Thursday 28 January 2016


January 28th, 2016
Greetings to all of you following my blog.  May each of you be richly blessed in 2016. 

My humblest apologies.  It has been way too long since I last blogged.  As all of you know we are now home in Canada and enjoying reconnecting with family and friends.  So here's the latest update.  We arrived home to Canada on December 5th with Bette and Brian (Glen's sister and her husband) meeting us at the airport in Kelowna. Thank you Bette and Brian for your willingness to come to the airport at that hour of the night/morning.  Much appreciated.

So much has happened in the short time we have been home.  And to think that last year we in December we were only home for a month.  Our time is quickly booking up with so many things we need/want to do while we are here.

At the moment our plan is to return to Zimbabwe end of July.  We are in process of getting the required documentation together to reapply for our TEPs. (Temporary Employment Permits).  I have to apply for a new passport as I have run out of pages on my current one.  It does make a neat souvenir to look back and reflect on all the parts of the world I have been privileged to travel to.  Yesterday we did the fingerprint thing at the RCMP and then applied for security checks.  Immigration want your entire life history, such as birth and marriage certificates, educational certificates, etc.,  We supplied all of that when we initially went so I'm not sure why we have to do it all again.  Perhaps they don't keep things like that on file once you have a permit.  So, we just jump through the hoops and once again, pull it all together.

At Christmas time we made a call and spoke to Makanaka (our sponsor child) and her family.  They were so excited to hear from us.

No serious problems at our home here at St. Andrews when we arrived home...unlike the last two trips home in which we experienced water problems and damage to our house.  Glen has finished all the repairs from last year.  Our son Sternie did a lot of the repair work from the water damage when he was with us last Christmas (thank you Sternie so much) but he was on college break and didn't have time to complete the work.  Now it is done.

Since being home we have made trips to Alberta and Saskatchewan as well as to Vancouver Island and other points in British Columbia.  It really was great to see so many of you and catch up on your lives as well.

I am still heading up the PACC (Pan Africa Christian College) team working towards accreditation.  It is not quite as convenient working from Canada but we are holding Skype meetings and that works quite well when they have electricity.  Wow!!! Isn't technology wonderful?  Well, most of the time...but it does offer some challenges and I am so glad to have IT people both in Zimbabwe and Canada who I can call on when my technology challenges present themselves and believe me they do that often.  Anyway our PACC team had a Skype meeting on Monday and with only a few hitches, we accomplished much.  JFYI, our Skype meeting was at 4:00 am my time which is 2:00 pm in Harare, Zimbabwe.

No promises, but I will try and blog monthly while I'm here in Canada as well to let all of you know what is happening in our lives.

Sorry, no pictures this time!

Love and Blessings
Marj