Day 26 – Pray for Our Communities in South Africa (#40Days2025)

Day 26 – Pray for Our Communities in South Africa

 Within South Africa, there are nine communities being supported and cared for:

• Beeskop, Houtbos, Mafambisa, Mluti, Oshoek, Seville B, Sthobela C, T Kloof and Welverdiend (supported by the Hazyview and Oshoek Service Centres, South Africa)

Today we invite you to pray for the challenges that exist across all communities in South Africa:

• “As we look to expand in 2025, pray that God leads us to the right areas where there are vulnerable children. We also ask for prayers for the pastors and community leaders to understand our vision so that the community can get involved and start taking ownership of caring for the most vulnerable.

• For the Oshoek Service Centre team, we will be adding one new community. We seek prayers for strength as we start to walk into these neighbourhoods. Please pray that God guides us to areas where vulnerable children are in need and that the community understands our vision.

 • Additionally, we will be graduating one of our communities, Beeskop, in March 2026. We ask for prayers that the community understands the significance of this graduation and is empowered to take ownership of the initiatives we have implemented.” – Virginia, Service Centre Coordinator (South Africa)

To learn more about South Africa, the communities that we serve and about our Service Centres (local Hands at Work teams), please visit: https://www.handsatwork.org/south-africa-links

Day 25 - Pray for Our Partners in South Africa and Eswatini (#40Days2025)

Day 25 - Pray for Our Partners in South Africa and Eswatini

Across the world, Hands at Work has dedicated partners from the International Church, who are committed to seeing the mission and vision of

Hands at Work grow and flourish. Today, we invite you to pray for the partners who are supporting the work in South Africa and Eswatini:

• “We praise you Almighty God for each of our faithful partners across the world, who are steadfastly committed to care for the most vulnerable children in communities across South Africa and Eswatini. We lift them up to you as they advocate and are a voice for these children who have no voice and we ask for your continued provision. As our partners join Hands at Work to arise and build the wall so that the children will no longer be vulnerable, may you strengthen their hands for this good work as you did in Nehemiah 2:18. We pray for your blessing to be upon them as they serve you in their own communities and may they also care for the most vulnerable around them.” – Rachel McLaughlin, International Office Volunteer (Australia)

• Pray that international team members and visitors encounter God’s heart among the vulnerable, encourage the work of the local teams on the ground, and further the goals of the partnership between the local and international Church and stir up momentum to further the partnership.” – Suzette Tay Lee, International Office Volunteer (US)

Day 24 - Pray for the Church in South Africa and Eswatini

Day 24 - Pray for the Church in South Africa and Eswatini

Hands at Work envisions the local church in Africa effectively caring for the orphaned, the widowed and the dying in partnership with the International Church. Today we invite you to join us in praying for the local church in South Africa and Eswatini:

• “For South Africa may we please pray together for our churches. As a Christian organisation whose foundation is Christ, mobilising the church in serving the most vulnerable is the main thing. However, in South Africa, we have many kinds of churches with different doctrines, thus it becomes a challenge for us with Primary Caregivers, Care Workers and children coming from families that mix Christ with traditional worship. Pray for God’s guidance and intervention as we try to teach and preach about Jesus to our people and trying to get them belong to the right churches. - Nontobeko, Service Centre* Coordinator sharing on behalf of the Hazyview and Oshoek Service Centres.

• “We can stand in prayer for pastors, because we know that pastors are the only people that can influence the whole church. If they buy into the Hands at Work vision, it’s easy for the whole church to follow because they trust them. A big problem in Eswatini is that the pastors themselves they don’t have relationship. There is this thing of different churches, different denominations. So, they look down upon each other and it’s not easy for them to come together even though they need to work together so they can care for the children after we graduate. Also, inside one church, you find that there is division which if the church is divided, it’s not easy for the church to take ownership at the Care Points. Please pray for unity in the church.” – Futhi, Service Centre* Coordinator, sharing on behalf of the Lomahasha and Phophonyane Service Centres*.

To learn more about South Africa, the communities that we serve and about our Service Centres (local Hands at Work teams), please visit: https://www.handsatwork.org/south-africa-links

To learn more about Eswatini, the communities that we serve and about our Service Centres (local Hands at Work teams), please visit: https://www.handsatwork.org/eswatini-links

Day 23 - Welcome to South Africa (#40Days2025)

Day 23 - Welcome to South Africa

South Africa is one of eight countries that Hands at Work is serving in across Africa. South Africa has a population of 61,073,340 people, with 22% of the population living in extreme poverty. Ranking 110 out of 187 on the Human Development Index, 160,000 children are living with HIV/AIDS and 640,000 children have been orphaned because of this life-threatening illness. – Sources: UNAID, UNDP, World Poverty Clock

As we start the week, please join us in praying for the country of South Africa: s one of the most developed economies on the continent, South Africa attracts a significant number of foreign nationals seeking a better life for

themselves and their families. In many remote communities, there is a substantial population of undocumented foreign nationals who often settle in small, underdeveloped, and informal communities. These individuals choose these areas because they can easily secure a small piece of land to build whatever shelter they can afford.

Unfortunately, they are often ostracised and pushed to live on “the other side of the tracks”, creating a clear divide between locals and foreigners in many communities. Once settled, these families grow, and many children are born in South Africa but lack recognition as citizens. These children face significant challenges, growing up in the country without access to benefits. Consequently, they struggle to obtain a quality education or any assistance from state institutions due to their undocumented status. There is also a high incidence of crime directed toward them, as few are willing to stand up for foreign nationals. South Africa has been notoriously known for widespread xenophobic attitudes towards foreigners.

• “Pray for our Service Centres who have started to look to break new ground into new communities. We are in the process of walking and building relationships with stakeholders in some of the most vulnerable places in our region. Pray for this process to go smoothly.

• Our children and families have been living in South Africa for many years without proper documentation. Our children attend school with little hope of obtaining a qualification upon completion of their studies because they are undocumented.

• Pray for South African nationals in our communities to develop compassionate and hospitable hearts towards their foreign neighbours.

• Pray for churches in our communities to embrace their mandate to care for the foreigners among them.”
– Sisanda, Regional Support Team Leader

To learn more about South Africa, the communities that we serve and about our Service Centres (local Hands at Work teams), please visit: https://www.handsatwork.org/south-africa-links

When Audrey (Regional Support Team Leader, South Africa) was asked, “If you could ask people to pray for one thing in South Africa and Eswatini, what would it be?” she shared that we need to pray for justice. It is common for people who commit assault against the vulnerable to go free because they don’t have the resources available to them to get the help that they need. Pray for justice!

Day 28 - Care Workers and Primary Caregivers across South Africa and Eswatini (#40Days2024)

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. For your name’s sake, Lord, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. - Psalm 143:10-11

In many communities in South Africa, Eswatini and across Africa, the Care Workers are also the Primary Caregivers of the children that they are serving. A Primary Caregiver is the mother, father, grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings or other relatives of the children coming to the Care Point.

• “One of the biggest things in South Africa for the Primary Caregivers is not having identity documents and the kids also don’t have documents. In South Africa, if you don’t have documents, you don’t have access to a lot of service delivery. You can’t get a house, you can’t get food, you can’t get a government grant. My prayer is that even though they don’t have documents, God can provide something for them to live.” (Audrey, Regional Support Team Leader, South Africa)

• “Pray for the Primary Caregivers in our community to be involved at the Care Point and able to understand the vision of Hands at work and know the Jesus we know.” (Mnelisi, Local Leader, Eswatini)

Gogo Rebecca* is a Primary Caregiver in Sommerset Community in South Africa. She cares for her three grandsons. Many families in South Africa have come from other countries, such as Mozambique, meaning that they don’t have identification documents. This limits their ability to access government services and to receive schooling. To support her family Rebecca farms, but life is still a struggle.

Audrey (Regional Support Team Leader, South Africa) shares: “She doesn’t just sit and fold hands and say, 'I'm vulnerable’. She has a farm she ploughs. Some years she didn't even have seeds to plant, so we managed to provide her seeds as Hands at Work so she can plant. But, again, the good thing with her is that after planting, after some years, she stops us to say, “don't ever give me seeds because the seeds that I'm harvesting I eat, grind some to have a mealie meal, and some I'm keeping for planting other years”. When she has challenges with the children, she goes to the Care Point. The prayer request that I have for Gogo Rebecca is to pray for God to keep her for these three grandchildren. She's very old, but she tries to work very hard. Pray that the grandchildren can help provide for the grandmother”.