Participant Blogs

  “ I wanne be like a tree...planted by the water...trusting in the Father to help me grow                                                          the deeper my roots go...the better my fruit show...the Living Waters for all to see” This is a simple children’s song that I heard long ago, but when I actually thought about it - it turned out to be very profound words. It is also what God has put on my heart for my...

Delhi. What an amazing city: Vibrant and full of enticing smells and sounds. Tasty street food in all shapes and sizes with chai tea around every corner and a great place for some souvenir shopping. Before arriving I heard about all the marvellous things to experience in Delhi, but there is one thing that people seem to underemphasize: the Delhi tax. You see, Delhi provides all these wonderful sights, sounds and tastes at a cost. It demands payment in one way or another. If you do not spend all your money or time there, then it will take what it...

Something that I have learned from my team this year is the value of family, especially being able to enjoy meals together around a table, preferably a long table. We have had many special moments. Serious moments, sad moments, but most of all a lot of very funny moments. The table is a place where you can sit down, relax and be yourself with the people you love. Through the year God has brought many people from the outside to sit at our table. They would sit down as strangers, but they would leave as family. I believe the table...

  God is the encounter we can not control,  that we will never get to the bottom of. One of the most dramatic moments of silence in the New Testament is Jesus' silence before His judges. The Gospel shows us how the high priest and Pontius Pilate urges Jesus to speak. And we are told in John's Gospel that when Jesus gives no answer to the charges made against Him, Pilate is "amazed."  In this story it shows that Jesus was precisely in the position of someone having His voice taken away. He is a person who has been reduced...

An unforeseen pilgrimage gave me new insight in the happenings celebrated during Easter. At sunset before Good Friday we arrived at Dar Es Salaam. Unsure of whether to spend the night at a friend of a friend or to travel, we huddle and pray. We decide to cancel the arrangement and find the overnight ferry to Zanzibar.    As Jesus was captured just after sunset, Peter and the disciples were uncertain whether to follow and risk persecution or stay at a safe distance. Peter follow the captured Jesus, and standing in the spotlight of the guard’s fire, betrays his beloved...

India the eye opener!   Hi, I hope you are well and blessed. I just want to let you know that everything is well. I have had a hard time in the beginning of this country. The weather is hot and the mosquitoes are eating us alive, but the children have stolen each and every one of our hearts. I wish I could show you what God has done for me! That I can only wish for until you see me again. As a lot of you (whom know me well) know I have always had a problem with my...

Luke 10: I'm sure everyone has their own idea of what it must have been like in Jesus' day, being one of his followers or even in the any years to come where people like Paul went out to plant and encourage churches. Well, during our Luke 10 journey in Paraguay it felt to me as if we went back in time. After God blessed us with money through two different people, we were well on our way to a little town we knew nothing about, except that God placed it on our hearts. A town called Benjamin Aceval, mas...

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...

We are having fun in the sun. Working in Phuket.

Wow this was great! A week in Coffee bay and a week Canzibe. And then The First Challenge. to get back to J bay. It involved true taxi's, police, pigs and afval. Coffee bay is an amazing place. Beauty beyond believe and full of all kinds of adventure. Work your way build a fence around the school building "Plankie". (The best looking fence in Transkei) We also destroyed a concrete floor and laid a new one.At one stage there was no water. But there is no problem that God cannot solve. Water was always just a prayer away. Oom Gerrie's...