Temporary Residents

Thank you to so many of you for reaching out to us and asking how we are doing here in Zambia. You have no idea how much it means to us to receive your messages because it tells us that we are in your hearts and prayers. It is so incredibly encouraging to know that you love us from so far away and have not forgotten us. Although our communication is lacking, please know that we have not forgotten you.

Our family has now been in Zambia for almost six weeks. Nathan has had the easiest adjustment. He is a very pleasant and happy baby. Peter adjusted very quickly. He really likes running around our new house and he gets along very well with all the children who live on our property. He loves playing outside with them and is constantly putting his shoes on and standing by the door hoping I will take him outside. It is rainy season here; along with the rains comes an abundance of snails, and Peter has taken to picking them up and trying to hand them to people. He really loves Nathan, but needs to be supervised at all times with Nathan, as his hugs and playfulness is not often gentle. But I am so happy with how much he loves his little brother.

Settling in is taking longer for me. I had not realized how much South Africa had become home for me. I was comfortable, and I had figured out how to navigate life there. Now, once again, I have left home and am in a strange land. During the first few weeks, I was a little homesick. It felt hard to be a foreigner in a strange place where everything was so different. It is one thing to go on an adventure to a foreign land, but it’s a very different thing to uproot one’s family and move. What we were doing felt very big. Thankfully, we have an ever-present Father, who meets us right at our need. I poured my heart out to him and He met me in a beautiful way. I have had to be more dependent on Him than I usually am, and that is such a good thing!

I think most of you know that I contracted malaria at the end of our second week here. Malaria, when caught early, is treatable and does not usually require hospitalization. However, I was hospitalized because the malaria killed many of my white blood cells and my doctor wanted to observe me. Needless to say, it was hard for me to be away from our family for those 3 nights. Xolani did a great job caring for the boys in my absence. It was also hard for me to be hospitalized in a foreign country. I came face to face with how I felt about being in a place that has such limited healthcare. I was in a decent private hospital – very different than America, but it was clean and I was cared for and given proper attention, which is very different than the public hospitals here. The staff all spoke excellent English. The population we serve here could never afford to stay in the hospital I was in and I am still wrestling with that. I have no idea why God has been so gracious to me that I am privileged to afford this medical care and others cannot, but I thank Him for it and I hope that I never forget that. I have since fully recovered and don’t even feel any residual fatigue. My doctor was amazed by how I bounced back. To God be the glory!

As I was feeling a little bit homesick, and then at the same time was stuck in the hospital, the Holy Spirit met me in such a sweet way. I wrote earlier how I was feeling like a foreigner. A lightbulb went on in my head when I realized that I should feel like a foreigner because I am a foreigner. I asked God to send me and I chose to answer His call. Of course I should feel like a foreigner! (Yes, I know, duh!) I shouldn’t want Zambia to feel like America or even South Africa because it is Zambia! My heart and my attitude changed as soon as I realized this. Things got significantly easier for me. Nothing on the outside had changed, but my heart completely changed.

Xolani and I are considered temporary residents here in Zambia. This reminds me of the first chapter of 1 Peter in which Peter tells us how we ought to live during our time on earth as “temporary residents” (NLT). The writer to the Hebrews, when talking about the heroes of faith in chapter 11, talks about how each one of them “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (ESV). Sometimes it is tough to not feel “at home,” but the truth is that none of us should ever feel at home. We are all temporary residents. We are all living for something so much greater. We are pilgrims just travelling through. Let’s thank God for the hope that we have in Him and remember that this world is not our home, but that “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20).”

Before I close, just a quick update on what we are doing in our day-to-day work. I am home with Peter and Nathan getting to know our community of international missionaries and local Zambians here. They are wonderful people and have welcomed us warmly and generously. Xolani spends a lot of his time with our team serving in Luanshya. Same as in South Africa, he loves visiting people in their homes and sitting with them as they share their hardships and being able to offer hope to them. The difference though is that he needs someone to translate for him. The days that he is not with the local team here, he is in the office working remotely with our team in Lagos, Nigeria. Please reach out and ask if you have any questions or comments. We love hearing from you.