Participant Blogs

Sharing stories in Colombia Just a quick testimony of how awesome God is in teaching us what he wants to teach us, when he wants to teach us, and using whatever he wants to, to show things to us. If you read my previous blog, I shared a bit about reading a book and then, after God showed me a few things through that, I started to focus a bit more on giving over and having fun, instead of over-complicating everything or being too serious all the time. He showed me that, amongst other things, he placed us on this...

Radical in Ecuador   The modern-day gospel says, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.   Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved."  Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, "you are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, and in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life.  Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do"  -   Radical by David Platt.   Our time in Ecuador has...

Carla Peru:      "Oh how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!" -Isaiah 52:7 After 5 of our team members met up with parents, sisters and Maxine we headed to a lakeside village named Copacabana (not the world renowned beach in Brazil, but probably more beautiful between the mountains and the highest lake of its size). There we spent a few days before heading to Cusco, Peru. Probably the biggest highlight of the parents' visit (and my whole year)...

Luke 10: I'm sure everyone has their own idea of what it must have been like in Jesus' day, being one of his followers or even in the any years to come where people like Paul went out to plant and encourage churches. Well, during our Luke 10 journey in Paraguay it felt to me as if we went back in time. After God blessed us with money through two different people, we were well on our way to a little town we knew nothing about, except that God placed it on our hearts. A town called Benjamin Aceval, mas...

Carla: The wanderer. Keneilwe and I were the only two gringas in a room with 'round about 20 people situated in the southern part of São Paulo, Brazil. We were told it was still a very new church and that the passionate couple that God called to plant this church still required some help from the Estacion 337 elders to share some teachings during their services. They had the worship very much under control though, with a brilliant band willing to make lots of beautiful noise in the name of Jesus. After a complete worship session, a word from the...

Guyana and Suriname Guyana? Is that in Africa?  No, It's right next to Suriname.  Suriname??  This is the general reaction I get when asked where I am at the moment. Luckily I have a quick explanation to clear up any confusion: It's just north of Brazil. Going into Guyana I had absolutely no idea what to expect. It's not like Jamaica or Cuba where you have a preconceived idea of what it may be like...all we knew was that there were a lot of mosquitoes (not my idea of a place I would want to be in for too long)....

When reality hits me in Jamaica. When I was still in school, teachers loved reminding me how good or easy I still have it. How the tough part in life comes when you no longer experience the comfort of routine, family, friends and dependency on others. They used to tell me that reality is a cruel thing, striking you when you're down and waiting patiently for you to muster the strength to force yourself back up, only to hit you again with an evil smirk on its face. They would say "One day you will think back and you will...

  Our team went for our last two bowls of R2 ice cream and quickly passed our room in the church before we walked to Besaida's house for the last supper with our Cuban friends. By the time we were already a bit late (not by cuban standards though) and we tried to pick up the pace just a little bit when a lady stopped Keneilwe asking for money. This is not strange as it was obvious that we were foreigners, and foreigners usually have a lot of money. Somehow this was the very first time I felt I should...

Just an update on a few things that happened during the rest of training. It's hard to tell you what stood out for me, because when I think about it, every teaching, conversation, situation and project had a certain impact on me during  this time of training. I can't really admit that any one meant more or less for me than the other. Since my last newsletter we did the Veritas 1 Bible study coarse, we had many mind-altering teachings from different speakers, we had a ladies' (and men's) weekend where we discovered some radical truths and enjoyed the company...