the passing of our wonderful assi...and facebook page

words can't really express the feelings i have as i write this short post but i'm sure many of you will now be aware that our wonderful little assi passed away at our sister project thembacare in athlone last friday morning.

assi was not just your ordinary young kid, those who came into contact with him will forever have been touched by this little life, it was a blessing for me to have known assi, to have laughed, cried, fought and played with him was a true privilege.

the whole of the thembalitsha foundation also had a huge soft spot for assi and his passing will not only be mourned by us here at the village of hope, but also at thembacare grabouw who had the opportunity to impact his life on many occasions and we thank thandi and especially joyce for the work that they did with him. however it will be thembacare athlone where his presence will be most missed, he spent time with noma and her amazing team both prior to his stay with us at the village of hope and he obviously passed away under their care last week, bless you noma and your team from providing a loving home for him there during his last days.

obviously there are loads of people who have fond memories of assi and we are sure that they would like to say their special goodbye's maybe share a memory or two via photo, video or just using words, so we have set up a page on facebook for them to do so please follow this link to assi's virtual memory board and lets tell the world about this amazing young man and in doing so thank God for his life.

God bless you assi, missing you already, but knowing that you are now at peace and maybe having a little too much fun up there....hope you got a lekker moooto (bakkie) and are enjoying an endless feast of inyama (meat)...see you soon....uncle tim x

HOPE2012 and our world AIDS day event it's nearly here

for those of you who haven't heard we are hosting an amazing music event called HOPE2012 here in grabouw this coming saturday....what has been billed 'the biggest south african world AIDS day music event' will be taking place at the elgin country club with major south african bands, the parlotones and watershed headlining an afternoon and evening of quality music just down the road from two of our projects, the village of hope and thembacare grabouw, which have picked up the challenge of the AIDS pandemic in south africa.

our friends at goodhope fm have taken up the batten partnering with us to raise the profile of the work that thembalitsha are doing across the western cape and with the support of our round table (who will be running the beer tent) and local vineyards who will be serving some of the amazing wine that is produced right here in the beautiful overberg we hope that people will see the good work that is going on in our lively little town.

for those of you in south africa who haven't bought their tickets yet then you best get your skates on and visit the computicket site to ensure you don't miss what will be a truly memorable day.

we understand that there are many of you who live overseas and who won't be able to join us at the HOPE2012 event, however there is an opportunity to get involved with fund raising by joining our wonderful team at thembalitshauk as they host an evening of music and comedy at the aylesbury vineyard centre which also takes place this coming saturday, for more info about that event then please visit the vineyard web page or facebook

lets pray for some great weather and lots and lots of people who will not only have an wonderful day but also be exposed to the plight of millions of people infected by HIV and the work that thembalitsha are doing to provide new hope to those via our health care centres.

visits from local dignitaries

thembacare grabouw make the front page

sorry that we have been so quiet since we returned home, but for those of you that follow us via this blog or have visited the village of hope project here in grabouw you will know that our days and therefore weeks seem to run away with us. added to that but just before we returned from england my (tim) laptop's hard drive gave up the ghost so i have been without my own internet connection which has hindered my prolific blogging!....however that is a poor excuse so whilst maz is enjoying an evening at the school of hope awards i thought i would share a bit of news, prior to the october newsletter which will be out soon, this majors around our appearance on the front and middle pages of last weeks local newspaper, the elgin grabouwer.



major visit with the HAN and UWC delegation at the
village of hope (in the rain!)

i say we appeared as in the royal we, meaning both thembacare and the village of hope, but news is news and we are so closely linked to our sister project that the we is really we....anyway the front page news was the fact that following their mandela day visit to our two projects in grabouw staff from the cape town parliament felt led to purchase a much needed hoist to help our staff manage the lifting and movement of the patients in our inpatient palliative care unit.

the major and maz

the other news, which took up the middle pages, and included a nice little article about the work that our former volunteers, daz and lisa, are doing with a little creche, was all around the visit of our major, chris punt, to the town. the visit was initiated by the HAN university team to showcase the work that their students are involved in.

the village of hope are currently proving placements for 2 sports students and a social work student, as well as a past HAN social work student who is volunteering with us at the moment and therefore a visit by the HAN delegation and therefore the major was always on the cards.

the delegation also included tutors and facilitators from the university of the western cape who we not only showed around our children's unit but also informed about our work in the community via our sports outreach and thembacare home based care team...the major also enjoyed lunch with us and had a long chat with myself and maz around the needs of our town and the ways in which the thembalitsha foundation are helping local and national government, and their departments, to provide much needed help in the health and education sector.

although some photos were taken for the paper it is very hard to see maz so therefore i have added a photo with her and the major together.!

mandela day at the thembalitsha projects in grabouw!

always cleaning windows

today we celebrated nelson mandela's birthday in style, south africans are encouraged to engage in 67 minutes of social responsibility, and as a charity who work with our communities in many different ways thembalitsha are always inundated by people, schools, organisations and companies and or their employees who are keen to help out for their 67 minutes.

maz shares our vision with the team from parliament

as we posted on monday our mandela day started early with a visit from the ACVV old age home but today not only did village of hope benefit from visitors our sister project, thembacare grabouw, also received some willing volunteers.

who's enjoying their 67 minutes the most?

the first to arrive at thembacare were some children from the local high school who had come to clean the windows, they even bought their own water from school!....

they were soon followed by a team of over 20 people from the south african parliament who had read about thembacare and the village of hope on the internet and were keen to come and see what we were involved in. after a visit to the inpatient unit some of the visitors took a trip out into the community to make a home visit with sister portia (our outpatient sister who is also responsible for the medical care of the children at the village of hope)...the rest of the team came up and played with the children (and their toys, see the picture of tutu playing on the trampoline!).

sr joyce receiving the gifts of bedding for thembacare

we then returned to say our goodbyes at thembacare where the team made a wonderful donation of some much needed new bed sheets and pillow cases with the commitment to continue to work towards some ongoing support for the projects which they were truly blown away by.

upon our return to thembacare we met the local grabouw rugby club who had provided the food for us to provide the hot meal which our patients enjoy as part of their nutritional diet on their road to recovery or as we support them in their last days of life.

cwp managers discussing who we can partner
during their mandela day visit

in the afternoon both projects received a visit from the CWP (community works programme) managers who were not only interested in viewing the projects during their mandela day 67 minutes but were interested in how both parties can benefit from the work that we are involved in to provide employment to the poorest of the poor who are on their government run programme.

thanks to all who came, for your wonderful gifts and also the promise of continued support, whether that be physical, financial or the promise to pray for us as we give our 67 minutes each and everyday!....and last but not least happy birthday nelson, God bless you not only today but for the legacy that you have left for the people of this country.

shock and awe

their simple table with all the crockery they own!

i am really sorry for those of you who might think i am blowing my own trumpet but this blog is a place where we are able to share our day to day experiences with the wider world and although i must say that i'm not proud of the photos that i am sharing with you today what i hope to do is to raise the plight of those that God has sent us to help here in grabouw.

two adult ladies were sharing this single bedstead
their life possessions were held on the table or
under the simple bed.

a famous american once used the words 'shock and awe' about military power, i hope that this post will provide a 'shock and awe' to the millions, if not billions, of us who think we have a hard life.

over the last couple of days we have been able to bless a few people, who have been highlighted by our thembacare team, with some of the tin (zinc) sheets which we have been able to collect from a local friend. that was until i visited the home that i found in our waterwerks informal settlement caused me to question how anyone could live in such poverty and squallier and by handing out a couple of sheets of tin would hardly do the house any favours.

the shack is a home to a mother and daughter who are known to our thembacare palliative home based care team and without going into too much detail it was one of the most shocking places that i have ever experienced.

we were able to help with support from another amazing NGO called siphle sonke and rallying the troops in the community around the ladies we provides her with some clean clothes, hot water and hygiene products which were received with open arms. we were then able placed her into the care of my good friend who provided her with some hot food and a roof for the night.

placing her in the care of my friend in the community

this weekend we hope that we will be able to provide the community with some poles, tin sheets and materials which will help them to tear down the existing structure and build the ladies a new home...it's hard not to want to do everything for people but to be able to help support those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB in our community is what we are called to do and via thembacare and the village of hope we trust that we are doing that in a very practical way.

helping where we can....

i'm not really sure where to start this post, part of me is really happy to have helped a few of our thembacare patients with some zinc (tin) sheeting for their homes but another part of me not only feels a little of the pain of those people but looks at what i have done is such an insignificant part in their lives that it's not really worth blogging about.

the reality of life in south africa is really hard for the majority of people, that's excluding the people who attempt to make a living doing the things that would seem 'normal' in europe or america which is also time consuming and hard work. the people i'm talking about those 'previously disadvantaged' under the apartheid years who have come to seek employment, or better job opportunities in grabouw or the wider western cape or those who have lived in grabouw for many years but have never received the education to enable them to provide the 'over and above' for their families.

what we in 'the west' take for granted is only a luxury for millions of people who live in this rainbow nation, running water, electricity and a roof over your head would seem to be the basics of 'normal life' however today i was able to bless a few of our thembacare patients, who had been highlighted as those in most need, with a few sheets of tin to provide some extra against the winter rains which are raging around us at the moment.

the pictures show a few people who have benifited from a few tin sheets, all of them thanked me for taking the time to deliver or hammer in the nails which will provide some comfort tonight, but in reality it was such a small token of what they really need to make a significant difference in their daily lives.

my heart aches with the injustice that i see, not only in this country but throughout the world as the rich seem to get richer, although they would challenge me on that one given the current economic situation, and the poor and needy seem to get poorer.

my question is 'what more can i do?', Jesus calls me to go the extra mile, to love my neighbour, who at the minute live in tin shacks, as i love myself. as a charity the thembalitsha foundation seek to provide hope through education, health and training, we don't provide hand outs but sometimes one needs to put that aside and get ones hands dirty and that's what i hope to have done this morning with those who most needed my help..........

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.

saying goodbye....

lauren, jess, kat and ashlyn with some of our
thembacare staff who they have been working with

over the last few months we have been blessed to have the help of a plethora of volunteers who have been working with both the village of hope via our children's unit, sports outreach and rainbow smiles club, but also with our sister project thembacare grabouw.

this afternoon we held our regular wednesday 'church service' at thembacare, which was lead by our wonderful team from midcities in the usa, more of them later in the week, but this was the last 'service' for four of our volunteers, jess, kat, lauren and ashlyn.

we want to thank and honor them for all their hard work, commitment and willingness to give so freely of their time to help those that we seek to support. we will really miss each and everyone of them and whilst some have really got their teeth into their own project, like jess and the support she has been to rejoyce and the other team members at our rainbow smiles HIV support group, or katia with her medical side, the others are invaluable and play a big role in 'just being big sisters' to the children that live here with us and those we work with in the community.

so we say a sad farewell but each of them knows that they will always have a place at the village of hope should our paths cross again in the future.

as per a previous post entitled 'an alternative view' please visit jess' and kats blogs via that link and laurens but clicking on this link

our 7 year old boy leaves the village of hope (our 24th!)

well what a week we have had and to cap it all we have some further wonderful news to share. after over 2 and a half years with us our little 7 year old boy has now left us to start his new life with his grandparents on a local farm.

this boy was placed with us at very short notice in september 2009, his mother had been a patient at our thembacare grabouw facility and although the amazing team there were able to stabilise her she is unable to care for the little boy herself. you could read about his arrival during a film shoot here.

the news of his departure is due again to maz, the house moms and mommy mel who have not only worked with him but his grandparents to bring this reunification back into his family home, he becomes our 24th child to be placed home or with foster care.

over the last few weeks he has been counting down the sleeps till he was able to go home and such was his hurry on friday evening to get into the car we were unable to capture a decent photo capturing the moment, but that in a way is great news and we are so glad that he was happy to 'go home'.


we would ask you to continue to pray for him, that his family will continue to work with him, ensuring that he attends his monthly counseling meetings and hospital visits and although he has gone home he will spend every school day afternoon with us at the village of hope as we provide his grandparents with some after school care.....

our 23rd miracle quickly follows!

saying goodbye to her little village of hope
brother, so sweet!

what a couple of weeks it's been and all down to the hard work of maz and the local social workers who are seeking placement for our children. today we have the amazing news that so soon after our 22nd child being placed home we have our 23rd to celebrate.

this little girl has been with us for over a year, she was identified to us by our local ARV doctor who had concerns over the compliance of her medication and during her time with us she suffered some major trauma with her being hospitalised on a couple of occasions due to the bought of TB meningitis which hit her soon after she arrived with us. in fact if she hadn't been placed into our care there is a likely hood that she would have passed away due to the seizure brought on by the meningitis.

off home with uncle tim b

however that's all in the past and with some great commitment shown by her mother, who has visited every day for the last two months to build up that bond and to be taught by our team about caring for a child with an chronic illness, we confident to be able to place her home with her mother who will receive support from our thembacare home based care team to ensure that this reunification is fully successful.

please hold onto your seats for our next child to be returned home which should be at the end of this week with another following to a foster mom next week as well. things are really moving on with our children's cases and we want to thank God for his answer to our prayers for these children who are loved and cared for by our amazing team here at the village of hope but our desire is for them to be placed back home with a loving family after they have been stabilised by us and that is happening for so many of our children at the moment!

a flying visit....

we always love to welcome people to visit our various thembalitsha projects around the western cape, be it for a few days, a couple of weeks or even a longer term placement however we don't have many people who come for just a couple of hours but on monday it was my pleasure to be able to show brendon around two of our projects, thembacare grabouw and the village of hope.

i love to take people to see the work we are involved with in our local community, many of you will know that the village of hope is much more than our 9 bed children's unit and that thembacare serve more than the 7 people that stay in their inpatient unit receiving hospice care from our amazing team.

our work extends far beyond those boundaries, like the 7 sports outreach clubs we run each and every weekday afternoon during school term, or the rainbow smiles support group which meets every friday, along with our home based palliative care team who visit over 450 patients in the community who are living with HIV...we even venture out into the local businesses providing HIV, TB and blood sugar testing via our mobile unit, which is pulled around by my dependable bakkie.

during brendons short visit to grabouw he was able to pick up some of the sights, sounds, feelings and cultures that make up our wonderful little town, he was able to visit some of the poorest of the poor whilst still seeing the hope that is being provided by the likes of thembalitsha through our outreach programmes.

please visit brendons blog post, entitled, 'postitive about cape apples', to read what he thought about his short time with us, obviously things aren't always what they seem but i think brendon has picked up on the key reasons we do what we do here in south africa, i hope you will be encouraged and also challenged by his post.

God's provision

the girls sort the roof nails whilst the boys
play around on the roof!

yesterday was a busy time, not only did we place our 22nd child back home with his grandmother, which is a core calling to the village of hope team, but we we were also able to bless a local worker who you may remember that i posted about in my 'some days that bite back' post a couple of weeks ago.

tim and heinrich from our village of hope maintenance team, and 3 of our volunteers, jess, kate and lauren, were able to take some of the tin sheeting to the home of a wonderful young lady who virtually leads the rainbow smiles HIV support group for children aged 9-15 in grabouw. the rainbow smiles club is an initiative with the ARV clinic at the government day hospital, ABBA family counseling and thembacare grabouw (of which we receive no direct funding to run, so any help towards those weekly costs would also be greatly appreciated).

the home next to the local toilet blocks

the roofing team spent the morning stripping off the old leaky roof and replacing it with the new, this is a wonderful way to bless some of the people in our community, not only connecting those that might have with those who perhaps don't but also working with the young ladies boyfriend to encourage him that sometimes you need to help yourself too by engaging him in the building project himself.

we know that we can't help everyone and even yesterday the team were inundated by request of help from other people in the neighborhood, however we understand that the best way to move forward with this reroofing project is to work alongside our thembacare nurses to identify other people in dire need.

please keep your eye on this blog to find out where the next blessing may be poured out and if you are able to provide labour or more materials then please contact us as we seek to bless those in need.

impressed with our dutch students, again!

angelique and marijn

since we started work at the village of hope we have always had a heart to enable people to take the step from their first world existence into the lives of the poor and needy third world which surrounds us here in south africa.

there hasn't been a day in the last three and a half years where our volunteer unit has been empty, in fact we have welcomed over 300 people on to the project, some have come on a visit and felt the call to return for the longer term, like rob and emily house, or mel kidd and tim berger, some have stayed for a night during a mission trip whilst others have volunteered for 3 to 6 months and we thank them all...you know who you are!

with the direct action that we have via our village of hope community work, sports outreach and rainbow smiles HIV support group, and our sister project thembacare grabouw with their seven bed inpatient unit and outpatient care work we are able to offer people a chance to work with some of the most sick and needy people in the world.

over the years our relationships have developed with international churches sending return mission teams back to us again and again, the infocus team who spent time with us last week are an example of such groups. we are  also bless to be able to provide practical opportunities for students to come and serve with us, this can be seen via our relationship with the university of stuttgart who have committed to a long term partnership with the village of hope and they have already blessed us with building two eco house under their ukuqala projects.

one of their power point slides

yesterday i was attended the latest presentations from the most recent group of students from the HAN university in holland, maz attended a presentation last week as well. last november me and maz were able to make a visit to their campus in nijmegen and their partnership with our local municipality encourages students to come and make a difference to non government and government projects in and around grabouw.

over this last few months we have worked with nutritional, physio and sports management students who serve with us at the village of hope.

the impact and input that the HAN students have at the village of hope is invaluable, over the years they have enabled us to set up policies and procedures to enable us to run an effective children's unit and in the wider community to develop our sports outreach programme with written documents to help stimulate and engage new ideas on health and life style awareness to the 200 or so children that we work with each and every term time afternoon.

the latest sports students (angelique and marijn) have been working on their thesis which will help us evaluate the effectiveness's of the sports outreach programme, capturing data to see what impact, if any, our weekly clubs have on the behaviour, social awareness and self esteem of the children we work with to ensure we are not wasting time providing something that is having no tangible impact.

at the moment i am busy reading through their thesis, evaluating their findings which compared 100 children who attend our clubs against 100 who don't, i will then have to see how we will implement their suggestions for us to be more effective both in the use of local resource, our time and planning for the future!

this team of students have excelled themselves in helping us to serve our community, even the guys who are part of other disciplines have helped out with some of our sports clubs and we are really going to miss them when they return home next week.

we want to thank the HAN university for their willingness to partner with the thembalitsha foundation through the village of hope and we want to especially thank the students who are a real God sent as we seek to impact the lives of some of the most vulnerable children in the world.

can you fill these spaces?

could you be sitting here this time next year?

as you may be aware the village of hope is run by staff of 13 full time paid workers, ranging from our house moms to a maintenance team but these key people are supported by a team of full and mid term volunteers who oversee the management of the project, run sports outreach, invest in the house moms, do the finances, write policies around the care of the children, complete the school and shopping runs, take the children to their medical appointments and assisting in running our adolescent HIV support groups, the list is almost endless and this all takes time and dedication to undertake the running of such a large project which is also linked to our sister project, thembacare grabouw where there are other opportunities to serve.

these mid and long term volunteers also oversee the short term mission teams who join us for 10-14 days throughout the year and who are an invaluable resource to carry out the larger tasks much like this weeks team from augusta have undertaken with the repainting of the children's unit.

we have never been short of volunteers and with the amazing support of the HAN students from holland we are able to undertake the day to day running of the project most of the time.....however we currently have a couple of opportunities for the right people to come and join our team for a mid to long term period.

our sports outreach is growing and with our 40 week programme now in a format which can be rolled out into other areas we are seeking a longer term volunteer/s who can help run and coordinate our sports outreach programme which currently takes place in 7 different areas of grabouw each and every weekday afternoon. this could be an opportunity for an intern or recently qualified student, however before you get too excited there are a few things that you must consider, firstly you must be able to drive a 4x4 vehicle, this is how we transport most of the sports equipment to the clubs, many of which are run in areas where a normal car wouldn't be able to access, you would also be able to lead and stimulating an existing team of willing local mentors (volunteers), and finally and most importantly you would have a passion for children, especially those aged between 9 - 15 years, who we work with bringing life skills, health awareness and the love of Jesus via sports!

...there are other opportunities around social work and our wider children's work, this post or posts would involve supporting the current children who live with us at the village of hope as we seek to place them back into their homes in the community, most of our children have complex medical and social issues which means that this is a job with lots of pressure but is also so rewarding when it comes together with a successful reunification back into their families. with this in mind there is a need for this person/s to complete home visits to ensure the 20 or so children who have already been placed home are still healthy and being looked after by their carers in the community. helping out with support groups and stimulating the children who live with us at the village of hope is also a key area of this role.

if you are interested in coming to live in grabouw, south africa, and are keen to help support our work with those infected and affected by HIV, AIDS and TB in an area which is rife with these health issues, if you are someone happy to share their lives with our other volunteers in the self contained volunteer unit, and are self motivated and have a love of kids and empowering people then we would love to hear from you!

continued blessings

ashlyn (far right) enjoying an after church drink in the
beautiful elgin valley

this weekend we have been overwhelmed with volunteers from the U S of A, on saturday evening ashlyn joined us for a four week stay, she is the sister of britton, a long term volunteer who served with us for 3 months last year. then on sunday evening the latest team from infocus augusta joined us for a week long mission trip.

old friends, God brings us together!

we hope that ashlyn will become involved with all things village of hope and she has already experienced an amazing kids outreach in site view yesterday afternoon as we had over 70 children attend our club in that area, we are sure that she will fit right in and become a key member of our team for her shorter spell with us.

the augusta team are returning for another bout of self sacrifice, it's great to have returning teams, familiar faces that we just get on so well with, there isn't the need to break the ice they just fit right in but with new members who are also keen to make a difference here in grabouw. this time they have undertaken the huge task of redecorating the children's unit for us.....and although they have only been with us for a day they have already completed two of the children's bedrooms....

HIV talk at our site view sports club

...there was such a delight in the children's faces as i went in late yesterday evening to see how they had got on (i was going to use the word 'gotten' in that sentence but as it isn't a real word i had to restructure midway through!)...the children were so pleased with their newly decorated rooms eagerly showing me the wonderful work that these guys had done.

tuesday morning painting team in
the children's unit!

their week will be a real mix, today there is the threat of rain so we are having to keep the children occupied in a temporary room whilst the painting team undertake to complete as much as possible in this short time, two of their team are also down with our sister project, bosom buddies, in somerset west, whilst others are out with our care workers from thembacare....we hope that the weather will play ball this afternoon to enable the team to get the chance to hang out with the children in the iraq informal settlement as we bring our life skill programme to those precious ones but one never can tell what the weather will bring at this time of year.

if you would like to keep up to date with the augusta teams movements, experiences and highlights then please follow this link to their blog...

..thanks guys and we are only sorry that you have to return to the US over the weekend but we know that you hold us in your daily prayers and we continue to thank God for his amazing provision towards the work he that he has called us to do and you guys are a key part of that.....

community works

healthy meals......happy patients
.......helpful volunteers

it's hard to convey just want we do do via the them thembalitsha foundation's projects here in grabouw, maybe you think that our work is confined to our village of hope children's unit and thembacare hospice work (both inpatient and outpatient) but a lot of our time is given to work in the community. this can be seen via our sports based outreach to over 200 children a week or our rainbow smiles club which our volunteers help with every friday afternoon, all of which remain within the foundations scope by providing healthcare, education or training, but with so much need on our doorstep and a plethora of volunteers who's hearts are broken for the poor and needy its really hard to remain focused and therefore limit our work to those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB.

however as part of our support to the community i (tim) sit on the community police forum (CPF), and although it's hard to remember how one gets involved in such a wide way i do believe that God has placed us here to work with and assist the local community in various ways and with the basic education, provided by my secondary schooling in aylesbury that we so often take for granted, we have the skills and abilities to help in many different areas.

last week under our CPF 'projects' banner we were able to take over the daily task of providing a basic healthy meal to the 50 or so people who attend the day hospital to take their TB medication. the meal is vital for the medication to be effective and the day hospital are grateful to captain noble and a team of volunteers from his church who undertake this task each and everyday.

for us it was a once off and we were not only able to hand out this meal, which was made by one of our volunteers (pauline) and my mum, but also a leaflet informing people of some simple facts to enable them to live a safe and healthy life supported by our local police service. i was joined by a couple of the CPF members and four of our thembalitsha volunteers (three shown in the photo, which appeared in our local paper, plus katia) who got up early to hand out the food and documents, we prayed for each patient and found that we had so much food that we were able to bless all the patients who were attending the ARV (antiretroviral) clinic as well.

if you would like to get involved in our work either via prayer, volunteering or giving regularly enabling us to reach more people with practical and effective care then please visit our thembalitsha foundation web site

hope is here

if you have been following this blog for any amount of time you will know of the strong link we have with the wonderful band from the every nation church in somerset west called 'wholehearted' and you may also remember that at the end of last year we were blessed to 'tour' the uk with them as we visited churches and schools to share about the work we do in grabouw via our thembacare and village of hope projects.

just before we made the trip we were involved in the shooting of the new music video to accompany the bands new song 'hope is here'. the video was shot in a couple of the informal settlements where we work, with people and children that we know and serve on a daily basis and whilst the song is very powerful the images on the video give it some depth and meaning.

as you can imagine seeing those people on a screen with the band playing the song 'live' in the background bought me and maz to our knees, tears flowed and our hearts were humbled to think that (through the work that we do) we have had a positive impact on so many people since God called us to serve in south africa.

lots of people came up to us after the gigs to ask when they might be able to see the video and download the song, so we are very pleased to be able to share the 'unofficial video' with you now. please click on this link to see the video and if you would like to find out more about what the song and wholehearted are about then click on this link, both will take you to youtube.

we hope that this song will inspire you to either support the thembalitsha foundation financially, get involved physically via our volunteer programme or hold all of the staff up in your prayers as we seek to bring the love of Jesus to those in physical or spiritual need via our thembalitsha health projects.

for more info on how you can get involved follow this link to the thembalitsha foundation web site. and for more info on the wholehearted band please follow this link to their blog site

for your info everybody in the film was happy to be involved, no one was paid and the band give genersuly to the thembalitsha foundation to enable us to make a bigger impact with those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB.

pig leaves and tim and jess arrive.....

tim trying to send an sms on his a new fangled phone!

jess enjoying the shade as she engages with the children!

during the last week we have extended our warm (in more ways than one as the summer weather has certainly arrived with full force as well!) to two longer term volunteers. tim berger has joined us for two years from the USA, tim has a long relationship with the thembalitsha foundation where he has bought mission teams over to serve the charity in the past. tim has a real servant heart, which has been demonstrated as he lead his previous teams and he has shown that as he settles into his role here at the village of hope. we hope that tim will also be a blessing to the wider thembalitsha grabouw team which includes themabcare grabouw where his arrival has been waited with great expectation (by some of the ladies!). tim is a bit of a technophobe so don't hold your breath if you are expecting lots of updates!

our second longer termer is jess trigg, a proud yorkshire lass who will be focusing her attention into developing the children's daily activities during her 6 month stay with us. she is already a big hit with the children but is finding the weather a little bit different to the normal summer conditions that she is used to!

heinrich and tim trying to coax the pig into leaving!

as these two wonderful volunteers arrive we have sent our latest little piggy to be turned into food which will be used to feed our children in the unit, whilst it was a sad and somewhat fraught goodbye.....where a comical chase ensued with johan, heinrich and tim spending a hot hour trying to coax the pig into our trailer.....mr pig you will taste good.

beach trips and christmas parties...

moms, volunteers and lastly kids enjoying
a day at the beach

this could be somewhat of a reoccurring post over the coming few weeks as we enjoy some of the blessings that our children will be receiving during this christmastide and with the fact that the local schools close for their long summer/christmas holidays this means that our sports outreach into the community, which we run each and every school day afternoon takes a bit of a rest and we are able to do some more fun stuff with those kids and the others we support in our community.

in september we started a new club for children living in the local community who are HIV+ and known to either the day hopstial, thembacare grabouw or village of hope, and on friday, as part of their C
christmas surprise, we were able to take them to our local country club for an afternoon filled with fun and food, which they really enjoyed.

we were also able to take our own children (those that live with us at the village of hope) to the beach over the weekend, which was enjoyed by the children but more so by our house moms and the volunteers who are with us at the moment. we had a picnic at gordons bay, enjoyed some ice lollies and encouraged the children to take their first 'swimming lessons'!

over the next few weeks we will be able to share further with you about the ways in which we have been able to give these children some wonderful experiences, i must say that i'm not looking forward to taking 50 of our sports outreach children to the beach in early january, given the headaches of making sure everyone is safe, happy and accounted for, but i am sure they will all have a lot of fun.

could we also remind you to pray for our dear 11 year old who is back in red cross, not feeling to well at all and obviously missing this festive time of year with us! thanks

a very positive party...

johan (sponsored by white squirrel) and
mother christmas hold court!

we (tim and maz) arrived back to find that the village of hope was still standing, we want to thank rob, em, mel, johan, our house moms and other key volunteers for doing such a wonderful job when we were away.

as with most things we found that there were a plethora of activities set up for the children to enjoy, which can be increasingly busy around this time of year as people want to bless our children and those that we support in the community with presents and parties, which are all wonderful but take time to arrange and run.

yesterday we had the pleasure of taking the children from the village of hope, along with those known to thembacare (grabouw) and our day hospital to a party, hosted at agape but organised by mel from the village of hope, a sister from the day hospital and marlene from thembacare. mel also had help from our longer term volunteer heather who had sorted a magician to keep the children entertained whilst they waited for their food.

around 80 children attended, along with all our thembacare community based workers and village of hope moms and some voluteers....father christmas (well it was a lady, which provided some hilarity all around) turned up with presents for all the children, johan and hinrich also kept the children busy with games etc and a great day was had by all.