Day 12 Only Surviving. . . Not yet thriving!! (well, maybe heath is!)

Honesty is the best policy . . . almost always. So, here is an honest attempt to update after 12 days of our new life in Africa.

HEATH
Heath is amazing as he has been in every new place we’ve moved. He has painted, fixed 2 leaking toilets, cleaned out a shower drain filled with rocks and sand, netted our whole living room, kitchen, dining room so bees and snakes can’t get in, hung our mosquito nets, moved furniture, driven in town on the wrong side of the car and road already, test drove a 4 runner for sale, been to a staff meeting, made it walking to the other base with our computer to email without getting hijacked, taken the kids swimming several times, is in the process of hanging chicken wire over the netting so banditos can’t get in our house easily, played a couple card games with me, played aggravation several times with the kids and boys from the other base, listened to me cry and freak out a few times, and has even managed to watch a couple Band Of Brothers DVD’s and read the entire Beyond the Band of Brothers book plus read the Word, lead our family, pray for our kids and keep us all stable! Today he and the kids drew up plans for a play structure in our back yard with a cement pad for our dog to be! Then he talked to the right people and already has the wood for it! He and the guy who has worked on our yard made plans about how to landscape it better today. And now he recruited the kids to help him pull weeds and move rocks around to clean our yard up. I’m telling you, he is ON TOP OF IT ALL! And all of that in 102 degree weather the past 3 days!
Is he made for missions or what! The Lord has spoken really clearly to Heath since we have been here. One evening, the Lord told him to read Isaiah 35 and a couple days later to read Hebrews 12:12. We believe this is our purpose for being here. At this point it is difficult knowing our purpose in theory and not yet in practice. That will just take time.
Heb. 12:12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.
So Heath is amazing and everyone is in shock about his “go get um” attitude about everything so far! Keep praying for him. There are other things he is wrestling with about us being here that he is praying for peace about. Plus he is feeling a lot of pressure about us getting a vehicle. Living on base 1 and having our work and internet be on base 2 (a mile walk) plus anything we need in town is about 7-10 minute drive away, it is very apparent we will need a vehicle soon. Bumming rides is difficult around here. Please pray that we will be able to find and afford a reliable truck here soon.

ABIEL
After the initial grieving, she is doing great. She has adapted far quicker than the rest of us! We started school this week and she jumped right back in and doing awesome. Nights are the most difficult for her as that is when she misses her friends the most. We’re trying to parent attitudes with her. Please pray for wisdom in that!

JUDAH
He got sick last Thursday night with a very high fever and stomachache. He was sick for 4 days and then felt better on Monday. But then again last night, he had a very high fever and head and stomach ache again. His attitude is still really good considering it is super hot and he has had such a high fever. We are still in shock with how well he is doing with this adjustment.
We brought school stuff for Judah to start kindergarten and he LOVES it! We are taking it slow and doing what his attention span can handle this week, but every morning he wakes up asking when we will start school.
The other day, he was watching an army of ants carry a dead bee out of our house (I do have some house help!). There were so many ants and he said, “Maybe they’re having a prayer meeting!” He has brought us much-needed comic relief in the stress of the hot days.
He loves climbing the bars on our windows to get as close as possible to the lizards that he is desperately trying to catch! Speaking of lizards, I was picking stuff off the floor and carried around what I thought was a rolled up piece of duct tape for quite awhile while I continued cleaning. Then I walked out into the light and realized I was holding the tail of a lizard!! YUCK!

ASHER
Again, I can say, he is the one having the most difficult adjustment. He finally got over the bug phobia, PRAISE THE LORD! And he stopped sweating so bad his hair was drenched on about day 5. And then he got sick on Friday evening. He has had diarrhea, fever, deep cough, runny nose, and rash ever since. We had our first trip to the clinic in Pemba on Monday afternoon but the doctor said it was “just a viral infection.” The clinic by the way is very clean and nice, relatively inexpensive and open 24/7. Yesterday he seemed to be doing better, but then it hit hard again last night. I have not had a full night sleep since I’ve been here. Between jet lag for the first 5 nights with the kids up from 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM and then the sickness starting the next day, it has been crazy.

ME
I know my faith is in testing time right now. I have had practice, evidence of why I can trust the Lord in all situations, seen his power and beheld his glory. Now I’m in the test. I haven’t been able to feel or hear the Lord since we left the States. I KNOW what’s true of our calling, I KNOW we are supposed to be here, and I KNOW what’s true of my God. But right now, it’s all faith.
I knew that sickness was part of the deal of the adventure to Africa. And I’m not scared of my children being sick or even of dying. But it is just exhausting. I need a new perspective and more of the Holy Spirit or else I’m going to crack! The exhaustion affects my attitude and my perspective immensely. Not to mention we’re just trying to figure out how to live in such intense heat.
Yesterday, the Lord reminded me of the verses in James about perseverance. James 1:2-4 Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

My endurance has plenty of opportunity to grow here, between the sickness, heat, and work of keeping sand out of our beds, floor, hair, cleaning water off bathroom floors because of leaky toilets, and trying to be loving mom and wife I feel like the whole day is persevering! I want to cry or sleep most of the time. I think I’m discovering that my role here will primarily be being a mom, to my kids and to the many kids that walk over from base 2 to visit us! On Tuesday last week, we were discovered. On Wednesday we were mobbed, and on Thursday I was overwhelmed. I’m just not sure what it looks like to parent 12 children plus my biological children all at the same time. Please pray for wisdom and patience through this process. We also need a lot of wisdom on what boundaries look like with the orphans. I hate even thinking in those terms but I cannot survive at this point any other way. Because of previously established deep relationship with some of these children, there is high expectation of who I will be to them and what I “owe” them. It’s a touchy balance.

I did give in and get a helper for laundry already. I only had to do it once to know it was going to kill me to try and do all our laundry on top of everything else! It will cost us about $8.00 a week. I’ll sacrifice some chocolate if I need to!! ☺

OTHER INFORMATION
We are finding that living here is not as cheap as we expected. Because it is trying to become a tourist town and because so many foreigners come through here for Iris Ministries, the prices for any “normal” food and eating out are very comparable to the States!
I have been making lunch for the whole family and dinner for the kids while Heath and I eat rice and whatever the base is serving after the kids are in bed.
When Heath makes the shopping run to town, he comes back with all sorts of goodies! So we have not been neglecting our category of sweets!

We received our bag yesterday, PRAISE THE LORD. It had a few things that were missed; Monopoly, two nets for bugs and other little odds and ends.

The intense heat is only supposed to last for another month. Then we’ll hit the intensity of our “job description” as there will be 50-80 visitors a week until September that we are “taking care of.” Please pray that we will learn the logistics quickly this month so no one gets left at the airport or stranded in their bunkroom for two weeks with nothing exciting to do in Africa! I’m feeling a bit discouraged about the practicality of my ability to really be involved in the hospitality ministry on base 2 while living on base 1 and mothering 3 children. Please pray that I will have peace in the way our role ends up playing out.

LIVING IN 3 CULTURES
I’m sad to not be able to email anyone personally yet. I really miss my dear and deep friendships. There are 3 cultures we will basically be trying to live in. The culture of the missionaries. The culture of Iris. And the culture of Pemba. All three are very distinct, though I think the hope is that they merge. We have already been told the most difficult part will be getting along with fellow missionaries! Statistically, we know that is truth. Please pray for us as we discern and live in but not of the world. We long to live from heaven’s perspective about everything. Idealistic? Sure, but I think it’s Jesus’ ideal!

So, please pray. I will try not to make the next update so long.

We love you all so very much. Blessings on your mission field. (And please enjoy your washer and dryer, dishwasher, and temperature regulators for us!!)

Emie for the Lockes

Africa 101

We are here and find it a bit hot. Enought about that, we love it and are adjusting well considering all the details that have gone into moving a fmaily of 5 around the world. All but one of our 17 bags made it and we saw many airports, Nairobi having the most hospitible people.

Judah is a different kid, I believe he as found his nitch. Asher is
sick and Abiel is finally saying that maybe she will really love it
here.

We have spent a lot of time painting and bug proofing our house. It is
a wonderful house and a huge yard.

The need for a truck is getting more obivous, The main reason being
that the high speed internet is a mile away on the other base and we
will never be able to go anywhere with out taking 20 kids with us, if we walk. Of
course this is all comfort things but the Lord keeps telling me he is
going to give me a truck.

Emie has given into the idea of getting a dog. The one main reason is
for snakes and the other is for security. We can get one from South
Africa. So this little dog lover is more and more excited.

Here is some things that Emie wrote up in an email the other day. Once we get in the mode of coming to the office we will be more consistent in emails.

COMMUNICATION:
We found out that for wireless internet, we need to go to base 2, which will be more difficult for me (emie). So that means, until we get an external connector for our mac laptop to handle dial up (in about a week), our email will be sporadic.
We do have a cell phone and a number but I forgot it at our house! Next email.

TRAVELING:
God's grace was surely on us and we felt all your prayers.

SLEEPING:
Last night was the first night the kids actually slept since we left home. The other two nights they were up from 12:30 AM to 4;00AM! Pray for rest for us in the adjustment.

HEAT
It is almost unbearably hot right now. Poor Asher is sweating the worst!! He drips with sweat and his hair is like he just got out of the tub all day long! But they seem to be doing well with the heat rashes, bug bites galore, and new living conditions.

JUDAH
I am shocked to say that Judah is amazing! Thank you to all who are praying specifically for him. He is adjusting better than all the kids and loving it here!! I think he was made for missions and to think, he would have been the reason I would've not come to the mission field! What a lesson.

ABIEL
She is grieving but today has been the first fun day for her. I can see it will just take a bit of time for her to let go of our wonderful life with the Truax's to embrace life here.

ASHER
Within the last week, Asher has become deathly afraid of bugs and we just moved to BUG HEAVEN! Before we left the states, he got bit by an ant and now every bug, big or small is a major threat to him! Please pray that he is delivered of this fear entirely. Sounds funny but I'm very serious. He wants to be held constantly because there are bugs in and out of the house, everywhere!

HEATH
Doing great. In just do it mode and he painted our kitchen brick red (just like our kitchen in Aurora)! He is patching up the many holes that bugs, snakes, frogs, and cockroaches are entering our home through! Praise God for Heath!

ME
Tired but feel like I'm home already. I can't even begin to express how wild it feels to move halfway around the world and feel like I am home. I guess it really is the reality that when your home is in God, you are at home everywhere. Pray for my patience with Asher's bug issue!

Our HOME
We love it and it feels like ours. We are making it quite cozy if you can do so with brick, tin roof, and bars and chicken wire over the windows!

Disneyland

Our surprise trip to Disneyland for the kids was wonderful. Though Emie and I are not into hallow fun we enjoyed it none the less. It was truly a gift from God to our kids and we as their parents loved watching them be kids. Emie and I cried as we discussed the idea of taking the kids to Disneyland. We rejoiced as parents when we can give our kids a gift of appreciation and thankfulness for their giving up for the kingdom.

The kids loved hanging out with grandma and Danny (Heath's mom and her husband). The day was long but the kids wanted to get every bit of Disneyland that they could.

OUr time in Cali was wonderful and Kim and her daughter Sarah were a blessing to the hightest degree. We were spoiled for the week and felt like we were on top of the world. Thanks

As Emie says "when God is our home then any place we sleep consistently feels like home.

Heath