It seems a while since I put pen to paper, or should that be fingers to keyboard, to bring you news from the Village of Hope, but I do hope that you continue to follow our news via the Village of Hope blog at www.thembavillageofhope.blogspot.com where you can find daily updates from the project.
General:
Since we last updated we have had the immense pleasure in placing four of our longer term children back home with their families/foster families in the community. Saying goodbye is always a tough thing but it is our desire to work with the children's families to ensure that there is always a chance of reuniting them at some point in their lives.
With these four little ones going home it now means that we have eleven children that we are caring for in the community, added to the nine we are currently able to care for on the Village of Hope.
Since those children returned home we have been able to take in further children that need our help and support as they live with either HIV or TB. These children continue to be a real blessing and to be able to input into their young lives in such a positive way is an amazing privilege.
Arron has been away for the last two months and we have missed him being around but we look forward to welcoming him home very soon as he returns with the wider YWAM team.
We have been blessed with visits from Emily’s sister and dad, Rob’s mum and dad and Tim’s sister and family. This has been a great time for the team at the Village of Hope to introduce our loved ones to the work that we are doing both here on the project and in the community via the Thembacare and sports outreach teams.
Children's Unit News:
We are glad to report that we have been able to complete the installation of the jungle gym in the extended play area just outside the children's unit. We want to express our thanks to the Everynation Church in Hammersmith who made this possible.
The children who remain at the Village of Hope continue to grow. We are committed to getting them to school and for them to eventually live in a family which honours God and holds him at the forefront of the home is very important to us as well. Our house moms do a wonderful job and we thank them for the twelve hour shifts that they put in each and every day to care for the children with as much love as they give their own children.
Sports outreach:
With the World Cup (Fifa Football World Cup South Africa 2010) almost upon us we have joined forces with other like minded, child focused charities who have a desire to come together to make the World Cup period something for the children of Grabouw to remember for many years to come. Please pray for us that we get lots of support from the local people to help put these events on, come rain or shine, money or no money!
Since the last newsletter we have established the work that we are doing at a farm in the Elgin Valley. This takes our sports outreach to six areas in and around Grabouw. Whilst it's always nice to extend ones boundaries we are very mindful that anything that we do must be sustainable and we take on any new work with that mindset.
With the new club we are now reaching around 160 children with our lifeskills based sports outreach and bible studies every week. We opened up the May event to the wider World Cup committee and had well over 500 children attend between 9am and 3pm which was very encouraging.
We are looking forward to welcoming Paul Baker and the YWAM team from Harpenden to join us as we extend the work we are doing for the World Cup period. We have had great meetings with local schools and churches where we will be running our clubs from as the children enjoy a month long break from school.
Volunteers:
We are forever grateful for the people who come and serve with us at the Village of Hope and during the last couple of months we have had some amazing people, including Margeete and Leo from Holland who, sadly, have now gone home. They made a real difference in the older girls lives. Harry has also left us to start his mighty climb of Kilimanjaro; Harry was an amazing, humble young man who will be greatly missed.
As we have already said Tim and Maz, Rob and Emily have had family visiting and these visits also allowed us a couple of days off to visit some of the amazing places and experience the wonderful scenery which surrounds the Western Cape.
A team of four guys and gals from Dallas joined us for a week. Matt and his team had visited us last year and it was great to see the team again as they seek to support our project and the town of Grabouw.
Future projects and prayer points:
As stated above we have some wonderful opportunities to work with the children in Grabouw over the World Cup period. Please pray for the team as they seek to work with the guys from YWAM and also think of Trefor Williams who is bringing his 'big shot cricket' to Grabouw in early June.
If you would like to be part of the support team, giving financially, or of your time from your home then please contact us via email. If you think you would like to come out and get involved in the work we are doing as we seek to help the poor and needy children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and/or TB then we would also like to hear from you. Thanks for your continued support.
Much love
Tim and the Village of Hope Team, May 2010
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