I think that sometimes reality is harder to believe than what we see on TV; the truth - more amazing than fiction...
Just less than a month ago we had our first taste of the legendary 'challenge' part of Global Challenge: a mini amazing race. in our small group (consisting of Riann, Henk, Suiyen, Isa and myself) we had to milk a cow, take a photo in undersized wetsuites, hitch hike, raise R100 each, sit on a cannon, donate blood, sing in front of the new soccer stadium in PE; try on a fireman's uniform; chase, catch and carry around a live chicken (Leo), ride horses on the beach and squeeze 5 people and 5 huge backpacks into the smallest of spaces. We did things I never thought we would and had GREAT time doing them! Best by far was the people we met: Vlooi and Dot who drove us to and around PE and were so incredibly generous - buying
our chicken and Steers for us; Debbie, Vlooi's aunt who gave us a place to sleep and so much love and support, and Warren, Debbie's son who did so much for us at great expense to himself. I learned that the exciting things we do and experiences are nothing compared to the amazing people we meet on the way and the powerful and unexpected way God moves in every circumstance!
Straight after the Amazing race we entered into another reality TV reality: Survivor - the bush! In new teams of 9 we lived in the bush for 2 days. we had only our sleeping bags, water bottles, knives, jackets and bibles to assist us. We did challenges for food which we prepared and cooked ourselves on a fire, using sticks as cooking utensils. I got to kill and help prepare a chicken for one of our meals! I felt pretty hard core knowing that I had killed what we were eating. we slept under the stars every night even though we had made a shelter and bonded in this beautiful new team which really was&
nbsp;'Lufyoj' (Joyful). We carried around a half burnt cow skull (frikkie) that we found on our campsite, we shot, swam, memorised, built, ate and cut our way to victory in all the challenges for food, We learned that the Joy of the Lord truly is strength, that unity is incredibly powerful and so are words, and that laughter makes even skipping breakfast fun.
I have learned that God is a God of adventure. He calls us to excitement and fun and challenge,
He calls us to joy and laughter and love. He calls us to himself...