There is thunder in the air

While I am writing this blog there is thunder in the distance. We've had some thunder earlier today but we haven't had any rain yet and it has already been like that for almost a week. Things are starting to get dry and dusty again. Yesterday was a very hot and humid day, even the Zambians were complaining about it. We almost started to feel sorry for ourselves but then we checked the Weather Network and saw that it was -16C in Acton. In that case we prefer the hot weather over the cold.

We had a very nice weekend which included a church service on Sunday morning at the Lusaka Community Church. We went there with Kevin, Tina and the kids since they were in town for the weekend. The church is at the Lusaka International Community School, close to the Arcades shopping mall. The service started at 9:30 and all visitors were asked to stand up and to be introduced. Kevin did the honours to introduce us to the people who were gathered there. I guess that there were about a hundred people. Many of them are expats but there are also a lot of "foreigners" who have been living in Zambia for many, many years. It was a nice service (with some technical difficulties between a Mac and a PC, what's new!) with a dedication of a baby at the end. It was very nice to see that the grandparents from Belgium were able to be present for this just before they are scheduled to go back to Leuven. It also gave us a chance to speak some Dutch.

After the church services we had a nice time of fellowship and got to know a couple of people and we also met some more people that we already knew, like our former neighbour at Justo Mwale who just moved out. We were close to the last people to leave and after that we went quickly to Food Lovers for some groceries. We heard from Tina and Kevin that they have a lot of good stuff at reasonable prices. After that we went back to the office and changed into some more casual clothes. Then we went to the craft market at Arcades again. Some of the vendors start to know us and realize that we are "locals" now. Machteld saw again her giraffe that she didn't buy last time and the vendor came up to her to continue where they left off last time. Well, Machteld did it again and now we have two giraffes for our house. We also bought some more paintings to brighten up the house a little bit.

We brought from the office a wireless internet modem to try out at our house, just to see whether it would work and how well the connection would be. As it turned out, the connection was actually pretty good, so today we went with Humphrey (the IT manager) to iConnect to buy the in-house wireless modem and to get a subscription. It went pretty quick and we are now the proud owners of a wireless internet modem which also serves as a wireless router. So one more thing accomplished and with the internet connectivity secured we might move into the house sometime this week. On Friday last week, Machteld confirmed with Brian from Training Center Mpanshya our dining set with 2 cupboards to be delivered on February 23. Then we have pretty much everything, except for some beds in the spare bedroom. I am sure that they will come at some point as well.

This morning we started with devotions with the staff and we will start reading the book Experiencing God. We certainly have experienced God's presence and provisioning in many ways. It's hard to believe that it has been 4 weeks now since we left Acton. It seems like an eternity on one hand and like yesterday on the other. While still living in the office, it still makes it feel like a mission trip and not something more permanent yet. Once we have moved it probably will feel more like "permanent" and a bit more like being at home. It also means that we will have to "commute" from home to work but that also makes it a bit more real. We're looking forward to this upcoming change for ourselves as well as the change in weather. I am sure that God will reveal Himself in many more way to us and that we have to be open to changes, and not only in the weather.