This is How I Pause: I connect with God where Travel meet Adventure
Jacques was born and raised in Standerton, Mpumalanga. Growing up in a farming family, his passions were not farming but storytelling. Because of his mother’s kindergarten, he loved to connect and work with children. Starting in 1994, he joined the VCSV and worked as a youth worker in schools and camps across South Africa. In 1999 he became part of Camp Sonshine, a Christian day camp in the USA. After his last trip there in 2011, he started travelling far and wide, meeting diverse people.
His interest in videography since primary school came to life with his first productions in the early 2000s. In 2012 he became involved with a Christian TV channel called Kruiskyk, where he was responsible for producing nine TV series, of which some are still running. Currently, he is a YouTuber and a media missionary with Ethnos Movement International.
THIS IS HOW I PAUSE: I CONNECT WITH GOD WHERE TRAVEL MEET ADVENTURE
Being creative is one of the most diverse ways to pause and breathe. Yet if you combine it with being outdoors and adventurous, you could find yourself in a place of wonder.
I have loved being in nature and adventurous from a very young age, and lucky for me, Father God did send the right people and opportunities along to help me live it out loud. Not the crazy extreme stuff, just the good stuff like hiking and travelling around the world and connecting with people I met on my journeys.
As I am from two lines of Van der Merwe families, I share a rich heritage of pioneers and adventurers. Father God was always present in my life, but things became much more interesting since I started submitting to and following His will more intentionally.
When I made my first trip around the world in 2009, I did it entirely by myself, to the dread of my amazing mother, who could not phantom her baby boy making his way by plane, train and automobile to more countries than I have ever experienced before. Yet, after travelling alone with Father God for almost two months, I found myself on a beach in New Zealand, at Cathedral cove, with a growing desire inside me. A yearning to share my adventures with people was screaming inside me. To show them the amazingness of Father God in the breath-taking spots that I have visited.
And to be honest, at that stage, I have not even started travelling yet.
On that beach, I would say, is where The Adventures of Jack Hartland was birthed. The desire to share with people who will probably never be able to travel and journey to these spots; the world’s wonders, sights, and sounds.
This passion lay dormant inside my heart until the covid lockdown in 2020; I was forced to stop and re-evaluate my life and my world. There are so many things to consider before you commit yourself to something long term and much more significant than what you ever thought you could accomplish.And before I grasped it, I had breath. I had energy. I had excitement. I had creativity.
After running for so long to build something that drained me more than it brought out the creativity in me, I now had time to stop and think; time to stop and dream again.
In August 2020, the first episode of The Adventures of Jack Hartland shot into the world wide web, and I became – a YouTuber and that at my age! Since then, I have done things I never thought I would ever do. It was organized for me to swim with crocodiles; then I was invited to take to the skies with a microlight aircraft. I climbed a mountain and experienced the freedom of the eagles at the top. I was privileged to learn how to scuba dive, bringing me to one of the most challenging experiences that I never want to experience again – diving without the safety of a cage between real sharks.
In all these challenging moments, I was able to oppose the terrifying fear inside me. I am really stunned that I did it, that I stepped out of what I considered to be ‘normal’ and a comfort zone. In the process I experienced more than I ever dreamt possible.
With this, I feel alive. I am invigorated by the excitement and knowledge that I am making the most of my time, using Father God’s gift to be more than just average.
I am almost at episode 100, my aim before I start marketing my channel to the world.
Thankfully I have made it this far, and as I mentioned, I am pretty sure that I am only getting started.
