OUR JOURNEY MY LIFE HIS STORY
Every day, I am learning new things at Hands, and it has been a good journey for me. I have grown spiritually in the things of God and learnt to trust in God. The rhythms that we have, like prayer meetings, ladies’ prayer, and small groups where we dig deep into the word of God, have really helped my spiritual growth.
"It was 2012, and our large family group arrived in South Africa on a team trip to Hands at Work in Africa. Our three children, 2 of them teenagers and our 2-year-old son, were on the team with us. Little did we know the impact that the Hands at Work ministry would have on our lives and the direction God would lead us, taking us into a new season as we serve Him.
“I felt a call from God to serve and support people who are dying, the most vulnerable and the orphans in our society. Before joining the Hands ministry, I was doing church planting, evangelism, and praying for people, but at some point, I got discouraged because it felt routine. That was until I joined Hands at Work and started visiting people who had been side-lined in the community, people with no hope. I was visiting them, praying for them, showing them Jesus, and bringing hope to the hopeless. This made my ministry more practical.
I met Hands at Work when I was seven, collecting donations from my birthday party. Twelve years and four trips to Zimbabwe later, I always struggled to answer the question I heard most. What do you do there? This short testimony took days to write, to think about what God has done for me and even through me in Zimbabwe. Here’s a story.
“I am so grateful for God's love and knowing that He is the father of the fatherless. He is the God who sees, and even though I have been rejected by my earthly father, I am not rejected by God. He chose me to be his beloved child. I am not an accident or mistake. I am so grateful to God for sending people to take care of me.
"Hands at Work has impacted my life in many positive ways. I have learned to care for people and my family and to be closer to God. Every day, my life is changed by the word of God that I hear and read when we come together. I have a family here in Hands who correct, direct, teach, pray and care for me. They really love me.
“I have been part of the discipleship programme in Sommerset and have been encouraged by the Care Workers never to give up.”
As a young boy growing up at Hands during its formative years, there was one thing I saw and knew for certain — that the love for Jesus and the love for the vulnerable are akin. There was no separating the two in my adolescent mind. That was so real to me that I knew where I stood with Christ by my proximity to the poor and vulnerable.
Since joining the Hands at Work family, I’ve come to know the true God from Jesus Christ who is our model. Sometime back, all I knew about Christianity was participating in church activities like singing and giving the offering. But through Hands, I can see Christ in the lives of the most vulnerable children.
God fostered in me a heart and burden for the vulnerable and marginalised through my own personal experience as an immigrant who became part of a minority group; through my work in the field of environmental (in)justice, where scientific data shows how poor and minority communities are disproportionately affected by pollution; and through Hands at Work, where my eyes were further opened to extreme poverty and other social crises, and how God can use ordinary people to do extraordinary things through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus.
Over the last few years, I've seen a drastic change in my life. I've had friends that challenge the way I think and do things. I've had friends who have encouraged me to put God first in everything I do. I used to look at the Hands at Work Bible studies readings as something religious and something that we do to pass time, but it's been through those times that God has spoken to me and brought a change to my life.
Since I joined Hands at Work, God has taught me many things. I’ve gained a deeper understanding of vulnerability and the heart of God through orphans. When I first joined Hands, I thought that I was here for work, but God has shown me that this is about our calling to do his work, bringing the gospel to the ones who don't know God, and showing love and giving hope to the hopeless.
