Clowning Around - For A Reason

There’s nothing we like more here at Village of Hope than a little light relief and perhaps the odd bit of slapstick humour, so what more could we ask for than the chance to see some clowns for free?!

However these aren’t your average clowns, they are a performance group called Clowns Without Borders. This fantastic organisation brings laugher into areas of the world that don’t normally have much of reason to laugh and have worked in refugee camps and warzones. This week, after entertaining our sister project, Graceland Preschool, in the morning, they came to Grabouw to perform for us and other children from the community in the afternoon! We cancelled our sports outreach for the day and invited all the kids from those groups to the show as well as bringing along some of the children from the unit at Village of Hope.

There were eight comedy characters all together, each from different countries around the world and their show was all slapstick and mime (with a few trombones and trumpets thrown in for good measure). They certainly didn’t take long to get us breaking out in giggles and we really want to thank them for taking the time to bring a little ray of sunshine in our town.

To read more about Clowns Without Borders, check out their website: http://cwbsa.org/

walkers update III (wholehearted tour news)

well another week has flown by with our week long trip to germany and holland now over we are focusing all our attention towards to wholehearted tour which kicks off tomorrow evening in taunton, with further events in bath on wednesday, aylesbury on thursday on what is world AIDS day, and then a weekend in london starting in hammersmith on friday and finishing with 4 events with the everynation chruches on sunday....for further info the please visit the wholehearted facebook page or the wholehearted blog which they will be keeping updated with stories of their trip......but that is all to come, what follows is a short recap of what we got up to last week.

the ukuqulaII students

on monday morning we got up for the early flight to stuttgart where we had a short meeting with leslie, the project manager from the ukuqula I project, and then we had a three hour presentation by the students who will be working on the ukuqala II project. it was wonderful to meet these 25 students who have not only spent time looking at the 2012 project but also the long term development of the village of hope in the future.

in the evening we met up for a meal with the students who built the first ukuqula home in feb/march of this year, words cannot express how much their time and commintment to build us an amazing ecco house is appreciated and they will always be held up high in the stories of the village of hope.

some of our ex-HAN students
at the pancake house!

tuesday was another early start to make the hour long flight from stuttgart to dusseldrof where we were met by an ex HAN student, elsie and her father, we enjoyed an evening of football and food with them at their home just outside bemmel.

on wednesday we met up with the international department of the HAN (highschool arnhem and nijmegen) and their tutors to discuss the work that their sports, pyhsio and social work can do as they partner with our thembalitsha projects in grabouw, we also had a chance to speak to some of the students who will be joining us in early 2012, providing them with some cultural background to south africa and the types of things that they will be experiencing during their five months with us.

we were totally blessed by the amount of ex students that came to meet us at the 'pancake house' in nijmegen on wednesday evening where we took time to catch up with them and their progress since they left south africa, it was so good to see them all.

children at the emmaus school in arnhem

thursday morning was also an early start, no rest for the wicked they say!, where we had an oppertunity to share with 3 different classes of children at a school in arnhem, this went really well, they had some very good questions which followed a powerpoint where we showed them some photos of the work we do in grabouw.

gerrit spronk picked us up in arnhem and we enjoyed an afternoon in amersford before sharing with his home group in the evening. gerrit also drove us over 300kms on friday, taking us to meetings with an ex village of hope volunteer, leo, and then on to den hag to meet up with the dutch chefs who visited the village of hope with the culibus in 2010 and who are looking to set up a fundraising event in early 2012.

saturday was spent with eveline and bart in amsterdam, a wonderful if not somewhat 'hippy' city, before flying back to england during the evening to stay for two nights with josh's (our middle son) girlfriends  (haddy) parents paul and lindy who made us feel very welcome after such a long trip.

heres to a wholehearted coming week!

December News

Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner?!

Every month here continues to be an adventure, especially because this month the B team have been in charge of the project! Tim and Maz are currently touring their socks off speaking at various fundraising events around the UK, Germany and Holland. They have been away since the end of October and are not due to return until mid-December so we (Rob, Em and Mel) have been trying to keep things running smoothly (well, as smoothly as they ever do here in South Africa!) So far, nothing horrendous has happened so we are patting ourselves on the back with one hand, whilst desperately praying that it remains that way with the other!

Children’s Unit
Mel has been spinning all the plates for the baby unit whilst Maz is away with the medical support of Sister Portia. Our 11-year-old boy continues to be a worry for us and his health seriously dipped a couple of weeks ago as he battled with another infection. We are in a constant tension with him, trying to maintain his comfort and trying to keep him out of hospital unless absolutely necessary. It’s hard to try and maintain the right balance, but at this stage there is very little the hospital can do and he is much happier in himself if he can remain in familiar surroundings. Thankfully, since he has been put on yet another course of antibiotics, he has bounced back somewhat and we are able to get smiles out of him again. We are praying that he remain stable from now on and still trusting God for a miracle for this precious boy.

Sadly we have to say goodbye to one of our lovely House Moms, Nothini. She is leaving because her mother-in-law can no longer look after her children and she can’t find anyone she can trust to look after them. Whilst we are pleased that she is putting the care of her children as high priority, we are sad to see her go. However, we remain thankful that God has swiftly provided us with a great replacement and we are confident it won’t take her long to learn the ropes.

Sports Outreach and Community Work
Our Dutch interns continue to do a great job in developing the programme we deliver. Weike has recently commenced a Mentor Training Programme. This is a six-week course for the four mentors who are young people from the community who help us with the clubs. At the end of the course they will receive a certificate to prove they’ve attended the course. Although the mentors are only half-way through the course they are already showing significant development which is fantastic. We did originally have five mentors but one of them, Reggie, has had to leave because he’s got a job. This is understandable and great news for him, but sad for us as he was great with the kids. Nevertheless we wish him all the best.


Other News

A New Rainbow
This month we have started a new venture in partnership with Abba (A Christian Counseling service here in Grabouw) and the Day Hospital. This is a support group for 9-15 year olds who are HIV positive and who have the added challenge of dealing with their status on top of the usual teenage issues. Although in it’s infancy, it is already proving to be very successful. Currently 16 kids meet every Friday afternoon at a church in the community and have a couple of hours to hang out together, listen to talks, play games and encourage each other. We believe that it is imperative that a group like this is available for HIV positive children to access. It has been noticed that this age group are the most likely to default on their medication because, as they enter adolescence and become more conscious of the impact HIV can have in their lives, they are choosing not to take it, perhaps because of the stigma that’s still attached to HIV and peer pressure. This is the kind of group that we hope the children who are currently staying at the Village of Hope will be able to join when they get older so that they will have somewhere to go to for support.

The children have chosen a name for their club (Rainbows Smiles) and it’s all thanks to the efforts of our wonderful volunteer, Molly Tokaz, that the group has taken off. Molly has since returned to the United States but has left it in the capable hands of our volunteers, Heather and Simon as well as Johan and Rejoice (who works for Abba).

A New Green-Fingered Friend!
We are also very excited to welcome Heinrich to our team. He has been recruited as our new groundskeeper and will be helping Johan to get our land here at the Village of Hope under control. He has already made good headway in the tidying up of the garden but he does have his work cut out as a lot of what we have here is currently ‘natural landscaping’ (or in other words, lots of overgrown grass and weeds!) Now that we have someone who is able to tend the land we are looking to revisit our vegetable garden and tame the plot into something more respectable! Perhaps one day we will have our very own version of the Garden of Eden – but hopefully with fewer snakes and more clothing!

Volunteers:
Well, we would be in a very tight spot without our volunteers. It’s all hands to the deck with the bosses away. Currently we have three volunteers with us. Katrin, the diplomatic Swiss, who has  been volunteering since June; Simon, who arrived from England in mid October and Heather who joined us from Austrailia, via the USA a couple of weeks ago. These guys are such a blessing and help to fill the gaps with competency and enthusiasm.  Heather is being ‘trained’ by Katrin to take over her responsibilities because Katrin is leaving in less than a week. We will be very sorry to see her go.  Thankfully, she isn’t going far. She and her fiancé are moving to Cape Town and will be starting a family – so we can go and visit whenever we like! Simon leaves just before Christmas but he’s been keeping a blog whilst he’s been here (http://simonthursz-gapyear.blogspot.com/) and Heather is with us until January so will spend Christmas with us.

This month we also had other short-term volunteers: We had a two-week visit from the lovely Liz Dillon. Another Aussie! She was great fun and took everything in her stride. It was also special for us as she was a member of Every Nation in Hammersmith, London and had helped to fundraise for the jungle gym a couple of years ago. Along with Liz we had a mission team from America, the Infocus Church from Augusta, Georgia. They bless us every year with a fantastic group of people and achieved so much in a short space of time working both here and at ThembaCare Grabouw. Thanks guys!




Events

Tim and Maz on Tour
Tim and Maz are now in the UK (and Germany and Holland!) and will be there till mid-December. They are touring the country speaking at churches, small groups and schools. If you want to try and see them along the way then check out their tour dates under this blog post: http://thembavillageofhope.blogspot.com/2011/10/tim-and-maz-on-tour.html to find out when they are going to be near you.

Wholehearted
The South African worship band, Wholehearted, will be accompanying Tim and Maz for a week in December. They have an amazing ministry and if you have the opportunity to get to one of the gigs. Check out their facebook page for all the gigs to find one near you. (http://www.facebook.com/WholeheartedMusic?sk=events) . We were lucky enough to see their warm up gig earlier this month and can safely say that you won’t want to miss out! They will be in Bath, Aylesbury and in various areas of London.


Christmas
Well, it’s just around the corner!.. and we have the perfect solution to those hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives. You can purchase physical Christmas cards for different values that contribute towards things like food, clothing and fuel for Village of Hope. Please email jess@thembalitshauk.org.uk if you are interested. We also have e-gifts available to purchase through eBay. Follow this link for a full list (http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/monte_at_home/m.html?item=290630186720&viewitem&_trksid=p4340.l2562)  or check out the event on the Thembalitsha facebook page for more details (www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation)



How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk

Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out here in South Africa. It can be a fantastic way to give (and receive!) However, we do have some criteria you have to meet in order to apply. For more information on volunteering for the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (http://www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

walkers tour update II

we just wanted to provide a short update about our last weeks engagements before we fly off to germany and holland for a week long trip which will include visits to see the stuttgart university team who are looking to come out to the village of hope in early 2012, a meeting with the tutors at the HAN university including a chance to catch up with some of the students who have interned with us in the past, plus we have a couple of speaking events with an ex volunteer next thursday and friday.

so what did we get up to this week?

well we heard from arron, who is now in the caribbean, God is really using this time to speak to him about the next steps in his life and we also spent some time with our middle son, josh, as he came to visit on his way through to a party!

the service at the bridge at southcourt baptist church was great, it was wonderful to see some old friends and also have a chance to share with some new ones too...monday morning went well as we shared an assembly at the school that maz used to work at and we had the opportunity of taking a year 5 and 6 class with a question and answer session.

tuesday we meet up with a good friend, mal calladine, before spending a night with our son, his wife and our gorgeous little grandson's...its times like that when we really do count the cost that we have made to work in south africa, it would be so easy to stay in england and watch and support this little family as they start their journey, but we know we are called to do God's work with the other children that he has placed in our lives and we relish getting back to them too.

sophie and zac busy counting the money!

on wednesday evening we were able to share with some friends who now run the homegroup that we set up, it was great to have a chance to share and encourage them and to receive a gift of £9.62 from sophie and zac who continue to tithe their pocket money towards the work that we do at the village of hope, thank you guys it really does make a difference!

friday morning started with an interview with our local radio station, mix96, who will be broadcasting the interview on the 1st of december, world aids day, so if you are near a radio/internet connection we hope that you might hear us speak!

it was a pleasure to be asked to speak in long crendon on friday evening where we encouraged people with our stories of hope, it was great to meet up with tessa prodger, an amazing lady who has inspired and supported us for many years since we worked together at a crusader group in granborough.

as you can see our weeks are quite full and we will be speaking at the winslow vineyard tomorrow morning before flying out for our exciting trip as we hop over the water to see our friends in the eurozone next week!

Wonder-boy's 2nd Birthday

Today we have been very excited to celebrate the second birthday of a little boy whom we’ve been looking after since he was just five days old. This precious little one really is one of our miracle children. He came to us because his family weren’t able to care for him correctly: His mother is HIV positive, blind and lives, along with the Grandmother, in a shack in one of the most desperate areas of town. She was not able to feed him properly so she was advised that sugared water would be a good alternative! Needless to say he ended up at the day hospital because he was hypo-glycaemic and then was referred to us by social services.

Babies born to HIV positive mothers have a slim chance of avoiding the virus but they have to wait until they are 12 weeks old to find out for sure one way or the other. We were praying very hard in those few months, asking the Lord to protect him from the virus. So we were over the moon to find that this little boy was, by God's grace, not HIV positive. He is wonder-boy! He is fit and healthy and it has been a pleasure to witness all the exciting developments in his live so far; learning to sit, learning to walk, learning to talk…Although it is sad that he cannot have a typical family around him to celebrate, I think, as far has he is concerned, we are his family. After all, we are all he has ever known!

We continue to work side-by side with the social services for this little one’s best interests and, you never know, by this time next year, wonder-boy might be celebrating his birthday with a family of his very own!….we will just have to wait and see.

walkers tour update.....

we (tim and maz) have enjoyed a busy week here in england speaking at various events around the country, doing radio interviews and sharing our story about the work that we are involved with in south africa.

to give you a flavor of where we have been and who we have seen we thought that it would be good to provide a short update with some further news of future events where you could come and hear us speak.

last sunday morning we spoke at holy trinity ashby de la zouch with our good friend tim phillips and his wonderful church. we had the pleasure of catching up with an old volunteer from the village of hope, harry hoggarth in loughborough in the afternoon and then stayed the night with tim and sarah where we shared some time with their youth group, 'spagbol'. on monday morning we made the hour long trip down to st mary's primary school in aston le walls and shared at their school assembly.

on tuesday evening we spoke at a cluster group at holy trinity walton street and enjoyed a quick massage on wednesday morning with marianne elias before meeting up with grace perret who will be volunteering with us for 3 months from february.

we had the pleasure of speaking at a student alpha meeting with harry back in loughborugh, which we thought went really well and then journeyed on to spent the night with liz and shaun at cliff college in derbyshire. on friday morning we made what should have been a very scenic drive through the derbyshire dales, however it was a typical late autumn day and the fog kept us from seeing further than a few feet in front of the car.

on friday lunchtime we recorded an interview at UCB radio in stoke with paul hammond, which will be broadcast on his show on the build up to world aids day on the 1st december. we were able to promote the wholehearted tour and left their CD which we hope he will play on his show.

it was great to catch up with my (tim) old colleagues at bartuf in leeds before we met up and shared with jess trigg who's family made us very welcome at their home where we shared with her friends and vicar in mirfield, jess will be volunteering with us for 6 months from january and i am sure she will be a great asset to our team.

saturday morning we made the long trip down to spend time with trefor and mandy, stopping in to meet up with vicky ball, her husband fred and daughter becky who kindly donated some funds to enable us to complete the new german home....

....highlights for the coming week or so.

tomorrow morning we are speaking at the bridge (southcourt baptist church) aylesbury.

monday morning maz is sharing at the school where she worked in whitchurch and in the evening we are really looking forward to catching up with the thembalitshauk board at our board meeting.

tuesday we are going down to bath to see our son chris, claire and grandsons, arriving back in waddesdon to speak at pete and rachel's home group, thursday i (tim) am going to meet up with some old friends at a local pub and friday evening we are sharing with a church in long crendon with our good friend tessa.

we will provide you with another update before we fly out to germany and holland where we will be meeting up with the stuttgart team who will be coming out to build us another accommodation block in early 2012 and the HAN university who provide us with interns at the village of hope.

Y'all come back now, you hear?!



WeedEat Your Heart Out


Well, the cats might be away working hard in the UK, but whilst they are we mice are scurrying around trying to keep the Village of Hope battleship afloat! - It gets a little crazy at times but we are hanging in there!

Last week we were very excited to welcome a team of 10 amazing people from InFocus church, Augusta, Georgia. InFocus not only support us regularly through an Adopt-A-Cot scheme but also bless us with  mission teams every year and they never fail to disappoint. Last year the team knocked down an old braai and built a make-shift access road for the 'poo-truck' and this year they were just as effective. They were out in all weathers strimming and taming the out-of-hand grass and weeds. They repainted the entire outside of the children's unit and laid a stunning tiled floor (DIY SOS-style) for the day room at ThembaCare Grabouw.....all in five days! On top of that they were also able to spend time visiting outpatients with the ThembaCare carers and playing with our kids in the children's unit and in our sports outreach.

The whole team were great fun to have around and we enjoyed their banter and attempts at the British accent.

Thank you, guys! - And don't stay away too long.

To read more about what the team got up to in their time here visit their blog:

http://thetrackingblog.com/lovebeyond/