father christmas visits grabouw again...

santa (johan) and his little helpers!

during last week we made the necessary changes to our heavy duty trailer once again converting it into santas sleigh. the plan was to tow it into the community on thursday afternoon but with a little unseasonal drizzle we postponed it until friday afternoon.

this was the third year that we have taken santa into our community and this year johan, our maintenance man, was chosen to play the role as father christmas, following in the footsteps of my dad who played him last year and our wonderful norwegian volunteer, trondor played him the first year we were here.

kids chasing father christmas and his sleigh

we decorated the bakkie, toyota hilux, with tinsel and balloons, fitted a new speaker system which enabled us to play some traditional christmas hits at a louder volume than we had been able to do previously. johan was joined by some of our longer and short term volunteers in the sleigh where they 'gave' out sweets to the excited children that we passed by.

kids in the community, followed by a local taxi
trying to sneak in on the celebration!

its great to see the reaction of both the children and also the adults as they saw father christmas coming past their homes. this year we took a slightly longer route to enable us to reach more children, the joy on their faces was a sight to behold and the sweets were an added bonus.

if you would like to see a short video of last years venture then please click on this link which will take you to youtube, or if you would like to read more about our previous years stories then please click on these links for 2010 here and 2009 here

a happy christmas from the village of hope

johan as santa as we prepare the bakkie to tow
the sleigh into the community!

we just wanted to thank all of our wonderful friends for their support this year, whether you are family, have volunteered (which automatically makes you family as well!), given funds, arranged an event, hosted us during our trips to europe, you know who you are and we really do appreciate you.

the children who live with us at the village of hope will be going to spend christmas with our house moms, thus giving the moms an extra few days with their families, the children a bit of a holiday and the volunteer team a little time to chill and enjoy the festive season.

so from the village of hope team, the house moms, the children in the unit and those in the community we want to wish you all a very happy christmas and a peaceful and prosperous new year.

unfortunately we can't post a photo of us with the children, but if you would like to receive one then we would be more than happy to email you one, so please get in contact, either through the blog or facebook and we will arrange that for you!

please could we ask you to remember our little 11 year old boy who is out of hospital but still very sick, he will be staying at thembacare in athlone over the weekend and we pray that he will soon be well enough to come back to stay with us, his family, here at the village of hope. thanks.

its hard not to take offence!

the remains of our security fence!

yesterday we discovered that for the second or third time since we installed a 'security' fence around the village of hope that around 8 of the posts which were set in concrete to hold the fence had been stolen. after the original installation we were unfortunate to have around 200 meters of the fence stolen so we undertook to install a new barbed wire fence in it's place, fixing that to the posts, and in doing so spraying the posts with red paint so if anyone thought that they could take those posts we would know who did it and speak with them about it.

the fence isn't going to stop anyone getting onto the property but we thought it would serve as a deterrent, giving a visible and physical boundary to our land. yesterday i spent around R1,000 purchasing replacement wire, which had been cut to free the posts, which is money that you generous givers have donated towards the work we do with the children!.

in the afternoon i ventured into the township to see if i could spot any of the posts, and yes i found one, holding up someone else's fence around their home in the community......what to do now?....

...i know that this is the season for giving but its really hard to be forgiving!

please pray for safety and wisdom as we seek to take this matter further, we live in a very poor neighborhood and people are trying to provide for themselves and their families, however we need to make sure that people understand that they are stealing from their selves when they steal from us.

beach trips and christmas parties...

moms, volunteers and lastly kids enjoying
a day at the beach

this could be somewhat of a reoccurring post over the coming few weeks as we enjoy some of the blessings that our children will be receiving during this christmastide and with the fact that the local schools close for their long summer/christmas holidays this means that our sports outreach into the community, which we run each and every school day afternoon takes a bit of a rest and we are able to do some more fun stuff with those kids and the others we support in our community.

in september we started a new club for children living in the local community who are HIV+ and known to either the day hopstial, thembacare grabouw or village of hope, and on friday, as part of their C
christmas surprise, we were able to take them to our local country club for an afternoon filled with fun and food, which they really enjoyed.

we were also able to take our own children (those that live with us at the village of hope) to the beach over the weekend, which was enjoyed by the children but more so by our house moms and the volunteers who are with us at the moment. we had a picnic at gordons bay, enjoyed some ice lollies and encouraged the children to take their first 'swimming lessons'!

over the next few weeks we will be able to share further with you about the ways in which we have been able to give these children some wonderful experiences, i must say that i'm not looking forward to taking 50 of our sports outreach children to the beach in early january, given the headaches of making sure everyone is safe, happy and accounted for, but i am sure they will all have a lot of fun.

could we also remind you to pray for our dear 11 year old who is back in red cross, not feeling to well at all and obviously missing this festive time of year with us! thanks

a very positive party...

johan (sponsored by white squirrel) and
mother christmas hold court!

we (tim and maz) arrived back to find that the village of hope was still standing, we want to thank rob, em, mel, johan, our house moms and other key volunteers for doing such a wonderful job when we were away.

as with most things we found that there were a plethora of activities set up for the children to enjoy, which can be increasingly busy around this time of year as people want to bless our children and those that we support in the community with presents and parties, which are all wonderful but take time to arrange and run.

yesterday we had the pleasure of taking the children from the village of hope, along with those known to thembacare (grabouw) and our day hospital to a party, hosted at agape but organised by mel from the village of hope, a sister from the day hospital and marlene from thembacare. mel also had help from our longer term volunteer heather who had sorted a magician to keep the children entertained whilst they waited for their food.

around 80 children attended, along with all our thembacare community based workers and village of hope moms and some voluteers....father christmas (well it was a lady, which provided some hilarity all around) turned up with presents for all the children, johan and hinrich also kept the children busy with games etc and a great day was had by all.

Rocky Road No More?

Those of you who've been out to visit us at Village of Hope will know that the approach to our property is a bit of a 4x4 challenge to say the least. Especially in the winter when rivers appear from nowhere after a small amount of rain! The track is unmade with potholes every few metres and it really takes it toll on our vehicles (as well as our backs!) and we are frequently taking visits to our friendly tyre fixers, Supaquik, to get puncture repairs and new tyres.

We have been hoping and praying that one day, we might have enough funds, or some generous person might donate us money, to fix the road and make it into a smooth tar road...and lo and behold, today there have been some 'road fairies/angels' sent to sort it out! 

True, it's not tar race track by any means but it is certainly vastly improved and very luxurious in comparison to what we were experiencing yesterday. 

The reason the track is being repaired is because the farm next door to us is being used to shoot a TV film for the next few days and they have lots of trucks and vans that would otherwise struggle to get to the location. Whatever the reason, we are very pleased that the film company have chosen to sort the track as it will benefit all of us for the next few months at least. Hurrah!...and who knows maybe next year we can tar it!!!?

Perhaps we will post a photo of the set if we manage to get a glimpse when they start filming next week.

a wholehearted walkers update III

yes handri its ice!

if you have been following us recently you will know that we have been busy with a tour around england with a wonderful worship band called wholehearted, we have had an amazing time and we just wanted to capture a few highlights of the tour with you. 


last monday morning we met the band at Gatwick at 7am and were joined by 'tour manager/driver/sound enginer' and wanna be drummer, mr james porter, after the first of many coffees we exposed the band made up of charl folscher, pierre and helena smith, handri and jaqueline de villiers and daniel botha, along with danni's wife sanmarie (who worked her magic with the multi media presentations during the evening) to the icy cold english weather, which was nice and frosty. we then drove down to Bath (taking around 3 hours!) and settled them in....later we met up later in Bath to show them the christmas market, but it was shut by 7pm! (typical!)


tuesday we met up for prayer and then ventured down to taunton for an evening event at the living light church, during the set up we were able to see the new video that had been shot in grabouw to accompany the bands new song 'hope is herre' which with the video images is very heart wrenching and certainly made an impact to those who saw it during the rest of the tour. the evening went really well, sound was great and we had a lot of people there, we even managed to get the text message service working linked to our justgiving page which was good, we shared about the work we do in grabouw, which i think touched people and the worship was also amazing.

at monkton combe

wednesday we had the day to spend with our son chris and wife claire and their two boys, the UK was on strike so it was busy everywhere so we chilled and then went to a farm with the kids...was nice, the band had a few issues with procuring equipment for the evening event which was to take place at 6pm at Monkton Combe school, around 130 kids who attend the school came along, plus my friend Mal and his wife, and chris and claire and the kids, me and maz gave a brief overview of our work in south africa and after a meal in the 'harry potter style' dinning room we hosted another event for the older more committed kids this was a more chilled event where charl shared and we ministered.


on thursday we met up for lunch in bathhampton with the band and left for Aylesbury, we arrived to set up for the event at aylesbury vale vineyard which was great, our UK marketing team made up of ellie and jess, ably supported by andy were wonderful, there were loads of people from different churches, some we knew and some we didn't and we raised a huge amount on the night!

river boat ride down the thames

our friday started with prayer and communion with mick at the vineyard, where he was also able to show the guys around their storehouse project which they were very impressed with, we then made our swift drive to london for the first gig at EN hammersmith, a great venue in a old church, no pews!, band were a little tired but we really enjoyed the cheese and wine on what was a bit more of a chilled out evening, where we once again raised quite a large amount for thembalithsa and we also had good conversations with new and old friends from wolfi's church.

wholehearted worship

now for our day off......well we were up and out by 9 for our tour of london, we managed to fit in lots of interesting things and had great fun with the band, we were in westmister at 12 noon for big ben, then onto horse guards and down to see the queen, the band we introduced to the london underground as we got on the tube to covent garden (the band were disappointed that there were no flowers!), then another tube to tower bridge, tower of london, then ferry down the thames back to the london eye for a quick spin, we then took a wander down south bank christmas market to a pub overlooking the river for a pint or two....then back to the station and home!...nice relaxing day off!


sunday had a bit of a different feel, i went to slough and shared with about 50 people at the EN church

charl sharing his highlights!

there, i gave the talk and finished at 12, but we took another hour to pray for people who were moved by my talk, which was great, maz and the band were at hammersmith, where they lead worship and maz spoke, it sounded like they had a good time, then i drove back to london to meet met maz and wolfi and spent the afternoon with them. the band went off to play at EN Stratford for their 3.30 service. me and maz then shared at the EN6pm service at Imperial College London, which went really well well.


we all met up in richmond for our last supper together and in true village of hope style shared our highlights and low lights of the trip, which was very touching.





it was an amazing time, we shared joy, fun, laughter, shed a tear or two and celebrated the new hope which thembalitsha are providing via the 7 projects in the western cape....thanks for joining us guys.

world aids day event/s

if you have been following our blog for the last few years you will know that today, 1st december, is special day in our year.....working with people infected or affected by HIV and AIDS is what we do here in south africa and today is world AIDS day and we invite you to join us in raising the profile of our work in what is still a disease with a huge amount of stigma.

whilst we (tim and maz) are over here in england we have an opportunity for you to come and join us in aylesbury this evening where we will be hosting an event with the wonderful south african band, wholehearted. for more info on the event then please follow this link to both their facebook site and tour blog.

for those of you unable to join us then we are also hosting a day of prayer with the wider thembalitsha foundation where we are asking you to pray for the work we are doing with those infected by this disease.  please follow this link to the news and media page on our website for our prayer requests.

or should you wish to donate to our wonderful work then follow these links to the donation pages which link to giving sites and accounts in south africa, england and even the USA!