Half Way

Half way!! We have reached the halfway point of our time in Zambia. It turns our thoughts to home and leaves us with many mixed emotions, excitement at the thought of seeing our family and friends, and anxiety at leaving these people and this place. It is so hard to believe that we have been here for nearly 6 months. In some ways the time as flown by, and in other ways it seems like we have been here forever. I think these next 6 months are going to fly by. Tracey and Ray and their boys are coming to Zambia next week and we are excited to show them our life out here. It will be so great for our boys to get to see their cousins and share Africa with someone their age. There are teams scheduled to come and our big kids have flights booked to come at the end of April. We are counting down the days until we can hug them.

Life in Africa is beautiful and hard. It is so special getting to know the kids here and as time passes we get to know them more and more. The ones who were a little shy when we first arrived are less so, and it has been nice getting to know the ones who hang out more in the shadow of the louder outgoing children. With getting to know them you hear more stories of what life was like for them before coming to Grace. There are stories of heart break that are unimaginable to us. Babies that are abandoned, death of mothers in childbirth, grandparents raising their grand children and can’t afford to take in another. Stories of children being sold, used to work on farms, left sitting in a corner of a room because they are disabled. Where we are is indeed a Place of Grace. A place where each child that comes through the gates is given a new chance at life. Please pray for these beautiful children. Not only that they get their physical needs met, but also that they know that there is a God that loves them dearly and they are here for a reason. There is a purpose for their lives.

On the home front things haven’t changed much. Lucas and Levi are still working on homeschool. Levi loves that he can go work with AJ any time of the day and would choose work over school all the time if that was allowed. This is one of his favorite things about living in Zambia, working with his dad:) Lucas loves all the gross jobs like butchering chickens and pigs and he happily goes out to help with those things. Along with taking care of supplies at Grace, I (Laura) have just started volunteering at the school a couple afternoons a week helping some of the kids with their reading skills. It is nice having things to keep us busy during the day.

Since our arrival we have been attending Kitwe Church in, you guessed it, Kitwe. This is a city about 1.5hrs away from our home in Ndola. This church was recommended to us so that we would have other missionary families to connect with. We initially split our time between the church at Grace and Kitwe Church, but for the last few months we have been attending more regularly in Kitwe. We have made some valuable connections and friends, and very much look forward to our time worshipping with them, and then spending the afternoon together. There are some amazing people and ministries here, Life Song, Living Hope, Abbas Heart, CABU to name a few. They also run a fantastic youth group that our boys attend, and they too have made many friends there.

Construction has been quite busy and productive: The youth center is nearing completion and I think it looks great! We’ve painted the ceiling, installed pvc ceiling in the offices, primed the entire building, installed the exterior stone and beams and wired in the lights. The terrazzo floor is just completed. For those not familiar with terrazzo, its a concrete floor topping about 1″ or 25mm thick which is polished flat and smooth. Its a very sturdy floor and will last for years without any special care.

When hiring a trade like the terrazzo installers, its not like at home where the contractor will supply everything, bring their own lunch, and drive to work etc. Here, the price is really for the labour and expertise. The sand, gravel, cement, pvc, and polishing stones are bought and sourced by us, sometimes even having to go to various different cities to get everything! Transport is provided for all the workers, and lunch also.

We also have resumed work on the shop! The weather wasn’t super cooperative while we poured the slabs, and the rental power trowels were a bit tempermental, but we still managed to get a pretty nice finish on the floors. I’m sure any VanMar staff reading this will be happy to know I pour concrete in the rain in Zambia too! 😂😂 The shop has been a dream of many people for years and it is great to finally see the walls going up!!

One of the other jobs we have done is replace the cabinets in Felson house at Mwaiseni which is the boys dorm when they are in university. The old ones were in very poor condition and they were more of a roach hotel than kitchen storage. There are still a few items to complete, like a range hood and countertops, but I think it looks great so far.

Thanks for following along!