Participant Blogs

After a brief, very satisfying, visit to South Africa I eagerly made my way back to the team in Ethiopia. I was curious to see how they were doing and to hear what adventures they had made through on their way to the small village of Jinka in the south western part of the country. Some of their adventures became apparent on the way as the tar road leaving Addis Ababa gradually dried up. It was replaced by a bumpy, dusty gravel road and we moved at a frustratingly slow pace. At least Wayne was with me to keep me...

"My goodness," I thought, "if we survive this God would have done a miracle." I was hanging on the side of an old series 3 Land Rover pick up, grabbing onto pieces of luggage as we slugged through a water filled mud hole and dangerously tilted sideways. We were somewhere in a rainforest, somewhere in the western part of Cameroon. Going somewhere, very slowly. This was our second day of travel on the way to Yaounde, Cameroon and it was also the most adventurous. After exiting Nigeria at the immigration office we climbed into a canoe and crossed a big brown...

My parents, who are missionaries in Portugal, were also in Morocco for an outreach. We planned to work together in Tiznit with a contact they had. It was great to be able to join Explore Africa with my parents and we had a great time together!   Their contact worked especially with children with physical and mental disabilities. Which meant we could help her visit some of the children's families to build relationships and play with the children.   During this time we became friends with a young Muslim girl and her friend and finally had the opportunity to share...

When we arrived at the bus station in Zinder we met with Pastor Akin, a missionary from Nigeria. He had done CPx (Church Planting Experience) with me the previous year in Cape Town at All Nations. It was great to see him and his family again.   They gave us the church’s guesthouse but we spent most nights on the veranda under the stars. It was just too hot inside. Right next to the guesthouse was the main Mosque in town. It had a giant green Minaret rising up into the sky and it felt like the megaphone was pointed...

A few thougths I wrote down last year after Eugene Terre'blanches murder. I played with the idea in my mind: what if civil war broke out in SA? Where would I stand? What do I do if I have to protect myself and my family? My country is not a country. My country has a name, a president, a capital city, it’s called a country, but it is not a country.   A country is place which contains one nation of people with a common goal. When the rest of the world stands against you, attacks you, then you as...

My dad gave me my first Bible when I went to Grade 1. On the first page he wrote Psalm 119:9. A verse that has since become one of my favourites: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:9-11 ESV I guess, if you are sitting here, that is one thing you have a desire for- to have a life...

Dear friends, The team have now succesfully distributed food to the total value of R80 000! And all of the target villages have been reached. We thank God for this miracle. Unfortunetly the team's time is up and they need to move on to catch their flight to Ethiopia. The fact of the matter is that there are still millions of people on the brink of starvation. I recently read this article http://m.news24.com/NEWS24/Africa/News/10m-in-need-of-food-aid-20100611 on News 24 which describes the emergency that Niger now finds itself in. We cannot ignore the pleas of the people, even though the team is not...

In this part of the world people use code names. When in public, in the company of strangers, over the phone or even in emails the real thing is never said. Sensitive names of people, places or organisations are all coded (the above title is an example of what our codename would look like).  Just yesterday we heard of a South African who was told to go for a routine police check. When he got there he was handcuffed and flown to England with a Not allowed back in Morocco stamp in his passport. His wife and children still in...

The pioneering journey continues! Since our stay in Dakar God has taken us across the Sahel (grasslands) of the West-Africa all the way to Niamey, the capital of Niger. As the team was away on their Luke 10 journey and we were only meeting up with them again in Bamako, Detlef and myself decided to go on our own little adventure. We visited the most western point of Africa, Point des Almadies, after which we explored the Lac Rose (pink lake) region. Lac Rose has a very high salt concentrate and therefore the pink colour of the water. It was...