John Murray and his wife Rita are very close and dear friends to us and John is the author of an amazing little book for people who want to understand what the Christian faith is all about and what it means for our daily lives. As the former executive director of Eurovangelism he has a wealth of experience and examples of how God is at work in our world today and also how we as Christians have to play our role in His plan. Check out his website to learn more about the book and its content. I can recommend reading it since it challenges you to beyond believing and to get to living out your Christian faith. As it says in James 2:26 "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." so we have to live out our faith through deeds that reflect the fruit of the Spirit.
Today we took a huge leap of faith by purchasing a vehicle from Japan (actually it will come from the UK). The process they follow is that you select a car and once you agree on the price they want you to pay the whole price before they even start shipping the vehicle. Today we got the confirmation that the money was wired to Japan and now we are waiting for the receipt of the money on their end. After that we will get more information about the expected shipping date and arrival date in the port of Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania). Below some picture of the Toyota Hilux pick-up truck that we bought.
The company is called Trust Company Ltd. and we hope and pray that they will honour their name. Based on reviews they appear to be a reputable company so we hope that the money that we sent will be converted into a real vehicle in about 6 weeks or so.
Yesterday morning we went to Immigration to check on our work permit. Since the permits were not ready yet (as expected) we got an extension on our visa for another 60 days. However, on the way back to the office we discovered that the officer had stamped Gert's passport twice and forgot to stamp Lucinda's passport. So we figured to be safe and went back to Immigration to get Lucinda's passport stamped. When we got there, the same officer first apologized when I explained the situation but then she suddenly asked how old Lucinda was. When I said 18, she said that Lucinda would have to apply for her own permit and that she couldn't stamp Lucinda's passport. Since we had one day left on our visa we asked her what we should do. She said to come back the next day and talk to her manager. So this morning we went again and after talking briefly to the officer we were directed to the manager. He heard our story and asked to other officer what the case was. After having heard the officer he explained to us that Lucinda would need a temporary permit. He couldn't do anything for us but told us to go to the Supervisor and explain our situation. So we did and after having talked to her she said the same thing but could not extend Lucinda's visa. For that we had to go upstairs to room 107 and explain the same story again. Once we got there we were pleasantly surprised by a very helpful man. He explained exactly what needed to happen (Lucinda can only apply after I have my work permit) and extended Lucinda's visa for another 60 days. Thank God for this man since we got a bit worried when almost every officer we met did not want to extend Lucinda's visa. So now we'll have to go back early April to check on our work permits again. Chances are that it will not be ready and then we need extensions again. Hopefully they will do it right the first time that time.
This Saturday we plan to move into our new house. We hand some more curtains this afternoon and it starts to look like home more and more. We'll take some pictures soon and put those on the blog so you can get an idea what it looks like. We're very excited about it and we're ready to move out of the office and into our home. Hopefully there we will have water all the time because since yesterday morning we have been without water and were out of power most of yesterday. The power came back late afternoon and we had a little bit of water this morning but none right now. On top of all that it poured pretty much all night so the end of the road where the office is looks like Lake Ontario almost. The forecast is predicting more rain the coming days and the risk of flooding in Lusaka. People keep saying that the rains came late but once they came, they came as a torrent. The advantage of all the rain is that it is very green and lush at this moment. Some trees start blossoming and nature looks revived. In a few months that will all be different again. We just have to trust God that he will provide at His time for whatever we need, whether that is a work permit, rain or sunshine.
We have to follow His plan and do His will so that we can be a blessing to others.
We send you our and God's blessings from a (now) sunny Lusaka, Zambia.
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