Participant Blogs

Dear friends, The team have now succesfully distributed food to the total value of R80 000! And all of the target villages have been reached. We thank God for this miracle. Unfortunetly the team's time is up and they need to move on to catch their flight to Ethiopia. The fact of the matter is that there are still millions of people on the brink of starvation. I recently read this article http://m.news24.com/NEWS24/Africa/News/10m-in-need-of-food-aid-20100611 on News 24 which describes the emergency that Niger now finds itself in. We cannot ignore the pleas of the people, even though the team is not...

[video: 100x100] The URN (Urgent Relief for Niger) Project - DONATE NOW ONLINE Just in: Read the newest update from the field at this link: http://www.gcex.org/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=urgent-relief-for-niger-project-update.html&Itemid=156 “...they will never be hungry or thirsty. Sun and  desert heat will not hurt them, for they will be led by one who loves them. He will lead them to springs of water.” Isa 49:10 During a 28 hour bus ride from Ghana to Burkina Faso, we were listening to the news that kept blasting over the speakers. When asked for the interpretation someone nonchalantly translated that they were speaking about the food crisis...

Last week Thursday, the 15 th of April, history was made when GLA sent their first group of men to participate in the epic Mighty Men Conference in Greytown.  In the company of 14 warriors the three teachers were: Major General Johan Oosthuizen, First Lieutenant Paul du Plessis and Lance Corporal Willem Taute. They were accompanied by Private Thomas Schulz and Chaplain Wilbur Wright. The pupils were all foot soldiers from the 32 nd Battalion: Lawden van Niekerk, Johann Linder, Xanavan Dennis, Gareth Collins, Dillon Collins, Ntokozo Lethina, Liwonga Zinto, Johan van der Merwe and Enzio Pelman.   The excitement...

I went walking this morning. To my right was an open sewerage channel, a haven for malaria and other diseases. Following the channel it led me to an open field. Supposedly the soccer field. Plastic bags lay scattered all over the place, and along the rim burning heaps of garbage. The smell of burnt plastic in the air. The smoke dwindling from the garbage lazily drifted up past the palm tree till it faded in with the morning mist. A cow stood idly on one heap, munching happily away at the junk- plastic bags, old mango peels anything it could...

  Dear Friends,We are on the last stretch, heading homeward! We just completed the ministry time on Zanzibar and will start our trip down to SA in the next two days.The last few weeks God has been reminding us as a team to finish strong and has given us the scripture from 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."We know, with His grace, we can finish well.While on the island Anna-Marie visited us. She was of great encouragement to the whole team and also came to facilitate the...

After a brief, very satisfying, visit to South Africa I eagerly made my way back to the team in Ethiopia. I was curious to see how they were doing and to hear what adventures they had made through on their way to the small village of Jinka in the south western part of the country. Some of their adventures became apparent on the way as the tar road leaving Addis Ababa gradually dried up. It was replaced by a bumpy, dusty gravel road and we moved at a frustratingly slow pace. At least Wayne was with me to keep me...

1.Thou shall eat all that is set before thee. 2.Thou shall not bribe. 3.Thou shall hurry up and wait. 4.Thou shall use the toilet which is available for thee. 5.Thou shall not have any personal space and thou shall create space where there is none. 6.Thou skin shall spell US Dollars even though thou art from South Africa. 7.Thou shall have thy passport ready at all 500 000 police checks in every country. 8.Thou shall develop an identity crisis since thou art born in Africa but not considered African. 9.Thou shall love bread with all thy heart. 10.Thou shall love...

"My goodness," I thought, "if we survive this God would have done a miracle." I was hanging on the side of an old series 3 Land Rover pick up, grabbing onto pieces of luggage as we slugged through a water filled mud hole and dangerously tilted sideways. We were somewhere in a rainforest, somewhere in the western part of Cameroon. Going somewhere, very slowly. This was our second day of travel on the way to Yaounde, Cameroon and it was also the most adventurous. After exiting Nigeria at the immigration office we climbed into a canoe and crossed a big brown...