Participant Blogs

 

 

Even though our time in Hong Kong was very short, it was very powerful and impacting. Like we would say in Afrikaans "dit was kort maar kragtig." We had the great privilege to stay with Albie's aunt and uncle, who are South Africans that moved to Hong Kong about 9 years ago. They were such a big blessing to us. They impacted every one of us so much, through their unconditional love and their way of giving and sacrificing so much of themselves and their time to us, without expecting anything in return. They opened up their home to us and made us feel part of their family, even though they never met us before and didn't really know us. We were completely undeserving of their love and blessings. We learned so much from them, just through the way that they live and do things.

 

 

After spending three weeks in Cuba, two weeks in the Cayman Islands and three weeks in Jamaica, we were planning on ending off our time in the Caribbean by spending one last week in the island of Curacao, before we start travelling to the other side of the world for the second leg of our journey through the Pacific. God however surprised us, because He had other better plans for us. God always knows best.

 

  Oh God, how You have blessed us by being able to go to Jamaica and meet some of Your wonderful people! How lovely it was to experience You in the beauty of Jamaica. We as a team will always remember the great time that we spent there and we will never forget all that we have learned from the Jamaicans. Here is a short summary of each team member's Jamaican experience: [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu7i0HipneU&list=UU3A8KS5f6WFU3zG2OSxVV_A&index=1&feature=plcp 400x300]     Linel Coming from the Cayman Islands to Jamaica, felt like we travelled all the way back to the heart of Africa. I never thought...

 

We really learned so...... much from and about God through His servants in Jamaica. We could never forget the people that we met in Jamaica and we will definitely always associate our Jamaican experience with a lot of kids and young people!

What are the first things that comes to mind when you hear Jamaica? Rastas wearing the colours Red, Yellow, Green and Black? Bob Marley? Weed/Marijuana? Or that Walt Disney Movie "Cool Runnings" with the four Jamaicans who trained to enter the winter Olympics with bobsledding? Some people might think about the sprinters that broke some world records in the Olympics, Usain Bolt. These are some of the prejudices that have been set up in most people's minds about this Island. This is also the picture or idea that was stuck in some of our minds when we first came to Jamaica, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that there is so much more to this country and God's goodness and light is shining through the darkness. I can honestly say that our team's initial ideas about Jamaica was completely changed and we will definitely think differently about Jamaica from now on.

 

We all had the same experiences in the Cayman Islands, as a team, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we all experienced it the same. God works in different ways and we are all on different journeys in our walk with God. Here are the thoughts of each team member on how they experienced our time in the Cayman Islands.

 

This is the song that we could not get out of our heads the whole time that we were in the Cayman Islands and we will definitely never forget it! We learned this song from the Caymanian people and seeing how they sing it with so much joy, made it irresistible to us.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-qTsP2tV5U&feature=youtu.be 400x300]

 Cayman Islands is amazingly, breathtakingly beautiful! We can’t believe that most of us didn’t know about this place before this journey. The ideal holiday destination! There are so many tourists and even foreigners who work and stay here (Americans, Jamaicans, South Africans and many, many more). Everyday there are between 3-6 of those big cruise ships that come to bring their guests to enjoy the Island. There are all these cool animals on the Island like Blue Iguanas, Sea Turtles and you can even swim with Stingrays and Dolphins!

 

 

Can Cuba be summarised in words? Impossible! But with God all things are possible... He is impossibly possible! Here is a short summary of how each team member experienced Cuba and what God did in them while in Cuba:

 

Cuba has been such an amazing experience!  What a wonderful country to start off our journey to all the Distant Island nations of the world.  As we look back on our time in Cuba, we are standing with so much thankfulness in awe of how perfectly in control God really is.  We had so many highlights in the past three weeks and our low lights were so small, silly and insignificant, that you can almost say our whole Cuba experience was just one big highlight.