Dear Hands Canada Family,
In lieu of World Aids Day on December 1 and the pressure of year end, we decided to dedicate 2 days for Prayer, Fasting and Giving across Hands at Work global family. The focus of our Prayer, Fasting and Giving in these days will be our vulnerable children across Africa. Will you joins us?
Why are we doing this?
This is part of Going Deeper with our children. It is also part of being obedient to the word shared by James at our Zambia Celebration this year. As he said: “True compassion is burdensome and results in action. When did we fast for the orphans?” The timing is strategic: many of us become either tired or frantically busy toward the end of a year. This becomes self-centred and unhealthy. Setting aside time to give of ourselves in the midst of this is the way to maintain a healthy perspective and to deepen our dependence and trust in God. The December season is a time of incredible pressure for our children: other children receive gifts and start wearing new clothes, etc, and since our kids in Africa have no way to get such things, they are tempted to make dangerous decisions to get what they see others getting.
What’s the plan?
The Prayer and Fasting component of this initiative is on December 2 and 3, beginning at 5 am on Friday and ending 5 pm on Saturday. The idea here is to have a short prayer chain. If you would like to sign-up for the prayer chain, email us at news@ca.handsatwork.org. For those in the Calgary area, we hope to gather together at Brian & Lisa Dalley's home (107 Sunmount Place SE) on Saturday at 5 pm to break the fast with a simple meal and to share about our fasting experience. If you are able to make it to this meal on Saturday, please let Barb know at barb@ca.handsatwork.org. We understand this past Celebration weekend was a huge commitment for many people and we thank all those who participated. That being said, if you can't gather on Saturday, we understand. Your commitment to praying and fasting is the most important thing and is greatly appreciated.
For those who are not living in Calgary, we encourage you to join us also either by fasting and signing up for a time of prayer or gathering your troops in that area to do something together in light of this.
In terms of the Giving component, Hands members in Africa are being challenged to support a community in Nigeria on their own, so they will individually be seeking how they can contribute to this. As volunteers in Canada, a lot of us are already giving financially, but continue to seek God during this time to find out how we can give, whether it be time or talents or connections or even financial giving.
How can we prepare?
Each day preceding Dec 2, we will be e-mailing and posting on the Hands facebook page a verse or a thought to get you thinking and in the right mindset for begiparticipating in this fast.
Also, at this link are notes that James, one of our African Hands at Work leaders, shared at the Celebration we are basing our event on. Levy, another of our African brothers, put together a wonderful teaching to explain fasting.. We encourage you to read both of these teachings from James and Levy as they are great for setting us up for the weekend, but also great for deeper understanding within ourselves.