Colombia

After almost a month in Colombia we are now in Taganga, on the north coast of Colombia, and we’ll be heading to Cartagena before we take a connecting flight to Guatemala through Bogota and Panama City.

I have thought it well to create a page for Megiddo Ministries (the ministry through which I send out newsletters) on facebook. Through this it is much easier to make Megiddo Ministries more easily interactive, being able to give through short status updates, notes, testimonies, photos and videos in a less formal format than a newsletter. People can also respond and interact more easily than replying to an e-mail. Many of you have already responded to this page, but if you haven’t, just search for ‘Megiddo Ministries’ on facebook and click the ‘LIKE’ button next to the logo.

To suggest this page to friends on facebook, just click the ‘suggest to friends’ :-) link below the logo. Updates, news and photos will be shown just as though you have an extra friend on facebook, and when you miss it you can always go to the page where posts will always be available. You will be able to give comments, responses and wall posts on live posts and at the page itself. Megiddo Ministries will also still continue via e-mail, because not everyone is on facebook :-) To recieve Megiddo Ministries' newsletter,  send your e-mail address on facebook or to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Bogota is a really beautiful and modern, well-functioning city, and in the old town Candelaria region where we stayed, you’re treated to idyllic architecture, amazing local foods and an atmosphere that pleases almost all the senses. God has really blessed us through this during this time.

Our past month in Colombia has been a time of waiting to see if, when and where God gives us ministry contacts for future Global Challenge groups. In this God has been faithful in connecting us with New Tribe Mission (or New Horizons in Colombia), and we also had the privilege to visit one of the locations where teams can be sent in the future. We spent a few days there helping out on the terrain digging for and connecting pipes as well as other terrain projects that can be completed in the future. This property is intended to be used for missionary training and for hosting Christian camps. During this time we also met and shared meals with a very friendly and hospitable family that grew very close to our hearts. We also spent time chatting and praying with them.

During our time in Bogota we met a couple of people at the hostel we stayed at and God used these opportunities as divine appointments in our and in their lives. We met a girl who was a Christian, Alexandra, and she said that through all her travels she hadn’t met one Christian before, and that it was a huge encouragement for her to meet us. We could spend a few days with her and also prayed together. The day after we met her, her grandmother with whom she was very close died, and she said that meeting us also helped her with going through that. She said that encouraging her was one of God’s purposes for us during our stay at the hostel.

We also met a catholic guy with whom we became good friends. I had the opportunity and the privilege to share my testimony with him, and we continued with this as opportunity arose in the next couple of days. He said that this caused him to re-evaluate his relationship with God and his priorities in life. The evening after I gave my testimony to him, he came to us and said that he felt he should give us something. This something turned out to be 2000 Australian Dollars (about R13 000/ USD 1667) and through this God also continues to provide for us as we go on this journey.

We had to buy an extra plane ticket because of complications with our Panama visa, and taking this into account, as well as the extra financial provision, I need about R15 000 (USD 1923) more for the rest of the year, at least R12 000 (USD 1538) of that needs to be paid into the Global Challenge account below.

ABSA Bank
GCX Hidden World
Savings Account 92069558383
Branch Details: 31 Da Gamma Road, Jeffreys Bay, 6330, South Africa
Code: 334515
SWIFT Code: ABSAZAJJ (For international payments)
REFERENCE: FRANCOIS HOON

Our next area of ministry will be Guatemala where we will link up with pastor Ben, as well as a small, short-term outreach group from South Africa. The area there has recently been hit by storms and landslides and thousands of people have been displaced and infrastructure damaged. We will slot in where the most need is during this time. We also look forward to spending time with Ben, the ex-satanist priest and now Christian pastor whom we met during Global Challenge 2007.

When we met Alexandra I was struck by her comment that we were the first Christians she’d met on her journey. Most people who stay in hostels are from westernized people groups who have had and heard the gospel for centuries, like Europeans who have even played a big role in global evangelisation throughout history. Just after this I recently came across a statistic that indicates that the majority of Europeans are either atheists (believing there’s NO God) or agnostics (not SURE if there is a God), and that 82% of them have the beliefs they do because of the impossible theory of macro-evolution and its implications.

We are reaching out to people who have never heard the gospel, while those who have had it for ages are turning their backs on God because they get taught macro-evolution as fact and as the origin of life. How do we react to or reach out to such people when our walk with and our faith in God is only based on knowledge and theology, and there is no demonstration of God’s power and Spirit in our lives?

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 says: (if you don’t know this yet, this is one of my favourite scriptures in the Bible :-))

"And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

To read an article that I wrote concerning evolution, go to 'Megiddo Ministries' on facebook and to the note 'What About Evolution?'

The inside of one of the rooms at New Tribe Mission (New Horisons) property in Fusa

New Horisons' property from the outside of the room we stayed in

Another photo of New Horizons property

Digging for and connecting pipes

Another photo of the pipe we connected to supply water to another part of the property