UNFPA Appoints Botlhale Boikanyo as Regional ICPD Youth Champion for East and Southern Africa

Johannesburg, August 2026 – The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) East and Southern Africa Regional Office is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Botlhale Boikanyo as its new Regional International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Youth Champion.

 

Botlhale Boikanyo is an award-winning South African poet, actress, speaker, and youth advocate whose journey from becoming the first poet and youngest winner of South Africa's Got Talent at the age of 11 has evolved into a powerful platform for youth empowerment and social change. As the founder of the Botlhale Boikanyo Foundation, she has dedicated her work to amplifying young voices, championing education and self-expression, and inspiring a new generation of African changemakers through the power of storytelling. Through her advocacy and leadership, she has inspired young people to use their voices and engage in shaping policies and solutions that affect their lives and futures.

 

As Regional ICPD Youth Champion, Botlhale will work alongside UNFPA to amplify the voices of young people across East and Southern Africa and advocate for accelerated action towards achieving the commitments of the ICPD Programme of Action. She will support efforts to advance bodily autonomy, gender equality, access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, and meaningful youth participation in decision-making processes.

 

For UNFPA,  young people are not just the leaders of tomorrow; they are the leaders of today. Putting young people at front and centre of sustainable development is both urgent and non-negotiable. Their voices, experiences, and innovations are essential in building the Africa we want.

 

Speaking on her appointment, Botlhale Boikanyo said:

 

“My hope and dream is to live in a world where every young person, especially women and girls, has the freedom and opportunities to shape their own future and is included in the rooms where decisions about their lives are made. Being a UNFPA Champion is another step towards turning that vision into reality. It is an opportunity to amplify the voices of young people through storytelling across our region, and advocate for investments that uphold the rights, dignity, well-being and potential of every young person everywhere.”

 

The appointment comes at a critical moment for the region, where young people in Africa constitute a significant share of the global youth population of 1.9 billion and are leading transformative efforts in their communities. Yet many continue to face barriers to education, healthcare, employment, and opportunities to meaningfully participate in decisions that affect their lives. She believes that storytelling is a catalyst for social change and that young people must not only be heard, but meaningfully included in shaping the decisions that affect their lives and futures.

 

As Regional ICPD Youth Champion, Botlhale will use her energetic presence and platform to engage with young people, policymakers, civil society, and development partners to advocate for investments and policies that uphold the rights, dignity, and potential of every young person.

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The Great Tribulation

I receive several phone calls each year from people — some of them ministers — asking me if I think we are in the Tribulation yet. I always respond by telling them that when the Tribulation begins, the people who are on earth will not have to call anyone to find out for sure whether or not it has begun. The Tribulation will be a living hell with a degree of violence that is unparalleled in all of history.

The Bible gives us a lot of information about this horrible period of seven years that is fast approaching. The entire book of Zephaniah is devoted to it. In addition to many other Old Testament passages, like Isaiah 24, fourteen chapters in the book of Revelation focus on it (Revelation 6-19). But despite all this information, there are many myths concerning the Great Tribulation that circulate among Christians. For example, many argue that the first half of this time period will be peaceful and that only the second half will be characterized by intense warfare. Other misconceptions relate to the Antichrist and the Church.

Before we consider some of these myths and misconceptions, let’s familiarize ourselves with the concept of the Tribulation. Where does the idea come from, and what does it mean?

By Dr. David R. Reagan

Full story at Christin prophecy

Come, Let Us Worship the Lord Together

Psalm 95 is an invitation card, inviting us to worship the Lord together. It is a wonderful thing to be invited. Sometimes, when we are not invited, we feel we had been overlooked. If the President of the Philippines invited your whole family to the Palace, will you accept the invitation and go? Today, it is not an earthly king inviting you, but the Heavenly King, the King of kings and Lord of lords; how glorious this is! Psalm 95 is God’s invitation to us:

I. This is an Invitation for All, an Open Invitation The author invites us to worship. Twice, in verses 1 and 6, he said, “Come.” Verses 1 and 6 mentioned “us” seven times. The author is not inviting just any one person but he is inviting all of us to worship together. Individual worship is of course very important – praying daily, singing praises, reading the Bible and worshipping God is good. But corporate worship is truly more wonderful.

What is worship? Worship is responding to God. The English word, worship, means He is worthy of our all. Worship is not simply the act of singing praise songs, or listening to the preaching, or giving our offerings. Worship itself is a kind of response. We are saying from our hearts, “Lord, you are truly great!” and this is worship; that is, praise coming from our hearts. Worship is when we drop our treasured money into the offering box because we are giving God thanks for his grace and glory, because He is worthy. When we sing praise songs, pray, present song offerings, listen to the preaching, give offerings, we are saying to the Lord, “You are worthy!” This is worship. The author invites us again and again to worship the Lord together. Sometimes, our hearts and minds aren’t prepared, or when we are in the midst of troubles and our hearts are heavy, we find ourselves without strength to worship, and yet when we come and worship the Lord together with our fellow believers, we will influence each other, andthen, we become encouraged. This cannot be found in individual worship. Indeed, we must treasure the invitation we get each Sunday.

By Rev. Jeremiah Cheung

Full story at CBCP ORG

I am God’s Favorite

I am God’s favorite Exodus 20:18-26

18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. 19 Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”20 And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.” 21 So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was. 22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves. 24 An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I [a]record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you. 25 And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. 26 Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.’

I grew up loving the Lord – My grandmother taught me the power of God

By Pastor Kevin Mugi

Full story at Faith and Victory

GOD'S PROMISE OF DIVINE PROTECTION

Psalm 121:7-8 "The LORD shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even for evermore."

We are confident this promise in it's strictest sense was a promise to the nation of Israel, GOD'S chosen people. I also believe it is a promise to every true believer. If indeed this is true, how does God do it? There are many ways God protects us. First of all GOD has a Divine plan for every person and there is nothing that can stop it. It was established before we were born. This is called the sovereign will of GOD.

GOD has also given to every person a guardian angel to protect us from danger. Psalm 34:7 says "The angel of the LORD encamps round about them that fear him and delivers them." These are GOD'S messengers to protect us.

By Clois Clark

Full story at Faith Bible