Newsletter (November 26, 2020)

Dear all, Greetings from Zambia! This possibly will be one of our last letters written to all of you. You will have heard that we will be returning to New Zealand early next year. After careful thoughts and prayers, we believe God is leading us back and we will be retiring from our ministries in Zambia. This decision is quite unexpected as we thought all along that we would still serve in Zambia for many more years. However, many things have happened in the world in the past year or so and this does affect our ministries and some work could not be done in this time of Covid-19. Together with our personal situations, these have made us realise perhaps our time in Zambia is coming to an end.

It is difficult to come to terms with the fact that we will be leaving the field. There will be many fond memories in the midst of many frustrations, but we thank God that he has guided us through. Please pray that as we wrap up our remaining time in Zambia we will be able to finish well, and we will be able to complete what we need to do.

Lord willing, we will be flying out on 26 February, arriving in Auckland on 28 February. Initially we thought of visiting Hong Kong for a month or so before returning, but in the end we decided not to go there as things get very complicated to enter Hong Kong and there may not be many flights available to get back to New Zealand. Many airlines are still not flying, so making choices very limited. We will spend 14 days in managed isolation in Auckland and if everything goes well we will fly back to Dunedin, possibly 14 or 15 March.

Returning to New Zealand will be a huge move for us. Please pray for our settling back. The society has changed much since we left in 2008. Property prices and rentals also have skyrocketed. Please pray that God will walk in front of us and as we follow his will we will see his provision and guiding hands in every step that we have to take. Blessings.

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