Day 6 - Mafambisa Care Worker Day

We started off this morning with the Hands at Work monthly Silence and Solitude + Communion service. This is something the Hands team do once a month. During the service we were told to disperse to a quiet place within the Hands compound. During this time we were encouraged to focus on our emotions and breathing, allowing God to talk to us and explore our feelings and proclaim them to God in the way Jesus proclaimed his fear to God before he was crucified in his Gethsemane prayer. A number of members of the team really engaged with this task and felt it really helped them clear their minds and feel much more at ease with their emotions and connected them with God. 

Today we returned to Mafambisa for care worker appreciation day. During the relationship group Harry led the words of encouragement (Joshua 1 v9) and we presented a banner from St Andrews with this on translated into Siswati. The care workers loved that the photos on the banner included some of them from previous visits. It is now hung up in the care point and we hope it will continue to encourage them and also remind them daily that the St Andrews community are praying for them. We also left the care workers with a cross pendant each to remind them that we are praying for them in the UK and whenever they feel discouraged to look to the cross and remember that they are Gods hands and feet on Earth and that he is walking alongside them and they can draw strength from him. 

Care worker appreciation day is such an important day as it allows us to show our appreciation for the hard work and dedication constantly displayed by the care workers. As tradition dictates we washed and massaged their feet which was expertly done by Chris, Chris, John and Mark. 

After this we painted their nails in a colour of their choice in preparation for a wedding most of the Hands at Work community are attending this weekend. For some of our team this was their first experience with nail varnish but after a quick demo they got stuck in. While all this was happening the care workers were enjoying a snack of cookies and coca-cola. 

We also did our daily sing and dance to a number of our classic holiday club songs, which the children and especially the care workers really enjoyed. We even managed to get two of the care workers up on the ‘stage’ demonstrating the dances for the young people. 

During our debriefing this evening it became very apparent that today was a very emotional day for a number of the team. We definitely felt we really showed our appreciation for the hard work the care workers do. We also felt like we really engaged and connected with the young people as a number of them arrived early due to a school trip allowing us more time to play and talk with them. We are looking forward to returning again tomorrow but sad that it is our last day in Mafambisa this trip as we are visiting other communities next week. 

Blogged by Adam