Participant Blogs

 “ oh, what would happen if we were beautiful” - Tim Timmons   Sunday-afternoon in Guatemala City. The morning we took part in a beautiful church service, abounding in truth and peace. Now, however, the echoes of a woman preaching and screaming at the top of her lungs rise from the hill across the busy highway. My limited Spanish can make out a few things: glory and Holy Spirit and receive, receive, receive. I'm sitting a good kilometre away but my head wants to burst at the hysteria and the screaming. And with that a sadness engulfs my heart.  ...

My dear friends, I'm in Casablancha, leaving for Marrakech tomorrow morning. Morocco was more than I expected, the Lord blessed us with so many wonderful people!! As we land here we knew one person, now we know alot!! The colours of Morocco is beautiful red, orange, pink. So many texture and structure, Morocco is beautiful!!! With Love Tinet

We started out in the Transkei with a lot of uncertainty, and yet that is where God just loves to come and bless you with surprises!  From arriving and pitching our tents in the dark, we woke up to the most stunning view over Coffee bay! It was amazing to experience how open the community was in lending us the tools we need for building the fence and jungle gym:  pick axes, spades, wheelbarrows, "koevoet", pliers... Heaven's flood gates were really open! Then the work started! A typical day would start with solo time at 06:00; breakfast at 07:00;  D-groups...

Well what can I say…   India is a very beautiful place depending which set of sunglasses you use.   The country side where we are spending the last few days is very beautiful with the Himalayas in the back ground. They don’t seem to be covered with snow since the weather does not really justify snow in a 35 degree region. It however is still very cool compared to the 48+ degrees we had in Kota in the middle of India. This is where we did our main ministry in India and where we worked at the orphanage. We...

Movement, travel, journeying: these are central motifs in the Bible, as they are in Christian life. One reason is that these things jolt us out of what is comfortable, requiring us to step out in faith into the unknown and uncomfortable. And OH WOW have I been jolted these past 7 weeks. I came to Global Challenge with ALOT of preconceived ideas. About myself, about my walk with Jesus, about my future etc etc. I had Marié in a nice little box and all figured out. I thought I was taking a journey to Africa. This changed to South America....

It has been a challenging yet amazing month :-) To know the Lord more and more intimately will be a lifelong journey but in the last few weeks a lot of milage has been covered. The road was rocky at times and I will honestly admit that I have never cried like I had in the last couple of  weeks. Yet my prayer remains - more tears - as they are healing!! What a privilige to be made aware more than ever of God's grace. To know that even though I don't always believe - His opinion of me remains...

Well, what an exciting month, full of adventure and trials… the normal Christian life.

19:46,  24 April 2013   Today was our third day in Bogota, Colombia. As I'm sitting here, looking back at this day, Max is playing songs on her guitar...voicing all my heart is trying to say: . We went to a market in the center of the city, hopping on public busses and looking like real tourists, I enjoyed that a lot. Man, the market...even as I think back on that I can feel a little girl jumping up and down inside of me, soaking in all the colours. Oranges , purples , greens , blues , reds , pinks...

Taking a peek back on the journey, I realize how you really only see the bigger picture of God's master plan, once you turn around and look at the memory. It feels like it had been a year since we left Fusagasuga, but that's probably just because we have been in 5 different countries in the last 4 weeks, with a program jam-packed with ministry and spiritual growth. Having our first little period of rest while waiting on the Lord, I have been trembling the white beaches of  the Barbadian bliss, looking back on the journey, recapping and rewinding. In...

Apush Beena and Daniel Chivani Daniel Smiling Boys Mysterious Eyes Sonja Aunty making Chipatis Sonja Aunty's Children Lun and the boys Nirmal Vikram,Ronald and Herman