Participant Blogs

A 25 hour day  We departed from Havana, Cuba at 10 am and landed in Mexico, Cancun at 10 am with a 1 hour flight. This is how we experienced a 25 hour day.  Some background information, we travelled for 17 hours on a truck/ bus from Santiago to Havana in the heat with our knees around our ears and sandwiches packed! We slept at the airport, leaving the comforts, security and love for our Cuban hosts behind and entering the UNKNOWN. The host unknown, the plan unknown, the nation unknown. What we do KNOW is that God is with...

And just like that we were saying our good bye's and getting on a plane, watching South Africa disappear beneath us and bidding it farewell for the next 8 months. Hidden World is officially in the nations. It still seems unreal to us. 8 weeks ago we couldn't imagine ourselves sitting on the roof of a hostel in Istanbul overlooking the Ayasophia and Blue Mosque just as the sun goes down, yet here we are having explored as much of Istanbul as possible and having eaten enough free Turkish Delight in the markets to not have to spend money on...

On 31 July 2016 an Organisation Global Challenge sent a team, Hidden World, to Colombia to find God the Father, alias Provider. On arrival at Bogota the team had to split into two groups for hosting purposes. "Our group had 10 people sleeping in a flat that was designed for 4", commented Ashleigh Smart, the travel executive of Hidden World. They have been in pursuit of God since January 2016. "God prearranged everything and then we stepped into it", said Simon Dilger, the teams second in command. Jeanette Snyders, the public liason of Hidden World, shared information that one of...

From Colombia we took a VERY long busride through Equador and after about 56hours we were finally in Peru. In Ferrenafe we received a much needed South African welcome from our Peru hosts, Oom Hendrik en Tannie Ronel Groenewald. Tannie Ronel greeted us with: ''Come inside, I have rusks and coffee for you.'' With the mention of rusks we were almost in tears.   In Ferrenafe we rested a few days and ate Tannie Ronel's South African meals. From Ferrenafe we went to Trujillo to present a workshop on Global Challenge. The people of Trujillo welcomed us with open arms...

"Missions within missions." There is no better way to explain Peru. We were in Peru for a month. It started with a boat from Colombia to Iquitos. We went from Iquitos to Lima to the Juncun to Farrenafe to the mountains, Incawasi, to Farrenafe to Lima to Cusco to Machu Picchu to Puerto Matarani to Arequipa to new country: Chile. I think it is safe to say we travelled in Peru and that we had many different ministries and ways of serving. We had school ministry, a church was planted, preaching, school programs, programmes for teachers, dramas, songs, teachings. Even...

The Hidden World Guide to Central America:   Step 1   First, you're going to need to take a leap of faith and fly to Mexico with no contact and no plan. There you will meet an immigration officer who just so happens to be a pastor of a great big church. Wait for the invitation, and off you go to Mundo de Fe Cancun where your host, a complete stranger, will welcome you and your team of 11 to live with him and his family for 2 weeks. In this time you can expect to get very little sleep...

Even though we have left Santiago, Cuba over a month ago, and new memories and visitors have filled our days, I think our whole team keenly look at pictures of Cuba and just smile. The kind of grin you give when you find a childhood picture of yourself or when you see an old couple share an ice cream. I think this update is so overdue, due to the fact that describing our experience in Cuba is as wonderful, complex and diverse as the country itself. For starters, Cuba is a communistic country, but as our Cuban friends explained to...

What rhymes with Panama?  Mama. And what rhymes with mama? Snacks and toiletries.    139 days after hugging our moms goodbye at OR Tambo, it was finally time for them (unfortunately not all of them) to hop on a plane and fly half way across the world to spend time with the team. They came to visit the one child that they sent out but left with 10 new children that they will welcome home as their own.    Two days in Panama City and five days in Boquete offered many opportunities for our moms to get to know the...

How blessed are we to serve to a God of mysteries. Not only does it keep things interesting (to say the least), but it teaches us to constantly surrender all our worries over to him and trust Him with it all .   We had such favor at the Macedonian Embassy in the first week of our stay in Turkey whilst applying for our visas, we were sure they would be approved.    Lesson 1 - do not rest your trust in things of this earth.   When returning to the embassy 2 weeks later (on Tuesday the 22 March),...

One month ago, we sat/lay on the floor of Ben Gurion Int. Airport not knowing what to expect from Israel and having no idea what lay ahead. Today we sit in the same airport, wearing the same clothes as when we arrived (washed, of course) but our hearts are completely changed.   To put our Israel experience into words would be a great injustice as there are not nearly enough words in the English vocabulary to explain each one in detail.   Israel in a nutshell from each one of our teammates looks a little something like this:   David...