By Rose Westwood
The Link for Life Penkridge Team consists of six students from a local High School in the United Kingdom (Maisie, Daisy, Libby, Sophie, Sam and Alex) and five leaders; their teacher (Michael), a driver (Mike), a church leader (Liz), a young leader (Joe) and me (Rose).
Each student has raised the funds for their visit to South Africa from February 19 to 28 with the help of their school, the community and local churches. This has meant that they’ve had to talk to their family and friends about Hands at Work, speak in churches and write to local businesses and voluntary groups to get support. It has been really difficult for them to speak out like this.
They applied to go on this visit after hearing about it in a school assembly. Their response to the call to go has been on an individual basis.This means that they are not from the same friendship groups and so they are only just beginning to work as a team.
It was good for them to Skype with Taylor and Ethan Kim of Hands at Work Youth in the United States at the end of their Orientation Day. (See Hands at Work Youth article.) Our team didn’t ask many questions, but that wasn’t because they had nothing to say, more because they still aren’t confident to speak out in front of each other. I was pleased that they could see that the Hands Family is spread all over the world.
Our prayer for the team would be that the team members encounter Jesus in the people they meet at the Hub and in the communities they visit, and that this encounter changes them deeply so that, on their return to the UK, they can speak out for the most vulnerable people in our world. We pray that the churches near where they live will welcome them into their fellowships so that they can learn more about Jesus, and that the young people can be a prophetic voice in their communities and can help the church and community partner with Hands at Work.