Through my Eyes

It’s been almost two months since I last wrote and a part of me feels like nothing important or crucial has happened, leaving me with nothing to update people on; yet at the same time I feel like much has happened in the spiritual and emotional journey that God has been and is currently taking me on. It has been a season where God has been challenging and helping me to confront the areas in which I struggle but it has subsequently been a season of digging deeper into God’s love and developing a deeper reverence and adoration for God the Father.  At the beginning of March, the Hands at Work family both in Africa and around the globe joined together for a season of prayer that we call ’40 Days of Prayer’. This is a time for the Hands family to join together as we stand and intercede on behalf of the most vulnerable in Africa. It is a special time as God draws us closer to His heart in this of prayer.  The last week of ’40 Days of Prayer’ coincides with Holy Week. Hol...

I'm going to write this blog post a little bit differently as in I'm not going to write lots. The majority will be pictures with a caption and brief description to give a small picture of my time in Zimbabwe. Enjoy :) On the last Friday of every month, the Hands at Work family travels to one of the communities that we support to participate in something that we call "Community Prayer". This is an opportunity for the family to spend time with the Care Workers in a particular community, encouraging them and praying with them. Hands at Work has recently started helping to care for children in a community called Chinyansunzi, Zimbabwe. It was such a blessing to see many pastors show up from the local church and engage in helping to serve the poorest of the poor around them. It is amazing to see the vision of Hands at Work come to life by having the local church helping care for the most vulnerable within their communities. Gods' hand is surely at work in this new...

As many people may know, I arrived back in South Africa on Saturday the 7th of January to serve with Hands at Work where we jumped right into the launch of the new year with our watchword (a verse that sets the theme for the year).  I was wonderfully granted the rest of the week to rest, get caught up on my sleep and the opportunity to connect with people who I hadn't seen in a few months as well as help with looking after some of the children.  I know that before I left Canada, many people were curious to know about what exactly I would be doing while I was in Africa. At the time, I didn't exactly have an answer, because in all honesty I didn't even know. All I knew was that I would be serving in whatever way was necessary.  However since arriving and settling back into life in Africa, I had a meeting where I found out that I would once again be serving on the communications team. For those that are wondering what exactly the communications team does...

I wanted to update everybody on my plans for the future and I thought that rather than re-explain what I have already written down, I thought that I would share a letter that I have written to share with my friends and family about my upcoming plans:  Hello Family and Friends,   My journey in Africa started in the summer of 2012 with my family when we went on a short-term missions trip with a team from our church to South Africa. It was there  where we first got introduced to the calling of Hands at Work. In 2013, I had a second opportunity to return to Africa with Hands at Work with a team from my school and I fell even more in love with the people and the  culture. It was at that point that I decided I wanted to commit to Hands at Work longer. In August 2014 I returned with my family, this time to Zambia. And when they went home, I stayed on, serving over the next year mostly in communications (writing reports and sharing stories from those living in the co...

Those that are closest to me know what I'm about to share but for those that don't and a reading this for the first time, then welcome to my blog. I apologize in advance for my ramblings and musings. I believe in open vulnerability and sharing your story so although I won't share everything that my mind and heart have been wrestling with, I will share a piece of my heart with y'all. I warn you that this is a long post but I hope and pray that you take the time to read and enter into my journey. Let me start by saying that the journey back to South Africa was not exactly the smoothest process. When I landed in Heathrow, London after my first 10-hour flight from Vancouver, I was tired and slight cranky (after one would be after getting little sleep). It was then, that I was informed that my connecting flight to Johannesburg, South Africa had been delayed to the following morning. Thankfully the airline put each passenger up in a nice hotel with dinner and breakfast v...

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the  Lord's favour and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve In Zion - to bestow on them a crown of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Isaiah 61: 1-3 This is my prayer for the most vulnerable around the world. God is reviving the world and will continue to; bringing hope to the lost and the broken. I am thankful for the blessing of living in Canada, but I know that I am not simply to sit silently while the most vulnerable live being oppressed and broken down! My calling is bigger then that!

These last few weeks, I've been thinking about my mistakes and my past.  I've done and said things that I'm not proud of.  I've been feeling a lot of shame and guilt over that. I think somehow I thought that coming back from Africa, I would be perfect. I would have everything figured out and be good to go. However…thats not the case. I came home from Africa completely transformed and a new person but that doesn't make me perfect. I still make mistakes and I still have to kneel before the Father and ask for His forgiveness and thats a hard thing to admit. God never said that He would make me perfect coming back from Africa..what He said is that I was transformed and love by Him Throughout this whole transition, the main thing that God has been revealing to me more and more is that I am His. I am adopted into the family of God and nothing can separate me from the love of God. How amazing and freeing that is? Romans 8:31-39 says,  31  What, then, shall we s...