the past six years and on into the future

our amazing staff from the village of hope

this is the first post of our new personal blog where we (tim and maz walker) hope to share our experiences with you as we take some time out to seek the direction for the next phase of our lives. during this week we will finish serving with the thembalitsha foundation in south africa and hand over our positions as project managers of the village of hope and the wider position as area director in grabouw. we have been blessed to be able to take seven months 'out' where we expect to meet old and make new friends, visit some wonderful places and hear God's voice as we reflect on the last six busy years here at the village of hope.

we can't promise to be prolific bloggers as we know that there will be challenges in seeking internet connection in the various countries we will be visiting and we already know that we will have limited access such as time in a monastery in wales or a xhosa village in the eastern cape, however we do hope to provide you with some thoughts and images that will capture our attention during this special time for us to spend together.

our wonderful sports outreach team

for those of you who have been following our journey so far, either via facebook, meeting us face to face at speaking engagements or via church newsletters, you will already know about our exciting experiences as we left our comfortable lives and family in england to set up the village of hope over six years ago.

you will also probably know that over the last six years we have spent time setting up and putting into place structures to sustain the amazing children's unit on a simple plot of land in grabouw. this unit which is registered with both the department of health and the department of social development has cared for over 60 children in need of support around their ARV (HIV, AIDS) medication, we have also built up a wonderful sports outreach which reaches over 450 children each week with the help of local sports mentors which we have raised up to become the leaders and a HIV support group which provides hope to adolescence living in the community. we have also built strong partnerships with our sister project, thembacare grabouw which has been a blessing and privilege to do.

however if you need reminding of some of the highlights then please take a look at some of the media that captures all those areas then please follow the links below.

the incredible thembacare staff!

videos: stories of hope:- village of hope (featuring maz), thembacare grabouw (with tim!) and everyday hero's

music videos:- hope is here (with wholehearted) and wholehearted (shot in the townships in grabouw)

blogs: village of hope blog

during the time here we we have also hosted literally hundreds of international volunteers and mission teams from all around the world, from norway and canada in the north to brazil, new zealand and austraila in the south, south korea in the east to the united states in the west, we are so truly thankful to all of those who have served us during this time, that could be from a couple of hours planting trees in the gardens to those who have given up their own lives to come and work with us full time at the project.

we seen the site come to life with new structures being built with our wonderful partners from the university of stuttgart and extended our sports outreach, social work and community development with the help of the students from the HAN university in holland, there are links below to their sites which will help capture those hightlights.

ukuqala main site with photos and links to all three projects plus two videos for the second ukuqala2 projects ukuqala2  and HAN

however as we move from here we know that there is a season for everything and although it has a been a wonderful six years and we will never forget the children and adults that we have been able to serve, we move into a new season and we hope that you will enjoy sharing this journey with us!