Participant Blogs

221 days after leaving South Africa, visiting almost 10 different island nations, we found the rural islands we thought this whole year's journeys would be like!   Welcome to the Philippines!   Since this was my second visit to the Philippines with Global Challenge (and it was my favourite country in 2011), I had extremely high expectations!   To be honest, I was actually anxious of our 3 weeks of ministry there, because what if it's not as amazing as last year?   What if we don't raise the funds needed for our project in Olango?   What if we...

All creation proves the realness of God!  Even in China, driven by Communism and prosecuting the Christians to go underground, the symbol for salt is a church!

Many journeys in our lives don’t end where you expect them to end.  You have a certain plan and purpose in mind, but for some reason, no matter how hard you try, it just doesn’t seem to work out.  This is not about one those times…

Closing the chapter on Brazil and opening up to Colombia.  From building relationships to digging holes.  Global Challenge will make you do it all!  I love it!      We stayed over one night in Bogota, with some of the missionaries, Mark and Joyce.  Lovely couple from America.  They work with the Indian tribes, there are about 65 different tribes, learning their language and culture and then sharing the gospel with them.  It takes about 5 or 6 years to learn their language.  Translating the bible can take anything from 15 years (for the New Testament alone) to 52 years...

We can't always finish what we started, but sometimes you actually get a second chance.  Let me take you back to 2011... Olanga Island.  If you've been following our blogs last year, this name might ring a bell.  Before going there, we heard it's a beautiful island in the Visayas Region of the Philippines, but the community is very poor, with many families earning only $1.00 (R7.00) a day.  The whole island is made up out of coral rock.  They told us about the school inside the church and how the kids needed a safe playground. Southbound 2011 started this...

   Our prayers before coming to Colombia included lots of rain.  Thinking in the terms of spiritual rain, it turned out to be drops from the sky as well, and plenty of it!  Now, as everyone who has been a child knows, when you mix water and soil, you get:  MUD!     With this in mind, after a long day of digging holes and opening up pipes, the Yellow team, having the advantage of being on top of the hill, decided that a “friendly” attack on the Blue and Silver teams, working down under, would be a good idea…...

Coming back from Luke 10, it was so great to see the rest of the team again, but still I found myself alone in the corner, many times.  Just reflecting on everything that happened and trying to make sense of it all.  What am I saying?  How can I ever try to figure God out??& nbsp; I don’t need to understand His will to do it!

Penang, Malaysia.   That's what our flight ticket said.   Okay, so we have an island to go to.   But what about a specific person?   Where are you going to stay?   What ministry opportunities are there for us?   I have no idea!   But we have 18 days, so let's go and find out.   Is that not what traveling by faith is all about?          18 unplanned days, in another foreign country.   I think this is starting to become my comfort zone.   Since we had no contacts in Penang, we...

Many of us, when we hear Bali, we think of the movie "Eat, pray, love".   An Indonesian island, predominantly Hindu, with cheap furniture.   A multitude of Westerners come here for the parties, surfing or a cheap vacation.   A few years ago I probably would've as well.   But there's so much more to Bali...       Our first few days in Bali, I felt very heavy hearted.   Idol worship, temples around every corner, people "kuiering", drugs openly available.   My mind felt so polluted. I didn't know what we were doing here?   But something...

You know that some people are just more prone to mosquito bites and such?  Well, I am one of those.  So starting out this year, I stocked up on enough Tabard.  As it turns out, mosquitoes are quite courteous and will respect the fact that you went to all the trouble of smearing yourself with a stinking cream.  Gnats, however, are not so well-mannered…   Whenever I looked at the 10 plagues that hit Egypt, I never thought the gnats that God sent to rise from the dust were a very hectic one.  This was before my first real encounter...