tim's vineyard talk

some of you will have read that i made a trip home to england, during that time i was able to share with the vale of aylesbury vineyard church about the work that we are doing in south africa, and really wanted to encourage them to seek God for His provision, plan and purpose for their lives. i was speaking quite spontaneously but if you would like to hear this short update and talk then please follow this link.

a little farm work is good for your elf

the elgin learning foundation (ELF) have this week begun the task of returning the land on village of hope to agricultural use, very exciting to see the land being worked after all the planning and preparation by arron, johan and the team.

elf run agricultural training programs for local people wanting to learn farming skills to better their employment prospects and supply their families with fruit and vegetables. the usual problem is that people finish the course but have no land to work on, that is where village of hope comes in! our initial partnership is providing 1 hectare of land for 5 workers who are on a government support programme but could be the start of a very fruitful (sorry) relationship.

oh and of course all children, animals and older boys love tractors!

village makes papers again!

this weeks elgin grabouwer contains a lovely story about the support that the village of hope are receiving from the local paul cluver wine estate, the estate are now providing fresh vegetables to the village of hope each monday, not only is this cutting our food bill we are receiving so much fresh veg that we are able to bless thembacare grabouw and a small creche in the iraq squatter camp.

see article for full story which includes info to the readers about this support and also highlights the work we are doing as we work with the children infected with HIV.

Feb/March Newsletter

Update from the Village:

Firstly we have to apologise for the late arrival of the second newsletter of 2010, this one will serve as the Feb and March update which we hope you will find interesting.

Things are going well very for us on the Village of Hope, however since we last provided an update we have had a few issues which have caused us a little concern. Towards the end of January we found that over 170 metres of the new fencing which we had installed to serve as a 'boundary marker' between us and the local squatter camp had been stolen....this was no mean feat as those who stole it had to endure a steep bank either side of the river to make off with this heavy duty wire fence. Since that has been stolen we have replaced it with seven rows of simple barbed wire and trust that they won't find an outlet to sell that in a hurry.

As part of our security system we have now installed 'panic' buttons in the four accommodation blocks, linked to an armed response unit. This may sound a little extreme and to some extent it is, as we are seeking to reach out and serve our community. However, there are some very strange characters around and we don't want to put our staff or volunteers into a position where they are having to confront an intruder. We have also installed a motor and intercom onto the front gates which is also proving to be helpful in containing those coming to 'visit' the village.

Children’s Work on the Village:

We are working well with a new foster mother who is looking to take two of our longer term children into her care in the very near future. Unfortunately for her, their biological mother and father are still on the scene which can make things a little tricky. We have also taken in another little girl who has been placed with us via Thembacare, Grabouw, we are looking forward to making a difference in her little life.

As part of our outreach into the community we have been able to provide some land for around thirty cows who are owned by the local Xhosa men and before we took them into our care they have been wandering around the townships causing hassle to people, their property and also cars as they stray onto the roads.

We have also started work with the Elgin Learning Foundation, who have started work on one hectare of our land. They will be installing a much needed irrigation system and working the land to provide crops for the Village of Hope and for themselves as they learn the skills needed to cultivate these plants.

Six of the children who live with us at the VOH are now at school every morning. The school run is a bit of a mission, however it is great to see these little guys trip off to school with their school bags and happy smiles.

We are currently in the process of installing a jungle gym, complete with slide, see-saw, climbing ropes, etc. This has been funded by friends from Everynation Church in London. This will make a real difference to the children, giving them a focus for their play and help the house moms engage with the children in a positive way.

Children’s Community Outreach:

Our sports outreach has expanded, Emily House is now helping Tim with the work in the Iraq squatter camp where she has set up a netball club for the girls. This is such a needy area and it is great for these young girls to have an outlet other than the day to day chores of living in a home with no electricity or water.

We have also had the opportunity to start a new club at one of the apple farms which surround Grabouw. Tim, Daz, Harry (our new volunteer from England) and Trondor (our longer term volunteer from Norway) ran two soccer saturdays for the adult farm workers who are employed to pick the 81 million apples that the farm produces each year...yes it is harvest time in the southern hemisphere. This was a great success where over eighty men from different towns and cultures came together for an afternoon of sport. We have now set up a weekly programme for the children of the longer term workers on this farm which is really taking off.

A wonderful Dutch volunteer donated some funds to enable us to take the 180 children that we work with at our sports clubs to the beach. This was to be no mean mission. We split the groups down into the five areas and took around thirty children on five different days to Gordon’s Bay where they all enjoyed a couple of hours running around, playing in the water and generally having a great time.

We were also able to take fifteen children to the 'international body boarding championship' which was held over the weekend of 20th-22nd March, we thank Craig for the opportunity he provided to make this happen.

Volunteers:

We continue to be blessed by some amazing volunteers, Trondor and Gretta from Norway are over halfway through their year long stay. Rob and Emily are so helpful and have taken on the task of 'volunteer coordinators' from Daz and Lisa, who have moved into their own rented accommodation on the next door farm. Rob and Em had some sad news when Rosie, their daughter, was the first to fall from the new jungle gym and break her arm....poor Rosie.

We have welcomed Harry onto the Village of Hope. He is with us for three months and has taken over some of Arron’s work. We have also had Claire join us for a few weeks from Aylesbury, along with Leo and Margette from Holland who are with us until the end of March.

Maz had a great time with Jemima, a German volunteer who she met at Thembacare in Athlone in 2005, we have kept in touch ever since and it was nice to be able to show Jemima around the new Village of Hope project, talk about old times and take some time out at the beach.

If you would like to come and join us as a volunteer on the project please get in touch with us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk

And finally:

Tim has been back in England for a couple of weeks, where he not only paid tribute to his wonderful 97 year old grandfather who's funeral he attended, but also got the opportunity to meet his new grandson who was born two days after Grandad passed away. As you can imagine it was a bittersweet trip but one where he was also able to catch up with the YWAM team in Harpenden who are coming out to Grabouw in May-July to serve the community during the World Cup. Arron is with that team so it was good to see him.

Tim spoke at the Aylesbury Vale Vineyard Church, met up with Wolfi from Everynation Church in Hammersmith and spent time with a few friends and his boys enjoying a proper pint of English ale and an Indian curry!

no tim but new gym

as tim enjoys plenty of curries and warm beer back in blighty, work at the village of hope continues at a pace.

this week we have taken delivery of a wonderful jungle gym (see pic) which has been made possible thanks to the generosity of every nation church london as well as our long term volunteers. it is amazing to see His provision for our children with this wonderful play equipment.

only problem at the moment is that they cannot play on it until the cement has set and the wood stain has dried in.... you can imagine how they just want to get started!!

circle of life

life is never dull or boring and over the last couple of days i have seen the passing of my 97 year old granddad and the arrival of my new grandson, amazingly they never met each other but both bear the same first name.....life is a strange cycle of comings and goings and as i sit here pondering these two events it brings pain and joy at the same time.

i will be returning to england next week, prompted by the funeral of my grandfather, but as i make that trip i will meet up with my first grandchild.....

...maz (along with the amazing team of housemoms and volunteers) will stay at the village of hope to 'hold fort' whilst i return and then she will make the planned trip back to see her first grandchild in april.

so you think you are safe?

a report from the BBC web site confirms that HIV and AIDS are the main causes of death in women..........when will the world wake up to the fact that if this disease is not controlled we will all be at risk of infection......infection doesn't necessary lead to death as we see with the patients and children we work with.....but the disease is spreading, people are still dying at a rate of over 1000 per day here in south africa.....we can make a difference, with education and the right medication...would you like to help us?.....

village goes cow mad

grabouw is a town full of cows and they wonder around our streets and townships quite freely, however all this is going to change with some local government legislation that means that the cows now need to be kept off the streets.....and here within lies the problem, these cows belong to local xhosa men who measure their wealth by the amount of cows they own, however these men don't own any land to keep the cows.....this is where the village of hope has come to the help of the local municipality as we were asked to if we might have some 'spare' land for these cows to live.

over the weekend we welcomed a team of very energetic xhosa men onto the village of hope, where they have put up some temporary fencing, temporary in the fact that we will only be providing the land for a three month period not that i think that their fence will be stolen like our other fencing (which we are now busy replacing ourselves...more on that one tomorrow)....and today we saw the thirty cows on the land for the first time....

...what with great meetings with both cape peninsular university of technology and elgin learning foundation it is now looking like we might be producing our own veg, wind power and maybe a bit of steak for the braai....we are moving forward and continuing to make a difference to our community in very practical ways.