I guess the beginning of my Namibia experience
started back in May — it was during the Noise weekend when something happened to
me. I planned to do just the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and get some much needed revision
for my exams the following week! So I did Friday and loved it. Saturday came and it was
amazing. Sunday didn’t disappoint it was superb, so I felt “how can I not go on
Monday?” Also on that Sunday I felt something that I have never felt before, it
really hit my heart — for the first time in my life I was really, really excited
about something (football aside nothing compares!) and I had a longing to do God’s
work and make a difference in the world. So I go on Monday and it was the best day ever,
and for the rest of the week I had one thing on my mind: why didn’t I say yes when
Chris asked me do I want to go to Namibia back in December. I felt that after the Noise my
heart was dying to go there, so I decided to ask Chris on the off-chance that I could go.
He looked at me and I could tell he was looking for a nice way to say “you must be
joking!” I knew how hard it was for him to get the tickets organised 5 months ago,
but he tried nevertheless and on top of everything else he had to do, he started chasing
the travel agents.
Meanwhile I think I went a bit Namibia mad. I was so mad that I was checking the facts and figures of the country on the internet, I was even day-dreaming of playing football with young Namibian kids in my exam! After checking my emails every half an hour for two weeks, Chris calls and says there’s no chance of me going — I’m 53rd on the waiting list! Now I found this really hard to understand because I have never in my life really felt God calling me to do something, but I guess you can guess the end or else I wouldn’t be writing this. But the next day Chris phoned up to say the travel company have a spare ticket and they chose to give it to him over everyone else. YES!!!!! So that was my first Namibia experience.
From then on, and particularly in Namibia, God was moving so powerfully like I never experienced every day, every hour, every minute. I was absolutely petrified to talk in front of a class of young people about sex, but you have to depend on God all the time and he will never leave you — especially in the toughest of times. He is so faithful — He can use me, an illiterate fool, to channel his message to so many young people and to change their lives.
I have so many experiences of Namibia that I don’t know where to begin, but I’ll share this one. On the last day we had a two and a half hour assembly planned, so we got back up from other teams because Jon, me (Andrew) and Chris have amazing voices and the ladies needed some support! It was a boarding school, so I think most of the pupils lived there so the pressures of sex must be even harder. This time we had the sound system, so this going to be the best assembly in the world. It started off well with the good old “Hey Lord, O Lord” and “Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia, praise ye the Lord” songs, and it is amazing to hear them sing it back to you, they’re so loud. So everything was running smoothly we did the “Choose to Wait” programme and got the usual gasps and groans when we showed them the STD pictures! And then God did something absolutely amazing that wasn’t in our perfectly planned assembly script. He used one girl, to stand up and give her testimony in front of all her friends and peers, telling them how she has now chosen to stop having sex with her boyfriend and she could only do this through having Jesus in her life. This was fairly recently so the courage it must have taken for her stand up and to say what she believed is absolutely amazing. After the assembly so many people told us how they were now going to stop having sex and wanted to know more about Jesus’ overwhelming love all because of that girl’s testimony. It didn’t matter that the assembly was going great, God used that girl on that day to do stuff that we could never have done.
I have so many experiences that I have to share, and this is already fairly long. But
I will share one last some experience that is quite funny. Before I went to Namibia I
could not speak in front of people — no chance. I would start shaking and
looking very nervous. Now, unfortunately I’m still not a great speaker but God was
with me when I needed him. Before I went I couldn’t speak at the front of my home
church in Cambridge ever, then when I got back in the service people were sharing
testimonies of the past year. So I felt I had something to share, so I stroll up, take
the mic of the stand, get a cool slouch going on and rest my other hand on the mic
stand. Twenty minutes later they had to stop me!! God is absolutely amazing, He is so
exciting, and it was such a privilege to be doing God’s work. I pray that now
I’m home I don’t stop. 
Andrew, Namibia 2002