Day 12 - Wednesday 25th July 2018 - Pfunani

This morning we had, what could be classed as, a lie-in with breakfast being at 8.00am. Breakfast was much of the same as the day before so it was deliciously cooked. After eating, one of the service team members, Audrey, shared her story of her own involvement with Hands at Work. She revealed she had previously tried to help her community before even becoming part of the Hands-showing her amazing character. Audrey acknowledged how she struggled to juggle the commitment to her own family and also her desire to provide for others, relying on the power of God to help her deal with this struggle. We saw the strength of God through the families members hearts being changed to supporting Audrey and her endeavours to fulfill Gods plan for her. Upon hearing her story, we were re-inspired to continue sharing encouragement with the care workers.

We arrived at Pfunani for the second day and were greeted by the ‘under 5’ care group. We started to help prepare food-Vicky found herself sorting out beans and prepping the butternut squash whilst Clarrie and Meg helped wash up the plates and pots, and all the men attempted to light a fire. 

We didn’t have a very long day within the community today, but we did spend a precious hour re-engaging with the ‘under 5’ group. We noticed that they were a lot more relaxed and comfortable around us, especially seen within Claudia. Yesterday we found her to be in need of attention and occasionally showed moments of aggression, but today she revealed a more calm side of herself. 

Every Wednesday in the Pfunani care-point they have a words of encouragement session, in which the care workers share scriptures, sing songs of praise and pray together-today we got to witness this. We enjoyed getting to know the care workers in this session, something we missed out on yesterday as most of them were absent due to being at a meeting in the local school. Audrey shared a verse from the bible that was to provide encouragement to our group after the events of not being to go to Share yesterday, suggesting it to be in Gods will and that it should only encourage us to fight the frustration we may feel with only Gods blessing, alluding to the idea of never fighting anger with violence. The session also included praise and worship songs, which we all enjoyed. We even found a couple that were familiar to us after hearing them before.

All too soon, we had to leave, to get home in the daylight. We used this time to relax and spend time thinking about all that we have seen and learnt in the past few days. Many of us also took the chance to catch up on sleep! Although we have had an amazing few days in a different environment, we all felt happy to be back at the Hands Village, which is starting to feel like home.

After dinner we reconvened at Daytona and Kristi’s for a long but necessary debrief. We had this chance to off load our experiences and challenges and they helped us once again to understand them. We had any questions that we were left with answered as fully as possible.

Led by AJ we spent the evening baking some delicious treats for tomorrow’s ‘Bring and Share’.
We are all amazed that we have so few days left but are looking forward to making the most our time here.

Hannah and Meg