Bonjour from Lubumbashi!

After a wonderful first week in Lubumbashi, we still can’t believe we are finally here. Our long journey by plane was met with answered prayers from the beginning. We didn’t have to pay for an overweight bag in San Antonio due to a computer glitch and just when we thought we would have to lug all 12 of our suitcases to our hotel in Washington D.C. for our overnight stay, a very kind agent with Ethiopian Air stored our bags at the airport overnight. Once we finally landed in Lubumbashi, we were greeted by the District Superintendent and 7 local pastors. We were so thankful, especially because we could not keep our kids awake. Macy even fell asleep on a bag while we were waiting for all the luggage to arrive. Needless to say, our first day was very rewarding as well as exhausting, but we made it through. In fact, thanks to our busy schedule the first day, we have not suffered too much jet lag.

We wish we could fill you in on every detail of our first week, but it would take a lot of space and a lot of reading. So, here are a few highlights:

Our house is more than we could have asked for. It is very close to the French school Macy is attending. She started yesterday and really seems to enjoy it.

While we still lack some basic furniture, we were able to get a stove and refrigerator on Saturday, which is vital to life here.

Electricity has been in and out, but when we do have it we take full advantage of it.

We are learning new French words and phrases and even having to change some we already learned. For example, the words we learned in Quebec for breakfast, lunch and dinner were petite déjuener, déjuener and diner. Here, they use déjuener, diner and souper. A sweet lady corrected me after I had been thanking everyone for breakfast, although I thought I was thanking them for lunch.

We bought a car that is in great condition and for less than we thought we might have to pay. Praise the Lord! Driving is very interesting and very crazy. Most cars are right side drivers, but they still drive on the right side of the road. And, our lovely SUV was imported from Japan, so some buttons in the car are in Japanese.

Gavin dedicated a church on Sunday with the District Superintendent. It was a very hot, but wonderful service. They translated the service into French for us, because most church services are in Swahili. It was a typical African service, so it lasted only 4 hours. We did have lunch after and a great time of fellowship and talking with pastors on the District.

We could go on and on, but the best part of this week has been getting to know our new home. We serve a faithful God, a God who is with us every step of our journey and we couldn’t be on this journey without Him.

Thank you for your prayers as we travelled here and even as we continue to settle into our new home in Africa. There is much to do and much to learn, but we are taking it one day at a time, trusting in God and resting in His peace.