. Served from September- December.

Rachel Houweling - from England, worked with Mercy Ministries caring for a newborn baby as his fosterparent for six months. Served from September 2005 - July 2006.

Kim Coxie - from Texas, worked with the Mission doing various things for our outreach teams as well as preparations for the Camp Meeting. Served for two weeks in July.

Janet Perkins - from Texas, worked with the Mission doing various things for outreach teams as well as preparations for the Camp Meeting. Served for two weeks in July.

Len Maydwell - from Indiana, worked with the Mission in our Maintenance Department assisting with various electrical projects. Served for two weeks in June.

John Emerick - from Texas, worked with the Mission in our Summer Outreach Program assisting with teams. Served from May-August

Sarah Lam - from California, worked with the Mission in our Summer Outreach Program assisting with teams. Served from May- August

Carly Clement - from Washington, worked with the Mission in our Summer Outreach Program assisting with teams. Served from June- August.

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Gorilla Pictures partners with Love Botswana to film a documentary about the mission
Department: Love Botswana

In November the staff of Gorrilla Pictures (www.gorilla-pictures.com) came to the mission to film a documentary to show the work that Love Botswana is doing here in Botswana and to show the beauty of the country itself. We are extremely excited about the opportunities this documentary will bring. We look forward to showing the still quietness of the delta alongside the beautiful smile of a child being helped by our Mercy Ministries department. Being able to bring more than just food, blankets, clean water and new clothes, and giving that HIV/AIDS orphaned child a loving touch is what was captured timelessly on film. Words can only do so much to describe the light that emenates from the face of that child. Being able to show it on film can open doors that we never thought possible. Thanks to the endless hours spent filming and editing from the Gorrilla Pictures staff we will be able to share the wonderful work that we do with our friends and supporters around the world.

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Behind the scenes partnering with others to make a difference
Department: Love Botswana

Largely on the basis of the work done by Love Botswana mission staff, the Ngami sub-district of the Northwest District Council was one of 7 out of 24 health districts chosen to partner with the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership (ACHAP) for a rapid up scaling of HIV/AIDS services. ACHAP is a collaboration between the Government of Botswana, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Merck Foundation/Merck & Co., Inc. formed to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in Botswana.
Beginning in 2004, Love Botswana worked with the local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) to develop a 5 year plan to address HIV/AIDS gaps in the district. This plan was to have seen NGOs truly participating in the prevention and treatment process needed to turn back the tide on HIV/AIDS.
Linda Madeksho was chosen to serve on the planning committee that has worked on the development and implementation of the plan in the District. Each year, weeks of time are required to secure data, prepare reports and develop evidence-based plans of action. Sometimes Linda works from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. as a volunteer with the Aids Coordinating Office and then works from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. or later for the Mission.
Linda also serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the District Multi-Sectoral AIDS Committee. In this role she advises regarding NGO/FBO involvement in district activities, helps plan such events as the World AIDS Day commemoration and reviews HIV/AIDS funding requests in the District.

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Mercy Ministries - Break throughs and needs
Department: Mercy Ministries

A new year came with new challenges. God met amazing needs and met the broken in their pain through all the volunteers and care workers in Mercy Ministries. One of the huge needs met was the new office space given for Mercy Ministries. Mercy Ministries has moved time and again over the last two years and it is a relief to final be able setle the department into its own offices.

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Reach4Life campaign reaches thousands
Department: Mercy Ministries

Munya Katumba and Angela Smartt have managed to implement Reach 4 Life in five different schools in Maun, and train more than 100 club leaders. This is after International Bible Society generously donated the first 10,000 of a total 30,000 Reach 4 Life books to be distributed. The kids in the junior secondary schools who received 4,000 of these in October, are very excited, and they are all eager to start Reach 4 Life clubs in the schools when they open in January. 700 students have signed up to be part of these clubs! In addition, Munya and Angela have been in Kanye, training another 25 young people on the Reach 4 Life curriculum and setting them on fire for living a holy life with the help of Jesus Christ.

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Emergency Home and OVC Educaton Program took huge steps forward
Department: Mercy Ministries

Our second big breakthrough is that a local businesswoman has been so deeply touched by the Lord and the challenge of abandoned babies, that she partnered with us and bought a house for use as an Emergency Home. This is just what we need, and it will be fully renovated and ready for use before Christmas. We are very excited about this, as the only way to achieve a licence to operate this kind of an institution is to have a separate house for it. We will now be able to make the application and hopefully start receiving babies in the very near future!

For the OVC (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) Educational Program, we have developed plans to incorporate this program as a "bridge class" at Okavango International School. We had two final weeks with this years group of 13 children at the end of November, and it was very good and exciting to see what impact our program can have in a short period of time. Imagine the outcome when we can do it fulltime!

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Love Botswana Bible Institute - a year of training tomorrow's leaders
Department: LBBI

The year began with Michael and Heather Walker taking the leadership and vision of the Bible school as their own. The Bible school saw young and old willing hearts eager to learn the hidden truths of the Word of God. We started with our largest class yet of 34 students, including doctors, teachers, rural pastors, lay leaders in churches, and sons and daughters of pastors from other churches. We even had young men and women fresh out of secondary school. Pastors from other churches and other towns sent us their young men and women to train in ministry. There were some transportation issues this year, though that did not deter many students from arriving any way they could. Because our ministry vehicles were not operating at the beginning of the the second semester many missionaries, including Pastor Jerry, were volunteering their personal vehicles to make sure the students didn't miss the life changing classes being offered. Eventually our ministry vehicles came back to life (for the most part) and attendance increased as more steady transportation became available.

We want to thank Dr. Jerry Duffer who has imparted so much to the bible school students as well as training other various leaders in pastoral counseling. Dr. Duffer has become a father to many all over the North of Botswana and we look forward to his ministry continuing in this nation through those to whom his ministry has been imparted and as often as the Lord allows him to return.

We have been so blessed by John and Lisa Bevere for their wonderful contribution of curriculum. We appreciate their partnership so much.

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Six Bible School Students went on a mission trip to Gumare
Department: LBBI

The students are growing often spiritually and in practical ministry. Six of them went on a mission trip near the end of the year. They assisted with a crusade at one of our rural church plants. Pouring themselves into the work of God they saw over 200 people give their lives to Christ. Having seen firsthand the awesome power of the mighty move of God they came back with testimony after testimony of the life change that results in being a part of such a trip. This trip, along with the large LBBI outreach earlier in the year has added to the exposure to ministry and added zeal and  passion to their studies.

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All Nations Village Church
Department: Village Church

We experienced record breaking attendence, mighty moves of God, and our rural churches experienced unprecidented growth. However this has caused some unusual "problems" in our rural church programs. In the last few months of the year it was brought to our attention that there were three new churches established in our strategic area. When we inquired of these churches, "Who are you affiliated with?" each time the answer was, "With you - Love Botswana Outreach Mission". It turns out that our rural church plants have been sending out missionaries of their own to other villages to start daughter churches. Pray with us as we develop theological training and oversight for each of these churches. God has truly been moving in every part of All Nations Village Church.

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A Brand New Tent!
Department: Village Church

In July All Nations Village Church, Maun moved into a beautiful new cathedral of canvas on new property allocated to us by the Tawana Land Board. We could not be more excited about having our own land on which to build this church and new youth center. The youth center will house a state of the art youth program and services where the youth of Maun can come and enjoy a safe, healthy, Godly atmosphere.
The "Signs and Wonders" Camp Meeting was the last service held in the old tent and the final session of the meeting saw the official dedication of our new tent by Charles Chereseri and Bishop Mafurusa and Love Botswana Board Member Pearl Kupe. The conference and the move to the new facility can only be described as God's timing as, without the additional space, we would not be able to embrace the explosive growth in the church.

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All Nations Village Church Sehitwa was dedicated to the Lord
Department: Village Church

At the end of last year one of our dear church leaders Pastor Sonny Seanne moved into the head pastor position in Sehitwa. Soon after that a generous church member gave a beautiful building to be used as the church building for the growing Sehitwa congregation. Now, a year later, the congregation is thriving with over 100 church members and the have taken it upon themselves to send missionaries to a village nearby called Bodibang. They have seen salvations and mighty works of God in that village as a result of their dedication to the call of God. The laboring of the growing church in Sehitwa brings visions of how the early church must have looked in the Book of Acts.

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First Annual "Signs and Wonders" Conference
Department: Village Church

Spurred by the desperate cries of a broken and repentant people, our passionate Savior met us on our knees July 6-8 in Maun. Our tent swelled to overflowing as the masses would not be turned away from the overwhelming presence of the One True God. Powerful and God fearing guest speakers Pastor Charles & Petunia Chiriseri, Bishop C. and Clodia Mufuruse, Pearl Kupe, and Pastor Mark Lucks ushered in the mighty hand of the living God and the prophetic voice of His Spirit.
Breakaway workshops designed to encourage pastors and lay leaders in their leadership and service contributed mightily to the work in and around Botswana. Workshops ranged from practical teaching on pastoring a church to evangelism and discipleship, to practical teachings on the business world and ministry administration.
The youth and children were ministered to in a powerful way by Pastor Mark Lucks and his team from Resurrection Fellowship in Loveland, Colorado.
Powerful times of worship and life changing messages bellowed from the Village Church tent as hundreds of people fell on their faces before the Lord our God and the splendor of His majesty.

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Prison Ministry
Department: Village Church

“Can you come everyday to teach and preach to us?” This is a common request from the prisoners. God has given us great favor at the prison. There have been over a hundred salvations. We are doing weekly discipleship, as well as teaching on Baptism. We are baptizing new converts monthly. We love going to the prison. The guards have requested to have their own Bible study time separate from the inmates. Once again our biggest problem is time and man power. “Pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send out more laborers.”

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Okavango International School
Department: OIS

Numerical, physical, intellectual and spiritual growth all mark the students at OIS this year.
Numerically our school is exploding! Three years ago we had only 2 graduating seniors, last year 5, this year 11, and next year we have 21 graduates! Our exponential growth has maxed us out in every capacity and we have even had to turn several students away simply because we don't have the facilities to keep up with the demand.
Thanks to the dedication and hard work of the Village Church youth pastor Gary Pelotshweu the spiritual growth of our students has been nothing short of inspiring. Due to many programs and classes such as Life Skills, Absitance Club, Reach4Life, and Fire By Night the students are making active decisions to live honorable lives.

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OIS began boarding on the Love Botswana property
Department: OIS

Our first group of boarding students joined the school in January 2006. From Orapa, Palapye, and Gaborone the six boys and four girls enjoyed staying in the two thatched, wooded houses situated on the Love Botswana property. It is quite the change from the city life! Boarders have the opportunity to visit town on Saturday mornings, attend Fire By Night on Friday nights as well as attend church on Sundays. They partake in various activities in Maun as well.

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Many acedemic developments over the last year
Department: OIS

Academically OIS developed in many ways this year, most notably in the two new subjects Art and Computers. We dedicated a classroom to the Art class and the classroom has become a rainbow of artistic expression through painting, drawing, and other art forms.

Because of the generous donation by a donor last year we were able to purchase and install 10 brand new Dell computers in the OIS classrooms including a Computer Lab with 6 of them. In the computer lab Form 1 and 2 students took computer classes and learned key computer skills that they can take with them as the world of technology continues to impact people across the globe.

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Studio 7 - multimedia to the young generation
Department: Studio 7

Numerous and generous donations from UCB Africa and Radio Pulpit brought the donation of a large caravan, all the audio and recording equipment and even many hours of laboring to set it all up. The result is a state of the art studio capable of incredible things here in rural northern Botswana.

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Love Botswana Studio 7 was opened and equiped
Department: Studio 7

September 22nd saw the official opening of Love Botswana Studio 7, our sound and video production studio right here in the heart of Maun. The dream at Love Botswana to see a national radio station has just taken a massive step forward. Equipment donated by United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) and a sound proofed office space form our Studio 7 prouduction house where we are capable of advanced audio editing and will soon be able to create, edit and master professional video, DVD and audio projects. We hope to use our new ability to reach the talented youth in Maun and bring them in to record, edit and master music tracks written and preformed by the youth themselves.
Standing in front of the newly opened Studio 7 on the mission property, Pastor John Phillip, dean of the Botswana Bible Institute, gave a stirring speach to many influencial and honorable men and women of Maun regarding the great potential and vast reach of the new studio. Our dream and vision is to use this studio and the future radio station housed in it as a hub for litterally hundreds of radio broadcast centers in and even beyond the borders of Botswana.
Blessing Chitsenga joined our team and is our Production Manager for Studio 7. We are pleased to have him aboard and look forward to the dream's fulfillment.

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Studio 7 Became Available Online
Department: Studio 7

Through the launch of a section of our website dedicated directly to the new Studio 7 online visitors are able to browse our recent projects, contact us for booking, see what the studio offers and more. We are excited about the prospect of people of northern Botswana contacting us and booking the studio so that we can begin producing.

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