Trip to Livingstone and Camp Hope around the corner

The past two weeks have flown past at an incredible pace. Last week we went to Livingstone for a couple of days and visited Mosi Oa Tunya National Park, Victoria Falls in Zambia and Chobe National Park in Botswana. We also did an elephant ride through the bush near Victoria Falls. On the trip we had Anneloes and Kim Becker with us so it almost felt like our family was complete except that Kim replaced Elise. We had a great time in Livingstone and the activities we did showed us again that God's creation is amazingly divers. I don't believe that evolution would have ever allowed for such a diversity in animal life, plants and landscape. To me it is clear that this is all God's handiwork (see pictures below).

 

 

God's creation is truly amazing and we had a great and relaxing time together as a family (with Kim as adopted daughter) before the first Camp Hope starts next week. It was a welcome break from our daily activities and nice to have Anneloes and Kim with us as well. Surely we missed Elise but Kim was a worthy stand-in. We hope that Elise will be able to join us again another time so that we can do this trip again because we're sure that we haven't seen it all yet.

 

On Tuesday this past week we went through the final steps of registration of our vehicle. Everything is now behind us and we now have the permanent license plates on our vehicle. We used it for our trip to Livingstone on a temporary license and it was great to drive it with the five of us and our luggage. We hope to have a lot of benefit from the vehicle for the coming years. The whole process took about 4 months which is very long to our standards but in the meanwhile you appreciate more the luxuries that we have back home when it comes to cars and transportation.



 

 

 

On Wednesday and Thursday this coming week about 55 missionaries will arrive for Camp Hope so this past week included a lot of preparation for the arrival of missionaries as well as about 300 orphans that will attend camp. This includes the preparation of the camp site with bathrooms and showers as well as the purchasing of the food, etc. for the missionaries as well as the orphans. The office looks like a warehouse right now with all the food stored there before it will be transported to Nyangwena. The coming two and a half weeks will be very busy and we will likely shuttle frequently between Lusaka and Nyangwena. This morning the other two interns arrived and Lucinda will join them for the next two months and live again at the office. The three ladies, Rebecca, Molly and Lucinda, will support the staff and missionaries during Camp Hope so they will be pretty busy running around.

 

We are thankful that Kim made it back home safely and we hope that she had a nice time with us here in Zambia for the past two weeks. I am sure that she has a few stories to tell and some pictures to show. Kim, it was great having you here and you're always welcome to visit us again. Lucinda will surely like that a lot.

 

We hope to provide another update next week after the first few days of Camp Hope.

 

Blessings

Finally an update again from Zambia

It has been a few weeks since our last post but that doesn't mean that there was not much going on. The last few weeks have been pretty busy and a bit different from the usual. Machteld went back to Canada for two and a half weeks and just got back last night. This past Thursday night Anneloes and Kim Becker arrived here in Lusaka as well so we have a house full of people right now. It almost feels like "normal" with three girls in the house, except that Elise is not there but instead Kim.

The past few weeks have been a continued battle to get our vehicle cleared, released and registered. The process is still not completed and we really hope that it will get through its final steps in the next few days. The vehicle is sitting at the Police Headquarters right now for Interpol clearance and even though the computer gives it an all-clear they want to make sure that it was legitimately exported from South Africa to the UK a few years back. I am not sure whether this is really a step that they have to go through but it has taken another couple of days now without any progress so our waiting continues. I have come to see that patience is really a fruit of the Spirit and that frustration is basically not getting things your way. God has made it clear that His plan and timing is different from what I want but that in the end He always has a better plan and outcome. Frustration is an expression of putting your own plans and timing first instead of relying of God and His provision. It's a hard lesson to learn but it gives you a peace of mind knowing that God is in control and that His plan is perfect.

On Wednesday morning we hope to leave for a short break to Livingstone and visit Victoria Falls and maybe Chobe National Park in Botswana. It will be nice to have some fun time together and take a little break before the busy time start with Camp Hope. The first team will arrive on June 19 so it will be quite busy from thereon till the middle of August when the last camp ends. In the office we will try to implement a new accounting system as of August 1 (start of fiscal year) in the middle of all the busyness of Camp Hope. Luckily we have Anneloes with us now to help us with this as part of her co-op program. Lucinda will be helping as intern for Camp Hope and be very busy as well. So with lots of activities ahead of us and some visitors here we thought it would be nice to take a small break. We hope to give you an update next week with hopefully some nice pictures.

Elise is now "home alone" in Acton for the next few months till Anneloes returns towards the end of August. She is busy with work at Reds Garden Center but I am sure that there will be times that things are very quiet. We hope and pray that she will feel the support of our church family and friends so that the time will not be as lonely for her. We surely would have loved to have her here in Zambia but it was not possible this year for her to join us. Hopefully she'll be able to make it next year.

Machteld had a great time in Acton and White Rock over the past few weeks and was able to connect with a lot of people. But even in such a "long time", time is too short to meet and talk to everyone. So if she missed you, I hope you don't feel left out because it was not on purpose but time was just too short. Today is a difficult day adjusting to the time difference again but hopefully tomorrow it will be better.

Blessings to everyone and we'll try to get the weekly updates going again.