Participant Blogs

I never understood the meaning of faith or believing until my journey at Global Challenge started the 10th of January 2014. God opened my eyes to a whole new world...  Since July 2013 I have been praying about what God wants me to do with my life.  Finishing Matric and unsure about what my purpose and calling in life is.  The only thing I knew was that God has great things in store for me. But this blew my mind and stretched my "picture of God" beyond what I ever knew..  Trusting in God for all my finances to go...

as a team we were blessed to work with the massai, and people involved in the community to disciple. we experienced joy,growth and fellowship with people as we worked on a kitchen as well as a store room.  work is love made visible, on our way to egypt blessings *    

During the last 42 days I experienced so much of God, Words can't even begin to explain the goodness of our God. For Mexico I was holding  on to the promise that God gave us earlier  in the year. Promising that He will provide a host for us and a place where we can serve and walk in His will. Now keep in mind that we are on a $2 budget for central America for everything!! This means trusting God not 98% not 99.99% but 110%. This was the decision I made to trust God, with everything completely. So let...

God, are You there? “ Yes my son, I am.” But I don't feel or hear You? “Just TRUST ME My son.” But God, I am struggeling to have faith because I don't know if You are there or not. “ My son, I am going to teach you faith. Read James 1 and hold onto that!” So yeah, as you can see I am currently on that journey with Dad and believe me when I tell you, IT IS VERY HARD! Nobody said it was going to be easy and quite frankly I like it hard, it truly brings...

The empty tomb was just an empty tomb.Mt. Olives’ beautiful view was just another mountain with a beautiful view. The garden of Getsemaneh’s colorful flowers was just a garden with colorful flowers.    I’m not gonna lie, i’m thankful off my socks that i got to experience the places where my Jesus did the breathtaking things he did, but something that i realized throughout the past 10 days in Israel is that Jesus lives, which makes all of these places just that - places.    Its beautiful to see and experience, but something i’ve tricked myself into believing is that...

Nutten. Whatever. No mon. These are the words that you'll hear when you set foot on this island, the birthplace of reggae. The landscape is as diverse as the experiences we had. Golden age home, children's home, homeless shelter, city council meeting, laying cement floors, looking for wifi, eating all the different types of mangoes, going to a cinema to watch the new Avengers movie, having patties at Tastees, ice cream at Devon House, hosting church services and prayer meetings, playing games in Emancipation park, visiting a chicken farm, going to the beach, eating ackee and salt fish with dumplings,...

Guatemalalaaaaaa!!!!! :)

 

Well, where do I start, it's been a long and challenging year, but when I look back, through all the challenges and hard times I have experienced this year, but when I put all that to one side, there behind all those challenges, I see something different, something that I did not see. I see the times of growth in my life, the times of joy, happiness, and grace that God has blessed me with. I look back at myself and I do not see the same Jarred, when I left South Africa, I see a different person, a person that God has taken and molded into the person He has created me to be. This year I have experianced what it is to have a twin on the team, but to be separated from each other, and even though it seems cruel and sad, it was what God had planned, for me to learn and find out who I am, cause growing up with a twin brother, I thought like my twin, I did what my twin did, but I had no freedom of choice, even he didn't, cause we did everything together, and now when we were separated, I felt empty, I felt that I was all alone in the world. But I knew God wanted to show me something, and I asked God to show me who I am, who He had made me to be.
The first month was not an easy month, being away from my brother, but even through this challenge, I knew God would also build in his life as God was doing in mine. I began to walk a walk with God, and as this walk continued the more I began to see who I am, I began to make my own choices without having to ask my brother, and when I failed at something, I had to fix up my own error, and did not have to ask my brother to assist me in the mistake I made. I saw the maturity I did not have all of a sudden grow, and grow, it was scary at first, but I knew this was for the best and had to carry on this journey. There were time when I just wanted to give up, and times when I felt I was being someone who I was not meant to be, but each time I thought of this, God just came and comforted me, and told me to carry on with the journey he has laid out for me. God kept on telling me to put all my faith in Him, and completly surrender all to Him, when I did that, I felt no more attacks, no more anger or weakness, I felt this warm feeling inside of me, a feeling that has not left me since that day, and I believe will never leave me, the feeling of God's fire inside of me. There are no words that can describe on this letter how this feelings feels, all I can say it feels amazing to have the burning fire of God inside of you. The day i saw my brother again, he look

  Deus muda tudo quando quer e na hora que quer...foi um momento muito especial para todos nos que estavamos na Colombia...para chegar la foi mais que um desafio ..sair entao uma volta ao mundo...Deus nos mostrou muitas coisas e nos ensinou também!! Muita coisa foi mudada, mas ainda tem muito o que mudar e ser trabalhado!! o desafio continua!! Gloria a Deus por isso..queo Senhor continue trabalhando em nossas vidas!! Enquanto ha tempo!!!! rumo ao Peru..proxima para Chiclayo!!...montanhas...ferreñafe!! confins da terra!!! God changes everything when he wants and when he wants ... it was a very special moment for all...

There is a question we all ask and hear, a few times every day.  And our response is always the same, no matter how we really feel.  The past few days, this question has challenged me and made me sigh every time I'm asked or see it in an email or Facebook message.  Not because it's a difficult question, but because the answer is actually much more complex than the usual, "Good, thanks."  So, okay, tell me now really, "How are you?"