Maranatha Workshops

Last year, Maranatha Workshops were held in each of our communities across Africa. In it's literal translation, Maranatha means “Come Lord Jesus Come.” That is exactly what took place. God came and He did what He needed to do in the lives of the care workers. The key leaders of Hands came to realize that in order to help heal the wounds of the children and eventually the primary care givers, we had to help heal the wounds of the Care Workers first. The Care Workers can’t properly love and care for the children, if they are still dealing with the inner wounds that they had as a child and still endure now. The reason being is that these Care Workers were once the children that they are now caring for. What the Care Workers want is to love the children and be able to play with them and properly care for them, but that is inhibited by the lack of healing and restoration that has taken place in their own lives due to the trauma that they have experienced as a child or even as an adult.

For one week, the Service Centre went and stayed in the community with the Care Workers and put on these Maranatha Workshops. The first day of the workshops focused on the ‘Jesus that we Know’. Hands at Work realized that many of the people in the community don’t know the Jesus that we Know. They may go to church, but many of the churches in our communities are very different in what they preach than the Jesus that we Know. They don’t know the Jesus that came to heal and bring restoration. They don’t know the Jesus that adopted us as his sons and daughters and brought us into His family. They don’t know the Jesus that came, got down into the hole with us, and then rescued us out of the hole, and brought us to live in eternal freedom with him. We want the Care Workers to understand and accept this Jesus, because once they do they will have the freedom to help rescue the children that they care for out of the hole. The Care Workers were asked to share about their brokenness and what the effects of this brokenness are. Often our own brokenness and inner wounds, wound others whether we intentionally do it or not. It was shared that once the Care Workers truly know, understand, and come to accept this Jesus, they will then be able to show and tell the children about this Jesus. 

The second day focused on Holy Home Visits. There are three aspects of a Holy Home Visit; time, prayer, and relationship. The Care Workers need to have a deep relationship with the children that they are visiting. It can not simply be a five minute visit that just focuses on the outside things. It has to go deep, they have to wait until Jesus shows up. If we invite Jesus, He will come. The other aspect of this is that we have to relate this back to Jesus. We visit because He first visited us. He came down to this earth to bring healing and restoration to us. He visited us in our homes and so we have to do the same. It was shared that the Care Workers should be beautiful feet bringing the light, love and hope of Jesus Christ to the children and their primary care givers. The Service Centre went on Holy Home Visits with the Care Workers to properly illustrate what a Holy Home Visit should look like. 

The third day focused on the Care Point. It was shared with the Care Workers that the Care Point shouldn’t just be a place for the children to get food. It should be a Life Centre, where life can be found. The children should feel safe, secure, heard, respected, and loved. There should be relationship groups for the children. It should be the primary care givers place as well. There should be relationship groups for the primary care givers where they can share their stories and struggles. The Care Workers were told of the urgency to know the children one on one and to share God’s love every day, because through that the children will come to know and accept the Jesus that we Know as well. 

The fourth day focused on Relationship Groups. It was shared with the Care Workers that Jesus came to heal the broken hearted. It is important for the Care Workers to share their stories with each other. By knowing each others stories, it allows them to love each other, be patient, encourage each other, pray for each other, and allows others to help them. The Care Workers are wounded people that through their stories can help to heal others. By sharing their stories and receiving the freedom from that, they can bring that to help the children share their stories and receive healing. The day is then filled with Care Workers sharing their stories with the group and realizing that they are not alone. Many of the other Care Workers have struggled and gone through similar things but they had never shared their story with each other. 

During this week, Hands at Work saw amazing testimonies coming from the Care Workers who had come to recognize the need for healing as they saw their own brokenness. Many Care Workers came to know the Jesus that we Know and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour  The Care Workers were able to share their stories with one another, and through that they recognized that they aren't alone, that they have people that they can talk to about their daily struggles and that there is a God that can continue to heal them from the trauma that has haunted their lives. 


Last year in August, Maranatha Celebrations were held in Zambia. Service Centre’s from all over Africa came to Zambia for a time of celebration in praise to God of all that He had does in Africa, in the CBO’s, and in the Care Workers. It was a week of praise and worship and hearing from God. The question was then asked what now? Where do we take this now? What is the way forward? 
We had our first ever young-leaders camp from Bushbuck Ridge two weeks ago. This is the first step towards Maranatha Workshops. It is the hope and the prayer that when the young people go back to their communities they will be able to be an example to the younger children and to their families, and show them the change that has taken place and freedom and healing that they have found. We are also praying that the children that come, will come to know Jesus and take the first step to receiving the freedom and grace that our Lord wants to give us. 

As a result of that question being asked, the key leaders felt that we now needed to take some form of the Maranatha Workshop to the children, and then to their primary care-givers. How this is going to look, we’re not yet sure, but what we do know is that God is Sovereign  He has the best plan. 

Please Pray:

· That God would show us how we need to move this Maranatha Workshop foward for our children and primary care givers

· Pray that the young leaders would take what they’ve learned and experienced and infiltrate that into their communities. Pray that they would deeply come to know how much their Heavenly Father loves, even when they go through struggles. Pray that they would make a change in their lives and stick to doing things that are glorifying to God.   Pray that the other children and primary care givers would see this change and want to know more. Pray that the young leaders would be a beacon of light in their communities

· Pray for the next young-leaders camp that is happening in a weeks time. Pray for the hearts of the children that are coming and that the right ones would be chosen for what God wants to do. Pray that God would prepare their hearts and that over the weekend of the camp, their lives would be completely transformed. Pray that they would come to know Jesus and would be eager to learn more about Him. Pray that they would be receptive to what is shared, and that they would be set on fire for God and bringing change to their own life as well as to the community. 

- Pray that God would give our Service Centre's and RST's, the wisdom and the guidance on how to take the Maranatha Workshops further.