a quick catch up!

ukuqala3 richtfest lead by heinz wolf 

firstly i am really sorry about the awful layout of this post, i have been playing around with the photos and text for ages and this is the best that blogger can do at the moment!

so much is happening at the moment, which i am sure you can imagine with 28 students and their tutors from stuttgart who are completing the amazing changes to the buildings here at the village of hope but we have also been joined by our new dutch sports student and we have received some very special gifts which are making a difference to both the lives of the children who live with us and those who we help in the community. what follows is a very short catch up on all that is happening, complete with photos to give some visual perspective!

phillip aka roger visits from switzerland,
with friend (chris)

we have received visits from some amazing people, not only did phillip, commonly known as roger federer, who was one of our first volunteers over 4 and a half years ago, come and visit us he also got involved in our sports outreach where we were able to use 40 of the 100 small footballs which were donated by travelstart.

rodnights visit
(complete with german underpants!)

visits from pop stars!

maz received a visit from 3 children that she used to work with when she was a classroom support in england and some friends who we met last year, via my parents, came to visit from sweden, two members from the amazing 'wholehearted' band came to visit to chat around how they can get further involved in our projects here in grabouw they were swamped by our house moms who revere these people as true hero's (think the boot might be on the other foot if truth be told!!!)....yes it has been a busy time.

the new rocking horse
...thanks matt and katt!

matt and katt donated a wonderful outside rocking horse in memory of assi and the children have been enjoying riding that for the first time this week, thanks guys it is a real hit with the children and its hard to keep the house moms off of it too!

following the departure of yoram and annemiek we have been running short of support at our sports outreach, however this week we have been joined by eric, our latest student from the HAN university in holland who will be with us for the next five months, you might be able to see his tall frame in one of the photos!

the ukuqala2 house gets plastered!

kids playing with new footballs and
eric the new HAN student

and last but not least not only have the building works moved on at a pace but we held our very own ukuqala3 richtfest, read more around this german tradition here, which celebrated the completion of the roof section of the new children's bedrooms. the toilets at ukuqala2 are coming along well and the walls inside the main ukuqala2 building are receiving their sand, lime and straw rendering so we will soon be able lay the floor and fit the kitchen in readiness for our first family of volunteers!

me and maz sharing at the richtfest...
(i know the socks!)

i think that's it for the mo, sorry there are so many stories in one post but i think that gives you a flavour of the things that are going on at the moment.

first person to sit in the ukuqala2 toilet!

times they are a changing!

new bedrooms on the back of the childrens unit

taking down the bedrooms which the vineyard team
constructed over 4 years ago!

the architectural team from stuggart, along with their trusted and adopted student, dave knight from england, are making a real impression on all three projects at the village of hope.

saul and nigels bathroom is remodeled!

for those of you who have visited or stayed as a volunteer you will notice a huge difference which can be seen in the few photos which i have posted, the children have now moved into the 'old volunteer' kitchen/meeting room and the team have been busy converting the volunteer bedrooms into our new office space with new entrance/reception area, but the main changes can be seen in the children's unit where the new bedrooms are taking shape and the kitchen and bathrooms have been ripped out to create some extra space for the additional work that we are planning at the village of hope.

our new morning meeting space

the long term team at the village of hope have also had to find a new meeting place and this morning we joined together on the stoop of ukuqalaI to pray around the and plan for the challenges we might face during the day.

german students enjoying a game of netball

it is quite sad to see some of the hard work that has been undertaken by some of our volunteers over the last few years being taken apart but we know that there is a bigger plan and we are excited to see how the new space will be used to enhance the work we are doing both with the children that we are called to help, as well as providing better work space for our long term team and volunteer experience.

we have tried to engage the ukuqala3 team in the work we are doing in the community and it is our desire that each member of the team is able to join us at our sports outreach in the different areas around the town, as you can see some of the team have enjoyed playing netball and even a version of 'duck duck goose' with shannon our longer term volunteer.

duck duck goose with shannon!

please visit the ukuqala web page to keep up to date with the work that is going on this year by clicking on this link and if you would like to see some of the work that the ukuqala2 team undertook last year then please visit their youtube pages here.

February News

This month is certainly the month of HUGE change for Village of Hope. It really feels like we are going through a radical process when God is performing one of those tricks of pulling the tablecloth from the table without knocking over the glasses. We are trusting that by then end of it all we will still be standing, not smashed in pieces on the floor and that everyone will be wowed by the miracle He has performed!

We have had to say goodbyes to children very close to our hearts which has been tough. You may have heard that Assi, the 12 year old boy who used to be in our care, died. Although this was not altogether unexpected given ongoing battle, we were still bowled over by it all. Thankfully it is not often that we have to encounter death and we all know that Assi is in the best place now. Whilst saying goodbye at his memorial we realised just how many people’s lives Assi had touched. This little boy, despite all his issues, and worked his way into the hearts of hundreds of people from around the globe who had visited over the years and has taught us all to find joy in every moment in life.

In that same week we also moved two other children, who have been with us for over 3 years, to a different children’s home in a nearby town. This was a tough decision to make but we are praying that it is in the best interests of the children and that ultimately it will lead to them being able to be made adoptable and therefore find families of their own. We know many of you have been praying for us during this difficult time and we really did feel uplifted. Thank you.

As well as the changes with the children we are also undergoing lots of change to the buildings on site. Last week the architectural students from Stuttgart University returned for their third, six-week stint and are renovating the children’s unit and volunteer’s unit. It is possibly the biggest change we have experienced since opening and will improve our facilities so that we can accommodate more children, offer 1:1 rooms, staff rooms and offices. You will not recogise the place afterwards. Because of all the building work we have not been proactively taking extra children in so that it is easier to manage. However, yesterday we did let this little one sneak in. He is a cute (and extremely active!) 2 year old whose Mother has been admitted to hospital because she has defaulted on her HIV medication. We still don’t know all the details but he will certainly keep the House Moms on their toes for the near future.


Community Work

Sports Outreach:
We are really pleased to be able to restart our sports programme. We had to delay this slightly because there was so much tension in the community as a result of the strikes. Last week was our first week back and, although there is still an unusual atmosphere in the township, the children were keen to come out and play. We have a new sports mentor for the girls from the Iraq informal settlement and also a sports intern, Mabel, who comes out with us every afternoon. It’s great to have some more female role models for sports – for some reason they seem a little harder to come by!

We are looking forward to getting our new batch of Dutch students in the next couple of weeks.

Other News

German Architectural Students Arrive:
You may remember that every year for the past few years we have been blessed by a team of students from Stuttgart University who come to build/renovate at Village of Hope. This has enabled the physical side of our project to develop far quicker than if we’d had to rely on our own resources. Every year they do an amazing job of building something new – and raising the funds to cover it too. This year the team is split over three different projects. One will be extending the children’s unit, another will be remodeling the existing volunteer’s unit to include offices and meeting rooms and the third will be completing the building that was started by previous students in 2012. The result will mean we can offer more facilities to the community and will also mean that we will have a separate volunteer block for long term volunteers and short term volunteers. Keep your eyes peeled as we post pictures of the developments over the next few weeks.


Volunteers:
Well! The volunteers have also been busy. They have had to move from where they were staying in our old unit so that the Germans can get started. Mel has moved off-site and the rest have moved to share with Tim and Maz! Tim and Maz will eventually move in to a space within the remodeled old volunteer’s unit and their original house will become accommodation for long term volunteers – it’s hard to describe in words! You will have to come and visit to see for yourselves!

We have welcomed three new volunteers. Shannon from America who is serving for 6 months. Nora, who is also from Germany and is staying with the students and Dave Knight, from the UK, who is a friend of Tim’s and (very helpfully) a builder! He is assisting with the building developments and, amongst many other things, is very good at making mugs of tea.

We are not able to take in any more volunteers until the building works are complete after Easter but please do get in touch if you would like to come and serve in the future!


How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!!
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event (it doesn’t have to be cycling)!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise R10000s with enough enthusiasm!
• Pray – need we say more?!

For more information contact us fundraiser@thembalitsha.org.za


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff 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 Thembalitsha please check out our website or email us at volunteer@thembalitsha.org.za.

Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

Up And Coming Events
For further details check out our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation

Worldwide

It doesn’t matter what country you are in. Everyone can benefit from this! The fantastically generous and talented folk of up and coming British band, Being Buffalo, have released a track especially for us! And it sounds great too! We get 50% of every sale so please let your friends and family know about this! You can find the track for download here:

http://beingbuffalo.bandcamp.com/album/hope-charity-download

ukuqala3 arrive with a passion to build together...

starting the works last week

this morning saw the arrival of the full team from the university of stuttgart who will be spending the next six weeks at the village of hope creating the third phase of the ukuqala project and unlike the previous ukuqala teams the ukuqala3 team will not just be focusing their attention on one area of the village of hope, this year it is their plan to bless us in three different ways.

the first will focus on completing the ukuqala2 building which needs to have it's outer coat of lime and clay applied, thus ensuring it is waterproof and able to take our first lot of volunteers in what will be our short term mission team accommodation.

the ukuqala3 team arrive!

they will also be building an ablution centre which will be made up of three separate buildings, a toilet block, a building for showering and also a wash room with sinks and washing machines, this will be positioned near to the ukuqala2 building thus enabling us to provide facilities to our short term volunteers.

filling and leveling the site

however the main focus of their time will be around extending our current children's unit, building a new straw bale constructed bedroom block which will enable us to host more children, provide them with a bigger kitchen and bathroom as well as creating a new entrance and office space. all of the above will mean that the current long term volunteers will move out of that space and share the following six weeks with myself and maz in our home.

david knight from southcourt baptist church is helping the team, his building skills and knowledge have already been seen to provide great insight and we pray that his time with will be both productive and satisfying.

long and short term volunteers join the walkers house

we will include the students in all aspects of the work we are doing in grabouw, they will have the opportunity of joining our outpatient careworkers in the community as they visit the sick in their small homes and the sports outreach and rainbow smiles clubs will be blessed with their input which we hope will provide them with an opportunity to see how other people live and who the legacy of their building works will benefit in the future.

all in all we know that it's all going to be a crazy time, the german team will have to learn to work in africa and realise that things move on a little slower over here, not that i have learnt that very well but that is the reality of it, our team will have to move around and have their space invaded, but we are so blessed to have them around and we thank God for sending them to us to enable us to serve our community better.

for more info on the ukuqala project please click on this link.

assi touching people from around the world

click on the article to read
pastor neils thoughts around assi

we always knew that our little assi was a world changer, but it's been incredible to see that amount of people who have either posted on our facebook pages or sent emails with regards to the impact that he had on their lives. these people aren't confined to just grabouw, or the western cape, or even south africa, we have had literally messages from the ends of the world....from norway in the north, new zealand in the south, korea in the east and the USA in the west, he really did impact everyone he met.

the thembalitsha foundation have put together a short story of his life, which appears on facebook but i understand that even if you haven't got a facebook account you can read his amazing story by clicking here!

the news of assi's passing even appeared on the front page of our local paper with a short thought from our vicar, neil meyer, on page three, who highlighted that assi touched people across racial, religious and political views and united people from many various nations and languages...if only we could be as tolerant as this dear little 12 year old boy, maybe the world you be a much better place.