I came that they may have life and have it abundantly – John 10:10 (ESV)
This Christmas, Hands at Work invites you to join us in giving to support the most vulnerable children across Africa. Each day, volunteer Care Workers from the local church care for the poorest children in the poorest communities in the eight countries Hands at Work serves.
Hands at Work envisions the local church in Africa united with the international church around the world, serving together to care for the most vulnerable people in the poorest African communities. In the US, Suzette, Michelle and Sara are three members of the Hands at Work US team who have answered this calling on their lives. Here they reflect on their call to GIVE:
Valentina* is only 7 years old, yet most of her life has been spent struggling to survive. When her father passed away, her mother was left with five children to care and provide for. In the extremely poor community of Kitabataba, finding income to buy food is almost impossible for the most vulnerable families.
Hands at Work believes that for us to serve the most vulnerable in the poorest communities in Africa, we must first serve the people we live and work with every day in community. We have very different testimonies of our walks with Christ, but we all feel called to serve the most vulnerable here in Africa
One way the international church unites with the local church in bringing life to our children is through week-long camps. “We loved playing, having lessons, learning about God’s light, and having good food.” – Jenepher, 14 and Ruth 12, sisters from Kalende community. “They learned about mercy, obedience, and how there is God’s light all the time” – Dorothy, their Care Worker
At Hands at Work, our volunteers are called by God from all over the world. Each of us has a unique story of how we were transformed when we stepped out in faith and were obedient to His call. Erick says, “God was speaking to me and clearly showed me a vision of me working with vulnerable children in my country.”
Stay connected with Hands at Work to hear what is happening on the ground in Africa, and around the world as we unite with the international church to bring hope to the hopeless. Hear what is inspiring us, read stories of transformation among the most vulnerable, and stay informed with how you can serve as we are called together to serve our brothers and sisters in Africa.
Many people have had their lives affected by time spent in Africa. There are memories that we hold onto that breathe air on the embers of our faith – reminding us that God is for the orphaned the widowed and the dying. The most significant photos to us are not always the most professional or even most beautiful images. They are the ones, however, that take us back to a moment that changed our lives.
Hands at Work in Africa is committed to transforming the lives of the most vulnerable children through locally owned community based organisations. In Africa’s most vulnerable communities, the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, war, poverty and the vast number of orphaned children is incomprehensible. An entire generation of parents have passed away.
Our vision is a challenge for the church. Will the institution that the church has become simply fulfil religious cravings, or will the church spend itself on behalf of the hungry ‘lifting the cause of the fatherless’ and becoming Christ-like in its humility and servanthood. Can religion be as pure and faultless as this?
At Hands at Work we are blessed to hear testimonies from visitors who have come to Africa to experience what God is doing. These stories of everyday people who meet Jesus in the faces of the most vulnerable, for even a short period of time, tells of God’s great desire to change us so we will never be the same.
Suzette serves as a volunteer with the Hands at Work team in the United States. In 2013 she came with her husband, Abe, to Africa to visit Hands for the first time, and this year they are bringing a team from their church. Here she tells us her own personal journey and the journey of her team, as they prepare to come.
At Hands at Work, our volunteers are called by God from all over the world to serve the most vulnerable in Africa. Busisiwe (Busie) Sityata-Jones was born and grew up in South Africa, experiencing the effects of apartheid on her own people. For over ten years she has served with Hands at Work, and today she serves as one of our key leaders in Southern Africa.
In 2008, Oumie started living with George and Carolyn Snyman (her son and daughter-in-law, Hands at Work Co-Founders). Soon afterwards, she was diagnosed with acute leukemia and told she had only weeks to live. There was a new chemotherapy treatment available, and she qualified to begin receiving it. Oumie’s friends and family stood with her in prayer, trusting that God could heal her.
When the Care Workers in Macadeira, Mozambique harvested their own 400kg of maize, they felt an enormous sense of pride. After all, it was their many hours of work in the field, under the blistering African sun that finally paid off. But the work was difficult and the premature ceasing of the rains meant that their beans failed...
