Participant Blogs

Words of a famous book from Louis Giglio but got such a more profound meaning to me the last couple of weeks!! Exodus 3:14 I AM WHO I AM is sending you out...''  It all started a while back when I went up mount Sinai. I went up the mountain and came down, not with 10 commandments, but a great encounter with God saying to me, I did not only send out Moses, but I AM WHO I AM is also sending you out celeste... So leaving Egypt, going to Israel, I had this I AM WHO I AM at the...

 On this journey we have eaten many weird and wonderful traditional foods, so when Emme and I went on our Ethiopian excursion we always opted for the cheap “familiar sounding food”. That is, if we could decipher the horrible spelling on the menu. We just always had ‘cheeps’ (chips), “cooed vegetable”(cooked vegetables), or “spaget” (spaghetti). Our budget did not allow for “stake” (it could be steak or the thing to kill vampires with), calculator chicken (chicken with a side serving of calculators?) or “meet with rice”(a date with a dude called Rice?) On our way back to Addis Ababa to meet up with our team again, the Japanese girl we shared a taxi with suggested we try the traditional Ethiopian dish called “Bisto”. We ordered it very hesitantly and waited anxiously, expecting something like eyeball soup or cow hooves! Much to our delight it turned out to be a very delicious spicy meat sauce served with two loaves of bread.

Our bus ride to Niamey didn’t start well. It was overbooked and since we weren’t that adapt at squeezing into small spaces and rushing to open seats most of the team found themselves squeezed onto the back seat. I found myself sitting in the front of the aisle next to the driver. In West Africa they sell water in sealed-of plastic bags as opposed to bottles. It was extremely hot and we were sucking those bags dry in the dozens, our bodies seeming to slurp up every drop of moisture available.   Finally, late in the afternoon we arrived in...

And so it begins. One overcast morning in Fusagasuga, Colombia, four team members received their first challenge papers as the Green Team. After tearful goodbyes to the residents of the New Tribes base, we donned our heavy backpacks and started the long walk to the "mercado", or the market. 

Due to the nature of this blog I have to break it into the below parts so it will make more sense in reading so here we go: 1.The last week in Fuza 2.Our first challenge (a 1 day Amazing race type adventure) 3.Time in Bogota 4.Next stop Venezuela?? 5.My time   Last week in Fuza: So the last week in Fuza was spent finishing off all the building projects we were busy with. The last weekend before we had to finish we had 5 Students from Bogota that came to join us in the work. We had till the...

    Waaaa who would have thought that the first sentence off a blog can take 10 minutes to think of. Neither did I, but I guess I just wanted it to be the right one, but this one will do. Well I will get straight into it. Road to the Promised Land was quite an experience both spiritual and physical and in 40 hours we had a little taste off what took Israelites 40 years.  (Exodus 16:35) Thank God it was hours and not years otherwise I would be writing you this when I would be 60. It all...

What a joy to be able to speak Afrikaans in South America and understand the Dutch speaking Surinamese people! Brother Moes and Sister Lilian received us with open arms at the Hebron Zendelinge Skool. We spent our days building relationships and sharing stories with the humble Zendelinge students while helping out on the farm picking cherries, cleaning and chopping fish, collection eggs from the chicken coop and picking and cutting up star apples. During our "bidstonde" (prayer meetings) in the mornings God kept placing the youth of the world on our hearts. We prayed for their spiritual eyes to be...

Looking back I am greatful for the chance to be part of what God is doing in Zanzibar. As final serving act we painted the church in Stone Town, together with the congregation. They were so eager to paint that we left the idea of painting it neatly. We did our best to finish is well, but it was also good that the congregation participated. That is worth much more than a perfectly painted building. They were very excited about their "Christmas present".  As previously noted, our budget was tight so the team pitched in to buy the paint for...

              During one of our prayer sessions in Panajachel (Gautamala) we came across this river that flowed all the way to the Lake here in Panajachel.  I truly experienced that God wanted to tell me something special about this river.  We continued on with praying and I just truly sensed that God wanted to remove all the durt and filth within this river.  The river symbolizing Gautamala.  While doing some bible study I truly experienced this bible verse to be the word God wanted to share with Gautamala and our time here.  "And he showed me a pure river of water of life,...

Thank you. First of all,  to Abba Father, He gave me the dream and He provided for me in ways I couldn't even imagine!   To Jesus, for walking with me every step of the way.   To the Holy Spirit for his absolute guidance. This letter is just a big THANK YOU to everybody who was involved in making this 80Days around the world journey possible for me.   Thank you for all your prayers and all your financial support.   Through your contribution you have blessed me in ways that I cannot describe.  I will be forever grateful towards you.  Thank you...