Join us in Africa in 2008

In late summer and fall of 2008, two teams of volunteers from the U.S. will be traveling to rural South Africa to complete the second phase of a church building project in the village of Silindile in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province.

Some people have already signed up and sent in their deposits - brand new members of the Many Hands work teams.  We welcome them aboard, and encourage you to join them before it's too late.

The teams will add a multi-purpose annex to the new sanctuary building built by Many Hands volunteers in 2006 to replace a small wooden building the congregation had outgrown.

As in 2006, volunteers from the U.S. will work side-by-side with local volunteers from the Silindile congregation of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, in collaboration with SAMVIM, to raise a brick building from the ground up.

We will also find ways to get involved with the local community - it's not all bricklaying. For example, in 2006 team members:

You will make new friends, experience a completely different culture, do a lot of good work while having a lot of good fun, and return home knowing that you have made a difference in many people's lives, including your own.

Visit our website for more information, or to download application forms for the 2008 work teams.

What works best for you?

I went to Africa for the first time back in 2002. I didn't know what to expect and was nervous about leaving home and immersing myself in a different culture for a month. Within 10 minutes of arriving on the work-site my nerves disappeared and I knew that it was going to be a life changing experience.

I traveled back to South Africa in 2004 and again in 2006. Before heading to Silindile in '06, I mentioned that it might be my last trip to South Africa for a while because there was so much world to explore - but here I am planning my return to Silindile. If you have been to Africa, then you likely understand the pull that keeps you going back and if you have not yet been, I promise you will soon know what I am talking about. I can't wait to get there.

The upcoming trip presents the same big challenge as the other trips have - how am I going to pay for it? This year we will have new fundraising tools that will make it possible to join the Silindile project without breaking the bank. We will have access to individual fundraising pages online that will make it easier for us to ask for money and harder for our friends and family to say no - I have seen these fundraising pages in action and am confident that they will provide great results.

I look forward to sharing Silindile with you in 2008 and in the mean time - sala kahle.