Reflect

Reflect. That's the word I've chosen for this post. We've rolled into September 2025, which means we have reached the one-year mark of moving to Zambia. Last September was haaard. We didn't have the usual return to school, which the kids always love. In its place, we had agonizing goodbyes, and the adjustment of a new place, new school, new work, new church & new community. While I was excited for what was to come & eager for the adventure, I was also nervous for the unknown and hesitant about how the family & I would adjust. The beauty of reflection is being able to see God's hand at work in so many different ways that you don't necessarily see when you're in the moment. Things I was nervous about turned out to not be issues at all. Things I was excited for didn't happen, but better things happened in their place. God has really used this past year to develop each of us, and many of it was unexpected.

When we lived at Grace Academy (Seeds of Hope), we knew that we were staying for a one-year term. Already at 10 months in, we were gearing up for the move back home, because there were people needing to be trained for when we were gone, things to pack up and things to sign up for and anticipate back in Canada. Because we knew our stay was (relatively) short-term, we didn't put in the work of putting down roots outside of our work. Fast forward to present day, we are a year deep, not planning for a return anytime soon, and feel so much more anchored than before.

I guess none of us ever stop growing. Growth is part of life, even if it's subtle. Experiences continue to happen, and all of these shape us into who we are. Obviously, the amount of outward changes in the last year has been significant, but I would say for myself that the amount of internal change has been slight. I've always carried a lot of empathy, and there are lots of opportunities to express empathy in the role we are in. It hasn't been a major change from within, but I think just more opportunities to shower others with it. The biggest change in myself is the time I set aside with God. Quite honestly, I think having our kids around all day helps with that - we establish routines with homeschool, and time with God is just naturally a part of our day. Jon would agree that his prayer life has been strengthened so much since arriving here. When thinking back to life in Canada, he reflected that work there had stress, and work here has stress - it's just looks different.

I didn't share earlier (because I had feelings of guilt I had to work through) but we built an inground pool in our backyard back in June. The work process was incredible - every last bit of it was done by hand - from digging, levelling, mixing cement, tiling, concrete stamping, plastering - it was a ton of work, but it went so quickly and they did great work! This pool has been an absolute joy to share with our community here! Some know how to swim well, some are timid, and some are downright afraid. No matter their comfortability with water, it's a place to gather, and that has been amazing. Even having a large living room makes hosting easy! After Sunday's football match here at Living Hope, we had some of the guys team jump in the pool, and then we hosted dinner and watched the Arsenal & Liverpool match. A living room filled with 25+ people, eating spaghetti and enjoying each others company just makes my heart sing.

While there are piles of positives, there are still days where one of us breaks down in tears over missing home, which is only natural. I had it the other day when I was on a walk. We are in burning season right now, which means much of the area is black and charred from burning up all the dead growth. But on that morning, there was something growing somewhere (!) that smelled like lavender - which we had growing beside our garage in Abbotsford. The simplest thing - a smell of home - had tears rolling down my cheeks. One of the kids smelled something the other day and said it smelled like grandma's house. There's always going to be those reminders - no matter the sense used to stir the memory. And I actually love it. The way our mind ties certain songs, sounds, sights or smells to a particular person or place. The distance from "home" may be great, but there are little reminders even over here.

We jumped back in to homeschool today and are feeling good about getting back into the groove. Because we are following our Canadian timetable, we didn't have access to the online courses until today, which meant our "summer" holiday (it was cold season here) was long. Our brains & bodies are well-rested, and ready to put our minds to work again. Life continues to be busy, our sports continue full tilt (our favorite!) and we are open to all your podcast suggestions for all our long drives to and from town!

To wrap up, some highlights from our last few weeks:

• finding a trampoline park in Lusaka (capital city of Zambia). It was supposed to be for kids 13 and older, but they allowed all our kids in, and it was just such a good taste of normalcy!

• the kids' enthusiasm for playing a simple game with rocks non-stop!

• backyard swim parties

• windy morning walks

• taking the volleyball team up on a little "hike" There are no mountains in the area, but there is a hill that has a bit of a view. So fun to do something different with them!

  

That is about all I have for you this time. Hope your September is productive & peaceful.

With love,

Renae

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom." - James 3:13