and so the next season begins

Maz and Arron at Heathrow (actually this was taken
when we dropped Arron to catch his Thailand flight!)

as we touched down in a cold Heathrow airport following our three week trip to South Africa we were greeted by our brother-in-law (Mark) and our youngest son (Arron) who we thought we might not see before he flew off to his new job in Thailand, so that was a great surprise and one that we made the most of prior to his departure yesterday!

Trevor delivering some key points to the
Emerging Leaders leadership team.

the reason for our return to England, rather than flying direct from South Africa to Madagascar (which would not only have been the quicker option but also a much cheaper one too), was to join the team from Emerging Leaders at the event they were running for their core team in sunny Suffolk (a county on the east coast of England).

A David Beckham moment (Focus) as a leadership tool

what would seem like a long round about trip was in fact an important part of our journey and was a fitting start to our new season. it is their amazing community leadership programme that we will be using to help transform the hearts of minds of some of the most vulnerable people around the world, starting as you will all be aware in Madagascar later this month. 

Some of our African friends were a little cold

Trevor and Jane (the founders and the incredible people who have created the life changing material) had gathered their team from around the world to come together to learn from each other and share the potential of the training, encouraging us with stories of hope from the field and creating a desire to share this training with more and more people. they are keen to build a team of trainers to train other people living on the coal face of some of the worlds most challenging communities and we were so blessed to have been included as part of that team.

We were joined by Morpheus from
The Matrix (not really this is Sekou pretending!)

it was so amazing to meet up with Purity from Kenya, Joseph from South Africa and Steve from England who are the heads of their countries. Purity has been working with Emerging Leaders for the longest time and it was great to hear how lives are being transformed in some of the slums and wider communities in her country, but we were also very excited to hear about the work that is already taking place in South Africa (obviously a country very close to our hearts) however it was the stories that were shared by Steve that blew us away, Steve told us some fantastic stories of partnerships that were being developed to ensure that this Leadership programme was being accessed by some of the most venerable people in our home country (England) too.

children at Bethany in Madagascar 2014

so now it's time for us to get involved, we know that our time in Madagascar will be very different to anything we have experienced before and although we visited the projects in May 2014 living there for three months will be another ball game, however are really really excited about the opportunity we have been given and are really looking forward to be working with our friend Cho and his team at Love 'n Care Ministries again. 

Tim selfie with children in Madagascar 2014

we can't wait to blog again from that island with new stories of hope, where people are given the chance to see themselves as a leader, be that in their own lives, the lives of their families, their finances and their communities.

we'll be working with the communities along the inland
waterways on the east coast of Madagascar

we'll sign off for now, knowing that you guys will be coming along for the ride (abet from a distance) and that we will post up the stories as soon as we have a stable Internet connection be that in Tomasina or Antananarivo.  

we need a few more of these to help with the
delivery of the Leadership material

should you wish to support some of our financial costs on what is a self funded trip then please click on this link to give online and if you'd like to follow us or the Emerging Leaders team on twitter then follow these links which will take you to those twitter pages tim_at_voh and emerging leaders/leadership4hope