Participant Blogs

The Southbound 2011 team have all returned home now or onto new journeys the Lord has called them into for 2012 and are all walking the daily challenge of putting into practise the faith lessons learnt throughout the year, amidst old ways of life with family and friends. Here the real challenge begins...!

Words can hardly describe what India is like, let alone sum up 6 weeks of ministry, new experiences, strange cultural habits, Hindu idol worship, hot food and spices, spiritual warfare unlike any we have ever known, smells and sights of poverty known but ignored by the western world, personal struggles and attacks, disbelief at personal growth and change throughout the year, but also experiencing the power of prayer and the very real presence of God in the lives of children so small their faith touches your inner being and makes you wonder why you’re not living the life you have been called to live-to be in constant communion with the Lord and in step with the Spirit! What an example of faith!

Southbound 2011 is heading to India on Saturday 25^th September to finish off our one year journey and we are excited to experience another culture, with many opportunities for ministry. Four weeks of our time will be spent at an orphanage, which has about 400 children with a range of ages up to 18. There we will spend time with the children and also help with projects such as painting and repairing buildings.

At the moment, as a team we do not have the finances to cover the building materials to carry out the projects set out for us or bless the children with play equipment. To be able to support the orphanage we ask that you would consider supporting the ministry there. The main need is for paint and equipment, as well as the need to bless the children living in the orphanage.

Maayong Buntag everyone…or aayong hapon / gabii depending on the time of day you are reading this blog! We have just returned from working with Church of God Arise children’s camp on Olango Island in the Vasayas region of the Philippines, on one of 7000+ islands here. The Philippino people are really lovely and we have enjoyed getting to know their cultural traits and being a part of their lives the past 8 days.

You know that some people are just more prone to mosquito bites and such?  Well, I am one of those.  So starting out this year, I stocked up on enough Tabard.  As it turns out, mosquitoes are quite courteous and will respect the fact that you went to all the trouble of smearing yourself with a stinking cream.  Gnats, however, are not so well-mannered…   Whenever I looked at the 10 plagues that hit Egypt, I never thought the gnats that God sent to rise from the dust were a very hectic one.  This was before my first real encounter...

John 14: 12-14- ‘I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things then these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.’

We all know, whether we’re parents or not, the need for our children to have a safe and secure place to learn, play and just be kids.  We take this for granted and think that a basic need such as this is available everywhere.  On Olango Island, in the Philippines, this is not the case.  But with your support, it can be!

 

With boxes and boxes of hundreds of Spanish bibles being released to the masses in the space of 1 week, the question remains as to where to distribute them most effectively. And so it is here in Chiclayo, Peru that the word of God is literally being dropped into the hands of school children, youth, teachers, medical professionals and adult passerby’s. What an amazing mission! 

As we write this, we are safely in Chiclayo Peru.

 

To our supporters, family and friends of the Southbound team, Greetings from Bogota Colombia! As we write this we are getting ready to depart for Peru this morning via, Leticia, Iquitos, Lima and then to our final destination of Chiclayo by Friday. God has been faithful in meeting our needs so far and although we don't have the finances as yet to complete the whole trip without some hitching and faith journeying, we are trusting God to provide the rest of our needs in abundance (1 Cor 4:2; Matt 25:21)! Proverbs 10:22 was given to us as a team for our journey to Peru and we are walking in this by faith!