the village of hope seeks to help children infected or affected by hiv, aids and tb in two different ways: we have a 9 bed children's unit to support those infected by hiv and aids and we also run a community-based sports and lifeskills outreach in the informal settlements and squatter camps each afternoon.

this blog has been set up to allow the key members of the team at the village of hope to share their thoughts, photos and experiences as we work in the community of grabouw in south africa

Monday, January 31, 2011

rose and bull doing souper work!

ok i am sorry about the play on words in the title of this post but it happens to be true!

this weeks grabouwer picks up on a wonderful story that we have been involved with for over a year now. every friday a local restaurant at the marsh rose mall, called 'the rose and bull' make up a wonderful pot of soup which we then deliver to one of the soup kitchens that we have relationship with in rooidakker informal settlement.

the work that this soup kitchen (and all the others around our town) does is amazing, not only do they provide a hot meal for literally hundreds of poor and needy people each day, but by providing that food they also enable the ARV (antiretroviral) and TB medication to do it's job properly as much of those meds can't be taken on an empty stomach....

the relationship with the restaurant came whilst we were in the bar watching some sport over a pint, and when asked about the work we were doing in the community it was easy to see how we could encourage them to get involved. the manager of the restaurant was happy to make the soup each friday but had no means or relationship in the community to ensure it got to the right people...the village of hope is just a conduit between the two parties but last week shane (the manager) came to visit the soup kitchen with us and was really touched to see that what he provides really can and does make a difference to hundreds of people.

that is our story, we might not be able to help everyone, and our main call is to help those infected by HIV and AIDS (especially children) but we can bring together those that have with those who have not and then let the relationship develop from there.

Friday, January 28, 2011

first steps


our 14 month old baby took his first tentative steps (4 in total, all in one go mind you!) yesterday. this amazing child has been with us since he was five days old and everyone has grown to love and adore him, it is so fascinating to not only see the concentration on his face as he puts his mind to something that will one day come as naturally as breathing, but also to see the wonderful house moms and volunteers encouraging him during their own shifts!, they really want to be the first ones to see him walk, there is a real competition going on there!

our prayer for him is that he will be placed back with his own family, but they haven't visited for over a year now and his mom is not in a great position to take him back home, it's a crying shame that she isn't sharing in his little life and those small steps that will see him grow into an amazing man.

(photo shows him and lizi allen encouraging, we are sorry that we can't show a picture of his wonderful face but we have to respect child protection law!)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

he got his bible


following on from the 'shouting for bibles' post that i wrote last week, i managed to get hold of a xhosa bible for the builder who wanted to have his own bible in his own language.

today on my way to our rescheduled soccer outreach in zwelitsha/iraq i saw him and past the bible to him, i hope that you can see just how happy he was to receive this and he was even more surprised to hear that i didn't want any money for it!

and the amazing thing was that as he received his bible more builders came up to me and also asked for their own bible...i think i might have started something that i wont be able to stop!...is it sustainable?, probably not. is it what Jesus would do?, who knows. did it make us both happy, one to serve and one to receive? yep!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

church in the orchards



much of what we post on this blog is obviously about our work with the kids either in the unit or the local community, that's what the village of hope is all about, however we do have a life with other members of our town and much of that revolves around our 'church life' and the farming community....

we are just coming into the harvest/picking season and much of the towns (grabouw) wealth and well being is hanging on the trees in the orchards, today our amazing pastor, neil meyer (elgin united), encouraged us with thoughts around harvest and got us out into the orchards to pray not only for the fruit and the farmers, but also took us beyond the four walls of the church into what for many of the poorest people is their work place....

...we joined together for communion amongst the apple trees, individually took a ribbon and tied it round a tree and prayed for the forthcoming harvest both from the trees and also within our own lives. as we walked through the orchards we saw much of the fruit had been burnt by the hot sun that we have recently enjoyed, however the fruit is now so damaged that the farmers will have a hard job to sell it. as i (tim) looked at the fruit God reminded me that there were many many people in our town who are damaged, God bought me to a place to pray for the restoration of the fruit and also the restoration of the damaged and disadvantaged people of our town.

i obviously prayed for the farmers, but my mind was full of thoughts of the pickers and packers who work the land and live in the squatter camps and township around our town, those who have no electricity in their tin shacks, have to walk far to get their water and have little or no access to medical care, i also prayed for the kids that we work with who are infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. i prayed that God will produce a harvest of health and well being in their lives and that his kingdom might come through the work that we are doing as we seek to make a difference at the village of hope...

Friday, January 21, 2011

shouting for bibles!

i am sure you have all walked past a building site and felt a little intimidated by some of the language you have heard, especially you lovely ladies, and its not many times that you drive through a building site and one of the workmen shouts out 'i want a bible' but that's exactly what happened to me (tim) as i was driving through the new government formal settlement in rooidakke (grabouw) on my way to run a sports outreach in the iraq/zwelitsha squatter camp yesterday afternoon.

the request came from a random worker who asked for not one but two bibles in the local xhosa language, it is now my mission to seek to fulfil this request and bless this man and his 'friend' with the word of God in his own language.

so next time you walk around or near a building site maybe give the builders the benefit of the doubt and ask if they really weren't asking to see your bible!

Monday, January 17, 2011

first days at school


today is the start of a new school year in south africa and for one of our little girls it was her very first day, maz (and lizi allen) left the village of hope at 7.30am, and by 8.00am she had joined her new classmates for the start of her school life. unfortunately she (the little girl not maz or lizi) had a slight accident before she had even got into the car, but we understand that the rest of her day got a little better!

please pray for all of our children, 4 of whom attend local schools, or preschools and for all the other children that we work with in the community via our sports outreach who moved up classes from last year.

photo shows our house mom getting our little girl ready for her first day.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

finding new rest


as part of one of our dutch (HAN) university students thesis he needed to find out what difference the sports outreach that we run in the community had made to the young people that we work with, so this morning we (me and bart) spent an hour interviewing a couple of the boys that we work with in the iraq squatter camp.

the area is made up of small tin shacks with limited access to running water, no basic sanitation and no electricity, the local municipality has been encouraging people to move their homes to a new area, slightly nearer to town (like 200 yards!) but on what will become 'serviced' plots...that basically means that they will have a stand pipe within walking distance, access to a toilet, which they will share with another 12 families, but still no electricity.

people have slowly been moving their homes to this new area, and whilst chatting with the boys this morning i found out that the local community have named the place zwelitsha (or new rest)....whilst the name is somewhat better than iraq i still wonder how anyone can call that place 'rest', but for those few families that's what it is and we are constantly challenged by the resilience of these people who live in the most desperate conditions in the world.

the photo shows a small boy who was desperate for me to take a photo of him reading his bible in his new home at new rest!

Monday, January 10, 2011

new year new toys...(well old toys but new to us!)


well this is the first post of the new year here at the village of hope, and whilst i (tim) was able to take some time off last week, being blessed by some tickets to the 3rd test match between south africa and india at newlands, and maz (who spent the end of the week at bettys bay)the project continues and we want to thank rob, em, mel and our new volunteer ligier (from brazil don't you know) along with our amazing house moms and johan for keeping the place ticking over whilst we were away.

our first post this year is about a large donation of toys that we have received from the local 'shoprite' store here in grabouw, some of the toys are slightly broken but i am sure johan will put his 'superglue' to work and we will be able to bless our kids and those in the communities that surround us with some much needed new year cheer! thanks to brian and his team down there at that very busy store!

so happy new year from all of us at the village of hope and we trust that 2011 will be a blessed and wonderful year for everyone who reads our blog, maybe we might even catch up with a few of you during these next 50 odd weeks!