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!

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.

inside out

we've just returned from an incredible weekend away in Germany, with a short hop skip and jump across into Austria to cap it off. the reason for the trip was to watch one of our favourite singer songwriters who was 'supposed' to be in Munich as part of his european tour but the story of that can wait another day as the finer details are still emerging!

we were hosted by one of the students who we'd met during his time on the first Ukuqala team who had come to build the 'ecco' houses on the Village of Hope, we were blessed to receive three separate teams from the University of Stuttgart who joined us over three years and their work is still being enjoyed by the children and staff out in South Africa.

it was great to meet up with four of the students, who were only too willing to show us the sights, sounds and tastes of their newly adopted home city where they are all working. we truly walked our socks off as we explored no end of historic buildings, sampled some of the local brew and enjoyed the mainly pork based meals, including white sausage and the wonderful pork knuckle complete with sauerkraut and potato dumplings.

one thing you can't miss in either Munich or Salzburg (birth place of Mozart, and Julie Andrews apparently, ok maybe not her birth place but the filming of much of the cult movie 'the sound of music'!) is the huge amount of churches that dominate the skyline. in fact in Munich they have a height restriction that no building can be higher than their cathedral which is kinda nice.

the other thing that you'll find by reading the rest of this blog is that myself and Maz tried to visit all of them over the course of a couple of days, which is no mean feat but which is tough on the feet....and somewhat overwhelming for the senses.

now we both love churches and cathedrals and we also love architecture and ancient buildings so please don't get me wrong as i'm gonna share another of those thoughts that i hope won't be taken the wrong way...

...over the course of the last year there have been a number of times when the words of the famous R.E.M song come to mind....'that's me in the corner...losing my religion'.

there were times this weekend that those thoughts came racing back into my head, we'd stared at tens if not hundreds of golden icon's of 'the Christ' or 'mother and child' and stood in awe at the fresco's adorning the walls and ceilings of these magnificent buildings depicting such famous scenes as 'david and goliath' or 'the parting of the red sea', 'god's finger scribing the tablets of stone in the hands of Moses', 'saint Peter sinking in the stormy waters', 'Jonah being spewed onto an empty beach' or even 'satan tempting eve with a tasty looking apple', and i felt nothing, no connection with the creator, the loving God whom these images and icons are supposed to represent, to bring us closer, nearer, inside and who told us to love one another.

all i wanted to do was cry, cry because of the lostness of it all, the gold, the time and the effort in keeping all this spinning.....and i felt distant, not distant from god per se but distance from the God who flung the stars that filled the heavens above us as we wandered through the silent city of Salzburg in the middle of the night without the hussle and bussle of tens of thousands of tourists who we'd shared the day with, or who'd imagined the intricate detail of the leaves on the trees that adorn the tranquil 'English garden' in the middle of the third biggest city in Germany.

the song of the blackbird, the scent of a rose, the babbling stream, the rushing river, the magnificent mountains, the snow capped tops, the green fields, the rolling hills, these are a few of my favourite things......ooops just a tad too much like Maria there then!

over the years i've felt more connected to God as i've looked into the eyes of a child living with HIV in South Africa, stood in the midst of a tiny thatched church in Madagascar, stood rooted to the spot as an elephant mock charged me in Botswana, swum with turtles in Barbados or held the hand of a loved one in England.

am i losing my religion or have i lost my faith in the men who have created a religion which is becoming more and more removed from where i stand, from where i receive my renewal, from where i feel more alive...

....i think i'm inside out.



no photos but i've put a few up on my instagram

a time to pause....

Maz' mum with our eldest grandson
(now 6 years old!)

you may have noticed how quiet the blog has been over the last month, or maybe you didn't, either way we wanted to update you on whats been happening since we arrived back from Madagascar.

well the long and the short of it is that we have mainly been spending valuable time with Maz' Mum (Judy) who sadly passed away last Monday evening at the Florence Nightingale hospice at Stoke Mandeville hospital.

it was amazing to be able to share the last few days with this incredible women who has been such an encouragement to us and it was also great that we have been hosted by Maz' sister (Viv) and brother-in-law (Mark) who live near enough to the hospice that we were able to walk up to see Judy.

capturing a young Judy

it's never easy to say goodbye but we are so thankful that Judy was well for us to fully engage with her and that we were able to share some further special times with her which included over these last few weeks. these included a visiting a local pub for a traditional english roast lunch with Maz and Viv, enjoying a fresh roast pork roll from the spit BBQ at the Whitchurch village Mayday feast and for us to make several visits to her at home prior to her admission into the hospice.

celebrating Judy's life with friends and family 

Maz and Viv have been a great support to each other too and for them to have this time together has also been very special. 

we are pleased to be able to continue to stop with Mark and Viv until our future plans become clearer.

there are so many memories we could share here but then again that might take you a few days to read through, so we'll end off by saying a huge thank you to all of you who have prayed or lifted us up during this time and please continue to think of Maz' Dad who is now having to cope without the love of his life 

below is a poem that I (Tim) wrote and read at the funeral.

Judy late last year......

Stop the world!

doesn't anyone know that earth has just lost an angel? 
Life continues on as before,
trains chug along their well set tracks,
planes scratch the sky with trails so white in their wake,

even the tiny birds sing their merry little songs 

Stop the world!
doesn't anyone know our love one has just passed away?
Life continues on as before,
children whoop with delight in their play,
cats sleeping for most of the day,
even the traffic lights still maintain their colourful cycle, red to amber, amber to green, then red and on again and on again

Stop the world!
doesn't anyone know our loved one has stepped across the thin line between life and death?
Life continues on as before,
babies cry for their milky bottles,
Church bells sound out their jolly peel,
even the clocks maintain their ticking and their tocking, tick, tock then tick then tock

Time and tide stop for no man although many have tried in vain and tried and failed again
So the grains of sand have all made their slow but steady way to the bottom of the hour glass
And now all we have are our memories,
of happier brighter more joyful days,
when summers were longer,
snows much deeper
and life was happy and gay

Stop the world!
Doesn't anyone know that our loved one has joined the throngs who've gone before at peace at last?
And life continues on as before,
but not for us,
not today,
today will always remain the day that you passed away! 

a challenging poem....

I (Tim) have been writing poems for a year or so now which I have found helpful as I try to process things that I've seen or been part of. The following poem has been a 'work in progress' for a month or more now and was birthed out of a situation we found ourselves in whilst in Madagascar.

It has taken me a while to have the 'courage' to post this on the blog as I know that it could be received in many different ways by many different people, however it was during the church service yesterday that I felt that I couldn't hold this back. 

The 'worship band' played a song which I'd heard about before but I'd never been in a 'service' when it had been played, so as I scanned through the words (not wanting to sing anything that I didn't truly believe) I was taken aback by the chorus which went something like 'I'll go anywhere Lord, I'll do anything Lord', I just couldn't sing that.

Throughout my life I've worked in the townships around Cape Town in South Africa, stayed with families in the rural Xhosa homelands in the Eastern Cape, visited HIV centers in Uganda, spent time sharing with inmates in a prison in Toamasina in Madagascar, as well as living in a remote village with the threat of malaria carrying mosquitoes, I've even taken time to work with challenging children and the handicapped here in England.

All of which has driven me to tears and compelled me to 'think of others before myself' to 'see everyone as my brother or sister' however it is only by the grace of God that I have been able to do that as my 'inner man' is screaming 'I just want to get back to normality!', the normality of my family, the daily routine, the life I used to live.

I don't really want to go to those most challenging places in the world, well at least not live there with the problems so therefore I couldn't bring myself to sing those words. I could have sung, 'I'd like to think I could go anywhere Lord' but to sing with my eyes shut hold my hands in the air with conviction seemed so hypocritical. 

The following poem isn't meant to point any fingers, the finger pointing is at myself and my heart so here goes.

Thoughts of a street child

I'm that child, the one with no name,
Remember on Saturday when I came,
With the others like me to share a meal,
I like those days they make me feel real.

You told me a story about a man from above,
A God man who died to show me his love,
He lived long ago, spent time with the poor,
Showed them compassion and opened his door.

You told me he loves you and that's why you love me,
And if I love him then surely I'll see,
That the way we behave will change for the best,
By sharing our all so others feel blessed.

You sing about him with your eyes closed tight,
Ready to do battle to take up the fight,
To reach those outside and bring them in,
Into a Kingdom where there is no more sin.

But today you don't see me or give me food,
You seem rather angry and treat me so rude,
Did I do something wrong what's different today,
Turing your back your eyes look away.

Why is Monday so different and Wednesday too,
Your making me feel bad what did I do?,
Its like I'm invisible you don't even see,
I thought you told me that you'd been set free.

I'm really confused now that I'm not even seen,
Was the man with the food all just a dream,
You seem too busy as you get in your car,
Driving away like a Hollywood star.

You said you followed that man from on high,
'He's changed my heart' I heard you oft cry,
'If you change yours too then all will be fine',
And then something about 'him being divine'.

But maybe this God doesn't love me, I'm far too poor,
I watch how you treat me and I don't know the score,
You act one way when it suits your needs,
But my life never changes no matter how good your small deeds.

My stomach is empty most of the time,
And the food you provide makes me feel fine,
But by Thursday the pains they cripple and hurt,
And most of the time I live in the dirt.

So I'm thinking of stop coming to the Saturday lunch,
When I see others like you, your kind of bunch,
And I'll stop on the streets with the other like me,
Dreaming of the God man who died on a tree. 

just a few photos from our Madagascar trip......

well we've arrived home and found some stable and reliable internet which has enabled us to upload some of the photos, we're sorry about the amount and there was probably a better way of sharing these, the way they are ordered is all over the place as well which is a shame but hey we hope they will enable you to capture the spirit of the trip!

tim getting to grips with driving 

tim teaching at love 'n care

tim sharing 'leadership for life' with huge church congregation

our flight via helicopter into the bush areas

we spot the remote village!

tim teaching in the village along the pangalanes

tim teaching

maz arrives in the remote village to literally crowds of
 hundreds of excited people

quad bike tour

our new home

simple street sellers

tim gets animated during prison training....

remote beaches

enjoying the heat!

shopping at the local street stalls

standard street scene

training the 'love'n care' teachers

traditional pirogue at the village along the pangalanes

the TV crew turned up to interview the prison admin staff
who had attended our 'leadership for life' sessions

night time temperatures didn't drop too much!

maz arrives with our three day
supplies as we stayed in the remote
village along the pangalanes

cooking facilities

our village location

maz found a happy place for some down time

the new bethel school with theo

life of a fisherman

with little to show after a hard mornings work!

now we need to find the five loaves!

maz and theo translating the training into malagasy

maz happy with her handiwork

lets go fly a kite

street children feeding programme prayer time!

our visit to the mercy ships

members of the ACAT network who attended our training

the school kitchen - anyone for dinner?

the school water supply

selfie with the street children at the overnight shelter

training with the 'love'n care' teachers

maz arrives via helicopter in the remote village

bush football pitch where the guys are using the
'village of hope' sports outreach material!

everyone going bananas

village life, sorting the stones from the rice!

 dear 'mama be' resting after her long
walk each morning to attend the training!

feeding of the 500...children at bethany school

tim gets a much needed hair cut!

maz sharing with over 70 church members 

maz leading training

our accommodation in sainte marie isle, not too shabby!

local fishing scene

training at mercy ministries

quad bike view

time off at the beach...hurrah!

traditional malagasy noddles 

training the prison admin staff

how many people can you fit into a tuk tuk...
with chris and claire

busy beaches

stunning sea!

key team of people that will help plan our return visit!

teaching in the prison

maz getting animated!

gonna miss these guys.
frances, pastor fidi, me, cho and young brother theo!

a colonial end to our trip, breakfast on the lawn!

the long trip home via the seychelles and abu dhabi