40 Days of Prayer 2023 (Week 2 of 7)

Day 5 of 40 - JACKIE

“Jackie, you are a senior leader in Hands at Work. You’ve been with us for many, many years and currently you are situated, based in Zambia, but you move a lot and you also work in the DRC - Democratic Republic of the Congo, and you work in Nigeria today what would you urge us to pray for?”

So, for DRC, we have our Service Centre team, that is our local Hands office team. Recently we’ve realised just a huge need for more people. We currently have Mama Angel, and Erick, we also have Sammy and Francis. The team is small, but we are trusting God, that God would bring people with the same passion, the same heart, because we care in the most vulnerable communities and we do need Godly, especially female, people that God can add to the team. The other thing that is big is we do have an opportunity to reach out to our local pastors there. We are just trusting God for such a transformation in their lives because most of them, we realise, how much they mix culture and church and traditional things - witchcraft is involved even within the church. So, it’s a big burden of our hearts that we can influence and that they’ll be drawn close to Jesus.

For Nigeria, two things are big. This year we have an upcoming election, and in Africa, election can be very chaotic. That is when there can be a lot of confusion and a lot of distraction comes with that. We are praying that as the election happens in Nigeria, that God would really intervene on behalf of the most vulnerable. That’s a big one.

The second one - we have opportunity this year to start strong in a rural community outside of Lagos, in a town called Ibadan and it’s a small village called Alugbo. God has just opened our eyes to the huge needs there. We do have many children to be reached and even more villages around there that we could start caring for more children. Please pray with us that God would give us favor and would be able to reach out to these children. Also, pray for the team there. We only have two leaders there and we have Toyin and Taiwo. So pray for them as their community expands, we desire that God would also add to them.

• In the audio, Jackie shares that in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), there aren’t enough people for the amount of work there is to do. Let’s pray that God will help Hands at Work to find great new people to add to the teams in these countries. Would you like to draw a picture of someone who could join the teams? Perhaps you could draw them with a huge heart if you think they will be very loving, or fantasticfeet if they need to walk far, or mighty muscles to protect the children. What other qualities could they have? Once you have drawn a picture of who you think should join the teams in Nigeria and the DRC, pray for that person.

• Have you ever had to come to a decision with your friends or siblings and you knew that not everyone would agree? What happened? Did everyone accept the result? How can we react in a way that pleases God and ensures peace?

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Day 7 of 40 - XOLANI

Hi, my name is Xolani. I am from South Africa. I am married to Sara, currently serving here in Zambia. I want to ask you to pray with us for our children and caregivers who are feeling rejected, unloved and hopeless. I have sat in a home talking to a 73-year-old grandmother who’s looking after seven children by herself, and the oldest of these children was about 12 years old because their parents have left them.

I could see the pain in her face as she shares how hurt she is that they have left and never came back. She has heard rumours that her daughter is married in another village and nobody knows where their father is. She shares how it breaks her heart that she can’t provide for these children and her fear is that one day she will no longer be there.

She shares about how rejected and worthless the kids feel. How they feel like nobody sees them or loves them. Even their own parents have rejected them. And we know that scripture points us into the Psalms, the beautiful Psalms, which says, “even though my mother and father may forsake me, but the Lord will take me in”.

And I pray that God will raise men and women just like our volunteer Care Workers, that will stand in the gap for children like this, that will come alongside our grandmothers because we know that this family represents thousands of families and thousands of children who are feeling the same. And we pray that God will speak and that he will become their Father, and that their script will be flipped and that this will not be their story: that they were unloved, rejected, and worthless, but rather that they will have mothers and fathers who will fight for them, who will love them like Christ loves the church. Above all, we pray that the local church will take its own rightful position as the body of Christ. Those who bring hope and bring good news and care for the most vulnerable. And care for the widows like this Gogo, who’s 73 years old and in need of encouragement, in need of spiritual and emotional support.

We pray against the spirit of rejection, that it will not get hold of our children. That God will be glorified and that he will be our Father and that will be their story. Thank you.

• Has anyone ever treated in the loving way like a parent? Maybe they helped you when you didn’t know what to do, or maybe they listened to you when you were upset. What was that like?

• We heard from Xolani that many people feel rejected. Have you ever felt left out of something? Maybe you weren’t invited to a party, or were left out of a sports team or your friends didn’t let you play with them. Think about how that made you feel and pray that people would not feel like that. Think of one or two people you know who might be feeling left out. Are there ways that you could include them in something that would make them feel like someone loves and cares for them?

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Day 9 of 40 - KARA

Hello everyone. It’s Kara McLaughlin sending many warm greetings from Kacele Farm here in Zambia. I have the privilege of serving with the team that supports Nigeria, the DRC, and Zambia. So I would like to invite us into a time to pray for our Care Workers, our local volunteers from the local churches who have said, “Lord, send me to take care of the most vulnerable within my community.”

Recently, we’ve had 18 Care Workers come and spend the weekend here in Kachele. It was such a special and rich time, but I was reminded that our Care Workers are carrying huge personal burdens themselves, and yet they are pouring themselves out on behalf of the children every day. So let’s pray for them. Let’s pray for them that they would experience the healing of Jesus. Then during that weekend, we had time to dig into the story in Mark chapter six of Jesus feeding the 5,000, and some of their reflections really struck me. They were saying that they realised that Jesus had compassion. Even before he fed the crowd he first taught them, because he could see that they were sheep without a shepherd. And they were saying, we want that heart of Jesus, that heart of compassion.

Then also they were struck by that part of the story where Jesus says, “go and see” to the disciples. Go and see what you have. And they only had the two fish and the five loaves, but when they offered that to Jesus, Jesus blessed it, and there was even leftovers. There was an abundance. And so our Care Workers were sharing with us that sometimes the need feels so big. They look at the, the brokenness, the pain, the needs that are there, but that if they just offer what they have to Jesus, they can trust him. So let’s pray for them as they see the needs day after day, that they would experience miracles as they offer to Jesus the little that they have, and that they would see him bringing healing and transformation in the communities.

The Care Workers were sharing how they long for their children to know Jesus and to experience the healing because they realise that food isn’t enough. They need and they long for their children to meet Jesus because they long to see a transformation in the next generation. They were sharing that they know they’re being trusted with the lives of the next generation within their communities. So let’s stand and pray with them for that. Thank you everyone.

• Do you ever feel like you have too little to be generous with, or maybe that you are the one who could use some help?

• In the audio, Kara mentions praying for Care Workers, who support young people in their communities. Can you think of someone who has helped you in your life? Is there someone you look up to? Maybe it’s a guardian, parent, friend, or teacher. What are some of the things that you like about them? How could you be a bit more like them to those younger than you?

40 Days of Prayer 2023 (Week 1 of 7)

Day 1 of 40 - Pinky

Welcome to 40 Days of Prayer. If you are returning to our Lent season prayers from previous years, you'll remember that we've worked through our 40 day prayer guide, which had specific prayers each day. This year, we are doing things a little differently.

Over the course of the next 40 days, you'll hear prayer requests from members of our Hands family across the world. We'll use this to pray each day for the most vulnerable in Africa. Whether this is your first year or you have participated for many years, our hope is that you'll experience a deeper connection and partnership with God's work here in Africa.

Let's pray that God will help us to set aside time in our busy lives this season to join with others across the world, to talk to him about the things that weigh heavy on the heart of Hands at Work.

May we have eyes to see and ears to hear that these are not just stories and voice notes, but our sisters and brothers calling us to pray for God's children.

We pray that this season would have a greater understanding of the power of prayer and how it changes us, our families, communities, countries, and the world.

Day 3 of 40 - George

I just wanna take a few moments to give you a little bit of an update from Goma in the DRC. I hope your media by now have given you some information, but let me take 60 seconds just to give a bit of a brief overview. That area of North Kivu, where Goma is the capital and we work in the surrounding villages, there's always been conflict since '94 the genocide - and even before that. There's a lot of reasons for that. Promises made. Minerals. Islamic extreme groups. Ethnic cleansing. Hutu groups. Tutsi groups. Nonetheless, it's been always kind of controlled that there was some movement that we could have.

Recently M23 invaded the Eastern Congo again and they have brought what we can call full-scale war. They have invaded even cities that have got more than 60,000 people in it. At the moment, they are circling Goma and they are busy cutting off all the roads to Goma, to starve Goma, because Goma is dependent on the roads bringing food in, and that's gonna force them to negotiate.

That is now directly affecting us. At the moment, none of us can get into Goma. So, the first thing I ask you, please, as a point of urgent prayer, pray that God will open the door for us to be able to go and support our team there. You can imagine they're under extreme pressure, specifically one of our communities, but this can change any moment and more of our communities can be involved. Right now, Luhonga has been surrounded by the M23. They even came into Luhonga. All the grandmothers, our Care Workers and our children fled. They fled to Sake, which is the nearest town to Luhonga. It's about eight to 10 kilometres from there, depending on how you get there. And they ran there. Some of our Care Workers live in Sake, and so they took them into their homes and then a little old school. And so we've got our children together in Sake. And we are feeding them, but it is full on refugee camp environment. You can imagine, cholera, typhoid, all these things. So please pray for our children in Luhonga.

Pray for our Service Centre team: Bindu, who's our coordinator in the Service Centre. Zawadi, Bahati, and Jehosephat, and then Denise, who's our bookkeeper. Please pray for them. They are actually going into Sake from Goma every day. And that road between Goma and Sake is one of the targets of M23. They try to cut that road off because that is the only road left into Goma to take food in. So every time Bindu and them travel on that road, they are very vulnerable and they're doing it virtually every day to get some support to our children in Sake.

So it's really in a tough situation. We have a major crisis in our hands on Goma, which means we are going to have to look for emergency support for medicine, food, tents, ablutions. We don't want our children to go to the traditional refugee camps because it's a very, very dangerous place in the DRC, a refugee camp. A huge amount of trafficking happens there. Boys get taken for military reasons, and girls get abused, and they get trafficked. We have 60 of our children gathered at one church and we expect that number is going to grow rapidly. Most probably close to 150. We've got the food stored in our office, which is only about three kilometres from this church. But our prayer is that there will be an intervention from the international community.

Thank you for your support. Thank you so much for praying and for speaking on behalf of the children and the grandmothers in Goma.

Bless you.

Praying for a Spirit of Discipleship

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. – Ephesians 4:15-16

Hands at Work is committed to discipling one another and helping each other grow in our spiritual maturity. Busie Sityatha-Jones (African Leader, South Africa) reflects on the importance of discipleship:

“When we disciple people, there are those who are learning to stand – we need to have grace with these people and understand that we were once learning to stand. There are also people who are learning to walk and are figuring it out, asking questions like how does this kingdom work? How is it different from the kingdom I've been part of? This stage also requires us to have grace. It’s easy to give up on each other, but people didn't give up on us; that's why we are here. There are also other people who are learning to engage in the battle. That's maturity, but you don't just get there. You have to learn to stand, learn to walk and learn to engage in the battle. What are we doing with those that are walking with us? Do we even know where they are? Are they standing or learning to walk?”

Pray that as a Hands at Work family, we will understand the importance of discipleship. Pray that we will go deep in our relationships with one another, understanding that Jesus didn’t give up on us and so we must not give up on others. Pray that we will be filled with grace, compassion and a willingness to hold one another accountable and ask the tough questions. 

Meet Jacob

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing." – Zephaniah 3:17

When Jacob* was only eight months old, his mother brought him to live with his grandmother. His father found work in another town and does not make it back to see Jacob. In a small government-built brick house, they stay with some extended family. The house originally belonged to his grandmother’s late husband, who was a South African citizen, but she is not South African and so does not have access to other government resources and support that could help care for Jacob and his half-sister. Jacob’s grandmother recently had a stroke and finds many things in life difficult to manage, including finding an income to support all of her dependents. The financial shortcomings lead to anxiety and feelings of desperation.

In 2019, local volunteer Care Workers discovered the needs of the family and stepped in to offer a hand. Sylvia, one of the Care Workers who has built a close relationship with the family, shares that she feels it is her responsibility to walk alongside Jacob’s grandmother and support her in easing the burden. The Care Workers invited Jacob and his half-sister to the Care Point, and for the past three years, they have seen Jacob blossom into a more energetic child who loves to play with his friends. With the Care Worker’s help at their home, Jacob no longer has the sole responsibility of caring for his grandmother. He is free to be a child.

Thank God for the way that Sylvia and the other Care Workers have surrounded Jacob and his family. Pray that they will have the boldness to share about Jesus with him. Pray that Jacob will know the unconditional love of his Heavenly Father. 

Ask God to give Care Workers across Africa the eyes to see and the ears to hear the needs of those in their community. 

Praying for Hands at Work's Bible Story for July and August

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord - Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here - has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 9:17

Every two months, Hands at Work chooses one story from the Bible to focus on for those months. A few questions are put together for these stories which help guide discussions and make the story accessible to everyone; from a child under five to the oldest grandmother, and Hands at Work volunteers. 

For the next two months, we will be focusing on the story of Saul and Ananias from Acts 9:1-22. 

As the story is shared in our communities, pray for each person who will be hearing it. Pray that they will see themselves in the story and understand that when we meet Jesus, our lives are never the same.

Praying for Hands at Work Volunteers

‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ – Galatians 2:20

Today we invite you to join us in praying for Hands at Work volunteers who are serving across Africa. 

For those individuals who have left their families to come and serve with Hands at Work, pray that they will experience God’s peace and comfort. Pray for good ways of communication and that they will continue to build upon those family relationships from afar. 

Ask God to give each volunteer a renewed understanding of what it means to serve the most vulnerable. 

Pray for each volunteer to continually grow in love, accountability, humility, unity, and passion. 

Pray that Christ will remain the centre of everything that we do!