Participant Blogs

Surprise! I am writing this blog now, not while perched on a hill in Malaysia, or by the side of the fire in Kenya, but in my bed in my old room. My global journey was last year but yewwww it did not hit a wall there. I can, however, see the sun rising over the Jeffreys Bay sea. I came home for the weekend to visit my parents. Now why am I writing this blog? I want to share about “life after global”, but I don’t particularly like using this phrase since surely there was also life before Global...

Faith is to believe something without having the evidence to prove it.

 What happens  when you ask God to strenghen your faith? He gives you doubt...and a whole lot of it.  It is much harder to keep on believing when every brain cell keep on screaming, " you are nuts to believe this!

The Wild Hogs of Panajachelel   W e were the crash test dummies for pastor Benjamin’s trike ministry.  The ministry involved us going into the community and asking around for old, rusted unusable bicycles.  We would ultimately convert those bicycles into drifting machines and we would then race them down a crazy mountain pass.  This attracted a lot of attention and thus created the opportunity to share truth to the local people of Panajacehel.  It also encouraged the youth to get involved in extreme sports and to restore old junk into adrenaline masterpieces.  Building these drift-trikes involved us: Welding, grinding,...

Left: Sunrise from Mt. Sinai Left: Detlef and myself on Mt. Sinai. Sunrise.                 Below: The Medina (old city) of Fes. Awesome. Left: another picturesque street in Fes. Wayne is looking frustrated and Tinet is screaming at someone.

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?"

*Flying to Brazil and having an extra 5 hours in your day *Looking like polka dotted humans because of the 109 mosquito bites on only one half of one leg.. *Living with people who have alligators as pets - and playing with them!!  *People having tortoises as pets - and then eating them! *Jumping off a boat and swimming in the Amazon River *Having a Brazilian treat (Asaii) which stains every part of your mouth purple and having it taste like ground *Losing stranger's underwear into the Amazon while trying to get it out of he rain - and then...

Here we are in China as SERVANTS of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Nothing more and nothing less.  God has begun a GOOD WORK in each and every one of us and we can stand confidently upon His PROMISE to CONTINUE this work on to COMPLETION on the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6).  And since our foundations were secured during the disciple equipping course with FCE, I know that one of the most important works He has started in me is the RENEWAL OF MY MIND (Rom 12:2).  Surely it is a privilege to SHARE this GRACE OF GOD with His church around the world.

These past few weeks, have been a crazy adventure! We started off running! In Sao Paulo we were divided into small teams to go live with families in different parts of the city. We served at different churches and only met up as a big group a week later. So, in my week, Luisa, Charlotte and I stayed more in the backside of Sao Paulo. It was quite an experience! But what a blessed time! The family we stayed with, had so much brokenness but were still so full of joy! The pastor of the church took us to different...

In the 500 year old multicoloured town of Santiago we found ourselves lost in time back in the 1950's with vintage cars, Cuban men smoking cigars and playing dominoes on the street, and Latino salsa music filling the warm night air in the plazas. Cuba has ridiculously cheap and delicious street food. So we took full advantage of the 1 peso (60c) ice creams, espressos and butter cookies every day! In this communist country everyday life for a Cuban is quite hard. Small sizes of food rations are handed out to each household monthly; street sweepers' and doctors' salaries are...

I am content This... this took me 18 years and 8 months. I just got at this point were I gave over and yes I still get those breakdown moments where I try to open the door of self control again but,I am content. God came these two months like a mighty crane and demolished everything I knew and everything I thought I knew. Then, well then He came to me in my broken and stripped place and talked so soft and gentle.He knocked and I did not want to open the door but still He went to gather lilies...