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.

home is where the heart is.....

stunning sunset setting

it's really hard to know how to start this latest blog post as much of what we are going to be updating is basically normal life that we knew prior to us moving out to South Africa in 2008 and although we have been blessed with annual trips home it has to be said life in England has moved on and feels different to that which we left in 2008.

since arriving back from the Caribbean last Friday we have had the opportunity to catch up with some friends and family and so we hope that this post will give you a flavour of the times we have enjoyed back in our homeland.

maz and mandy enjoying some tidy up time

our base for this part of our journey has been with our good friends Trefor and Mandy who, with their family, have made it very easy for us to settle back in, their laid back approach to life certainly helps to give us the space we need to get our heads around some of the bigger questions that our filling our thoughts and they continue to be the blessing to us as we take this time of reflection and planning. it has also been great just to muck in with some daily tasks, such as a bit of gardening, but with the freedom to come and go as we please and we are truly thankful for their ongoing support.

marianne pampering maz!

There have been many highlights during the last week, from the opportunity to meet up with some old friends who we shared life with via our home groups that we led prior to us taking up God’s call for us to set up and run the Village of Hope to us having chance to enjoy one of the traditional English staple foods which we so miss when we are away….what food we hear you ask? The Great British Indian takeaway of course!

man on a mission

We enjoyed a quick trip up to London for a meeting and had the chance to wander down to Marble Arch and the West End of Oxford Street and Maz was also able to get her haircut, the first since we left South Africa in February, hasn’t she done well.

It was a blessing to visit our friend Marianne who pampered us for the morning at her beauty salon and even a visit to Milton Keynes shopping centre was not as bad as we had both feared.

perfectly braiied ribbetje

On Thursday evening I (Tim) was able to share my braai (think BBQ but over a full evening not a flash on a gas grill and run into the house to escape the cold and wet English weather which so many English people think is a braai) skills which were honed in Grabouw. Dave and Suzanne had visited us with their family a couple of years ago and were keen to bring back some good memories of just chilling, maybe even ‘Liming’ (see previous posts here!), around a fire, cooking food (including some lamb ribbetje, inspired by Jannie Wiegman Easter Braai a couple of years ago )and enjoying each others company. We were blessed with some unusually warm weather and a long twilight which eventually turned to darkness about 10pm.

liming at the braai....

alternative route for walkers

Whilst Maz enjoyed being pampered at the hairdressers I had the chance to take a longish walk in the beautiful countryside which surrounds our home town, the Chiltern Hills are such a haven of peace and it was great to spend some time with my Dad just walking some of the old paths that we’d enjoyed in my youth. In fact we walked part of the ancient path called the Ridgeway which is claimed to be Britain's oldest road.

We had to laugh at a signpost which announced that it was an ‘alternative footpath for Walkers only’, that certainly speaks into our lives at the moment!

emma's home!

The week ended with a visit to see Emma Podmore at her stately home (she is currently enjoying a much needed break with friends at Stowe School which shares the same design as Buckingham Palace), Emma, like us, gave up her secure job in England to follow God’s call to come serve with us at the Thembalitsha Foundation, Emma is such a blessing and we enjoyed spending the afternoon with her walking around the stunning gardens and having a bite to eat at the National Trust restaurant.

huffing and puffing

Over the weekend we were able to celebrate Maz’ Dad’s birthday a couple of weeks early as we will be away on the day and then spend the evening watching one of the most traditional English events, yup 'The Eurovision Song Contest', this surreal musical event brings back so many memories of our childhoods that we couldn't resist the chance to really immerse ourselves into the 'Euro culture' we have missed during our time in Africa. well done to Sweden who won for the sixth time, with a catchy song however we don't feel that this act will go on to replicate their 1974 winners success, ABBA, remember them? at least the entry from Great Britian got a few votes and beat those from France and Germany, but finished behind the Austrialian entry (we thought this was supposed to be an all European event!)

On Sunday afternoon we were joined by our middle son Josh and his girlfriend Haddy, amongst others, for a wonderful meal which was cooked by Trefor and Mandy 

selfie with josh and haddy

Finally at the end of that long list we must say that our week has been a total blessing with little to get up for and the opportunity to relax together, this was highlighted one afternoon as we got onto the trampoline (which sits in the garden) and took time to be still and stare into the sky, which at the time seemed so still and empty, however the longer we looked up the more activity we noticed, the sky was simply full of things buzzing around, huge aeroplanes either starting or ending their flights into the International airports of Heathrow or Luton, smaller planes and helicopters travelling more locally, Swifts and Swallows gliding and screeching above the stable yard, Red Kites and Kestrels hovering and then diving over the hills, tiny bees busying themselves with their pollen collection, and the sky filled with majestic clouds of all shapes and sizes. We have entitled this post ‘home is where the heart is’ and it must be said that England is a hard place to beat……

…..’to be in England in the summertime with my love’.

time stops for no man...

view from our beach chairs

we can hardly believe as we sit here staring out of our window here in rural Buckingham with rain falling from a slate grey sky that this time last week we were walking along the white sand beaches with the clear and warm blue ocean tempting us to cool off from the Caribbean sun.

the British certainly have an obsession with the weather and most of our friends and family have commented on the colour of us both, especially Maz, but it's true to say that weather certainly does have the ability to influence both ones mood and also the activities that can be undertaken, we feel so blessed to have been able to spend our last week in Barbados being able to walk from our beach front apartment into the glorious sunshine which greeted us every morning and we pray that God will bless England with some sunshine soon.

boardwalk around historic bridgetown

Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, is full of history mostly based around the sugar trade and they even have a statue of Lord Nelson, the great British naval admiral, his statue was erected in 1813 and the square, originally called Trafalgar Square, came into being long before the more famous one in London!
today the center of Bridgetown is a bustling little town full of local people going about their daily business, with a couple of streets dedicated to cater for the large volume of tourists who descend from their cruise ships to waste away their time

statue of nelson with bajan flag on church

in Barbados to shop 'duty free'. these cruise ships certainly dwarf the town when they dock on the newly constructed port and for a few hours a week the town and surrounding tourist sights become overwhelmed by these day visitors.

fortunately our little beach apartment was situated at the opposite end of town on the beautiful Carlisle Bay towards the more formal international hotels and tourist areas of St Lawrence Gap, which also cater for the thousands of visitors who make their way to this tropical paradise during the summer months, December through to April, however it seems that we were 'out of season' and the beaches were almost empty and apart from the local fitness enthusiasts who walked back and forth on the mile long beach religiously each morning and evening.

maz swimming with turtles

whilst Maz had been doing a bit of snorkeling in Grenada, and at the east of the island the week before, her dreams came true as the waters that surrounded our beach were full of shipwrecks, which have now been formally turned into a marine park, where brightly coloured fish and even Hawksbill sea turtles swam around to their hearts delight. 

storm a brewing over the ocean

there were local businesses offering to take us out to the wrecks on their party style catamarans however with Maz being such a strong swimmer she literally donned her mask and snorkel and swam out to be greeted by these stunning ocean creatures.


we did take an afternoon sunset ride on one of these catamarans, which plied us with some lovely rum punch throughout the trip, which took us up the west coast of the island to dive onto some of the multitude of coral reefs which are found along that coast, I'm (Tim) not that confident swimming in open water but I couldn't pass this opportunity by and joined Maz in the warm water to gawp at the awesome array of fish which ignored us to attend to their daily disputes over the best feeding areas on the reef. 

space to lime overlooking the beach!

during the trip we were surprised and excited to experience literally hundreds of flying fish jumping in front and round our boat, this has to be one of the strangest of natural sights in the world, these little fish jump out of the water and glide tens of meters before gracefully splashing back into the ocean, just a shame we couldn't capture this on our camera and oh yes they taste great fried too!

caribbean colours

our final week was made all the more enjoyable when we meet up with some local Bajan's who were holidaying in an apartment next to ours, Jennifer and Margaret not only hosted us for a cheese and wine evening but also joined us on the sunset cruise which was very enjoyable.

maz, jennifer and margaret liming on carlise bay

Andrew and Tracey, our initial contacts on the island also invited us round for a fish supper, cooked on Andrew's gas fired BBQ, and it was great to be welcomed into their home to meet their friends and family who certainly know how to have a fun time.

fish supper with andrew and his family

however all things must come to an end and on Thursday afternoon we made our sad way to the international airport for the long night flight back to England where we were greeted by Tim's mum and dad who had bought some cold but brightish weather with them.

brother mark's birthday celebrations

over the weekend we saw many family and friends, with birthday's to be celebrated and stories to be shared however we really can't believe that those last nine weeks are already over and we've having to adjust to being back in England, that said the journey is not over yet with many other exciting experiences awaiting us over the next few months and to be home for a while with family and friends is also very special.

family time....

sunday roast with family!

well we have been back in england for nearly two weeks now and although we are still feeling very sad to have left one part of our lives in south africa we have enjoyed some wonderful times with family and friends who are obviously very important to us.

'a traditional english meal' with beth and alex
(curry!)

firstly we were welcomed back by our great friends trefor and mandy who have once again made their home available to us and although we are having to process the fact that we have passed on the batten of the village of hope and the wider work we were involved with via the thembalitsha foundation in grabouw to others their home is a place of peace for us and we are truly thankful for that.

tref and mandy left for a well earned holiday over the first weekend so we had free reign to invite family over for a sunday roast, which was a time for us to catch up with mum's and dad's as well as sisters and brother in laws, josh also joined us which was great.

qpr v arsenal at loftus road with josh

after a few open days of chilling, which included a meal with beth and alex and the feeding of the dogs and horses and a trip to watch the mighty queens park rangers play arsenal at loftus road with josh, we made our way down to bristol to stepped up to the plate of being parents and grandparents to our boys and grandchildren.

birthday skype with uncle arry

football fun with uncle ash

we don't think anyone can really appreciate the sacrifice that we had/have made over the last six full years towards our paternal duties, to be a full follower of Christ we are called to pursue him with our full hearts and sometimes that means forfeiting those duties that the world would hold dear. during the time we have spent in south africa we have had to daily put aside all those thoughts towards our own family as we shared God's love towards those children we were able to provide a home to at the village of hope and or to go beyond ourselves to serve the community in ways which aren't fully understood or seen by others. in a way its the lack of recognition that encourages us to follow God into his calling however it's only when one returns to the 'normality of life' that we see back in england that one fully appreciates all that our family have had to endure during our time serving overseas.

reliving our african adventure with the boys photo book

after a weekend of birthday celebrations, long walks, church services, family meals, playing table football, cuddles with babies, skype meetings with arron, fun in the water with the grandchildren during a balmy spring day and a sickness bug (less said about that the better!) we made our way to spend a couple of nights with our friend and mentor mal calladine who guided us through some of our further planning of our sabbatical which was welcome and we value his wisdom and kind words.

so tomorrow we're off to the united states for the first time, where we will be visiting our american friends who we've made during our time setting up and hosting volunteers at the village of hope, we are praying for a safe flight and simple entry into the USA.