Session One | Team Introduction

Length: 120 minutes

Introduce yourself and share what has led you to join the team. Share your name, where you are from, how you first heard about Hands at Work, what led you to decide to go to Africa, and what your personal hopes and intentions are.

Do you agree with this purpose? Does it align with why you are going? What feelings or questions come up in considering this purpose for you personally and collectively as a team?

1. To respond to and obey a personal call from God to go (Sessions One and Six)

2. To personally encounter God’s heart amongst the vulnerable and to grow in faith, as well as to be encouraged and impacted by the core values and way of life of the Hands at Work community (Session Two)

3. To encourage the work of local Christian volunteers on the ground (Session Three)

4. To further the goals of the partnership between the local Church and the international Church and to stir up momentum to further this partnership when the team returns (Sessions Four and Five)

Source: “Show Me The Way Daily Lenten Readings”, Day 13: A Servant God

Anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Matt. 20:26-28

“The great mystery of God’s compassion is that in his compassion, in his entering with us into the condition of a slave, he reveals himself to us as God. His becoming a servant is not an exception to his being God. His self-emptying and humiliation are not a step away from his true nature. His becoming as we are and dying on a cross is not a temporary interruption of his divine existence. Rather, in the emptied and humbled Christ we encounter God, we see who God really is, we come to know his true divinity.

In his servanthood God does not disfigure himself, he does not take on something alien to himself, he does not act against or in spite of his divine self. On the contrary, it is in his servanthood that God chooses to reveal himself as God to us. Therefore, we can say that the downward pull as we see this in Jesus Christ is not a movement away from God, but a movement toward him as he really is: a God for us who came not to rule but to serve. This implies very specifically that God does not want to be known except through servanthood and that, therefore, servanthood is God’s self-revelation.

Radical servanthood does not make sense unless we introduce a new level of understanding and see it as the way to encounter God himself. To be humble and persecuted cannot be desired unless we can find God in humility and persecution. When we begin to see God himself, the source of all our comfort and consolation, in the center of servanthood, compassion becomes much more than doing good for unfortunate people. Radical servanthood, as the encounter with the compassionate God, takes us beyond the distinctions between wealth and poverty, success and failure, fortune and bad luck. Radical servanthood is not an enterprise in which we try to surround ourselves with as much misery as possible, but a joyful way of life in which our eyes are opened to the vision of the true God who chose the way of servanthood to make himself known. The poor are called blessed not because poverty is good, but because theirs is the kingdom of heaven; the mourners are called blessed not because mourning is good, but because they shall be comforted.

Here we are touching the profound spiritual truth that service is an expression of the search for God and not just of the desire to bring about individual or social change. Joy and gratitude are the qualities of the heart by which we recognize those who are committed to a life of service in the path of Jesus Christ… Wherever we see real service we also see joy, because in the midst of service a divine presence becomes visible and a gift is offered. Therefore, those who serve as followers of Jesus discover that they are receiving more than they are giving. Just as a mother does not need to be rewarded for the attention she pays to her child because her child is her joy, so those who serve their neighbor will find their reward in the people whom they serve. The joy of those who follow their Lord on his self-emptying and humbling way shows that what they seek is not misery and pain but the God whose compassion they have felt in their own lives: their eyes do not focus on poverty and misery, but on the face of the loving.”

After reading, personally reflect on what you heard, writing down phrases or ideas that you found powerful or impactful, or even ones you are unfamiliar with or struggling to understand.

After writing, pray for yourself:

Lord, give me ears to hear what you are speaking. 

Lord, I open myself up to you on this journey, trusting that you have brought me into this opportunity with these people for a reason. I surrender myself to your will.

Lord, soften my heart and lead me deeper into your heart and understanding.

Discuss together

1. What about this excerpt did you find interesting?

2. What about this excerpt did you find new or challenging?

3. How do you see the idea presented here as an important part of your upcoming trip?

4. Nouwen says: “Here we are touching the profound spiritual truth that service is an expression of the search for God and not just of the desire to bring about individual or social change”.

• How does this idea influence the way you are viewing the purpose of your trip?

• How do we prepare our hearts now so that this trip can be about the profound search for God, instead of simply doing something good?

• In light of this reflection and discussion, consider how the poor have something you may need and what it will take to humble yourself to receive it.

  
  

Close with a time of silence followed with the prayer provided in Nouwen’s reflection:

Lord, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

No one comes to the Father, except through you. 

(from John 14:6)

To continue aligning your heart with God’s heart for the poor throughout this journey, see these additional Hands at Work resources: 

• Dig In

• Preparing Our Hearts through Scripture

Milestones 

Here are the general roadmap and logistics for the team:

• Once team membership is confirmed: Start meeting regularly with the team. Schedule at least six pre-trip training sessions, including one that a Hands at Work representative can attend (in person or online), and at least one post-trip debrief. Share your team preparation plan with Hands at Work.

• By four months before your trip: Expect to discuss estimated budget (including lodging, catering and in-country transportation costs) with Hands at Work. 

• By three months before your trip: All team members must complete the Team Member Booking Form and background checks, and book flights and travel medical insurance. Send flight itinerary and background check and insurance documentation to Hands at Work. 

• By two months before your trip: Expect team invoice from Hands at Work.

• By one month before your trip: Send invoice payment and team photo to Hands at Work. Expect team programme and letter of invitation from Hands at Work.

• By two weeks before your trip: Expect introduction and hand-off to Hands at Work host in Africa. 

• On the ground in Africa!

• Within two weeks of returning: Conduct debrief with Hands at Work and your team.

Expectations 

Here’s what the team can expect of Hands at Work and what Hands at Work expects of the team:

• Team can expect Hands at Work to (1) provide support at pre-trip meetings and trainings, including attending at least one (in person or online) and providing answers and resources; (2) follow the team milestones; (3) debrief with the team after the trip; and (4) pray for the team throughout the process.

• Hands at Work expects the team to (1) hold pre-trip meetings to cover the topics described in Hands at Work's team preparation manual; (2) follow the team milestones; and (3) hold debriefs whilst in Africa and after returning home.

Questions?

• Complete Team Member Booking Form (either together in person or within a few days after)

• Bring passport and scan/photograph passport pages

• Any country- or partner-specific logistics