A New Year - A Fresh Start

The last update we wrote was the good news about God’s faithfulness and his provision of my new 3 year visa for South Africa. After such a long time away from our home, it was so great to be able to step back into our house. The first few days back were a little surreal as it took me a while to get used to being back. After over 6 months away, it has been great to spend time catching up with those people who I haven’t seen since June. 

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 

I Am A Witness - 2015

For the past five years as part of my reflection at the end of a year, I have gathered a collection of pictures that represent moments I have cherished from the year. As I was looking back this year, I found I had many moment's I didn't have a picture for, it turns out I didn't take many photos in 2015. Life didn't look how I thought it would last year, and many times my mind was caught up in the ciaos of it all. I love taking pictures, capturing that moment in time when nothing will every be exactly like it was every again. Stopping even if it is only for a few seconds to appreciate the beautiful in your midst. It's an art that I have missed being a part of. As we begin a new year, I want to recommit myself to a goal I set when I first arrived in Africa.

I am a Witness

While we journey in Africa, I have committed to posting a collection of picture; moments of overwhelming joy, sorrow, pain, pride and beauty captured in my honest and uncensored attempt to tell our story and those of the ones we love. 

I am a witness; I want my testimony to be honest and uncensored,

I also want it to be powerful and eloquent and

to do as much justice as possible to the experiences

of the people I’m photographing

 – James Natchtwey

Have a look at the rest of my 2015 collection. 

- M

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!

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