2015 A Year in Review

He is Faithful

It’s been a long and testing year for us! The issues with my visa left us questing many things and we struggled to see His plans and purpose. But we held onto his promises, some days only by the skin of our teeth. After being accused of tampering with my visa way back on 24th May and subsequently forced to leave our home in South Africa, we now have some great news! 

I have a new 3 year SA visa from Home Affairs (and it’s printed!) 

Thank you all for your love, prayers and support over these past months and we cannot tell how much of a blessing each one of you is. 

A great Christmas present from SA Home Affairs! 

Love and Blessings Tommy

Moments to Treasure

It's not often we get to go to the community together. In fact I think this might have been the first time this year we have gone on home visits together.  A few weeks back we have the chance to walk in the community of Mulenga in Zambia. It's a place that we both know well, and we are always received back with open arms. 

 Tommy learning about the water situation at one of the homes we visited. This young boy and his brother are unable to fetch water because the rope for the well had broken and the did not have money to replace it.

Little Joice* and her mother face so many challenges on a daily basis.  It was amazing to witness the impact the Care Workers in Mulenga are having on the quality of her life.

Rimos'* (top middle) story has been on our hearts for years.
Our friend and fellow Hands at Work volunteer Clinton reflects on his journey with Rimos.

 Morgan had time to visit with a very special little girl, who she has knows since she was just a baby.

Your Will Be Done

The year is going by so fast! Next week we are off again, Tommy will head to the UK to apply for his NEW South African visa, and Morgan to SA for few weeks before coming to the UK for Christmas. Please pray for favour as we apply for a new visa! It has been over 6 months since the visa issues began and we are looking forward to putting it behind us.

In late September Morgan joined a group of nurses from the US in the Kabwe region in Zambia, to support them in providing much needed medical care to one of the remote communities we work in. Over the five days, the team saw nearly 1,000 people. It was an exhausting trip physically and emotionally but the care and hope that was shown to the community was a beautiful thing to be a part of.

In the beginning of October Tommy had a chance to go to the DRC, the majority of his time was spent in the office support our bookkeeper but he did get two days in the community. The first community he visited is a very rural community of Kisunka, because of the distance between the homes; the community is split into four zones. 150 of the most vulnerable children are spread across these four zones, but in the particular zone called Kasepa 30 children are being cared for. The mother and leader of the amazing men and women who have chosen to care for these children is affectionately known as Mama Marie Gylen. She has taken it upon herself to lay down her own life to care for 30 of the most vulnerable children in DRC. We started the day by meeting the children and Care Workers from the community, we played games and sang songs together. After the children had had lunch, we split into two groups and went on Holy Home Visits. Tommy went with Prag (one of our local Zambian volunteers), Erick and Jolie (two of our local Congolese volunteers) and some of the Care Workers from the community. At the first home they visited, we met a young girl called

Evie. Evie is 11 years old and in grade 3 at school. She is one of four kids but they have lost both of their parents at a young age. After their mother died, the children were split up as not one other relative could look after all 4 children. Evie and one of her brothers live with an aunt in this village of Kasepa. On the day we visited, Evie had not been at school that day so the Care Workers wanted to visit her and find out why. When we got to the house, we found out that Evie was not staying where she usually stays because her aunt had left the village to sell maize in a nearby town. As the aunt was away, Evie and her brother now had to go and stay with another aunt for a few days. Fortunately we were able to still visit Evie at her other aunt’s house. After we started chatting with her (through a translator, everyone in DRC speaks with French or Swahili), we discovered that the reason she had not been at school was because her school uniform was too dirty. This could sound like an excuse to many of us but for African children, having dirty uniforms brings about so much shame and stigma. As shown by Evie, children would rather miss school than go with a dirty uniform. And so you might ask, well why could she not wash it? There are many reasons. Evie is responsible for her brother as well as they house they live in with their aunt. She has to cook, clean and fetch water twice a day, Evie is so busy doing these things she does not prioritise school. This week she had run out of washing powder and was unable to clean her uniform properly so she felt she could not go to school. The Care Workers encouraged Evie about the importance of going to school as well as making sure she has let her Care Worker know when she isn’t able to wash her clothes. Care Workers seek to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our children by serving our children using 3 Essential Services and part of this is making sure they have everything they need to have a clean uniform. Visiting Evie was a reminder of all that we take for granted. If it wasn’t for these Care Workers giving up their lives daily for the most vulnerable children, who knows how long it would have taken Evie to get back to school.

“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.” – Psalm 82:3 

The last week of October, international volunteers and leaders from across our African countries came together in Zambia to reflect on 2015 and prayerfully discern and discuss the way forward in 2016. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. These familiar words from the Lord’s Prayer focused us during the week, learning, discussing, challenging and dreaming about what this means for us as a community and the children we serve. Every time we gather together as a family from across Africa we are struck by what a privilege it is to be a part of this work. We are continually challenged by the sacrificial love, grace and humility shown by the men and women of God we get to stand side by side with. For us, at the end of a year that has been filled with challenges it gave us a renewed sense of hope and confidence in the calling that has been placed on our lives.

We are looking forward to being in the UK over Christmas. We will be hosting 3 open house, questions and answer nights in the beginning of December. We look forwarding to connecting with many of you over the holiday season.

Love T + M

One of our favorite parts of spending time in Zambia is spending time with this little girl and her sister.

Join us in

12 Days of Prayer this Christmas for Africa's most Vulnerable and Hands at Work.

December 13th - 25th 2015

…I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. - Luke 2:10-11 (ESV) 

Join with us this Christmas as we pray for Africa’s most vulnerable and Hands at Work. As God sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to be born, His birth brought great joy to the world. In the midst of His vulnerability on earth, He brought a heavenly peace and hope, which we still have today. This time of year, we celebrate the great love He has shown each of us by being made low and born in a lowly feeding trough. Journey with us over twelve days, as we look at Christmas in a different way. As we reflect on all He has done this year and pray in faith for what is to come, we know we can come to Christ expectantly. This season, He brings joy – for all people!

Download Prayer Guide 

Appreciation

Have you ever heard the expression you don’t appreciate something until you don’t have it? Well that is how our time in Zambia has been so far in regards to electricity. Zambia is currently going through a time of ‘load-shedding’. What this means is that there are scheduled power cuts which vary by time depending on which part of Zambia you live in. The reason the government of Zambia is doing this is a bit unknown but we have heard many stories. Some revolve around the turbine generators being old and not functioning at full capacity. Some revolve around there not being enough water in the lake so it is not generating enough power. Whatever the reason is, here at Kachele, we have been living with power cuts 8 hours a day for the past few weeks. It really makes me realise what we have and makes me appreciate the power when we do have it. Many nights it has meant eating by candlelight and having to clean teeth in the dark etc. but all of it makes me remember that there are so many children that we are striving to serve who don’t have a time when the power comes back. These children don’t have candles to help them see at night. These children are constantly getting ready for bed in the dark, assuming they even have a bed. And we complain when we don’t have a laptop or phone for a few hours. It has really made me realise and remember just what kinds of things we take for granted. When the power is out, it means we can run out of hot water, so makes having a shower uncomfortable, but then I remember, I’m lucky to even have running water. There are many homes we have visited where the children have to walk an hour every morning to get the water and then carry it all the way home even just to have water.

Last week, Tommy had the opportunity to go with a group of people to a community called Mwaseni in the Kitwe area of Zambia. Community prayer happens once a month and the majority of people who we live and serve with go into a community to bring encouragement and spend time with the Care Workers. This month, Marc (one of our volunteers) shared on relationships and how we can use them to help heal each other’s wounds. So many of us and our Care Workers are broken and we realise that the only way we can be healed of this is through following Jesus and recognising that God first loved us and calls us to love others in the same way. We also shared a time of worship together with the Hands family and the Care Workers, it was a special time and we really saw God’s presence show up. Attached is a sound clip of some of the worship time we had together. (sound clip) Following the meeting, we went out to do a Holy Home Visit with the co-ordinator of the Community Based Organisation (CBO), Rose. She has been suffering from cancer for over a year and as a result has been bedridden. Before she discovered she had cancer, she was the life and leader of the CBO. She would encourage the other Care Workers and make sure all the 100 children Hands at Work serves in Mwaseni were being cared for. The community is trying to care for her in the best way they can by visiting her and Rose’s daughter is helping by caring for her sick mother. The group of us that were on the visit encouraged her and prayed for her as she is going through this difficult time. We will continue to pray for Rose and ask that you join us in praying for her.

In the past couple of days Morgan has travelled to another part of Zambia called Kabwe where we have a Service Centre (SC) which supports 5 CBOs. She travelled with another volunteer named Heather and they are going to host a team of nurses from the US. These nurses leave their day jobs for 10 days and come to serve in Africa, visiting children in their homes but also providing 2 days of mobile clinics. This means that they set up a clinic in the community itself and people come from all over the community to be assessed. The nurses, along with Zambian nurses help provide much needed access to medical attention to many people.

At the end of next week, Tommy has the opportunity to travel to DRC with a team of people to help support our SC team in various ways. Some of the group will be helping lead a kids’ camp, some will go and speak to churches. Tommy will be helping out in the office by providing support to our bookkeeper there. On the visa update, there has been no news and right now it looks like I will have to apply for a new South African visa in November.

Much Love
T + M 

But We Trust in Your Unfailing Love

It’s been a long time since we have written an update.

As I am sure many of you have heard, back in May Tommy was trying to leave South Africa for a two-week trip to Zambia and he was pulled into immigration for issues with his South Africa visa. It’s been a long, complicated and frustrating process trying to get the issues resolved. We have had to get an immigration lawyer involved. Tommy had to leave South Africa and return to the UK so we could launch an appeal. We are still waiting on the results of that but he is allowed to travel anywhere but South Africa.

It has not been an easy few months. But in spite of all of this we have seen God’s hand in many ways. One way in which we saw God’s hand was in Tommy’s visit to Zambia. It came at a time exactly when the Zambian Regional Support Team needed it. He was able to provide help to our Services Centres at a time when that extra pair of hands was needed.

Back in June, Morgan had the chance to go to Malawi with a group of Nurses from the US. Her time was spent between a mix of Holy Home Visits and days involving a mobile clinic in the communities. It’s a country that we love, and it was great for her to be back and reconnect with the Hands team in Malawi. To learn more about Hands at Work’s work in Malawi visit www.handsatwork.org/malawi

We have also seen much growth in our communities this year. A number of our communities that we serve in have been able to increase their number of children supported this year. Other communities, that we have been identifying for a few years have been able to begin 3 essentials services for the first time. This means that children in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland will for the first time have access to consistent food, education and health care and a special person in their lives who is looking out and caring for them.

Jordan and Chad came to visit in Zambia. Morgan’s mom and dad are spending a year serving with Hands at Work in Zambia, and with Tommy not able to be in SA, Zambia became the location of our time together. It’s rare that Morgan’s family is all in one place, so we treasure the times it does happen. The visit was full of laughter, bus adventures, food and quality time with the family.

In the beginning of August we headed for Canada, we spent most of our time in and around Ontario where most of Morgan’s family and friends live. We have not had much time here in the past few years, usually just passing though for a week or so.  We got to spend quality time with friends and family we have missed so much. The longer we are away from Canada and the UK the more we miss the important milestones in the lives of those we love, and we were blessed to be a part of some of those while in Canada and the UK.  We also miss the everyday life stuff the cups of coffee, walks, beach days, camping trips, summer nights, deep discussions and the not so deep ones, the laughs the tears and everything else in between. And that stuff is important to us as well. We went back to Canada wanting to honor that in the people we spent time with. We left Canada after a quick little trip to visit a dear friends in NYC, full of love and gratitude for the people in our life.

On the Sunday before we left Canada we heard a sermon on waiting, it was perfect timing for us.

How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me. - Psalm 13 

We are still waiting in His timing and even though it is beyond our understanding, we know God has a plan for this time. He has shown his faithfulness many times throughout our lives and we continue to trust in Him during this process.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers.
Much Love T + M

It's been a busy few weeks!

It's been a busy few weeks! 

As the Hands at Work family we journey together through Holy Week. It's an opportunity to reflect individually and together on Christ's death and resurrection. It's a tradition at Hands that we have come to cherish. This year we read through a book called The Week That Changed the Word- the Easter Story by Timothy Roth. It's a collection of scripture and ancient wisdom taking you through the week leading up to Easter. The finished the week gathered together to watch the sunrise on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately it was very cloudy and we didn't see the sun but we enjoyed a great breakfast and celebration that morning. 

Lately it seems like the only opportunity we get to go out to the community is for community prayer. A few weeks back we all ventured out 2.5hrs to a community called Welverdeind. It was a special community prayer, typically we only get time with the Care Workers. However, this time It was school holidays so we had Care Workers, gogo's, aunties, church elders and lots of children. We sang and danced in the African sun under a giant tree at the care point. We each had a chance to sit with a small group from the community and encourage and pray for them. It was a beautiful day! Many of you know we moved house not that long ago. 

Last week we moved again! Another couple had asked to move to the Hub and so Hands leadership offered us a bigger home that was available on the property. We are getting settled in, it feels a bit big for us now, but I'm sure we will get used to it! 

You may have seen on social media that Hands at Work has a new website! Morgan and her team have been hard at work for months to make this happen. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out at www.handsatwork.org 

We are writing this blog on the way home from a little weekend getaway in Salt Rock, a small town north of Durban on the Dolphin coast of the Indian Ocean. 




South Africa is a beautiful country, we don't have much time to explore it so we like to take the opportunity when we can. We spent the weekend hanging out on the beach, eating delicious food, visiting Ushaka aquarium and water park and taking a little drive to the largest mall in the southern hemisphere. It was a relaxing weekend after a very busy few weeks, just what we needed! 

Love T + M

An Update from March

As this year hurries on, it feels like we have only just started and yet we are already nearing the end of March. I am sure this is how many people feel every year but it is really this year that I have felt this in particular. The things that have kept Morgan and I busy have ranged from end of year reporting to going out to communities and spending time with our new group of volunteers. Here at Hands at Work, very February and September we have times set aside to allow new volunteers to come and join us as part of the family. This February, we had twelve people come to join us from all over the world. We had couples, a family and singles from Australia, UK, US, Canada and Germany. It is the first time in a very long time that we have had such a diverse group within a group of new volunteers. The volunteers come for an initial 6 week orientation program and then stay on usually between a year and three years. If anyone is interested in finding out more about this then head to www.handsatwork.org/come. It is very exciting for us who have been here a few years to see what God is doing in the lives of the new volunteers. Last week we got to hear about their community stay. For those that remember, this is when we go into the community for the weekend and stay with a family. The relationships we build here can often be long lasting as you can understand by the relationship we still have with Silo. We ask that you keep these new volunteers in your prayers as they will be heading out to various countries in the next few weeks. For those who do not know, one of the couples who are part of the new volunteers are Morgan’s mum and dad. It has been great to have them around and they will be spending most of the year in Zambia helping our construction team and Regional Support Team (RST).

Over the past month, Morgan and I also had the privilege of joining some other members of the Hands family to go to a community called Share as a part of a monthly meeting called community prayer. We do this every month and visit a difference community each month and it is a time where we can go and encourage our Care Workers and children by praying and worshipping together. On this particular visit, we also had the opportunity the do home visits. The home I visited was of a young girl named Alice and her gogo (grandmother). When Alice was born, her mum did not want to look after her and so dropped her off at the door of her gogo. As a result, Alice has only ever met her mum a few times and was raised by her gogo. Alice has never met her dad. Her gogo not only cares for Alice but other children in the community who have no parents, she is a real beacon of hope in the community of Share. Alice is able to get a meal a day from the life centre in Share and gets a regular visit from her Care Worker, Doris. As we prayed and left the family, I couldn’t help but think what Alice would do if it wasn’t for the love she receives from her gogo and Doris from the life centre. We need to keep praying for our Care Workers in the community as they give of themselves every day to serve the most vulnerable children in Africa.

A couple of weekends ago, we also spent time as the Hands family having an afternoon of fun together by having a Potjkiekos and playing some Boer sports. Not through literal translation but these are Afrikaans words for a stew cook-off and Primary school sports. We had four teams and each cooked their own version of the Afrikaans stew which was then judged later in the day. We also played many games in our teams including egg and spoon race, three legged race, apple bobbing, tug of war and a sack race. Our team managed to come second overall on the day and everyone had lots of fun!

Lastly, we have been blessed and have been able to be able to buy a car. It is a Ford Focus and after a few hiccups at the beginning is now working great and we feel very fortunate to be able to have that extra bit of freedom.

- Tommy 

40 Days of Prayer for Africa's Most Vulnerable & Hands at Work

Give ear to my words, O Lord; give heed to my sighing.
Listen to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I pray - Psalm 5:1-2 (NRSV)

40 Days of Prayer is a special time when we can unite in prayer for the most vulnerable in Africa and the work that supports them. We invite you to join with us from February 18 - April 4th. Here's how:


Join the Hands at Work family around the world as we pray for 40 days on behalf of the most vulnerable children in Africa and our work to support them. As the body of Christ, we commit to coming together to intercede and bring hope to the hopeless.

Download the 40 Days 2015 Prayer Guide

Join our daily online event in the Hands at Work  Prayer Room, or join the Facebook Event where each day you will receive expanded content on the daily prayer point.

New Year New Beginnings

It is a new year and with a new year comes new beginnings. Each year in Hands at Work, God gives us a Watchword which we use to guide our year. This year, God gave us a word from Habakkuk which says “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.” We took time in small groups to reflect on this together and individually. For us as Hands at Work this year, we will go through times of struggles and times of celebration, but God wants us to be reflecting on the times which he has stood by us. In the busyness of carrying out our daily tasks and lives, we can forget how faithful God is in the small things, but this year he is calling us to remember that. We are excited to see what this year holds for us as a family.

The Hands at Work family at the beginning of 2015

Over the past few weeks, Morgan and I have had time to recuperate before the beginning of the year which is always busy! We had time over the Christmas break to get settled into our new house and also host people on Christmas morning which was amazing. We love having the space to be able to host people and to be able to do this on Christmas morning was very special. We enjoyed a bring and share breakfast while opening gifts from friends and family. Later during that day, all of the Hands family came together at lunch to enjoy meat from the braai (South African barbeque). It is still very strange to celebrate Christmas in the hot weather but we shut the doors at night and turned the fan on full speed to try and make it feel a bit more like a home Christmas season.

Christmas Morning in our House

Even though the Hands offices are closed over the Christmas break, there is still work to be done, but we managed to keep it to a minimum and got some rest. A group of us all headed out to Mac Mac pools, a nearby waterfall and tourist site to celebrate Mel’s (one of our Australian volunteers) birthday. It was a very hot day and even though we put on sun cream, many of us still got burnt. The water was definitely refreshing on such a hot day. Also, during the break, we had Silo come to stay at our house. We spent time playing games with him, catching up and watching some films. He is still looking for a permanent job so please pray with us for that. We also have the chance to go to Kruger Park with our friends from Zambia and their two little girls. I saw wild dog for the first time in four years! And we had a great cheetah sighting.

In terms of travel for this year, we have not got much planned yet but God knows his plans for us and so we wait to see what they are for us. We are still currently waiting for my South African visa extension to be approved, so prayers for that would be much appreciated. In terms of our roles, Morgan will continue to head up our communications team who share our stories, updates and highlights from inside Africa to our partners, churches and friends outside of Africa. For myself, I will continue to work with our finance teams throughout Africa.

That’s all for now, but we are excited to share another years worth of adventures with you soon enough!

 Tommy

2014 in pictures

It has become a bit of a tradition for me, as I reflected on the past year to choose a selection of pictures that highlight it. As I look back on 2014 I can't help but count my blessings. I'm thankful for the opportunities we have had, the stories we have learned, our family and friends across the world, the continued privileged to serve the most vulnerable in Africa and His continued grace and strength.
 
Much Love! -M