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. For many this story began with a prompting from God:
“This call to come to serve began with a challenge in the Grade One class that I was teaching, to focus on “we”, rather than “me”. As I learned more about Africa while preparing for a unit that I would be teaching my students, my desire to come to this continent started to take shape. I wanted to come – to live, to learn and to be immersed in the culture. I wanted my world view to be rocked. This desire intensified as my spirit became more and more unsettled with what my society deemed important. I knew that God was prompting me to make a change in how I was living and who I was living for. Was I living for myself or for others?”
- Kristi Swarbrick, International Volunteer, Canada
“As a young child, I grew up attending the Masoyi Care Point which Hands at Work was helping to support. I grew up seeing the way that the volunteers taught the kids how to care for one another and it encouraged me to have the patience to believe that one day I would have the opportunity to care for other people in a similar way.”
- Floyd Mdu, African Volunteer, South Africa
“As a young African girl, I saw much injustice, poverty and pain all around me; in my own broken family and in the wounded communities that I lived in. This broke my heart and many times, I thought it was impossible to do anything about it. I wondered if these people knew the God that I knew. All I had ever wanted was the chance to make a little difference and to impact one person at a time. When I volunteered with Hands at Work in Africa, I found countless opportunities to share with the Lord’s people who are in need in many communities in other countries besides my own… to be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.”
- Jackie Okindah, African Volunteer, Kenya
“For as long as I can remember, God has placed this desire in my heart for Africa. Alongside this is God constantly prompting me to serve those who are vulnerable and in need. When I finished university, it felt like the right opportunity to explore this further. All through my degree, God had been shaping me by focusing on developing countries and particularly those in Africa. My thinking was to see all I had learnt in action. But God had other plans. When I arrived, I was broken by people I met and stories of children who were in such need. No university course can teach that!”
- Tommy Malster, International Volunteer, UK