The House is on Fire - 10th Anniversary Thoughts from George

January 2012; yet another year with more challenges and more opportunities. It’s been a huge year for Hands at Work, and while it’s been an exciting year, we are realistic in understanding that 2012 will be tough and bring challenges.

We are celebrating our tenth anniversary this year. It’s just incredible when we look back over the past decade and reflect on what took place. Where can we start to describe this wonderful journey? How can we describe the story of different people from all over the world, from all walks of life from different cultures with different expectations all coming together and walking with the people of Africa? As we went into the poorest, most isolated places, our hearts changed.

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Goma According to George, an Extract (DRC)

In August 2011 George Snyman, Hands at Work founder, broke new ground in Goma, a war-torn area bordering Rwanda in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He planted the seeds of the first Hands at Work-supported community-based organisation in an area where there is no help and no hope.

George had written whilst away that the locals had told him: In a corrupt deal the land belonging to internally displaced people (IDP) was sold by the government whilst the rightful owners were seeking refuge. They now returned to their properties only to be notified that they were to move off their land. George reported that 517 families were left with only 24 hectares of land to share. There was not enough room to live, let alone farm. Subsistence farming is the only hope for survival in the destitute area.

George kept a diary whilst in Goma. We'd like to share an extract with you:

Monday, 1 August

George between the potatoes with gogo OmbeniSome people are still moving off the land that was sold. They carry their belongings on their backs. They don't receive a warm welcome: There is no space for newcomers.

I met gogo Ombeni Helena: She is one of the people forced to relocate here from her former farm, sold before her very eyes. She sat in front of her hut made out of grass and there next to her were her African potatoes that she had pulled out the soil on her land. She was a wreck as she shared her story with me: “I have no place to plant my potatoes. How will I survive?” In my face! She was so vulnerable. This is the reality of a life without hope.

She has about four square metres of 'land' at the front of and behind her hut. “Bring me four hoes!” I cried. What an opportunity this was! Within minutes I had a hoe in hand and people watched as I started ripping up the ground around gogo Ombeni’s hut. People laughed at first, but they soon became quiet and stared at this visitor changing gogo Ombeni’s circumstances. A turning point came when a strong young lady joined me and started helping with a hoe. Soon, another young man jumped in. All of a sudden people had advice to give and others planted the potato plants in the ground that we'd prepared. What a glorious time!

When we finished everyone, including the spectators, came together. I took the opportunity to share: We don’t need to be strong as individuals, but we must each other. Today I might help you and tomorrow you might help me. After the story we sang a song. We all held hands. It changed the atmosphere.

After we helped gogo Ombeni Helena something very significant happened. She had a bucket with water ready for us to wash our hands. There was a small bar of soap lying on a piece of plastic. I didn't think much of it, but afterward I was told the bar of soap was her most precious possession: She would only use it on Sundays and even then as little as possible. But today she saw 'beautiful feet' and it did not only rip her ground open, but it ripped her heart open. She wanted to give! She experienced generosity and it was so attractive to her that she also wanted to be generous. As we tilled the ground at gogo Ombeni, I believe God opened the ground at Luhonga village for the good news of Jesus!

How beautiful on the mountains,

are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,

Breaking the news that all's well,

proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,

telling Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Isaiah 52:7 (The Message)

Pick up your spade and dig!

George talks about self-giving love and the people who emulate it

Click here to listen to George

Here is a sneak preview of the seven-minute sound byte:

2011 celebrates 400 years of the King James translation of the Bible. It took a man named King James I a great deal of courage to make the Word of God available to the man on the street and specifically to the most vulnerable: those who couldn’t read and write.

The Bible is a book that contributed more to the English language than any other book. There are so many verses that brought so much depth. Just one of them is 1 Corinthians 13:1

Tough I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

In today’s language, ‘charity’, has lost its original meaning.

Recently, I was in Zimbabwe where the word charity became very real to me. I met with Agnes, a blind grandmother whom had looked after 16 orphans in one room. With one bed. I spent a Sat afternoon with Agnes, just sitting on the bare floor with her. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the love and the joy shining out of Agnes. Agnes had only two things to say to me: The first was thanking me for what Hands at Work had done for her grandchildren, the orphans. The second was a request, to me, to make sure that there would be enough food for the children this year.

As I prayed over Agnes, I had the distinct feeling that she would be able to see again, very soon. And I shared this with her. Agnes died about three hours later. She saw. I realised that Agnes may have been blind, but she could see better than any other: She could see the King and she could see real life. And life to her was self-giving love.

…

Our Watchword for 2011 is from Ephesians 1: "It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for." There is no cheap way, no easy road to finding out who we are and what we are living for. We know the message: it is about dying to self and living for others. This year we trust that, through people like Agnes, God will help us to know what it means to live for one another.

This year we want to dig deep. Dig deep in the children that we care for. Dig deep in our relationships with each other. Dig deep in our relationships with our partners who so generously support us. Dig deep in our relationship with Christ.

Pick up your spade! Let's dig deep in 2011.

Bringing Hope

Carolyn and I had supper with one of the orphans from Masoyi last week. She is busy studying in university at the moment. I asked her about the youth in the communities. She told me, “More girls are getting pregnant than ever before.” Although I heard it from other people I found myself gobsmacked when I heard it from her. “Why!” I cried to her, hoping she would give me some kind of answer that I could understand. She just starred to the ground seemingly thinking how to answer me. I was impatient and again shot another question at my guest, “Don’t they know about HIV?”

I am sure I’ve asked that question a million times in the last year, and I felt stupid asking it to my friend! She looked at me and said, “George of course they know about HIV, but they have no hope!” She said it softly to me as if she was trying to help me to hear with different ears. She continued, “I remember when I was in school. I had no ambition to finish school, left alone to do well. I knew once I was finished I will just join all the other young people sitting on the corner of the street doing nothing.” There was silence in my house while all of us there saw the picture in our minds we saw in so many villages through the years… young people sitting on the corners the street doing nothing. “What changed your mindset?” I asked. She sat up straight and her voice become strong as she spoke, “Someone took me out of the village and showed me the bigger world. I realised there was hope.”  I realised there was hope. Is that all it took?

The next day I sat with Brooke, Samantha and Robyn trying to wrestle through ideas how to reach the poorest, most vulnerable children in Swaziland. Their voices fainted away in my head as I thought of what I saw in Swaziland and the overwhelming need of so many children. Swaziland is much worse off than Masoyi in many ways, and if Masoyi ‘s youth have no hope, where do we start in Swaziland?  I was looking for someone to accuse: “It is those in power who abuse the weak and they are too powerful;  no one can stop them.” But Gary Haugen corrects that thought by saying “Most injustice isn't driven by the overwhelming power of the perpetrators; it's driven by the weakness of the victims.” Just as Jesus did for us, bringing power on our side by His life, death and resurrection, so we too are called to bring power to the side of the oppressed, of the weak, through our humble obedience and faith.  Just how much do I do to bring hope and encouragement to the youth in Africa?

Ordinary People Making The Difference.

It is just after midnight and I am in Melbourne. I arrived here this afternoon after a week in Sydney, and as you know, the week before I was in Perth. I want to share a short testimony to encourage you.

At the start of the year, I said I believe that the miracles this year will be done by ordinary people like each one of us. God wants to do great things through each one of us. Here are four stories that not only encouraged me but humbled me so much. The four stories are of ordinary people who believe in our dream and who said, “I can make a difference.”

The first story is of a lady from Perth. I met her the Monday after I spoke in her Church. She came to see me at the pastor’s house where I was staying.

She emigrated from Angola to Australia with her husband and eight children many years ago. Soon after they arrived her husband died. She could not even speak English and as a single mother, she struggled on day by day. She told me she wanted to give me something for the children in Africa. In her hand she held $160. It was all she had and she had probably saved that for a rainy day

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