Participant Blogs

On this path we call life, many times there are mountains that we have to climb. Often it feels like these mountains are too big to conquer. Most of us want people to see us in a certain way. I wanted people to look at me and see someone that is consistent and able to take on any challenge. It is easy to act like I can take on any challenge when things are going well. The problem is that, in the past 2 months, some mountains have suddenly appeared and planted itself right in front of me. Leadership from home told us...

  God is the encounter we can not control,  that we will never get to the bottom of. One of the most dramatic moments of silence in the New Testament is Jesus' silence before His judges. The Gospel shows us how the high priest and Pontius Pilate urges Jesus to speak. And we are told in John's Gospel that when Jesus gives no answer to the charges made against Him, Pilate is "amazed."  In this story it shows that Jesus was precisely in the position of someone having His voice taken away. He is a person who has been reduced...

When I look around, al I see is people walking around in chaos...nowhere. There is a strange feeling to a place where disaster have struck, leaving people with little to nothing hope. Kind of makes you think, you know... about what you have, what is truly necessary and what if something like this happens to my family? Will God allow that?  If He does, will He give us new hope?  Will I still praise God in that storm? I've had a few questions and things to think about this last couple of weeks. But what I've realised is that, spending...

As a team we are all starting to realize that we are moving towards the end of our 1 year journey. Rice has become our comfort food and we can probably write a book on all the jokes we made about it. The idea of any ending makes me feel sad, but where there is a beginning there is obviously an ending. It's a repeating cycle we constantly face and we always make such a big deal about it!  What I have realized is that the closer you get to the end, any ending, the more you would want it...

    Now that I’ve been to many places and I’ve met all kinds of people, I wonder. I wonder about the heart behind my actions and I wonder about the heart behind the actions of other pilgrims I’ve met. I wonder about the heart of the good Samaritan. I wish I could see the story play out.   Did he run to kneel beside the man and whip out his smartphone on selfiecam? #serving #humbled #helpthoseinneed   Suppose the innkeeper asked him for a little bit of extra cash to provide for some bandaids or medicine. Did the Samaritan...

I always thought the destination was more important than the journey, which I now know, is not the case. I think we’re all pilgrims in some or other way. Maybe not in the literal sense, but if you think about it we all go through life figuring out what we would like for it to be. Then we make these ideas our end destination. We put a lot of focus into it and concentrate all our energy on it. So much so that we tend to miss the things along the way that make big differences in our lives.   ...

As you read on my previous blogs my journey so far was incredible!  And boom just here at the end in the last 3 months everything changed. I didn’t even think of how things can change and how I can actually go through suffering, or through difficult times, but I did and now I can also just say I made it , I’m still keen for the last 2 months , I’m still open for more of Jesus, but it took me a month to say this and to be excited for the last 2 months again.   Our team...

Quitting now would take me right back to where I started, and when I started I was desperate to be where I am now... All my life I believed the lie that I don't know what feelings are and that indifference is my only reality. Never did I feel comfortable enough with people to truly trust. Looking back now I realize that I did not just shatter my own heart but I deeply hurt those who truly cared. Most of all I closed the door, window and all entry ways for Jesus. I only allowed Him in when things were...

  “Abba, I belong to you!” Five words that will be etched into my life forever. Words that have been spoken by many, but truly felt by little. These last few months have been a rollercoaster. So many unexpected turns, so many ups and downs, so much turbulence but so much freedom.  I was thinking about all the people that came before me. All the people that had to make a conscience decision to follow Jesus blindly into what He was doing for them. I recall the story of Cain and Abel. Abel brought a better sacrifice to God by...

Whilst in Bali we had a physical representation of what was busy happening in our team. An earthquake followed by a possible tsunami.    The earthquake in Bali was long overdue. It has been building up and getting closer and closer to collision.When it finally did, it was very sudden, unexpected to be as bad as it was. Just a few moments after the earthquake the tsunami warning hit. Everyone was told to try and prepare themselves - possible evacuation.    Throughout this year i have come to love my team more than i had realized. In Bali, we had an earthquake. Things in team...