June | 2012 | The DeKam Family in Zambia

Many of you have had questions about our accomodations in Zambia. A Zambian work team has been building our home under the direction of a North American Contractor living in Zambia and working through Every Orphan’s Hope – an organization that GEMS has been partnering with in Zambia. In addition to some assistance from short-term mission teams, this is how the other three buildings (teachers’ quarters, library/clinic, and preschool/Kindegarten building) on campus were built as well.

Our home is a side-by-side duplex that we will share with the Roelofs. This is a beautiful (and comical) detail in how God has brought this whole thing together. For those that may not know, Drew and I own a small rental property business together and, as couples, we have always joked about how much simpler life would be if we just lived in one of our duplexes together. In His wisdom (and humor?), God arranged for our families to be called to serve together and now to live together, supporting each other in life and ministry. You may be able to see from the pictures below that the home is an identical mirror image duplex. GEMS and the contractor were gracious enough to allow us to have some input on the design of the home prior to construction. One of our favorite additions was the shared back porch that will connect from each kitchen and allow us to share time and meals together as families.

Duplex viewed from the garden

duplex viewed from water tower (front)

dining room

hallway

back porch

view from back porch

[this is a delayed post. for some reason we’ve been a bit busy lately and our blog has suffered! I’m hoping to start catching up on a few things from the past several weeks. This project – shipping the sea container – happened in late April]

Going….

Gone!

A few days ago we completed one of the most labor intensive phases of our preparation to date. As many of you know, we had considered for some time the option of filling and shipping a sea container to Zambia as a way to outfit our new home and the school with supplies and provisions. The determination was made to wait until after our short term trip in February/March in order to explore what items would be available in Zambia. After the trip, we decided to send a container afterall. Much did seem to be obtainable in this quickly developing country, but most of what we sought was seen or reported to be more expensive, of cheaper quality, and much more difficult to obtain than what we would expect here in the US.

What this meant is that the press was on to bring this process from deciding to ship a container to making it happen in a matter of several weeks. In the meantime, we also needed to complete a few minor details like: locate and select potential shipping contractors, select from among them with no experience, figure out how to pack and ship a container, find a place to stage and load, seek and manage the delivery of multiple donated shipments, purchase and deliver whatever couldn’t be donated, stage the items as they are being delivered – including every day up to and included the shipping day.

All in all, the whole process should be considered a success! We spent a few weeks shopping, arranging donations, sorting, packing, labeling, weighing, and organizing everything from kitchen utensils to a tractor that would be packed in the container. As things were being purchased and arranged we started to bring them to a loading dock at Inontime, Inc. in Zeeland where we then had to stage the items and begin to configure them into the footprint of the container – a 40′ X 7’8″ X 7’10” semi trailer (believe me, we came to know these dimensions well as we put the giant tetris game together!). Early on, we had no idea whether we would have enough supplies to fill (and thus justify the expense of) the container or whether we would have too much to fit. Consensus from onlookers seemed to err toward the latter, especially as new deliveries continued to arrive into the morning that the truck arrived…

On Thursday, April 26, after several consecutive days of nearly around the clock work, the truck showed up with the empty container to be loaded. We were allowed up to two hours to load before a detention fee would be assessed. For the next 7 hours, we packed it with items for our home, the school, and the grounds: sporting equipment, 3 refrigerators, 12 bikes, shovels, rakes, concrete tools, living room furniture, school furniture and supplies, mattresses, a motorcycle, a tractor and several implements, lumber (termite food), food, building supplies, and much more. Long story short, we made it! In the end we were able to pack all but a small handful of lumber that we couldn’t squeeze in. We locked the load in with a few remaining boards and wrote a few personal messages that would greet us in Zambia when we break the seal and prepare to unload our goods. without the use of hilos.

We have so many people to thank for making this project a success. Among our own “team”, we once again marveled at how God has gifted each of us uniquely, and brought us together to complement each other. Drew spent countless hours coordinating the shipping contractor, Missionary Expediters, and learning the technical ropes of the overseas shipping process. Arika and Tina were exhaustive in their quests for bargains, equipping us with what we needed and stretching each precious dollar to make it work, then relentlessly packing, labeling and cataloguing every item. We also had an enormous amount of help from all of our parents: from child care, to packing bins, to running errands, to providing meals and helping on site.

Again, we were overwhelmed by the support of so many friends, and even some strangers who heard about our efforts and pitched in to provide what was needed. I couldn’t say enough to thank all of the individuals and business who were involved in donating services or items (but will attempt to later!). A special thanks to Ryan Dykhouse and Dykhouse Construction, Bruce at B&W Woodwork, Andy and Tara Schreur, Steve VanLaan and VanLaan Construction Supply, Matt Wieringa and Leland International, Gemmen’s Hardware of Hudsonville, Leon Koops, Mick Woods, Tim Steensma and Steensma Lawn and Power, Harry Reinders, Ray Scheepstra and many others for their donations and assistance. On the day of loading, we were blessed to have the assistance of my good friend Mark Haan, Marty and Bob from Dynamic Youth Ministries, and several others.

We are eternally indebted to the great people at Inontime, Inc – a logistics company located in Zeeland, MI. These people are a true example of what a Kingdom-minded business can look like. They offered full use of their space and equipment for 2 weeks so that we could stage and load our container. Being in the business of logistics, having been directly involved in missions in Africa, and even having shipped sea containers there in the past, these folks were able to provide crucial expertise that we lacked as we attempted to learn and facilitate our own process in our “spare time”! From the President to the dock manager to the hilo driver (you’d have a hard time telling any of them apart as you spent time there) every single employee that we encountered offered nothing but their full support and assistance. Knowing that we were probably a major thorn in their side – bothering them, tying up hilos, taking up space, and generally getting in the way the whole time we were there, we expected at least something other than the constant support, encouragement, and graciousness that we eventually came to expect from them. We thank each and every one of you and literally couldn’t have done it without you.

Finally, I would also like to thank my dad, Tina’s dad, Steve Roelofs and Andre Weckwert (Drew and Arika’s dads) for their help throughout the process. Not only did we appreciate the many hours of help, countless errands and several late night food runs from them – it was very gratifying on a personal level to have “all the dads” around during the process.