Ever Faithful

We promised to tell of God’s Faithfulness and will continue to today. Had we written an update over the past few days (as I know many of you were anxious for!) you would likely have heard of more frustrations, of doubt, of backup planning, but we had boldly (was it foolishly?) proclaimed that we were choosing faith. Our faith often falters but His Faithfulness never will.

I will admit that after hearing nothing new all week and into the weekend we had started checking into alternate flights which, between ridiculous costs and even worse itineraries, we’re not looking pretty. By yesterday we had all but resigned ourselves to postponing the return trip and forfeiting a few details like a direct route, a Grand Rapids arrival, reasonable price and our extra family day during the layover. This morning a last minute check gave no more hope, but we decided to head off to church in Lusaka and pick our poison when we got back.

Just as we were walking out the door the phone rang. It was the Consular himself calling to say that he had been given the green light to process a few of the many waiting visas and had chosen ours among them. We headed straight there and he met us in the parking lot in workout clothes. When I joked about his appearance he admitted that he had just come in to use the Embassy gym and decided to check his email first just in case. When he saw the permission to print the visas he assembled core staff to process them and it was ready when we arrived. We were only about a half hour late to church, which isn’t far off from what we would be on a normal Sunday!

Since we hadn’t selected a new flight, our original tickets or hotel were never cancelled, so we are back on track without having to make any further changes. Now I just need to start packing! There are a few other details and amazing chapters to the story that I won’t publish here until we are safely home and, obviously, many human hands were at work in the process (thank you so much Dan and Rob), but once again God has delivered and proven his faithfulness. Please join us in thanking Him and, as I said:

We will see you soon!

We Choose Faith

For those of you who have not yet heard, we are planning to leave Zambia next week and return to the US! Teya’s visa was approved on Monday and we were given permission to pick it up the following day. We had a flight itinerary on hold that would have had us leaving on Tuesday but we got word yesterday that the price had unexplainably tripled overnight. No worries. Fortunately, the friend who is helping us with the tickets found the same itinerary for the same original price leaving one day earlier so we are now planning to leave on Monday, take an extra day to relax with the family on the way home, and arrive in Grand Rapids Thursday night.

And so begins the scramble to prepare for departure, which Tina has jumped into, and to wrap up as many loose ends as possible for the school which I (Kevin) have been focusing on. This week has been spent finishing odd jobs around campus, applying epoxy to the new kitchen and refurbished preschool floors, cleaning out the chicken coop and preparing it for the 200 new broiler chicks that arrived yesterday. I also had a final meeting with the school’s attorney, interviewed a teacher candidate and tried to line up some more applications, and will begin making my way around the village to say goodbyes.

But there is one job that is not yet finished. Somehow, after all that we have been through, we still need to be reminded to have constant faith in our Father. After all of the floors have again worn through, after the chickens are but a delicious memory, after teachers and legal issues have come and gone, we will still need to depend on God and trust Him in all things. But learning this well is a job that is not yet finished. And so we are being challenged in that one more time before we leave…

The visa was approved. We were told we could pick it up yesterday. We received a call that it wasn’t ready yet. No worries. I planned to return to town today to finish some other business and pick it up at the end of the day. We called to confirm this morning and were told that it was still not ready. Some worries. Then they said that there is actually a “World-wide problem with the printing of visas” and they hoped it would be fixed soon, maybe by Monday. Bigger worries. We checked and our tickets and hotel may not be refundable. Substantial worries.

But here’s the thing. We are all challenged by situations every day – big or small – that require us to choose a response. We can choose to live in FEAR or we can choose to live in FAITH. When we found out we were able to return home we were very excited. We felt very happy. That was very easy. It would have been and, in fact was, also very easy to charge ahead with our plans fueled by that happy feeling.

It would also be easy now to feel afraid or upset or angry or any number of things, and allow those feelings to fuel our response, but faith isn’t a feeling. It is a choice and it requires us to take action. We have been challenged by many things during our time in Zambia. God blessed us with His peace, protection and the gift of faith in many big and small situations. You’ve heard about some of them – living without water, bizarre infections, a failed adoption, a collapsed school building, snakes, a child hospitalized with severe malaria…

But you didn’t read about all of the times when we allowed ourselves to succumb to our fears. We didn’t exactly rush to write any blog posts about the many challenges, often laughably insignificant, that we panicked over, allowing ourselves to wallow in fear, frustration and self-pity. I’m ashamed to admit that they would probably outnumber our victories!

And so today, again, we face a challenge with potentially difficult consequences. We feel fear. But today, WE CHOOSE FAITH. We choose faith and we choose to tell about the way the God has delivered us so many times and will again. This was a promise often made hastily during difficult times and as quickly forgotten when He provided and we received the outcome we desired. Please join us in praying boldly – even fasting if so led – for God to prove His faithfulness once again.

See you soon.

Embassy Appointment

Just a quick update, we have our embassy appointment scheduled for 7:45am our time tomorrow (Monday) morning. This is where we will be requesting permission from the US to grant Teya a visa to enter the US so that we can come home. If anyone is still up at 1:45 EST please pray for us! (those of you in Montana and California don’t have to stay up quite so late!)

We hope to update you tomorrow when we have word, as well as share some pictures of a great weekend of village soccer and a fun day at My Father’s House, the orphan home down the road…

Next Steps

While so much continues to happen on the campus of the Esther School, I know many of you follow this blog for the personal side as well. Particularly, many of you are trying to keep up with our adoption process and for close friends and family,the focus seems to be on our timeframe for returning to the US. Here is the latest for you.

Due to the generosity of some dear friends who are in the States and have offered full access to their home in Lusaka, we were able to stay in town last week and focus on getting some things done without the usual logistical challenges of living over an hour away and in the bush. Most of Monday was spent at the hospital for Rowan’s malaria follow up (in case you missed the last blog – a clean bill of health). Tuesday I (Kevin) took advantage of the strong Internet to get some work and planning done.

Wednesday we spent some time in meetings with various parties from social welfare and applied for a travel license for Teya so that we could all travel home, hopefully in time to attend a missionary debriefing in mid-August and get settled in time for the kids to start school in the US. We are in the midst of applying for a Zambian passport for her and the next big step in that process would be to apply for a visa allowing her into the US. We don’t have our meeting scheduled with the embassy yet, but hope to get one soon (after the passport is issued) and will keep you posted.

Please pray for God’s continued leading and blessing in this process.

Thanks!

Last day of school

It’s been awhile since the last day of school, but wanted to share some memories and photos from this day. It was a bitter sweet day on campus…teachers and administrators ready for a break, yet cherishing every moment with each student and taking in every part of their smiling faces. The campus was busy as teachers and students were preparing their rooms so parents could visit, see their child active in their classroom, reciting bible verses, singing songs, and even watch a slideshow of photos from throughout the year. The day ended with the parents all coming together, as well as all the students, for a time of prayer and singing. Everyone was then invited for lemonade and a snack, and for a time of fellowship. Please enjoy some photos from that day.

A lot of goodbyes were said that day…and then the following week as we said goodbye basically to everyone on campus except for the Miedema family. Kevin and Brent have stayed busy around campus as usual…finishing the repairs on the preschool, finishing the new kitchen, getting the grounds ready for the new 1st through 3rd grade building, planning for an additional borehole, uniform estimates…the list goes on. We also have had a chance to spend some quality family time with the campus a little less crowded. We have been able to celebrate a few birthdays – Clayton on June 10, Hudson on June 29, and Kevin on July 7. We also celebrated our 14 th wedding anniversary on June 24! Our anniversary date night here in the African bush looked a little different than American standards but we were happy to just have some down time. Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks…

For Clayton’s birthday Kevin promised Clayton they could sleep outside on top of our shipping container…it sounded so fun that Rowan joined, as well as part of the Miedema clan. They hauled their bug tents and sleeping backs up there and made it all night. It was cold!

Nothing’s better than birthday cake…

An update on Rowan….if some of you hadn’t heard, Rowan was diagnosed with severe malaria on June 27. He had just had a mild fever for a day or so, but then shot up to 103.9. We decided to give Jim’s malaria test, since we had our own kit, and it came back positive. We started the normal treatment…just an oral anti-malaria medicine…very standard. We were assured he would start feeling better within 24-36 hours. But the next day he started vomiting so we too him to a local clinic where they did a blood draw and found his platelet levels had dropped into the 80s. Normal levels are between 150 and 450. After an hour of the doctor searching the city for an injectable treatment, she finally found a hospital who had it and we were admitted for treatment as well as an IV for dehydration. It was a scary few days there, but as of today Rowan is malaria free and his platelet levels are back into the 300s PTL! Thank you to all who were praying fervently for Rowan and for healing. We have seen God at work, in the midst of turmoil, He is closer yet. What a mighty God we serve.

More updates to come soon!

Class Trips

Our Second year of school actually ended 2 weeks ago, but I figured late was better than never. It was a very busy end to another great year. I hope to put up several posts, starting with our class trips. We always get requests for more pictures, so I hope they do the talking!

During the second to last week of school, each grade enjoyed a class trip to put their learning into action and begin exposing them to the broader world they will be called to serve. The preschool visited a local natural wonder – the hot spring at Chinyunyu. They tested their mettle touching the water that boils out of the ground, then by jumping over the resulting stream. After a short hike and homemade snack, we shared in a community service project by picking up trash to care for this unique place that God blessed us with.

The Kindergarten class was studying food this year, so they ventured into Chongwe to a locally owned and operated guest lodge. The students received a personal tour from the lodge’s owner, saw inside a real working kitchen, then honed their manners and taste buds by sitting down to a “proper” luncheon.

And finally, Grade 1, topping off their unit on mammals, visited nearby Kingdom Farm, which is being constructed by a local family. They learned about and explored the various animals, enjoyed a sack lunch in the chalet (complete with home-grown Esther School peanuts) and, in true African style, were treated to a few stories told by elderly “Uncle Matthews”.

Lost and Found

As of today, the DeKams in Zambia are officially foster parents! We are so thankful that we were able to get in for our committal hearing today (arriving about an hour early 🙂 ) and that the magistrate granted us official status as Teya’s legal guardians. It was a strange situation to sit through the hearing, listening to the social worker talk about her having been “dumped” and a “lost child” with “no parents”. Given that she was immediately accepted as one of our own family three months ago, this rung in stark contrast to our perspective and feelings towards her.

It reminds me again of the stark contrasts that we’ve seen develop in such a short time with Teya’s joining our family. Gone is the “quiet, shy” girl we first described – she is so full of life and joy. The social workers even commented on the changes they saw in her. After sitting (nearly still) through the hearing, Teya jumped off my lap and said “thank you very much!” to the magistrate, trying to match her somber seriousness which didn’t last long after that. The lost has been found.

In other good news, I received a clean bill of health on my final eye exam. I am able to wean off of the drops I have been taking and the doctor said that the lingering fatigue and headaches should subside over the next few days.

Now for the discouraging news, we were not able to make any progress today beyond the committal as we had planned and expected. There are many details and stories, but basically, we were not able to take the next step towards adoption ( the “effective date of notice” ) or get any assurance of expediting our process as we had hoped. In fact, we seem to be hung up on a technicality that we had tried to clear months ago. Please pray that things will be able to move along quickly!

Thanks

The dks

Long Day

Hi all. I know many of you are following our adoption process closely and this blog is the most efficient way to keep everyone posted. I know Tina also threw a quick update up this morning after the missed appointment asking for prayer. There is much more to that story and many more that followed today, but very long story short, we had a long and difficult day that ended with a few small items checked off the list, but no committal order. It very much felt like a day of opposition, but we’ve always taken that as a sign that we must be heading in the right direction. We are rescheduled to try again with the judge next Tuesday morning.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers.

K and T

Photo update

We promised photos in our last blog and the Internet decided to quit. So we will try again! Another quick update, I know many of you are praying for our adoption process. Our court date was scheduled for this morning between 8:30 and 9 am. We left our home before 7 expecting a 1 hour commute. It took 2 hrs and 15 minutes, and there was no getting us in. Having waited months for this court date, and after a rough week of saying tearful goodbyes and a snake attack…words can’t express how defeated I was/am feeling. Teya and I are currently having a “tea party” at a small coffee shop while Kevin ran out to do some odds and ends/paperwork for the adoption. We are heading back to social welfare at 12:30 to take our social worker back to court to see if the judge will see us this afternoon. Please pray that this judges heart is softened and that she would have room in her schedule. We will keep you all updated. Thanks you all for your support! Enjoy some photos of the last few weeks. 🙂

Mixed Bag

We have so much to update everyone on again.  Things have been so very busy lately and about the time I stop to consider updating the blog, something else significant is happening.  I will have to just give an overview of some of the highlights and try to bring you up to speed.  This will certainly be a mixed bag of updates!

Above all, this has been a time of people coming and going.  Within the past 2 weeks we have seen 18 different people come and/or go from here.  On May 1st we all welcomed the Miedema family, Brent and Kathy and their 4 children, to the team.  Brent will be heading up the ongoing construction and maintenance efforts at the school.  It has been great to have some new but familiar faces on board and to have Brent lend his skill and expertise to our building efforts.

Last week we said hello and goodbye to Stephanie VanKampen who came through GEMS to photograph and video some updated footage of the school.  Stephanie works for the Canadian Broadcasting Company and has been involved with this project for sometime.  She certainly got a raw look at life at the Esther School!

We also said goodbye to Lucinda Kollenhoven who has been very involved with our project for some time as well.  Lucinda’s entire family was involved with GEMS and The Esther School and several of them were with Drew and I when we came for our planning/work trip in early 2012.  Lucinda and her parents then lived in Lusaka for awhile, serving with a partner organization, and Lucinda joined us again to live and help here at the School since January.  She will be dearly missed by the staff and students.

Also making great contributions to the school and to our family personally were Tina’s oldest sister (and Lindsey’s mom), Jennie, her husband, Mick and daughter, Olivia.  This part of the Woods family was with us for the past 6 weeks and left on Monday.  While here, they tackled many projects around campus, including the nest boxes for the laying hens, partitions in the main bathroom building, some reconstruction of the preschool building, classroom furniture and many other projects including a mud oven for staff use that will also serve as a model for a larger oven to be constructed at school.  We were uniquely blessed to have Mick, Jennie and Liv spend time here with us and help out.

Finally, and with much heaviness, we said goodbye to our dearest friends, the Roelofs, and in doing so ended a significant chapter in our lives and in the life of the Esther School. Words could not express (for now) the significance of our relationship since we first came together at Hope College, through our early days of career, marriage, family and life and, especially, the past few years preparing for, traveling to and living through the first years of the Esther School’s history.

God was so clearly in control when he provided a way for us to come here together and created the “fraternity of four” that laughed, cried, worked and prayed our way through the pioneering phase of this project.  We are thankful that, God willing, we will have the next 50 years together to share the many memories made and lessons learned, usually the hard way.  God gave us the gift of each other and used our friendship and history to help us as we faced heartache, uncertainty, fear, even death.  Our joy was also multiplied in small successes, growing families, and the daily laughter that kept us going.  To have served with these amazing people was a privilege and an honor and it will be so strange to no longer have them be just a few bricks away.  We love you dear friends.

 

At school we have now completed our assessments for selecting next years’ preschool class, we’ve nearly finalized the new roster, we have officially started our poultry operations with 100 laying hens and 100 broilers to feed the students and generate income and we recently had our first all-school field day – a success!  This week we have final parent-teacher conferences, next week is field trips, and, if we survive until then, we will end the school year on May 30!

 

Tomorrow we will take a break from school to attend a court hearing where we will seek an official committal from the court to begin fostering our Teya.  Although she has been with us for 10 weeks now, this is the first legal step toward her adoption.  The approval should be granted without incident, but we will also be requesting an expedited process that would not require us to be further delayed in moving forward.  We would appreciate your prayers for approval of our “Effective Date of Notice” and “Certificate of Urgency”.

 

Finally, and this is a strange one – we are asking for your prayer for healing as I (Kevin) was confronted and attacked yesterday by a spitting cobra.  I was inside with Clayton when Haddassah (our dog) began barking from outside.  When I went out to shush her I saw a very large snake coming in our front door.  I kicked the door shut, but it turned and entered the other entrance to the side of the duplex that the Roelofs had vacated just the previous evening.  I managed to get it back outside but pursued it because of the many children around.  I managed to get a few swings in with a stick before it turned, hooded, and before I could react further, sprayed venom into my eyes and face.

Long story short, I was able to receive assistance quickly and will be fine.  Several staff, employees and friends from the village came quickly to help me and to finish the snake off.  By God’s provision, a friend from the nearby town, who happens to be an EMT from Iowa, “happened” to stop by within a few minutes and then called Tina who, at the same time, “happened” to be driving right past his house so she could grab his medic bag.  After flushing my eye under the kitchen faucet, he set up a saline drip so that I could further irrigate in the back of the van (once again an ambulance – for me this time!) while Dave and Brent rushed me to Lusaka to an eye specialist.

The doctors were able to properly examine and irrigate my left eye, which took the brunt of the strike.  They found a slight corneal defect from the venom’s toxin and gave me some medication to use at home.  Tina and I then returned to the hospital today for a second exam where the doctor said the cornea had healed significantly already and she adjusted my medication.  Although my eye is still somewhat painful and my vision a bit blurred, the progress in 24 hours has been significant and the doctors expect a full recovery without permanent damage.  For that we praise God and ask for your continued prayer.  I hope not to alarm anyone, but wanted to give the full story for those who had not heard or just heard something about the incident.

 

 

I will try to upload some photos from our last few weeks (minus the most recent incident!) soon…