rose and bull doing souper work!

ok i am sorry about the play on words in the title of this post but it happens to be true!

this weeks grabouwer picks up on a wonderful story that we have been involved with for over a year now. every friday a local restaurant at the marsh rose mall, called 'the rose and bull' make up a wonderful pot of soup which we then deliver to one of the soup kitchens that we have relationship with in rooidakker informal settlement.

the work that this soup kitchen (and all the others around our town) does is amazing, not only do they provide a hot meal for literally hundreds of poor and needy people each day, but by providing that food they also enable the ARV (antiretroviral) and TB medication to do it's job properly as much of those meds can't be taken on an empty stomach....

the relationship with the restaurant came whilst we were in the bar watching some sport over a pint, and when asked about the work we were doing in the community it was easy to see how we could encourage them to get involved. the manager of the restaurant was happy to make the soup each friday but had no means or relationship in the community to ensure it got to the right people...the village of hope is just a conduit between the two parties but last week shane (the manager) came to visit the soup kitchen with us and was really touched to see that what he provides really can and does make a difference to hundreds of people.

that is our story, we might not be able to help everyone, and our main call is to help those infected by HIV and AIDS (especially children) but we can bring together those that have with those who have not and then let the relationship develop from there.

he got his bible

following on from the 'shouting for bibles' post that i wrote last week, i managed to get hold of a xhosa bible for the builder who wanted to have his own bible in his own language.

today on my way to our rescheduled soccer outreach in zwelitsha/iraq i saw him and past the bible to him, i hope that you can see just how happy he was to receive this and he was even more surprised to hear that i didn't want any money for it!

and the amazing thing was that as he received his bible more builders came up to me and also asked for their own bible...i think i might have started something that i wont be able to stop!...is it sustainable?, probably not. is it what Jesus would do?, who knows. did it make us both happy, one to serve and one to receive? yep!

shouting for bibles!

i am sure you have all walked past a building site and felt a little intimidated by some of the language you have heard, especially you lovely ladies, and its not many times that you drive through a building site and one of the workmen shouts out 'i want a bible' but that's exactly what happened to me (tim) as i was driving through the new government formal settlement in rooidakke (grabouw) on my way to run a sports outreach in the iraq/zwelitsha squatter camp yesterday afternoon.

the request came from a random worker who asked for not one but two bibles in the local xhosa language, it is now my mission to seek to fulfil this request and bless this man and his 'friend' with the word of God in his own language.

so next time you walk around or near a building site maybe give the builders the benefit of the doubt and ask if they really weren't asking to see your bible!

wholehearted(ly) behind village of hope

we posted before about the amazing album, wholehearted by the wholehearted band but we just wanted to highlight that we have received our first R5K from the sale of their album, which can be purchased various different ways, either via itunes or via cdbaby where you can either download or order the physical cd, which comes with a bonus dvd with the video we shot in rooidakker squatter camp, along with a short interview video of me!...

go on get yourself an amazing worship album and support the work at the village of hope at the same time!

open gardens! open hearts?

tomorrow sees the start of the elgin open gardens, this two weekend event is held once a year and enables the general public to view some of the amazing gardens and vineyards that surround grabouw.

this year we have been given the opportunity to promote the work that the village of hope does in the poorer side of the community at two vineyards, iona and elgin ridge and we hope that the poster and leaflets that emily has created will open peoples hearts and eyes to the plight of thousands of children in our town.

we wanted the poster to be blunt and straight to the point, and i think we might have achieve that with the image of the wonderful flowers set against one of our children standing in the rooidakkes township in grabouw.....lets see if it works!

moving into new homes

yesterday myself and maz had the pleasure of spending the morning moving a family into their new home in rooidakkes (and it only took me three trips using the back of my pick up to do that), in grabouw, the family, who include a young girl who spent sometime at the village of hope children's unit, have been living in a tin shack for many years, it was amazing to see them enter their new home for the first time.....unfortunately we had to demolish the banisters on the staircase (yes the home has two floors!) to get the bed up to the second floor but hey that's easy to fix.

lets hope and pray for more homes to be completed soon and thus help with the health and welfare of the poor and needy in our town.