States for Christmas

Though it was hard to leave Africa, it was more hard to travel for as long as we did. It was nice to finally arrive in the states and was more of a surprise to get picked up by my dad. It was nice he did not have to work that day. I have been looking forward to coming home for some time to spend a nice Christmas holiday. I also looked forward to spending some time with family. I will admit this past week has a been a little bit hard adjusting to the American culture and also the craziness of shopping before Christmas. The stores and the people seem a little out of control, but we have been just taking it one day at a time.

One thing that has been nice though is the all of the Christmas lights and decorations. Liina has really enjoyed driving around looking at all the lights in the neighborhood. She has been busy taking pictures. Our city zoo also puts up a bunch of lights and it was nice to go and walk around with family.

Lucky for us it has not been that cold yet. We did enjoy some first snow, but it was soon gone. It has felt a little more like Estonian spring than it has winter. We know that our friends and family in Estonia enjoyed a nice white Christmas. It has been nice looking at their photos.

We look forward to spending more time with family and friends over the next few months. It has also been nice having internet all the time again to connect with family, friends, and students back in Estonia. We will see wait and see what lies ahead in the next few weeks. Thank you again for all of your prayers and your support this last year. 2009 was a tough year for both of us and we look forward to what 2010 will bring.

More pictures: here

Merry Christmas!!!!

Chris & Liina

Africa pictures vol. 2

Pictures: here

Trying to say Goodbye...

It was a hard weekend as we had our finally brai's (barbecues). It is often in the Hands family that when we get together, we eat lots of meat and then friends take turn saying what you mean to them. It was an emotional goodbye. It was one of the hardest goodbyes as we know there is so much to be done yet. Our team left so many fingerprints on our heart and mind that we will forever be changed. We fell in love with Africa and the people. They will always have a place in our heart and we hope one day some of them will make the journey up north to visit us in Estonia.













Pontso, Liina, Busie
















Zaches, Me, Sam, Kennedy

Hartebeeskop - Joanna

As we stayed in the community, we stayed with one of caregivers, Joanna. In their home, she lives with her 2 sisters, her own daughter, her sisters daughter, and she also took in one of her friends and her two kids. She is an amazing young women in how she takes care of her family as she is the eldest. She runs a tight ship also.

They live in a mud house with a little wood stove in the corner for cooking. How do you make a mud house? Great question. Well, you go out to the fields and find fresh cow dung. Put it in your bucket go back to the house and mix it with soil and water. Put it on the wall or the floor (picture left). It then hardens like concrete. It is amazing how this rural family lives. They have really lived off the land and can almost live on nothing as this family of 8 lives on $60 a month. This family taught me so much about how to live. You can see how they love and support each other. They work together to survive.

It was fun fixing food for everyone as it took 3 hours to prepare one meal as the wood was a little bit wet from the rain. Luckily Pontso, and my boss Busie are village girls so they wanted to show off their skills.

Joanna and her family left a huge fingerprint on my life and also on Liina's. I will treasure these young women and all that they do for God, for their community, and for their family.

New Community - Hartebeeskop

Our Final Exam!!!!

Liina and I went with our boss, Busie, and another friend Pontso out to check out a new community that Hands at Work as been introduced to. We were going out for a few days to talk with the care givers, find resources, talk with the community, and spend time praying about if this is a community that would be considered the poorest of the poor. We had a heard only a little bit about this community, and we were not exactly how we would stay, but we were up for anything.

We were blown away how majestic the landscape was. We were way up in the mountains right next to the Swaziland border. In some ways, it looked like Africa with cows and live stock roaming next to the roads and around, and then of course mud huts with thatched roofs. We went to meet the caregivers and see what they were up to. We were able to go do some home visits with them and see what the situation was on the ground. Liina and I went to different places, but both had some hard visits as the situations of some of the grannies, patients, and orphans broke our hearts. One of the biggest problems is that most of the places in this community don't have water or electricity. Because it is so rural, it is always on the bottom of the list when it comes to helping this community develop infrastructure. Also there is no work and most people are very unskilled which creates other issues. With this community being near the border, it puts the young girls at risk as there are many trucks waiting at the border. With no money and no food many young girls put their bodies on the line and at a huge risk just to bring some food home for the family. Also HIV/AIDS has spilled over from Swaziland as people travel back and forth across the border. Because of HIV, it has devastated the family homes as so many parents have passed away. In one of the schools, over half the students are orphans or a vulnerable child. The school is doing some amazing things to try to help, but it never seems to be enough.

After several hard days, we found many resources that would be a huge encouragement to this community. We are not sure how Hands at Work can really help, but this is definitely an area that would be the poorest of the poor. I am was amazed how much the care givers sacrifice to do what they do. For the last 9 years this home based care has been helping the community with no help from the outside and the volunteers there have never received any compensation for all of the hours and years they have been serving. They have hearts of gold. True servant hearts!

Community Stay Vol. 3 - blessing meal

I was asked to be part of a special process this time in the community. Big Boy came and visited me weeks before to ask if I would come and help him prepare a huge blessing meal for some of his family and some of the church families. He said it would be a huge process and needed my help, but most importantly he wanted to teach me something that was special to him. I had the honor to help prepare two cow heads. It is one of the best meals for Saswati's. As I told people what I was doing in the community all asked if they could come and eat. They say the meat from the head of the cow is the best because it is very lean and not so much fat. I was a little scared about this process of preparing the head, but I managed to hang in there. I did not get sick even when we had to scrape out the brain with our fingers. It was an experience that I won't forget. I learned so much about the culture through this process and also through our conversations over the 4 hours preparing the head. Then because it is Africa summer approaching, after work, we went and picked mangos off the tree and had a snack. I hope the pictures are not to much. Enjoy!!! Bon apetit!

Community Stay Vol. 3

We were out doing our final community stay with our African family: Big Boy & Fortunate. We were really looking forward to spending one of our last weekends with them. I think that this time we really felt what the community is like. What it would be to live with them. It was an interesting cultural experience this time as Big Boy took me under his wing and Fortunate took Liina under hers. Though it was a great experience, it was also a lonely experience. This time Liina and I really did not see much of each other until we went to bed in the evening. Liina was busy doing the things that women in this culture had to do like cleaning house, dishes, cooking, and other house chores as watching and taking care of the children. On the other hand, I had to go and do what the men did. I went to Big Boys fathers house and spent time in conversation, walked down the street holding hands with Big Boy, gardening, taking care of the outside of the house, and helping make a blessing meal. Though we did many different chores, men really do things together while women and children do things together. Liina and I enjoyed this experience, but we really missed doing things together. Having experiences and conversations together. The more we spend time in the community the more we have learned about ourselves and our relationship. We realize how much we enjoy living this life together than apart.

Tredding water, trying not to drown...

Hello everyone. I know it has been a little while. I guess you could say that I am just trying to keep my head above the water. It has been an extremely busy past few weeks for Liina and I.

Liina has been very busy with helping run a de-worming program for kids that Hands at Work is helping. Because of some different circumstances, Liina ended up co-leading this along with helping lead a team of people to help de-worming get done. I know that she felt stress through out the week, but she did an amazing job. I know that she really is understanding the community and how to work the different Home Based Cares. Also, it was great that she helped me this last summer with teams for english camps because that was great experience for her as she dealt with a team from Canada. After a week of hard work, they were able to help de-worm around 3000 kids and get them a small gift since Christmas is around the corner. This year, they did not do gifts like in the past, but provided gifts that would help the child and the care giver. In their bags, each child received a wash cloth, soap, toothbrush and paste, candy, and some received a water bottle. This year things had to be adjusted because many of the orphans and vulnerable children live with other care givers and their children. Often these children get more abuse and have more problems when they receive a gift and the other children don't. Orphans and vulnerable children have a hard life here and often get stigmatized at home, school, and in the community. Hands is working hard at educating the communities in how to deal with these children since the numbers are growing faster than anyone can keep up with. By the end of 2010, it is estimated there will be 20,000,000 orphans and vulnerable children with no one to look after them. It is going to be a hard battle as we will have the next generation of kids here in sub-Saharan Africa who will grow up with no parents. The numbers seem impossible, but as I have had the opportunity to walk along side the care workers in the different communities, they are making a huge difference. We just need to rejuvenate the church here in Africa to begin to take responsibility for their communities. It will be a slow process, but a fruitful process here. I look forward to watching over the years how the church responds to Africa.

I have been quite busy with continuing to help with organizational management. I have been really helping one of our donor and Hands with systems, team building, people management, conflict mediation, and building capacity into individuals on our team. I will admit that I love working with the people here. They are opposite of Estonians as they freely share their life and hardships that they are facing. I have developed some real deep friendships in such a short time that I know it will be hard to leave, but I know they will continue to grow to reach their potential. Also, God's hand has been on Liina and I in amazing ways. God has opened doors and has allowed us to meet people and be involved in things that we never thought we would or could. Because of some of these relationships, we have been able to open up some doors for Hands so they will have a better relationship one of the communities in which we work. God is an amazing artist and we are thankful to just to be the tools of His trade.

Though God has doing many great things, we have had many hard and frustrating days. Days where you wonder why am I really here or what am I doing here? But this is where knowing that God called us here for a reason has been a comfort. Through this process, God is refining us. Our faith has increased. Our character is getting more refined. God has increased our confidence in him. Liina and I feel our marriage is closer than it has ever been. It has been through this hardships that God has grown us. One quote that I came across many years ago is this: It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply. A.W. Tozer. I have often pondered this quote from time to time when facing hardships, but I think here in Africa I am just starting to understand this. Liina and I have been deeply wounded by the things that wound God. We are being ruined by Him, but we know that through this process we are becoming more like him. We are uncertain what will become of us after this experience, but we know we won't see things the same ever again. God has touched our souls with the things most important to him.

We only have around 2 weeks left, but we hope to make the most of every opportunity. Our time is pretty much booked till the time we leave, but we are excited to what lies before us. Starting Friday, we will be out living in the communities again. We were invited by Big Boy and Fortunate to spend a last weekend with them, then on Monday we will be off near Swaziland to assess a new community that needs help and assistance. This new community has been doing Home Based Care for patients, needy, and orphans for over the last 10 years without any help or assistance. They have a heart for their community that has helped many orphans have a chance for the future.

Thank you everyone for your continued thoughts, prayers, and facebook messages.

"This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." James 1:27