Participant Blogs

Crossing the Guyanese border with a ferry into the Dutch speaking country of Suriname... Not wanting to rest our eyes, when there is so much to see... Wooden houses build on stilts, coloured flags every where, all sorts of new fruits to try while seeing so many warm smiling faces...   After a whole day of traveling we arrived at Hebron mission school where we were warmly welcomed by some of the students who just finished their garden duties...    After settling in, Pastor Moestafa came to greet us with a big smile. As one of the teachers at the...

Thailand   Or as I would describe it, taailand. Because as one of my team mates would  say - "The team leader got this crazy idea of cycling from Bangkok to Phuket". Yes, we got the cheapest bicycles we could find - half of them single speeds - and we travelled, with our luggage, for 6 days from the capital to the renound island of Phuket.   We had a week to spare before we would join with the Asia Centre Foundation. So the idea came to cycle from Bangkok to Phuket.  A gruelling 860 kilometers.   After coming overland...

In C.S. Lewis' Prince Caspian, Aslan says to Lucy, "Every year that you grow, you will find me bigger." We just completed our third country, and I find Jesus bigger than ever before. It took us about 2 weeks of travelling to get from Brazil to Suriname. During this time I realised that another way travelling adventures can enrich our faith is simply by showing us new facets of God’s exotic world, confronting us with its gloriously peculiar variety and terrifying power.  When we encounter Him on the road, in a foreign land, in cultures and landscapes utterly alien to...

Israel, the promised land, the country where Jesus walked, the place where God revealed so much of His character to us through the Israeli nation. Visiting this special place is an experience that can hardly be captured or described in mere words or pictures. It is seeing a piece of living history, a walk through the gospels. From Bethlehem where Jesus was born to Capernaum next to the sea of Galilea where Jesus ministered to Jerusalem, the city that Jesus loved. How strange and heartbreaking to see the same historic events being viewed so differently through the glasses of different...

What a joy to be able to speak Afrikaans in South America and understand the Dutch speaking Surinamese people! Brother Moes and Sister Lilian received us with open arms at the Hebron Zendelinge Skool. We spent our days building relationships and sharing stories with the humble Zendelinge students while helping out on the farm picking cherries, cleaning and chopping fish, collection eggs from the chicken coop and picking and cutting up star apples. During our "bidstonde" (prayer meetings) in the mornings God kept placing the youth of the world on our hearts. We prayed for their spiritual eyes to be...

It feels out of place to be halfway across the world in South America and then be greeted in Dutch when you sit down for breakfast. Glimpses of Afrikaans catching your ear while the students of the bible school chat makes this almost feel like home. Suriname has less than 500 000 people and is mostly thick uninhabited jungle. The city of Paramaribo is where most of the action happens. We found ourselves 22.5 km down Marten Luther King Highway outside this capital at Hebron Zendelingen School. The school is a training base for missionaries who want to go out...

A wise man I know said: 'The mind can only absorb what the bottom can endure.' After the past week I think my mind can absorb a lot more because this was a time my bottom was tested and it endured. Travelling from Bangkok to Phuket on bicycles approx 900 km, what an amazing challenge! We started of full of energy - in the hectic Bangkok, travelling till about 12 pm at night. Exhausted we found a space to sleep, under a roof for the 8 of us. The next few days we faced everything: bikes breaking down, doing a visa run...

From Biblical times until today, the Middle East has been a region subject to near constant unrest and war. Throughout the generations, the kingdom of Jordan has been a safe harbour offering refuge to countless people fleeing from war torn countries on all sides.  In an oasis like this, one finds many interesting people with inspiring stories. Stories of death, pain and destruction; stories of perseverance, courage and relief; stories of hope, love and a Saviour found. On top of that, one finds foreigners from every corner of the earth with the same heart who came to bring relief and...

During my stay in Jordan I have developed a new outlook on life.  As we disembarked, the name of this capital city of Jordan came to mind.  Amman means steadfastness and perseverance.  Now, looking back on our mission in Jordan, I realise that the people here are blessed with these two noble qualities.    We were welcomed with open arms by our hosts, their friendly hospitality made us feel completely at home. I felt humbled by these people who so unselfishly deliver humanitarian assistance to the hundreds of refugees fleeing from the war-torn Syria.  What a heart-rendering experience to see...

  Words cannot describe our time in Cobrex, Brazil at Wesleyana Methodist Church. Our time there officially began back in Itatiaia, our previous ministry point 3 hours away. Pastor Marcos from Cobrex traveled all the way to Itatiaia for a half hour visit, just because he was so keen on having our team come to his church. Our whole team spent time in prayer at separate ministry points and we both felt the need to be separated again in Rio. So on we went, the yellow team to Wesleyana Church. We were told that some individuals in the church could...