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!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
fun day and a chance to hear us talk!
we just wanted to give you a chance to catch up with us before we leave england, this weekend we will be having a fun day to raise funds for thembalitshauk and would love to catch up with you, the event is to be held at aylesbury grammar school at 1pm.
if you are unable to make that and or haven't been able to hear us talk whilst we have been over you could listen to the first talk of the latest 'tour', which was part of the winslow christian fellowship service in june, click here to be taken to their site and then download the talk....we must say that it's awful to hear ones voice and the talk was a little disjointed with photos etc but you will get a feel of what we have been talking about!
if you are unable to make that and or haven't been able to hear us talk whilst we have been over you could listen to the first talk of the latest 'tour', which was part of the winslow christian fellowship service in june, click here to be taken to their site and then download the talk....we must say that it's awful to hear ones voice and the talk was a little disjointed with photos etc but you will get a feel of what we have been talking about!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
school days, tour dates and americans
tim, maz and arron continue their themba speaking tour throughout the south of england, but are spending a few days down with their son and daughter in bath, in the rain. they have had some amazing times chatting with children and young people at school assemblies and catching up with 'old' friends and making some new acquaintances at various churches including meeting up with the everynation church in hammersmith where daz and lisa hail from.
news from the village of hope, via daz, is that our eldest boy, 9 years old but with learning difficulties, started school on monday, which is brilliant for him and will help our mums to care for the little ones easier!......our 8 year old girl is back in hospital with pneumonia, not good but she is in the best place at the mo.
finally we have had two teams from america over since we have been in england and they are doing some amazing stuff out in the community as well as supporting some of the other thembalitsha projects......
Thursday, July 9, 2009
if you have an hour have a watch!
we are very much enjoying our time here in england as we continue our speaking tour about the work we are doing for thembalitshauk in south africa.
we have had some good news this morning from daz and lisa to say that another one of our babies has been returned to his home, which is fantastic news.
if you have an hour or so i would love to direct you to watch a short film by john pilger about south africa, whilst it was shot in 2001 and doesn't mention the HIV and AIDS issues it does give some background to the issues going on in south africa and looks into the lives of the people who we are trying to help....follow the link above.
we have had some good news this morning from daz and lisa to say that another one of our babies has been returned to his home, which is fantastic news.
if you have an hour or so i would love to direct you to watch a short film by john pilger about south africa, whilst it was shot in 2001 and doesn't mention the HIV and AIDS issues it does give some background to the issues going on in south africa and looks into the lives of the people who we are trying to help....follow the link above.
Friday, July 3, 2009
back in the uk and great news about one baby
well we have been back in england for a week now and whilst it has been amazing to catch up with family and friends a lot of our time is spent thinking of the work going on in south africa, it hard to adjust to the fact that we have so much that we take for granted whilst so many have so little where we have just left.
we have had some communication with daz and lisa and wanted to share that we have been able to place one of our children back out to his family, which is great and the main aim of the project, we just need to trust that the family support this child as they should, but in the mean time we will continue to provide them with nappies and formula milk.
this week has been a busy time of speaking engagements, last sunday we spoke at winslow christian fellowship and we have made trips to tonbridge baptist church and also aylesbury holy trinity (not far from where we are staying i admit!)....
both arron and maz spoke at their 'old' schools, arron did really well and received great praise from his old headmaster, quite a feat for arron!, maz had half the staff in tears by the end of her talk and the children listened well too!
this coming weekend we are speaking in northampton with a school assembly in banbury kicking of next weeks engagements, if you want to find out where we are to come and listen to our stories then please contact us via this blog.
we have had some communication with daz and lisa and wanted to share that we have been able to place one of our children back out to his family, which is great and the main aim of the project, we just need to trust that the family support this child as they should, but in the mean time we will continue to provide them with nappies and formula milk.
this week has been a busy time of speaking engagements, last sunday we spoke at winslow christian fellowship and we have made trips to tonbridge baptist church and also aylesbury holy trinity (not far from where we are staying i admit!)....
both arron and maz spoke at their 'old' schools, arron did really well and received great praise from his old headmaster, quite a feat for arron!, maz had half the staff in tears by the end of her talk and the children listened well too!
this coming weekend we are speaking in northampton with a school assembly in banbury kicking of next weeks engagements, if you want to find out where we are to come and listen to our stories then please contact us via this blog.
Monday, June 29, 2009
house break in
unfortunately we experienced our second house break in within a couple of weeks, this has put a bit of a downer on the whole situation and the loss of our laptop and my cameras was annoying as we had so much data and photo images of the last 9 months work on the village of hope. we are still smiling and praying that those who stole from us will see sense and return our possessions......this is south africa you know!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
south african health!
living in south africa for the last 9 months has been a life changing experience in many ways, some preconceived ideas have been blown out the water, others challenged and still others were confirmed.
i (tim) have found it so hard living with all that we have right next to those with absolutely nothing, that could be possessions but also the health that we enjoy and the education that we take for granted...
many people have asked me if what we are doing is really making a difference, aren't 'the people' so set in their ways that they won't change?, do they really appreciate all you are doing?......and sometimes i ask myself that too. why don't these people change their ways, why do they continue to sleep around spreading this awful disease......however when you look at it so many of the people we work with and who we call neighbours have no chance to the news media that we have access to and here in lies a problem.
so much of our info now comes to us via the internet, tv and then radio.....we don't have a tv so i spend my last minutes at night and first minutes in the morning catching up with the news on the national broadcaster (sabc) for the local south african news and then a few minutes each day reading the bbc web pages for a fuller world picture.
the radio station often broadcast info about health, especially hiv, aids and tb and refer to a web site called health-e.......(which is well worth a look at here), the site is full of the basic info on these three major killers here in south africa however those who need to hear often don't have radio and defo no internet, or the education to read english, so how can they read up on this info......aaargh.
life over here is so unfair and as i pack my suitcase for a 6 week return trip to england today my heart is overwhelmed by the problems, are we really making a difference or just putting a patch on a gaping hole....for me i can say that the work is more than fulfilling, that the lives of the children living with us are being changed but we need more hands, more funds to really get the message out there into the communities...informing people of those basic things we just take for granted.....
i (tim) have found it so hard living with all that we have right next to those with absolutely nothing, that could be possessions but also the health that we enjoy and the education that we take for granted...
many people have asked me if what we are doing is really making a difference, aren't 'the people' so set in their ways that they won't change?, do they really appreciate all you are doing?......and sometimes i ask myself that too. why don't these people change their ways, why do they continue to sleep around spreading this awful disease......however when you look at it so many of the people we work with and who we call neighbours have no chance to the news media that we have access to and here in lies a problem.
so much of our info now comes to us via the internet, tv and then radio.....we don't have a tv so i spend my last minutes at night and first minutes in the morning catching up with the news on the national broadcaster (sabc) for the local south african news and then a few minutes each day reading the bbc web pages for a fuller world picture.
the radio station often broadcast info about health, especially hiv, aids and tb and refer to a web site called health-e.......(which is well worth a look at here), the site is full of the basic info on these three major killers here in south africa however those who need to hear often don't have radio and defo no internet, or the education to read english, so how can they read up on this info......aaargh.
life over here is so unfair and as i pack my suitcase for a 6 week return trip to england today my heart is overwhelmed by the problems, are we really making a difference or just putting a patch on a gaping hole....for me i can say that the work is more than fulfilling, that the lives of the children living with us are being changed but we need more hands, more funds to really get the message out there into the communities...informing people of those basic things we just take for granted.....
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