Latest Newsletter

Don't worry - we've got plenty more to tell what's happened in the past few weeks; we just need time to edit and post them! Look for them very soon. In the mean time, have a look at our latest newsletter by clicking HERE!

LSE Retreat

With LSE's and the US team

Today I played driver! The team from the States took all of our Life Skills Educators on a day retreat to the city. The day did not go as the team planned, but it was a wonderful day out none the less. They planned a trip to Robben Island for everyone, but the ferry was under construction. So the plan changed to Table Mountain, but this morning we woke up to a thick fog and gail force winds! But as with everything, flexibility and adaptability is so key to adjusting to life in ministry - and the team were amazingly flexible. We squeezed the team of 16, and the 20+ LSE's into 3 vans and then the car that I drove. So instead of the set out plan, we went to the Company Gardens where Clynton (the Team House manager) gave us a nice little tour of the gardens. Then we headed over to the Slave Lodge for a very informative (and eye-opening) tour of South Africa's history of slavery. After which we headed over Signal Hill to hear the noon cannon firing and the see the beautiful view of the city. It was so nice for me to get out of the office and to be able to spend time with both the LSE's and the team. We drove back to the Team House via the beautifully scenic Chapman's Peak drive. I left them for lunch and the rest of their program - but what a wonderful distraction from my ordinary day!

Tours have become a lifestyle

People have started joking that we should become professional tour guides as we do lot of Living Hope tours and are becoming pros at it! Today we did the second tour this week for a group of 26 people. Included in the group was 3 Grannies from Alabama (the grandmother and great aunts of one of our missionaries), a family of 5 from SA and US, 1 from our church's social justice ministry and then the 16 from the team that arrived yesterday. The team is from Tennessee in the US and will be doing such a variety of projects in Red Hill this week. With such a big tour we had to divide into 2 vans and do an opposite tour - in other words we don't go to the same community or locations at the same time so that we don't seem like we are putting our clients and the people living in the communities we serve on display.

Home Affairs

This morning we made our way into the city for (what we thought was) Tim's interview for his residency at the South African Home Affairs in Cape Town. We met with our representative at the agency who is handling our application on our behalf to get briefed on the process. After making sure all our documentation was in order, we headed over to the Home Affairs offices. They sent another representative to escort us over and then yet another one met us at the offices - she waited in line on our behalf! Imagine that kind of service.. right? Well, that's what we thought. We walked right to the front of the Home Affairs line (which just felt wrong since there were so many people who have been waiting for hours) only to be told that Tim's application for Permanent Residency can not be processed until he gets his Temporary Residency approved - well of course not! Needless to say we are a bit disappointed that we had to go through all of that thinking we would be able to get his residency sorted, just to be told that we have to wait a few more months before we can even apply. Disappointed that the agency didn't take the time to tell us this before we went through all the trouble and time off of work. So please pray with us so that Tim's Temporary Residency gets approved and that we can then go ahead and process his application.

Singapore Team

With some of the team on the beach.

The team loved doing "jumping shots"

For the last few days we've had the amazing privilege of hosting a team of 26 people from Singapore. The group came out to Cape Town for a few days to see the city and to visit us at Living Hope. They first learned about Living Hope  Rich Stearns (President of World Vision)'s book "The Hole in our Gospel" and decided to send a team out here to come and see what we do and how they can partner with us. On Sunday they visited King of Kings and Masi Baptist Churches to see how we worship traditionally. Yesterday we took on a tour of all of Living Hope, but unlike the regular tour that just quickly visits all the sites and communities in 3 hours, we extended the tour to a full day to get them the full experience. They spend more time at Living Grace (the homeless ministry), Living Way (the economic empowerment ministry) and then joined Kids Clubs in 2 different locations. They were such a wonderful group and such a joy to have. They bring a completely different perspective to our ministry and is such a blessing to Living Hope.

Joining in on the "jumping shots" fun!

Happy Birthday Tim!

Today is Tim's Birthday!! We spent the day giving a tour to a large team and then the evening was spent with our Volunteers in our Small Group. Tracy, a long-term volunteer, baked Tim a beautiful cake! So it wasn't a particularly different day, but we had a wonderful day with friends out yesterday - a few of the volunteers treated us to a seafood lunch out! What a blessing and such a treat for the birthday boy!

A Year Ago Today!

1 Year Ago Today we departed on the trip of a lifetime - we left London on Feb 17, 2010! Can hardly believe that a whole year has gone by since we started the most exciting chapter of our lives so far!


Read all about it: http://changethruhope2010.blogspot.com/2010/02/day-1.html


We’ve decided to do something unique for covering the overland trip from London to Cape Town. We’ve decided to make it a continued feature over the next several months. So right now we’re featuring the preparations and departure from England, and the first days in Europe. We will come out with “new” blogs and pictures from what happened a year ago! So watch this space!

Catch Up Week!

This week we feel a bit out of sorts - Monday was the first day that we didn't have a team since Jan 7th! So we are digging ourselves out of piles of to-do-list items and playing catch up! It is a bit of a battle to sit still at a desk and work after having been in the field for all these weeks. But we have another string of exciting teams coming next week until April! So pray that we get everything that we need to do done to prepare for all the teams.

Happy V-day!

We are taking advantage of a pizza special and watching a movie at home! Haven't done that in over a year.. so very excited! Hope everyone feels the love around them today and most importantly from the One who is love! 

Thank You to Call 2 All

With Kona Call 2 All Team

This morning we had to say goodbye to yet another team – can you believe it – that have been here for just about a month! This team was especially special to me. They are a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Call 2 All team from Kona, Hawaii – where a friend of mine and I wanted to go and do DTS (Discipleship Training School) back when I was still a young South African figuring out what was next for me after my year as an Au Pair in the US. So I just loved hearing all about what they did and the experiences they’ve had. For this past month the team partnered with us and one of our local pastors in our smaller community of Red Hill to help set-up small groups within the community. These guys have been phenomenal in breaking down boundaries and helping us reach people by building relationships. Thank you so much to all of you guys and praying that God bless each and every one of you in whatever is next for you all.  

Eyes Opened

Tim managing registration!

Wow, what a week: In 5 days and a half dozen communities, over 700 people were examined, and nearly 550 reading glasses were distributed! The even more encouraging part is that each and every person was prayed for, and many accepted Christ! The week just flew by and we are just in awe of all that God did through this team this week. We helped with coordinating with the local Living Hope Support Group Facilitators to set up all the different clinics in each of the communities – but the team really are the ones who made this week what it was. They worked tirelessly to not only test everyone’s eyes, they also allowed a platform for tremendous counseling. There is something powerful in the personal touch of the up close eye test followed by the simple question: “Is there anything you would like me to pray for?” We heard some of the most heartbreaking stories from refugee teenagers facing rape pregnancies alone, to mothers struggling alone with abusive husbands and their drug abusive teenaged children. Being from the outside people (surprisingly) opened up to them like no one could have imagined. So many people got to see properly for the first time – but ultimately the most amazing part was how many spiritual eyes were opened and how many people made decisions to follow Christ! How humbling to be a part of it all.

New Team Arrival - Eye screening!

Today we welcome the fifth team of 2011! They are a team of 12 people from one of Living Hope’s church partners in Nashville, TN. This particular team is the first of its kind. They have come to conduct vision screening clinics in the community, which has never been done before. There is a great need for this sort of specialist work, particularly because there are very few affordable opportunities for people to get help. This team will be testing for near-sighted needs, and have brought over 700(!) pairs of donated reading glasses of various strengths. We’re hoping that the work done this coming week will just be the beginning to the possibilities for these kinds of teams to come and fill a significant void in our area. We are so blessed to have this opportunity!

Farewell to UD Intervarsity Team

After 29 solid days of being here, we said goodbye to the UD Intervarsity team. Their stay of nearly a month is more than twice as long as most teams do. We had a wonderful time getting to know them – and more importantly, the staff and clients with whom they worked got to know them better, too. What a great bunch of young adults! We’ll miss them; they became such a help to us on many fronts, from home-based care in Ocean View (4 of them were 4^th-year nursing students) to kids clubs in Capricorn, to serving at Living Grace homeless ministry, to general maintenance and improvements in various areas. We wish them all the best, as many return to class on Monday already!

First Newsletter!

Click here for our first ever newsletter: January 2011 Newsletter

Website Launch!

Today marks the official re-launch of our website, complete with fresh content that tells our story, what we’ve been up to, and what we’re doing now. It’s been a long time coming, but we trust that the Lord’s timing is perfect! We are so excited to share it with friends and family. In conjunction with the website launch, our first official newsletter comes out today. If you haven’t received it via email, you can download it on our website at www.changethruhope.com. Take a look!

New Long-Term Volunteer Arrival

Today we welcome Ellen to Living Hope! She will be with us for at least a year and will be serving in multiple roles. She will soon be licensed to practice as a nurse in our health care center and home-based care ministries, but her extensive experience in related missions will also be greatly appreciated in our prevention ministries, including support groups and health counselors. We are hopeful that Ellen will become a key part of our volunteer team at Living Hope. Praise the Lord for her arrival!

Living Hope Summer Project 2011

Today we officially launched our Living Hope Summer Project. Each year volunteers from the US, UK and Europe flock to Living Hope during OUR winter months and THEIR summer months! Since having all these volunteers here at once became more work than benefit for Living Hope, we decided to develop a program which allows volunteers to come be part of a meaningful ministry experience and ultimately be of huge help to Living Hope! Check it out - you might want to come spend a summer with us down here in Cape Town or send it on to those you know looking for summer ministry opportunities!

Click here for more info

Email us if your interested

Missions Training

We consider volunteers as ‘missionaries’ when they commit to staying with Living Hope for longer than 18 months. Those people not only come and make South Africa home for that time, but they also become a more “permanent” fixture in Living Hope’s support system as they assume key roles. There are six of such volunteers here now: Danielle, Melanie, Joey, Courtney, Natasha, and myself. Part of Natasha and my goals for 2011 is to periodically get this bunch together (not including our regular weekly gathering open to all volunteers) and invest in each other. The past two days, the six of us spent most of each day at our home to do leadership/discipleship training. We incorporated the Gallup StrengthsFinder (ref Living Your Strengths book), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Erwin McManus’ Character Matrix, and what the Bible says about spiritual gifts. It was an intense couple of days. As we initially reflect on the time together, we are encouraged to have learned more about each other in community – what great people we are surrounded by! We have also identified some positive areas where each of us can maximize our talents, abilities, and giftings for the Lord in 2011. In short, it was a great pep talk to kick off the New Year!

Volunteer Doctor!

Today we welcome Roslyn to our volunteer team. She’s a general practitioner and will be serving in our Health Care Centre during her time here. We’re so blessed that she’s here, and licensed to work in South Africa!  We’ve worked with her over the past few months to help her get temporary registration to practice. That means she can essentially work as a GP in South Africa, on a volunteer (non-paid) basis. We’ve been praying for a Christian doctor, and here she is – praise the Lord!

3 Times the Fun!

Well we definitely started 2011 off with a bang! Today was our first “official” day back at work and it was definitely a full day. We have 3 teams here with Living Hope who all start with us this week. We have an Adventures in Missions: World Race Team who will be helping out with Holiday Club in Ocean View. Then we have a church team from a partner church in Nevada, US who will be divided in 3: a OBGYN who will be training our clinic workers; 3 guys to help us do some construction; and a group of ladies who will be helping with Holiday Club in Masi. Then we have an Intervarsity group from a University in Delaware, US who will be with us for a month doing a variety of things.  So the Team House was nice enough to host a luncheon to welcome all the teams so that we could do a combined tour and orientation for everyone. We crammed the 30+ people in the living room and showed an introduction video and powerpoint before dividing into 3 vans to go off and see the different Living Hope sites. So great to have 3 teams here at once (I think a first for Living Hope), and there are some really incredible people on these different teams. It is a bit hard though to get to know individuals with such a big group. We got some good time with each of the team leaders over dinner and was so nice to able to speak face-to-face after months and weeks of emailing back and forth. Having time with the team leaders allowed us not only to get to know them, but also to properly discuss their ministry for the upcoming week/s. So this week should be really fun! 2011, here we go!

A Quick Vacation

We decided to take a quick break from everything and join my family on their annual vacation in Betty’s Bay for a few days. Little did we know just how much we needed this little vacation. We spent our time playing Apples-to-Apples with my little brothers, lazing on the beach and sandboarding down the massive dunes. It is such a beautiful part of the Cape and to be able to take some time out before the madness that kicks off tomorrow is such a blessing!

Howzit 2011!

The UN has declared 2011 the International Year of the Volunteer! How appropriate for us as it is our first year as volunteer missionaries - and everything we will be doing this year will be related to volunteers! Hopefully this will encourage more people to get involved in something and volunteer their time! It may be intimidating at first, but really - if God is calling you to it - it could be the most stretching, growing and rewarding experience ever.
This is our final week of “leave” before returning to regular work. The past few weeks have been a great time to spend relaxing and enjoying the festive season with others here – not to mention the beautiful summer weather! We’ve also taken some quality time to finish our website and look ahead to 2011 with refined vision and mission. It’s perfect timing as we look forward to the arrival of our first teams for the New Year – three at once!