GO ON AND SPARKLE
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INFALLIBLE VIBRATIONS The Encounter
Q&A
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What Does Worship Mean To You?
TERRIFIED ~the village girl~
On Natural Hair
MS. GEE BLOWING THE TRUMPET OF WORSHIP
A JOURNEY OF 10 YEARS Gofaone’s Journey As A Vegetarian, and tips if you’re considering going the vegetarian route
MMAKGOSI LIVE
REVIEW
DIAMOND UNEARTHED EDITION 06:
DECEMBER 2018/JANUARY 2019
CONTENTS FEATURES Editor’s Note *
Nompendulo Shabangu
DU Launch * What Is Worship To You? 05
COVER STORY Ms. Gee - Blowing the Trumpet of Worship 1 3 Nompendulo Shabangu
Hair: Natural Hair 24 Margret Zoey Konie
Health: A Journey of 10 Years 28 Gofaone Moyo
Mmakgosi Live Event Review 3 1 Mya Serame
Education And Career: Experience 07 is the Best Teacher Mass Bokamoso
Relationships: Please Forgive Me 08 Ps. Lydiah Mosimegi
Terrified 1 0
The Village Girl
Simple.Honest.Loving 1 1 Andile Philani Mnikathi
Pearls of Wisdom: Spiritual 20 Parenting (4) Dr. Pearl Kupe
Infallible Vibrations: The 22 Encounter Mmakgosi Tau
Purity Revelation: Desperation 23 Dawn Guevara
Mentorship: What Are You 30 Reading? Nompendulo Shabangu
WELCO M E TO O U R
EDITOR’S NOTE Martin Luther said, “Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. The gift of language combined with the gift of song was given to man that he should proclaim the Word of God through music.” Admittedly, worship cannot be reduced to music, but we also cannot deny the vital role that worship music has played, and continues to play, in our Christian lives. The first time I met Gaekgone “Ms. Gee” Lesego was at a Women’s Aglow meeting in Gaborone. She led us in worship in such an anointed way, singing Jeso Fela, a popular Setswana worship song and tears began streaming down my face. Fast forward to about a decade later, this talented and gifted individual has released her first album, I Can Be, and it’s worth every listening ear. I am thrilled to have this award-winning musician, who also happens to be a personal friend of mine, as the cover girl for the last edition of Diamond Unearthed for the year. Her life-story, and the story behind the song, will certainly tug at your heart strings, perhaps in a similar way mine were tugged at when I first heard her worship through song. I had the great opportunity of attending the second instalment of Mmakgosi Live; the first one was held a year ago to the day and I couldn’t miss the second one for anything. Mmakgosi is a go-getter and an advocate for mental health issues in Botswana, who has availed herself to share her story, more especially through the arts. Learn how the event went through the lens of one of the performers during the night, Mya Serame.
EDITORIAL
Founding Editor Nompendulo Shabangu Photography Scale Media Layout Designer Studio Brown Editor’s Wardrobe Editor’s Own Wardrobe Cover Girl Wardrobe Cover Girl’s Own Wardrobe Cover Girl Make-up Cover Girl
WRITERS
Mass Bokamoso The Village Girl Gofaone Moyo Dr. Pearl Kupe Nompendulo Shabangu Margaret Zoey Konie
Dawn Guevara Ps. Lydiah Mosimegi Mya Serame Mmakgosi Tau
I love Gofaone’s article as she shares her 10-year journey in vegetarianism; she goes on to give tips on how you can make your vegetarian journey a success if you plan on going down that route. A Biblical story I love is of the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well found in John 4, when Jesus said, “Woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…Yet a time is coming and has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in Spirit and in truth.” (verses 21 and 23). That time is now. Rick Warren says, “Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to God and perform it with an awareness of his presence.” I pray that our faith will be encouraged and revived as we worship our Heavenly Father through our work, our words, our actions, and everything we are.
- nomps FOUNDING EDITOR
www.diamondunearthed@gmail.com
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M a r et h a Oatweng HR Specialist What does worship mean to you? I like to think of worship as my moment with God, be it alone, during worship or anytime whenever I feel the tug to spend time with God. A moment that awakens, restores, and nourishes my relationship with my Heavenly Father. I literally miss God when I fail to honour the ‘moment’, there is always that yearning in my soul and I know when to shut everything and everyone out to worship. My heart has since mastered the art of announcing, ‘The moment is now.’ I can’t function when that hits so I obey. A moment of gratitude, of reverence, of honour. My all time favourite gospel song? That’s difficult because my songs are tied to the seasons in my life. Shumie and the Transfigurations Ga Ise a Ntshwabise will be my go to song right now as well as New Wine.
Precious Gondwe Attorney-at-Law at Precious & Partners, Notary and Conveyancer What is your favourite gospel song at the moment? Why is that? Nara by Tim Godfrey ft. Travis Greene. It speaks to my heart and more specifically the season that I am in now. It’s relevant to how God has proven His faithfulness to me in 2018! What does worship mean to you? Worship is a moment of intimacy with God and it’s a time to melt at His feet in awe of His wonder. DEC 2018/ JAN 2019
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Kealeboga Duece Thobolo Pastor & Entrepreneur What’s your definition of Worship and what does it mean to you? John 17:10 All mine are Yours, and Yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Worship is an exchange, an exchange between God and man, God has expressed Himself in many ways through His Word and many manifestations in our lives, He has given us His only son and everything pertaining to this life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3), so worship now becomes our ability to express our deepest desires and needs to God. He said all that is mine is yours. Until we learn and understand how God expresses Himself, we will never know how to truly worship and totally surrender in worship. Many people have not learnt to express themselves to God making it hard for them to worship. So, in worship we express our love, our reverence to all God’s greatness, our revelation of Who God is, what He has made us to be, and what He can do in us, through us and with us. Worship is a voice, the voice of victory, the voice of triumph, the voice of a psalm, the voice of faith, a beautiful exchange. Current Favourite Worship Album: Lauren Daigle (Studio album: Look up Child)
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EDUCATION AND CAREER
EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER WORDS Mass Bokamoso
Experience is the best teacher, so I’ve been told. They forgot to remind me that it doesn’t always have to be my experience. It can be that of others, those who had the advantage of time, who are older and more experienced than me. Maybe then I would have taken on the task of finding a mentor as soon as I understood what I wanted out of life. It would have certainly saved me a lot of trouble. Going into tertiary school blind was the worst mistake ever. Having no one to help me decide which program I wanted to study, and why, did not make things any easier. When we are young, we sing the, “When I grow up I want to become...” song easily as if it will be that simple for us. Half the time we have no idea what we are saying, how we will go about it and where it will lead us in life or even the question of whether we truly love that career or not is never addressed. But imagine if there was someone who helped us in our decisions. Not choose for us but helped guide our decisions. Someone we looked up to, whom we adored and truly aspired to be like. A mentor, a coach, a pivot-point for when we lose direction, a compass of some sort; that makes life a lot easier. It sheds some light on what goes on in DEC 2018 / JAN 2019
life, using real life experiences. I must admit, for people like me who believe in seeing it than hearing it, working with a mentor made life a lot easier because not only did it instill a sense of direction in me, it helped cast away the fear of whether it is possible and the insecurities I had about growing into my role. It doesn’t happen overnight, the success, I mean, but knowing where the light in this dark tunnel shines makes the journey worthwhile. The role of mentors doesn’t always have to come as a career lifeline. Mentors in life in general help anchor us as young people. They have stronger roots that help them persist through the storms life throws their way. It is imperative that we learn that the journey isn’t an easy one but no matter how wild the wind bellows, knowing that someone else survived them, gives us an assurance that we too can survive them.
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RELATIONSHIPS
PLEASE FORGIVE ME WORDS Ps. Lydiah Mosimegi
another man who owes him much less. The unforgiving servant seizes his debtor by the throat and demands payment. But when the poor man cannot come up with the money, he has him thrown in jail. Later the king confronts the unforgiving one and called him ‘wicked’, and delivered him to the jailers as well. Jesus concludes the parable speaking directly to each of us, “So also my heavenly Father will do to everyone of you if you do not forgive your neighbour from the heart.” (Matthew 18:23-35) Now, where does that leave us? It leaves us with the possibility of being thrown in jail not because of having committed any crime, but simply because we did not forgive someone who had done us what we perceive wrong. How difficult it is to affirm Jesus’ teaching about forgiveness, let alone put it into practice! Sure,
Human nature is messy and complicated. People who abuse or cheat on their wives can at other times act like heroes and show charity to another person. Likewise, those identified as saints or role models have serious character flaws that those who care to observe can readily identify. This may well be one of the main reasons that forgiveness was such an important part of the teaching of Jesus, and yet one of the most difficult. In the parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Jesus compares God to a king who forgives his impoverished and indebted servant everything he owes. Moved by the servant’s impassioned pleas for mercy, the king simply wipes away that debt in a sweep of a hand. Unfortunately, the servant reacts to that act of mercy without the slightest sensitivity to the plight of 08
it may sound reasonable that we forgive the human race in general for sins known and unknown, but how do you forgive your best friend for an act of betrayal? How do you forgive your own parents for psychological damage or even abuse inflicted upon you? How do you forgive your spouse for falling in love with someone else? It may seem easy to forgive in general, but it seems almost impossible to forgive a specific wrong that has brought you deep personal pain. In some cases it seems impossible to forgive once, let alone 70 times 7 as Jesus requires. Because when we hurt, we hurt others. Yet forgiveness was at the very center of Christ’s teaching. It was His principal concern at the very hour of his death. As He hung there bleeding on the cross, with pain greater than any of us may ever experience, He said so directly of those who delighted in His own death: “Father forgive them, they know not what they are doing.” One of the very first difficulties involved in any attempt to forgive is that forgiveness involves a judgment against the offending party and this judgment itself may be faulty. One woman decided to take revenge upon her cheating husband by not taking care of him when he was on his death bed with a terminal illness. One might say the woman was wrong, but human nature tends to attach certain conditions to their forgiveness. We demand a sincere apology, we want the offender to work hardest at winning our trust back and we never want to see a trace of that former behaviour that brought us here. Keep in mind, most of us WANT to forgive people. Who wants to live in a state of pain over something that happened in the past? Nobody. But humans yearn for these conditions to be fulfilled for the journey to forgiveness to begin.
DEC 2018 / JAN 2019
LIKEWISE, THOSE IDENTIFIED AS SAINTS OR ROLE MODELS HAVE SERIOUS CHARACTER FLAWS THAT THOSE WHO CARE TO OBSERVE CAN READILY IDENTIFY. THIS MAY WELL BE ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS THAT FORGIVENESS WAS SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE TEACHING OF JESUS, AND YET ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT.