thoughts from volunteers and mission teams!

the infocus mision team at the very 'country
club' that shana speaks of....

living in the day to day 24/7 world of the village of hope is an awesome experience and it's amazing to think that our small actions are having a huge impact in our community. we are obviously aware of the plight of the poor, we work with them each and everyday, however there are days when we forget that we still live in a very parallel universe, on one side are 'the haves' and on the other side are 'the have not's'.

we are blessed to be able to host volunteers at the village of hope, these come in all shapes and sizes, they can be individuals who have felt the call to serve for three months or more, or can be larger groups of short term mission teams, mainly coming from churches who are linked to the wider foundation.

it's interesting to watch the dynamics of these teams as they see for themselves the impact of our work via our various missions in our town and have an opportunity to meet the people we serve, it's also interesting to watch each individual as God moves them as they spend time with us.

we do try to give a broader view of our work on this blog but it's always good to read how other people see things during their time with us. over the last few weeks we have hosted a couple of mission teams, one from dallas and the other from the infocus church in augusta, georgia, who kept a blog about their time with us, we would encourage you to read their blog by clicking here and to see the things that impacted them during their time with us.

one of our longer volunteers, shana cox, has also been busy blogging and her latest post really picks up on the plight of our sports mentors, we are sure that you will be as moved as we were when we read this well constructed post so please sit down grab a coffee and or a tissue and follow this link to her blog and her post entitled 'opposite hillsides'.

we want to thank these teams and individual people for the impact they made and the skills that they shared with us.....it really does make a difference.

help from our friends from dallas

clearing the old tin roof

last week we hosted our first major mission team in the new short term volunteers accommodation, the teams who had used it before were mainly couples or families so it was good to see that the building held up and was enjoyed by the guys from dallas.

during the week they helped us with some jobs around the village of hope, sanding down the new board walks, chopping up wood to ensure we have enough dried for next winter, sorting donations and playing with the children in the unit. they were also able to help out with our community work, planning and running our rainbow smiles support group, assisting at our sports outreach and making house visits with our thembacare home based careworkers, they also joined us for our weekly thembacare service which was a joy to behold.

after the installation of the new roof..

on friday the men helped to put a sail sheet onto one of our discharged children's homes (see photos) which was a real blessing to him and his grandmother and at lunchtime they joined us on the soup run and prayed for the soup given out to the creches and children in the community.

it was a blessing to know this team and we pray that they will continue to be a help to our other thembalitsha projects that they are visiting this week, we hope they will make as much of an impact at those projects as they did with us in grabouw.

help from afar

james and his new friends in the community

john, friend and wood pile!

the support that we recieve via our mission teams not only blesses us but also our local community. it's hard to quantify what a mission trip 'achieves', i mean we hardly ever seen any physical healings when we pray for people there and then and we aren't in the business of preaching the gospel from the roof tops, i suppose what we do is to use saint francis of assisi's model of 'continually share the gospel at all times and if nessasary use words' and this was our testomony this week as we have welcomed a team from the mid-cities church in midland texas for another 'mission trip'.

this team was made up of a family of 5, mom and her 4 children ranging from two daughters aged 24 and 14 and twin brothers who are celebrating their 11 birthdays with us today!....the other member of the team is an 18 year old young lady who was part of their mission trip in 2011.

worshiping at thembacare

delivering the friday soup to a local creche

as with any mission trip and or short term volunteer we try to give them a flavour of the things that we are doing both on the project here at the village of hope, at our thembacare hospice and out in the community via our home based care and sports outreach teams. however the reality of our day to day duties sometimes take over and this team have been a real blessing as we tried to juggle their trip with our daily jobs.

now 22 divided by 2 equals 11...(happy birthday boys!)

they have been such a willing team and to see them share this experincence as a family is very special. the boys have been able to help with the cutting, chopping and burning of our laying brush as well as blessing one of our local communities with a trailer of fallen branches for their fires. they have helped in the children's unit, lead our wednesday afternoon 'service' at thembacare and visited the sick with our home based paillative careworkers. this morning the team were able to come out into the community to distribute some of the tin sheeting that we were blessed with, this went to some of our sickest and poorest patients who are served by thembacare in grabouw.


guys it has been wonderful to spend time with you, thanks for your hard work, the servant hearts that meant that no job seemed to hard or meanial, your smiles and kind words, not only to us as a team but wider into those that we are called to serve.

jesmond team put video on youtube

this afternoon andy greenshields place a video montage that he had put together of the trip he made with the rest of the team from jesmond/newcastle to the village of hope earlier this year. if you wanna have a look at what mission teams get up to when they come to serve the community via our thembalitsha projects here in grabouw then please follow this link to andy's youtube post.

thanks andy and its great to have a record of what you did for us and our community.

ever wondered what a short term mission team gets up to?

last month we had the pleasure of welcoming joe williams and his team from jesmond onto the thembalitsha projects here in grabouw (see post here about their arrival). one of the team, andy, has made a short account of their trip, which we have posted below. i hope this will give you some idea of what our short term mission teams get up to and will help you see the benefits to both them and to the community that we serve.

Andy’s Africa Account


Our
 time
 at
 the
 farm
 mainly
 consisted
 of
 2
 duties,
 helping
 the
 ‘house
 moms’
 and
 painting
 the
 house.
 Helping
 out
 the
 ‘House
 Moms’
 look
 after 
the 
children 
was 
very 
tiring 
at 
first because
 they 
were 
so 
energetic!
 It 
was 
also 
great 
to 
see 
a safe
 haven
 for
 them.



We
 worked
 to
 decorate
 an old 
house 
that 
was 
being 
converted 
in
to 
a 
new
 office;
 again
 this
 was
 another
 time
 to
 see
 the
 team
 work 
together 
productively.
 Although
 some
 would
 say
 equal
 amounts
 of
 paint
 ended
 up
 on

the
 floor 
tiles 
than 
the 
walls!




I
 was
 also
 privileged
 to
 accompany
 a
 couple
 of
 the
 Themba‐care
 Nurses
 on
 one
 of
 their
 rounds 
of 
the township,
 Rooidakke.
 Feeling 
slightly 
daunted
 as 
I 
was 
split 
from
 Izze, I 
joined
 8 
Nurses 
and 
we 
headed
 out
in 
a 
Combi
 (van).
 It 
was 
a 
relief 
when 
the
 2
 Nurses
 and
 myself got 
out 
in 
the 
township 
to
 do
 the 
round.
 The
aim
 was 
to 
check 
that 
the
 patients 
were 
taking
 their
 medication
 and
 that
 their
 prescriptions
 were
 in
 order.
 What
 they
 explained
 and
 became
 obvious
 as
 the
 morning
 went
 on
 was
 the
 problem
 of
 relocation.
 The
 government
 had
 a
 housing 
improvement
 plan
 where 
they 
were 
building 
new
 houses 
for 
those 
living 
in

shacks.
 However
 this
 was
 proving
 problematic
 in
 finding
 some
 patients.
 Moreover
 I
 was
 astonished
 by
 the
 commitment
 and
 professionalism
 of
 the
 Nurses
 as
 they
 were
 coming
 to
 work 
immaculate
 dressed
 and
 yet 
they 
too 
were 
living 
in 
the 
Townships.



We
 also
 spent
 time
 helping
 to
 run
 a
 holiday
 club
 for
 a
 local
 church.
 This
 was 
great 
to 
harness 
all 
our 
individual

skills
 for
 the
 enjoyment
 of
 the
 children.
 The 
first 
couple 
of 
days 
were
 mayhem
 but
 we
 soon
 settled
 in
 to
 a

routine:
 running
 games, 
teaching
 them
 songs,
 crafts
 and
 everyday
 we
 managed
 to
 give
 a
 short
 Bible
 Message.
 Some
 of
 the
 older
 children
 could
 understand
 English
 so
 we
 pray
 that
 the
 seeds
 we
 sowed
 in
 those
 2 weeks 
can
 grow.


We
 also
 had
 great
 time
 of
 relaxation
 and
 fellowship
 in
 our
 time
 off.



Highlights
 include
 standing
 on
 top
 of
 Table
 Mountain,
 seeing
 penguins
 at
 our 
feet 
and
 celebrating
 the 
4th

July
 on the
 farm
 with
 the
 kids
 and
 the
 American
 Volunteers,
 Britton
 and
 Tyler.
 
 In
 addition
 each
 evening
 we

had
 a
 time
 of
 study,
 alternating
 between
 the
 Sermon
 on
 the
 Mount
 and
 Tim
 Keller’s
 book,
 ‘Counterfeit

Gods’.
These
 were
 great
 times 
to 
focus our
 work
 on
 God
 amongst
 the
 excitement 
of 
the
 trip 
and
 spend 
time

learning
 from
 each
 other.
 In
 each
 morning 
meeting 
we 
would 
close
 with 
The 
Lords 
Prayer 
and 
this 
was 
great
as 
it 
made 
me think
 on
 each
 sentence
 and
 gain 
a 
deeper 
understanding 
of 
God’s
 sovereignty 
at 
the
 start 
of

each
 day.



I
 had
 a 
 great
 time
 with 
Joe,
 Izze,
 Lucy, 
Beth, 
Jen 
and
 Jasper
 learning
 from
 and
 assisting 
in 
the work
 of
 the
 Village
 of
 Hope.
 Many
 thanks
 go
 to
 Tim
 and
 Maz
 for
 their
 hospitality
 and
 the
 great
 encouragement
 they
 are
 in
 being
 a
 light
 of
 God
 in
 Grabouw.
 A
 connection
 with
 the
 project 
has 
been
 made 
and 
I 
hope 
to 
support
 it 
more,
it
 will 
always 
be
 in
 my
 prayers 
and
 I hope
 to 
return. 



One 
thing 
that 
it 
has 
taught 
me 
is 
that 
although
 I 
have 
my
own
 difficulties
 they 
are 
nothing 
in 
comparison 
to 
the
 needs 
of 
those
 in 
Grabouw,
 I
 have 
nothing
 to
 worry
 about.

 It 
is 
my
 prayer 
that 
the
 Lord
 continues 
to 
bless
 The 
Village 
of 
Hope.


thanks for the brief but positive account andy, and we hope to see you again very soon.