Beyond the Walls
What Our Members do Beyond Worship...
South Africa – Journal #1: Celebrating the Light is a reflective travel narrative that explores the power of human spirit, family, and collective memory through the author’s early experiences in South Africa. Centered on Soweto, the journal highlights how light—both literal and metaphorical—radiates from people who persevere despite economic hardship, political injustice, and limited resources. Encounters with community members, ethical tourism initiatives, family bonds, and historic sites like Constitution Hill reveal a nation shaped by struggle yet grounded in resilience, generosity, and hope. Through personal reflection and historical context, the journal honors South Africa’s journey from oppression toward democracy, emphasizing the importance of remembering the past while choosing reconciliation, dignity, and shared humanity
South Africa – Journal #2: The Big Five (Kruger National Park) captures the awe, tension, and wonder of a safari experience where nature sets the rules and humans are humbled observers. Through encounters with Africa’s iconic wildlife—lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, hippos, giraffes, and more—the journal blends vivid storytelling, humor, and “fun facts” with moments of real danger and respect for the land. Reflections on early-morning game drives, the sharp instincts of trackers, and close encounters with protective mothers and prowling predators reveal the delicate balance between beauty and power in the wild. The journey closes in quiet reverence, as starlit skies and the Milky Way remind the traveler of nature’s vastness, mystery, and enduring magic.
Cape Town & Durban
South Africa – Journal #3: is a reflective visual travelogue that weaves together landscape, history, culture, and personal memory. Through iconic scenes of Cape Town and Durban, encounters with the Iziko Slave Museum’s Slave Calendar exhibit, and moments of music, nature, and daily life, the journal honors the resilience of people shaped by South Africa’s colonial past while celebrating renewal, identity, and hope. Lyrical reflections on sound, ancestry, and place connect the natural world to human struggle and triumph, inviting the reader to listen deeply—to history, to the land, and to the enduring spirit carried forward through generations
