the village continues to bring ho ho hope!

santa and his sleigh before we left the village of hope

it has been another amazing year here at the village of hope, we continue to see God's provision to us as we seek to serve the community of grabouw especially focusing on those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, all of which are rife in our town.

we could spend a whole blog post about the wonderful things that have happened this year, all the stories of the children that we have helped to find a stable family to go home to live with or those that we are still seeking to help via our children's unit, we could talk about the provision of a new building provided by the students from stuttgart university or the people carrier bought with funds from our friends in england and the dutch charity 'wings of support'. we could provide a long update on the sports outreach which has grown from strength to strength, now engaging with more local mentors who have been supported by the students from the HAN university in holland but all that would take such a long time, so we urge you to venture through the previous posts on the blog to find out what we have been up to during 2012.

children excited to see santa coming to their street

however what we would like to share is the fact that our incredible team of permanent staff (our house moms and maintenance team) and our willing band of volunteers, both longer termers, short term mission teams and individuals, have continued to offer hope in what can sometimes be seen as hopeless situations and this culminated in our annual sleigh ride into the areas where we work day in day out.

it was great to see the children and members of their families that we work with enjoying the sight of father christmas being towed through the town, up the main street and then into each of the communities, many of whom live in little wooden shacks with no water or electricity. the whole community seemed to be out on the street and although we did bless them with a few sweets and apples that wasn't the reason we run this event.

kids chasing santa and his sleigh 

the main reason to do this again was to bless them with the chance to see santa coming to their streets and for that to provide another sign of hope as we celebrate the most amazing story of hope, that of a little baby coming to earth to show us how to live, to love one another, our neighbours and even our enemies, as we love ourselves, to look after the widows and the orphans and proclaim the good news that he can provide hope in the most hopeless places. thank God for Jesus and we thank him for inspiring us to do what we do each and everyday here in this little town in south africa.

happy christmas and may you see hope in 2013 as we enter another year of opportunity to serve those less fortunate than ourselves......

a visit from everynation london pastors

wolfi and ali with their children and the child that their
everynation hammersmith church support.

this morning we welcomed our great supporters and pastors of the everynation church, who we have strong links with in hammersmith, london, wolfi and ali, onto the village of hope. they visited with wolfi's mum and sister as well as their children and a neice and we trust that they could see how God has worked through us since their last visit nearly two years ago.

they are such a blessing to us, we value their support, both financially via the adopt a cot scheme, and spiritually, they also bless us by providing us with support at thembalitshauk via a member of their congregation, liz lugt, who is on the thembalitshauk board back in england.

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.

new vehicle of hope!

mommy maz bringing the kids home from school
in the new H1.......

over the last few months we have been in desperate need of a better larger vehicle to enable us to transport our children, both those who live with us at the village of hope and the children in the community, especially those who we pick up for our weekly rainbow smiles support group and our sports mentors as we complete our sports clubs at the local farms.

rainbow smiles kids with the new van this afternoon.

our 12 year old VW kombi had been giving us problems for quite a while and with it's temperamental backwards gear box and other quirks it proved to be more trouble than it was worth.

we need to thank both amanda and karlien who completed their ride from the village of hope to the lighthouse at cape agullas, our friends in england via the donations made to thembalitshauk, our dutch friends and the guys at Hyundai in somerset west that we are pleased to announce that we are now the proud owners of a H1, 9 seater vehicle, which is a real God send.

the children are really happy to be traveling to school in style, and everybody seems to want to do the school run now.

we welcome back mel kidd this weekend and we hope that she will be able to learn to drive a manual gearbox and she can join in the fun as well!

walkers tour update.....

we (tim and maz) have enjoyed a busy week here in england speaking at various events around the country, doing radio interviews and sharing our story about the work that we are involved with in south africa.

to give you a flavor of where we have been and who we have seen we thought that it would be good to provide a short update with some further news of future events where you could come and hear us speak.

last sunday morning we spoke at holy trinity ashby de la zouch with our good friend tim phillips and his wonderful church. we had the pleasure of catching up with an old volunteer from the village of hope, harry hoggarth in loughborough in the afternoon and then stayed the night with tim and sarah where we shared some time with their youth group, 'spagbol'. on monday morning we made the hour long trip down to st mary's primary school in aston le walls and shared at their school assembly.

on tuesday evening we spoke at a cluster group at holy trinity walton street and enjoyed a quick massage on wednesday morning with marianne elias before meeting up with grace perret who will be volunteering with us for 3 months from february.

we had the pleasure of speaking at a student alpha meeting with harry back in loughborugh, which we thought went really well and then journeyed on to spent the night with liz and shaun at cliff college in derbyshire. on friday morning we made what should have been a very scenic drive through the derbyshire dales, however it was a typical late autumn day and the fog kept us from seeing further than a few feet in front of the car.

on friday lunchtime we recorded an interview at UCB radio in stoke with paul hammond, which will be broadcast on his show on the build up to world aids day on the 1st december. we were able to promote the wholehearted tour and left their CD which we hope he will play on his show.

it was great to catch up with my (tim) old colleagues at bartuf in leeds before we met up and shared with jess trigg who's family made us very welcome at their home where we shared with her friends and vicar in mirfield, jess will be volunteering with us for 6 months from january and i am sure she will be a great asset to our team.

saturday morning we made the long trip down to spend time with trefor and mandy, stopping in to meet up with vicky ball, her husband fred and daughter becky who kindly donated some funds to enable us to complete the new german home....

....highlights for the coming week or so.

tomorrow morning we are speaking at the bridge (southcourt baptist church) aylesbury.

monday morning maz is sharing at the school where she worked in whitchurch and in the evening we are really looking forward to catching up with the thembalitshauk board at our board meeting.

tuesday we are going down to bath to see our son chris, claire and grandsons, arriving back in waddesdon to speak at pete and rachel's home group, thursday i (tim) am going to meet up with some old friends at a local pub and friday evening we are sharing with a church in long crendon with our good friend tessa.

we will provide you with another update before we fly out to germany and holland where we will be meeting up with the stuttgart team who will be coming out to build us another accommodation block in early 2012 and the HAN university who provide us with interns at the village of hope.

fathers day gifts?

a pig, not your dad!

if you are anything like me, no not in the way that i am a tall long haired hippy who lives in south africa but some one who finds it really hard to find a suitable present for fathers day, then we have the answer to your problem.

the amazing uk marketing team (yes those 3 part time volunteers) have come up with a wonderful way to save a long and unsuccessful trip around your local town centre and have put together some very imaginative presents for you to purchase for your dad to help him realise he is someone very very special.

..now we must state that your dad won't actually receive the present, we will!, however if he wants to check he could get on a long flight to cape town to come and visit, which we would love for him to do, but we will promise that with the money raised from the sale of the items that appear on our thembalitshauk facebook site will go directly to the children that we are helping.

if you follow the link from our facebook page you will then see the items ranging from a soccer ball, or a packet of seeds to a lovely little piggy, you can then purchase them via the ebay site thus making your quest easier and giving your dad some satisfaction in the knowledge that he didn't get another novelty gift that will sit on his desk, by his bed gathering dust but that he is really really make a difference to children living with HIV and AIDS here in south africa!

more crazy fundraisers!

it seems that the summer weather in europe has encouraged a few more crazy people to step up and raise funds via different means for the work that we are doing out here in south africa....please visit the following links to the justgiving pages that have been set up to support the work that we are doing with children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB.

andy and harry have set up two separate pages, no competition then guys! to raise funds as they ride from calias to laussane see harry's page here and andy's here.

mark lucas is walking up the three highest peaks in the UK in under 24 hours (or so he hopes), that happens this weekend so please visit his page here, with a wonderful photo of mark!

and some other crazy people are running the london 10k in july please visit and donate to their page here.

thanks to everyone who supports us, whether that's via a fundraising event, a one off donation or monthly giving, your money really does make a difference.

running for new hope...

my sister, vicki knight, who couldn't complete a 1 mile cross country at school without having a break and walking with her giggling school friends, is taking part in the coniston plus race tomorrow in the wonderful english lake district, 16 and 1/2 miles in one go! yes that it amazing enough but she is doing it to raise funds for the work that we (at the village of hope) and the wider thembalitsha foundation are doing as we seek to make a positive difference to those less fortunate than ourselves.

if you have a few pounds, cents, dollars to spare then please visit her justgiving site and make a donation...this won't only make her run faster and further but will help us too!

p.s i was the cross country runner of our family but i seem to only be able to manage anything cross country these days in my toyota hilux 4x4...how things have changed!

December Newsletter

Hello everyone!

So we enter the last month of what has been a very exciting year not only for Village of Hope but for the whole of South Africa. The Football World Cup truly was a great success…

However, this success does nothing to detract from the terrific damage that HIV and AIDS continues to do to the country. Today (December 1^st) is World AIDS Day, so please continue to think and pray for us as we seek to make a difference to those infected or affected with this disease in Grabouw.

Tonight we are holding a fundraising quiz night in Aylesbury. Please come and join us if you live nearby. We are even hoping to rope in the Village of Hope Team via Skype! – It should make for an entertaining evening. Please see Events for more details

Of course, we have also been thinking about you with the run up to Christmas and know that some of you are struggling to find suitable gifts for your relatives and friends. So, to help you with your stressful predicament we have produced some fantastic Thembalitsha Gift Cards. They start from as little as £10 and truly are the gift that keeps on giving! Simple and stress free, email us here to get yours sorted! – No need to thank us! - and before you know it you could be providing food, nappies and more for the children at the Village of Hope.

November has been as hectic as always. We are still trying to wait patiently for a the courts to get organised so our 9-year-old girl can move to her new foster/cluster home in time for Christmas. In the meantime we have put on our last Soccer Saturday of the year where our smart new Village of Hope t-shirts made their debut. Please read-on for a full run-down of our recent happenings.

Menu

• Children’s Unit
• Sports Outreach & Community Work
• Christmas
• Other News
• Events
• How You Can Help
• Volunteers

CHILDREN’S UNIT

Well the children’s unit has been busy again, with 9 children you can hardly expect little else!, Many of our children have been suffering with some sort of cold, or flu, or other ailment that has kept them from a full month at school, and with 9 children in the unit the staff are often at their wits end to keep order and their sanity. That said, the summer sun has enabled the children to have a lot of outside play time with the new ‘race track’ proving to be a real hit.

Assi’s health continues to give us concern, however we are still praising God for his miraculous recovery from his extend hospitalisation and we must not forget that this is one very sick little boy. Assi continues to steal the show and captures the hearts of all the Mom’s, volunteers and day visitors, he certainly brightens up each day in his own special way.

Unfortunately we are still waiting for the social workers to have the courts grant foster care to our 9 year old girl, who will be going to live with her new Mom at a foster/cluster home in Khayelitsha. Both Tim and Maz took her on a recent weekend home visit, the day before the untimely murder of the Swedish honeymooner, our journey was also a bit of an adventure as we had to divert around some very ugly protesters who were stoning a bus full of children and ‘white’ charity workers!

SPORTS OUTREACH & COMMUNITY WORK

We have had some real highs and some real lows as we venture into the new season with our sports outreach in the local primary schools, whilst the numbers have been lower than we had hoped, which is a low point, we are seeing the same ‘new’ children returning week after week to engage with our soccer and netball clubs (that’s a high point!) We have however lost touch with some of our longer standing relationships and that is a real pity. As with anything new it takes time to settle and establish and we are still hopeful of encouraging more and more children to attend these clubs which we run each and every afternoon.

Daz organised a successful sports Saturday on the 27^th November, we welcomed many new children from the new schools outreach and a great morning was had by all, help was provided by the members of our ‘Sports outreach team’ and the HAN university students fully kitted out in our new light blue tee shirts. On the playing field the Waterwerks team were successful in the Under 13 football competition and Iraq once again triumphed in the Under 15 tournament, however Arron’s Rooidakke team, who have been successful in the past are now amalgamated with the KMP and Pineview schools outreach so they were unable to defend their past success under that banner. The netball/girls sports competition was won by the Remhoogte farm team, so honours were evenly distributed.

After the sports we were blessed with a Braai provided by the local Roundtablers, we thank them for their continued support and the sponsorship of the tee shirts which certainly give an air of authority!

Tim has been meeting up with one of the Dutch volunteers and the local municipality to explore the possibility of installing an astro turf in the Rooidakke community, we have visited two projects in Khayelitsha which were set up to run during and post World Cup 2010 and with the contacts we have made we are confident that we can create something special for the children of Grabouw.

OTHER NEWS AND VOLUNTEERS

Transport:-

We have replaced our 7 seater Toyota Condor with a 8/9 seater VW Microbus, whilst the seating isn’t much of an increase it does now mean that all of our children and a couple of staff can travel safety in one vehicle...we are still praying for a nice new Toyota Quantum but God knows and has a plan when this will arrive!

Food Garden:-

Our food garden, which has been set up with the help and support of ELF (Elgin Learning Foundation), is growing very nicely and we are hopeful of a successful first harvest of cabbage, spinach, potatoes and lettuce.

Staff:-

Unfortunately Johan had a nasty accident which resulted in him having stitches in his left leg and foot. For those of you who know Johan you may not be totally surprised…needless to say we will be reviewing health and safety on the farm.

Volunteers:-

Well this has been quite a quiet month! We are continually blessed by the help and support of our longer term volunteers, Daz and Lisa and Rob and Emily. They have been joined by Mel Kidd, who is with us till at least July. Our only short termer at the moment is Fran Black who has been a little under the weather over the last week and we wish her a speedy recovery. This coming month sees the arrival of Tim’s Mum and Dad, two older sons: Chris (and his wife Claire, and Alfie), and Josh, who is arriving with Dan Williams. Jess Stratford is returning for the umpteenth time (which is great) and Fran’s sister Kate is joining us for Christmas so a busy time is ahead of us!

Christmas Presents:-

We thought it wouldn’t hurt to mention it twice. If you need help finding a gift for that awkward relative or friend then look no further than a Thembalitsha Gift Card. They start from as little as £10 and truly are the gift that keeps on giving! Simple and stress free, email us here to get yours sorted! and before you know it you could be providing food, nappies and more for the children at the Village of Hope.

EVENTS

A Cracking Quiz Night for World AIDS Day

When: 01 December · 19:00 - 22:30

Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, Churchill Avenue, Southcourt, Aylesbury

For those of you who don't already know, 1st December is World AIDS Day. As you can imagine it is a key date in our diary as a charity and we thought it only right to mark the occasion! So bring you friends along, join us for a fun-filled quiz evening and find out how we are working for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

There will be a bar and a raffle too....what more could you ask for on a gloomy winter's Wednesday?!

Tickets are £5 and include a free drink (£15 for a family ticket). So roll up, roll up!!!!

Buy your tickets or find out more information from the lovely Ellie Carman (07912 888298) or the lovely Jess Stratford (07738 831507) We hope to see you all there!

PS If Aylesbury if a tad too far for you to travel then why not host your own quiz night on World AIDS Day or another date? - We have a ready made package for you to make it nice and easy for you to organise. Email us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information or inspiration!

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

VOLUNTEERS

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 from our website (www.thembalitshauk.org.uk). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

august/september newsletter

Village news!...Walkers Return and Assi is also back!

August has been a month of new challenges, Daz, Lisa and Johan did a sterling job to keep the Village running whilst Tim, Maz and Arron visited England for 4 weeks. This year they were supported by two longer term volunteers Barbara Wood and Emma Podmore, who have both served at the Village of Hope before and they ensured that things were kept ticking over.

We have had some major issues with our eldest boy, 10 year old Assi, who has been in the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town with a lung infection, adding to respiratory problems and concerns over his liver, so the team has also had to cover that.

The most amazing news is that Assi has not only recovered enough to be released out of hospital but straight back to us (his family) here at the Village of Hope. This is a real miracle as there was little hope for his life and we thought that the best we could hope for was for him to go to one of our Thembacare hospices in Athlone or Grabouw!

The Walkers trip to England was very productive, we had the opportunity to speak at 3 churches, an evening supper, a school and of course the long awaited Barn Dance (thanks Em and Jess and their small but dedicated team who put on that event). It’s always good to share stories of what God is doing through us in South Africa and I think that as we share with people it also encourages us to see what amazing progress we have made during 2009/10.

Children’s Unit

Our main focus has been on the health of Assi. This little boy, who is not only HIV+ but suffered TB and meningitis as a small baby also has other disabilities, including a major heart problem and other associated issues. Our main aim is to make sure that he is receiving the best treatment available and we hope that the 18 months he has spent with us at the Village of Hope has increased his overall well being....and the proof that constant prayer has made a difference is seen in his amazing recovery and return to us.

The love and the care that our House Moms provide to our children is amazing and children like Assi are receiving that love and care that we all take for granted. Since we opened in April 2009 we have successfully placed 15 children back with either their own families or into foster care and we have just welcomed our new little baby into our home, therefore taking those living with us back up to 9!

Emma has been working with Lisa on some longer term programmes for each of our children, which will provide us with some goals for each child, encouraging their day to day activities leading to future development in their little lives.

Sports Outreach and Community Work

We are seeking a new direction in our sports outreach into the community and by using the contacts we made during the 2010 World Cup we are going to launch two new after school clubs based at local schools, extending the work to 100 children at each school on Monday and Tuesday afternoons. This work is to be supported by the HAN (Dutch university students) who are also working with us.

We will still run our community based clubs at Iraq and Waterwerks squatter camps on Wednesday and Thursdays and continue to bless the children at Remhoogte farm in Elgin, also on Thursdays.

Part of our longer term plan is to build up local community leaders and with that in mind we have identified 5 local High School children (16-18 year olds) who we took on a team building ‘outward bound’ course and we will work to empower them as they seek to come alongside us to deliver this sports based life skills programme to the schools.

Daz had a busy time keeping the existing clubs running, ably supported by Emma and Lisa. With the slight change of direction we are hoping that we can now support the local students with the management skills and take more of a ‘back seat’ during the clubs. Of course, it’s always to best to lead by example so much of Tim, Daz and Arron’s time will be spent demonstrating the ways that we want the clubs to be run in the future.

Seeking Direction for the Future


We have just purchased a small shed which Johan has converted into ‘an office’ for Maz and the Unit team, but we are looking for longer term building opportunities and as always there are numerous things that we could get involved with in our community. It is important though that whatever we do needs to be sustainable and affordable.

With our monthly costs rising as each child is placed home we are constantly short of funds which makes it hard to budget and plan for the future. If you feel that you can commit to supporting us each month then please follow the links on the ThembalitshaUK web site.

We would like to convert our existing volunteer accommodation into our first ‘cluster home’ for our longer term children to live with a Mom and Dad. This doesn’t mean that we will lose the accommodation to house long and short term volunteers as we are looking to build future accommodation on the land which in turn requires funding!

Other News and Volunteers


On Thursday 23rd September the Wholehearted worship album was launched in Cape Town. All proceeds from the sales will come to Thembalitsha projects. If you purchase the full CD, not via itunes, then you will receive a bonus DVD with a music video shot in Rooidakkes squatter camp in Grabouw. There is also an interview with me about the work we do....so log on to www.wholehearted.co.za for further info.

During August we were blessed with help from Barbara and Emma and also Jenny Jiggins, who I knew from my days as a Crusader leader in Winslow/Granbrough. We have desperately missed Rob, Em, Rosie and Isaac who have been having some time out in England, raising their own funding to allow them to return to us in October for 2 years!

new thembalitshauk facebook page

if you are on facebook then please sign up to be a friend of thembalitshauk, we will be keeping you up to date with future events, prayer requests and photos from the projects...visit this link to take you to the page thembalitshauk facebook page

marathon run for the village!

we wanted to bring to your attention the fact that gregg quixley is running the london marathon for thembalitshauk/village of hope, gregg is looking to raise £1000.00 for us and has set up a justgiving page where you can give online.

please visit greggs justgiving page, place a donation and lets wish gregg all the best for a successful fundraising event and an amazing experience as he runs the marathon for the village of hope.

mandela's 20th year release....

last week south africa celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of nelson mandela, after 28 years in prison, but what has changed in those 20 years, has democracy helped those who were suppressed during the years of apartheid?.......there have been many interesting comments on this in the local press, but the bbc web site sums it up in this article 'anger not hope'

please continue to pray for south africa, a country where so many cultures, tribes, races, ideals, ideas and tensions battle to be heard, pray for the government and those in places of power both on parliamentary level and those nearer the ground like our town manager mr liebenberg, pray for charities like thembalitsha who seek to serve those whom the government are failing to bring in the basics like, health, education, sanitation and housing.

its hard to live and work in this place, so much of what we seek to do can be undone or misunderstood by those we seek to help, please support us as we seek to share the love of Jesus, who told us not only to love our neighbour as ourselves but to also love our enemies and pray for them.

February Newsletter

January was a mixed month for the Walkers on the Village of Hope. We started the New Year together and by the end Arron had left for his three month trip back to England to work with YWAM. The team will be coming back to South Africa in May to work in the community via our sports outreach programme during the Football World Cup.





With Arron leaving, Tim and Maz were on their own for the first time in twenty three years and getting used to a quieter home. Actually though, quiet isn't a word you can use for the life at the Village of Hope as the nine children in the unit continue to keep us all busy.





Unfortunately we had some unexpected news when we found that around seventy meters of the new fence we had just installed to provide us with some protection was stolen. It is a little frustrating but when we live so close to people who have absolutely nothing to live on it isn't surprising. God calls us to love our enemies and we are learning that day in and day out as we seek to serve our poor and needy community.





Children’s Unit





Of the nine children, five of the boys are now at school in the mornings, which gives the moms a bit of a break from the stresses of keeping them occupied all the time. This also means that Lisa is able to create some 'structured play' for the smaller girls who are still too young to go to school.





We have also been able to provide some space to care for two older girls who have been placed back home but are not currently attending school. It is one of our aims to continue to support these children and their families and if we are unable to do this these two wonderful children would be stuck at home in their tin shacks alone for most of the day while their parents are at work.





Three of our boys are spending weekends with their families in Grabouw. This is part of the process as we seek to train their parents to care for these boys in their homes. This can be a long winded exercise but one that we need to get right to make sure that they are well cared for when they leave the security of the Village of Hope.





Maz has been able to replace two house moms and this month we hope that we will be able to find the right person to fill the nursing sister roll which we are currently advertising for.





Community News





Things have certainly picked up again with our sports outreach programme and Emily House has joined Tim in the Iraq squatter camp on Tuesday afternoons as we extend the netball side for the young girls who live there. Daz has now established the Waterworks soccer club on Wednesday afternoons and is starting a cricket club with some of the older boys in another area.





It's always a pleasure to work with these young people as we seek to provide them with life skills and bible teaching which sit alongside the sports training and I had the amazing privilege of sharing the story of David and Goliath with the children from Iraq as we learnt the skill of tackling. For most of them this was the first time they had heard this story and they listened with wide eyes as I explained how the shepherd boy with a sling shot and a stone defeated the huge giant.





We held our latest sports Saturday a couple of weeks ago, with around one hundred and twenty of our children joining us for a morning of soccer and netball at the amazing Elgin Country Club. Once again it was great to see the children having so much fun and to bring the different clubs, communities and cultures together is a wonderful privilege.





Trondor, our Norwegian volunteer sponsored the morning, where we were able to provide a sixty five seater bus which we discovered can hold one hundred! Trondor also provided food and prizes. We bought a new set of goals for the under fifteen tournament, much to the delight of those boys. We are now looking to get some portable netball posts which we will use for the next event and each afternoon as we work in the community. At present we have no fixed posts and the girls have yet to practice the art of goal shooting, although they are superb up until that point!





Once again Tim’s team of boys from Iraq won the under twelve and under fifteen soccer tournament but Arron's Rooidakke team once again provided strong competition. Lisa's Elgin Timbers girls won the netball, which sounded exciting as each team cheered the others on with wild songs!

Daz and Lisa have continued the work in the town where they are providing parenting courses, not only to some of our children's parents but also those who are known by the local police, we are hoping that this will continue to develop as we seek to serve those less fortunate that ourselves.

Volunteers





January was another sad month as we said goodbye to our most recent Dutch students who had been working with us at the Village of Hope as part of their university placement. We much appreciated their input, both into the children’s lives and into the management structures as we seek to set up a professional children’s unit.





We were joined in January by a Dutch couple, Leo and Margeet who will be with us for 3 months. Their daughter had volunteered at the School of Hope on a few occasions and they are fitting into life at the Village. Margeet is helping with activities for the girls in the morning and Leo provides some driving support to Thembacare in Grabouw.

Rob and Emily House have taken over the management of the volunteer unit and we thank God for bringing them to us at this stage of the projects development. Their daughter Rosie has just started school and Isaac continues to provide us with much entertainment with his love of cars and car keys.

With Arron departing for his mission trip, we were left a little short for someone to not only do his share of the jobs around the village but also to run his soccer team. Thankfully, help is at hand as we welcome a nineteen year old volunteer, Harry Hogarth from Tring, England. Harry will be with us for the three months that Arron is away and is already fitting in well.

support the work

tim, maz and arron have been over in england for the last few week raising the profile of thembalitsha and thembalitshauk, we have come across some amazing people who are willing to get involved in this amazing charity. if you have been around when we have spoken and would like to donate to the work we are doing in grabouw, via the village of hope, then please follow this link to our justgiving site or sponsor people like chris and louise stoddard who rode from lands end to john o'groats or jess stratford who is 'going bald for village of hope'!

come on you can make a difference, do something amazing today!

bike ride and parachute jumps

just wanted to point you to the donation page of our 'old' youth pastor from aylesbury, the young mr chris stoddard and his even younger daughter, louise, are attempting to ride from the top of scotland, yes that bit of land with all the mountains and loch's, to the bottom of england raising funds for thembalitshauk, please visit his justgiving site and support him, and us!....

...we also want to thank viv bailleux, who on the celebration of her 60th birthday, sorry for the mention of your age viv, jumped from a plane, with a parachute attached i hasten to add, to raise funds for the work we are doing in grabouw....thanks to all those who sponsored her as well!