SOS Children’s Village – Tlokweng

Our Easter camp at the SOS Children’s Village in Tlokweng took a slightly different format this year to what we’ve previously done there. Because all the children attending were from the village we were able split the children into four teams, Red, Blue, Yellow and Green, which they stayed in throughout the week. They were in those teams for AWANA everyday and in both the sit down sessions in the hall which meant we could keep the competition going throughout the day and points added up over the 3 days to give us a winning team at the end of the camp. It was great fun as both leaders and children were determined to win points for their team with the loudest chants, the best dancing, winning races in AWANA and even good behaviour in the sit down sessions!

We were also able to borrow a PA system so we had music for the hall sessions, which worked really well, attracting older teens to be a part of the camp as well as the younger children. It was fantastic to see Lame from Old Naladi working with his group of about 20 15-17 year olds who were all loving it! We had 90 children and young people at the camp in total and a great team of leaders from all over Gaborone – from SOS, Naladi Baptist Church, Naladi Christian Centre, Gaborone Baptist Church and Open Baptist Church.

The leaders all had such a great time that we’re planning to continue running sports camps at SOS on a weekly basis. They will be on a Sunday afternoon from 3 – 5pm so if anyone would like to come along and help you’re very welcome, please just let me know.

~ Gaborone Coordinator

Kumukwane Easter Sports Camp

The first Kings outreach camp of the Easter holidays run in the Gaborone area was a four day camp at the sports field in the village of Kumukwane, about 27km out of Gaborone. After 3 Saturdays of training leading up to the camp we had 6 new sports leaders trained up from the Assemblies of God church in Kumukwane. Kings Community volunteers from SOS Tlokweng and Old Naladi also came along to help run the camp making up a team of 10 quality leaders.

The camp ran from 9 – 12 each morning and followed the typical Kings model of a camp – after a big group warm up the children were split into their age groups. Each group had a couple of leaders with them and they played 3 different sports, each for about 20 minutes. After the sports rotations we sat them all down under a huge tree and had various fun competitions – dancing, hula, the limbo. We also looked at a different sports value and Bible verse each day, concentrating on what their attitude should be like when they won or lost and the importance of fair play. It was a good few days. The numbers grew from about 90 on the first day to 150 children attending on the last day and it was great to see the new leaders putting what they’d learned in training into practice and doing a great job with the coaching. A big thank you to all those who helped out and we look forward to seeing sports outreach continue on a more regular basis in Kumukwane.

~ Gaborone Coordinator

Tonota Outreach

Our fun in Tonota began on a Sunday when I went to Tonota with Shepard, Victor, George and Mukani. We went expecting to advertise the camp with a few of the local youth but when we arrived we found 40 youths waiting for us. We brought King’s Foundation t-shirts for the volunteer coaches. The guys expectantly turned the giving of t-shirts into a ceremony. After the ceremony we went around Tonota with the mega phone inviting the children to the sports camp.

The Tonota camp ran for 3 days from 1000-1300hrs. Daily sessions involved warm games, various sports stations and our “sit down session.” As is the case with all our programmes, every spare moment is filled with singing and dancing! Bible Man once again graced our sit down sessions and delivered inspiring messages for the children. The children could not stop talking about Bible Man. On the final day we stayed with tradition by concluding the camp with AWANA – always a highlight.

On average there were 100-150 children in attendance each day. It was great to see so many individuals from Hosanna Bible Ministry get involved with the three day programme and to experience 20 children and 3 adults make Jesus their Lord on the final day. What a perfect way to end the camp!

~ Francistown Coordinator

SOS Easter Holiday Camp

The day before the Francistown SOS camp we welcomed Ruth with her team from Gaborone. They had traveled so that they could be partnered with volunteers in the Ghetto (aka Francistown) for a learning experience. On the first day we had approximately 18 volunteers including 5 Rothe Kids Club members. We immediately engaged the children in warm up games. At the beginning there were about 70 children but the number increased gradually to about 170 children. Everyday each child was able to play 3 different sports, after this we had a sit down session and the children loved the sit down sessions especially BIBLE MAN. On Friday Community Church performed an entertaining drama that described the meaning of Easter. Big ups to Victor (who wrote the script) and all the actors.

For the final day there were about 210 children – I’m sure the entire village was in attendance. We did a session of sport then finished with a big A.W.A.N.A. session. The teams were vibrant and full of energy and excitement. What a wonderful time we had with the SOS children. Thanks to all who made this happen and may God take all the glory.

~ Francistown Coordinator