looking back at 2013 and forward into 2104

well where did that year go?....2013 certainly seemed to fly by, this is a trend that we have become accustom to at the village of hope as we pack so much into each day but it's frightening when you realise that a whole 365 days have passed in the blink of an eye.

its hard to put into words all the things that have happened during the year, just taking a look at our blog posts there are many fond memories, some sad moments and a few disappointments, but overall we made lots of new friends, increased our service to the community, celebrated the completion of the new children's and volunteer units, we've hosted many wonderful mission teams and single volunteers, and put on some amazing sports events for the children that we work with.

our relationships with our local community have been strengthen, just think about the amazing events that we have already hosted at the hope@cluver amphitheater, we are able to host more children at the project, we have a stronger social work side, we have employed a part time sports coach to work with the under 8's who attend our daily sports clubs, the sports mentors have increased in numbers and have all been on a number of training days which has enabled them to work even better with the huge number of 9-15 year olds in the community and to cap it all the 'Rainbow Smiles' HIV support group is flushing with some more bible based teaching for those children living in the community with what continues to be a disease surrounded by stigma.

i suppose some of the heart ache has been around those who we have had to say our sad goodbyes to this year, at the forefront must be the passing of dear little assi who went to be with his heavenly father in january, we speak of him often and he is in our thoughts daily.

it was also with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to a member of the thembacare grabouw staff who had also been our (tim and maz) housekeeper when we first arrived in 2008, and the news of the passing of three of the moms of our children from chronic but manageable diseases was a shock but bought home the realities of the community in which we live, work and serve.

we are very much looking forward to 2014 with open hearts and minds and want to finish this year by thank you for all the support, be that spiritual, physical or financial, that you have given towards our vision for the village of hope over the last year. so we wish you a very happy 2014 and hope that we will see you all very soon!

new year and new baby boy...

the last week of 2011 saw the village of hope offer new hope and a loving family environment to the 30th child since we opened in 2009. our home has been a little quite since our 11 year old boy has been in the red cross children's hospital, again, but we are now up to our full compliment of 9 children with the addition of a wonderful little boy who needs our support whilst his family get their feet back on track.

he is around 20 months old and is on TB medication and is HIV+ so please pray for him as he settles into life here at the village of hope, thankfully his grandparents have already made a visit to him, which is all positive news, lets hope that 2012 will prove to be a better year for him.

please could we ask you to continue to pray for our little 11 year old in red cross, he has had a rough time of it, unable to keep his food down over christmas, due to some of the medication he is taking, although maz was able to feed him his first meal when we visited him on thursday which was good to see.....we will keep you updated on his progress here.

may we wish you all a very blessed 2012.

new year new toys...(well old toys but new to us!)

well this is the first post of the new year here at the village of hope, and whilst i (tim) was able to take some time off last week, being blessed by some tickets to the 3rd test match between south africa and india at newlands, and maz (who spent the end of the week at bettys bay)the project continues and we want to thank rob, em, mel and our new volunteer ligier (from brazil don't you know) along with our amazing house moms and johan for keeping the place ticking over whilst we were away.

our first post this year is about a large donation of toys that we have received from the local 'shoprite' store here in grabouw, some of the toys are slightly broken but i am sure johan will put his 'superglue' to work and we will be able to bless our kids and those in the communities that surround us with some much needed new year cheer! thanks to brian and his team down there at that very busy store!

so happy new year from all of us at the village of hope and we trust that 2011 will be a blessed and wonderful year for everyone who reads our blog, maybe we might even catch up with a few of you during these next 50 odd weeks!

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.