2006 – Where It All Began

Missions: Eight South Africans and eight Americans set out on a journey around the world under the banner of World Race. Anna-Marie Franken led the team, unaware that five of the South Africans would remain with her afterward to help start what would become Global Challenge. Today, all five are still involved. What began as a journey would become a movement.

2007 – The First Global Challenge Journey

Missions: The following year, 26 students travelled through more than 21 countries over 11 months, learning what it meant to follow Jesus wherever He led.

Later that year, our first 80 Days Around the World Expedition departed, visiting 11 countries. The expedition continued annually until 2010. Adventure was woven into our DNA from the very beginning.

2008 – Jeffreys Bay Becomes Home

Missions: The Global Challenge team travelled to Zambia for missions training while staff numbers continued to grow back home.

Community:At the same time, several staff members completed church planting training in Cape Town, where Floyd McClung and Joe Ewen became spiritual fathers to the emerging movement. Their wisdom and prophetic input would help shape Global Challenge for years to come.

Then came an unexpected provision. One evening, Johan McFarlane received a dream about a specific house in Jeffreys Bay, where God showed him that it would be used as a base for Global Challenge. He got up and searched the town until he found the very property hidden behind a “For Sale” sign. Trusting God, Johan and his wife secured a loan against their own home to purchase it. The house became known as Da Hub, and Jeffreys Bay became our home.

Later that year, our first short-term expedition was sent to India. The nations were calling…

2009 – A Growing Vision

Missions: For the first time, Global Challenge hosted its own training in Jeffreys Bay.

Three One-Year teams were sent out:
● Northbound
● Southbound
● Explore Africa

The vision was expanding.

Education: At the same time, another need began to emerge. Jeffreys Bay had no high school, yet among the growing Global Challenge community were teachers, leaders, and people with a desire to serve. Conversations began around a simple but significant question: What would it take to start a school?

2010 – Global Leadership Academy Opens

Education: After much hard work—and many miracles—Global Leadership Academy opened its doors inside an empty section of the Equinox Mall. With one principal, seven teachers, and thirty students, Jeffreys Bay’s first high school had begun.

Just three months later, a local developer donated 7.5 hectares of land to Global Challenge for the future campus. The gift was extraordinary. Today, that same land serves as the foundation for many of our educational, missional, and community initiatives.

Missions: The movement continued to grow with new One-Year journeys, including:
● Work Your Way — an expedition where men worked their way across the world, including on Australian sheep farms.
● Hidden Worlds — a journey through South America.

2012 – Building Begins

In Jeffreys Bay, despite the donation of land, funding for construction remained scarce. Then an unexpected solution emerged. After connecting with a South African log-home builder, the decision was made to begin construction using tree trunks. The early days were marked by the painstaking work of stripping bark from massive logs by hand. Slowly but surely, the dream began taking shape.

Missions: Five One-Year teams and multiple short-term expeditions were sent out—the largest number to date.

2013 – Dig the Foundations

Education: As the log house neared completion and school funding remained limited, Anna-Marie spent a weekend in prayer. During that time, she sensed the Lord say: “Dig the foundations.” With little money but great faith, construction began. As each stage was completed, God faithfully provided for the next. The future home of Global Leadership Academy was underway.

2014 – New Seeds Take Root

Education: As GLA continued to grow, other educational initiatives began to emerge within the community. These included:
● Tree Tops Preschool
● A home-based primary school programme that would later become Oakridge Academy

Missions: The first long-term missionary couple was sent to the Middle East. What began with one family would become a growing movement of long-term workers among the nations.

2015 -The Nations Are Waiting

Missions: The following year, another member of the community joined the team in the Middle East, serving refugee children with disabilities. The call to the nations was becoming a reality.

Community: Closer to home, local members were challenged to represent Jesus in Jeffreys Bay. Businesses, initiatives, and new expressions of community began to emerge—including First Light Coffee. Mission wasn’t only overseas. It was right on our doorstep.

2016 – History in the Making

Education: In August 2016, GLA moved into its new home on campus, marking a historic milestone for the school and wider community.

Missions: Global Challenge sent its fourth long-term missionary family East.

2017 & 2018 – Nations, Here We Come

Missions: In 2017, another young member of Global Challenge moved to Panama to share the Gospel long-term. The movement continued to grow beyond South Africa’s borders.

Education: In 2018, GLA produced the top matric student in the Eastern Cape. A remarkable achievement for a school that had started just eight years earlier.

2019 & 2020 – Fresh Vision

Education: GLA Travel School launched in 2019, giving Grade 10 learners the opportunity to travel and study for six weeks while engaging with new cultures, challenges, and adventures.

Missions: In 2019, Joe Ewen shared a prophetic word that the coming decade would be a “decade of change” which proved to be true. The arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 forced the evacuation of a One-Year team from Brazil and brought much of the world to a standstill. Yet even in uncertainty, God was at work.

Emerging from lockdown, Global Challenge entered a season of renewed vision and organisational clarity through a framework called The Flywheel, helping define and strengthen the values that continue to shape us today.

2021 – Community Grows

Community: The church community continued to grow. Alongside weekday evening house churches, a consistent Sunday Celebration Service and children’s ministry were established.

Missions: Several long-term missionaries returned home, later helping mentor and equip a new generation of emerging workers.

2022 – Something New Stirs

Missions: The first One-Year team after COVID was sent out. Five young workers, all under 35, were also sent into long-term missions. A new generation was stepping forward.

Community: Construction began in The Global Village—a place where retired missionaries, church staff, and local families could build affordable homes and experience community together.

‘His Table’ also began—a vision to transform a community garden into a place of restoration, prayer, and ministry.

2023 – The Youth Take Centre Stage

Community: Zeal, the church’s pre-teen ministry, was launched as the community continued to grow.

Education: GLA was recognised as the best-performing independent school in the Eastern Cape and produced the province’s top matric student.

2024 – Nurturing Future Leaders

Education: For the second consecutive year, GLA was recognised as the best-performing independent school in the Eastern Cape and produced another top matric student. Construction also began on the Technical School, expanding opportunities for practical, technology-focused education and training.

2025 – 20 Years of God’s Faithfulness

Twenty years after the journey began, we celebrated God’s faithfulness across missions, education, and community.

Community:
Ignite, the church’s high school ministry, launched to help teenagers discover and follow Jesus for themselves. Global Community Church also experienced significant growth, nearly doubling in size within a single year.

2026 – Living in the Overflow

Missions: The One-Year Journey welcomed its largest intake in a decade, with 38 students stepping into a year of discipleship, adventure, and mission.

Community: House churches continued to multiply as more people found belonging, purpose, and community. What began with sixteen people travelling the world has become a thriving movement spanning nations, schools, church, businesses, and communities.

And the story is still being written…