whoa halfway there, whoa living on a prayer!

Maz helping people to lay down new mindsets
that are like 'railway lines in our heads'

I just had a feeling that I should post an update and was shocked to see that our last post was way back at the end of January, you guys must be so feeling left out and I'm sorry about that!


No excuses really, we have busy lives but so do all of you too, however in this quick update we will try to share some of the experiences we have had during our last seven weeks in South Africa and as you'll see from the title of this post we are just over halfway in this three month stint in this awesomely crazy country.

living life on the back foot!

As you'll imaging most of our time has been taken up with the delivery of the Emerging Leaders 'Leadership for Life' programme and since the last update we have successfully completed the four module programme with five farms, one pack house and two sets of school teachers in local primary schools the Elgin/Grabouw valley and beyond!

its been a bit warm

Not only have we completed those complete programmes but we are now onto our second round of engaging with the connections that we made since arriving back, we are now sharing the leadership principles with another farm in Stellenbosch, the local government (many of whom join us from towns over 100kms away!), some local Non Government Organisations (NGO's) and a small local community, all of which has been very very exciting as we see people lift up their heads and start to see transformation in their own lives and the lives of their families as they understand that they all have 'amazing amazing potential' and it's their thinking that holds them back from writing the story they want for their lives.

This transformation might all sound a little too easy and I don't blame you if you are sitting there thinking that there are many other factors that keep us from writing that story for our lives, but from what we have seen, not only here but also in Madagascar and what we are hearing from our colleagues who are working all around the world sharing this awesome programme, is that people are literally waking up and seeing that they are leaders, that they can start thinking new thoughts and that leaders exist for the benefit of others.

Maz helping people to remember to 'Change something'

To give you an idea of what some people are saying as we gain feedback from the modules we have captured a couple of stories below.

'my family and friends don't know who I am now, I used to be so grumpy, I shouted at my children, didn't really care for my husband and people at work didn't ever want to be around me as I wasn't very friendly, but now I have decided that it was me that needed to 'Change' and so I did change and people are surprised at how nice I am, my children are behaving differently because I am calmer, our family and home is a better place to be, I didn't wait for others to change it had to start with me and now my work colleagues are friends and we chat and I am beginning to write a new story for my life, the life of my family and my work'

Maz engaging the Iona farm workers to 'Focus'

'I was involved in a car accident about a year ago and was owed money from the insurance but nothing ever came from them, I began to give up hope but thought that I needed to 'See and take responsibility' so I called them, it ends up that they were sitting on the money that was owed to me but didn't have the correct contact details, as soon as I phoned everything was sorted and I feel happy that the money is coming through, I had to be 'Proactive' and that has made a big difference in my life'

The last module of the programme is based around people doing something for others for free, 'creating a project for the benefit of others', we help them work through the steps from getting from the reality of today to see the vision for what that project will look like. there have been so many amazing ideas, from setting up soup kitchens to collecting money via a 'savings circle' that will be spent on buying the children on the farm a Christmas present, during this next month we will be running follow up workshops with all the people we have shared the programme with and can't wait to hear about how they have started to see themselves as leaders in the very communities where they live.

mine, mine, mine

As with your lives it hasn't all been work work work, even living in a place like Elgin feels like a holiday at times, the stunning summer sunshine, the blue skies, craggy topped mountains, the wildlife, the wine and even the cooling breeze certainly make our 'downtime' easier. We've been going out for walks, even jogging and running up and down the steep hillsides which are covered with vines or apple trees bearing their fruit for the harvest.

The view over our duck pond and vineyard

We've also been working in a small town called Wolesley which is situated about two hours drive from Grabouw, the journey through the mountains is stunning but one afternoon we decided to plan ahead and booked to stay a night just outside the town so we could be ready for the delivery of the programme which was set to start at 8am the next morning. The little cottage was located on a butternut squash farm and overlooked the Bree river, it was a perfect little spot to chill, braai and watch the birdlife which teemed around the banks of the near on empty river.

Our weekend container home

This past weekend we spent some time away with some good friends, they had booked an Airbnb which was located on the side of the mountains overlooking the Botriver lagoon, further out to Bettys Bay and Hangklip, we could also catch a glimpse of the high mountains that overlook Grabouw, including Hanskop with its sugar loaf shape with radio masts on top. the accommodation was set in a recently converted shipping container which was equipped with a full kitchen, toilet, double bedroom and a bunk room which myself and Maz shared. outside it had a wood-fired hot tub and we enjoyed the views, walks and stargazing into the south hemisphere skies.

Lynn playing a 'team game' with the teachers at Umyezo

We also received a visit from our pastors from England, Steve and Lyn Burnhope from Aylesbury Vineyard, Lyn joined us for an afternoon at one of the schools and it was great for her to see what we had been up to!

Anyways best go now, but just to say that it has been wonderful to work with our friends at ThembaCare, who joined us with other NGO's as we shared with them, and a highlight of our most recent time must have been the weekend away we shared with around 25 young people who came to join us on a weekend retreat and who live in

the young people on our weekend retreat from Khayelitsha

Khayelitsha, the massive sprawling township that sits between Cape Town and Somerset West, we shared the basics of modules one (Lead Yourself) and two (Lead Your Team) with them and we are so looking forward to hearing how they have started to apply those leadership thoughts to their lives when we chat through with their Pastor (who's from South Korea) and whom we met in Madagascar earlier this year!

Bye for now.....