Participant Blogs

  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...

    We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place. We stay there even though we go away, and there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there. Kenya is such a place. It is truly like Narnia.  There is something beautiful  about Kenya that is thousands of years old. Too old to be truly captured by poems and songs. Loved by everyone, loved so very deeply. Kenya is everything real in a world of make believe.    But even though I left some part of me behind, I also found...

  Why do we make life so complicated? Why do we so easily make mountains out of mere ant hills? It is not supposed to be this difficult and I dare say it is rather tiring to worry about everything all the time.    My stay in Egypt these past two weeks has been a time of growth and transformation. Firstly I would like to mention that all the pictures I have seen, all the history that I have read and heard throughout my years of study about this wonderful place, I could have never imagined it to be so...

After two months of training and preparation the day finally arrived for the international leg of our Global Challenge journey to begin! It was with much excitement and expectation that our entire group of 36 students got on the midnight flight form Johannesburg to Dar Es Salam. On arrival we stepped out into the pressing humidity of an early morning in Tanzania. Everyone scurried about to pick up their bags and hurry off to catch the next mode of transport which would take us to our various destinations. When the commotion died down it became evident that my bag might...

             Names are not always what they seem. For most of us it means identity and belonging. The identity that names give speak of description, which in most cases leave the negativity of prejudice and pride behind and also often leads us to form a stereotype.    During my stay in Macedonia I was introduced with the thought that people and places are more than just a name. Macedonia for instance, may be known for it's rich history and important people, but for me Macedonia is like a good find in an antique store...timeless and...

Many of times we hear how much God loves us and wish nothing but the best for all his children; the ones that know his love and the ones that don’t know it as much. Looking back at my life, knowing all the wrong that I have done to others and myself, I’ve said and done things that I will always be ashamed of, the worst was not knowing if I am really forgiven. I’ve read the scripters and have said the words out loud, but still every detail of my past was not forgiven; well at least not all,...

Going to Turkey was different for many of us. Some enjoyed not knowing where to go, what to do or what God has planned for us there. We only knew that He wants us to serve but the question was who first. The first guess was the refugees. Makes sense…they need help… we are here to serve… so we aimed for them, but it was like shooting a moving target in the dark. We heard so many rumours about where they are or should be but arriving only to see a lack of people to serve… Praying to God for...

I have come to the conclusion that man has been made comfortably numb by the world. And our flesh is chronically addicted to the feeling of not feeling.  Every thing the world throws our way, provokes us to harden our hearts, to close our eyes, to look away. Because sometimes your heart and soul can not handle feeling the brokenness  the world brings across your path. So we decide to become numb, because not feeling is easier than feeling. But this state of numbness come with terrible side-effects, which is in favor of the enemy. Because a numb heart can...

This is a done deal!! Jesus is in me and I am in Him. This is who I am!! I am everything God said me to be. I don't need to search for it, I don't need to do something to get it. He already gave it all to me with the cross. All I need to do is release it! Release God in me trough His Holy Spirit.