The pioneering journey continues! Since our stay in Dakar God has taken us across the Sahel (grasslands) of the West-Africa all the way to Niamey, the capital of Niger. As the team was away on their Luke 10 journey and we were only meeting up with them again in Bamako, Detlef and myself decided to go on our own little adventure. We visited the most western point of Africa, Point des Almadies, after which we explored the Lac Rose (pink lake) region. Lac Rose has a very high salt concentrate and therefore the pink colour of the water. It was...
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Photos: 1. Hitch-hiking in Africa 2. Reciting the Koran with ink and wood. 2. Point des Almadies 4. 5. In the middle of nowhere
Left: Johan testing our Mauretanian driver's sunglasses on the trans-sahara trip. Left: Planning our Sahara trip. Left: Our driver and some of us. Late the 1st day. Left: The craziness of Saint-Louis Senegal.
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I'm writing to you from Saint Louis, Senegal! The journey here as been phenomenal. To get here we had to cross one of the harshest environments on earth: the Sahara desert. In my mind I always thought of this leg as one of the more difficult parts of this year. And it wasn't easy. It required quite a few miracles and a lot of prayer. Let me summarize the challenges of this journey: 1. Between Dakhla in the Western Sahara and the Mauritanian border there is a 320km stretch across the desert without public transport. 2. Getting your visa for...
In this part of the world people use code names. When in public, in the company of strangers, over the phone or even in emails the real thing is never said. Sensitive names of people, places or organisations are all coded (the above title is an example of what our codename would look like). Just yesterday we heard of a South African who was told to go for a routine police check. When he got there he was handcuffed and flown to England with a Not allowed back in Morocco stamp in his passport. His wife and children still in...
Detlef and myself were walking the streets of Marrakech yesterday when suddenly, towards my right, a young Moroccon man suddenly started beating a girl. He first hit her through the face with his open hand and then kicked her on the leg so that she buckled under the force. I was over there in a flash and pushed the guy away repeating: "You dont hit a girl like that." He kept on pushing back against me, saying something in Derija (the local Arabic dialect). Meanwhile the girl started crying. By then a middle-aged Moroccon lady and her husband arrived and...
Left: Sunrise from Mt. Sinai Left: Detlef and myself on Mt. Sinai. Sunrise. Below: The Medina (old city) of Fes. Awesome. Left: another picturesque street in Fes. Wayne is looking frustrated and Tinet is screaming at someone.
I would easily describe Egypt as my most "successful" and enjoyable visit to a Muslim, Arab speaking nation, yet. Our month here was stacked with divine appointments and wonderful experiences. The climax of all these experiences happened last night when we found ourselves sitting in front of a Liquor store (photo left), 1h30 in the morning, giving a Bible study to Christians in desperate need of some fellowship. I'll summarize some of the experiences: In Cairo I met a guy on the street who wanted to know more about Christianity. That's usually enough to draw your attention, but the conversation...
Its the 12th of January and Basecamp 2009 has started! Explore Africa divided up into two teams and together with the other ten small teams of North- and Southbound, started to explore Jeffreys Bay in an amazing race. We had to take variuos pictures at different places as allocated on our task paper. The finishline is in sight and and Explore Africa Team 1 is going strong. Only ten more cars to wash and a tasty snoek to braai! Go Explore Africa!
Dear Friends and Family, In 2 Corinthians 4: 8-11 Paul writes: "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also might be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. In many ways the last two months had some of the biggest highlights of my life as...
