time in france with a malagasy update....

first things first we wanted to share our exciting news that we are busy planning to return to Madagascar in September for a couple of months.

during this return trip we will be following up on the groups that we trained with the Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' material earlier in the year, which you can read about on their blog here, however the main reason for us to make this challenging trip is to run weekly residential workshops where we will be training local people to become trainers enabling them to take the life changing leadership principles throughout Madagascar.

trad french mayors office

our existing contacts in Madagascar have already been extremely busy since we returned home in May, they have translated the near on 50 page training programme into Malagasy, complete with pictures and have identified around 300 people from various walks of life, including teachers, church leaders, healthcare workers and those working within the national institutions like prisons, whom we will train on the week long workshops.

we are really excited about this trip and although Emerging Leaders have given us the permission to use their material free of charge we are looking for people to partner with us to enable us to undertake this trip which we believe will bring tangible change throughout what is one of the worlds poorest nations.

if you'd like to find out more about how you could support us then please contact us on our email tim@extramilewalker.com or visit our online giving page here.


now onto more mundane stuff as we share a paragraph or two about our wonderful holiday in France. we were able to stay in our middle son's girlfriends holiday house which is situated in the stunning hills in the Tarn et Garonne region which sits about an hour north westish from Toulouse.

photo finish in montauban

we had the opportunity to visit in August last year however since then the home has been blessed with a swimming pool which was a very welcome addition as the weather was extremely hot. not only did we enjoy the weather but we also had the chance to watch the end of the fifth stage of the 'tour de france' which ended in Montauban and was won by Mark Cavendish in a fantastic sprint finish.

we were joined by my sister and her husband, our good friends Trefor and Mandy, as well as our son Josh and his best friend Dan but unfortunately we were a little too early to enjoy what would have been the vast fields of sunflowers however we did venture into the delightful ancient little hilltop villages which seem to adorn any available promontory.

the citadel at montjoi

it was a blessed time, the towns were empty, the sun shone, and life was great........but life always seems to have a twist in the tail and as I type this update news of another attack in France dominates the headlines, this time in Nice, a town we also know very well and we morn the passing of the people who have been affected by these awful events.

lets all remain hopeful and not lose sight of the amazing stuff that is happening in this crazy world of ours.