Season of Change

Over the past month or two, there have been a few changes for the Malsters. Both Morgan and I have had changes individually and as a couple. 

The first of these changes is to do with where we will live. At the beginning of the year (and in our last update) we had said that for the next little while, we would be living and working out of South Africa. However, as with many things in life, change happens quickly. So, a few weeks ago, we found out that we would again be spending a good chunk of the year in Zambia and this year it will be from the end of April until mid-September. As I now write this update, I am sitting in the beautiful garden of our farm in Luanshya where we stay in Zambia. We will both be doing similar roles compared to last year but much more of a focus this year of being a part of the community. When I say this, I do not really mean the communities (villages) in which we work, but more of the community of people that live in Zambia on the farm where we are based. 

Some other fun news is that on our return to South Africa, we will be moving house. In the last update I mentioned that there had been lots of construction in front of our current house, well it turns

construction on our new house!

out, one of those new houses will be ours. It will mean going from one room bedroom/kitchen/living space to a small house with 3 rooms. We feel very blessed to be given the opportunity to live in one of these new houses and we will continue to post photos of how the construction is going. 

Our respective roles have also changed in the way in which we are serving with Hands. Morgan has taken on leadership of the Communications team. She has been on the Communication team for many years, and is looking forward to his new challenge. For myself, I will now oversee other Project Accountants with the aim to eventually lead the team. Right now, it is still in a transition period as we are training up people to take on more Project Accounting roles to take some of the work I am doing currently. 

As with every month, we have also been up to other things outside of the office. We had the privilege of going to community prayer. This

is where many of the Hands volunteers go into one of our communities and share encouraging words with the Care Workers in the CBO (community based organisation). This month, we went to a community called Siyathithuka, which is the community where I stayed overnight in orientation so it was good to be back again. During the morning, we sang songs and shared scriptures and prayers together. After, some of the Hands at Work team spent time individually with one Care Worker and got to know them personally. Then, we would know their stories and be praying for them. I chatted with one of the local pastors and learnt how he had become involved with the Siyathithuka CBO (community based organisation).

We also had a time of hearing testimonies from some of our trainings from our communities. Over this past 6 months, we have been focusing on something called Maranatha workshops. Maranatha means ‘Come Lord’ and in these workshops, the focus is on bring the Jesus we know to our Care Workers. This workshop has been facilitated in 20 of our communities and the other communities will receive this training throughout the next 6 months. You can read more about them here.

Many of you will know that in the past month I turned 25 and so got to celebrate another one of my birthdays in South Africa. It is always a special time and I feel so blessed as part of the Hands community on a day when I especially miss my family and friends.

This year, a group of us went to a near-by campsite and set up for a 2 night stay. However, with it being a ‘British’ inspired camping trip, of course the rain showed up and we ended up putting up our tents in the rain and by the time we had finished it was also dark. All, that being said, it was a lot of fun and it was definitely good for team building. Over the weekend, we had lots of braais (South African barbeques) and played games.

And finally some great news about our friend Silo. He was the guy I stayed with when we stayed in the community on our orientation back in 2011. Ever since then, Morgan and I have been visiting him regularly to see how he is doing. He competed his schooling last year and ever since then has been looking for a job. Over these past few weeks, he decided that he would like to do a training course in forklift truck driving. We investigated a little bit and found that there were courses in Nelspruit (our nearby major town) and the course lasted one week. We set him up on this course and we found out last week that he passed! So now he can drive forklifts and will give him a huge advantage in the job market. Over these next few weeks, he will continue to distribute his CVs to hardware shops and warehouses to see what jobs are available. 

Our plans have changed a bit for coming to the UK and Canada this year. Instead of coming home at Christmas, we will be in the UK the last 2 weeks or so of October and in Canada the first 2 and a bit weeks of November. We look forward to catching up with everyone then! 

Thank you for your continued support and prayers! Love T+M