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.

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.

Tim and Maz on Tour

I know you've all been counting down the days until you can see Tim and Maz again....
Well, I am pleased to tell you that it's only two more sleeps until they set foot on UK soil! Whilst they are busy trying to make sure they have handed everything over before they leave (and we are busy panicking about what to do when they do!) I thought I would let you know their tour details so that you can find out when you can see them. I have not put the full information on here (such as all the addresses etc) but if would like further details then please email me: office@thembalitshauk.org.uk and I will be happy to fill you in. Please try and see them if you can. They would love to see you and also have some amazing new stories to share from the project.


Here goes:


Sun Oct 30
AM Vale of Aylesbury Vineyard Church

Sun Nov 6 10:00am – 12:00am
AM Holy Trinity Church, Ashby De La Zouch
PM Loughborough

Mon Nov 7
AM Banbury

Thu Nov 10 
PM Student Alpha, Loughborough

Fri Nov 11
PM Huddersfield

Sun Nov 13 
Durham TBC

Mon Nov 14 
AM Whitchurch School

Fri Nov 18
PM Long Crendon

Sun Nov 20
AM Winslow Vineyard Church

Mon Nov 21 – Sat Nov 26 
Germany/Holland, visiting universities and ex volunteers, attending Dutch fundraising event

Wed 31 Nov
PM Gig and talk with Wholehearted, TBC

Thu Dec 1 
PM World AIDS Day Event and Gig with Wholehearted, Aylesbury Vineyard

Fri Dec 2
PM Gig and talk with Wholehearted, Every Nation, Hammersmith

Sat Dec 3
PM Gig and talk with Wholehearted, TBC

Sun Dec 4
AM Every Nation, Hammersmith
PM Every Nation, Hammersmith

what do them walkers do with themselves over in south africa then?

we have finally been found out, yes we spend all our time either on the beach, walking in the mountains, lying around reading a book or visiting vineyards to do the very hard exercise of 'wine tasting'........

...well that's how it would appear in this months edition of the franschhoek' valley 'the month' publication, myself and maz go away for a well earned weekend away at the beginning of october, just so happening to tie in with the wonderful 'franschhoek uncorked' festival, and we get caught on film!

you can have a look at the full publication by following this link to 'the month' web site and have a read of the article found on page 7!