Happy New Year!

After a whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania, I am back "home" in our small apartment at the African Leadership Academy.  It was so great to see family and especially Maggie, Emma and Mia for Christmas -- it was truly a gift.  The only sad part was that Hans and Nate stayed in South Africa.  We sure did miss them.  But, it gave us a renewed appreciation of what family means to us and a definite resolution to make every effort to spend quality time as a family as often as we can.


In Pennsylvania, we all met at my parents' house -- my girls and my siblings.  Amy and Jay (newly engaged!) are in the Philly area and my brother Ben and his wife, Angie, and daughter, Kaya, came from California.  It was a packed house but wonderful to all be together again.

Enjoying seeing Emma, Mia and Maggie again! 💕

Mia, Angie, Emma and Kaya (Angie's daughter)

Maggie, Uncle Ben and Angie

Ice skating in Philadephia

Our annual Christmas day hike -- cold!

Christmas with Uncle Jay

While we were enjoying the cold weather of Pennsylvania, Hans and Nate were off on a different kind of adventure.  They went hiking in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, which is a part of the Drakensberg Mountain Range.  It was some great father-son bonding time, as well as amazing scenery.

Hiking in some beautiful South African scenery

The cabin

However, in the interests of keeping it real, I will say that this was one of the hardest seasons for us ever as a family.  It was really hard to be separated and really hard to see the impact our decision has made on the girls.  They are so wonderfully supportive and we are lucky to have so many friends and family to offer them places to stay, but it's not the same as having a home to return to for the holidays.  I really questioned our decision to move at one point, but, like I said, the girls are supportive.  In fact, at one point, when I offered to give it all up and move back (it was very tearful at times), Mia said, if we need you to move back, we'll tell you, but we're OK.  It was an amazingly mature statement and I really took it to heart. 

That said, looking back at our first couple of months here, it does feel like our presence has made an impact on different lives.  If I could share part of an email that Hans wrote to the pastors of our church, he put it best: 

It’s been a tough Christmas - the first one where the six of us are not together.   God provided a way for Susan to get to the US (she went to her parents in Philly) so she could pour into the girls, for which we’re thankful.  I’m in day 8 of having Nate all to myself…something not all fathers get!

This chapter of life has been quite a challenge on each of us.  I know I shared a bit before, but my eyes well up with tears even now as I think about the journey my family, both individually and collectively, has been on.  All praise to Him for sustaining us.

We still haven’t created any extraordinary programming or other remarkable institutional level things.  Mostly He continues to use us in the lives of individuals. 

I want to continue to boast about how Susan has continued to blossom as an early childhood educator.    She’s referred to as a “Grade R” teacher, which is equivalent to kindergarten in the US.  Her loving heart, patient spirit, and years of experience, have given her the opportunity to literally change the trajectory of several students’ lives.  Seriously. 

As is the case in many educational domains around the world, including some arenas in the US, much of the “philosophy” around teaching young people in South Africa is to “get them to obey” and if they don’t, chide and rebuke them until they submit.  Even at Susan’s school, Nova Pioneer, which is a fairly new (yet already reputable) organization with a small chain of schools in both South Africa and Kenya, struggles with what it means to serve all learners.  Much of what Susan knows about how to effectively shepherd and teach young children is kind of cutting edge to teachers here.  Both her and my numerous trips around the sun (i.e., our age J) have proven beneficial on many levels as well with the average age of most of the educators we work with being less than 30.  In Susan’s case, she already esteemed as a “wise sage” with great ideas and solid instincts.

As “hall mistress” (great title, eh?) at African Leadership Academy (ALA), she also serves as “mom” to twenty-six 16-19 year old ALA girls from around the continent (we live on campus).   It took some time for many of the girls to warm up to her, but, if the praise she received on recent student feedback forms is any indication, coupled with individual notes she’s received from the girls, they’re grateful for her and she’s respected, loved, and making an impact.   Again, she won’t boast about it, but I will.  She’s my treasured wife…and, incidentally, she has some practice with teenage girls J.

As Head of the Science Department, I’ve slowly but surely built a strong culture amongst my science department team members.  They were without leadership for two years and, while I initially had some pushback to some of my ideas around department organization and instructional practices, they all appreciate that someone is at the helm “leading”…and they’re starting to buy in.

I love teaching again.  My first year A-level biology class (Nate’s level) is my favourite part of the week.  They’re a wonderful group and have made great progress learning and supporting one another, with many laughs along the way. Such a great class.   Some students from countries such as Cape Verde and Angola (lusophone - Portuguese-speaking) and Ivory Coast, Burundi, Senegal, and Central African Republic (francophone – French speaking) have struggled with English their 2^nd or 3^rd language.  The other students as a whole, however, are amazing in their default response to help one another rather than focus on “self” and take advantage of others’ weaknesses in what is a competitive situation.  What a great attribute to naturally have in place considering these kids are going to one day be leaders on the continent!

My two 2^nd year classes (ALA is a two year diploma program) proved a bit tougher to “reach”.  I’m their 4^th biology teacher in four terms – lots of turnover in the biology position.   Their caution and hesitancy to embrace me and my approach is, as such, not without merit.  Some of my unorthodox instructional approaches, coupled with me having to learn the Cambridge Advanced Bio curriculum on virtually day to day basis (much deeper than my Ypsi and Detroit bio classes from 1993 to 2012), have made it a bumpy first term on some levels.  Only in this last month of December did things start “clicking” a bit more.  I give all thanks to God for giving me patience and a kind and gentle heart.  It’s truly been me building relationships with individuals from the class outside of class that’s led to a strong classroom culture and climate within the class. 

I am so happy that Susan and I have daily reasons to lean on Him.  Again, it is not been easy and there’s much uncertainty as to how logistically things will unfold.  How’s He going to provide for us for three years with so many…so many life changes going for Maggie, Emma, Mia, and Nate?  We don’t know but remain convinced that He brought us to this point and He will see us through.  

Our current prayer is for God to reveal how He’s going to provide housing for us this summer.  Nate’s been a trooper but he wants to see his friends.  I’m wondering with all your connections whether you might help us find housing – whether something someone is not using for a few months or something that doesn’t break the bank.  It doesn’t have to be in AA, somewhere in Washtenaw Co if possible.

God providing us with a place to reunite as a family this summer remains one of the questions that He left unanswered when we left in August.  We left knowing this question would need to be answered and trusting Him to do so.

Anyway, that's the "real, not sugar-dosed" reflection of our start to the New Year.  So many changes in 2017-- I can only imagine what 2018 will bring!

Best wishes to you and your families for a happy new year!