Hands at Work - US Office
Stories
Our International Teams are groups of people from across the world who come to Africa and partner with Hands at Work and the local Church to serve, encourage and learn from them. It is a beautiful picture of the diversity of the Body of Christ coming together to serve the most vulnerable who are suffering hunger, HIV/AIDS, violence and trauma on a daily basis.
“What a joy it was to stand among this diverse group of people, representing every demographic and many different locales and marvel at how we are all knit together by God with one passion and purpose…”
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“They both thought of God as a distant figure, someone not to be approached, someone whose love had to be earned. They came to Africa with thoughts of “fixing problems,” especially practical problems. However, through their first couple of trips, they began to see their own brokenness and the brokenness of the world around them, and, more importantly, they began to see God’s desire to bring healing and restoration”
The two of us who had previously gone to Africa through Hands at Work shared stories of what we might have experienced while there — stories of Holy Home Visits, attending local churches, and building relationships with long-term volunteers. At the end of the two weeks, the team realised that we would have arrived home. We agreed that we did not want to stop meeting.
Help us remind a weary world, it has reasons to rejoice this Christmas Season by sharing the Hands at Work Christmas cards with your friends and family.
In July 2019, Pastor Theo Low visited Zambia with a team from Sunset Church in San Francisco, California, with Hands at Work. He shared his reflections as he finished his fourth full day in Africa and his third day of a church mobilization.
“Most of these local pastors are bi-vocational, which means they have small churches and they are not paid to pastor their church. But these men have a great hunger for the Word of God… I realized, I may leave, but this family and this neighborhood will still have faithful men preaching and teaching God’s Word. These men have affirmed their love for the true gospel, they hold God’s Word up high, and they constantly reference it.”
“When you surrender fully to God, you will see the amazing things He is able to accomplish in and through you.”
That was the advice of Morgan Efferson who, with six other students, traveled for ten days to Beeskop and Sthobela, South Africa to work with Hands in serving the most vulnerable. Ridgewood Church put together a team of seven girls, enthusiastic about following the call to serve the widows and orphans. Recalling how they stirred pap with the gogos (grandmothers), got their hands dirty with gardening, played with the children at the service center, and shared stories with Care Workers, it became clear that God used these ten days to challenge and grow them in unimaginable ways.
“It was hard seeing the way people live, but it made me realize that we should appreciate what we have,” Jasmine Quinones says. “They are more appreciative... They were always joyful no matter what.”
