Teamwork

Hi friends, another some months have passed and I am yet again late on updating you all. Our days have been full and exciting and we can’t wait to share with you all that God is doing here. We quite rapidly rolled over into cool season here, well the Zambians call it cold season, but I think us Canadians will save the term cold for temperatures below zero! Though, the nights are quite cool here and we do find our selves wearing an extra layer. Mornings here have been exciting as we have repurposed and old water cistern to be our little mini pool and have been doing our 3 minute “polar plunges” haha. With temperatures dropping over night to a whopping uhh 10 degrees…cough cough… we heat sensitized white folk of Zambia definitely get a good shock to the system dropping in that beauty of a pool every morning. But seriously, Praise be to God for this cooler weather as we thought we would never experience “cold” water while here in Africa. Thank you God for the little things in life that remind us of our homeland! There is a lot to update you all on, from a wonderful visit with friends, a trip to Livingstone, maize harvest, farm development, Miltons adoption and much more. Let’s dive in!

Kara and Josh Braaksma, our dear friends and their three children came out to visit us. Kara is the one who first proposed the idea of us going to serve in Zambia. She is on the Board of Directors at Seeds of Hope and is a Registered Nurse heading up the Seeds of Hope Medical Team in Canada that tends to any serious medical issues amongst the Grace kids. During her time here, not only were we able to have a blast serving together in Zambia, but we were able to really help guide and implement new practices and protocols when it comes to the health and wellness of the kiddos here at Grace. We were able to put together a medical room to organize all the medical supplies, we are so blessed to have here, to make it easier to provide organized and effective medical care to the children. Mama Susan, Kara and I and all the kiddos did some fun trips into town to gather supplies for the Grace kids, which was a great learning experience for our children. They got to see how much money and work goes into buying toiletries and shoes for almost 150 kids. During the Braaksmas time here we travelled 18 hours by bus with all of our children to visit the beautiful Livingstone National Park. While there, we visited a beautiful hotel, we got to walk the cliffs around the majestic Victoria Falls, we were able to do an evening cruise down the Zambezi River, observing the sunsets glow on many ginormous hippos and other wildlife. We then got to go on a jeep Safari where we encountered elephants, lions, giraffes and more and then ended the trip with another river cruise. The time there was a wonderful opportunity to just kick back and enjoy some of the wild nature of Africa. We really enjoyed our time on this trip and will forever appreciate the lifelong memories made on it.

My last post was about the Maize crop and God sustaining it amongst a serious drought and now, wow how the time has flown by, we have harvested and sorted the bounty. Although we only got 50% of a normal harvest, the piece workers from the community who did the harvesting could not believe the crop we got, many others in Zambia were not as fortunate. Thank you God for your provision over the orphans. Karl was grateful for the wonderful helpers when it came to harvesting this crop. It is heavy work moving the full bags, but with the hard work of our team we were able to get it all done in a timely manner. Speaking of the team, Karl has really seen God at work in the teams morning devotional time. The men have begun opening up to Karl and have begun asking questions despite the stigma here of “Dont confront the white man”. Sometimes morning study can go on for 45 minutes and can get quite intense. We are really grateful for this time to really connect with our team, especially Karl with his guys and are so encouraged seeing the walls breaking down between them. Karl has again been pushed out of his comfort zone by near daily leading study and continually being urged by the Holy Spirit to ask the hard questions and stand up for the truth, whether accepted or not. I say, again, because before we left for Africa, Karl was frequently sharing at our home church and this really was a huge step out of his comfort zone. We are grateful how these continued steps out of his comfort zone have really grown him spiritually and although it has been hard for him, he appreciates that the push has allowed him to really build some great relationships with his team. Writing on this whole topic, reminded me of a funny story. In one of our first posts I had told you guys Karl has been laughed at, yelled at and questioned many many times because he always works with the guys at the feed store to load bags in the big truck. Well, I guess he’s creating a reputation! With the farm he is constantly having to rip out for feed, saw dust, farm supplies and so one day amongst his errands he stopped at the feed store and began loading up the heavy feed bags he just ordered. A local guy comes running up and says hey hey your that guy they are talking about, haha the Crazy White Guy they call you. Karl looks at him funny and says what do you mean, he says with his biceps flexed, the big guy who can lift the bags all by himself. Bahahhaa Karl is going to be so mad at me for sharing that story! But hey I hope it made you laugh! Don’t get us wrong here though, there are so many guys eagerly waiting for the Mosongoos (what they call us white folk) truck to show up to make some money, but its just so against Karls grain to stand there so he gives them the opportunity to work, but also throws some bags. The thing about this place that has been one of the biggest adjustments is pace. Things go so slow here at times, that sometimes you want to just say, “let me do it myself, I got stuff to do!” But, God, has been gracious to us and has taught us a lot about patience while out here. There are a lot of stories when it comes to town outings and loading feed bags. Another time I snuck out on a date with Karl to pick up feed and was helping him load with two other local guys. This random guy started yelling at us in Bemba (the language in this area) that we shouldn’t be buying up all of Zambias feed and selling it in the Congo, this was the interpretation from the local guys helping us, before we could respond he took off. Little did he know that feed was going to a very good cause. Maybe God will cross our paths again with that guy.

I finally got in to the greenhouses to get some photos for you all. Karl and Clement the 

Local Farm Manager here have been crunching numbers to see what the demand is from the cafeteria in order to know how much we have to produce. Currently, we are producing more than we need here and are selling a lot to community. In order to best prepare Clement for when we go, we want to hone in the operations to only what is needed for cafeteria consumption and then maybe focus more on over producing one or two of our big money makers to put farm profits back into the cafeterias pocket, giving them more money to spend on things we don’t have in season or don’t grow. Oh something exciting has started up on the farm. Clement and Karl are heading up a class on Agriculture, teaching the high school kids the basics of farming. It has been a blast seeing this kids getting their hands dirty and enjoying some time out of the classroom. This class is a real blessing because these kids are going to know food security, if they know how to grow foods from scratch and even learn input/output to potentially sell their products as well. We are excited to see how this class develops. 

This is Okra!

This is our first Potato Plant! What a challenge these potatoes have been!

Karl and the Construction Team are deep into the Piggery build. You can check it out in the pictures below. We also just had a litter of piglets and have changed our feeding regimen a bit. They are looking so healthy! I will try and get Karl to jump on here via video in a later post to walk you all through the Piggery when it is complete.

Many of you have been asking about Miltons adoption. Things are at a stand still unfortunately. The document we need in order to obtain authority to start the whole process is in the hands of someone who does not want to send it off, for whatever reason. We know God is bigger than the system here and so we are just continuing to pray and trying to find a balance on how much to push the people in charge of the process. When Kara was here we had hosted some doctors from the local Children’s Hospital for a lunch to get to know them more. We found out that one of the Doctors there was the Doctor that admitted Milton when the Police brought him in to be tended to. From the start all we knew was that Milton had been dumped somewhere as a fresh newborn. Learning a little more about his story from the doctor and just the fact that the Lord had us meet was such a beautiful thing. Milton is really becoming part of the family. He sure loves Karl, his new Daddy, and so often despite the black skin, hair and eyes, people often comment how Milton looks like Karl haha. Maybe its the big head or big hands, but whatever it is we get a good laugh and feel the love for this sweet boy grow even more. That being said, you don’t understand how different it is taking in someone elses child until you do it. I think its been hardest for me to adjust to Milton in our home.  I can say now I love this boy and can’t imagine life without him, but its taken some time to get here. Its a different bond with him than with my other children, that I didn’t expect would be there. We kind of just jumped right in when we felt confirmation that this is what God wanted for our family and so maybe it was how quick he came into our home or maybe the fact that he is not our own or we haven’t spent enough time together. Some people may judge me for saying all this, but I am just being transparent and I hope that my story can maybe help someone who feels the same or is considering adoption and needs to hear a different perspective. Karl and I are fully committed to Milton, we will be his greatest advocates and we will do all that it takes to bring this boy home with us because I do truly believe that’s what’s best for Milton, but we don’t know Gods plans. What we do know though is Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Even though selfishly I may find it hard at times, I know that for Milton I am to love him with all that I got. He is a child of God that deserves everything my other children do because it wasn’t his choice to be brought into this world and left swaddled alone and hungry at the side of a soccer field. A fellow sister in Christ had a very good perspective, God didn’t design it to be this way, he did not design the family unit to be broken and children left orphaned and so we aren’t doing a natural thing, we aren’t loving a child that God breathed into our womb, that we grew and bonded with for nine months. Adoption is one example of a way we can practice sacrificial love. So I really think acknowledging that it may be different, it may feel different, is not something to be ashamed of, but more so to be aware of. We need to just constantly remind ourselves that our sole purpose for Milton is to train him up to love and serve God for as long as the Lord allows us to.

I am sure there is way more to update you all on, but that’s all I can think of for now.

Blessings in Christ to all who read this.

If anyone would be interested in supporting a child in the care of Seeds of Hope Childrens Ministry please follow the link below to find out more about where there is a need and how you can help. We can say first hand that your support goes a very long way for these special children. 

https://seedsofhopecm.com/

Praise Items:

That we have such an amazing team of dear friends lifting us up daily in prayer.

Gods provision over our health and our finances back home and here.

Gods evident hand leading and guiding the directors and management at Seeds of Hope Children’s Ministry.

For God introducing us to more Canadians out here that we as a whole family can relate to and fellowship with.

Prayer Requests:

Health and protection over our family as we serve out here.

Gods will be done in Miltons adoption.

Gods provision over the food and water supply for the Zambian people.

For walls to be broken down between Karl and I and the local team.