August 24th Bedfordview Stake Helping Hands Fair

Grassy Area behind Church building - site of FH fair

On Saturday, August 24th, we headed over to the stake event at Bedfordview. The church has a large grassy area behind it and it was set up with all kinds of booths to help people better understand the Church and what we believe.

Computers are needed for Family History.

There was a booth set up for Family History and run by the family history senior missionaries in the area office. They had lots of information about how to find ancestors and let people know it is all free through familysearch.org.

Sister Barnes manning the Africa Church History display

The Church History senior missionaries also had a booth and had several examples of church history in Africa and loads of photos and take-aways.

Our humanitarian department had a booth as well describing the ways Church Humanitarian Services can help the African people. Sister Kirschbaum made friends with the missionaries.

Sister Kirshbaum sharing shade with missionaries

Cute little girl getting her face painted

There was food and face-painting, plus many other activities. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

Young women were selling cupcakes and  a business was there advertising. Hot dogs and hamburgers were being prepared and sold for a nominal amount.



Then they began the program. They had a mic and sound system set up. The missionaries sang, "Called to Serve" and the primary children sang a couple of songs. Then some ladies in the stake sang a native song to everyone there.

The choir warming up with the lady in the middle directing

As the primary finished their song, I gave the Stake Primary President, who was directing the children, a bag of CTR bracelets. Each of the children got one and I let her have what was left to hand out to the children as she visited each ward or branch. She was so happy that she called me Monday at work and asked for more. She said on Sunday they went really fast and some people didn't get one. Darin started it, so I guess I'll have to ask him to make more.

This lady spoke of the Church's donation of wheelchairs

After the singing, they had representatives from all the Helping Hands groups who performed service to the community. One by one they came up and told about their projects and how it helped those in need. One lady in a wheelchair spoke about how they helped the disabled.

This lady spoke about Helping Hands Projects in her community

Others spoke about renovating orphanages or painting schools, cleaning parks or helping individual families with food and clothing. It was obvious how impassioned they were about their projects.

Robin Padoa and his family - his wife works in Area Office

Then our Southeast Africa Helping Hands Director, Robin Padoa spoke about how great the participation was in 2014 and how thankful he was for all that helped others. He promised that 2015 would be even a better year for service with more people getting involved in helping their communities, as well as pairing up with other organizations to accomplish something huge. This is Robin with his family.

This brother is a member of the Stake Presidency and a friend

It was a really nice event and we were happy to be a part of it! On our way out we saw our neighbor at the area office who is a counselor in the Bedfordview Stake Presidency and in charge of our visa/travel department. He is a great guy and so funny!