settling in to life back in South Africa

saturday chillout at Camps Bay

we'll we've been back in South Africa for two weeks exactly and it seems like we have never been away, it's been wonderful to see old friends and to make new ones as we undertake the work that we have been set for the next three months.

we certainly 'hit the road running', landing on Sunday morning, picking up our rental car and travelling to the stunning accommodation in Grabouw that will be our home for the next three months. we unpacked our meager luggage into the huge wardrobes and then set about delivering the Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' programme to a group of school teachers on the Monday.

working with the farmworkers

a lot of the preparation for the first month of the three months that we are going to be based here was done in November and December so we haven't stopped since arriving. 

each of the four modules lasts about three hours and we have worked on two different farms with three groups of people, two schools and a large packhouse, delivering 13 modules over the first ten days.

the awesome Pool Room

if you have been following our story you will know that the Leadership for Life programme is very interactive and its been great to see people open up, to start to see themselves as leaders, in whatever they are doing in their lives, to start to pick up their 'life pen' and look at what it might take to write a new story for their lives.

xhosa farmworkers

we have also had some great meetings, both with the exporters of the fruit which is grown in South Africa and with some influential people in local government and other businesses who are very excited to see how the programme can impact the hearts and minds of the wider communities that live 'beyond the farm gates'.

maz and some of the teachers

it is our dream to have the new 'Lead Now', children's programme, piloted in a couple of the local schools so its very important that the school teachers are understanding and living out the leadership principles that make up the programme. it has been wonderful to work with these people and we hope that they will now be 'seeing themselves as leaders' as they provide the role model and examples to the children that they teach.

working together on our 'Here to There'

we did enjoy a 'date night' out at the Pool Room at Oak Valley, where we were welcomed with open arms by Gordon and Emma who own that awesome restaurant, we also went into Cape Town and had our hair cuts sorted by the guys at 'Scar' and we spent the couple of Saturday's at the beach, first at Camps Bay and yesterday in Hermanus, we also went into Cape Town to watch the third T20 cricket international between South Africa and Sri Lanka.

SA lose to Sri Lanka at Newlands

it is also lovely to have our 'own' space, to be able to relax, read and enjoy the beautiful views that surround our rental home, we have both been running around the vineyards and apple orchards which also helps us to relax and unwind.

new haircuts

this coming week is another busy one so we'll update via Facebook as and when we can but till next time please keep us in your prayers as we firstly look for a longer term solution to our extremely high rental car costs and as we see those that we are working with 'lift up their heads' and start to see a different future for their lives, the lives of their families and their communities.

so that was Christmas 2016......

Grandad playing subbuteo with Alfie!

well it's been over a month since we last posted and once again so much has happened since our last update, as we sit here back in sunny and warm South Africa we can hardly believe that Christmas 2016 has passed, however we move into 2017 with excitement and expectation, we hope you do too!


as a brief update we enjoyed a wonderful month in England celebrating the Christmas season with our family and friends which was a true blessing and one that we wouldn't have wanted to have missed for the world, we hadn't seen these precious people since leaving for Madagascar on the 6th September and what with our current scehdule won't see them again for another six months! ;-(

we arrived home in time to celebrate Maz's sisters birthday which was important to us as she and her husband have been hosting us for all of the time we were 'at home' in 2016, it was a lovely evening in the fancy dress theme of 'the 1950's'.

it's Christmas!

we also managed to get to see Josh (our middle son) and his fiances new home in London before rushing down to Bristol to join our eldest son (Chris), his wife and our three awesome Grandchildren to help out with some 'babysitting' prior to spending Christmas Day with them and seeing the children enjoy that special day.

New Year eve was a blast from the past, where we spent it with our good friends, along with their children, we must be honest and say that we didn't get to bed too early and were soon up again to travel to Northampton to spend New Years day with Tim's sister and brother in law, his Mum and Dad, Faith, Joel and Charlotte (who were married earlier in the year (2016). 

Grandchildren full of delight

whilst we didn't experience the 'white Christmas' we had wished for we did spend a night in Tim's sisters summer house without any heating which certainly tested our resolve as the temperatures dropped below freezing, however we soon warmed up as we ran about 7 miles around a local reservoir the next morning!

Happy 2017 everyone!

our friends at the Aylesbury Vineyard church made us feel welcome as usual and we very much enjoyed their carol service and had a chance to share our vision for 2017 with the congregation prior to our return to South Africa last Sunday. 

one note of sadness was that we didn't get chance to see our youngest son (Arron) who was sailing away to the Caribbean with his new job, however we are looking forward to catching up with him during some special days in 2017, more news of which will follow shortly.

a New Years run...welcome 2017

so we sit here with the doors of our rented home open to the sounds of Africa which are bursting through the darkness with great expectation of what is in store for us both in 2017, some known, like a trip to Uganda following this time in South Africa, prior to a return to Madagascar for a month or so in May and some unknown, we hope you will continue to journey with us and we thank you all again for joining us so far.