Participant Blogs

Twee keer ʼn week sit ek saam met ʼn paar matriek seuns. Ons kuier oor die lewe, geloof, ʼn Bybel versie of twee, en as hulle wil dan bid ons. Van hulle glo in Jesus en van hulle is uitgesproke ateïste. Niemand van hulle is ooit regtig in die bui om te baklei oor geloofsake nie en nie een van hulle probeer ander in die kerk kry nie. Om die waarheid te sê, kerk is effens van ʼn dooie punt by almal van hulle. “Ek sal eerder in ʼn boot sit en dink oor God, as wat ek in die...

My dad gave me my first Bible when I went to Grade 1. On the first page he wrote Psalm 119:9. A verse that has since become one of my favourites: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Psalm 119:9-11 ESV I guess, if you are sitting here, that is one thing you have a desire for- to have a life...

After spending the night in the unknown small town we squeezed into another uncomfortable taxi and travelled to the closest big town of Bamenda. There we had to wait a full day at the bus station before we could catch the night bus to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Yaounde was only 373km away, and the road seemed ok, but it took most of the night to get there. By now the team was increasingly tired and our patience started to run thin. When we were surrounded by a few drunk men on the bus who ended up sleeping all...

Our journey of finding the R690 000 for the Augmentation fee has placed me on a journey of my own. It fascinated me to see how the Lord provided the money. We were constantly praying, waiting and fasting for the money.  But one thing we didn’t see coming was that the Lord had already somehow provided money within Global Challenge to pay the fee. We were always expecting it to come from the outside, for someone mysterious to walk up and write us a cheque. Meanwhile the Lord had already provided what we needed- we only had to open our eyes...

There are no proper roads between Nigeria and Cameroon. At least none that we could find. The ‘main’ road between the two, at the Ekok/Ikom border post in the south has nothing ‘main’ about it. According to videos we saw and blogs we had read this piece of road was very, very bad. So we decided to take a less travelled route in the hopes of coming across a slightly easier route. No such luck. As we came closer and closer to the border with our two Peugeot’s, the canopy around us growing denser and denser, the road became increasingly...

Our journey from Zinder to Abuja was mostly uneventful. We said our goodbyes to Niger, crossed to border to Northern Nigeria and watched as the desert was soon replaced by lush green surroundings. The extreme poverty also gave way to a sense of prosperity and big bustling cities. The first of which was major centre of Kano. The famous West African Peugeot taxi we were driving in did break down about half way to Abuja. But by now we were used to that happening and patiently waited in a random mechanic’s yard as they welded and grinded away at pieces...

When we arrived at the bus station in Zinder we met with Pastor Akin, a missionary from Nigeria. He had done CPx (Church Planting Experience) with me the previous year in Cape Town at All Nations. It was great to see him and his family again.   They gave us the church’s guesthouse but we spent most nights on the veranda under the stars. It was just too hot inside. Right next to the guesthouse was the main Mosque in town. It had a giant green Minaret rising up into the sky and it felt like the megaphone was pointed...

Our bus ride to Niamey didn’t start well. It was overbooked and since we weren’t that adapt at squeezing into small spaces and rushing to open seats most of the team found themselves squeezed onto the back seat. I found myself sitting in the front of the aisle next to the driver. In West Africa they sell water in sealed-of plastic bags as opposed to bottles. It was extremely hot and we were sucking those bags dry in the dozens, our bodies seeming to slurp up every drop of moisture available.   Finally, late in the afternoon we arrived in...

Leaving Bamako we were faced with two options: one, take the bus directly to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso or two, travel to the north of Mali and visit the famous Timbuktu before entering Burkina Faso from the north.   Easy choice! One would probably say. Timbuktu is a no- brainer, many people would love to see Timbuktu and never even get that close. In retrospect I often wonder whether we shouldn’t have done that but a few key factors had made us choose going straight to Ouaga instead.   The first factor was that we were by now heavily cash...

  While Detlef and I hitch-hiked across Senegal and Mali the rest of the team were somewhere in Senegal busy with their Luke 10.   Wayne led the team and they took Luke 10 very literally. Taking just enough money to get somewhere into the interior of Senegal and then the train from there to Bamako.   The intense heat in the interior caught them off-guard, as did the poverty of the people. They ended up in a small village where nobody had much food left. Spending a few days there they basically lived of the Mango trees. Here they...