Through my Eyes

Throughout the last months, I have realised that when I look at poverty and incompressible suffering and heartbreak, I find it easy to slip into a way of thinking that blames God. I find myself choosing to ignore the evidence of God’s goodness and faithful and instead I allow my heart to be filled with a feeling of hopelessness that if don’t to God and surrender, threatens to consume me. Yet as I read this book, I was reminder of the reality that despite the pain, I have seen God’s redemptive hand at work in the lives of the most vulnerable and my own. I was reminded that hope is “our great expectancy that we will know Him in all our circumstances, even the seemingly hopeless ones.” Having hope doesn’t make sense to the outside world. It logical doesn’t make sense to have hope in God when there are child dying and being physically abused. It doesn’t make sense. I’ve found that it can be emotionally and spiritually tiring to have hope and faith in situations that I migh...

Over Christmas, I was given the book ‘Daring to Hope’ by Katie-Davis (author of Kisses from Katie) which I finished reading at the beginning of March. Katie was a young girl when she first moved to Uganda, subsequently starting her own ministry and adopting 13 Ugandan girls. In her first book, she talks about the journey that brought her to live in Uganda whereas throughout the second book, she invites the reader to go on a journey with her as she discovers what it means to have hope in our Father in impossible and heart-breaking situations. Throughout the book, I felt God speaking to me and challenging the way that I think about Him and who He is. As a Christian, I think that it can at times be easier to sympathize and have empathy rather than to have compassion which translates to mean ‘to suffer with’. As I read this book and looked at the examples that she used in the Bible, I began to ask myself if I truly knew what it means to suffer with the most vulnerable and I...

As many people know, I had the privilege of being back in Canada over the Christmas holidays to spend time with my family and friends which was amazing. It was busy but beautiful to reconnect with friends and family.   I think that an overwhelming theme of my time in Canada was thankfulness. Throughout my four weeks home, I felt an immense sense of thankfulness for my friends and family but especially my parents and the way that they have supported my desire to move to Africa. Despite their best attempts to hide it, I know that it hasn't been easy to have their first born daughter living across the world regardless of how much they support Hands at Work and what I'm doing. I will be eternally grateful for the values that they have instilled in me and the way in which they have encouraged me to follows God call on my life even if that calling led me away from them. On a humorous note - I think I forgot how cold it was in Canada because even when it is slightly raining in So...

The brokenness that I see in the communities can at times feel overwhelming. It can feel hopeless yet there is such beauty in amongst this brokenness and despair. This beauty is hope. Hope means more than a vague wish that something will happen. it is a sure and confident expectation in God's future faithfulness and presence. Our hope is in Jesus who promised He would not leave us behind as orphans. There is hope in seeing a child smile. There is hope in witnessing the loving exchange between a Care Worker and a child. There is hope in seeing a child with food sticking to their face and hands because it means that their stomach is full. There is hope in seeing people fully and completely surrender their lives to Christ, knowing that He loves them. He sees them. He knows them by name. Jesus Christ is our hope. He is bringing light to the darkness and love to the lost. Through Him we have a hope for the future. We can shine His bright light into situations of despair as we have bee...

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...