Participant Blogs

The beautiful French architecture of Tunis.  Tunis, complete with street cafes and baguettes and a metro system, feels more like Paris than even Paris itself!     The Medina (or Old City) is one of the best places to get lost in... This was the front door of the place where we stayed.   The ancient city of Carthage (Ancient Rome's greatest enemy!)... This city was at one stage called Africae by the ancient Greeks, and that's where our continent got it's name from...just some trivia.   The beginning of our Luke10!!!!!  This picture was taken at the fort on...

This is what my leg looks like after some insect of some form or shape (in Zanzibar) launched a feeding frenzy on me 4 weeks ago.  In a month's time the itching hasn't even stopped.  Healing comes slowly in Africa...Ai.

Explore Africa has been in Zanzibar for almost 3 weeks now and I've only lately started asking myself: "What is it about Zanzibar?" Why do thousands of tourists and honeymooners come to a place where the heat is almost unbearable, where Islam rules everything and where there is almost never electricity? What is it that keep the planes and ferries coming to this island filled with excited people? Is it the beaches? Is it the spices? Is it the cocktails? Of course we didn't come to Zanzibar for any of those things and neither do most workers for the Lord. ...

Some crazy things happen in Burkina Faso!!   Niger and The URN Project were definitely highlights of the year.   Beautiful Ghana...  

The BRICK IN THE WALL Campaign is a new GCEX initiative to help with the development of the brand new Global Leadership Academy Campus in Jeffrey's Bay.

We want to give YOU the opportunity to become a part of this initiative and to help lay the foundations for tomorrow's leaders!

 

The tremendous support the URN project has received has enabled the Explore Africa 2010 team to distribute food in two different towns the past weekend.   Tânout is a town about three hours drive to the North of Zinder. The town is set in arid and almost barren land and the entire district has been severely affected by the ongoing drought and food shortages. The need in Tânout is big and expanding at an alarming rate.   Pastor Issa is a man from the Fulani tribe who lives in Tânout with his wife and four children. The church at his...

Are Muslims more difficult to reach than other people groups? Isn't God's power to reach the peoples of the earth infinate and is Islam no challenge for Him? Why does it sometimes feel like there's a wall around Muslims keeping them from seeing the truth and accepting it as the truth?   "Allah hath set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a veil" (The Holy Qur'an) (Sura II v.7)   Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see...

Once upon a time there were three friends.  A girl and two boys.  The girl loved tennis and caramel popcorn and sported a head of dark curly locks.  Her name was Linel.  The one boy, whom was called Albie by his friends, loved to glide through the air on a board called a skateboard.  The other boy, who loves travelling, lost all his hair but still retained ridiculously good looks throughout his life.  This boy was called Gerrie.

The more I think about Malaysia, the more I realize what a wonderful country it actually is!
Many a Global team has left their footprints on the culture-rich soil of Malaysia, but for some reason there is little mention about their times here.  Furthermore, I realized that there is still a bit of a lack in solid contacts anywhere in the country.

So, Malaysia isn’t really on any list when it comes to island-nations and we didn’t really intend on spending time here except for our transits through the airport onboard all the cheap Air Asia flights.  In a sense, Kuala Lumpur airport became a second home to our team, without us ever really wandering into the city and beyond.

Since I joined Global Challenge in 2010, I always hear about these couple of places that ex-Global Challengers always speak about, those places that have been visited by many of our teams over the years.  You hear stories of God’s provision, challenges, teams sleeping on the streets, people turning their lives around etc.  Hong Kong is one of those places.  Though, what separates Hong Kong from places like India or Guatemala, is that there isn’t an established ministry point that all teams visit. There isn’t a foundation in place for teams to build upon.  Instead, teams tend to do their own thing each year. 

Since the birth of the vision of Distant Islands, I knew that Hong Kong is one of the places we have to visit, even though it doesn’t sound that “distant” to most and even though it’s only partially island...

The desire was stirred in my heart for our team to go and establish something that will last longer than the week that we’re in Hong Kong. My dream is to see a foundation being laid in Hong Kong so that future teams can go and build upon it and so that we can one day hear of all the fruit that’s being reaped over there.

Albie’s uncle and aunt have been residing in Hong Kong for the past 9 years after his uncle accepted a job as a pilot for Cathay Pacific.  They offered to host us for the week we were going to spend there, and luckily for us they live on an island called Lantau.  This came as an answer to a lot of prayer for accommodation to suit our budget.  The hospitality we experienced from Wim and Juanita, their kids and even Stella, the lady that works for them in the house, just blew my mind!  Never did we think on a Global journey we’ll be having rusks, boerewors, koeksisters, biltong and all sorts of other little huge blessings! Furthermore, we had the opportunity of spending real quality fellowship time with each of them and really got absorbed into their world.

In the area of ministry we reached a couple of dead-ends which raised a couple of questions within myself, especially after I felt so certain about coming to Hong Kong.  In the end we found an open door at 2 very well established ministries with a lot of international acclaim. They invited us to become a part of what they’re doing in Hong Kong and most importantly, what God is doing there.  It turns out that in the future our teams might have the opportunity to get involved in outreaches to muslim minority groups, prostitutes, drug-addicts and the poor and destitute living in the city.  What an awesome provision from God!!  Our prayer is that these contacts will be fruitful and that our involvement in their ministry will bear much fruit in the future.

After Hong Kong, all I can tell you is that we serve a Living God.  We serve a God that longs for fellowship with us.  We serve a forgiving but just God.  Jesus is Lord, and that’s all I know and that’s all there is to it...