parting christmas parties

our 3 year old and his granny

it is the season to be jolly (tra...la..la...la..la..la...la...la..la..la..etc) and on friday lunchtime we were able to celebrate with the children who are currently staying with us, with some of those who have been discharged and with their carers. it was great to see some of the little ones who had spent time with us at the village of hope doing so well and to be able to bless their moms, aunties and grannies with a festive feast (kindly donated by chanttel and her husband)....'father christmas' (aka josh holtrum) made his annual (josh's first) appearance and handed each child and their siblings a present.

clicking thumbs for the last time!

the party had its ups and its downs as we knew at the end of it two of our longer term boys would be going home to stay with aunties and grannies for good. the aim of the village of hope has always been to provide a safe environment for vulnerable children to stay whilst their medical and or social issues are sorted and maz and her team have now successfully placed over 40 children back with their families or into long term foster or adoptive care, however saying goodbye is never easy and we will constantly think of and pray for the dear ones who we have cared for over the last five years.

please take time this christmas season to think of those who are less fortunate that ourselves and should you wish to donate or make a pledge to the work we are doing then please follow the links to our giving pages by clicking here!

saying goodbye is never easy

sharing our highs and lows in the new children's unit
with marlies and erik

it's crazy how time flies, especially when your having fun!, and the last 10 months have been no different. this week we are saying our sad goodbye's to our two dutch students who are coming to the end of their internship with us.

last night we through a party for marlies who has been working with maz on our social work side since august and erik who has been with us since february working with me as we bring our lifeskills programme via sports outreach to the children in our community.

erik and the sports mentors

it was great to honor these two wonderful students with a party which was attended by the majority of our house moms and our sports mentors who enjoyed a great meal prepared by maz and the evening was capped by the village of hope tradition of sharing our highlights and (if applicable low lights) of their time with us.

we are so blessed to have this relationship with the HAN university who we have partnered with over the last four years and our minds were also bought back to the wonderful students that we have hosted over the years, you know who you are and you are all truly missed.

it's time to say goodbye...and hello!

all that stuff for two little angels!...time to say goodbye
 after three years with us at the village of hope
(sorry i cut your head off mommy mel!)

these last few weeks have been a bit of a roller coast ride, what with the farm workers strikes which meant that we were unable to provide services to over 450 patients via our thembacare hospice in grabouw, including the temporary closing of our six bed inpatient unit and obviously the passing of our dear little assi, who's memorial service was so well attended yesterday afternoon. however today we are also dealing with another change here at the village of hope.

we have been so blessed to be able to provide a home to two wonderful children for over three years, but as part of their next steps we have had to say goodbye to them this morning. we know that God has a very big plan for their lives and we are very excited about what that might look like but i wonder if we could ask you all to continue to pray for us as a team, especially mommy maz and mommy mel, as well as our house moms, who are almost mourning their passing too!

all that stuff for a six month stay!, welcome shannon.

with these two little ones leave that now means that we have placed our 31st and 32nd children either back with their biological family or into other care which will enable them to receive the loving and support that they need. we are  so privileged to have been used to provide a home for these little guys and we look forward to the next stage of development here at the village of hope.

and on that note it's great for us to announce the arrival of our latest volunteer who will be joining our team for at least the next six months, and although shannon arrived on tuesday evening, from some random place in california, her baggage was lost by the airlines and only arrived this morning. we trust that her time with us will be fulfilling and we are also excited to see what that might develop into over the next few months.

into the thirties with another home placement

goodbye uncle rob.....

life at the village of hope can be very fragile, relationships come and go, be they with the volunteers who come to spend time at the project or the children we are here to help, and as we have said before it's never easy to say goodbye.

last week we had another goodbye to go through, this time we said our sad but in some way happy goodbye's to a three year old little girl who had been with us for around three months, and whom we have seen develop beyond recognition since she has been with us.

we didn't have much time to plan for her departure as thing had moved on a pace during the recent unrest but she is a feisty little character who likes to have her own way, and in one way that will prove very useful in the future as she returns to a family in the local formal settlement (township)...the last thing we were able to do before she left was sort out her schooling and she will be starting pre-school on monday morning, where she will be joining two other children from the village of hope, so we are confident that our paths will cross again!