Participant Blogs

So, I woke up in my own bed this morning after 7 weeks of sleeping in unfamiliar places with people I hardly know. Now I can say that I have 35 new homes built in my heart. On Thursday night we were commisioned, and man, what a long journey to FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!    Talking about homes.  Time to be honest about the one I'm living in. The one you can't see with your eyes.  The one you feel with your heart.     For quite a long time, I was disobedient and didn't want to leave behind the familiar, to experience...

"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,...

  If I were to ask you to think of the most favorite gift you have ever received, what would your answer be? I am sure you have quite a few just like me but if I were to name but one it would be my time in Spain. I was given the immense privilege to not only give a gift but to receive one much greater than I myself could have hoped for.    Our adventure started in Tarifa. A quaint little seaside town overlooking the glorious mountains of Morocco. Coming from a country where Christianity and Bibles are...

I have learnt a lt this year. I learned that things don't always turn out the way you planned, or the way you think it should. And I've learned that there are things that go wrong that don't always get fixed or get put back together the way they were before. I've learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones. This year wasn't always pretty. It wasn't always comfortable. Some things and situations even break your heart. But that's okay. The journey changes you - it should change you. It leaves marks on your...

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” (psalm 34:8) 

Our journey began on a Thursday morning.

Our mission: Create an awareness of foreign missions and Global Challenge as an outlet and Link up with Past Participants and parents of current participants and encourage them.What we noticed: God has been equipping and stirring up people to walk out the life of abundance where they have been positioned and He just so happened to allow us to be involved in that process…

Wait! What? This is not about me?    So I am selfish. Done. That's it. What else is left to say? Listen to this sentence - it tells you values that Global Challenge decided on. We share the Good news to a world in need. Guess what I concentrated on. Yup, good guess! The 'we'-part.  Luckily I can promise you this: God will reveal unto you if in anything you are otherwise (than what He wants) minded (Phil 3:15). Because He is faithful to His word, He came to show me how absolutely selfish I am. I started realizing how...

Leadership gets defined when you are thrown into the back of an airplane wondering if all the team members are on board. Or when, a supposedly agreed upon, 5 minute per person shower, turns into a self proclaimed 10 minute spa treatment with 6 other people waiting for their turn with a "what are you going to do about this" expressions on their faces. Or even that moment when someone tries to convince the guys that lentils have the same amount of protein as a steak. And all this before breakfast. Our team is neatly divided into 5 smaller teams....

  Im busy reading this book on vulnerability and shame. Apparently shame does not like it when we talk about it and this is where vulnerability comes in. Its to open up a part of yourself that may be assaulted or hurt by others. So its about the courage to open up. To step into the arena and fight the fight with others who are courages enough. And people who are not in the arena don't have a say or should not influence the way you think about yourself. Your worthiness is in your courage to step out in faith...

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,...

What? How does that work? It does, if you're a sinner. I am a very honest person and I want you to fully understand my journey, so yeah, sometimes you're going to think I am an absolute fool. Great! Please think that, because my friend, that's exactly how gross and sinful and foolish I am, without God. Great thing that God doesn't leave us in our sins. Thank God He doesn't. Now of course, you want the juice (news) of what I have done. I thought that I had the right to want. I started to want the things other...

it is in serving the people that you discover something about the heart of God. We are currently spending time in the local community meeting people and playing with kids in the streets.   The way we view community is limited to our environment. We compare what people have to what we have. It is like we deem our standard of living as the benchmark.  Our take on the world is limited to our own suffering. We lack perspective. Their is a world in need and we are blind to what the world really needs...hope. We all need it. Jesus...

  We just finished our first trip into the Nations... It was an interesting journey because of, for example the Kenyan buses, (Matatu) and all the people who want to sale you stuff all the time because you're a" Mzungu" (white person), the time we had to work with the kids at school, the prayer room we started, etc... But I want to focus my first blog on something different... I think the best challenge I had, was to try to apply what we learned during training into my daily life of team-member from Hidden World... Its a big challenge...

I'm being reinvented. Trying new things. Beliefs are broken. New ones are being formed. It's not an easy process. The values Jesus taught are treasures. They bring life. They bring meaning to a world in need. They make our world a better place. The values will change humanity and the way we are living. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Love your neighbor. Take care of the widows. Honor your parents. Don't kill someone. Don't take stuff that don't belong to you. Treat others the way you want to be treated. And then in the end...do this all out of...