The Warm Heart of Africa

June seemed to fly by so quickly for us! We celebrated lots of birthdays, and spent a number of days in the community.

This year Hands at Work has begun projects to see the transformation of the physical structures of our Life Centers. The vision is to see our Care Workers, children and the international church come together to bring colour and life to these spaces. Before we invited others to be a part of this we wanted to have the opportunity to participate in this ourselves. In the middle of June we saw the completion of a project in Zwelisha community in South Africa.

At the end of June, I had the opportunity to spend 12 days in Malawi. It's the longest I have been away from Finnley + Tommy since Finn was born. It was such a blessing to be able to leave them behind and know that Tommy had incredible support from our community. I never thought twice or felt the need to worry, it put my momma heart at ease knowing they were so well supported!

Malawi is known as the "warm heart of africa" and every time I return it becomes more and more evident why. The friendly, genuine warmth and hospitality displayed by it's people makes it a place such a pleasure to return to.

I was in Malawi to host a group of nurses from the US. I really enjoy hosting these teams, they are very different from the other teams Hands receives and God also does something unique through them. We spent time primarily in the community of Mcheneke running mobile clinics and health education classes alongside local nurses from Malawi. It's amazing how hosting a team gives you all kinds of opportunities to share your own heart and calling to this work. God has a way of refreshing you as you pour out onto others.

Coming up this month, Malster family 'staycation', preparing for our dear friends wedding, and spending time in the communities in South Africa. 

Love + Blessings Morgan 

Our Week in Oshoek

Last week we headed out as a family to Oshoek, a rural mountainous area of South Africa where Hands at Work has a local office. We were there to support and encourage the team there, who care for children in 5 communities on the South Africa, Swaziland border.

The office building doubles as accommodation for visitors. Finn loved staying in the sparse building with mattresses on the floor. It was hours of entertainment for him. He did so well in a new environment and being passed from person to person. It was a privilege for us as parents to watch him bring joy to so many souls. 

It was a beautiful week, building relationship with some incredible people. At the end of the week, we both felt like we could have used a few more days. We left feeling refreshed and with full hearts.

To Malawi and back

Recently I had the privilege to travel to Malawi and spend time with our local office (SC) team there. There were a few different reasons for my trip, one being some financial work, second being time in our communities but also spending time with a team from Westside Kings Church, Canada. This is Morgan’s home church in Canada so obviously great for me to be able to spend time with them.
Over the whole trip the theme of caring (or Care Givers) kept coming back to me, in my devotional times but especially out in our communities. On the Holy Home Visits I went on in the two communities I visited, the stories which impacted me most were that of the Care Givers, those who live with our vulnerable children providing care to them in their homes.

I met one lady, named Eleeza, who had taken in her sister’s son, Naris, after she has died very soon after Naris was born. Eleeza then nursed Naris during his infant years to ensure he would survive without his mother. Now, 3 years on, he is still alive and loved very much by his aunt Eleeza. I also met Tanji who cares for her 3 children and her sick husband, who contracted some kid of disease late last year and now finds it very difficult to walk. He, therefore, cannot work so Tanji has to provide for the family by working in a nearby field. As well as all of the above she also cares for her own mother who is very old and sick. At the time of her visit, Tanji’s sister was also sick so was helping to care for her and her children. As I sat on this Holy Home Visit, it really struck me the heavy load that Tanji carries. I encouraged her that Jesus helps us to carry our burdens when we cannot manage. The Care Workers and I also helped in a practical way by de-shelling some of Tanji’s beans that she had harvested the day before.

Another way in which I saw the theme of caring was through our SC team in Malawi. One example of this was regarding the way in which the SC team advocate on behalf of the most vulnerable in our communities. On one of the days I spent in community, we arrived at the Life Centre and noticed that there were a number of primary school age children present. This was unusual for morning as they should have been in school. After asking a few questions, our SC team realised that these kids had been chased away from their school because certain school fees had not been paid. As soon as that had been said, Prince, one of our SC team members, jumped on the motorbike and rode to the nearby primary school to plead with the principal to let our kids back into school on the promise that the school fees would be paid in the next couple of days. When we returned 2 days later, we found no primary school age children at the Life Centre so knew that Prince’s words to the principal had not been in vain.

For this particular trip, Dan travelled with me to Malawi. Dan and I had not travelled together before so I was looking forward to spending some quality time with him. One of the highlights of my trip was to see how Dan cared for our SC team by encouraging them on numerous occasions. From publicly thanking individuals to sending personal messages, Dan always had his eyes open to encourage our SC team. It was a challenge to me and I asked myself the question, how far do I go to encourage our SC guys? It is something I definitely need to work on!

It was difficult to be away from Morgan and Finn for those 2 weeks but we were able to keep in good contact and I felt very blessed to be able to have those 2 weeks in Malawi.

Soon after I returned from Malawi, Morgan and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by spending a night away (without Finn) in a nearby mountainous town called Dullstroom. It was great to be able to spend that together especially after having been apart for those couple of weeks. It is incredible to think back over the past 5 years to see how God has grown us individually and together. We are very blessed!

This past week, Morgan, Finn and I had the opportunity to travel out to one of our South African communities, Share, with some visitors from UK and Canada. It is always special to be able to get Finn out to our communities and start to expose him to the life that so many people in our world live.

Finn having dinner with all the 'Hands kids'

Eleeza (left) with Naris (right) and a local Care Worker (centre)

Celebrating birthdays!

April is always a special month in the Malster household, we celebrate 2 birthdays (myself and Finn). This April was particularly special as it was Finn’s first birthday! It was a very special day as we celebrated with all of the Hands family and Morgan’s parents who travelled from Zambia for a couple of weeks. Finn had his first experience of cake and loved it!

Our group of new volunteers arrived in mid-February and have just finished their orientation programme and placement at one of our local offices. During their orientation programme, Morgan, Finn and I joined the group as they spent time in one of our communities, Zwelisha. In the morning, we helped prepare the food for lunch for the kids and that day it was chicken feet. I was given the job of chopping the toe nails off of the chicken feet. Later on, we went on a Holy Home Visit to one of the pastors wives in the community. The pastor is well known and very involved at the Life Centre. The wife that we were visiting had attended various events at the Life Centre but since having a baby had not been involved. The hope was that we could encourage her to start coming to the Life Centre again. It is so important to have local leaders in our communities involved at our Life Centres as this is a core value of Hands of local community ownership. During this Home Visit, Julia (the Care Worker we were with) shared her story of how she become a Care Worker and her heart for serving the most vulnerable in her community. The previous week she had been part of an exchange visit with other Care Workers from the Oshoek region of South Africa. She was excited to share with this pastor’s wife about what she had learnt from the other Care Workers. At the end of our visit, we asked her the question, would you like to come to the Life Centre on Monday? She said yes and we are now praying that God will use this opportunity to bring this pastors wife into the Community Based Organisation to help serve the most vulnerable children in Zwelisha.

Every year at Hands we celebrate Holy Week and take time to reflect on Jesus’ time in the week leading up to his death and resurrection. This year, we spent time reading passages of scripture and reading parts of a book called ‘The Final Days of Jesus’. Personally, it was a time when God challenged me on how I use my devotionals. For this Lent season, I spent the majority of my devotional time sending encouragements to others but had been neglecting the fact that God also needs to speak to me. So I found Holy Week very refreshing as I was able to spend it listening to God and being still with Him.

Just after Easter, Morgan and I had the opportunity to visit the Oshoek area and host a team from Canada. We joined them in visiting one of our communities called Sthobela B. It is a very new community based organisation and had only been running for about a month when we visited. For being such a new CBO, it was a joy to see the kids so happy. For many of our kids, when we first begin to care for them, they can be reserved and it takes a few months to become open enough to play with other children and adults. The home which our group visited on our Holy Home Visit had seven people living there; a gogo (grandmother), her 2 children and 4 grandchildren. As we chatted with one of the mothers, we got to understand a little more of their story. Both the mothers had spent significant chunks of time away from the home looking for work in Johannesburg and other big cities. They had spent a lot of time away because finding jobs in South Africa is very difficult. During this time, the gogo (still left at home with the 4 grandkids) needed to continue to make her small living by working the field. Three of the kids are too small to go to school. When she was away in the field, she would lock these 3 kids in the house to keep them ‘safe’ and out of trouble. Little did she know what damage it was doing to them. The room they were in had no windows and only a small crack under the door to keep air moving in and out of the room. The gogo would be gone for hours at a time working the field. It wasn’t until one neighbour saw what was going on and alerted the Care Workers at the CBO that something changed. The Care Worker visited and talked through with the gogo what had been happening and she also called the mothers back from the city to come and help the situation. Now, a few months later the kids are looked after by the mothers during the day and play outside in the surrounding area. Since February, they have also been attending the Sthobela B Life Centre which means that all 4 of them receive a meal and get to play with other kids for a few hours. Even though it was a tough story to hear, it also brought me a lot of hope to know that there are people who are standing up for those who have no voice in our communities.

This weekend I am off to Malawi for 2 weeks to do some financial work and spend time in our communities with a team from Canada. It will be the longest time I have been away from Finn and the longest time one of us will be looking after him without the other.
Please pray for all 3 of us that this time apart will not be too difficult and we will be able to communicate well

I am the way, the truth and the life

I can’t believe it is already nearly the end of February. It seems only yesterday that we flew back from Canada and UK after Christmas. Between then and now, we have been up to a lot so I will try to give some highlights of our past few weeks. 

Back in January, as with the start of every year, we heard the Hands Watchword for 2017. This is a guiding scripture for us as Hands for the year. For 2017, the scripture is from John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” For many people, as we reflected on this word, we talked about how it was a well-known verse but how it was still challenging to see it with fresh eyes. As I reflected on this verse for myself, I saw it broken down into 3 parts where God can work in my life this year. First is the way. I realised the need to seek God more in my decisions, my actions and for guidance very single day. Second is the truth. For truth, there are certain truths throughout the bible that I would like to dig into this year and settle into my heart and mind. For life, I have always found that the days I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me are the days which are full of life. So I want to see that God filled life and spirit more in my life this year.

A big focus for my time in the past few weeks has been the year-end financial close out but last week we made the last big push and now are basically finished which is a big weight off our shoulders as the finance team. 

For Morgan, a lot of her focus was year-end narrative reports but those all went out to our partners at end of January and so she can now focus on 2018 and the goals and plans for the communications team. 

During the lent season, as Hands, we participate in 40 days of prayer. This is where we and others across the globe join together to focus our prayer on the most vulnerable across Africa. If you would like to join with us, please visit the Hands at Work website. 

Finn is growing fast and is crawling a lot! He is even close to walking now. He can stand by himself for a few seconds. 













Last Friday, as a Hands family, we travelled to Share community for our monthly community prayer. We spend time every month as a whole Hands family in one of our communities encouraging and praying with Care Workers and getting to know children by name. The previous two days, Morgan had spent time with our first team of the year, from UK, in this same community. Finn travelled with me (and everyone else) to Share community where we spent time worshipping with the Care Workers. It is always a lot of fun singing and dancing with these ladies, they have so much joy despite having so little. In the afternoon, we split up into a few different groups and went on Holy Home Visits. The family Morgan, Finn and I visited were a family of five, four children and the mother. They had lost their father three years ago. The two youngest kids are receiving 3 Essential Services (food, health and education) from the CBO (community based organisation). The second eldest son was who we found at the home when we arrived. His name in English means Truth. When we talked more with him, we learnt that he is not receiving the 3 Essential Services because after school, he tries to find small community jobs (piece work) to earn a little bit of money to support the rest of the family. Sometimes this means very long days for Truth but he is sacrificing of himself for the rest of his family. A lot of the work he finds in the community is car mechanics which he learnt from his father. I told him that my dad is also a mechanic but I know very little about mechanics which he found funny. He is studying business and economics in his final years at school and hopes to become an engineer one day. Even from the short time we got to spend with Truth, you can tell he loves his family and will do anything for them. It is great to see a male role model like this in our communities as it has the potential to affect many other young boys’ lives where there are very few fathers around. 

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers!

- T