Participant Blogs

During our challenge up in the Himalaja's it was all about doing what the locals do and it turned out to be a lot of fun. PLANTING RICE  The challenge started out with us sitting in class ready for another exegesis.  This time however, the passage given to us could not be found in the Bible and contained all kinds of interesting tasks.  From planting rice, finding a donkey and one wearing a sari while riding it up hill, drinking chai tea and visiting a  tea plantation, playing a cricket game against a local team, preparing an Indian dish from...

Looking back on our time in New Zealand, this has been the most difficult country for me to be in.  The contrast compared to what I've experienced in India, is significant.  On first sight, this country looks perfect.  There's no sign of poverty or people struggling to keep head above water.  Everyone's got all they need and more.  And this was one of the things that hit me the moment we arrived.  Driving towards our destination a sadness overwhelmed me.  The kind of sadness that accompanies the sight of people who have all they want, who's lives are going well...

Imagine...

The sound of laughter and children at play,
the streets announcing the birth of a new day.
 Yahweh Shammah - the Lord is there

A new born baby taking the first breath,
not even knowing there's something like death.
 Yahweh Shammah - the Lord is there

A widow in mourning standing at a grave,
the fatherless wondering how to behave.
 Yahweh Shammah - the Lord is there

A very big city always alive,
where most of the people are busy to strife.
 Yahweh Shammah - the Lord is there

Looking back on the time in China, there is a few things that I’ve learned and that stands out for me. 

When we get so caught up in die patterns o this world, God sometimes need to issolate us in order to speak into our lives. 
What better place than Masaiti (meaning place of issolation) in Zambia.

Since the challenge to get from Pretoria to the FCE base in Masaiti, God's been teaching and showing me so much.  With the
focus on God and Rom.12v2, I've come to realise how easily we fall into the pattern of this world.  Our thinking patterns
become more and more worldly and then we try to fit God into this pattern as well.  We trust on our own insights, loosing
focus of Him.

Looking back on our time in Kuala Lumpur, there is so much that I’ve experienced and seen in these 3 weeks, it’s impossible to share all of it.  Yet, I can say God’s been faithful

During our time in the orphanage in a town south of Delhi, I've learned so much from the children.  It's interesting how it always turns out that one's blessed hundred times more when you think you're going out to bless others.  In the end we've all been a great blessing to each other.   All of this happened while praying, playing and loving each other. Painting the school First of all I want to praise God for his provision.  We've trusted Him to provide funds in order to bless the orphanage and help with some projects.  We were also challaenged to...

When I was younger (in the time of Aladin & Sinbad stories) I also thought about the wishes I would make if I had a genie in a lamp.  After much thought I decided that if I had only one wish in the world, I would like to make the world a better place to live in.  The only way I could think of to accomplish that, was to wish for everyone in the world to be Christians.

Arriving in Delhi, we spent our first hours in India at the airport while waiting for our leadership's flight form South Africa to arrive.  This gave us time to catch up on what happened in Malaysia and Thailand.  After their arrival we had our first exposure to Indian traffic -  at 22h00 even peak traffic in SA does not match up to this.  And there was even more to come in the following week. After spending a day in Delhi, visiting the markets and making sure we've all got the necessary cultural sensitive apparal needed, it was of to the...

During our time in Kuala Lumpur, the school had a movie fundraising event and we got to see the movie – Chronicles of Narnia:  Prince Caspian.