September update-we're in Zambia!!

We’re here! After years of planning we finally made it to Zambia! It’s still a little bit surreal.

We left our hometown, Moscow Idaho, on Sunday September 3rd, after a huge going away party/pig roast with many of our friends! We drove to Seattle first thing Monday morning and spent a day there with Isaac’s family and some of our best friends. On the 5th we loaded up all of our stuff (13 huge duffle bags +carry ons) and flew out from Seattle to DFW. In DFW we were able to spend some time with my (Faith’s) family. Then on The 7th we left on our long 15 hour flight from DFW to Qatar. We landed in Qatar right at dusk (it felt like mid morning to us) and got a hotel room at the airport hotel and were all able to get some rest and let the kids get their wiggles out during our 8 hour layover there. (We highly recommend this for anyone traveling internationally with kids, it was so nice for us all to have a space to rest and for the kids to play! There was a lot of jumping on beds and building blanket forts 🙂). At about 2am (Qatar time) we got on our second flight to Lusaka, which was about 8 hours. We arrived in Lusaka at around 8:30am local time, along with all of our luggage (praise the Lord!), and were greeted by our friends the Kilians (another ACU faculty family from the U.S.), Kelly Huckaby (ACTION Zambia), and a few other friends from ACU.

Overall the trip went very well! The kids all did great (it helped that they slept a good chunk of both flights)! Thank you everyone for your prayers! We have now been at our home in Lusaka for just over a week and we are all settling in nicely. After almost a year on the road living with friends and family, it is very nice to finally have our own home again!

The kids have been absolutely loving it! We have a pretty big yard with lots of fun new plants (including an Avocado tree which is loaded with unripe avocados) , bugs, and other critters. We also inherited a cat, Oreo, from the missionary family who lived in this house before us. He’s our first family pet and the kids have greatly enjoyed feeding him and getting him fresh water everyday!

On monday our friends the Kilians took Isaac and I out to show us the local grocery stores and mall, which was very helpful. I was surprised by how clean and nice the stores here are. The mall is nicer than many stores I’ve been to in the States! Part of that is due to the unemployment problem here, labor is super cheap because of the surplus of people looking for work (minimum wage is about $2-3 a day for most workers here!), so at the grocery store there were people working on almost every aisle wiping down shelves, restocking, and doing other general cleaning jobs. There were also several men in the parking lot guarding cars (theft is a big problem here as well).

The course Isaac had been planning on teaching at ACU this term was moved to next year, which means Isaac is not teaching this term. Even without teaching, Isaac has plenty of work to do at ACU working on course development, mentoring students, and advising theses. This last week Isaac was at ACU everyday for orientation.

Overall, things are great! We’ve been very warmly welcomed by everyone that we’ve met here which has made the transition much easier! We are very much looking forward to building relationships here and are so grateful for all the people who have already reached out to us and brought us meals and had us over for dinner this first week as we’ve been getting acclimated!

Prayer requests:

•Pray that we’ll be able to find a good church to join here.

•Pray that Faith will be able to find a good OB/GYN or midwife

•Pray that we’ll be able to overcome some of the cultural differences/obstacles and that we’ll build relationships with Zambians and other expat families quickly.

•Pray for ACU faculty and students as they work on the accreditation process.

•Pray for Isaac and his relationships with his students that he would be a good mentor and light to them.

•Pray that the kids will continue to adjust well to life here.