...I’m staying on the wrong side of a 10 lane motorway with no mediums or pedestrian crossings. This means I pray every morning as I cross this street to get to work. Here the drivers’ first instinct when you run in front of them is to honk rather than brake or swerve. My first attempt at doing this saw me running in a terrified zigzag before diving onto the opposing pavement leaving my left jandal still out in the middle of the road. This provided much amusement to a group of soldiers looking on. I’m learning that the Arabs here think very little of you if show any fear.

Jo ‘trekked’ from Palmerston North to the WEC-associated Melusi Christian Community in South Africa.  Melusi ministries include caring for the homeless, HIV/ AIDS care, food distribution, outreaches and a kids club.  The excerpt below comes from an email four months into Jo’s six month stay...

South Africa is a beautiful land of stark contrasts. I had the privilege of spending a month of summer in a little town in KwaZulu-Natal. But that was barely enough time to soak it up. A blend of races coloured the streets, rich and poor lived next door to each other, alcohol, drugs and immorality lurked behind the hope of a nation on the page of a fresh start.
 

Josh had completed a fantastic gap-year programme called Headspace and wanted a ‘next step’ into cross-cultural mission.  Enter WEC International.  Within a few meetings we had settled on a good option, spoken with his family and church, and begun orientation.  Before we knew it he had received a notoriously difficult to obtain visa and was flying off for a year to join a WEC team in a resistant country in Asia.  Here are some extracts from his latest newsletter.