Tuesday - Siyathuthuka

Tuesday is usually morning prayer for the ladies but today this was in a slightly different format of "Ladies Tea". Charissa hosted all the ladies from the "Hands Family" including our team at her house, on her stoop (patio). Cat shared Psalm 37 about how faithful God is. She referred to their praise and prayer points from over the last year and talked about how faithful God was to answer prayers and to trust that the unanswered prayers we all have would be answered if we wait and trust in the Lord. Psalm 37 is that we should Trust in the Lord, Take delight in the Lord, Commit everything you do to the Lord and Be still in the presence of the Lord. Cat then closed in prayer and blessed the food we were about to share.

We were treated to a real feast of homemade delights from chocolate muffins, apple slices, homemade salted popcorn and fresh fruit - this was all topped off with freshly brewed coffee! This year Charisa started a bookmark prayer where the Ladies of Hands spend two months praying for another lady at hands and come together every other month to swap bookmarks and bible verses before picking a new partner! After the ladies had shared their bible verses and words of encouragement for each other we played a game of "Go Fish". Each lady in turn had to use the magnetic fishing rod to pick out a cardboard fish bookmark with either a name or a forfeit on them. This determined who their next prayer partner would be. It was great fun and provided a lot of laughs! Susan had to be quiet until the next red fish was picked, Alice had to rub her tummy and pat her head, Claire had to tell a joke, Christine had to sing the first line of her favourite song, Sarah described her favourite and worst meal and Vivian shared a story about her favourite teacher!

We arrived at Siyathuthuka with Patricia, Go-Go, Steffi, Craig and Devon for a fun-filled day of Holy Home Visits and a Kids Afternoon which we had already planned. We gathered in the hut for praise and worship before getting into four groups! Three groups were going out with the Care Workers to visit homes and one group stayed behind to help prepare lunch for the children.



Claire, Alice and Christine visited a two bedroom home at the end of the village. In the home lived a mother and her four children (three of whom attend the Care Point). The family were seen as vulnerable as the mother was not working. The mother used to work on a farm but had lost her job due to becoming ill with TB and even though she had a note from the hospital, her employer did not believe her. The mother had recently been receiving treatment for TB and fortunately was now in recovery. She was originally from Mozambique and moved to South Africa when she was only 16. At the time she arrived in South Africa education was not free, she had no access to money and therefore had to go to work on the farms meaning that she is illiterate and cannot help her children with their school work. This has had a negative impact on her eldest son as he is 15 and still in Grade 5 alongside his younger sister who is 11. Whilst working on the farm, she met her husband and they had their four children. Over the last 16 years she had been lucky enough to get her South African ID and papers entitling her to child benefits. The mother also named all of her children with her surname so that they could have South African birth certificates and she could claim grant money to help support her children.  Her husband had recently left her to work in Johannesburg but had since married another women and had not been in contact since.

After prayer and encouragement we offered to help her get water from a local river. Due to the recent drought, the local people are using the river for water to bathe, wash their clothes and water their vegetable patch. As we saw the mother pick up these empty 30 litre buckets  - we wondered what we had let ourselves in for! We picked up the four buckets and headed off to the river just across the road. After being told by a local that it was "too dangerous" to collect water on this side of the river
Christine and Alice followed her down a steep cliff to the river bank! Claire stayed at the top to provide photographic evidence and words of support (and laughter!) The water in the river was clear and Alice took her shoes off and stepped right in to fill up the buckets. After filling up the buckets and passing them to Christine on the bank we then attempted to try and climb back up the sandy, dusty cliff to the top! This was hard work and therefore we had to pass it between the three of us back up the hill! Three of us carried two buckets between us and the last one was carried on the mother's head! They were super heavy!



On arrival back at the Care Point, Chris shared that on his Holy Home Visit he had been introduced as Alice's Dad by the Care Worker and the Care Giver screamed "Alice Alice!" Chris informed her that he would bring her back to visit. So off Claire, Alice and Chris went to visit her... On arrival at her home - she rushed up to Alice and greeted her! Alice remembered that we had met her last week at the Care Point. Today, she was wearing African traditional tribal dress and having her hair plaited!

Last week, some of our team visited a home where a 16 year old was pregnant and her 16 year old partner had stayed in Mozambique after a lengthy stay. During the night she gave birth to a little girl. On Tuesday, we were fortunate enough to visit her home again and meet the little 1 week old baby girl whose name means “Precious Gift”. The mother and baby were looking really well and she was able to breastfeed her baby. Whilst we were visiting her home, she was washing her nappies and keeping on top of having a new baby. At the same time, Vaughan helped the two twin boys to count in 2,s, 5’s and 10’s using their fingers. These boys attend the Care Point and we have seen them each day we have visited Siyathuthuka.  At the moment, the twin boys were not attending school as they had recently just moved from Mozambique and there were currently no spaces in the local school.

Back at the Care Point, we began our Kids Afternoon. Clive and Chris had planned some different games including the "dice counting game" and some beanbag fun! Before long, the Care Point was buzzing with children. Once most of the children had arrived, we got the speaker and Scottish dance music ready to teach the children the ''Ocardian Strip the Willow'. We lined the children up with their partners and demonstrated the dance and then it all began! As soon as the music started, the children were clapping and tapping their feet and couldn't wait to start dancing so much so that Chaos broke out and it turned into a Scottish African Rave with Alice throwing her arms up in the air! It was great to see the children and Care Workers laughing and having a great time together! Christine couldn't believe that she was doing the dance she had learnt at the age of 9 in school with children in an African community!

This was followed with praise and prayer and children had pap and beans for lunch served by the team. After lunch, it was time to hand out the pencil cases that had been handmade by children in Year 7 at Edward Peake. Sophie (The Care Worker) handed the pencil cases out to the children in turn and we all clapped and cheered! After a group photograph we continued with our games. Some of the older children played hockey and had their nails painted whilst the rest of the children went crazy over the bubbles!

At 3:00 we began to say our goodbyes. There were lots of hugs and hi-fives and many words of thanks and appreciation from the Care Workers who asked us to come back next year! We were all sad that it was our last day in the community but that it had been one filled with fun, laughter and enjoyment!

Blogged by Alice and Claire

Monday - Zwilisha

Monday mornings at Hands at work starts at 7am with men's prayer. So the men of the team were up early with a quick cup of tea and off to the chapel. The people who live in the Hands village take it in turn to lead men's prayer and today it was the turn of George Synman, the founder of Hands at Work. George read for us from a small book, a passage entitled "What Does My Everyday Life Look Like?" Which was based upon Colossians 3: 17,23 and Luke 16 : 10. The article asked the question does my daily life reflect that of a disciple of Jesus Christ ? Do we look after ourselves, do we take care of our possessions and our household, do we manage our finances well?

The message was that it is by the grace of God that we have the things that we have, it is up to us to be good stewards of everything that we have and do, because what we have is on loan to us from God.

The passage concluded by talking about our health and our reliance on all sorts of medicine to live and how we run to the doctor at the slightest thing and yet God himself has told us that he is our healer (Exodus 15 :26). We should look to God in the first instance for healing, but God also created physicians and they play there part in the healing process. George told us that in something like 85 % of illnesses were actually weakness of spirit and we should put out trust more in God.

We then had a short time of reflection followed by prayer of thanks and prayers for what is going to be a busy week for the Hands community.

This was followed, as last Monday, by praise and prayer. The bible readings lead to discussions about leadership, particularly referring to those in national and local government.




Today's care point was at Zwilisha, a community which was only set up 18 months ago. We were all looking forward to this visit as none of us had visited there before; it was good to see a care point in the early stages as the  others we had visited were well established. We received a very warm welcome from the care workers who were extremely well organised having already prepared most of the food.






The care centre was different to the other two that we have visited as they were still working in temporary buildings. The only permanent building was a Wendy house that the fire service had donated on Mandela Day this year. It is hoped that a permanent building will soon be built.






Building work for a permanent structure is going to commence next week. The breeze blocks were already on site and in position. Money awarded to "The Room" from the 2014 Deanery Project will go along way to funding this new building.





We were then split into three groups so that we could make Holy Home visits with the Care Workers.

 The first group visited Celine who was living with her son and her older daughter, although we arrived to discover that the daughter had left the home leaving her young son there to be looked after by his grandmother. Her brother's daughter also lived in the house, she had left school as she is expecting a baby in October. Her boyfriend had also left school to find work so that he could support the family. Celine is a Jehovah's Witness, and had been for 22 years, so declined our prayers. As we were leaving she gave us some cassava to take to the care point, this was immediately prepared for tomorrow's dinner for the children. As we were leaving we were presented with a plate full of cassava for us to try, Clive mentioned that he had been waiting 60 years to try some, as his father used to say how good it was, after eating it in the Gambia in the war.






The second group walked for 20 minutes along the road to visit a grandmother who was looking after her grand daughter, Joy, as her mother had passed away. Joy is  sixteen but is still at Primary School as she had learning difficulties and could not move up to High School until she graduates. Also in the household were two of  Joy's aunties one of which had an eight month old baby. Grandmother was not at the house when we arrived as she was working in the local school. The school was directly across the road so she came across to spend her break with us. She sat with us and asked us to pray for Joy and asked for help in finding a new job as she was finding her present one too hard.









The third group walked a short distance from the Care Point to visit a twenty one year old boy called Siabo who lived with his grand mother and six other siblings and cousins aged between two and twenty one years old. Siabo was thought to be vulnerable as he had repeatedly failed at grade ten and therefore had not matriculated. Hands was working with the family to help him complete his studies. The group was then joined by another grandmother who lived next door, she had her orphaned grand daughter with her. She explained that she was struggling as she had no I.D. so they were living on the children's allowance and help from the other members of the family.

We all returned to the Care Point and enjoyed playing with the children. We were all impressed with their skipping skills and they were impressed by the rainbow coloured parachute.

                

 All too soon it was time for pre dinner prayers and bible readings. These were led by a very mature young leader, Celine, in grade 10 who had excellent English skills, she kept the register, led the prayers and ensured that we served exactly the correct proportions of food to all of the children.

All too soon we had to leave the children while they were enjoying their meal of cabbage, pap and potato. Everyone felt that it was a very rewarding visit to a well organised centre which offered us a very warm welcome. We wish them well in the future and hope that their permanent buildings are soon constructed.

Blogged by Christine

Sunday - Day Off - Kaapschoep

A new day dawns and already it's Sunday... we've been here now for a whole full week.  Up early again  but not as early as yesterday(!) so we can leave at 8.00 for Church in White River, led there by Cat who is one of the Youth/Sunday school leaders.  We were warmly welcomed at St George's, the Anglican Parish Church which has a lovely village feel to it, and which, along with a smaller group from the African School of Mission, we helped to fill. We had a good sing with some lovely modern hymns and really enjoyed the connections the readings and sermon made with our mission.

 We all felt that the whole service spoke to us individually and as a group; the readings and the sermon were so apposite. The preacher focussed on the importance of relationships, illustrating it by referring to himself as a wilful child increasingly ignoring the well meant advice of his loving parents

Hosea chapter 11 (verses 1-11) was the first passage:
"When Israel was a child I loved him and I called my son out of Egypt.
"But the more I called him the further he moved from me..."
such a move away from God leading to disastrous results both then and now. Hosea goes on to recount God's drawing back from punishment, stressing forgiveness and the chance to start again. We are given that chance again and again... and have it now here in our work to support the most vulnerable children and their carers.

The psalm was 107 (verses 1-9 & verse 43).
"Some wandered in the wilderness lost and homeless. 
"Hungry and thirsty they nearly died...
"For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things...
"Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.

The gospel reading, from Luke 12 (verses 13-21), was the parable of the rich fool and his storage of worldly goods .
"Beware! guard against any kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own...
So the preacher encouraged us to focus more firmly on what is really important. Often we are over concerned not only with our own worldly needs, but also allow these to lead to an inappropriate use of power, even in the church; he then extended this to include the dangers of corruption and linked it to forthcoming elections.
"Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God."

The final prayers included the following:
    God bless Africa
    Protect our children
    Transform our leaders
    Heal our communities
    Restore our dignity
    And give us peace
    For the sake of Jesus Christ, Amen

After this wonderful time of worship and further prayer and reflection, we set off to replenish supplies and then head towards the nearest 'mountain' to climb... at Kaapschoep, reaching there about 11:30. Half an hour or so to purchase souvenirs was followed by a substantial lunch of both savoury and sweet pancakes.

A short hike was then suggested, so we walked through a pavement of sandstone boulders and shrub land, which led to an escarpment with extensive views over the surrounding countryside. Vaughan was given a free geological tutorial by Christine as they clambered up the occasionally steep pathways. This chance to learn from each other is another great aspect of the teamwork.

To complete our day of rest we enjoyed a super home-made meal of chicken korma followed by meringue nests and fruit salad. We then embarked on a reflective discussion to allow us to refocus on the challenges of the week to come. This included thinking about the surprises, the challenges, the things we had learnt and the things we are looking forward to. We then summarised by thinking about the things that we may take home from our time here and in the communities.


On completion of the refocus session we prayed for:

Our last few days in the community, for a successful and happy week; that we can be helpful and bring support to the care workers and care givers in the communities that we are visiting, seeing and working with...

For Africa and all its vulnerable children...the children that we have met, that they will learn to grow into independent and successful adults and that they may have a brighter future...

The faith of the care workers and the care givers and give them the strength to continue with their wonderful work...

For our continuing health, strength and understanding to be able to give of our best in the week to come, so that we can do our best for the really needy...

For all the communities that we have visited and will visit. We pray for a cohesive team that will be supportive and encouraging to all. We pray that our experiences and challenges will help us to grow as people and that we are able to share these with others back home. We thank you for our team leaders and that you will give them the strength to continue to lead us effectively...

We pray that God will give guidance to each of us, challenge us, and give us greater emotional strength and understanding, for less frustration and more ability to let some things go more easily.

Blogged by Clive and Vaughan

Saturday - Day Off - Kruger National Park

4am and with the moon still in the sky we stirred from our beds and following a quick cup of tea, we made our way to the mini-bus with an air of excitement. We were off to Kruger Park for our "day off".

The journey took about 40 minutes and we were first into the queue to enter the park at 5.30am. As the sun started to rise we entered the park and within only a few minutes we were greeted by a pack of Hyenas, very close to the road. The cameras were out and rotation patterns worked out so that every one got chance to snap a few shots.

We were soon on our way and turned off the main road  towards the service area at Afsool. The road was long and rough and fairly stark of animals, but we did see giraffes and Zebra, just to wet our appetite.

We were just about to turn into the service area and we saw at the top of the hill a few cars stopped by the side of the road, this is always an indication of animals being "on view", so we rushed up the hill and watched a troop of water buffalo crossing the road in a neat straight line.

Arriving at Afsool we hired a barbeque and were soon cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast. The service centre served coffee and so breakfast was complete.



We now had the pleasure of a Tarmac road for the next leg of our journey north wards towards Skukuza visitor centre.  Not far up the road and we saw elephants, black rhino, and Impala, and Impala and more Impala. Suddenly there was a group of elephants in the distance and as we all tried to get a glimpse we, well some of us, caught a glimpse of a Leopard, unfortunately it wasn't waiting around and shrank back into bush. See if you can spot it in this picture!

As we continued northward, we had the opportunity to leave the Tarmac road and drive up a large rock formation and get out of the bus to enjoy the brilliant panoramic views.

After a time of group photo's, family photo's and just photos we were back on the road again and heading for the swimming pool at Skukuza. Yes you can swim in Kruger Park. The temperature outside was 27, but unlike the uk the air was very very fresh. The weather was hot, but the water was cold, very cold at first, but we all swam and enjoyed the peace and relaxation. We even had a cup of tea with our swim.

Time for an ice cream before we were back in the bus and heading for lake placid, I don't think it's quite called that but it certainly sounds like it. At Lake Panic there is a watering hole with an hide at the side of it and slits to look through. The water had several hippo's wallowing in whilst a heron and an egret looked on. A lone iguana wandered along the shore of the lake.

Our time in the park was coming to an end and we started to make our way back towards the Numbi gate where we had entered the park some 10 hours earlier. Our last view of the day was an elderly giraffe being illuminated by the setting sun strolling majestically through the brush parallel to the road. It had been a peaceful and relaxing day, the sun had shone and we had had time to have fun together as a team. As we left the park the sun was just going down behind the hills and the day was over.

Blogged by Chris

Friday - Share

I woke up this morning to the sound of monkeys on the roof, so not only was I woken by Chris snoring during the night I had a early wake up call from this too!  We also found that during the night the monkeys had eaten our rusks, tea bags, sugar and milk! Chris had to chase the monkeys away to get what was left of our tea bag supply. I'm use to mine and AJ dog Charlie eating our food but not monkeys..

Kat shared with us about the background to the community of Share. Lots of people move to South Africa from Mozambique so therefore have no SA ID. They are not able to receive any until their parents die. The challenges that they face are completely different to those at Siyathuthka.

At breakfast Chris asked Cat to pray for us before we went back into the community. Cat spoke briefly to us about a verse from Isaiah chapter 43 vs 16

" For I’m going to do a brand-new thing. See, I have already begun! Don’t you see it? I will make a road through the wilderness of the world for my people to go home, and create rivers for them in the desert!"

Cat reflected that us going into the communities was like a river rushing into a desert. She said that the encouragement that we gave to the Care Workers was so important and it is on that love and encouragement that the communities grow. She then prayed for our second day in Share.

Once we had had our tea and breakfast we set off back to the community. It was about a hours drive from where we were, 90% being in the dusty dirt road.  These roads are very bumpy and rough so by the time we got there we where ready to get off the bus! 

The day started by greeting the Care Givers, it was great to see them again as even though we had only met them the day before it felt like we where saying hello to friends we had know long time.  A couple of us started to prepare the food, cutting cabbage, tomatoes, chicken and beat root.  All of this is cooked over one single open fire, which every time I see what they have prepared it amazes me, I struggle too make a meal at home with the oven and microwave (AJ does the cooking) let alone over a fire..

The others that weren't preparing food carried on repairing the outside shelter which is a basic shelter but with green netting as the roof to create some shade. This had ripped causing it to hang free. So with climbing on chairs, shoulders and stacks of tyres we managed to repair it and create some much needed shade for the kids.

We then went on some Holy Home Visits - we went with our Care Worker Promotion, Mark, Sarah, Vivienne, and Bethwell, one of the Service Centre Team.  The house we visited was about a 15 minute walk away, and along the journey we where greeted by many children coming out of the local school, some goats and couple of cars with people waving. 

We arrived at the GoGo's house. Bethwell had explained to us on the way that the GoGo looked after 3 children. Two of the children's mother and father worked away on farms and visited sometimes and the other childs parents had passed away.   In his words he also explained that she was 'mentally disturbed', so I really didn't know what to expect when we got there but I then found out that Vivienne was a mental health nurse and Mark was a counsellor so I thought that between them two and their skills we would be ok!

We spoke to GoGo with the help of Bethwell, who translated our English to Siswati while Promotion translated it to Tsonga, so how much she understood of what we where saying I don't know but you could see the happiness it bought her with us coming to visit.  We told her about ourselves and asked about her and the grandchildren. We then sang some songs and tried to tell some jokes but the punch lines where lost in the translations.. But we all had a great time getting to know her and  the grandchildren.  One of the grandchildren Precious was shy to begin with and she was sat in the dirt playing with a stick so I went over to her to say hello.  She gave me a look to say who are you? why are you here? I held my hand out and she then squeezed my finger and came over to the rest of the group.  We continued to sit and chat, sing songs and we all had a nice time. It felt like they were all happy that we were there and we weren't intruding on their space. 

When it was time to leave, the vulnerable child came with us to the feeding point. This meant leaving the other two children with the GoGo as these children weren't to be seen as 'vulnerable' children as there parents where still alive.  Precious was sat on my knee and as I stood up to leave with the others she started to cry, I tried to comfort her but what ever I did or said just made her cry more, she clung on tighter and tighter.  The GoGo came over to take her but that made her scream even more,  I had massive feelings of guilt having to leave this child whilst the other came for food. I wondered would she eat tonight? Did she eat yesterday? But then Bethwell came and said if she comes there will be an even more vunerable child that doesn't eat, a child with no mother of father. I still feel guilty, what would you of done?

Blogged by DJ!

Thursday - Share

The day started with breakfast and prayer on the veranda in the hot heat that has finally arrived. After breakfast several of us had to visit the porcupine that Herman had caught.

We left at 9am to travel to our next community of Share with Kat from the "Hands at Work" team via the Hazyview Service Centre where Audrey, Floyd and Bethwell work. After the three hour journey it was lovely to be greeted at Share by some familiar faces and we were put straight to work grating the largest cabbage ever!

Whilst the ladies were hard at work cutting and shredding vegetables the boys decided to fix the sun shelter as it had broken in the wind. Vaughan led the team in using wire, string and other pieces of material that was found on the floor.

At Share today there was a Primary Care Givers (PCG) support group meeting that happens once a month. We also sat with the Care Workers and Care Givers inside the Care Point ready for worship, which was very long! The meeting started with introductions, followed by worship and then a message from Floyd around Psalm 23 and John 3 v 16 about how we should love our neighbours as God loves us. The Care Givers led us in worship which put smiles on all of our faces. Sometimes it is easy to forget that the Care Workers are volunteers and need guidance no matter on how experienced they are e.g. Audrey had to remind them that it was important to set a time for the support group so that everyone arrives at the same time.



Sophie (one of the Care Workers) then asked the Care Givers what we need to do to care for the vulnerable children in our care. After this the Care Givers shared their worries and concerns and we prayed for them. In particular we prayed for Primrose's mum, Katherine's Son and Blessing's mum. Then we served the Care Givers their lunch which was Pap, Soya Mince, Gravy and Cabbage!

After we had eaten we divided into 3 groups to go on our Holy Home Visits. Today we visited three of the Care Givers Homes that had been at the support meeting. We visited Blessing's home. In Blessing's home lived her Grandma Betty, Mum (Thelma), Her brother Mark and Blessing and her two children  Maria aged 10 and Peter aged 7. Her mum was poorly with TB and was refusing treatment which is quite often the case in this community. She had been to hospital on Monday and even though she looked unwell it was not serious enough for her to be admitted. The hospital was an hour away and her children were really worried about her health. Blessing is the main Care Giver in the house and it is her children that attend the Care Point. Blessing is 27 and nearly finished her Matric.  In South Africa you are able to take a break from school when you have children and then finish your exams at college later on. We admired her commitment to finishing her exams at 27 in order to create a better future for herself and her family.  

Whilst Claire, Susan and Chris encouraged and prayed with the Care Giver and her family, Alice played with her neighbours child. On the way to the home the little boy had picked up broken bricks and given them to her to carry. When we arrived at the home, he had already started a pile of broken bricks. Alice and the little boy then played trains, cars and built towers! He enjoyed making the different noises!

When we arrived back at the Care Point there were lots of children were already there. We played with the balls and parachute that we had brought with us until all the other groups returned. Then it was time for dinner which we served to them. We only served half of the children because the older children finished school later. It was encouraging to see that the Care Workers had decided amongst themselves to stay late and feed the older children instead of sending food home in a box.

At 4:30 we said our goodbyes and left for Wits knowing that we had to drop Floyd off on the way. On arrival at Wits we checked in and enjoyed a dinner of Lamb Stew, Rice, Exotic salad and desert of meringues! We debriefed with Kat from Hands!

Blogged by Claire and Alice