Participant Blogs

 

 

After spending three weeks in Cuba, two weeks in the Cayman Islands and three weeks in Jamaica, we were planning on ending off our time in the Caribbean by spending one last week in the island of Curacao, before we start travelling to the other side of the world for the second leg of our journey through the Pacific. God however surprised us, because He had other better plans for us. God always knows best.

 

As we Global Challengers continue on in our training all I can do is stop and sit in silence... I didn't know that so much could happen in such a small amount of time. That I could experience these emotions or could be challenged so quickly physically and spiritually. As I arrived in Jeffrey's Bay tired and without a bag I really didn't know what i was stepping into. During these couple of weeks we have done several things, all in which have stretched me in some way. We have done a local challenge which entailed, hitchhiking, playing with local...

  This will be my bed, my room, my home for the next few months - you thought your flat was small?! After a hectic shopping spree to take all that is needed for a year - and needs to fit into a 60 litre backpack - I was on my way to JBay... 5 Weeks of training and some CRAZEEE experiences later, and I'm a richer person. All that is left of this time is pictures, memories, stories that will be told and a changed heart... We had some great teachers with us, Uncle Floyd and Retief shared some...

A recent visit to Kuala Lumpur proved to be more than we bargained for! All of the teams arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport and we all made our way to Pudu hostel like a nice little group of tourists! Around 2 am we all went to bed in the extreme heat and struggled to fall asleep. 4 hours later Hatting woke us up cheerfully with a little brown envelope on our beds: Challenge number 2! All of us decided the previous day that we would have breakfast together so we did that and then the challenge started. The yellow team...

Dear friends, The team have now succesfully distributed food to the total value of R80 000! And all of the target villages have been reached. We thank God for this miracle. Unfortunetly the team's time is up and they need to move on to catch their flight to Ethiopia. The fact of the matter is that there are still millions of people on the brink of starvation. I recently read this article http://m.news24.com/NEWS24/Africa/News/10m-in-need-of-food-aid-20100611 on News 24 which describes the emergency that Niger now finds itself in. We cannot ignore the pleas of the people, even though the team is not...

It has been a crazy week...We are in our fourth country already...  We are masters of Asian public transport --- when we aren't amazed by the country side we sleep at 90 degree angles...  It has been a wonderful journey...horseback around the piramides in Egypt, swimming in Thailand, praying for dinner at 2 am in Kuala Lumpur and on the back of a motor cycle in Cambodia..this is only thew first week of 80 days 2008/09...  God has used this time to build close relationships within the team --- it feels like we know each other for quite a while...

Although our jumping is not as coordinated as that of our fellow GCEX teams, we do not lack in enthusiasm or serving the community. After the opening of a sports stadion at Ndumo in KZN in South Africa, the URCSA church in the community decided to clean up the mess left behind. This decision was made during our morning service under the trees (because of the heat and humid conditions). D-day was decided on - Monday 16:00. At the estimated time, two Sani loads of kids and a few adults were picked up and transported to the rendevouz point where...

Everything in and about India is incredible.  The splendour of the landscape, the majesty of historic and modern buildings, the culture, the buzz of tuc-tucs and rickshaws, and everything in between.  Incredible are the people, the sights, the smells and tastes.  But just as everything is incredibly good and magnificent, so are those same things and experiences incredibly bad.  India is a mixing pot of every imaginable sense – sight, taste, smell, feeling - a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences!

One of my diary entries at the beginning of the year makes a statement concerning an event I expect to happen in the year ahead.   Hebrew 6: 1-2 speaks about leaving the elementary doctrine of Christ behind and going on to maturity.   Let's proceed with the above in mind...   One of my biggest struggles is that of the mind. Far too often I allow the Accuser to play havoc with my mind. Thoughts and emotions enter, are projected into the future and I end up being the one finishing last in all of these "man made fairy...