Participant Blogs

At break time during our school visit, Hennie pulls up with the ambulance ( a Landrover Defender). He needs to do a pickup and there is space if someone wants to see what they do. I jump in and marvel at the scenery as we race on the footpath to the village. This is the only ambulance operating in the district. There is no telephone reception and villagers need to run to the clinic to come and fetch the ambulance. This is only done when all the traditional medicine has failed. It took us a good 20 minutes of off...

Karibo Kenya! This Swahili word, 'Karibo' greeted us all along our journey along with warm smiles and hearty handshakes.    Kenya was kicked off by crossing borders on foot and spending the night at the police station - FOR FREE! We pitched our tents and enjoyed one of many meals to follow of 'ugali' (mieliepap). The following day we embarked on our journey across country via the Mojale Star. As sophisticated as this sounds, it turned out to be a bus loaded with dust and broken seats. This journey was an all-nighter and early the next morning we arrived in...

    The GC team split up into three teams - two being up to Thailand, and one staying in Kuala Lumpur. The red team are the only lucky ones who are all in one team! So for a change we're gonna minister together for the next tree weeks! We left for Hat Yai, Thailand on the train yesterday evening and arrived here this morning (29/4/08). Our new friend, June, was at the station to meet us! We are staying at the dormitory on the premises, and our dinner has already been a "WARM" welcome! Our ministry will consist of...

Day five started very slowly as last night our room was, as Welman stated, like a primary school rugby tour.  We stayed up late telling ghost stories in the dark… and then everyone had to go to the bathroom together like a bunch of… uhm… girls.   Last evening Bernard spoke at the women’s gathering.  Being a guy, this was quite a daunting task, but God came through and gave Him the necessary words.  The message was on the compassionate God we serve and how He looks after us because we are His children. De Necker then had the men to preach...

I fix my eyes on You, Jesus, because you are my source of life. During my two years at university the Lord really started working in my heart and I surrendered my life to Him. I studied BA Law for two years and embraced every moment of being a hostel student. My law classes were filled with excellent lectures, lots of laughter with beautiful friends and merciful marks. It was a wonderful time of spending time with friends that love Jesus and getting to know who I am as a child of God. Although I really enjoyed the experience of...

The first two days of the Africa Challenge is gone! What a

June 2005 my feet touched the ground of Thailand for the first time.    I was introduced to Mr. Prasert Tipparat (better known as Mr. P) and his wife Mrs. Pannee Tipparat (better known as Mrs. P).    At that stage, Mr. P was the principal of  Rong -Or school in Chiang Mai (the Northern part of Thailand) and Mrs. P a teacher at Talook school.    They are both retired now.   This wonderful man and his wife open up their house for the teams that come and go each year.    They ‘take care of the team’ (as...

We left Masaailand with sad hearts, and left the parents and support team in Narok with even more sadness. A sponsored night at decent hotel made it a little better. We arrived in a village in the West of Kenya just before dark. This is one of the legendary stops in Explore Africa: the Simple church planting movement of Mount Elgon. Mount Elgon was opened to GCEX during a Luke 10 journey in 2007. The Explore Africa team of 2009 did Simple Church Training, then working with another contact. M***, was the translator at that training. A team member wrote...

Have you ever crashed in a jungle by plane ? Well... neither have I. But I think the adrenaline levels I have experienced, landing in Manaus are pretty much the same as before the actual crash... Imagine a river so wide that out of the airplane you would mistake it with the ocean. And along the riverbed, an unending garden with all the shades of green you can think of. Beautiful from up there, but landing on what looks like to be on a bed of trees ( Because you see only jungle and no runway ), is quite frightening! ...