wedding bells, american friends and balloons ahoy

Tim, Alfie and Arry enjoy a T20Blast game in Bristol

it's been a bit of a crazy time since we last updated our personal not only have we booked our flights to return to Madagascar in early September but we've also spent a week with our eldest son and his family in Bristol and then spent some extra special family time with my (Tim) sister as we celebrated the marriage of her son (Joel) to his long term sweetheart Charlotte at the stunning Chewton Glen hotel and spa down in Dorest.

the beautiful Waddesdon manor

we are very excited about our return trip, this will be our third time, to Madagascar and as many of you will know this time we will be training people to train others in the incredible 'Leadership for Life' material that Emerging Leaders have created to bring hope and new ways of thinking to some of the most vulnerable communities in the world.

Helen and Chaz visit Maz' Dad

in two weeks time we will have already landed in Antananarivo where we will spend our first month before moving on to the east coast port of Toamasina where we will be hooking up with the wonderful Cho and Deborah from Love'nCare Ministries who we lived with for three months earlier in the year.

Mel and Fran share photos with Maz at Jess' wedding

there are still a few thousand pounds to be found before we reach our estimated budget spend so if you'd like to sponsor us as we seek to share with those much less fortunate than ourselves then please either contact us direct or visit our online giving page.

now back to the last couple of weeks here in England. prior to journeying down to Bristol we were able to welcome our youngest son (Arron) home from his six month stint in Thailand where he has been working as a dive instructor, it was so good to catch up with him, to listen to his stories and to hear about his future plans.

Maz and Eli enjoy some colouring time

Arron also joined us as we, that's the royal we as Mark and Viv bent over backwards to allow us to host Helen and Chaz, two of our good friends from the U S of A, we know Helen from here many trips to visit the Village of Hope in South Africa, and we'd met Chaz when we ventured state side last year. we enjoyed a fantastic couple of days together visiting historic homes and gardens, as well as tasting a few local ales and traditional pub food.

wot balloon?

we joined Jess and her new husband, David, for their wedding in Aylesbury with a reception at Creslow Manor near our home village of Whitchurch, it was wonderful to see Jess looking so happy and for us to enjoy a day together with other friends from near and far. Mel Kidd even joined us all the way from South Africa, along with Fran and Spencer who we'd just seen in Jersey.

the next week was a roller coaster ride as we joined Chris and Claire along with their children at a home in Long Ashton which they were 'house sitting' for friends. Long Ashton is home to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, an international balloon festival where literally hundreds of hot air balloon fanatics join together to fly the balloons, right over the house where we were staying.

those balloons

it was a sight to behold as we stood in the back garden, either early in the morning or later in the evening and watched the balloons of various shapes, sizes and colours float (is that what balloons do?) silently over our heads.

I (Tim) and Arron also took our eldest grandson, Alfie, to see his first first class cricket match, a T20Blast match (if you don't know what that is then don't worry as its too hard to explain during this simple blog post) between Gloucestershire and Durham. it was an exciting affair which Alfie really enjoyed, unfortunately for Alfie the home team lost to Durham who actually then went on to lose to our beloved Northamptonshire Steelbacks in the final last saturday!

impromptu Walker boys shot at the weddding

after a week at home we made our way down to the stunning Chewton Glen hotel (and spa) on the sunny (well maybe not sunny) on the south coast of England. where we had been blessed with a three night stay and were joined by other members of our extended (Knight) family and the Charlotte's family.

the hotel was far and above any that we normally frequent, with supercars adorning the car park and famous faces from TV and film gracing the public spaces. as we think back to the places we have rested our heads this year it confirms the conundrum of 21st century life, from straw filled pillows and mattress in the rain forest areas of Madagascar as we stayed with the local villagers to our suite at Chewton Glen where we were blessed with three TV's in our room, including one posing as a mirror in our bathroom!

Joel and Charlotte photobomb Tim's selfie

the forecast for the weekend was for high winds and torrential rain which was going to prove a bit of a pain as all our children and their children were camping just down the road, however as is often the case the weather wasn't quite as bad as predicted and we enjoyed a blustery sunny day with the bride and groom who both looked fantastic.

we all enjoyed the superb food, washed down by a few glasses of wine, listened to some heartfelt speeches and danced the night away to a band who'd travelled all the way from south Wales to play for the happy couple.

anyone for croquet

the weekend rushed away but we all had such a great time and we feel blessed and refreshed as we look forward to our next adventures, to Madagascar and beyond!

islands at the fore

maz arrives backpack along a deserted beach......

If you've been following our progress over the last year or so you will see an amazing theme running through our lives, that being the fact that we seem to end up on some incredible islands and this last week or so has seen us add another to our list.

stunning sea views

However before we provide a short travelogue around our most recent trip to Jersey there is another island that is at the forefront of our minds, that being the fourth biggest island in the world, Madagascar. 

maz and franny catch up along another deserted beach

Again if you know anything about our lives we have made the huge commitment to return to that most needy island in September where we will be seeking to train up to 300 trainers who will take the Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' material into the wider poverty hit communities where we are certain that the training will make a massive impact on those peoples lives.

gorey castle

We are still looking for further support to help towards the costs of the trip, the main costs are both the international and internal flights and also the accommodation that we are looking to book as we host those we will be training on the week long training events.

out towards the west coast

If you feel you could invest a few well earned Pounds (or Dollars, Euros, Rand, etc) in the development of some of the most vulnerable people on the planet then please follow this link to our online giving page.

thanks.

Now for a short update on our recent trip to the most gentle of islands where we were blessed with a week with our lovely friends Rebecca and Lisa who live on the biggest of the channel islands.

strange beachscape 

I (Tim) met Rebecca many years ago when we worked together on quite a few projects around the island, since then both she and Lisa have visited us in South Africa and were great supporters towards the work that we undertook there at the Village of Hope.

Set only a few miles off the north coast of france, Jersey is normally blessed with slightly brighter weather than the rest of the United Kingdom, last week was not one of those weeks, although it was quite warm with blustery showers, however that didn't stop us getting out and enjoying the stunning scenery.

rockpooling

We were staying on the south side of the island, which has long sandy beaches and is home to the capital St Helier with its castle (St Elizabeth) sitting just outside the harbour wall. Jersey has one of the highest tides in the world with up to 20ft drop within three hours, this results in large rock pools which are a draw to children and adults a like.

Our days were filled with walks, runs (another blog post will follow about that exercise) and bike rides, in fact one day we ventured out for a short ride along the long prom, up and over the old railway line to a delightful lighthouse out on the west side of the island. 

maz even went for a swim....unusual!

The ride was supposed to be an easy with much of it spent on cycle paths and where we had planned to enjoy our bought lunch and a bottle of wine overlooking the stunning clifftops, but being us Walkers (or newly named Bikers!) we weren't not content with the view and the fact that the cafe was closed when we arrived we moved/cycled on, and on, and on, up hill and down dale, stopping for Maz to enjoy a swim across a cliff enclosed bay and for us to wolf down our now well earned lunch.

fresh seafood lunch with rebecca and lisa

In 2005 I had completed the 48 mile round island walk to raise funds for the work in South Africa and spent a total of 17 hours (in one hit) completing that, so I sorta knew where we were going, however by the time we'd made it back to the house we'd completed over 60kms on a couple of cross bikes (road frames, and seats!, with heavier duty tyres). I was so pleased with Maz who kept up so well and thoroughly enjoyed her time as we completed a whole lap of Jersey!

stunning sunsets

We were blessed to have the chance to meet up with a few other friends, Franny and Spencer, and Franny's sister Katie, who had all volunteered with us at the Village of Hope, after spending a couple of hours in the oldest pub on the island with Franny we joined her parents for a wonderful cooked dinner at their home in Gorey.

tour de jersey!

Amongst other things Maz also had chance to have her haircut, which she is very pleased to have sorted before a couple of weddings that we have been invited to later in the month, but as always it was all too soon to return to England where our lovely son Josh completed the drop off and pick up from Gatwick airport.

We do love island life........next one will be Madagascar in September, God willing!