Both Marc and Michelle grew up going to church surrounded by loving family members and, though they lived in different countries, the early part of their stories follow a similar pattern. Marc was drawn to God from an early age but actively pushed it to the background, assuming that it was something he could come back to later in life. Michelle felt distant from God with little understanding of the gospel or God’s grace; she felt like she couldn’t be good enough for God’s love. Both sought success in education and work. Marc shares, “My most active concern was to become a success: getting a good education to get a good job in order to attain the trappings of success.”

Before coming to serve with Hands at Work, Michelle was working in human resources at a small tech company in San Francisco while Marc was studying economics and political science at the University of Calgary, with the hope of one day working with a development agency. Neither of them had Africa on their radar, let alone any overseas missions work. Yet something was stirring in Michelle’s heart. Michelle became very interested in Hands at Work and when her home church, Christ Church in San Francisco, announced their first ever team trip to Africa, she signed up. In 2013 the team left for Malawi for a week-long trip. The trip was short, but, as Michelle puts it, she returned with a clear knowledge that she wanted to get more involved. On the last Holy Home Visit that she went on, she visited a grandmother and her three grandchildren. They were living in a small home that didn’t belong to them. The house had no door or secure windows, leaving the family extremely vulnerable. This vulnerability was increased at the time due to the grandmother suffering from malaria. During the visit, Michelle remembers feeling quite hopeless, “I felt the weight of their situation and it followed me all the way back to San Francisco.” However, she also felt hope, hope in seeing the faithfulness and dedication of the Care Workers in visiting the family. Michelle shares, “They knew the children by name. I was so thankful for the way that God was caring for this family through these Care Workers.” When she arrived home to San Francisco, Michelle started serving with the Hands at Work International Office in the US.

Marc remembers attending church one August evening in 2004 when Jim Cantelon spoke about what was happening in Africa with the AIDS epidemic. The church at the time was working through a minor prophets’ series, and Jim reflected on a passage in the book of Amos. He revealed the deepening crisis in Africa and weaved that together with God’s calling on the church to take up the cause of the most vulnerable. He challenged the church to live righteously and extend justice to those in need. Marc was blown away by the challenge and felt both uneasy and thrilled because, as he puts it, “Jim’s sharing rang of truth and it was refreshing, but I was uneasy because if this was true, my life needed to change.” At one point in the evening, Jim spoke about how there were people there that evening who would be actively involved moving forward. Marc sat there, his stomach sinking, thinking, ‘Oh no…’. He felt God stirring his heart. Marc signed up on a team trip to South Africa in May of 2005. After the team left, he decided to stay for an additional month. Marc shares that he went to Africa thinking he was going to be a part of solving the problems there. But when he encountered reality on the ground, he was shaken by it. Marc realised how small he was and how much this world, including himself, was broken.

Back in America, after going to an event for Hands at Work advocates in Wisconsin later in 2013, Michelle felt an even stronger desire to go back to Africa. The opportunity came the following year when Michelle visited South Africa for three months and spent some time in Zambia and Malawi. Throughout this time, Michelle began to feel God calling her to live in Africa long term. She moved to Africa in 2015 and was based in Zambia for the first four years and then in South Africa. Michelle started out as a project accountant and then took on some project support duties. Michelle shares how she has learned so much about her own brokenness and the world around her through this time. “Something I’ve learned, being exposed to suffering, is my tendency to want to be pragmatic and fix things. It’s easier because I can check them off the list. It’s much more challenging and uncomfortable to be on a Holy Home Visit when I don’t have the words to say or the power to fix the situation of someone who is suffering. I’ve learned that it’s not about “fixing things” but it’s about relationships. God calls us to suffer with, to listen to, and to share in the pain of others, and we can do that through forming and deepening relationships with one another.”

In Africa, God was continuing His work in Marc’s heart. “God was taking me deeper into the brokenness of His world, but also His love and care for this world. By spending time with people in the community of Masoyi, learning their stories, working alongside them, experiencing a sliver of life together, I was taken deeper into the beauty and brokenness of the lives of our brothers and sisters,” Marc shares of his journey. He returned home with a similar desire in his heart as his future wife, to commit his life to this restorative work God was doing. In 2007, he volunteered as a long-term volunteer. Marc started by supporting the work in South Africa, particularly supporting the growth in the Bushbuckridge area. Currently, he serves on the executive team and supports the finance team.

Although their journeys to Africa underwent a different timeline, their spiritual journeys were and still are very similar. They both thought of God as a distant figure, someone not to be approached, someone whose love had to be earned. They came to Africa with thoughts of “fixing problems,” especially practical problems. However, through their first couple of trips, they began to see their own brokenness and the brokenness of the world around them, and, more importantly, they began to see God’s desire to bring healing and restoration. Serving long term, Michelle has begun to see God as a close Father who suffers with her and knows her pain. She understands that He desires a relationship with her and wants to bring healing and restoration to her life. Marc has been transformed to see God not as a distant Creator, but as actively present in the world. God is the centre of the story and we are invited into what God is doing now.

Marc and Michelle’s highlights have been meeting one another and forming their family. They have been privileged to witness God’s faithfulness throughout their time and to see God at work among the people in Hands at Work. They are grateful to be a part of God calling, transforming, and maturing his servants from around the world, and particularly those leaders across Africa.

Although they both still recognise self-centred and inward-looking natures, they have experienced God’s mercy and love in the midst of this, bringing transformation and renewal. They look forward to what He will do for them, their family, and Hands at Work in the months and years to come.

Currently, Marc and Michelle are living in South Africa with their baby boy.

Jed and his wife, Brooke, had talked for many years about serving others. “Although my mouth was willing, I don’t know that my mind or heart really understood what I was getting into”, Jed says. They spent a long time trying to find a missions organisation to serve with, and struggled to find a good fit. “Which was fine with me,” Jed says. “I liked my job, my friends, and had a fairly comfortable life.”

Eventually, Jed and Brooke decided to apply to the Peace Corps. They were asked six weeks in advance if they would be willing to go to South Africa and had to give an answer within a few hours. “We had been waiting for so long, and even though we knew nothing about South Africa or what we would be doing, we said yes.” When they got to South Africa, the Peace Corps staff asked if they would be willing to serve with a faith-based volunteer organisation. “We were thrilled, and said actually we would prefer it!” Jed and Brooke went for a four-day visit to Hands at Work. “Although we knew so little about what Hands at Work was, we felt like there was something special. We had originally committed to a two-year term with the Peace Corps, but we extended for a third year to continue serving with Hands, and then headed back to the US.”

When asked how following his calling and serving with Hands at Work has impacted him, Jed says:

I grew up in the church and heard sermon after sermon about my relationship with God. Salvation was this thing for me. I always felt there was something missing, but really couldn't put my finger on it. I was regularly reminded of Ephesians 2:8-9, "You are saved by grace through faith, this is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works that no man should boast." I was saved, I was going to heaven and that was it. But when I came to Hands at Work I saw this group of people living a life of service for the most vulnerable. I saw this other side of the gospel and had an amazing, "Aha!" moment. Later, I remember hearing it explained in a sermon about righteousness and justice. Righteousness is our right standing with God and justice is our relationship with our neighbour. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Mark 12:30-31)

The gospel without either one of these two is an incomplete gospel. If our understanding of Christ's love and sacrifice for us doesn't come pouring out as love and sacrifice for others, we are missing it. It brings me back to Ephesians and verse 2:10," For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." The good works don't save us, but they are the fruit of our salvation.

After serving in Africa for three years, Jed continues to serve the most vulnerable in his own country. Today, Jed and Brooke volunteer for the Hands at Work office in the US. When asked about the challenges he faces as he continues to follow his calling, Jed says, “Trying to know what is next! So often we want to see the big picture. The problem with that is if we saw the big picture, many times it would scare us so much we wouldn't even take the first step. So, when we only see the first step we have to be willing to take it, not knowing where it might lead.”

Sara hails from Queens, New York. She first learned about Hands through a visiting missionary who spoke at her church about people he knew who were loving the vulnerable the same way that Jesus did, specifically in Masoyi, South Africa. When Sara expressed her desire to meet those faithful Christians, the missionary (Ed) encouraged her to connect with Hands at Work.

Xolani is from Sommerset, South Africa, where he served as a Care Worker. With the support of Hands, he and his fellow Christian volunteers showed the love of Christ to their most vulnerable neighbors. Through discipleship and his increasing involvement in the ministry, Xolani has grown in his role with Hands, gaining experience as a field coordinator with the Oshoek Service Center, then the South Africa Regional Support Team.

Sara and Xolani met in 2016 when Sara was on a short-term trip with several others from Hands at Work’s US and Canada offices, and Xolani helped host the group as part of the Oshoek Service Center team. They quickly connected over their shared heart for serving the vulnerable. Sara and Xolani are now married and live with their two sons at Kachele Village in Zambia.

Eric and Ashley's story together begins in a Northern California middle school. Shortly after they met, God used Ashley to introduce Eric to a relationship with Jesus. Eric committed to that relationship, and God has been growing the two of them together more and more for His glory.

After getting married and finishing college, they went about pursuing careers and living life. Eric was introduced by a Bible study leader to an organization providing respite care for children in family crises. Eric and Ashley jumped in with both feet and hosted many kids in their home. The more they hosted and learned about the needs of families in their community, the more they wanted to help. The more God showed them His love for all of His children, the more He called Eric and Ashley to serve Him.

God blessed Eric and Ashley with an adopted daughter Candace and three biological children: Talitha, Bethlehem, and Zaccheus. God has been growing their family and calling them to serve abroad. Candace (who is now an adult) will be staying stateside for this journey, but the rest of the kids are excited to go to Africa and be a part of what God is doing there.

While Eric was on a Hands at Work team trip to Malawi in June 2021, God revealed His plan in a morning quiet time to Eric to bring the McKinley family to serve widows and orphans in Africa. Since then, God has been faithfully preparing a way for their family to come and serve.

Would you partner with the McKinley Family as they serve the most vulnerable children and communities in Africa?

From the McKinleys: We believe God has established our relationship with you for His glory, and we ask that you prayerfully consider this partnership. We see this as an opportunity to strengthen the international church by building relational bridges across continents and being the hands and feet of Christ to those in great need.