Mission Focus: Brian & Maria Liggett – South Africa
Brian and Maria are members of our church family at Legacurry. They live in South Africa and work with a charity called Impande (previously called Network Action Group). They have 2 young boys Ezra and Aaron.
Brian and Maria met in South Africa while volunteering at a centre for abused children and women in 2002. Since then, they felt called to South Africa with a desire to work for social justice. They both choose to study in preparation, Brian as a community development worker and Maria as a social worker. Initially their work focused on supporting children and families amid the HIV/Aids crisis. Some members from Legacurry would have visited them to support the work of the local organisation called Masakhane that cared for the sick and supported orphans and vulnerable children.
Brian and Maria have always worked to support the work of local organisations that make a difference in their own communities. This led them to pioneer and lead the work of Impande whose mission is grassroots development. Impande currently aim to give children a fair start in life through supporting emerging preschools in the poorest and most remote areas of South Africa. Today South Africa has the highest inequality in the world and children are left vulnerable as the cycles of poverty and abuse remain following apartheid, political violence and the HIV/Aids epidemic.
Brian, Maria and their children live in a Zulu tribal village called Kwanzimakwe. Brian and Maria were the first white family to move into the village with the desire to live and raise their family in the middle of the community where they had a desire to serve. Alongside the work with Impande, Brian and Maria have been sharing their Christian faith over the years by discipling young people in the local community. Many of the young adults find that they do not fit in with local Zulu churches and equally they do not fit with the urban churches. However, with their two young boys in mind they now enjoy fellowship at an established church in the town of Margate.
We would ask you to please support Brian and Maria in prayer as they seek to serve God in South Africa.