Yes.... I live to tell the story! Believe it or not =) Being the person that I have been for the past four years, it was quite something to adapt to a whole new way of living. From being a forth year student at the University of Pretoria, living in a residence, having a strict class schedule, studying for tests and being a modern day student to adapting to a life with 36 other students in something I can call a 'very-close-to-my-personal-space' living, was something I had to get used to - and fast! Through the process of getting to...
Participant Blogs
Global Challenge Missions Blog Archive: These are real blogs, from real people, bringing real change...
Our time in Cuba was almost like a time warp going back to the early 1950’s, vintage cars, horse carriages, music on every comer, no internet and street vendors everywhere. What an experience and privilege to have had a month in Cuba. We faced the language barrier with body gestures and our Spanish booklets. Embraced every moment and laughed a lot with those first country giggles when you still in shock that you’ve left South Africa. In Cuba we slept our first night on the airport in true global challenge style and then slept a night in Havana. The following...
Local Project 2014 Northbound and Work Your Way We know we haven’t introduced ourselves yet! You can keep your eye on the website because Northbound / Work Your Way will be on the roll soon! EMERGENCY ALERT! We have our first exciting local project waiting for us! Our project is to help the team that is building Jeffrey’s first private high school. (It’s ECO-friendly!!) Our mission for the next week is to complete a feeeeeew tasks. Northbound and Work Your Way is working together to build a part of the hostel. The following tasks needs to be completed by ...
Fadwa*. Our first visit was two weeks ago to a highly pregnant Fadwa. Today we hold a little Maria in our hands. Perfectly formed. The little hands are a picture of perfection. Small knuckles, small nails. She clasps my finger, barely fitting her fingers around it. We are sitting on UN mats - a grim reminder of the brokenness and realness of their situation. But for a moment, the hurt and the ugliness of humanity fades in the glory of new life. In the beauty of creation. And Fadwa is a worthy mother, her circumstances forgotten. She walks with her...
21/04/2014 The country where your heart gets torn in two, and your soul cries out “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?".(Matthew 27:46) This Hindu-colony with its pack of gods, “Father, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”(Luke 23:34) Where colonialism's deep, raw, wounds are still festering and the demonic-gods are indulging them in the hopelessness of this colony's ants. This is indeed an exotic colony, with exotic beings. If I think back to the three weeks I spent in India, I think of a tremendous number of mosquitos, the zooming of lots and lots flies around rotten food,...
"We must be known for hope for the day we live in, as the purposes of God are always great. He will do everything needed, according to His promises for His victorious bride." - Bill Johnson If God doesn’t build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesn’t guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap. It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know He enjoys giving rest to those He loves? (Psalm 127:1-2 MSG) It takes wisdom to build a house,...
'Come on,' they said, 'make us some gods who can lead us. We don't know what happened to this man Moses, who brought us here from the land of Egypt (land of slavery).'... Then Aaron took all their gold, melted it down, and moulded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, 'O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt and slavery! " - Exodus 32 - This was written thousands of years ago and might seem ridiculous - how could people just decide to make...
I know you're probably thinking that this is such a strange heading for a blog, well yes it is but it was a word i got for Nepal and on top of that it gets me super excited to write about ;) Just like when you rowing through the rapids of rough waters and it feels like a battle seemingly IMPOSSIBLE to over come.. This is similar to what i experienced in Nepal in terms of our street ministry there.( except that Jesus is way more powerful than anything we encountered).. Everywhere my eyes glanced there were idols that people...
Hello to everyone, I would like to offically invite you to follow my journey, whatever your reason may be. Welcome:) I feel that I need to give you a bit of background infomation so that you can understand the journey I'm on, and why I'm experiencing it the way I am. At the end of last year on the 7th of November my life changed for ever. My sister,Amber, 17 years old, went into a coma as a result of measels which then futher developed into menengitis and enkephalitis. Unknown to us at the time, the ICU staff didn't give...
Zapote is the name used for a delicious fruit in the area where Santiago is found in Cuba. The outside looks like a kiwi fruit without the fuzz, the inside is pinkish orange, has a big black pip and the flesh is almost like that of an avocado. The taste is reminiscent of a combination of mango, grapefruit, papaya and avocado but not quite. It has elements I can sort of reference but unlike anything I've ever had before and that for me was Cuba. The streets, vibrant with life, people everywhere, horse carriages, scooters, public transportation trucks, vintage cars,...
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So in this: my second India blog, I'll be chatting to you all about japati:) Did you expect that? I think not!! ;D So the first phase of making japati is getting all the ingredients; this metophorises ( is this a real word? Yes I create it;) ) God preparing and equipping me for my journey... He took me deeper into inner healing which refreshed my soul. Turning my face from pain Into joy psalm 40:1-3. I also lead my first session with the children sharing about being salt! Cool as salt is also an ingredient for japati along...
"All of us have the devine spark within us and we so desperately need the breath of God to bring us to life and light. Jesus wants to set the church on fire so the world can warm themselves around us and find light and safety. We are here on earth to be a home and a refuge for the lost and broken. But first we must learn the art of togetherness and celebration. To welcome people into the party of true freedom of finding Jesus we must first be students of that very way of life. We need to...
Laos: Let it rain! “Yeah guys, we have no budget for Laos.” Maybe that statement needs some clarification. To clear it up a bit, I will start one country earlier. I am not referring to Nepal in this case, but rather to Thailand, where we spent two nights in Bangkok. Unfortunately one day is way too little to truly be able to say one has seen Thailand, or even Bangkok, but we filled our time as best we could. After a morning of debriefing Nepal, we hit the streets, looking for a certain famous tourist area in Bangkok. It turned...
So in this: my second ind, I'll be chatting to you all about japati:) Did you expect that? I think not!! ;D So the first phase of making japati is getting all the ingredients; this metophorises ( is this a real word? Yes I create it;) ) God preparing and equipping me for my journey... He took me deeper into inner healing which refreshed my soul. Turning my face from pain Into joy psalm 40:1-3. I also lead my first session with the children sharing about being salt! Cool as salt is also an ingredient for japati along with atta...
From that very first moment we set foot on the small airport in Katmandu I knew that Nepal is going to be a wonderful journey and that the Lord has BIG things planned for us ! When Pastor Padam picked us up from the airport and took us to the church I immediately felt so comfortable. It was as if they were family I've known all my life, and to experience the feelimg of "real family love" was amazing (God really know what you need every moment.) and I thank God for comforting me in that...
The preaching list... Definition: “A sequenced list with names of the Hidden World 2014 team predicting when one would prepare and present a message to a church, school, assembly or gathering.” A.K.A – THE LIST! I knew my time of preaching will soon be here. And I looked forward to it! The previous time when it was almost my turn, the Lord threw a surprise at my front door. In Guyana, which already feels like it was ages ago, our team split into our small teams to visit two different churches on one sunny Sunday morning. Tiaan gave us the...
We were welcomed by a bunch of crazy, ukulele-playing servant leaders singing "Welcome to the Global Challenge. This will be the best year that you ever experience." My excitement overcame my fear and uncertainty, and before I even knew it my parents were gone and I needed to become a part of this whole new family. Like my dad described it, he isn't losing his 2 children this year, he is receiving a whole lot more of them. We were made a part of this community from the very beginning, going to Baviaanskloof for the first weekend and just...
I saw a young child of arround 6 years in the isle of a busy street in Agra, India she wore a white dress but the dress was soo dirty at places that it looked black, totally contaminated with dirt. There was no one close to her, to protect her from: cutting remarks, glares and advances.She was so exposed to the world and the evil people in it. Nothing seperating her from this... There is an ever present evil as the streets in India really aren't safe!It struck me so much as every child needs and deserves love as well...
God's creation is something so beautiful and something so complex ! But yet it is so simple ... He made all this for Him and then made us so that we could enjoy it with Him and see how all things glorify Him, we are the crowning glory of His masterpiece, then through that we could love Him more ! Let's get back to our intended purpose ... let's go back to being at peace and loving Him !
2 months of Australia, 1 of Tasmania! Half of the team is here on the island, doing volunteer work at farms and houses, the other half is at sheep farms, raising founds for the rest if the year and maybe an extra country! (Muller still with us in Spirit) There's time for going out on the streets, and time for working, "embrace the season you're in" or you'll never live fully.. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:4-5 NIV)
I don't have any words to describe my feelings. I'm so overwhelmed. First I was afraid and didn't know what to expect in Laos, but it turned out pretty good. This two weeks was a journey of patience for me. I spend some time with God to find out what His heart is for me. Then He came and show me that He is going to give me more and more challenges in life and on my journey and that will be the challenges that's going to make me grow closer to Him ! I had some challenges and with...
One night in Amman We flew to freezing cold Jordan from hot South Africa and had to get to Isreal from there. It was getting late and we knew that the border was going to close soon. So we just planned to sleep in the airport and go to the border first thing the next morning. As we arranged transport for the next day with a man he invited us to go sleep in his summerhouse for the evening. He took us to the house, got some gas to heat the house with a heater and even gave us some...
Training Coming to Global has been my first big 'shift' in life, since I was homeschooled and never changed from hometown before. Not only has my physical circumstances changed but my heart and mind has reached some 180 degree changes as well. Our God is always eager to work in us and His grace is enough to do the work. During the first week of training we had a survivor camp. (But I never even knew that Global students has a survivor camp.) It was unforgettable. The first night I thought that I was going to die from the cold....
Just more than a week ago our communications team was asked to post a blog on the building project that we helped out with. We had less than 8 days to complete certain tasks set out before us. This is therefore just the final feedback to show you a bit of what we accomplished. Before: After: ...
China We assume that everything in China is more or less what we imagine it to be, but I guarantee that China is different from the way most people are picturing it. The moment when I think of China I start to think of all the negative things the world has spoken over this incredibly big nation. When you hear China and 1.2 billion people in one sentence, I immediately put on my straight face in disbelief. Our team had the privilege to spend 2 weeks together in Xiahe. We had to take 2 connecting flights of 2 hours each,...
At first glance you won't think that Kathmandu has so much locked up in itself. It's a poor city with many rich people. Our time in Nepal was spectacular! Oh, turquoise team! During training we could see that Jesus placed us all in this particular mini team for a reason. We just had to wait and see when and why.. Let me introduce you to the turquoise team, just in case you need to hear from us again :) Drumroll... Madelein, Chanelle, Annique, Anseri, Quinton and Coetzee. When I started off thinking about writing...
When one hears that someone is training for an adventure mission trip they usually have no idea what type of training it is. One person asked me if training included an obstacle course or something...you should have seen my face...I cannot imagine myself actually making it through an obstacle course. It would be a lot like ....like....like....well like something no one wants to see basically. I am not the most fit person in the world at all. So I quickly expelled that thought from my mind and decided that the best course of action was to expect the unexpected. ...
After a whirlwind 7 weeks of training, that felt somehow longer than that considering all encompassed in them. I had laughed, cried, been excited, angry, confused, exhausted refreshed, very uncomfortable and so much more. But you see, I'd chosen this ( at least I think so) and when I came to Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa I knew training would be challenging but quite necessary. Well, I didn't foresee my irritation at having to do some athletic exercises on Survivor, being challenged on how I prefer to put God in a box I can wrap my head around when in actual...
