Smythe Family

By Inge Smythe

Matthew and I were born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. I grew up in the Catholic Church in Harare, and when I was sixteen, a friend of mine convinced me to go with her to the local Anglican Church and this is where I met Matthew.

In the thirteen-and-a-half years that we have been together, we got married, had three children, have lived in 3 different countries and have moved eleven times-it will be twelve when we move into our own house next month- so life certainly has not been uneventful! In fact, at times, it feels as though we have been living in a tornado.

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Although both Matthew and I knew about God in our own way, from our own individual upbringings, it was only through personal crises that He became real and deeper relationships with Him were born. On Easter Day in England, in 2007, both Matthew and I made our individual decisions to be baptized. Through our sometimes tumultuous lives, we can both testify to the fact that God is faithful, and He will never allow us to go through more than we can handle. There have been times when the shadows of pain have wrapped themselves like heavy cloaks around our hearts, but the Lord has been our Shepherd in the darkness and has also led us to green pastures, and beside still waters. We have been blessed with three beautiful children, a deeper marriage relationship and have finally, in all our wanderings, found a place to call home and a community to fellowship with.

We would like to leave you with a challenge: if you do not know God personally, get to know Him. He’s the most exciting Person you will ever meet!