celebrating 5 years since the opening of the children's unit - its a family affair!

 barbara, maz mommy francis and mommy nettie with the cake!

on saturday we celebrated the fifth birthday of the opening of the village of hope children's unit, this was a momentous occasion and one where we wanted to use it as a time of thanksgiving to God for his great provision towards the project and those that we have impacted over the last five years.

children playing and adults worshiping in the garden

our intention was to host an 'open day'for all our friends, partners and community projects but the numbers would be so huge that we wouldn't be able to cope. so although we have other outreaches into the community via our sports and rainbow smiles clubs this was just for the children, their families and some key staff both past and present. saying that we must have had around 60 people come join us for a time of worship, tea, cake and an easter egg hunt.

the children on an easter egg hunt!

our friends from wholehearted leading worship

the weather was so hot that we had to throw up a makeshift sail to provide some shade to those who joined us, including some of the first children that filled our unit, those boys and girls who were around two years old when they stayed with us and are now six or seven years old and had all grown so much. although not all of the 45 children who we have provided care in the unit for were able to join us we had a great time as we looked back at the family tree and remember those who aren't with us now.

the worship time was led the amazingly talented 'wholehearted' band from somerset west and we want to thank them for their incredible support, however their leading was complimented by some of our house moms who sang some traditional african songs which really embraced the 'rainbow nation' feel of the village of hope.

after we had sung some songs people were able to share some of their stories of hope and gave thanks for the work that has been undertaken by our amazing team, it was great to hear these stories, shared in english, afrikaans and xhosa, of how God had blessed people both children, staff and parents via the support that we were able to provide, proving that we can be Jesus hands and feet in all situations we find ourselves in, be that praying for someone in a supermarket, to giving a life to a person at the side of the road, or providing a safe and loving home to some of the most sick and needy children in our community.

so we celebrated our first five years, we wonder where God will take this project in the next five years...watch this space!

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.

February News

‘Hope is Here’ is the new single from Wholehearted and is inspired by the work of the Thembalitsha Foundation.

If you caught us when we were in the UK you will have had a sneak peak. The single in available for free download (click here) and the video, that was filmed in Grabouw, shows some of the work of Village of Hope and ThembaCare. Those that are subscribed to our email newsletter (sign up here) get an exclusive preview of the video which will be released officially later on this week. We will post here and on our facebook page when it's released. Make sure you check it out - You might even recognise a few faces!

Through everything that we do as a Foundation our main aim is to bring New Hope and we hope that the video gives you a taste of just that. You can also see more stories of hope within our news this month – because we have been very busy and have lots to share! We hope the stories inspire you to join us in our quest to create positive change in our communities.


This month has very much been the month of birthdays with many of our staff, volunteers and children celebrating another year. It’s at these times we really do come to appreciate life and what a blessing it is – particularly when it comes to the children in the unit, whose lives could look quite different if they weren’t here with us.

Children’s Unit
We had one little boy turning two. He has been staying with us while we stabilised him on his ARV and TB medication but we are very excited to be placing him back home with this Mother. His Mum has been in to get all the training and advice she needs to look after her little boy and we are very hopeful that this will be another successful placement. On the flipside the other birthday we celebrated was for one of the girls who has been with us since we opened three years ago. She became four this month and her case has been a lot more complicated to work out – and is still on going.  It is hard to know when she will ever move on to find a home of her own. Of course, she has been with us for so long now that Village of Hope is the only home she knows and she had a fantastic time celebrating with all the German students (28 of them!) coming in to sing to her. Her face was a real picture! We are also pleased to welcome back our two year old girl from hospital. She has been in under observation whilst she was put onto her ARV medication. This little cutie has TB too so it was important she was monitored because TB can flare up when combined with the HIV medication and last time we had a real scare. This time we are pleased to report that it all went smoothly and she is happily settling back in here at the Village of Hope.

Our House Moms are also looking very pleased with themselves at the moment thanks to some new uniforms. The uniforms are in the Thembalitsha colours and, along with the nice new name badges, certainly bring an air of professionalism to the unit! They were provided by one of our old volunteers, Jennifer Hunt, who has visited the project a number of time. Thanks Jenn!  The attire is comfortable to work in too - which is a necessity when working with little ones.


Sports Outreach and Community Work
Our community outreach is still going strong. We have welcomed our two new interns from the HAN university in Holland, Angelique and Marijn. It’s the first time we’ve had two girls but, of course, they don’t seem to be phased by the football (and the boys have been very welcoming as you can imagine!) and seem to be at home with their roles already.

The girls already have two new boys who are keen to make the commitment and train to become mentors. This is really exciting because it shows that the strategy that Weike and Stephan set up is working: the older boys in the clubs are seeing how rewarding it is to be a mentor and wanting that for themselves.

The other exciting news is that we have been approached by the Waitrose Foundation, who visited the project earlier in the year, to see how we can role out our sports programme to all of the farms that they invest in. We are so pleased to see that Waitrose see the value in the work we are doing and are keen to be able to share the programme with as many people as possible. It’s still early days and we have a lot of logistics to sort out before anything can become definite so please pray that God shows us the right way to go about this.

Rainbow Smiles, our support group for HIV+ teenagers is doing well too. Our volunteers, Jess and Grace are doing a brilliant job of pulling activities and ideas together along with the support of Tim Berger and Johan. ThembaCare are also providing their wisdom in how to educate the kids on HIV and this month Jess and Grace have been roping in all the adults to become antibodies (or ‘soldiers’) to dramatise the battle that does on in the body when the HIV virus attacks!


Other News
Volunteers:
Our volunteers continue to do sterling work. Jess and Tim are settling in well and since then we have welcomed Grace Perret and Niall O’Loghlen from the UK – Grace is here for three months (and is a link from Aylesbury) and Niall for five weeks. We’ve also welcomed three young men from Canada: Travis, Lance and Andy. Andy is only with us for a week. He is actually Tim Walker’s cousin and it’s always good to meet more of the family, however briefly. Despite the brief stay, he has still managed to come face to face with a puff adder and a hornet’s nest! He also led the mid-week church service at ThembaCare so I think we can safely say he’s had a good glimpse of Africa! Travis and Lance are staying on till mid March and are getting stuck in on the farm, felling trees and chopping wood and also exercising their sports skills in our afternoon outreach. It’s good to have them here – even if they did have to bring their own emergency stash of Cheerios all the way from Canada!

Although Niall is staying with us, he is here to serve ThembaCare and will be training them in how to use syringe drivers for the next five weeks. Please check out ThembaCare’s blog (click here) to read all about the difference he is making – it is so exciting and he does know what he is doing because he’s a doctor! It’s nice to be able to host someone who is here to bless another project and good for us at Village of Hope to feel like we are working more closely with our ‘sister’ in town.

The New Building:
Well it’s all go, go, go on site. If you have been reading our blog you will be up to date with all the details! The German students are all here and getting well and truly stuck in – this time with hard hats (which is a relief!). The two-story building is coming on quickly and they already have the door and window frames in. As well as the building the students are also working more closely in the community by providing some shading area for a crèche. The shade is an intricate pattern cut out of a old sail and it is a very complex jigsaw to complete – each piece is unique in shape taking ages to mark and cut out and then having to (some how) bring it all together. We can’t wait to see it finished and we are sure the staff and kids at the crèche will be blown away!


Events
It’s that time of year again when we are recruiting runners to for our 10k run. We have six places available and the run takes place on Sunday 8th July. This really is a fantastic race – you get to run past major London landmarks like Big Ben and St Paul’s cathedral. It costs £30 to enter and you need to be willing to commit to raising at least £500 for us. So, whether you are new to running and looking for a challenge, or an old hand looking to beat your personal best, this is a great opportunity to get into training and to run for a great cause. Contact us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information.



How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - 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. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• 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


Volunteering
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 under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (http://www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

a wholehearted walkers update III

yes handri its ice!

if you have been following us recently you will know that we have been busy with a tour around england with a wonderful worship band called wholehearted, we have had an amazing time and we just wanted to capture a few highlights of the tour with you. 


last monday morning we met the band at Gatwick at 7am and were joined by 'tour manager/driver/sound enginer' and wanna be drummer, mr james porter, after the first of many coffees we exposed the band made up of charl folscher, pierre and helena smith, handri and jaqueline de villiers and daniel botha, along with danni's wife sanmarie (who worked her magic with the multi media presentations during the evening) to the icy cold english weather, which was nice and frosty. we then drove down to Bath (taking around 3 hours!) and settled them in....later we met up later in Bath to show them the christmas market, but it was shut by 7pm! (typical!)


tuesday we met up for prayer and then ventured down to taunton for an evening event at the living light church, during the set up we were able to see the new video that had been shot in grabouw to accompany the bands new song 'hope is herre' which with the video images is very heart wrenching and certainly made an impact to those who saw it during the rest of the tour. the evening went really well, sound was great and we had a lot of people there, we even managed to get the text message service working linked to our justgiving page which was good, we shared about the work we do in grabouw, which i think touched people and the worship was also amazing.

at monkton combe

wednesday we had the day to spend with our son chris and wife claire and their two boys, the UK was on strike so it was busy everywhere so we chilled and then went to a farm with the kids...was nice, the band had a few issues with procuring equipment for the evening event which was to take place at 6pm at Monkton Combe school, around 130 kids who attend the school came along, plus my friend Mal and his wife, and chris and claire and the kids, me and maz gave a brief overview of our work in south africa and after a meal in the 'harry potter style' dinning room we hosted another event for the older more committed kids this was a more chilled event where charl shared and we ministered.


on thursday we met up for lunch in bathhampton with the band and left for Aylesbury, we arrived to set up for the event at aylesbury vale vineyard which was great, our UK marketing team made up of ellie and jess, ably supported by andy were wonderful, there were loads of people from different churches, some we knew and some we didn't and we raised a huge amount on the night!

river boat ride down the thames

our friday started with prayer and communion with mick at the vineyard, where he was also able to show the guys around their storehouse project which they were very impressed with, we then made our swift drive to london for the first gig at EN hammersmith, a great venue in a old church, no pews!, band were a little tired but we really enjoyed the cheese and wine on what was a bit more of a chilled out evening, where we once again raised quite a large amount for thembalithsa and we also had good conversations with new and old friends from wolfi's church.

wholehearted worship

now for our day off......well we were up and out by 9 for our tour of london, we managed to fit in lots of interesting things and had great fun with the band, we were in westmister at 12 noon for big ben, then onto horse guards and down to see the queen, the band we introduced to the london underground as we got on the tube to covent garden (the band were disappointed that there were no flowers!), then another tube to tower bridge, tower of london, then ferry down the thames back to the london eye for a quick spin, we then took a wander down south bank christmas market to a pub overlooking the river for a pint or two....then back to the station and home!...nice relaxing day off!


sunday had a bit of a different feel, i went to slough and shared with about 50 people at the EN church

charl sharing his highlights!

there, i gave the talk and finished at 12, but we took another hour to pray for people who were moved by my talk, which was great, maz and the band were at hammersmith, where they lead worship and maz spoke, it sounded like they had a good time, then i drove back to london to meet met maz and wolfi and spent the afternoon with them. the band went off to play at EN Stratford for their 3.30 service. me and maz then shared at the EN6pm service at Imperial College London, which went really well well.


we all met up in richmond for our last supper together and in true village of hope style shared our highlights and low lights of the trip, which was very touching.





it was an amazing time, we shared joy, fun, laughter, shed a tear or two and celebrated the new hope which thembalitsha are providing via the 7 projects in the western cape....thanks for joining us guys.