In March, a combined team from Eternity Church, Guildford, UK and Liberty Church, Johannesburg, South Africa visited some of the CBOs Hands supports in South Africa. One of the UK team members, Tom Fenton, has put together this video montage of the trip. Tom himself is singing.

Becky Green is Missions Leader at The Forge Church, Stowmarket, Suffolk, which has been partnering with Hands for several years. Here, she tells her story about her recent trip to Zambia.‘In April, I had a non-stop crazy week in Zambia with my travel buddy Wendy.

"Is this the way to Amulo?" Sounds like a really annoying song that was out (again) a few years ago. Actually, it was what I found myself saying quite a lot in a car whilst bouncing on roads, that had more potholes than road, just outside Kitwe in the Copperbelt mining region in central Zambia.

'A year ago the opportunity to visit a “Hands at Work” conference and their operations in Zambia was handed to me, a gift which I unwrapped with enthusiasm and the deepest gratitude. They say that Africa can get under your skin. Three years in Kenya in the late 1980s left me with that feeling and so when my church, Greenfinch Church in Ipswich, UK, invited me to lead a team to Chilabula last year, a community in the Copperbelt that our church is now linked with, I offered minimal resistance. But enough of me.

I guess there are just a few moments in life when something strikes you so hard that you feel totally powerless and useless. Cue day 2 of my fortnight in Zambia, visiting homes in Chilabula, the village that our church has “adopted”. The harsh realities of everyday Zambian life hit me today like a runaway freight train.

Kim Burgess, a Forge Church (UK) volunteer, recently wrote to Hands at Work: In 2008 she had an unforgettable experience in Luanshya, Zambia. We'd like to share her story with you here.