Participant Blogs

Mozambique/ Zanzibar Journey

Phase One

I've always liked and preferred Land Cruisers. We owned one once and in my dreams I always see myself driving a Land Cruiser through Africa.

Yet, such is God's irony, and humour, that he sent me on a mission trip with a Land Rover. The vehicle I was taught to fear.

Of course being in London you see a lot of the royal family. Deep down most people want to be part of the royal family. You maybe dream of marrying prince William and to follow in the footsteps of princess Diana. With so much authority and money at your disposal you can change the world. Maybe you dream about being the king and to rule the country. It could be great - everyone looking up to and wishing they could be just like you. I wondered about the royal family and their responsibilities and most of all their hearts. Being...

Hello everyone!       I wanted to touch base and keep you up to date with the exciting things that are happening here in South Africa! I know that it has been a while since you have heard from me, but I promise you I have not slowed down since I got here almost a month ago now.         Looking back over the last month, we have been able to accomplish a lot. I, along with 14 other team members and 3 other teams from our organization have been doing local mission projects in the Jeffreys Bay area. From building...

Africa! What a beautiful place Rwanda and Uganda was🇷🇼🇺🇬 I was mesmerized by the kind hearts of these people. We thought that we were going to serve and love. Instead we have been served and loved so much more. And what makes this even more special is that these people really don't have much. But what they do have they give away or served us with that.   Holding an african child on my lap, waving at schoolkids screaming Muzungo, hugging baby goats and just loving the friendly hearts welcoming you around every corner! I was thinking back on childhood....

The Southbound 2011 team have all returned home now or onto new journeys the Lord has called them into for 2012 and are all walking the daily challenge of putting into practise the faith lessons learnt throughout the year, amidst old ways of life with family and friends. Here the real challenge begins...!

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 !

It’s the 5th of April on a beautiful sunny day in South Africa as work Your way are preparing for Indie. What a privilege it is to serve the people in Indie and to work for Jesus Christ. As we were praying I prayed the following prayer:” God break our hearts for what breaks Yours for the people of Indie.” That prayer changed my life in so many ways. On the 1^st of April it was the last time I saw my luggage before we were on our way to Indie. From that moment a journey of faith started and God changed my life. I was told that I will receive my luggage in Indie on the 7^th of April. When we arrived in Indie my luggage was still not available and it also wasn’t in Indie “YET”. The feeling I experienced after hearing the news that my luggage is still not in Indie was heartbreaking.

So I went into Indie with a few t-shirts and a few pieces of pants which my parents bought me when we were in South Africa for a few days after we went to Guatemala. We arrived at Immanuel orphanage in Delhi and already I saw a place with no life and as I looked around everything just seemed so dead. Being in a place like this with no luggage with me, I just wanted to give up. Then we met the little children and in an instant I lost my heart in Indie. Everywhere you just hear children calling me Sachin uncle (Legendary cricketer in Indie) and the just want to play. Here I am in a place that so desperately needs hope and here I sit negative about my luggage and then the orphanage provided me with a sleeping bag and a tent. Immediately God provided what I needed most. That night of the 8^th of April I was lying in bed crying about circumstances and I asked God why is He doing this?

He then reminded me of what I prayed back in South Africa and then I realized that God was breaking my heart for what is breaking His for the people of Indie. My heart was crushed and God showed me that the orphans are experiencing this feeling every day. They also only have a few t-shirts and a few pieces of pants, some of them don’t have parents and some of them are just abandoned. So I experienced the feeling of only having a few things and to be content in these circumstances. Then I ask the question why do these things happen to these children and why can I have a life where I have everything, food, parents and even things I don’t need and they don’t? And Jesus just answers us all and says:”that is why I made you.” I made you to be the change, to be the hope for the orphan.

In some way God made me just like these children to experience their feelings and pain and God gave me this scripture while I was going through this tough time:” Though the Lord gave you adversity for food, and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear Him. Right behind you a voice will say, “This is the way you should go, whether to the right or to the left.” (Isaiah 30:20-21) God is always behind us telling us where to go whether it’s in hard times and even in the good times. I also realized that these children are in desperate for change in their lives; they need a revival to take place in their hearts. On the 16^th of April one of our work Your way team mates Welman Bartleman went to town for some reason while we all were working on our project in Indie. I asked the wYw team where did he go and they said he went to email his mother because it’s her birthday. After 6 hours of him being gone I was thinking wow how long is this email? At 2 o’ clock that afternoon he arrived back at the orphanage and to my surprise he had my luggage with him which I lost 15 days ago. I was so overwhelmed I didn’t know what to do.

It felt like I found that lost treasure in my life and the feeling was so great. Immediately I was thinking of the children and I wanted them to receive God in this way, I want them to experience Him like never before. I want rivers to flow in their lives and I want the drought to be broken in their lives. Then I ask myself how can one bring change in their lives in a place where it seems dead and where it looks like there is no life, how do you change their lives in these circumstances? I can’t do it but only God can do it, but I want Him to use me. All I can do is to pray the Word of God unto their lives and to just wait upon the Lord to react and change their lives: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways," declares the LORD.

& nbsp;"Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts."

 "Rain and snow come down from the sky. They do not go back again until they water the earth. They make it sprout and grow so that it produces seed for farmers and food for people to eat.

 My word, which comes from my mouth, is like the rain and snow. It will not come back to me without results. It will accomplish whatever I want and achieve whatever I send it to do."

You will go out with joy and be led out in peace. The mountains and the hills will break into songs of joy in your presence, and all the trees will clap their hands.

Cypress trees will grow where thorn bushes grew. Myrtle trees will grow where briars grew. This will be a reminder of the LORD'S name and an everlasting sign that will never be destroyed. (Isaiah 55:8-13)

 

I pray that the Word of God will fall onto their lives like rain and that it may water their souls and God promises us that His Word will not turn back to Him empty and may Cypress trees grow where there are thorn bushes at this moment in their lives, and may they see God in their lives and may YOU who are reading this blog see that God is here, He is all around us and may you see that rain will fall on your soul and Cypress trees will grow and thorn bushes will be driven out of your life.

 

Your love is peace to the broken…

Faith for the widow…

Hope for the orphan…

Strength for the weak…

Global Challenge. Sharing the good news with a world in need. What a good salespitch!   Training has been amazing: learning and discovering a whole lot of things about God, dying to self, His Story, myself and my teammates. We're also busy with teachings on how to actually spread the gospel, moving from the idealistic salespitch to genuine tools and approaches.   Learning to strike up conversations with "I'm part of a search and rescue team, saving the lost" and "I'm a body-builder, building the body of Christ" to actually sharing  the story of our Saviour giving the ultimate sacrifice...

It is not easy for any of us, but we have to travel... friends were made ... character created , disciples, worked ... lessons learned and renewed energy ... All we could do here was done ... now we need to follow the sequence in God's plans! this is just the beginning of everything the Lord has for us ... and the beginning it was a challenge for everyone ... but I learned early on that God loves me very much, more than i imagined! having to leave is not easy, but it is necessary to fulfill the journey .....

Thailand was indeed full of whimsy. In the physical as well as the spiritual. When I think back on our time in Thailand I have these brief moments where I just remember long hour bus trips, waiting on bus stations at unusual times in the morning and I definitely think about a few trails. But most of all. I think of moments that feel, well to be honest, moments that feel unreal. Almost to say, a few movie moments, in Notting Hill, Hugh Grant tells Julia Roberts that the time he spends with her feels like a movie, unreal, "surreal...