New beginnings - From Jeffreys Bay to Mahosheni

“New season”, “exciting times”, “faith journey”, “new friendships”, “God-centered lifestyle”. These are all phrases that would sum up our first four weeks on Global Challenge 2011.

It’s been an amazing journey thus far! After five years working in the corporate world, it has been very refreshing and in the same breath somewhat challenging adjusting to the new way of life as well as having to question my outlook on life, assess where my walk with God is at and what it means to truly live a God-centered lifestyle. It’s certainly wonderful not to have to spend two hours in traffic everyday.

 
The Global Challenge 2011 participants have been split into four teams – Northbound, Southbound, Explore Africa and Work-your-way. I am part of the Northbound team and as the name suggests, the majority of the countries that we will be visiting during the year will be in the Northern hemisphere.

The Global Challenge headoffice is in Jeffreys Bay. This has served as our base from where we have received our training. However, we’ve only spent a portion of our time thus far in Jeffreys Bay.

We spent a week in Elandsrivier (affectionately known as ‘& rdquo;the Bush”). We divided into teams and took part in a Survivor challenge for the first three nights. Survivor tested our endurance, taught us so much about ourselves as well as team dynamics and brought a real appreciation for all the small niceties in life (Let’s just say that we made sure that we passed by MacDonalds on the way home). We built shelters, we cut down trees, took part in challenges in order to ensure that we got some food in our stomachs, we cut down more trees, we slept on dirt and some in the rain, we ate dog food and grasshoppers (in the eating challenge). This was Survivor on steroids! Fortunately no one got voted off at tribal council.

For the remainder of our time in the Bush we were leaders on a high school camp. This was a wonderful time to minister to the children, especially those in our “D-Groups” (Discipleship Groups). My D-Group consisted of three grade 11 guys – Wouter, Devan and Xandervan. It was incredible to spend time and pray with these guys. Devan is new to the Faith and Xandervan is still in a place of searching and asking questions. Please keep them in your prayers!

After a few days back in civilization in Jeffreys Bay, we all headed off on a 2 week outreach to Coffee Bay in the Transkei (a 546km journey). What a significant time this proved to be! The testimonies of God’s faithfulness, provision and healing were amazing!

We worked in the Mahosheni community, about 1 hours walk from Coffee Bay. We stayed with the locals in their mud huts (rondawels), shared their food, learnt some Xhosa, dealt with loads of flies (and more flies!) and washed in the nearby stream (an act of faith!). As with our time on Survivor, we learnt to really appreciate all the luxuries that we have become so used to.

We helped build an aids clinic and a rondawel, dig a toilet and set up a vegetable garden – but God did so much more – both in our lives and the lives of the community. We had wonderful opportunities to go into the community from hut to hut and spend time and pray with the locals. It was amazing to be part of what God is doing – to see God bring healing and to experience the joy of many of the people. God taught me a very important lesson in this time – All we need to do for God to use us is to be humble and be available. It is God who works. We just need to be obedience vessels. Don’t hold back because you think you are not worthy or underqualified – be bold and be available!

We encountered a lot of spiritual warfare during our time in the community. As you would imagine there is a lot of ancestral worship in the area. This was a wonderful opportunity to see practically that “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.” God’s power was incredibly evident when Bongi, one of the ladies in the chief’s household, gave her life to God and also when we had the wonderful opportunity to pray for the chief and his family.

After an amazing time in Mahosheni, we stayed in Coffee Bay for two nights. The Transkei is an incredibly scenic part of South Africa and we were fortunate to take a 3 hour walk to ‘The hole in the wall’

And just as we were winding down and looking forward to a relaxed trip back to Jeffreys Bay, we were thrown a curve ball when the leaders informed us that we were about to embark on our first “Challenge”. As in the game Amazing Race, we had to get to our final destination, and complete a number of tasks along the way.

We were divided into teams of about 6 and had to get from Coffee Bay to Jeffreys Bay with R100 per person and complete tasks such as catching a pig, visiting Nelson Mandela’s house in Qunu, eating chicken feet, drinking 1 litre of Amazi and learning a Xhosa song amongst others. With only R100 per person this seemed quite daunting!

We were informed of the challenge on the Friday evening and that all the teams would depart on the Saturday morning at 6am. We were able to try and arrange transport out of Coffee Bay on the Friday evening. After loads of prayer, frustration and what seemed to be the last opportunity to arrange transport still on the Friday, we flagged down a Landrover passing by who was miraculously heading in the direction of Nelson Mandela’s house in Qunu the following morning! Our faith was boosted!

In Qunu we visited Nelson Mandela’s house and were able to catch a squealing piglet in one of the local’s gardens – this after quite an ordeal with the mother pig!

And then God showed us again his hand of provision and what he had ordained for us for that day. After not more than 5 minutes standing on the side of the N2 in Qunu, we were picked up by a man named Gert on his way to Cape Town. He was able to take us all the way to Jeffreys Bay. But most importantly, we were able to minister into his life, pray for him and speak God’s truth over him after him sharing with us that he was truly down and out, going through a divorce and had slept the night before with a gun in his hand.

We are really trusting God for further healing and provision in Gert’s life. Please keep him in your prayers!

We eventually arrived in Jeffreys Bay at 4:30pm (narrowly beaten into second place by the leaders team if I may add). We were tired and sun burnt after a day on the back of a bakkie, but so full of faith as we saw how God can provide. We never used a cent of the R100 per person. In fact we had more money than we started after Gert gave us money to buy chicken feet and Amazi. To God be the glory!

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I look forward to sharing on what God is doing and to hear what God is doing in your lives! Be available for God!

Love in Christ,

Jonathan

 Prayer requests:

• Finances – despite God providing for me personally, our team is still very short on finances for the year. We are really trusting God for his provision! If you feel led to contribute, please see the banking details on the website (you can use "Northbound" as reference)

• Mahosheni - That God’s light will continue to shine in the Mahosheni community and that we will be able to complete the project that was started

• Bongi – Discipleship and growth as she starts her walk with God

• Gert – That God will show up in a very real way

• Devon and Xandervan – That God will speak to them and minister to them

• Jonus, Goodman, Will, Martin, Frans – that God will reveal the truth of His Gospel to them