We spent December in the UK. Christmas was a special time spent with family and friends. It was Morgan’s first UK Christmas and my first Christmas in UK since 2011. We had lots of time to connect with people and share about our year in Africa and the joys and challenges we experienced.
As with every New Year at Hands, we begin the year with the Watchword Launch. This is a time when many people from all over Africa come together and we begin the year by hearing from God and his word for us as Hands for this year. The word given to us this year was from Romans 15v5. It reads: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity amongst yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.” Romans 15:5 (NIV84)
As I have been reflecting on the scripture given to us for this year, it has made me think about a few things.
How often to I encourage others? I know that when someone encourages me, it can change my mood in such a big way and I always feel thankful to that person. But it is also a huge challenge to me to actively seek out people and encourage them more. I know how much I benefit from encouragement and I want to be able to lift others up in that same way. But as I have been reflecting, it also takes a spirit of discernment to know in what way to encourage people and at what specific time. This takes prayer. So I guess my real goal for this year is to prayerfully discern who needs encouragement and then being willing to act on God’s behalf to provide that encouragement.
As we grow together and expand our work, we have big plans to break ground in as many as 20 new communities this year and that means a huge commitment for all of us. We will see hundreds more children being reached who will have not previously been supported. The Regional Support Teams will be breaking new ground by stirring up local churches to advocate on behalf of the most vulnerable in their own communities and lay the challenge to them to say what can you do to help. We trust God that this will provide us with local men and women (Care Workers) who will then join together and begin caring for the most vulnerable by visiting children and orphans in their homes. These local Care Workers will bring healing and life to these forgotten children who are so often looked down upon. We will be finding these new communities all the way from the dirty, busy slums of Nigeria all the way to deepest rural Malawi where home visits can be 10 miles apart. Both present their unique challenges but challenges which we are committed to overcome because children’s lives depend on it.
As well as breaking into new communities this year, we will also be going deeper in our existing communities by moving from Care Points to Life Centres. In the past we have always known we have wanted to do it but now we have been able to put some clarity and plans to our dreams. We want to move from providing a place where children come to receive food and transform these places into life giving communities where children can come and feel safe and willing to share their struggles. There will be Care Workers available to help children talk through their home lives and be willing to pray with them. These Life Centres will also provide a place for children to meet together and share their own stories with other children and start helping each other by sharing their testimonies.
In the office, both Morgan and I have been busy preparing end of 2015 reports for our partners. It is such a special thing to be involved in, to be able to look back at all that God provided us with in 2015 and how he was able to use us to accomplish so much throughout the different countries we work in.
As we look to the next few weeks, we will get some opportunities to go into some of our local communities and also finish off the 2015 reports.
- T
