Participant Blogs

During high school I was invited to a friends baptism. Not having grown up in a christian home, I really had no idea about what it meant, but went along anyway. At the time I remember thinking that this friend seemed to be making such a huge commitment on that day and that it would never be something I would do.  But here we are in Brazil and last Sunday I was baptized in a pool in the middle of a beautiful forest. Thinking back on this helps me to realise how far God has taken me allready in the...

  As I close my eyes I see Deborah wearing a flower dress with ribbons in her hair. She is skipping up and down the street while laughing out loud. I know this is possible, for our God is a God of miracles. Deborah is a beautiful six year old girl. Paralyzed from her hips down she has been living in a wheelchair all her life. She has to wear diapers and is 100% dependent on her mother. She's never been able to run around, play with friends, ride a bicycle or climb a tree and these are only a few...

M I d d l e   E a s t      Egypt – ISRAEL   Global Challenge Expeditiuons work Your way 2010       I hope you enjoyed reading my blog about Israel. With this blog I want more to write what we did these past 5-6 weeks in the Middle East. After we left Australia, we spent 5 days in India where we flew from Bombay to Cairo, Egypt. We landed in Cairo, but we had no idea where and what to do the next 2 months in   Middle East, we first spent several days...

A few thougths I wrote down last year after Eugene Terre'blanches murder. I played with the idea in my mind: what if civil war broke out in SA? Where would I stand? What do I do if I have to protect myself and my family? My country is not a country. My country has a name, a president, a capital city, it’s called a country, but it is not a country.   A country is place which contains one nation of people with a common goal. When the rest of the world stands against you, attacks you, then you as...

When we arrived at the bus station in Zinder we met with Pastor Akin, a missionary from Nigeria. He had done CPx (Church Planting Experience) with me the previous year in Cape Town at All Nations. It was great to see him and his family again.   They gave us the church’s guesthouse but we spent most nights on the veranda under the stars. It was just too hot inside. Right next to the guesthouse was the main Mosque in town. It had a giant green Minaret rising up into the sky and it felt like the megaphone was pointed...

Many times in life we are faced with a decision that would forever alter the course of our lives. I was faced with such a decision and stepping out of the ´norm´ was harder than I thought. After five years of studies, the obvious choice would have been to pursue a ´comfortable´ path leading to a ´comfortable´ life filled with an abundance of comforts. On the other side of the spectrum, my heart had a conflicting view with that of society´s norm. I had a longing for adventure and with this longing came a fear that this would never be...

15 February 2008 - Red Hill 

We dared to face the accusations of many; serve the poor; listen to the broken hearted and wipe the tears of the widows.  With broken hands and feet we have become builders of homes and builders of God’s Kingdom in Red Hill.

  As I prepare for my second Zanzibar trip, I am equally excited and nervous. Excited to see the people and the island again, excited to see what God has in store for us and the people of Zanzibar, excited to once again go off to a new place and tell them the good news.  I am, however, also nervous. Nervous, because I know God planned this trip way ahead. The team leaders have been thinking and praying about returning ever since they went to Zanzibar in June 2007. I have been thinking and praying about returning since my trip there in June 2008. I know...

What does it mean to say one is broken or to be broken? How many times have we used this term on ourselves without knowing what it entails? The Bible even makes reference to this word a couple of times. So what is it all about? Over the last 3 months, I have been praying and asking the Lord to break me and teach me what this truly means. I believe that He has revealed a small part of brokenness to me. I would like to share this with you….. In Mark 14:3 it refers to the woman breaking the...

 

It all started on Wednesday morning on the 7th of March when we saw each other again for the first time after our 8 week training in Jeffrey’s Bay.  We met at OR Tambo International Airport ready for our adventure through Africa.  All except Willy who had to take the bus to Harare, Zimbabwe to, get his Ethiopian visa.  We were all filled with an overwhelming sense of excitement and maybe a bit of “Oh Lord, what am I getting myself into?”  But nevertheless, we went through customs with our bags checked in - an average of 20kg backpacks, a 5kg food bag and a guitar and we realized there is no turning back, this is it!