Our Community of Faith
At the Hub in South Africa and Kachele in Zambia, we live and serve together, following the call of Jesus to live in community and follow him not as individuals, but as the Body of Christ. We are different ages, cultures and personalities. We have very different testimonies of our walks with Christ, but we all feel called to serve the most vulnerable here in Africa.
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. God has given us the ultimate example of community: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Working in communion to bring the Kingdom of God to earth, the relationship of the Trinity is one of our guiding foundations of living in community. God, Jesus, and the Spirit invited us into their community. Despite all of us bringing them trouble, they said, “You are coming home with me.”
Every day at Hands at Work we strive to accept that we are just broken people, brought together through God’s grace and for His purpose. We try to get past our cultural differences and our personality clashes as we live together, pray together, eat together and serve together. It is often hard – but Jesus told us that following Him would not be easy.
He brought His disciples together to live in community, and they strove to live in not the culture they had come from, but in the Kingdom culture He described and called them to live by: forgiveness, acceptance, serving, giving, love, prayer, worship. And the disciples saw each other fail – they saw betrayal and denial and struggle among each other.
But they also saw redemption and hope. Each day, as the Hands at Work family, we strive to live together in a Kingdom culture, laying down the culture we have been raised in, and coming together in hope that as we live out this Kingdom culture together, God will use us to bring redemption and hope to the most vulnerable people throughout Africa.
A time of prayer and reflection in our chapel at the Hands at Work Hub, South Africa.
Serving the Most Vulnerable Begins with Us
As a community, we want to live devotionally, with Christ as the foundation of everything we do. Some days we all pray together, some days as men and women, and some days in our small groups. We live by the Core Values of loving God and our neighbour, reaching the poorest of the poor, servanthood, local community ownership, valuing relationships, prioritising God, family, then ministry, accountability, and giving freely. At Hands at Work we always say, “We are before we do.”
We know that we must be right with God and with our brothers and sisters before we can give to others. We cannot give to others what we do not have within ourselves. Our hope is to bring love, redemption, and life to the most vulnerable people in the poorest communities, and so we must remain committed to manifesting those things within our own community.
God accepted us all as part of His family. Welcoming people into our community is a way we live out the gift He gave us. As He accepted us, we are called to accept others. It is not easy to truly understand and accept in your heart that you are loved and accepted as part of a family that you were not born into.
But it is this acceptance and understanding that those who live in our community say has transformed their lives. We do not know why He chose us in the midst of our pride and resistance, but as we accept His unconditional love, we learn day by day to submit to this truth, and submit to each other. We let go of our pre conceptions, what we think we know, and we loosen our grip on the things that we think belong solely to us. We start to share our lives, our trouble and our happiness. We learn that life is not about us, it is about being united with God and our neighbour.
Do you feel called to join us in serving the most vulnerable children in the poorest of the poor communities across Africa?
Learn more about how you can volunteer with Hands at Work in Africa and join our community of faith in reaching Africa’s most vulnerable children.
WATCHWORD
Hands at Work begins each year with a Watchword; a guiding scripture which George, the co-founder of Hands, shares with the Hands family. This scripture is a promise, a challenge, an inspiration, an encouragement, and an opportunity to invite God to lead us throughout the year, expectant for what He will do in and through us.
Community Lifestyle
Gathering together on a daily basis is an integral part of the community of Hands at Work in Africa. These times are targeted specifically for building relationships with God and with one another. They are where smaller communities are knit closer together and individuals begin to look out for one another.
Want to know more about our community?
Read testimonies from Hands at Work family members who have come to Africa, volunteered to serve the most vulnerable, and answered God’s calling on their life.
At Hands at Work, our volunteers are called by God from all over the world to serve the most vulnerable in Africa. Each of us has a unique story of how we were transformed when we stepped out in faith and were obedient to His call. Tommy and Morgan’s stories started out from different countries, but the journey God has brought them both on has led them into a beautiful story of love, adventure, and serving Him together. Both of them being confident of God’s calling, they share their story of serving and following Christ.