Participant Blogs

Fez is a beautiful city. It was found in 789 AD and is considered a holy city in Islam. In the old city, or Medina as it is called, the thousands upon thousands of little alleyways and tiny streets gives it a real medieval feeling. The streets are lined with shopkeepers, stalls, vendors and craftsmen of every kind. Most places the streets are so narrow that supplies need to be transported in on Donkeys. It's also very easy to get lost in them and I'm sure some of the team did! (You'll have to ask them for that story).  ...

Leaving Bamako we were faced with two options: one, take the bus directly to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso or two, travel to the north of Mali and visit the famous Timbuktu before entering Burkina Faso from the north.   Easy choice! One would probably say. Timbuktu is a no- brainer, many people would love to see Timbuktu and never even get that close. In retrospect I often wonder whether we shouldn’t have done that but a few key factors had made us choose going straight to Ouaga instead.   The first factor was that we were by now heavily cash...

I'm writing to you from Saint Louis, Senegal! The journey here as been phenomenal. To get here we had to cross one of the harshest environments on earth: the Sahara desert. In my mind I always thought of this leg as one of the more difficult parts of this year. And it wasn't easy. It required quite a few miracles and a lot of prayer. Let me summarize the challenges of this journey: 1. Between Dakhla in the Western Sahara and the Mauritanian border there is a 320km stretch across the desert without public transport. 2. Getting your visa for...

That night Detlef had a dream that someone needed help driving a blue Land Rover all the way to the Mali border and that we agreed to help- which solved our transport issue!   We weren't sure if we needed to take it serious or not, but in any case would have to start moving. So we decided to take a local bus to the first big town on the road to Mali, which was Kaolack, 200km's from where there.   Our Senegalese bus was soon packed to the rafters and became quite unbearable. To make things worse it broke...

 Mozambique/ Zanzibar Journey The road to the island The rest of the group, Adi and his wife Rohan, Dan, Cristyanne and Corneli safely arrived in Vila Ulongue on the 21st. The next morning our departure was delayed with a quick visit to the hospital. We had to test Adi and Ro for Malaria- it was luckily negative but it turned out that they had tick fever. All in all the Malaria testing and the anti-biotics cost us 12MTs- thats about R4.- For both of them!   That night we slept next to Lake Malawi and spent the next day there...

[ As I walk the dusty roads of Red Hill, visiting people in their new shacks, I get convinced that this mission was more than just His. It’s mine as well. This is what it’s all about.

And so I pray everyday, that I serve not just the people but Jesus. Jesus is in Red Hill, it’s His. ]

I’m walking, crawling rather
      Broken on my knees
             In the valley of the
      shadow of death,
      Nothing is left, nothing keeps
me going.
                  I’m ready
                                   TO DIE.

  But I wouldn't want to pick up any rifle!   I don't want to get to that place of no return.   But then again, am I willing to fight for my country to become a country? The right kind of country. A real country.   There are many different ideas of what our country should be like. For some that idea excludes certain people groups in this country. For some certain “nations” within this nation have less of a say.   Others have personal motivations and hidden agendas which they cover with a front of patriotism and ideals....

Ready for a high impact, short term, adventure of a life time?   Then join the India Impact expedition from the 3 rd to the 21 st of December 2011.   On this expedition you will travel to the legendary and well known orphanage in Kota in the Rajastan province. During which time you will be challenged and served by the love and dedication the children show towards Jesus. On the flip side you will also be challenged physically with the opportunity to serve them by repairing and maintaining the 3 story boys hostile .   This expedition is not...

As part of training however we decided to take all the expeditions to Egypt first. In 2009 there were only three expeditions: Explore Africa, Northbound (focusing more on Northern Hemisphere countries) and Southbound (focussing more on Southern Hemisphere countries). It was a good idea to conduct further training outside of South Africa. It helped me to get to know how my team reacts in a foreign country without the burden of logistics. I also had more personal time to adequately prepare myself spiritually for the year ahead.   However the cross-over from a few logistical responsibilities to the full brunt...