It was a great 6 months. God did wonderful things as he prepared us for our next season in GCEX. We could probably write a book just on that time.
God completely changed the way I thought about church and made me realise how crucial it was that church was a part of our mandate. I realised I wasn't only called for missions but for church, that the two is intertwined and that God's people is his church, not the brick-face on the corner.
A township called Red Hill burned down and God used us to rebuild about 70 wooden shacks and impact the spiritual lives of many people.
A Scottish prophet called Joe Ewen spoke very defining words of encouragement into our lives and released the gifts of speaking in tongues and prophecy among us.
It was also in this time that we decided to call our new expedition Explore Africa and not the Africa Challenge.
During the practical part of Cpx I had the opportunity to lead a short term trip to Zanzibar. We drove up all the way from South Africa in a Land Cruiser and Land Rover. This proved to be a very defining time in my life. On the way back from the outreach I rolled the Land Rover somewhere on a dirt road in Northern Mozambique in the middle of nowhere. The vehicle was written-off but by God's grace we all survived.
The accident could have easily affected me negatively in such a way that I would stop completely in planning for Explore Africa. It made me realise the spiritual battle that was going on in the pre-season time of Explore Africa and that Satan would be trying a few things to stop us from launching the expedition.
Miracle after miracle happened in that bush in Northern Mozambique right after the accident. From a truck pulling up to help us right after we prayed, the nearest clinic being only 2km away and a catholic hospital and mission station only 15km's away. Missionaries hosting us and flying us out, our money being exactly enough and so forth. It was a crazy time.
I also learned a very powerful lesson on grace which I'm still processing. The Land Rover I wrote-off I borrowed from Tannie Dini in Alabanza. To this day she doesn't expect anything in return. She completely let it go. I begged God to somehow help me to buy her a new vehicle. And every time his answer was: grace. “Even though you didn't deserve it- I did it,” God would say. Wow, it's somehow offensive, but very true. I don't have the ability to fix my own problems.
After returning to SA and recovering from the accident I jumped straight into planning for the very first Explore Africa expedition!
To be continued…