A Season of Changes

theefrodofan
Mar 16
7 min read

The sunrise view from the porch of our temporary house in Kampala, Uganda, during our evacuation

How does one encapsulate so many years of challenge, growth, and change? I (Ashley) began blogging our life in Africa as missionaries when we first moved here in 2015 but slowly things got more and more difficult, and in the end, I had to take a step back from all social media. That break lasted years as we struggled through many difficult and dark times as a family, and a team, including security stress with living in a warzone, Ebola, interpersonal things on the team, and several evacuations. I'm writing during our most current evacuation, making this the seventh or eighth for our family; I'm beginning to lose track.

If you would like a peek into the beginning of our journey before I stopped blogging, you can read that blog at www.thisafricanhomestead.wordpress.com and if you would like to continue on this journey with us through the upcoming changes, welcome. Any new posts, news, and developments will be blogged about here as I work on this website, and a future business, but more about that later.

The troubles happening in our village life, came to a head in mid-April 2021, merely three months after returning from a medical furlough to have a baby right during the covid time. A firefight between the local militia and the Congolese army eventually led to an evacuation and relocation to the nearby city, after several days of active shooting and shelling. There are moments from those days that have profoundly changed and strengthened my faith that I will never forget. Like the moment of walking towards the sounds of gunfire with a bowl of avocados and other fruit in my arms to feed the terrified Congolese family taking refuge in the classroom building we had built for our community development project. The beauty of the low mist on the jungle vegetation as the sunlight would sparkle on the collected dew stood in contrast with the sounds of fighting and gunfire in the near distance, but God's peace and his courage were over me as I walked toward the danger. It was a peace like I have never known before.

After our relocation to the nearby city, we were able to find a house there and begin a new life, finding a sense of home after a while. For the first time in almost eight years (including the year of support raising and year of language school), we had a year's time in our home uninterrupted, without having to evacuate or leave for other reasons like a furlough. It provided enough stability for our family to continue the process of healing from the all the past trauma, that we had started on the medical furlough in 2020, mere months before the firefight evacuation and relocation.

This healing process was long and slow in the beginning, but slowly relief came as I worked with a trauma counselor to recover from all the events we'd been through. At the time, it was like my body had given up after being through so much stress, and I started suffering debilitating migraines, back pain, constant sicknesses, and had gained a lot of weight. I've never been one for medication, and looking into the ones to treat my migraines had me facing choices I was uncomfortable with, so I started looking into natural solutions. This started me on a healing journey physically, where I switched my diet first to keto, and then carnivore to treat my migraines.

The diet switch brought about many amazing benefits like weight loss and healed things, including depression, anxiety, PCOS, and insulin resistance. Adding in resistance training helped even more on my healing journey. The diet switch also led to healing some infertility struggles, and when I had almost reached my goal weight, we were pleasantly surprised with another healthy pregnancy on our first try. My previous pregnancy had taken three years of trying.

We returned to the states for the summer of 2024 for another medical furlough for the birth which, unfortunately, didn't go entirely as planned. During the homebirth of our beautiful daughter, I slipped on my amniotic fluid as I was catching her and ended up severely spraining my ankle in a twisting motion that broke the small bone in my lower leg, and falling, dislocated the bigger bone and the kneecap out to the side. I went to the hospital and baby stayed home. That injury has been slow to heal and has limited what physical activity I can do. Combined with breastfeeding supply issues, I'm not yet back to where I was pre-pregnancy for diet and exercise, but I'll get there eventually.

The entire health journey brought a new awareness of nutritional health for me and my family. We now operate as a low-carb family for most of our time, focusing on animal products. Occasional fruit and treats slip through, especially for the kids, but my goals remain the same, going against the grain for health (literally and figuratively). Our biggest challenge in the states diet-wise was outside sources for sugar, like at Sunday School, and from well-meaning strangers. It really is a difficult part of our American culture, giving candy to kids, even without checking with parents first.

During this entire health journey, our family, particularly my husband and myself, have been on another journey; a journey of growth and change. We changed and improved our marriage, were growing in our faith, and had started the years-long process of discerning a need for a change for our family going forward. It was time to close the chapter of Congo in our lives and see where the Lord was leading us.

It was a process we started in the very beginning of 2022 and all along the way, we have seen God confirming the change and process while faithfully guiding our way through it. It hasn't been an easy road, as we waited and prayed in faith, seeking wise council, and being open to hearing what God had to say for our lives. Waiting is hard and can feel like an endless road to travel at times; it is not a passive stroll down a forest lane; it is a battle to defend a position the enemy wants to take through doubt, temptation, despair, and more. It is still a journey, a battle, that we are on today, but we at last received some answers, in the summer of 2024 while we were on our medical furlough.

Dave was offered the position of a flight instructor at the Headquarters for our mission in Nampa, ID, starting in the fall of 2025. We would return to Congo to finish out our remaining term of 10 months and had a departure date set for this coming July 2025, when we would begin our furlough. Our furlough could then be used to visit churches and tell them about the exciting changes coming our way, and then later in the summer to start searching for a house near HQ. What we didn't plan on or expect (and certainly hoped to avoid in our remaining time) was another evacuation due to security that currently has us in Kampala, Uganda, awaiting clearance to return home. The team will meet again soon and see if the criteria for returning has been met towards the end of March.

As mentioned, we are still on this journey, faithfully approaching the time of our departure as we try to process all the feelings of leaving and closing this chapter, and facing a future challenge of relocating, finding an affordable home that meets our needs, Dave starting a new position, and beginning to cultivate a new community and life. This all feels daunting in so many ways, particularly finding and purchasing a home that suits us, that we can actually afford, being who we are (homesteaders at heart who raise animals, garden, etc.) plus moving to an expensive part of the country. That is a tall order we feel only God can fill. God delights in giving us our hearts' desires, in keeping with who He made us to be, when we are operating inside His will for our lives - a promise we are clinging to.

For those who are new and don't know us (looking at the previous blog would give you a very good taste of that if you're curious), we are a family that loves a simpler, quieter, and slower country pace of life. "Clean-living," "Crunchy," and "Old-Fashioned," are all adjectives I aspire to. I have a passion for animals and being a homemaker. Dave has a passion for projects and being a flight instructor. Our family has a passion for the Lord. We are homesteaders at heart who seek to improve the health of our family and serve others through faithful, regenerative practices and organic methods. We are also missionaries at heart who seek to support God's Kingdom through faithful, dedicated hard work, continuing to serve God by working for our mission, regardless of the continent we live on.

Though our attempts on this side to combine the two through a community development project never seemed to work out successfully, we are hoping that this new chapter will yet again, give us an opportunity to do both as we look to our future. It has been my hope and dream for several years, to begin our homestead and start a small business on the side, providing different farm products and services, such as day-old chicks for purchase, and other poultry products, like pasture-raised meats and eggs. If the Lord blesses us with enough land, I would also like to expand into other livestock, such as sheep for meat and milk, hogs, and perhaps even cattle. It feels like a long-shot, and too much to hope for, but God is faithful, we know.

This new chapter will undoubtedly bring with it new challenges, moments of struggle or doubt, and moments of frustration, but we rest within the knowledge that this change has been blessed by God and He is working for us behind the scenes to make it happen. I'm not sure what all God has for our future, and I have many ideas that I would like to do, but we will take this a step at a time and be going back to God for his guidance and wisdom in all things we plan to do on our homestead. May He use it and us to further His Kingdom, and if He blesses our future business, all glory to Him.

If you would like to join us in this journey and follow along with us as we work through this process and establish our homestead and then one day our business, I welcome you to sign up. This website, blog, and our entire life is a work in progress at the moment, but we would love to have you step into the beautiful mess of a new beginning, in search of those green pastures and quiet waters the Great Shepard leads us to.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."

Psalm 23