December was the month of visitors. First off, Danny’s brother David was here for a brief visit. He helped immensely around the house, especially getting the kitchen cabinets installed.

Next, our team hosted 9 ICA church leaders from Luanda. They called an extraordinary meeting here in Huambo to give special attention to our team. We had four of them staying in our home, and the team women also cooked all the meals here. Although the women were a bit apprehensive about cultural differences, everything went very smoothly and we feel quite the superwomen – Jordan chopped up our butchered sheep with a machete, Teague gutted fish, and I managed the supplies. We couldn’t have done it without our friend Helena who took a day off work to help us. The men feel very good about strengthening relationships with a broad number of ICA leaders and navigating the murky waters of cross-cultural leadership.

Stephen Kapaipi, a good friend from Luena (eastern Angola), came to visit during his Christmas break. He was a refugee in Zambia during the war, and has been struggling to plant a church in Angola since his return. The men had several good problem-solving sessions and Bible studies.

Danny’s parents arrived just before Christmas, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit with MomMom and Papa. Our team took a week off around Christmas to drive to southern Angola and do some sight-seeing, inspired by John Reese’s love of photography. It was a good time to rest and prepare for the New Year.

Praying with ICA leaders

Written Dec. 16

Since the end of October, our family and team has been beset with all of the difficulties of moving to a new country. Quite simply, it feels like we have been under attack. Yet we can see God working powerfully in providing for us.

In one area, we have had many difficulties with our house. The plumbing is so poor that we have decided to start over again, running the pipes along the outside and inside walls. Thankfully, our landlord is paying for and organizing the process. Our generator flooded in the first hard rain and we spent 2 days without electricity while Danny fixed it.

We have also had many thefts. Our brand new puppy was stolen out of our yard after less than a week with us. Amazingly, our teammate Teague spotted him at the vet and he was returned to us, only to be deathly ill for 3 weeks. Our old computer, printer, and scanner were stolen out of our vehicle in Luanda, then our main computer was taken from our home by some boys that climbed through a small window. The boys returned the next day and Katie chased them to their homes and the computer was returned. God has been at work in the midst of our discouragement.

Lastly, our car has needed two major repairs in the last two months. Thankfully, the car was never completely out of commission with either problem and we have been able to use it when we needed it.

It has felt as though we haven’t even recovered from one setback before another hits. And yet each time God has provided – Danny’s brother David came for a visit and was able to bring the replacement electronics; as we were pondering a trip to Namibia to get the delicate car job done Danny “ran into” a local mechanic who described the problem exactly and was able to fix it.

We are learning to rely daily on God’s provision. We have only to look at our puppy or computer to marvel at God’s miracles.

Climbing a kopjie with Danny's brother David

In October, our family traveled to Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Swaziland – a truly cross-continental trip. We had several purposes for going and accomplished most of them. First, we visited a new church plant in southern Angola which is led by an outstanding young preacher. In Namibia Danny shopped for spare car parts and equipment. Then we spent two days camping in Etosha National Park with the Meyers. Check out Katie’s facebook for some great animal pictures.

In South Africa, Danny arranged for three important upgrades to the vehicle: a heavy-duty roof rack (remember the sheep on top of the car?), a long-range fuel tank, and a suspension upgrade (my back is very thankful!). We have already seen the usefulness of all of these for our work and life here. We were also able to visit many of Danny’s old friends in Kempton Park where he grew up and buy some household items that are difficult to find in Angola.

Our last stop was to Swaziland, where we visited African Christian College and some of our mentors, Fielden and Janet Allison. One thing we’ve learned from our parents and mentors is that life as a missionary is draining and it is important to schedule breaks and support time before you need them. We got some good TLC from the Allisons and enjoyed another night in a game park on our return trip with our teammate Jordan.

In Etosha Game Park

Written Oct. 4

The last half of September was very eventful for the Reese family. Danny took a trip along with Robert, Nathan, and a dozen ICA (Churches of Christ in Angola) church leaders to the far north of Angola to visit churches in the Uige province. It was an incredible opportunity to get an inside look at how the ICA leadership functions. They were blessed with safe travel and abundant hospitality – including being given a sheep.

Church in Uíge

While the men were traveling, I (Katie) had the opportunity to drive around Huambo for myself, getting used to the roads and traffic. I also took the time to visit our neighbors. I am making a list of all the people I meet nearby and try to go back and visit them. I also had the blessing to meet and encourage/be encouraged by several other missionaries in our area.

Eliana began her first school with Mommy as teacher! Teague and I are teaching the three older kids together – putting together our own preschool curriculum for now, until our container arrives. The kids have enjoyed so much the time together and the fun activities. Eliana loves to learn her letters, play games, color, and write. We usually meet during Sophia’s naps, and she cooperates pretty well. When she’s not asleep, Sophia is busy chasing after the other children with her new found walking skills.

A is for Africa

Written August 29:

We’ve gotten into a good routine with our home now. We’ve bought enough buckets for hauling and storing water, some shelves for the kitchen, a mattress, and a plastic table and chairs. Every morning after breakfast the kids know to put on their shoes to help haul our day’s supply of water.

These last two weeks we’ve taken a break from home setup to attend some church conferences in Luanda. We all attended the first week to hear about the past, present, and future of the churches here. Then the mothers and children headed back to Huambo for a quiet week at home while the men attended a Bible lectureship and ministers’ workshop. It was a great time of relationship building with the church leaders as we learn the culture of the Churches of Christ in Angola.

While in Luanda, we also bought our Land Cruiser! Vehicles are incredibly expensive here, but we found a used one that was more affordable. There are several small things wrong with it, but we are hoping that it will still be a solid, reliable vehicle for us.

While the men were gone, we taught the children the “Days of Creation” song. Then for our team worship time we focused on “God as the Creator” to remind ourselves who the true Creator is as we face a new life here with new relationships, new hopes, and new prayers.

Danny and his Cruiser

Our family

Here are some of the precious moments from the first days in our new house.

Seeing how hard my hubby works to take care of our family – Danny came ahead of us to get a generator and water pump set up in our house. We still can’t get the water pump to work, but every day Danny faithfully pulls up water for us. He’s been working hard lately showing our team around town.

Danny pulls up water

Seeing our girls make this house their home – The girls have been very comfortable here. Sophia enjoys finding spoons and bowls from the kitchen to play with and Eliana loves to help set the table. Eliana runs around the house calling Sophia, who comes crawling after her.

Eliana playing with her Quiet Book that she got from Tia Laura.

Reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones – Our friend Charles lives in Huambo now with his new wife, Helena. They hosted Danny for the first week and have been such a big help getting us set up. They’ve also introduced us to their friends and family, so we know a lot of people already!

Charles and Helena

Fresh veggies from the local market – Charles showed us a market that is only a 15 minute walk from our house. We were so happy to find cheap prices on fresh produce after the outrageous ones we paid in Luanda.

Sophia shows off our market purchases.

Cooking in my new kitchen – We have a bright, spacious kitchen and Danny had a nice new stove all set up when I arrived. Cooking food for my family definitely gives me warm fuzzies.

My bright kitchen

Our whole team arrives! The Meyers arrived in Huambo Sunday afternoon after waiting on Robert’s visa and buying a car. Nathan has moved into an apartment, but the rest of us are all living in this house together. We had a big celebration dinner of fajitas and mint brownies, then a time to praise God together.

Celebration supper

We spent 9 years dreaming of moving to Angola, 4 years building a team, 14 months language learning in Portugal, and 21 hours on a plane to get 10 people and 37 bags to Angola.

16 people lived in the same house in Luanda for 20 days with almost 0 misunderstandings. Praise God for our wonderful hosts and for helping us all have a good attitude in this new place for all of us.

Since we’ve been in Angola, Sophia turned 1 year old, we attended a 4.5 hour service where 17 churches gathered together to celebrate, visited countless stores and offices researching and learning.

Danny made an 8 hour bus trip to Huambo and Katie and the girls made the trip in the car with Nathan with 2 police stops and 1 flat tire.

Our house is empty with no running water. We have electricity for 4 hours (when we run the generator) and pull up 6 buckets of water each day, but the feeling of sleeping on our bed in our house is absolutely priceless.

Eliana handily wins our first game night

That is the thought that I am stunned with over and over. Through all of the hustle and bustle of packing, I haven’t had a chance to think about the thought that we will be living in Africa. At first this thought brought about a little bit of panic, as I realized I hadn’t hardly prepared! I didn’t have my mosquito repellant or roll of toilet paper handy when we arrived, I hadn’t thought about adapting to cultural norms, how to greet, etc. But God blessed us with a very easy entrance (all of our team’s 37 bags arrived!) and we were met by our friend André Banda (church leader) and met our new friends and hosts, Paul and Katherine Evanson. I’ve quickly realized that Africa is comfortable.
We’ve rested now and made a couple of trips to the grocery store. The girls are settling in and really enjoying their new friends. Monday Danny started the daunting task of setting up life here, opening a bank account, etc. So far it has gone well, but it will be a long process. We don’t know when we will move to Huambo, but we are feeling rested, relaxed, and ready to get to know life here.

On our way!

The plane that will take us to Angola

Finally here!

Written on July 7

This last week was full of goodbyes amidst the packing and preparing. On Saturday, we went to the Makiesse family’s house for a true feast. This Angolan family has mentored our whole team over the year in Angolan culture.

Sunday we said goodbye to our church family here. They blessed us and prayed over us. There were many tears and many hugs. As I said to one of  my teammates, it is very hard to say goodbye to people who welcomed me with open hearts in my moments of vulnerability entering a new country and not knowing the language.

Monday we had a 4^th of July celebration at the home of some other American missionaries, Kevin and Angelina Mullins.

Tuesday was our last full team event, as we met and had dinner with Rusty, Laura, Alex, Stephen, and baby 3-peat Campbell, who will stay in Portugal until after their third son is born.

We have been blessed to know so many wonderful people here, and it is hard to be saying goodbye to our friends yet another time. One challenge (and blessing) of a missionary is to continue with an open heart to those new friends that you meet and to maintain connections all over the world. And so it is that we say goodbye while at the same time thinking and praying for the new friends that we will meet in Angola.

The Lisbon church prays over us

The kids made Eunice (our language teacher) a box to store her goodies in

Worship time on the 4th

Six days remain until our family will load up the church van with all the earthly belongings that we’ve managed to cram into our airplane luggage allowance and fly to Africa – with no return ticket.

The past several days have been filled with excitement and planning. Praise God with us for many answered prayers in regard to logistics. God has provided our team with a host in Luanda, transportation from the airport, and, amazingly, a house in Huambo. We have already arranged with the owners to rent the 3 bedroom house for 2 months, and once we actually see it we can arrange for a longer term contract. Please pray for wisdom as we figure out the best option for acquiring a vehicle for our family.

We have packed, unpacked, purged, and are now in the process of repacking.  Hopefully this time we can squeeze it all into our bags. Praise God for missionary tickets with extra baggage allowance.

Our kids have been doing great, discovering new, fun things to play with, like suitcases and all of our piles. The next few days will be a flurry of goodbyes, final packing, cleaning, and lots of emotions! Please pray for continued well-being for all of us.

Look what we found!