Catching Up!

Hi dear readers! And an early Merry Christmas to you.

I have been extremely aware of my unplanned hiatus from writing, and I apologize for the silence! Having noted that my last family update was on October 2nd and last post in general was on November 7th, the perfectionist in me is trying to run away from the mounting updates and admitting that I had a bit of a fail in the blog-world these last couple months.

Alas, the only way to get started again and to catch up is for me to merely, well, do just that. Once sentence, one memory, and one detail at a time!

So what were the highlights of October?

-Zimbabwe was very hot. Like I didn't have to wish for a sauna because I lived in one 24 hours a day. You wake up sweating. You go to bed sweating. You take a cold shower and are still sweating. Lovely, hey? Yet we made it through! Some tips I learned from neighbors to stay a bit cooler were to sit on the concrete floor instead of the furniture, and I was given an invite to bring Charlotte to another house at Ebenezer that has a thatch roof instead of a metal roof like ours, and the thatch keeps the house a few degrees lower.

-The blueprints for the Ebenezer staff houses were drafted, and I got to add my two cents. The houses to be built are 9 meters by 12 meters, which is the fixed size for everyone, but the inside walls won't be load bearing due to the design, so I was able to look online and see what types of floor plans I'd like for our family. Then Pastor G whipped out the blueprints over one weekend and I was able to again add some requests to tweak. Even though the home may seem tiny to my American eyes, I am excited for the simplicity of it, and the ability to make it ours and maintain a home that I hope is minimalist and clean. As far as when construction will start, we are waiting for the roof and support posts to come from Zambia. It's a bit behind schedule, but I'm not going to blame anything in Zimbabwe for that, since I think construction projects the world over tend to run behind schedule more often than not!

Blueprint for our staff house, plus some tweaks (in color) that I requested.

-I was given the opportunity to be the organizer for one of the family night programs. If you've read previous updates, you know Family Night on Thursdays is a highlight of the week for me. I get to spend time with the apprentices in my Orange Family and we get to eat a meal together (one of the few meals that includes meat!) There's a group of 3 staff that usually coordinate family nights. They invited me to participate, and I ended up volunteering to lead one night in October with the pre-selected theme of God's plan for Singleness, and one night in December on the Five Love Languages. Public speaking seems to excite me and frighten me at the same time. I ended up receiving good feedback on the game, message, and organization of the evening program, but for days after, my mind kept eating me up about examples that I don't think I articulated well, or ways I could have kept the game flowing better, etc. Does anyone else have those critical thoughts after every public endeavor?!

November - A visit to Harare and Michigan!

I was super quiet blog and internet-wise in November, because I was busy taking in all the family, cold weather, and gluten-free foods I could handle in Michigan! This trip was scheduled relatively quickly, after finding out I'd be able to travel to help my mom recover from a major back surgery! With myself assisting cooking and cleaning in the house, and Charlotte's spirit-lifting powers, we were blessed to help make the recuperation time go by a bit faster for my mom. Here are some highlights of our 5 days in Harare and 3 weeks in Michigan, as well as other events during the month of November:

- We got to spend time with Ambuya (Shona for "Grandma") in Harare for almost a week before we flew out. Charlie enjoyed songs with Ambuya, exploring indoors and outdoors, and an outing to the market with Aunt Chipo. In Harare, we also became godparents to our dear friends' precious son!

-Unlimited time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Holden in Michigan! Since we stayed at the house with them, it was nice for Charlie to see them from the moment she woke up til the baby snores came at bed time. We got to see lots of extended family and good friends- enjoying lunch visits, morning coffees, and lazy afternoons. Charlotte got to meet some of my good friends from college, which was special and crazy, since you see the friends every once in a while when you're both in town, but then all of a sudden there's an offspring in the mix!

- Charlotte had some firsts while in the Mitten State. She started crawling and got her ears pierced! The crawling was super exciting for everyone to witness, since there were bets as to whether or not she'd hit this milestone at Grandma's house. And sure enough, she started cruising all over the place! Then it was all-hands-on-deck to keep the basement door closed, make sure precious items were out of reach, and comforting snuggles were available when the occasional face-plant would happen as is natural when learning to crawl.

Ears pierced! She was so tough!

-Other memories of Michigan include a great Thanksgiving at my uncle and aunt's, a family member entering into a personal relationship with Jesus (woot woot!), enjoying cream in my coffee (Zimbabwe doesn't make half & half!), eating at favorite restaurants (Chicken sausage tater tot casserole at Anna's house, Gluten free pizza from The Mitten, Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory, and .... uh... more tater tot's at the Riverdog in Middleville!), cool fall/winter weather where I wasn't sweating, and driving on wide roads in an automatic vehicle. Also, Grandpa and Grandma made sure to spoil me and Charlotte with treats and new clothes to bring back for us and Brierly :)

Now to December! What has happened in the last couple weeks:

-I arrived back in Harare on December 1, with Charlotte having not slept, broken out in hives from the soap at the hotel on our Dubai layover, and having lost a fresh earring somewhere in transit. Thankfully, I had another earring to shove in her 3-day-old hole to keep it from closing, and she recovered from the hives quickly. A runny nose is the only thing she's still holding on to from Michigan.

-The last two times I had gone to the US (Oct 2018 and April/May 2019), the exchange rate from the USD to Zimbabwe bond notes had about tripled each time. During the 2018 visit the rate went from $1USD =1.6 ZWL to 4 ZWL, and earlier this year it went from 4 to 12. So, we can say a prayer of thanks that my trip didn't make the current rate of 20-22 jump up to 60+!! Actually, in all seriousness, the economy here in Zimbabwe continues to struggle and any way forward is certain to be complex and hard, and will surely be unsuccessful without prayer and reliance on our Provider. Community members just outside of Ebenezer are struggling to feed their families and pay school fees. So there is a daily reminder to be thankful for each meal and a roof over our heads.

-At Ebenezer, December has seen lots of action with harvesting tomatoes, watermelon, and butternut. It's an exciting thing to see produce that the apprentices have tended to for months be loaded up and sent to market! The rains have begun as well, so everything is very green and places that were bare and dusty when we arrived in July are hardly recognizable with all the bush that's grown and grass that blankets the ground now! Rivers that were mere crevices between hills are now flowing and reaching up to the bridges already. Again, a reason to be thankful- people, livestock, and crops are given life.

-We got to see some freshly hatched ostrich chicks! The partner company for Ebenezer raises chickens and ostriches, and I had been wanting to see the baby ostriches every since I found out this information. And the timing was right to see some less than 24 hour old birds this past week!

-We had church at an elderly lady's house in the community. We normally attend Crossroads Church when at home, a few minute's drive from Ebenezer. The church had decided to gather at an elderly member's house, since she had a stroke 5 months ago and hasn't been able to walk outside of her house very much since the stroke and her long hospital stay. We prayed for her and had a small message in her tiny living room, and it was so refreshing. Brierly and I talk about how this is what the church must have been like in the New Testament, when it was just getting started. We enjoyed it a lot and I hope to check in with the lady to see how she's recovering and how God has been able to strengthen the left side of her body.

-Christmas. Christmastime. Christmas season. These are things that I am struggling with understanding the definition of as an expat/immigrant/missionary in a place that does not "do Christmas" like I grew up doing it. When there's no snow on the ground and hardly any lights and decorations on houses or shopping centers, and no endless supply of cookies and chocolates being gifted to one another, it has made me sit down and think about what Christmas means and what I want it to be. Sure, it's not the materialistic Hallmark holiday that many people make it to be- I know the reason for the season - to remember and celebrate that our holy God became flesh and dwelt among us, so that he could die for our sins and bring us into his heavenly family. That's always been a part of my Christmas. But what does the remembering and celebrating look like? Specifically to me and my growing nuclear family? These are the questions I asked myself last year, during my first Christmas in Zim. Brierly and I were able to get a Christmas tree made out of pallet wood from a friend to hang ornaments on, attend one caroling service at a friend's church, and enjoyed a small barbecue with his family in Harare. But I couldn't help feeling underwhelmed that year by my lack of Christmas-spirit. And while I've bolstered my efforts this year, including a Christmas playlist, again attending a lovely candlelight caroling service at a friend's church in Bulawayo, and hunting for another Christmas tree alternative, I'm still searching for traditions to begin and how to forge a new path as a family, living in Zimbabwe, with hardly any Christmas activities happening. Some ideas I have are picking a Christmas movie to watch, making peppermint hot chocolate as a family, and carrying on the ornament tradition my mom did with us 3 kids growing up. But in the end, I must be still and read the Christmas story in the Bible, and have a moment where I commit that I am still joyful in the season because of who God is and what he has done, regardless of the temperature outside and regardless of the lack of festivities around me. Jesus still came to earth, and he still became fully human, for me. Boiled down, this is what's worth celebrating every day.

Christmastime looks different here!

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I hope you've enjoyed this family update, despite it's hodgepodge of topics. You might know by now that my goal when I write is to share in a manner that informs on both my family of 3 and current events, that sometimes challenges thoughts and attitudes, and that shares joy and encouragement. As you look back on the end of your year and your Christmas time, I hope you are able to see the ways in which God is moving, and keep the courage to have the right perspective!

Growing in Courage,

Mackenzie