We are searching for the new normal.

We are searching for the new normal.

We have been in our new home for 4 weeks and are beginning to settle into a new rhythm of life. Today our shipping boxes arrived, all safe and sound, and we spent a few hours unpacking things we had forgotten we had packed! The house is beginning to feel like home, and we are very comfortable.

It is coming in to Winter here, and we have had some very cold mornings and evenings, although the days are very pleasant with sun and temperatures in the mid twenties. It is quite funny seeing the local people all wrapped up and complaining of the cold, when really, the days are the same as our English summer!

The Mercy Air family has made us feel welcome and at home. It is an exciting feeling getting to know a group of people, who we will share our lives with, all over again. Our roles here have a number of facets to them and we are slowly working out how we take our place on the farm. One of the attractions when we first came to Africa was the question 'Is this really Kingdom work?' It feels so different. Not wrong. Or better. Just different. 

We are church-visiting at the moment, exploring where we might find our new church community to worship with, and we cannot remember doing that before. We have been Anglican, Free Evangelical and Methodist so far. More visits and explorations to happen yet before we make our decision, or rather God directs us, to the right place for us.

Nigel is finding his place on doing practical work with the team who maintain the ongoing life of a large farm, with a small airport, including a grass runway. He is enjoying working with other people after spending a lot of time on his own in his previous role. He has set up a work bench in the workshop and also has a desk in the office. Now that his books have arrived the next job is to set up his study in the house, which will involve constructing a large bookcase!

Apart from sorting the house, Erin has committed to working in Msholozi, the local township, with Cathy and a team of volunteers, on Thursdays, and is exploring whether that is the right place for her. She is also part of the hospitality team on site, and will spend time with visitors to Mercy Air. We are sure there will be other areas that she can be involved with, but these will develop in time.

 Nigel is going to Johannesburg for a day in late June, with Mercy Air staff, to meet some people from another organisation to explore how we might share what we have in common, and work more closely together. We are both booked to go to Mozambique for two (week long) trips, one late June, and then again in late July.

We have sorted bank accounts (they don’t have joint accounts here!), health insurance, mobile phones and  WiFi for the house. We are learning to be patient because everything takes at least twice as long to achieve. We have never had to show our passports so many times!

We are still looking for the right car, and would appreciate your prayers for this, although in the meantime , we are very grateful to Paul and Cathy for the use of their car. 

We are both learning ‘African time’ - slower; and also to enjoy the quiet. We are blessed with a beautiful view from our porch, where we sit to eat our lunch most days. We think the long dark nights are quite hard to get used to (6ish every day, winter or summer), but are sure that it will soon be part of our 'new normal', whatever that is!

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