Yes, Tim and Maz are going to be at your disposal throughout November and early December so if you want them to come and pay you a visit just drop us an
email. We’ve also got bands doing gigs to raise money for us and another day of prayer coming up. Make sure you check out the ‘events’ section of this post so you don’t miss out!
It’s wonderful to have Rob and Emily back with us from their 4 week trip to England. Mel has been away for a few weeks on a funding support trip to the USA so our long term team, which completed by Arron and Johan, is still down one member. That said we have had some wonderful support from Britton, Tyler (who’s brother and father joined him for a few days from Dallas), Barbara Wood who has returned for the third time, Katrin who is serving with us for 6 months and Claire who is staying with her Grandmother in town...so once again it has been a very busy time!
Children’s Unit
Our top news story is that our 11-year-old boy has returned from his ‘holiday’ at Thembacare Athlone, following his time in hospital with further respiratory problems. We had a good meeting with the team from the Red Cross children’s hospital who were happy for us to provide that special care that he needs. Unfortunately he is now constantly on oxygen so his attendance at school is restricted, however he is so glad to be back home with Mommy Maz and the wonderful house mom’s who care for him so well.
With our 11-year-old being away for all that time we did have some space to take in another little boy, aged about 1 year, who’s mother had abandoned him with his Grandmother, who was sick herself with TB. Therefore we have shifted a few beds and cots around to help us provide beds for the 10 little children who live with us at the Village of Hope.
This new boy should only be with us for a short time as we have already made contact with the family who really do want to care for him. Please pray for his family that they might understand the responsibility that they have towards this boy.
All of our House Mom’s have been now completed the St John’s First Aid course. It’s good to have a full team back together. These ladies, who all live in the community, do an amazing job for us, looking after the needs of our children on a 12 hour shift is not an easy job.
The children (of school age) have been back for a couple of weeks, and we were able to secure a place for our little 4-year-old boy to join the other children at school. He had been so excited about going to school (and had been on the school run, just for the ride, for over 6 months) but when the volunteer led him into his class for the first time tears filled his eyes and he wasn’t quite sure what to do! By the time we collected him he had a smile on his face and was full of stories about the new friends he had made and the exciting things that he had done. It’s so special to be able to offer these children the ‘normal’ experiences that we all take for granted.
Sports Outreach and Community Work
Our sports outreach clubs started again after the winter holidays. We can’t wait till the next Dutch students join us next week! Our ‘skeleton’ staff of Arron, Emily, Kat and Britton are joined each week by our local sports mentors, Justin, Roger, Michael, Reggie and Lee who are all pupils at the local schools. These guys do a great job for us and have enabled us to continue to provide clubs in each of the 5 areas in Grabouw: Hillside, Iraq informal settlement, Waterwerks, Site View and Rooidakke (Netball only) as well as our outreach onto a farm in the Elgin Valley.
We have been excited about the amount of girls joining us to play netball, especially in Iraq. These girls spend a whole day at school and then have to complete ‘chores’ when they get home. This could be collecting water from the local standpipe with 25 litre buckets or preparing the meal for the family. They often arrive late because of this but to see them enjoying the games that we prepare for them is such a blessing and encourages us to ‘keep going’ as we seek to build valuable lessons into their tough lives.
We still continue to ask for second hand soccer boots, sizes 2 – 7 (UK), which will enable us to keep a stock for when we play what we hope will be more regular games against other clubs in the local area. If you have access to an old pair and live within kicking distance of Grabouw/Cape Town then we would love to hear from you. However our need is growing for a full time Sports Outreach Co-ordinator, which could be a position that is filled by a local person and or complimented by an Intern who could stay with us for a year’s placement.
Other News
The Straw House:
Tyler, Arron, Johan and Katrin, along with support from Rob and Em, have been busy ‘plastering’ the inside of the new house that was built by the team from Stuttgart earlier in the year. The process involves applying our ‘homemade’ lime, straw and sand mix by hand to the straw walls. Not only is this time consuming but has proved somewhat dangerous with a few people receiving ‘burns’ from the lime.
Volunteers:
Tyler has now left us to return to Dallas. Before he left he was joined by his older brother and father for a few days. It was great for Tyler to be able to show his family around the work that we are doing here in Grabouw and the projects that he has become so involved with. They also cooked us up an authentic Mexican meal before they left bringing all their spices from the States!
We said our goodbyes to Joe and his team from Newcastle, but then had the privilege of welcoming Suzie and her all-female team from the Mid Cities church (the church where Tyler attends in USA) who were over with us for a week.
Events
Well, first of all we have to say a huge congratulations to newly weds Rachel and Neil Thomlinson. But we also want to say a big thank you! Instead of choosing to stock up on crockery and coffee machines at John Lewis they decided to hold their wedding list at Just Giving and give us the money!! Bless you guys!
Another thank you goes to Lisa Smith who braved a sky dive and raised £200. No mean feat (or should it be feet?!)
We continue to be stunned by the lengths you lovely people go to in order to raise funds for us! – Keep it up!!!!
SEPTEMBER: Rock for Thembalitsha
If you are near Aylesbury on 4th September why not rock out and support us at the same time?! There will be 6 live bands playing in the market square from 2pm as well as a BBQ and a raffle (where you can win a large flat scree telly – not bad eh?!)
OCTOBER: Village of Hope Prayer Day
We are holding another prayer day on 15th October. Our previous prayer day earlier this year was really fruitful and we very much appreciated being lifted up in prayer for 24hrs. It reminded us that we needed to keep prayer at the top of the agenda.
You can even sign up now if you like:
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/prayer66
NOVEMBER: Tim and Maz back in the UK
Yes, you will be treated to another visit from the Walkers! They are going to be in the UK all of November. Please let us know if you would like them to come and visit you! They are available for church talks, house groups, schools. They really do have amazingly inspirational testimonies from their life in South Africa and would welcome the chance to share them. They will also be accompanying WholeHearted (see below)
DECEMBER: Wholehearted band on tour
If you haven’t already heard of Wholehearted or read about them on our blog then where have you been?! Not only do these guys have a great sound but they are fantastic supporters of our cause and are going to be touring England for two weeks at the beginning of December. If you are keen to hold a Wholehearted gig at your church or school then please email emily@thembalitsha.org.za as soon as possible. When you book Wholehearted you will get a Tim and Maz appearance in with the deal! You can find out more and hear their sound at
www.wholehearted.co.za
We are going to be posting these events on the
Thembalitsha Facebook page as details develop.
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 under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (
www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted.
