No turning back, no turning back...

  As humans we instinctively fear the dark and the unknown that comes with it. We often imagine monsters lurking in the shadows - watching us, waiting to attack. As children we have night-lights and soft toys to comfort and protect us against these monsters, with a graceful parent to check under the bed every now and then. Once we reach adulthood the monsters change into more realistic things to fear such as burglars or LEGO blocks on the floor, anything that could cause physical harm. Either way we still approach the dark with caution and heightened senses, ignoring the...

When God calls you on an adventure, you say yes. No asking questions or checking your schedule. Just a simple, no second thoughts, YES! So with one month left of traveling the world, eating what is set before me and sleeping anywhere, I am now saying yes more than ever. It started with a trip into the foothills of the Himalayas to a small Sherpa village. So with an 'off road' bus we traveled for 10hours on a gravel road and then some with a jeep or two. We arrived at our destination after sunset and were welcomed by the...

And so our journey comes to an end as we spent our last 25days in India. This colourful and vibrant country was definitely nothing like I have seen before. We spent our first few days adapting to our surroundings and soaking up everything New Delhi has to offer: historic monuments, spice bazaar, street food, and a multitude of colours and smells. It was a pleasant yet overwhelming experience. Soon we boarded a 12hour train to the famous holy city of Varanasi. It is considered holy by the Hindu religion because of the river (the Ganges - that is said to...

As a child I often looked at the rain and imagined it was God’s tears falling from heaven because of all the terrible things in the world. As an adult with knowledge of science, I now sit and mostly just enjoy the trickle of water down the window or the pitter-patter on the roof. This morning, however, I found those thoughts of old returning together with a feeling of longing that was not from me. In my past ignorance I have prayed that God would break my heart for what breaks His (a truly irresponsible prayer if you are not...

There are few things more enjoyable than getting to a bus stop in a new city, after many hours of travelling, and being greeted by a familiar friendly face... And so our stay in Yogyakarta started with our global friend, Annami, and her posy of scooters fetching us one by one from the bus station.   Mental picture time: Imagine five scooters rocking up and lifting us five girls with 2-3 day bags each and weaving through the traffic filled city streets, to drop us at an unknown location, then departing without a word to fetch our friends and our...

Every Luke 10 faith journey looks different. The single similarity however is the golden thread of God’s greatness that is weaved into each adventure. This greatness is often displayed in the provision, protection and extraordinary miracles God does through ordinary people. With the memory of my previous 3-day journey from Mthatha to Jeffrey’s Bay still in the back of my mind, I felt slightly nervous hearing about the next level of trust: 7 days (and 7 nights) relying on God to lead, provide, cross a pretty broad language barrier and use us to display His glory in a foreign land...

Delhi. What an amazing city: Vibrant and full of enticing smells and sounds. Tasty street food in all shapes and sizes with chai tea around every corner and a great place for some souvenir shopping. Before arriving I heard about all the marvellous things to experience in Delhi, but there is one thing that people seem to underemphasize: the Delhi tax. You see, Delhi provides all these wonderful sights, sounds and tastes at a cost. It demands payment in one way or another. If you do not spend all your money or time there, then it will take what it...

To suffer: to undergo, be subjected to, or endure pain, disability, death etc. patiently and willingly…. If I look back on the past few weeks and conversations I had, many topics come to mind: love for others, serving without reward, true wisdom, grace and mercy, forgiveness etc. But the theme that seemed to make its way into every situation was suffering. What does it mean to truly suffer? This question can be easily answered by my mind but for the first time I was confronted with a response from the heart. As the definition above describes, suffering is normally involuntarily...

Indonesia: 258 million people spread over 13 000 islands and the reason I joined Global… Generally speaking I have a rule to not build expectations but rather approach every situation with an open mind and teachable spirit. Unfortunately this was not the case in terms of my view on Indonesia. I have never had much interest in travelling to the east so when my attention fell on Indonesia one night while praying, I knew this country was special. Since that evening more than a year ago, I have not been able to shake the idea that God wanted me to...

  Yes, sometimes Global feels like survivor. Every day you get a clue about what will happen next (because God doesn’t give you a road map) and often you are unsure where the next meal will come from. Only difference is that instead of voting off a team member you don’t get along with, you deliberately fight for love and to keep unity…. So still in Izmir we woke up one morning to notice half our team’s shoes had been stolen during the night. It was only then that we thought maybe camping in a dodge public park was a...