That They May Have Life

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10

Hello Friends

I pray you and your loved ones are well and know the Lord's love deeper still in these uncertain times. This lovely photo shows sisters coming to the Care Point. They carry face masks, containers to take home their food and baby sister. The little girl in the red was delighted to show off her special sunglasses.

I am gathering so many stories of how Care Points can change lives that it is hard to choose what to share. The one I believe the Holy Spirit wants me to tell is of a family in despair, when all hope is gone and death seems the only way out. We arrived to find the mother lying on the ground. She is HIV positive but too despondent to take her medication and so she was dying before her children. Her youngest children, without a mother's support, were not well cared for or able to get themselves to the Care Point. Her eldest girls are very young mothers, abandoned to be single parents in stress and poverty. Little by little hope is returning because trust and love is being created. The Care Point and Service Centre volunteers now regularly visit to help take care of the children, support mum to get to the clinic and take her medication, assess the house for home repairs to make it safe and secure and encourage the neighbours to help the family get back on its feet. Mum was so lost in herself that she would refuse to speak and would not accept any prayer. Love, however, always breaks through when it is strong and real and is Jesus loving through us. She started to open up, talk and ask for prayer. It is a resurrection because this dear lady was as good as dead. Her spirit was dead and it was only a matter of time before her body followed. Hope brings new life. Jesus is that hope but how will they know unless we take it to the lost and lonely. Dear Lord, make us that hope today.

On a completely different track, I want to share some of the things I am doing so you have a sense of my daily life. One of the first things I was given to do was to be a Project Accountant for a Service Centre in Zambia. Each Service Centre has a book keeper that keeps track of all the spending to support the feeding, health and education of the hundreds of children belonging to the Care Points of that Service Centre. My role is to check the work of the book keeper, as one of the first layers of accountability for the organisation, so we know where every donated cent went on behalf of the children and within the right budget and project code. For those of you who know I am more comfortable with words and that numbers and spreadsheets are completely foreign, please spare me a few prayers to get up to speed. I am still in training but I will have to launch on my own soon! I also do some data entry stuff around the car logbooks where every organisational vehicle is also tracked for kilometres to a particular project code because everything is tied to a budget. I do the logbooks for the community's in South Africa and Zambia, which is about ten cars in total. As it was recently month end, this is how I spent lot of this week.

I am blessed to be part of an exciting new project that will facilitate the sharing of a Bible story every month throughout the whole Hands at Work family. From International Offices, organisational teams, to the Care Point; where Care Workers, Care Givers, local church members and children can hear God's truth speaking to their experience. I had the opportunity to share the story of Ruth at a Community Prayer day at a Care Point. The first since lockdown now that we are at Level 2 and groups of no more than fifty can meet. Many grandmas came, who take care of their grandchildren, and one stood up to say this was her story. Like Ruth and Naomi she had lost much but God had been faithful and sent people to help her, including people from the Care Point. The next story I am working on is Hagar sitting in the desert, lost and despairing until she encounters 'The God Who Sees Her'. The story will be written for young African girls, who are so vulnerable like Hagar. Vulnerable to abuse, neglect and exploitation. Let's pray for the truth of God's love to shine brightly through.

Praise and prayer points:

• We can praise God that none of our communities we work in has been impacted by COVID-19. Let's keep praising and trusting God for his mercy.

• Pray for our Care Workers most of whom live in difficult and/ or abusive situations and find sanctuary at our Care Points.

• Pray for open borders.There are two South African volunteers who were able to get into Eswatini (Swaziland) to assist but are now waiting to be able to return. An international volunteer is in lockdown in Mozambique and needs to be able to return also. Other countries are in need of support and leadership to visit - Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria and DRC (Congo).

• Pray that our Hands at Work family in Africa and abroad can keep pressing into a greater understanding of God's love and his purpose for the nations.

• Pray for me to learn to drive a manual car, as there are no automatics in South Africa! It is difficult not to be able to get out and about and so I need to make this a goal.

Thank you for your prayers.

Emma