Meet the team 2024 - Sally

Hello. I’m Sally and I have been worshipping at St Andrew’s since I got married and moved to Biggleswade in 2001. I have seen the partnership with Hands at Work and our partner community in Mafambisa develop since the first group went back in 2015 but I have always passed up the opportunity to go myself. My children Adam (19) and Pippa (15) have been expressing their enthusiasm for going as soon as they were old enough and circumstances were right, having grown up seeing other young people from the congregation go before them. When it became clear that they were both going to go in 2024 this made me rethink whether I wanted to go and now my husband and I have joined the team and all four of us are going as a family. I am excited that we will get to undertake the trip together and be able to share the experience.

As a team we had our final planning/orientation session on Saturday. We had an away day to the local village of Gamlingay where we spent the day in their church hall preparing for our trip, getting to know one another better, finding out more about the communities we will be visiting as well as sorting out practicalities like currency, luggage allowances and departure details. With three weeks to go until we leave there is a lot to sort out!

Personally, I know I have a busy three weeks at work coming up and I am working right up until the day before we leave. I hope that despite this I will be able to make the time and space in the coming weeks to prepare mentally for the trip. From speaking to those in the Church family who have been previously I know that until we are there it is impossible to understand exactly what the experience will be like. I had been concerned about what difference a short visit like ours could really make to these vulnerable communities. But Hands at Work are clear that simply by going and supporting local care workers, listening to caregivers and sharing God’s love with the children, we will provide encouragement and hope in extremely challenging circumstances and that this really makes a difference. So this is what I will go and try to do.