another boy joins the village

we are so pleased to inform you that we have been able to take on another boy at the village of hope, this little guy is eight years old, with slight learning difficulties due to the HIV virus, and has been living at thembacare in athlone for quite some time. he will stay with us as a longer term placement, freeing up a much needed bed at the high dependency unit in althone, we hope that we will provide him with a loving and caring environment where he will grow with us as we develop this facility.

tim, maz and arron return....and the 3 little boys

tim, maz and arron have returned from their trip to the kruger park, a wonderful time was had by all, they saw the big five, plus a cheater, one of only 200 left in the wild which was amazing.

tim also had an opportunity to share about the work that they are doing in grabouw at the airport christian fellowship in jo'burg on the way up and tim and maz also recorded an interview with john wasserman which will be broadcast on the spirit word channel later this year....we will keep you informed when this will be.

we now have three children, all boys, staying on the village of hope and we are looking forward to welcoming more in the very near future.

killing snakes and having breaks!

this coming weekend tim, maz and arron are off to visit john wasserman at his church in jo'burg and then will spend a week in krugger on safari, yep it's a hard life for a charity worker!...

...today we have had the pleasure of killing our second snake (a puff adder) on the farm...see photo of arron with it's remains.

currently we have 3 babies in the unit and we will keep you up to date with this when we return on 27th april.

limited internet and more americans!

we are going through some tough challenges with our communications from the village of hope, last week we had our phonelines restored after cable theft and today we are battling with telkom to have extra gig downloads placed onto our account after our new american volunteers used up all the months limit in a couple of days.....no blame on them they were unaware of the cap!

this new team are led by erica lee from the everynation church in new york and it's been a busy day today with tim taking the team out into the community where the guys had the opportunity to pray for people in their tin shacks (homes) and hand out clothes to the most needy of thembacare patients...the team also led the afternoon service and have been working with the children from the school of hope.

our babies are doing well in the new unit and we continue to ask you to pray for them and the new 'house mums' who are looking after them so well.

fair trade...

during the last couple of weeks tim and maz have had some amazing meetings with some very different people who are looking to and are already helping support the village of hope. one of these meetings, held at the thandi wine farm was with fairtrade south africa. thandi are already supplying fresh fruit and veg to thembacare grabouw, also via a link made by tim and to read about the meeting with fair trade please have a look at their first newsletter here.

easter wishes and a thought

hi all just wanted to say a quick hello and we trust that God will be at the forefront of your minds this easter weekend....(oh and we now have a second baby living at the voh with us so please pray for us as we care for this needy child).

i (tim) was also challenged by the words of our pastor frank in his post, dying to live, so this weekend when we focus on what God completed through His son's death on the cross lets look at ourselves and maybe take time to recommit our lives to Him and His purposes for our lives and fall in step with His plans, laying aside our own desires and goals to fully live in Him.

childrens care 'step down' unit opens!

yesterday was a momentous day for all connected with the village of hope as we opened our doors to the first child that was placed with us from thembacare grabouw.

it is just over six months since tim, maz and arron arrived in south africa and almost a year since the farm, now known as the village of hope, was purchased by thembalitshauk, with the amazing help of our international volunteers, and there are too many to mention by name here, the help and support from daz and lisa and the ever present johan we have achieved so much and we just want to thank God for his amazing provision and guidance as we set this facility up to extend the work that thembalitsha are doing in and around the western cape.

today we are hoping to take our second baby into the unit and whilst the long term vision and aim is to place these children back out with their families/foster care, we are so looking forward to investing in these children's lives while they live here with us.

please continue to pray for us, the wider care team as they settle into their new jobs and roles, but mainly could we ask you to pray for these precious little children who have to live with the day to day issues of HIV and AIDS.

cape classic surfing (and communications re-established)

over the weekend we took a group of 20 boys (sunday) and 20 girls (saturday) to the local surf beach where the cape classic bodyboarding championships (have a read as our children get a mention as a 'rewarding highlight of the day!) were being held, the children had the opportunity to have lessons from the guys taking part in the competition and also helped in a beach clean up with the guys from ocean minded. the kids had a wonderful time, although one of our 12 year old girls broke her arm!.......it was amazing to see these kids enjoying themselves, many of whom had never been to the beach before, let lone surf. thanks to sally, craig, gareth and tim for sorting such a great time oh and a special mention should go to the spur restaurants, who provided food for the children as well....(no link to their web site though!)

lack of communication (and grape harvest!)

last night the phonelines to the village of hope were stolen so we just wanted to let you know that communication from us will be a little slow over the next few days, however we still need you to continue to pray for us as we look to take our first children in early next week.

this morning we have harvested the grapes on the farm, collecting around 70kg of grapes which a local winemaker has taken to make into some port wine for us...only 6 months to wait to see what this will taste like and maybe telkom will have our phonelines sorted before then but i'm not holding my breath!