From Zambia to Worcester!

Wow! What a journey we have had these past few months!!
As many of you already know we left Zambia at the beginning of December; our bodies left, our heads are still trying to catch up and bits of our hearts still remain!
We spent most of November trying to squeeze the life out of every single day; embracing every moment and trying to slow down time...
We were overwhelmed by the send off; lots of cards, warm words, get togethers and tears. We were physically and emotionally drained by the time we left the gates of Amano but absolutely blessed by the students, friends and Amano family :-)

A few pics of our last month in Zambia!

Youth Group Christmas Party!

Grade 12 leavers do!

Christmas Play

Throughout the whole process of saying goodbye and thinking about the future in England we have felt such a sense of Gods peace. At times we have totally freaked out; 'Are we doing the right thing?', 'What will we do for jobs when we get back?', 'Where will we live?'.... and then we are gently reminded of Philippians 4:6-7, 'Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.' .........

....Then followed the amazing story of how we ended up in Worcester....

.........Back in June we had discussed what jobs we would do on returning to England and where we would settle... Jona decided that he would look for small Christian Schools, similar to the setup of Amano, where he felt he could maybe build stronger relationships with the young people as opposed to a larger comprehensive. Although no jobs were advertised he decided to email 5 schools which he felt particularly drawn to. 4 of the 5 emailed back to say 'Thanks for the CV but no jobs!'. The River School in Worcester emailed to say; 'Thanks for the CV, no jobs at the moment but we'll stay in touch'.
As time went on, we emailed a few times but unfortunately, still no jobs! At this point I was starting to worry a little bit but Jona encouraged us to remain patient.
Then, amazingllly, during October half term we received an email from the school in Worcester with a job advert for a part time science teacher starting in January! Jona applied and was offered an interview on our return to England. So we decided to leave Zambia 10 days earlier than we had originally intended so we could get to Worcester for the interview and have a bit of down time before Christmas.
On visiting the River School we both got a clear sense that it would be the right place for Jon; a wonderful, Christ-centred, community focussed school. After spending the best part of a day looking around and chatting we felt excited and hopeful!
The school had asked that we all had a few days to think and pray about it, which we respected. Friday of that week we received a phone call to confirm that Jon had got the job! yay!

We have enjoyed a fantastic Christmas in Bude with the Dearings, Rass's and Burninghams; lots of laughter, fun, food and festivities.

The Brave Ones doing the Christmas Day Dip in Bude

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Christmas Day Lunch!

And now, here we are sitting in our little new home in Worcester! A one bedroom maisonette on the outskirts of Worcester!
It's a strange feeling to move to a completely new place; not really knowing many people or places. But we've had a great first week getting to know people... Jon has had his first few days teaching and is already really enjoying it.
We have started going along to a lovely church in the city centre and already enjoying getting to know people there! Our neighbours are all great and we already feel part of the neighbourhood :-) I continue to look for jobs and hope to find something very soon.

Apologies that we haven't been in touch with people or kept the blog up to date but I'm sure, as you can appreciate, the past few months have been a whirlwind!

Fun Times!

Last weekend we had the privilege of being invited to Lusaka (Zambia's capital city) with some friends who were going to drive down (6 hrs or so...!) to watch a South African comedian called Trevor Noah. We have followed Trevor's comedy for quite some time now and it was awesome to see him live..in Africa! 

As we travelled the long road to Lusaka I decided to snap some pics, we take it all for granted but won't be long until we will no longer have the opportunity to get such photo's!

Watermelons EVERYWHERE! 

These types of markets are seen regularly on the side of the main road

Patiently waiting for the show to begin!

We got there early for good seats!

We waited behind this abnormal load as they lifted the lines up above for the vehicle to fit under.....

Market sellers surrounding any car that stops

Funny shop names!

The show entitled 'It's my culture' started in true African style...half an hour late!! But it was brilliant; Trevor had really done his research on Zambia. He said he had only stayed in Lusaka for 1 night but the material he had gleaned from his short stay was hilarious and such a true picture of Zambian culture.

It was a lovely breather to get away to the big city; enjoy a bit of shopping, eat some chips and spend time with friends.

This week has so far been a 'party week'; the grade 12's will be leaving next week and so people had decided to do most of our leaving celebrations this week! Which is lovely.....but emotional! 

Monday the dorm girls had organised a surprise party for me in the dorm...which really was a surprise...so much so that I nearly didn't get there. Poor Jona was trying to entice me over to the dorm with not much success..haha! When I finally got there I was greeted by one girl in the lounge who promptly told me to "sit down Mrs Rass!", she then started playing the bongo drum, then all of the girls came streaming out from both sides of the dorm clapping, dancing, surrounding me and singing Bruno Mars 'You are Are Amazing'. I think their intention was to make me cry...which didn't take long!

We played some funny games, ate some yummy food and the girls had made me a precious book with a picture of them on each page and a little message from each of them...

With the crown and sash the girls made!

2 of the girls dressed up as Mr and Mrs Rass! haha

Jon with his homemade crown!

Wednesday night, Jonas tutor group had organised a meal for Jon. They had decorated the lounge with balloons and streamers. We had a VERY amusing evening as some of the boys decided to do a bit of traditional Zambian dancing...Jon took great delight in joining in too!

They also enjoyed getting Mr Rass soaking wet after a game of 'spin madly around a broom and try and fill up a bottle without falling over!!!!'......

Unfortunately one of the students did fall over and hurt her head...a game of 'chubby bunnies' made it all better!

And then Thursday night we had our final youth group with Grade 12's and myself all there together! I had requested that they all come wearing 'multicoloured'. We all piled into the banana house to share memories, eat cake and listen to some talented students singing 'Amazing Grace'.

And now we're all partied and cried out! But today we have a staff farewell BBQ at the pool and then it's goodbye to the Grade 12's and only 2 weeks left of school! argh.........

Where did October go?

Wow, I am shocked to log on to our blog and find that I haven't posted since 9th October! This month has gone in the blink of an eye! But what a fantastic month it has been filled with activities, events, praising, reflecting, laughing, joking (mainly jona!), friendship....
For us it has been and still is a strange time, we came back from half term on Monday with the thoughts of '5 weeks to go' looming in the back of our minds. We strive to make the most of each day, embrace each moment and person, and squeeze the life out of the remainder of our time here at Amano. But the thought still remains and it gets harder and harder each day to comprehend that we will be saying goodbye at the end of this term. But as I was saying to the youth group on Thursday night 'One step at a time'.....
I have recently been reading a book called 'Just Enough Light For the Step I'm On' by Stormie O'Martian. It's been great to reflect on the truth that God is in control and trusting Him for each step of the way. I LOVED this quote; 'It's a more certain proposition to follow the Lord, not knowing where you're going, than to think you know where you're going and you're not following the Lord'. So as we start to think about jobs, money, where we will live back in the UK we both have a deep sense of peace and trust even though things are still quite uncertain.

I think there's just sooo much that has happened in the last month that I will just upload lots of pictures and captions of October highlights!

Cake Sculpting Competition at youth group!

The Eiffel (eye-full!!) Tower

The Winning Cake!

Ants Everywhere!! Argh. We have ants invading our trailer all the timmmmeeee, stealing our sugar at night!!!

2 of the most beautiful people in the world! My friend Hilda and Grandson Baby Harold...

PTA Cake Sale and Car Wash!

Car Wash....aka Amano Water Fight!!

On the road to Kitwe...
We went shopping with the Grade 12's for their graduation dresses. Sometimes we take the roads/landscape for granted so thought I would upload some general pics of surroundings.

Bit Wobbly! You can't see from here but this trucks numberplate was 'Spiderman'. haha

Inter-house Girls Rounders on Thursday! 

Interhouse Primary Benchball...

Benchball.

Smoothie Making at Youth Group

Youth Group in The Banana House

Playing a mad game of 'Wiggly Worms' at youth group!

Today, Jon went off to watch the boys playing Cricket and THEY WON! I hope to upload some of the pics asap.
And I have been on duty in the dorm. We have had a great day putting up the xmas decs, dressing up and singing along to xmas music (a little weird when it's 30 degrees!)...

Christmas Hats (Kind of...)

YaY! Our dorm Xmas Tree!

Haha our very own Mrs Clause (with a beard!!)