Participant Blogs

5 Tasks; 7 days; 56 hours; 18 students and no money… Impossible? Impossible is nothing when God is at work! This is exactly what Annemarie Franken, the head of Global Challenge Expeditions, thought when she got word from God to start the first high school in Jeffreys Bay. Since that day in 2009 her obedience in pursuing this dream was followed by an abundance of blessings. The school was up and running by the beginning of 2010, but then came the second calling from God: build a school campus on faith, starting with no money. (If you want to read...

Radical in Ecuador   The modern-day gospel says, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.   Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved."  Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, "you are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life.  Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do"  -   Radical by David Platt.   Our time in Ecuador has...

Sharing stories in Colombia Just a quick testimony of how awesome God is in teaching us what he wants to teach us, when he wants to teach us, and using whatever he wants to, to show things to us. If you read my previous blog, I shared a bit about reading a book and then, after God showed me a few things through that, I started to focus a bit more on giving over and having fun, instead of over-complicating everything or being too serious all the time. He showed me that, amongst other things, he placed us on this...

Guyana and Suriname Guyana? Is that in Africa?  No, It's right next to Suriname.  Suriname??  This is the general reaction I get when asked where I am at the moment. Luckily I have a quick explanation to clear up any confusion: It's just north of Brazil. Going into Guyana I had absolutely no idea what to expect. It's not like Jamaica or Cuba where you have a preconceived idea of what it may be like...all we knew was that there were a lot of mosquitoes (not my idea of a place I would want to be in for too long)....

Carla: The wanderer. Keneilwe and I were the only two gringas in a room with 'round about 20 people situated in the southern part of São Paulo, Brazil. We were told it was still a very new church and that the passionate couple that God called to plant this church still required some help from the Estacion 337 elders to share some teachings during their services. They had the worship very much under control though, with a brilliant band willing to make lots of beautiful noise in the name of Jesus. After a complete worship session, a word from the...

Team blog: Jamaica, land we love Just for interest sake, the island of Jamaica is about 10 000km^2 (which is roughly half of the size of Gauteng alone). There is more than 400 different denominations of churches and it's therefore no surprise that it's known in the Guinness Book of World Records as the country with the most church buildings per square kilometer. Jamaica is described by its people as a "melting pot"  of different cultures and people groups that came together on this small island to become one. All of these facts had a definite impact on our ministry...

When reality hits me in Jamaica. When I was still in school, teachers loved reminding me how good or easy I still have it. How the tough part in life comes when you no longer experience the comfort of routine, family, friends and dependency on others. They used to tell me that reality is a cruel thing, striking you when you're down and waiting patiently for you to muster the strength to force yourself back up, only to hit you again with an evil smirk on its face. They would say "One day you will think back and you will...

  We were welcomed by a bunch of crazy, ukulele-playing servant leaders singing "Welcome to the Global Challenge. This will be the best year that you ever experience." My excitement overcame my fear and uncertainty, and before I even knew it my parents were gone and I needed to become a part of this whole new family. Like my dad described it, he isn't losing his 2 children this year, he is receiving a whole lot more of them. We were made a part of this community from the very beginning, going to Baviaanskloof for the first weekend and just...

Just more than a week ago our communications team was asked to post a blog on the building project that we helped out with. We had less than 8 days to complete certain tasks set out before us. This is therefore just the final feedback to show you a bit of what we accomplished. Before:                                                        After:                                   ...

Carla Peru:      "Oh how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!" -Isaiah 52:7 After 5 of our team members met up with parents, sisters and Maxine we headed to a lakeside village named Copacabana (not the world renowned beach in Brazil, but probably more beautiful between the mountains and the highest lake of its size). There we spent a few days before heading to Cusco, Peru. Probably the biggest highlight of the parents' visit (and my whole year)...