Carmel in Southern Africa: August 2006

FYF!!!!

FYF is our First Year Friends group that meets every Monday. FYF is a group that i'm hoping will grow into a family for these students that are just starting their college experience and some are away from home for the first time. A good place with good influences. We are small in numbers but we're hoping to grow. Along with having Bible study, we've had a movie night, 1st year party, and a hotdog and game night that also included a panel discussion on how to survive the Unversity of Botswana! So far so good, please pray for us as we try to get going with this!!

just having a good time!

This is our older and wiser students/ post grad students giving out some well needed advise

The guys are really thinking about what they are being told....

Student Retreat!!

I am so excited i went on my first student retreat with the UB students and it was awesome!!! There were about 20 or so students that went so it provided a good time to bond with each other. Our theme was "Relationships : The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" It was great we talked about our relationship with God then with our family and friends. Everyone there had a blast!!!!

This is our group of students that went on the retreat! My supervisor's Randy and Kittie Trail are the two odd balls on the right i also went, but someone had to take the picture!!

Playing and Praising!!

Of course at any retreat you are going to play tons of games that include popping bollons, tackling people to be in your group so you have enough numbers, and of course play a more grown up game of Simon Says!!! We had a great time with our games, but we had an even more awesome time worshiping the Lord and learning more about Him!! It was a great weekend!

Yes so you for sure what to wear close toe shoes in this game....yes i found out the hard way....

KG, my partner in crime - we work together at the student center- looks like she is enjoying herself although she is being kick out of the game for getting both scarfs around her neck!

The praise team, they worked really hard to get ready for the retreat and it really showed!

Workshops!!

In addition to our sessions we also had workshops that the students could choose from - conflict management, what does a christian family look like, and sex comes with a price tag. Seeing as how i taught about abstinence for the last year and 1/2 i was appointed weekend sex ed teacher. We looked at the very different side effects of sex before marriage. Believe me the physical side is really talked about so we did a little of that but mostly talked about the emotional side effects. Before they where allowed to enter the class i made them chose a "price tag" (in a envelop )that either said something about abstinence and the benfits of that or something about the physcial side effects (STD's, HIV, Pregnancy) and the emotional side. A good illustration (we didn't have time for it, but if you have a chance to share it with some youth it may be good) is having 4 pieces of duck tape and a guy and girl. Now give a boy a piece of duck tape and tell him to stick it on his sleeve then peel it off and put it on 5 other girls. Ok, now give a girl a piece of duck tape and tell her to do the same thing. Now get the two to try and stick the two pieces together. Hum, doesn't quiet work does it? Ok now give the girl and guy a fresh piece of tape each that has never been used. Have them place the 2 pieces together. Now that creates quiet a bond! So you can tell them that sex is like that when you have it with a lot of people outside of marriage it loosens the bonds of when you do get married. If you and spouse have never had sex before and don't have all that emotional and physcial baggage then your bond will be stonger and stick! Point being if you can't control something before you get married what makes you think you will automatically can control it afterwards???!!...