new mini/mircrobus

well at last we have the bus we are looking for, it's not a brand new toyota quantam that we were hoping for but a 10 year old vw microbus! we have been on the look out for one for quite sometime and we made the decision to trade in the old condor and put some extra money which was given to us by the YWAM team for their vehilce needs during the world cup.

so we must add a special thanks to YWAM and this now means that we can fit ALL the children in one vehicle which is fantastic, this morning i did the school run with fran, which was great....we trust that this van will serve us well as we trust God for the provision of the real deal when we can really afford it!

all smiles for the paper!

this weeks overberg venster has a photo of the grabouw world cup task team with visitors from the UN and the department of social development, the photo was taken at groenberg school where we (along with the YWAM team) are running sports clubs for the children each afternoon and was part of the vuvuleza against crime campaign.

(the photo shows the team with clint holding my vuvuzela!)

ywamers make front page

it seems that we are making headlines each and every week at the moment, this week we share the front page of the elgin grabouwer with the news of the YWAM team, with further news on page 8. the article picks up on the work the team are doing in two local schools and includes a thankyou from the town. click on the images for a read.

Arron arrives home with the YWAMers!!

on saturday we picked up 20 young people from around the world who have come out to serve with us in our sports/schools outreach. the team are from YWAM in harpenden and have been on their dts (discipleship traning) for three months and are raring to go as they serve the most needy and underprivileged kids in our town.

our son arron is part of that team and it was great to see him after his time in england, he is looking good and will be a great asset to the team.

so far they have run sports sessions at 4 of our afternoon clubs and today have started their 2 1/2 week schools work. six of them are placed at a farm school in the elgin apple region and 11 of them are working in a school in town with 'difficult learners' and those with special needs....

....we will keep you further informed of their progress over the next 9 weeks and look forward to sharing some amazing stories with you. please pray for them as they seek to make a real impact into the children's lives both in the schools and community work that they will be doing

big shot cricket coming to SA

on the eve of the football world cup we have some exciting news that 'big shot cricket' will be coming to grabouw to run a programme with the children in our community. this week long cricket based outreach programme will be held at groenberg school between 7th june - 11th june (the very first day of the 2010 world cup).

we are really excited about this venture, the opportunity it will present to children who we work with and it will be a chance for the wider YWAM team who are coming over to work in grabouw from the 15th may till the end of the football world cup to use their skills as they help run this event.

if you would like to find out more about how you might get involved then please email us.

life with out arry...

on thursday evening we placed young arron on the plane home to england for his three month discipleship training course with YWAM (youth with a mission), the team he will be joining is then coming back to grabouw to serve in the community via our sports outreach during the 2010 football world cup.....

we will miss arron whilst he is away as he has become a key member of the team here at the village of hope, it's also a new period for me (tim) and maz as we learn to live without any of our children around since we first started dating 23 years ago.....talk about derby and joan!......

happy new year

well christmas has come and gone but our phonelines are still down so our blog is stuttering along at the moment....we just wanted to wish all the wonderful people who support the work we are doing on the village of hope a very happy new year, we trust that 2010 will be all that you dream and desire.

2010 will be a busy time here in south africa, what with the 2010 world cup taking place in june and july, we will try to keep you informed of all the events that we are going to be arranging during the year, we wanted to let you know that arron will be returning to england for around 3 months at the end of january to complete a DTS (discipleship training course) with YWAM (youth with a mission) where he will join the team as they complete their training which will enable them to return to south africa as they run our soccer based outreach over the world cup period.