Mid-October Update

Because there’s no better time for an update, right?!

Here’s a bit of what’s been going on in the last few weeks/months:

With CiH…

- We’re currently running 3 classes of women (over 30 ladies!) at one time. One group graduates in February, and they’re all becoming great friends. The other two classes just began in September, so they’ve got another year to go. We love seeing new faces, learning new names, and connecting with new folks. It literally feels like we’re just setting our dinner table for more people as we welcome them into the CiH family. And that’s a great feeling.

- The loan program is going 100x better than expected with a 100% repayment rate for these first 2 payment schedules. Women are experiencing great success in their businesses, even women who haven’t completed primary school, but who attended our loan workshop to learn about basic math, profit, cost, all the ins-and-outs of a good business. Sustainability and confidence boosting and smiles and empowerment and food on the table and kids in school and it’s just too much goodness to handle. Praise Jesus.

- We’ve started doing really well at some local markets here in Lusaka with our CiH products. We test out some new goodies here on the expat market to predict how they’ll do in the States. Never would I have ever thought I would be developing & selling a fashion line in Zambia. Kinda ridiculous, kinda great. We may even show you some of the gorgeous necklaces currently hanging up in our living room as we prepare for a market this Saturday J We also love market days because it gives us a chance to meet new people, welcome them to Lusaka, connect with them, invite them to our church and into our lives. Can’t beat those market days, y’all.

- A little (huge) announcement is in the works with a brand new partnership for us. Hint: it has to do with orphan prevention in a very direct way aka exactly the vision the Lord gave me for CiH just 4 years ago, one that I wouldn’t have dreamt of coming close to even in the next 10 years. Can’t wait to share that with y’all!

With Zambia…

- It’s hot. Our hottest of the hot season is right now. Y’all may be enjoying your sweaters and pumpkin spice lattes and cute/handsome boots, but we’re boiling over here. Days get upwards at 100 degrees, no A/C anywhere we can find. So sometimes we stand in the freezer aisles of the grocery store. Sometimes we stand in the air-conditioned butchery for as long as we can stand it until the meat smell gets to us. And most times we just stay super still all day and drink gallons of water. Rainy season cannot come soon enough! Or if y’all wanted to ship over some fall, that’d be great too.

With the Bardi Party…

- We’re moving! We found a little bit of a fixer-upper that will hopefully be ready for us when we’re moving in on November 11 before we head back to the States for a little holiday funsies and fundraising. We love the house, the property, our own space with space to host friends and YOU folks from America who can come visit us and witness firsthand the incredible things that are happening here. We’re even getting a cat. Watch out world, the Bardis really are settling into life in Zamland.

- We got our Driver’s Licenses!! After a couple months of waiting on carbon paper to arrive from the UK for our cards to be printed, we finally have them! We’re well on our way to becoming real Zambians, according to all the ladies at the center.

- We have friends. Some real good ones. We really lucked out aka Jesus really provided for us in a really gracious way with a community of folks who encourage us and who also provide laughs for us and understand the kinda crazy days we have from time to time. And most every conversation includes a reference to Chick-fil-a at some point, so I think we really get each other.

- We are about to celebrate our first anniversary in just a few weeks (on November 9)! We have been through one heck of a year and could write novels upon novels about a lot of the ick we’ve walked through, but we’ve walked through it together and have come out of the thick of it. Daily we’re humbled at the amount of grace and mercy Jesus shows to us in our marriage and in each other, and how He truly cares about this bond He created for us to share with the world. Maybe you’ll see another blog post about what it’s been like to go from NC to Jamaica (no ick there) to TX to NC/SC to Zambia to NC/SC to Zambia and back again in the first 12 months of us living in the same state and under the same roof for the first time.

It sounds like we’ve been busy, and we kinda have been! And it’s just looking like it’ll get busier from here on out through the end of the year as we are working to coordinate events for us to get to share CiH and our lives with folks back in the States (and eat lots of Christmas cookies). We don’t love the busyness, but we trust that it’s just for a season, so we would really appreciate your prayers for us to find rest and balance and peace in the midst of it all. And for us to enjoy the ride that can be quite bumpy sometimes :)

We love y’all. A lot. Seriously. Sorry if you’re creeped out by the PDA, but it’s true. We know we can’t keep in touch as much as we’d like, and that relationships seem to change when you’re 6,000 miles away on a different continent. But know that we think of y’all more than you think and we miss you guys a lot. When we don’t say it, it’s because sometimes it’s a hard cost to count, but we cannot wait to see y’all soon. (And if y’all haven’t hollered at us to hang out from Dec-Jan, please do! We want to see you. It’s better than FaceTime.)

Love,

A&W

The dreamy yard at our new house!

And when I said Fixer Upper, I meant that in the most extreme sense. Like the front of our house not being on yet. So prayers appreciated!!

Now I hate selfies and this photo was just taken for sampling, but I'll sacrifice my pride for a hot second and share one of our new jewelry pieces with y'all! 

Ladies from the new class doing some group work

Just as evidence of how hot it really is... we chopped all of our hair off. At a salon at a Chinese restaurant. :)

Elina's youngest, and our best friend, Jona, turned 8 this month! Auntie Amy and Uncle Wyatt took this dude out for some gelato and gave him some American glow sticks. We love this kid. 

The puppy we got a couple months back isn't such a puppy anymore! Only 4-5 months old and already over 50 pounds. Grow, Penny, Grow!