Participant Blogs

Hi friends and fam.  What an amazing two weeks!!!  Sorry that I haven't been in contact, but we went to an adventure camp site outside Uitenhage called Die Bos.  No electricity and no cell phone as it fell in the Gamtoos river on our way there.  What was I doing in the Gamtoos... well, let me give you the headlines from the start. 5h Teus day morning (2 Feb) we were woken by the leadership to start our challenge (if you've seen the Amazing Race, you'll have a faint idea).  We had to travel from Jbay to PE and then...

This a real photoblog so I am sorry for all the internet costs!  I am in China so it doesn't really cost anything. :-)Sit back, imagine and enjoy! We were in Russia (Siberia) for a bit longer than a month. Each week we were in a different city. When we first entered Russia we were shocked by how depressing and broken all the buildings and cars seemed. Buildings were without paint or painted in dull colours. Cars were falling apart and many were missing bumpers or was dirty and bumped. The roads were also falling apart and to drive faster...

“New season”, “exciting times”, “faith journey”, “new friendships”, “God-centered lifestyle”. These are all phrases that would sum up our first four weeks on Global Challenge 2011.

It’s been an amazing journey thus far! After five years working in the corporate world, it has been very refreshing and in the same breath somewhat challenging adjusting to the new way of life as well as having to question my outlook on life, assess where my walk with God is at and what it means to truly live a God-centered lifestyle. It’s certainly wonderful not to have to spend two hours in traffic everyday.

Hurricane Agatha that struck the south of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador has left a wake of destruction, devastation and dead bodies. With countless families loosing lives, homes and possessions we find ourselves in the midst of great need. Having hit on 29 May 2010, shortly after the Northbound team left, the effects are still being felt with problems far from over. With the hurricane comes torrential rain causing mudslides and rockslides leaving everything in near proximity buried. Panajachel, a town in the southwest Guatemalan highlands on the shore of Lake Atitlan, has been rather affected as well as those...

8 x 8 = Sitting on my dad's lap

By: Marlene Putter

 

I was a greenish eyed curly blond hair little girl at the age of 10 when life's problems and questions started creeping into my life.

 I realised that people wear shoes everywhere – even on the soft green grass – and within a few years that will be expected of me. I saw the little boy begging for money outside the McDonalds, and I wondered about his life. My friend told me that Santa Clause didn't really exist and I had a hard time convincing her. I started to question why people are always in a hurry to get to the next place while they just arrived a few moments ago. I wondered why people didn't work for fun but for money. I had to eat all my vegetables before leaving the table with mealtimes. And with all of these things swirling around in my mind another big problem hit me – the eight times table.

 

With boxes and boxes of hundreds of Spanish bibles being released to the masses in the space of 1 week, the question remains as to where to distribute them most effectively. And so it is here in Chiclayo, Peru that the word of God is literally being dropped into the hands of school children, youth, teachers, medical professionals and adult passerby’s. What an amazing mission! 

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Chf4A48Pk 400x400]  Let us be your hands It's on the television, in every newspaper and broadcast on almost every billboard and you've even read about it on the internet (like now). AIDS • we've all heard about it and the devastating effect it has had on our community, yet we so seldom get the opportunity to get our hands dirty. We can be your hands. • At the end of 2009, there were 33.3 million people in the world who have been diagnosed with Aids, of which 5.6 million are from South Africa. • 10% of all people living with Aids in SA...

When is a war won? When do you call a country concurred?   Jesus taught His disciples to pray “Let Your Kingdom come” .   And yet He also said that the Kingdom of God is at hand.   Contradictory…..?   Not at all! A country is concurred when the capital is occupied and a new government is set in place.   There may be towns and people that do not accept this new state and oppose it, but the fact remains that a new ruler now rules.   In ancient times the new king would send messengers to these...

Missiles flying high in the sky and exploding a little distance ahead of us. Twenty-two years and a month ago today, something seriously went wrong at the military barracks in one of my hometowns in Zambia. It was on the Africa Freedom Day holiday of 25 th May 1988 when,as a seven-year old boy I ran unfathomable miles. Garbage City in Cairo I remember vividly the commotion every direction I looked. People were confused and scampered as the thick pitch-black smoke advanced towards us. My whole family, except for our first born sister, were at home waiting in that moment...

The passion and intensity of the first generation Christians that we have met will always stay with me.