Participant Blogs

In a community broken by neglect, insecurity, poverty and lack of parenting and opportunity, children are in need.  One in two children in the area are impacted by the effects of HIV/AIDS. As a result, children are deprived of their basic childhood needs. In the Transkei there is an opportunity of hope that Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 YOU CAN be a part of. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Starting on 3 February 2011 , over the period of 10 days, Global Challenge South Bound team will launch the "Fence of Love"...

The 6^{th of March marked the beginning of our journey. We flew to Sao Paulo (Brazil) via Doha (Qatar) and overnighted at both airports. On the 8th we took a bus from Sao Paulo to Ubatuba. I can only say that I got a new awe for the beauty of God’s creation. It is truly as if a part of Eden can be seen in Brazil.}

 

A LOUD HELLO to everybody! For those of you who did not meet me at the briefing weekend last year, I`m Tian Bothma, 26 years of age, and a member of the Hidden World expedition. Today marks 7 days before the start of the GCEX 2011 expeditions, and I can no longer contain the excitement. Knowing that I can’t begin to imagine what awaits me or any of the other participants on the expeditions ahead of us, I simply wish to share a small part of The Word with you all. It is from Joshua 1 verse 9: “the LORD...

We started out in the Transkei with a lot of uncertainty, and yet that is where God just loves to come and bless you with surprises!  From arriving and pitching our tents in the dark, we woke up to the most stunning view over Coffee bay! It was amazing to experience how open the community was in lending us the tools we need for building the fence and jungle gym:  pick axes, spades, wheelbarrows, "koevoet", pliers... Heaven's flood gates were really open! Then the work started! A typical day would start with solo time at 06:00; breakfast at 07:00;  D-groups...

On Sunday the 6^th of March Southbound Departed for Brazil, via Doha (Qatar). Not only was this my first time out of South Africa, but also the first time that I slept in an airport. On arrival at Sao Palo we decided to sleep over at the airport and take a bus to Ubatuba in the morning. It turned out to be a good decision!

 

As the year goes on, I started to reflect on the first half of our journey; on the things we did, experience, and learned. And felt it only fair to write a short blog about it.

If Brazil was like our time in the pastures, moving around relatively freely and building relations ships with other people, Colombia was like the Shepherd’s call back to the sheep pen. Due to security reasons we were not allowed as much freedom as in Brazil. In fact in Fusagasuga (Fusa) we were only given one or two opportunities to go to town in small groups, of two or three people, with an escort.