Hi Everyone!
Greetings from Riverview, NB - our second Christmas in Canada after many being celebrated in faraway places. It is also our first Christmas when we are not sending cards that have been hand-made by someone from Rwanda (or Indonesia), and it feels a bit strange and even sad to not have them. This is one of many things that we are adjusting to in this next season of our lives.
Overall, we are doing well with the changes. We are very grateful that in early March we were able to buy the home we had been renting (since September 2024). Imagine that - first-time home buyers in our late 50's!! It is in a lovely neighbourhood and is all on one level, which allows easy access for walkers and wheelchairs. We are still unpacking, and may yet be for a time, but we don't have to move again and can work away at it.
Darrell is continuing to enjoy working with the CBM Africa team, now remotely from Riverview instead of Kigali. He has had the opportunity to travel back twice during the year for three weeks each time. In the Spring, he was in Togo and Kenya, and in the Fall, in Togo and Rwanda. Laura Lee works from home with the CBM office in Mississauga, usually on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Tuesday, she is part of the reception team and answers the phone with an app on her computer. Another one of those many adjustments we are making! About once a month or so, we travel on Sunday to speak on behalf of CBM in various places throughout the Maritimes - most recently in Campbellton, NB. It is good to keep connected with supporters and also meet new people.
We are so happy to be closer to our families and able to spend time with them throughout the year. We had a couple of weeks at the cottage in Pugwash and did a little trip one weekend with Caleb, Aynsley, and Browyn to see parts of NS that have been part of Aynsley's memories - and it concluded with going out on her Uncle Mike's fishing boat for a "two-hour tour!"
As we wish you Merry Christmas, let's remember to take time to do what the author of a carol encourages, "O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord."
Love,
Laura Lee and Darrell