March Newsletter

The long summer holidays are now over, which has bought some much needed relief to our house moms, who were somewhat overwhelmed with the needs of 8 children aged 9 months till 10 years, all with some social or medical issues 24/7. I am sure you would empathise with them!

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• Children’s Unit
• Sports Outreach & Community Work
• Other News & Volunteers
• Events
• How You Can Help
• Volunteering

Children’s Unit
A new school year is always exciting and it was wonderful to see one of our little girls, who also suffers from alcohol fetal syndrome, skipping and jumping through the school gate her ruck sack on her back on her first day. Thankfully the novelty hasn't warn off yet as its important to us that our children attend the local schools. This term our eldest boy was also able to attend the opening of his new school, which is situated at the end of our gravel road, this school caters for his special needs and we think he is enjoying it!

During the month we were able to place our youngest child into some more permanent foster care at another project in Gordons Bay. The whole team at the village were very sorry to see him leave (see pic) but this is the aim of the project and he is now the 17th child that we have had through our unit in just less than 2 years.

The moms continue to do an amazing job, treating each child as their own, offering them a loving shoulder to cry on, or snuggle into, but discipline is always hard when you have 10 to 15 different ways, however we are sure that our children know that they are blessed and much loved by everyone here at the Village of Hope.


Sports Outreach & Community Work
With the new term we have started back each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at our sports based life skills clubs in the communities. The take up has been somewhat mixed, Arron has had 6 boys turn up one week and then over 40 the next, with similar experiences at each of our clubs. However with the new Dutch students arriving, and they once again seem really nice and enthusiastic, we are hoping for a little more continuity.

That said, the lives of the children we work with are very hard. Most have to wash their own clothes or cook tea (if there is any) for the family before they can come and play. Life is so much different here in Africa for those living in the townships and informal settlements and we have to be a little more flexible when issuing both rewards and punishments for late arrivals!

We have changed our approach to our Bible times, we used to focus on one scripture that fitted best with the life skill and sports skill, however even our helpers couldn't always remember what verse we were teaching or what way we could apply it to our lives. We have now decided to focus on a well-known bible story or character which gives us wider scope to engage with the children. Imagine getting 50 kids to march round with a vuvuzela whilst talking about Joshua and the walls of Jericho...quite a sight I can tell you!


Other News - House Move & House Build:
Johan has taken 4 weeks off to 'move house'! Yes Johan and Joyce, along with their newly adopted little girl, have moved from their one bed unit at the Village of Hope into their very own two bed home in Grabouw. Their leaving this has created some additional space for us to move into - the possibilities are endless! A pool or table tennis room are high on Arron’s list, however Maz has the final decision and we think that it might be best used as office, meeting and reception space. Sorry Arron.

The wonderful prep team of Leslie, Ulrika and Gerhard have arrived from Stuttgart university ahead of the 20 or so further students who will be joining us at the end of February to build us a lovely new accommodation block on the land at the Village of Hope! Their team is called Ukuqala- which is Zulu for ‘beginnings’- and the building is strongly influenced by traditional African building techniques. They are carrying out the project as part of their university course but blessing us as a result as we will be getting a brand new accommodation block for free! Please follow the blog for the development of that site. I am sure it will be interesting to see the building taking shape. At the moment they (along with Arron's willing help) have levelled the site, and secured the wooden poles that will provide the support for the cob (hay and mud mixture) walls.


Volunteers
As we have already said Leslie and the Stuttgart, Ukuquala, team have arrived in dribs and drabs. By the beginning of March there will be 23 of them in total. Don't worry we aren't hosting all of them at the volunteer accommodation - they are going to be moving off to a lovely site with three homes overlooking a lake in the Elgin valley. Emily's 18 year old sister, Sophie, has arrived for a 3 month stint at the project during her gap year. We hope that she will enjoy her stay.

Issac house started his first day at school as well. I think Rob and Emily are enjoying having some more time to put in a full mornings work now that both he and Rosie are at school every day.

Mel Kidd will no doubt have filled everyone in on the U2 concert that we (me, Maz, Arry and Mel) attended at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town on the 18th Feb, which was a blast. If you weren't aware Bono and the boys played two gigs in South Africa during their 360 tour and I think that will be one of the highlights of Mel's year.

We have also been blessed by 3 visits from people linking with us via the Stuff Your Rucksack site. These people found our project on their website and bought over donations in their rucksacks to give to us when they visited the project. As a result the children now have some fantastic new dressing up costumes and stationary items.

Events
We are planning our annual Cycle for September and we still have places available for a the 10k London Run in July. Please get in touch if you would like more details. We are also looking at doing a charity ball for World AIDS Day this December.

If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know as we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and desperately need more people to be doing stuff for us. We will do our best to support you in making it successful.


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!!! 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
• 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 from our website (http://www.thembalitshauk.org.uk/). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

pray for our 10 year old....again

please could we encourage you to pray for our 10 year old boy who has been readmitted to the red cross children's hospital in cape town with another lung infection, you may remember last august that we almost lost him but thanks to your prayers he has had another 6 months of fulfilled life, in that time starting his new school, enjoying christmas with a local family and being loved by everyone who visits the village of hope.

please also pray for us as a team as we seek to have a carer with him at all times, cape town is a good 2 1/2 hour round trip and we will have to do that twice a day for the duration of his stay.

firm foundations

Jesus talked about setting our lives on firm foundations and this is something we are learning in a very pratical way here at the village of hope. not only are we trying to set up a project which is well managed and sustainable but yesterday we had 7 lorry loads of concrete delivered to enable the team from Stuttgart to lay the foundations of the new accommodation block which they are building for us at the village of hope.

the team are doing an amazing job and we continue to thank God for sending them to us as we seek to help children infected or affected by HIV and AIDS here in grabouw.

photos show the first pour and the site at the end of the day.

Village of Hope Prayer Day Prayer Points

If you don't already know we are planning 24hrs of prayer this Saturday. Please consider whether you can spare 30mins of your day to pray for us. You can sign up online here - we still have some slots that need filling




Below are some prayer points to inspire you:

Health

• A’s repeat chest infections

• N’s skin – keeps getting infections and having to go on medication for it

• Praying against the HIV virus itself

Ins and Outs!

• Exit plans for current children: Our social services are in crisis,

social workers quitting under pressure. This holds up any progress they are

making on cases for our children.

• We currently have two empty beds in the unit so would like to know the next

steps to fill spaces wisely

Staff Wellbeing

Lots of our staff are having difficulties at the moment. All this is on top of their usual testing home/life situations.

Sports Outreach

• Please pray for each area we work in: Rooidakke, Hillside, Iraq and Remhoote

• Pray we can find local mentors to train up as leaders

• Pray for supernatural communication for the life/bible skills – Language

barrier is a constant issue.

Building Project

We currently have a team of German architects building accommodation on the

farm inspired by traditional African techniques. They have a very tight deadline and

budget but have raised all the money to do it themselves.

• Please pray for the whole team – that they will encounter God whilst they are

here

• For protection during the build

• For everything to go smoothly with paperwork/planning/building

• That the finished result will be practical/livable/long-lasting!

Cluster Home

We are hoping to be able to have our hands on a house in the community to use as a

cluster home very soon. Please pray for:

• The right foster mum

• A warm welcome into the community

Finances

Please pray that we would be able to raise enough to cover our monthly running

costs and be more stable in the long term

Team Members

Please pray for us all individually and as a team:

• Tim and Maz

• Arron

• Rob and Em

• Rosie and Isaac

• Mel

Johan’s Place/New Reception

Johan and Joyce have recently moved out and we now have some space space which

we are thinking could be used as a proper entrance to the Unit and meeting rooms.

Please pray for wisdom on how to use the space.

The Wider Body of Thembalitsha

• Please pray for strong relationships within the Thembalitsha Foundation,

between the other 6 projects

• Please pray for the international arms of the Foundation: UK & USA that they

will find good ways of communicating the message of the charity and have

divine appointments. Pray for dedicated volunteers to come forward to help

with marketing/fundraising

• Please pray for Grant, the MD of Thembalitsha SA as he leads the Foundation

• Our relationship with our closest sister project, ThembaCare Grabouw – that

we might be a good support for each other

Protection

Please pray for protection of:

• Health

• From snakes and spiders

• From spiritual attack

• Whilst we are in the community/driving around

Our future

Direction and Guidance, Wisdom for the future of the project

Local relationships with the people in the town

We are making lots of good contacts, pray we know how to develop them

Please pray for all the children in the unit

Pray over each child, ask God to heal them and provide for their future

Thank you! - and please let us know if God gives you any words for us as a result!

please vote for our trailer!

as you may remember the village of hope, and our sister project thembacare, were part of a filming project by wayne schoenfeld and nadia duguay (see previous post here)....well the trailer for the forthcoming movie is part of a competition and we would invite you vote for the trailer by visiting the international movie trailer festival site here. you need to find the trailer, called 'every day is a gift' click to watch the trailer then you can vote for it!.....

new dutch students

today we welcomed the new dutch sports students from the HAN university (arnhem in holland) onto the village of hope project. jasper and djuri helped arron at his rooidakke club and talitha helped me, mel, and emily's sister, sophie, at hillside. the girls loved their new friends and we had over 25 boys and around 12 girls attend the club.

we are looking forward to working with these guys who will not only help at the midweek clubs but also look to extend the work via the municipality into other areas of grabouw. they will also take on the work that bart (our last sports management student) did with the astro turf sports pitch that will eventually be part of the new rooidakke formal settlement project.

photo shows talitha after the hillside club.

summer birthdays!

over the last week the team from stuggard university have been working extremely hard, however we did have time to celebrated gerhard's 'quite old' birthday with us, it was the first time he had had a birthday in the summer. gerhards' birthday followed emily's '30th' the day before.

the photo shows the team celebrating gerhards birthday at the new accommodation site, but emily, as normal, is the one holding the cake!

keeping it level....

the team from stuttgart universtiy have been doing an amazing job this week, leslie, ulrika and gerhard have been working all hours God sends in making sure that the foundations of our new build are level and stable....it speaks so much to me as we think of the 2 years we have been running the village of hope, without firm, level and solid foundations any project is unstable and is at risk of crumbling when any presure is put on it, however with lots of help we are getting closer to this project being less reliant on one or two people and ensuring it's longer term success by spreading a load over a firm foundation.

on friday afternoon i took the boys from the children's unit down to see the work being carried out and each of them had a look through the 'dumpy level' to check on the progress....see photo......we hope and trust that the work that we are doing in their lives, as they stay with us at the village of hope, will also provide a level and stable foundation for their little lives.

another baby leaves

our youngest baby boy, who arrived in july and is aged about 9 months, has been successfully placed with a longer term foster mom in gordon's bay (a seaside town near grabouw). it's always tough to say goodbye, especially for our house moms as they have seen the children develop from a very early age, however it's is our aim to assist in either the reintroduction to the family and or foster care, this child will be joining his siblings which is great news, he is the 17th who has come through our unit since april 2009.

we now have space to accept another child and we hope that God will bring him or her along as soon as possible so we can start another amazing story of stabilisation and reintegration.

the picture shows him leaving with a tight hand on his new mommies jumper, God bless that boy!

you too can now go see U2!

the village of hope have been blessed with a donation of two tickets to the U2 concert in cape town, which is gonna be held at the green point stadium next friday 18th feb....so if you would like to see bono and the boys in action and you don't have a ticket then please follow the link to the bid or buy web site where you can bid on these two tickets....

remember by purchasing these tickets not only will you have 2 amazing seats at the must see event of the year but you will also be making a huge donation to the work we do in grabouw as we seek to serve the children infected or affected by HIV and AIDS.

let the building commence....(well after our planning is granted!)

last wednesday the first of the team from the university of stuttgart arrived at the village of hope, this team, of 20 or so, are artichtech students and have come to build us an accommodation block on part of the 6 hectares of land that we own here in grabouw.

the team leaders/project managers, leslie and ulrika, are now busy making preparations for the rest of the team to join them at the end of this month and yesterday we broke the ground where the building will stand. our friend graeme cherry bought is digger up to the village of hope and cleared the site for us, in readiness for us to mark out the foundations and commence digging the footings later this week.

the photo shows (which we will upload later due to our internet lines being down AGAIN!) the digger, always an exciting addition to any photo, and the team, well leslie, ulrika, arron and rob (who does look a little like david livingstone don't you think!).

please follow the progress of the building on this blog and also look at the students blog here, which will also show you how the fundraising is going, along with some further info about them and the way they are looking to bless us.

stuffing more sacks!

we have been so blessed over the last week with visits from 'random people' who have heard about our work via the stuff your rucksack web site.

on friday, we were visited by peter jackets and his wife iris who blessed us with some amazing toys, dressing up clothes and colouring books for the children, peter had also raised some funds (of which we were truly thankful for) by driving around britian in his car...in less than 17 hours, i hope that was legal!....

and on sunday julia and her husband geoff visited and donated some medical and educational supplies, they visit south africa for 4 months each year and we hope that this will be the first of many visits that they make to our project.

thanks guys, and thanks to 'stuff your rucksack', what a great site and one to look at when you are planning an oversees trip, wherever you are visiting there are charities like ours that need your help.

February Newsletter

We can’t believe that a whole month of the New Year has passed already, December was a very busy month for us and we will try to collate over 60 days into this short newsletter!

Tim and Maz had their family over for Christmas. Their sons, Chris (with his wife Claire and baby Alfie) and Josh joined their youngest son Arron, with Tim’s Mum and Dad over. Chris also bought his Father and Mother – in – law (Sue and Paul) and Dan Williams also visited.

Menu

• Children’s Unit

• Sports Outreach & Community Work

• Other News & Volunteers

• Events

• How You Can Help

• Volunteering

CHILDREN’S UNIT
We had the wonderful news with the placement of our eldest 9 year old girl into a wonderful foster family in Khayelitsha run by an organisation called Home from Home. She seems to have settled very well and we wish her all the best for her new life. We have now placed 16 children back into the community and are now able to open up a new space for another child infected or affected with HIV who needs our specialist support.

The children in the unit broke up for summer holidays in early December till the middle of Jan so it was a busy time for our staff and volunteers, however with the lovely weather the children have been able to play out on the jungle gym and also splash around in the paddling pool provided by Claire (Walker)’s school in Bath (quite appropriate don’t you think!).

All our children remain healthy, which is a real testimony to the right medication and nutritional diet, along with stimulated play and development plans which the House Mom’s (over seen by Maz and Mel) ensure are carried out each day. The love that these precious children receive is a real blessing and we pray for their continued healing.

Willing House Mom being buried in sand!

We spent the afternoon at the beach with the children in early January, it was great to see these little ones taking their first steps on the sand and watching their faces as they splashed around in the sea. It is a real privilege to be working with these children and each day we thank God for his amazing provision for us to carry out this work.

SPORTS OUTREACH & COMMUNITY WORK
As the summer term came to an end so did the regular sports outreach into the local schools, it has been a real blessing to have some time out to take stock of the work that we have been doing, evaluating its impact and working out how we move forward in 2011.

With the limited numbers (around 150 children, we call that limited!) who attended our schools based clubs, the feel that we have lost a little bit of contact with the children in the communities and the fact that the current Dutch students from the HAN university are returning to Holland at the end of January, we are looking pause our schools based work and re-establish the community based clubs at Rooidakke and Hillside. The children who attended our schools clubs will be encouraged to join us but with the whole Municipality having a look at how to implement our ‘life skills’ based clubs in more areas we feel that this is the right decision as we look to set up a longer term/full sustainable model for sports outreach in Grabouw.

kayaking on the dam

We did have the chance to bless our most regular sports club attendances, with a wonderful afternoon playing on a local dam in kayaks, and we also took the children from the Iraq squatter camp to the beach where we enjoyed time playing in the water, organising a soccer match and catching jelly fish!

One of our younger mentors who help out at our sports clubs, Jason, aged 18, was stabled twice in the chest on Christmas Day evening, it is a miracle that he survived as both lungs were punctured and he arrived in hospital battling for his life. Thankfully he is making a swift recovery and is hoping to help Arron at his clubs which start again this coming week. We thank God for his protection over his life and pray that he will go on to be a blessing to many of his own community as he seeks to help with the life skills and bible study programme.

OTHER NEWS & VOLUNTEERS

Transport:
Unfortunately our new (second hand) VW Microbus broke down twice in the last two months, not a great start in its replacement of our ever reliable Toyota, the first time Tim and Rob replaced the alternator belt on a bank holiday Friday afternoon and the second the 5 gear stripped whilst coming up the mountain pass!....oh and Tim had a lovely puncture when he was taking the children to school....however we are still praying for a nice new Toyota Quantum but as I said in our last newsletter God knows and has a plan when this will arrive!

Food Garden and Walking Food!
Our Food Garden is providing much needed produce for our children’s unit, we have harvested fresh beans, broccoli and cabbage, with our butternuts and potatoes readying themselves for harvest. On another front Arron has successfully procured 2 lovely fat little piglets, which we are feeding up on our kitchen waste, it won’t be long before we are enjoying our own home grown bacon and pork chops!

Staff:
Unfortunately (for us) one of our house moms has given in her notice and we are now working out a way of covering her for the short term, and Daz and Lisa Muir have decided to follow God’s call on their lives and start their own ministry to the poor and needy in one of our local communities, we wish them all the best for their new venture and thank them for all their hard work for the last two years as we sought to set up the Village of Hope.

Mel, Fran & Jess

Volunteers:
As you know Tim and Maz had their extended family over for Christmas, and Rob, Em and Mel were joined by Jess Strafford, Fran and Katie Black, who once again (Jess and Fran on return visits) proved to be such an asset to the work we do. They left in late December and we have now been joined by Ligia (from Brazil) and Lizi Allen (another one of Tim’s ex-crusaders). Mike and Jeanette Hulcoop from Southcourt Baptist Church (and good friends of Tim and Maz) also popped in for a week following a mission trip to Zimbabwe, it was great to catch up with all these amazing people who now have a heart for the work we are doing.

As we mentioned above we have said our sad goodbyes to our latest Dutch sports students, Nick, Bart and Irene who have helped out at our sports clubs and looked into developing our public open spaces into sports areas for our children to play in. We wish them well with their further studies and hope that they will visit again soon.

EVENTS

We are hoping to have something happening every month this year. We are starting with a day of prayer in February.

We are asking you to consider whether you might be able to commit to praying for us just for half an hour. If you feel this is something that you might like to do, we will sign you up for a slot as start filling the day up. To sign up email us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk

We are also planning our annual Cycle for September and we still have places available for a the 10k London Run in July. Please get in touch if you would like more details.

If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know, we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and we can do our best to support you in making it successful. 

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!!! 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

• 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 from our website (www.thembalitshauk.org.uk). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!