Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

Happy 1 Year Anniversary ... not only to ourselves, but to all those who have journeyed with us in Spirit to Angola. We arrived exactly one year ago on a bumpy, vomit inducing flight, to a crazy rainstorm and intense heat. I can still remember the first smells, the first sounds of dogs barking, the first restless night of sleep. One year ago, we arrived, more or less intact ... to this new home of ours.

I'm going to take a moment to reflect on the past year and share some photos but before I do, I want to above all say: THANK YOU. Thank you for supporting us, and praying for us, and caring for us, even though we are just three pretty average people in a country worlds away from home. Thank you, friends, for being that ... friends, in the true sense of the word.

Thank you, too, to our new friends and family here. For those that have helped to make Angola a little more like home. In a land where we are all strangers, really, it helps to have friends who would do anything for you ... check your kid's ears when he's sick, drop everything and help you with a leaky tap, lend a listening ear when you need to vent, teach you all you need to know to survive your first year in Angola. You are strangers that have become family!

When we count the blessings, there are just far too many to count. Looking back on a year ago, we have grown so much. Our Portuguese has improved TREMENDOUSLY (although those that have learned a language know that the more you learn a language, the more you feel like you have yet to learn!). We have moved several times, but now are happily settled in an incredible home with lots of space for Ethan to play and run around. The MAF maintenance program has come leaps and bounds over the past year, thanks to so much hard work by Marcel, Marijn, and Basilio. It has NOT been easy work. It's been incredibly challenging and full of growing pains. But that's what we are doing ... growing.

If I'm being honest, this year has been spiritually one of the most challenging seasons of our lives. Straight up, we miss our home church ... our family. That being said, God has been faithful and has provided us with a new family here, and a new perspective on who He is, and what it means to follow Him. It has NOT felt like a mountaintop year. More like ... one of those years where you are just obediently "sticking it out"--reading the bible, praying, listening to sermons, attending church--and yet, not really "feeling it".

Part of it is a new language, a new culture, a new way of doing life. It isn't easy to "get fed" in church. Everything takes an intense amount of effort, concentration, and patience. It takes months to develop deep friendships. It may take us years before we really get what it means to be a Christian in Angola. But God is faithful.

Part of it is being a parent. No really, any new parents out there agree? Priorities shift, tiredness takes on a whole new meaning, life gets busy, and everything ... changes. But God is faithful.

His blessings have abounded. We have dove to new depths of understanding scripture, learning to rely on God, learning what it means to suffer. We have been challenged and we have been encouraged time and time again. I, personally, am more in love with Jesus than ever before--not because He has taken me to wonderful highs and I have been swept up in emotion, but because I see what He is doing and what He has done in the lives of beautiful people here. I treasure Him now, more than ever, because I know and see He is real like never before. Thank you Angola for showing us that.

For our family, this will be a year we will never forget. From amazing vacations, to tackling malaria and other sicknesses. From enjoyable days at work and rewarding conversations with students, to immense frustration with traffic and airplane problems. From glorious days in the sun, to wishing we could just have snow ... it's been a year to remember. Angola, you have become another home to us. We look forward to year two, hoping that we've learned a thing or two, and it won't be so difficult. But God is faithful ... and He'll carry us through it, no matter what it brings.

A Few Highlights and Lost Pictures from this Year

Leaving Canada, on our way to Angola! Ethan was just 6 months old!

Our final flight into Lubango was a bumpy one in the MAF Caravan, but Ethan loved it.

Our first MAF flight (this picture was pre-takeoff, post-takeoff was not so pretty).

Marcel in the operating room at CEML hospital,
to watch Dr. Steve Collins do some cataract surgeries. We are so thankful
for our friends who work at the hospital, they have an amazing ministry.

Watching a glorious sunset, just 20 minutes from home. One of the first of many incredible
African sunsets.

This is where we live ... beautiful Huila province in Angola.

Our first Thanksgiving, just a few days after we arrived, with two Canadians and two Americans.
One of our first tastes of the precious fellowship here.

Many hikes, many beautiful places--but this one was awesome! A two hour off road drive to a
waterfall inside a big hole in the mountain.  Hungueria Falls.

The hangar where Marcel spends most of his days--pre hangar doors.

The Leba--a famous viewpoint and tourist attraction in our province, and the main way to get to Namibe and the beaches.

Yet another beautiful waterfall and fun day of swimming!

We are blessed with many short-term visitors, mostly medical students, doctors, or nurses.
Sometimes, they become good friends and you hope they come back!

One of the tougher parts of living overseas--skyping in to my sister's wedding.

Marcel's 20 km hike--that was one for the record books!

Special moments!

Heading through the desert to the beach ... an analogy for our life right now.
Sticking through some tough times, knowing that the best is still ahead!

A new appreciation of MAF ... my flight to Chinhama

September has been VERY busy for Marcel, and more relaxed for me, as school is on pause. Of course, I'm making up for it chasing Ethan around the compound as he tests his new sense of independence.

This less busy time means I also had the opportunity last week to go on a MAF flight. I was super nervous and super excited for this opportunity--nervous because I don't have a strong stomach for flights in small airplanes, and excited because, hey, how many people get to fly to rural Angola in a small plane on a Friday morning!?

We flew in one of the Cessna 182s (a four-seater airplane) to Chinhama, a small village with an airstrip, about 10-12 hours drive from Lubango, or a two-hour flight. Chinhama is probably one of our most frequented sites, ars it is the closest airstrip to Cavango medical clinic, a clinic serviced by our friend, American doctor, Tim Kubacki. We frequently fly medical supplies and patients for the clinic because of the long drive over poor roads to get there!

I thoroughly enjoyed the flight there, as conditions were clear, and there was hardly any turbulence (therefore, a happy stomach!). We delivered a patient and his wife back to their home after a month stay at the hospital in Lubango. He was flown in for prostate surgery, and was happy to be reporting home healthy and well!

When we arrived in Chinhama, just as I expected, there was quite the crowd of people waiting for the plane. Kids watching from a good distance, police, family, and curious onlookers. We dropped off Mariana and Rafael, and picked up two more travellers--a blind man and his wife for surgery in Lubango. Later that day, pilot Marijn would do one more flight out to Chinhama to deliver medical supplies and pick up another patient and his companion.

After the flights, I must say, I came to a new appreciation of the whole MAF experience. Before I left, Marcel jokingly said, "The plane SHOULD be safe to fly." *Gulp!* Of course, I trusted him, but it helped me realize the gravity of his job, as well as Marijn's--he is in charge of keeping lives in the air multiple times a week! That's no small feat--no wonder my husband takes his job so seriously!

Not only that, but I was amazed by all the people involved in making these "flights for life" happen--from the nurses and Dr. Tim out at Cavango, who refer the patients, to the drivers that take them to and from the airstrips and airports, to the program manager who organizes flight details, to the mechanic who inspects the plane before it can leave, to the pilot who not only flies the plane but also represents the heart, soul, and face of MAF to the patients and the villages, and finally, to the doctors that perform life-changing, life-altering, God-honouring surgeries! WOW! And the crazy thing is ... the patients aren't VIPs or celebrities, or anything of the like--they are literally "the least of these"--mostly rural, simple country folk, in need of an encounter with the earthly and heavenly Doctor.

So, let me end by saying a few words that stick out to me after the flight. The first word--professional. I'm proud to say that the whole experience was incredibly professional, and I had full trust in the incredible abilities of the pilots and the mechanics. Second-- life-changing. I talked about the surgeries, the opportunity to access health services that otherwise would be all but impossible. But I haven't talked yet about the fact that some of these people have never been in a car--much less an airplane! Can you even imagine how life-changing that is to fly, through the air, in a small four-seater airplane to a big city that you know very little about? WOW!

Finally, prayer. Yes, these wings soar on prayer.  Not only that, but in these last few weeks, we have felt a pretty heavy spiritual darkness on us, that we know is connected to the fact that we have now been here almost one year, and are past the honeymoon stage of life here. Suddenly, it is hitting us that we still have yet to master the language and figure out certain cultural things, that we have lots of work to do, that people here need a whole lot of love and a whole lot of help, and that we long to have deeper friendships, deeper discussions, and a deeper rooted life here--but as of yet ... don't. Pray for us. Pray for the MAF program.

Loading up the plane for this family to return home. Looks like that did a *little*
shopping at the praca ... and by a little, we mean a lot.

The passengers, Mariana and Rafael, and of course, Marijn photobombing!

Don't know what he's filling in, but it sure looked important!

There's the runway! First time for me landing on a dirt airstrip!
Hint: there's a hole about 3/4 of the way up the strip, make sure you avoid it!

The kids weren't scared to laugh and joke about us, but they were too scared to get
much closer!