Participant Blogs

The grass is always greener on the other side but, through this "green" surface the pain, suffering, hunger and confusion of a lost nation...

As you travel through Zimbabwe you are amazed at the natural beauty of the country. The trees are in full bloom and dense green plants and bushes are flourishing everywhere. The country seem healthy after the rainy season, but this sight however is deceiving.
Behind this is a country that is falling apart, people begging for food and shelter and children in ragged clothes selling corn to by passing motorists for an income.

India has been great. I't weren't like the previous countries where I've been mostly challenged by the people and lifestyle. Rather I was challenged with how serious I am about living for God. The first week we went up into the Himalayas, to the farthest town where you can go by vehicle! We had a week's training and saw the most beautiful scenery! Part of our 'race' in the mountains was to help locals plant rice, which I just loved! Getting into the mud, all dirty! After that we went to an orphanage/mission school. We painted their school, taught Maths...

The greatest treasure of our time in Morocco was prayer. In a country where we are not allowed to do much with regards to our faith we had to acknowledge that God can do so much more through our prayers. 2 Chronicles 7v14 became our daily bread as we interceded for this nation. We saw and heard of the barrenness of the land, the oppression suffered by outcasts and the darkness imprisoning those who are lost and the most appropriate response was to fall to our knees. We acknowledged that He alone is mighty to save. We prayed the Word...

  But I wouldn't want to pick up any rifle!   I don't want to get to that place of no return.   But then again, am I willing to fight for my country to become a country? The right kind of country. A real country.   There are many different ideas of what our country should be like. For some that idea excludes certain people groups in this country. For some certain “nations” within this nation have less of a say.   Others have personal motivations and hidden agendas which they cover with a front of patriotism and ideals....

A small Canadian girl who wanted to become a dolphin psychologist was one of my friends this weekend. She loves animals and loved to pet the snake we cought. Her dad is the man in charge of the camp site where we are working. We currently revamping a summer camp next to a lake. We are repacking storage rooms and unloaded a truck full of donations of chairs and equipment that a church gave the camp site. We have learned that hard work is not always lifting heavy things but sometimes just plain scraping a wall before painting it. It just is not as much fun as moving big things but lots can be learned. I asked God to learn me something or show me something that can make me understand Him more. This is what He reviled to me:

Imagine a hiking trip that follows the trail of all the places where Jesus performed his miracles and doing it with 10 other spirit filled people, well this is how the 4 day trip started... We received 25 fish right out of the Sea of Galilee from a local and while we waited for our self-proclaimed fishermen to clean and gut them, we tried to cook beans which ended up taking TWO days to soften. So with fish flopping in packets, beans soaking in a ziplock packet and a rubbish bag over my backbag because of the rain, we began...

I’m walking, crawling rather
      Broken on my knees
             In the valley of the
      shadow of death,
      Nothing is left, nothing keeps
me going.
                  I’m ready
                                   TO DIE.

8 months to travel Africa, 2 months to prepare… How do we make that as effective as possible? Where do you go, where do you stay? What do you do and what do you pray? I can think of a 100 programs to run, we can plan everyday of a 8 month journey and head out to fix the world, with the superman song playing in the background. Somehow I hear the words “sweet surrender” in the back of my head. Could be that we are not called to fix Africa with strategic planning and a 100 projects? Could it...

 

Our time in Guatemala is over now and it was just too short for us. We wanted to spend much more time there with the people and getting teachings from Pastor B. Our highlights were definitely the amazing revelations we got from Pastor B’s teachings, we also helped an organization called “Mayan families” with installing fire stoves for the local people.

It's just around the corner....it is here....very close......yea ! I entered the Phuket Laguna International Marathon that will take place in June this year. During the entry you have to give your date of birth. So they send me my application confirmation which includes the following detail : Age Group : 40 - 49 years So there it is. It's now just around the corner. 40 . Soon I will be 40 ............AND RUN LIKE NEVER BEFORE  !!!