called to be his hands and feet.....

there are some days, and even some weeks, when you feel so overwhelmed by the plight of literally thousands of people who live in our town that you really do wonder what difference we are really making in the grand scheme of things.

I have had many such days since first visiting grabouw back in 2006 and even more since our move out to set up the village of hope in october 2008. there aren't many times when I actually get time to compile my thoughts however looking back through this blog I did managed to capture the thoughts of one of those days in may 2012, have a read of that post by clicking on this link, and today was another one of those days and I will try to put into words the type of day it was.

the day started in pretty much the same way as normal weekdays, we all met together at 8.15am at our team meeting where we discussed the things that we were involved in from yesterday and prepared ourselves for the day ahead, asking God to guide us as we complete the jobs that needed to be done to ensure we run a productive and well governed project, however it wasn't until around 3pm that I ventured out into the community to pick up one of our sports mentors who was going to help shana run our netball outreach in the iraq informal settlement....and that's when stuff started to impact me.

after the morning meeting most days I seem to be running from one meeting to another, completing a report for some funder or another or replying to an urgent email from a colleague who needs answers to a question, however this afternoon as I dropped the mentor at the club in one of the poorest communities we work in I stopped to talk to a lady who had called my name.

after getting out of the car, making sure I didn't step in anything untoward! and having a quick chat with the xhosa lady who had called to me I noticed a young girl sitting in the doorway of her house, a small tin shack, around 3 meters square with no water or electricity, she seemed to be caring for a small child and it wasn't till I approached her that I noticed a dilapidated wheelchair standing outside of the home.

it turns out that this young girl is 13 years old and can't walk, she seemed bright enough in herself but to see her shuffling around on the mud floor of her home compelled me to pray for her, asking God to restore all that was broken in her life, not only her physical condition but anything that was causing her to miss out on the life that God had originally had planned for her.

looking back at this interaction I know that this young girl was one of many who I passed today, but it was only when I stopped and took some time to understand her life, showed the love that Jesus calls us to show towards our neighbours that I was able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to her this afternoon.

I didn't have all the answers but within 10 minutes I managed to make a phone call to a local school who takes in children with physical problems (I am hopeful that this will be one of the answers to our prayers) but the best part was that I was able to pray with her and ask God our father to restore her and I just spent time sitting with her, engaging with her, even though we couldn't speak the same language.

its only when reflecting on what impacted me most that I realise that my (or even your) calling isn't to save the whole world, country, province or town, its literally to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but what does that mean I hear you ask?

well Jesus was both fully human and full God, here on earth he was only able to impact communities one or two people at a time (OK I know he feed both 5,000 and 4,000 people with some loaves and fishes but most of his ministry was to individuals) and that's what I was able to do today.

it was still a hard day, the sights, sounds and smells that surround us impact us in ways that you can never know unless you have visited but as I sit here typing this post I feel that although it was a tough day God was with me and pointed me towards that young girl who he so cares about and who's story I shared with you.

mentors bafana bafana trip and retruning HAN student as volunteer

teams line up for the national anthems

on sunday evening we were able to take our 15 sports mentors to watch bafana bafana, the south african football team, play against nigeria in the group stages of the african nations championship which is being hosted in cape town throughout the month. the trip was a christmas present for the mentors from myself and maz however as the national team were on the end of a 3-1 thumping the mentors probably didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped!

sports mentors take up a whole row before the game
(sive, 3rd from left, looks really happy, not, and that was
before they lost!

saying that it's great to be able to take these amazing young people to special events like that, its definitely not something they would ever be able to do and as with similar trips we have made before to see norway and manchester united play its a sight to behold to see the joy on their faces and the excitement in their eyes as we walk through the v&a waterfront in cape town and enter the stadium to watch their hero's.

as well as the mentors we were able to bless a few of our volunteers with tickets to the game, and although they were working, helping us keep an eye on the boys and girls is somewhat similar to herding cats, especially after the game when the crowd is at its height, they say that many hands make light work and we hope they enjoyed their time.

emma, shana and jasper enjoy the pre-match atmosphere

over the weekend we were also blessed with the return of our first long term volunteer from our partnership with the HAN university in holland, jasper spent 6 months with us in 2011 and its great that he has decided to join us full time for two and half months, we are really looking forward to him helping to develop our sports outreach, mentor our mentors and generally assist shana, bonny and josh, when he returns, each afternoon at the clubs we run in the local community.

and finally can we ask you to please lift our mentors in prayer, lots of them are going through some tough times at the moment, what with them moving to new classes, or new schools, some have major social issues which make it hard for them to commit to our outreach as often as they would like. thanks

car/s down!

you've heard the common term 'man down', well physically we are all fine but we are having some major issues with our cars here at the village of hope therefore we are 'car/s down'.

it all started when we had a few issues with our audi which has been having some electronic problem for a few months but we needed to get that sorted as a priority, however all of the other cars seem to have come out in sympathy, so that's been in the garage for a week or so now with no sight of return, emma's car then broke down on the way to the hope@cluver concert last weekend as is in a bad way after a radiator leak, there is no sign of that coming home soon, mel's car then had some power steering problems and is in the garage as we speak, today the H1 is in for its normal service which was planned but last night my old bakkie wouldn't start when we took the sports mentors to the football in cape town over the weekend and is in this afternoon to try to find out why that happened!

so that's the audi, emma and mel's private cars, the H1 and the old bakkie all in the garage at the same time and on top of that rob has still to sort his air conditioning unit in his private car which is pumping out hot air instead, the joys of running cars!

starting school

following on from yesterday's blog we are delighted to inform you that our dear little girl who has issues around her mobiltiy started at our local preschool this morning, this is amazing news and it's important that she is treated like any other child and to hear her chatting away about seeing some of the other children who have stayed with us at the village of hope at the preschool was a joy.

please continue to pray for her development, which has increased in so many ways, and for her future as we seek to work with her mother in any reunification that could take place.

back to school...

here in south africa the school year starts in january and for those children who passed the end of year exams (which means that they can progress to the next grade) it can be an exciting time, however going back to school means a lot of expenditure which can put further pressure on families, school uniforms, books, stationery and school fees need to be bought and paid for and for those who are already living below the poverty line this can be a tough time.

one of our elder girls has started grade R this morning, which is a big step for her with two of our other children starting their first pre-school at the age of three tomorrow.

our 16 sports mentors are also going back to school and this year we have been able to assist them with some much needed stationary packs, which were kindly put together by a family who had recently volunteered with us from the united states (thanks susie and family). it was amazing to be able to give these 16-20 year old boys some welcome supplies and the joy on their faces as they opened their packs was a sight to behold.

however, and this is the real focus of this post, we have had some very heart wrenching stories from a few of our mentors who are really struggling with family issues which can really comprise their schooling.

on monday for instance i had to play dad as i collected one mentors 2013 report, his mom has moved out of town and he now lives on his own in some accommodation that we sorted for him in the community. three other mentors asked for help in finding uniforms, white shirts, pale grey trousers, white socks, black shoes and a back pack. its embarrassing for these guys to ask for such a hand out and as a foundation we don't make a habit of doing that randomly, however these boys are key players in our sports outreach programme and give so much to help support our work within the community.

i'd like to finish this blog by posting an edited letter that i received from one such boy, i hope that it gives you an idea of the types of situations these boys live in and it was our pleasure to be able to help him with the supplies he needed and today he started school with his other friends with a smile on his face.

i have changed names and dates but kept the grammar, he is xhosa speaking and english is his second language..(and by the way he calls me 'team' so i haven't changed that!)


Team, its me Paul, 

things are going bad to me, my mother doesn have money to buy a school clothes and school shose. my mother at 21/12/13 had use all the money to his father for funeral and now i am stay alone its just i write this lettar i need you help me please help me and i am stay alone the things that i was eat are finished, at 15th janury 2014 kids are going to school but i no God will make a plane for me and i am happy because i am going to grader 9. enjoy 2014 Team and also a school bag.

from Paul


these stories have highlighted a great need to us so it is our intention to address this situation next christmas and have those people who would like to give a present to focus their giving to be around the basic school supplies that we would take for granted, a fancy toy at christmas is great but what the children in our communities really need is help to get them to school with the right uniform and supplies.

visits, concerts and poorly babies

frank and mommy trulene!

this new year is already racing away with us and as you know we like to keep the blog updated at least once a week but the usual busyness of our project has meant that we weren't able to do that last week....so here's a quick catch up on some of the things that have been happening.

our first news is that we have been running backwards and forwards to the caledon hospital with our little 10 week old baby boy who is very sick at the moment, he seems bright enough but has had a harrowing start to his life (can't go into too much detail here) and his health is very compromised.

the thembalitsha stand at the concert

our house moms take turns to complete a 12 hour shift sitting with the baby and liaising with the hospital staff and our wonderful volunteer team have done an amazing job in driving to and fro as we rotate those shifts.

on some more positive news we were delighted to receive a visit from our good friends frank and leigh rautenbach, we first met frank when we were still in england and he has made a couple of visits since we moved out in 2008. frank is somewhat of a celebrity in south africa, having stared in the soap 'sewende laan' and a few films, and our house moms were falling over themselves trying to get their photo taken with him.

crowds enjoying the music

frank and leigh now live in LA and we are hoping for some sort of partnering with their church over there, it was great to catch up with all their news and it was exciting to chat around how the links with another church in america might come about.

and last but not least emily once again pulled out all the stops to put on a truly amazing gig at the hope@paul cluver amphitheater last friday evening, the stars of the show were the south african rock band 'the parlotones' who also headlined at our hope2012 concert last year.

the parlotones singing out for hope!

our volunteers once again hosted the thembalitsha stand at the event which raised funds and the profile of the foundation to the sell out crowd of 600 people who were also able to enjoying the balmy summers evening listening to the guys perform some of their top hits.

funnily enough the parlotones have also moved to LA to further their musical careers....are there some uncanny links starting to form?


-thanks to david morris (our local grabouw photographer) for allowing us to use his photos on this post-