GLOBAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE TO SOUTH AFRICA

Pillar College sponsored a Global Learning Experience (GLE) to South Africa from May 21-June 4, 2018. The theme and corresponding Scripture verse for this trip was “The Ministry of Reconciliation: The Church’s Role in Racial Reconciliation During the Apartheid Era” (2 Corinthians 5:18). The group of 21 participants including faculty, friends, staff, and students went on a full day city tour of London due to a long layover for a connecting flight to South Africa. We then visited three major locations in South Africa: The Big City, the African Bush, and the Atlantic Ocean. First, the group visited the big city of Johannesburg (the largest city in South Africa) and Pretoria (the capitol city of South Africa). We took a day tour of Soweto and visited the birthplace of Nelson Mandela, the Apartheid Museum, and the Hector Pieterson Museum [Group picture at Soweto]. We arranged in advance to have a lecture by a professor in the Department of Theology at the University of South Africa in Pretoria on the topic of “The Role of the Church and Racial Reconciliation.” Second, the group took the Panoramic Route on the way to the African Bush and saw God’s Window, Bourke’s Luck Potholes, and the magnificent Blyde River Canyon. We went on safari at Kruger National Park in search of the Big Five: Elephants, Leopards, Lions, Rhinos, and Water Buffalos [Group picture with cheetah]. And third, the group visited the Atlantic Ocean including Cape Town, Simmons Town, the Boulder Penguin Colony, and the Cape of Good Hope at the very bottom tip of the African Continent [Group picture at the Cape of Good Hope]. We had dinner and discussion with a former inmate who served time in prison with Nelson Mandela on Robbin Island. The group also spent two full days of Christian Service with orphan children and the elderly in both Johannesburg and Cape Town [Group picture of working with children]. We thoroughly enjoyed the company of our tour guide Frans and bus driver Lenny on the trip. Group devotions were held each morning on the bus in route to our daily destination and each evening after dinner. The students taking the course for academic credit participated in several classes prior to the trip, made a PowerPoint presentation on some aspect of South African culture, kept a personal travel journal during the trip, and wrote a research paper on some aspect of South Africa and their academic major after their return from the trip. There are three GLEs scheduled for 2019: Israel (January 3-13), Italy (May 20-June 1), and India (six weeks in June/July). Please contact Pillar College for more details about these transformational Global Learning Experiences.