Meet the team - John!

Hi, I’m John, I’m married to Lucy, we have four adult children and two young grandsons. I have worshiped at St Andrew’s church for many years and have been involved in various aspects of church life, but few things have given me greater pleasure, and belief in God at work in the world, than our partnership with Hands at Work.

I witnessed firsthand the effect going to visit and share in the work of Hands in Africa had on my daughter, Jessica, and my eldest son, Oliver, about a decade ago; and have had the privilege of being part of two previous teams in 2022 and 2024. I have been thrilled by the way our relationship with Hands, and our partner community of Mafambisa, have developed and grown over the last number of years.

The visits were humbling, inspiring and uplifting; to see the work of the Hands team, the kindness and dedication of the Care Workers, and the pure unbridled enthusiasm of the children was a real joy. Along with that was the strengthening of the faith we share, seeing God’s love for his people in action and feeling God’s presence amid challenging situations. We prayed, we ate, we played, we laughed, and we shared in moments of difficulty and anxiety, but it certainly made me think again about the priorities of life and what I consider to be important. One of the things that made a great impact on me were the Holy Home Visits; being invited into the homes of people in communities, listening to their stories, however challenging, was very special and something that has stayed with me. Since my return, amidst all the busyness and strains we experience in everyday life, it has made me appreciate things more and be thankful that I am truly blessed.

I’m eager to see what our visit this year may bring; I’m excited about going back, seeing how things have progressed, meeting old friends and new, and traveling with this year’s Team. I’m looking forward to join again with the fantastic work of Hands, and walk alongside the care workers as they cook, visit homes and care for the children of their communities.

Team 2026

It is that time of year again when we start to introduce our 2026 Team that are heading out to our partner community of Mafambisa, South Africa. Each trip and team has been different over our 10 year partnership and we are excited for what God is going to do within our team, in ourselves and in our time with Hands at Work and in the communities we visited. We believe that God has called and curated this years team for a particular reason so please follow on as we introduce this years team and as we prepare for out trip this August. 

Day 14 - Mafambisa

 

This morning we had Word and Worship. At the start of the meeting Rachel, Nick and Noah fed back about our two weeks in South Africa. 

The hub then prayed for our safe travels home tomorrow and Prags sang a song about never giving up over us. We continued with worship before listening to the word for today’s meeting which was a recorded video by David Newsome about ‘Doubting’ Thomas and how asking questions shows courage not ignorance. 

We went to Mafambisa today to do Care Worker appreciation. We helped the Care Workers with the daily cooking and preparing before all gathering in the church. 

Before we could start our appreciation day we had to wait for the water delivery. It costs R300 for about a two week supply. 

We began with checking on each other and Oliver shared some words of encouragement based on Psalms 3:1-4. 

We gave all the Care Workers some cross bracelets and a little goody bag as a thanks for all the amazing work they do for their communities. They loved them thanks for all your donations. 

We then began appreciation with the boys washing the Care Workers feet. 

We painted all the Care Worker’s and Service Centre’s nails in many different colours. They also had some coke and cookies which quickly disappeared. Afterwards the Care Workers wanted to take a moment to thank us for the day and to explain how much our partnership with Mafambisa means to them. 

After this the final touches were being added to the toilet block as children slowly started to arrive. As usual all the Care Workers wanted to get stuck in with helping to paint their Care Point. 

Once more children had arrived we did some parachute games with the children and colouring in the shelter. Then it was time to worship and pray with the children before the service centre asked the children if they had any messages they wanted to share with us. After this we got the opportunity to say thank you to the children for being so incredible, resilient and for always putting smiles on our faces. Today for lunch we ate pap, beans and cabbage. 

After food it was time for our final dance of the trip. We then wanted to give the children some postcards with the words of shine printed on, along with a little tube of bubbles. We then took a massive group photo with everyone at the Care Point before saying our final goodbyes.

This evening we took our host Lonneck out to dinner at Gum Trees before returning to the hub to pack in preparation for returning home tomorrow.

By Pippa