Many Things to Celebrate!

We are in Lusaka, and before we leave the land of fast internet, I want to write about the events of this past Saturday. I know many of you have already heard about the electricity coming on at New Day, but I thought I would recap the whole day, as it was truly an amazing day.



We got up early Saturday and headed to Gwembe to pick up Joyce, the mother for our second orphan house--The Joy House. Since Elizabeth, our social worker is from Gwembe, we carried her and her daughter Machila and niece Purity with us. The girls will be spending the school break with their families in Gwembe. We also carried Kalenga and Mulenga (two of our New Day staff) to Choma with us.

On the way to Choma we passed two ZESCO trucks (the electric company). We hooted our horn (you don't honk your horn in Zambia) and flashed our lights. This was the day they promised to come and turn us on, but first they had to install the fuses and do whatever last minute things needed to be done. We were happy to pick up Joyce, but sad we would not be there for the turning on of the electricity.

We dropped off the two guys in Choma and headed to Gwembe, but we had one more stop before reaching our destination. We needed to stop at Mujika to visit our Tonga Grandmother, Elia. Some of you will remember her from earlier blogs. We had not seen her since our return to Zambia, since we do not live as close to her as we used to. We had already planned to visit her on the way, and amazingly the pastor of the Mujika Church called us to say that Elia was wondering when we were going to visit her and that she was starving, so please bring food.

Purity on the left and Machila on the right are the niece and daughter of our Social worker, Elizabeth.

Since Machila and Purity were with us, we asked them to help be the bearers of the food we had brought--an opportunity to teach them about the joy of giving. While we were handing them the various food items, I found a container of birthday cake that I had brought to give to Purity; it was left over from her birthday party. I handed it to Elizabeth, who gave it to her.

After all the gifts were in the house, I noticed Purity went back in with the container of cake. A few minutes later she reappeared with Elia behind her. She was still holding the container and my curiosity was peaked so I asked her, "What were you doing in there, Purity?" She replied with a smile on her face, "I was giving Elia some of my cake."

 Elia hugging and thanking Purity for the cake, which she said was "very sweet."

What a joy to see Purity learning to give. Before Purity came to live at New Day, she was a very selfish little girl who had a very bad temper. Elizabeth asked to bring her to New Day when she came to work with us, because she was trying to teach her the things of God and hated to leave her. Well, God is really working in her young life. Purity made this a very special day for Elia and for us.

After we spent a little time with Elia, we traveled to Gwembe to pick up Joyce. It was a happy and sad occasion, as she had to say good-bye to her older sister. The two of them were living together in a little village outside Gwembe. Although she was happy for Joyce, she was also sad to say good-bye.

It was late afternoon by the time we left Gwembe, and we were wondering if the electricity had been turned on at New Day. We didn't have to wait long for the answer, because Blu called to tell us he was in Choma picking up more fuses for the electric company and was on his way home.

We knew that Blu arrived a few minutes before we did, but we still didn't know if the lights were on. However, our thoughts were not on the lights as we entered New Day property. We knew that the staff and children would be waiting at the shelter to greet Joyce, and we were excited for her.

Wow, what a welcome they were giving her. They were jumping up and down even before we got out of the vehicle. We knew they loved Joyce, as she had spent two weeks at New Day in December, but we had no idea how much. When we got out of the car everyone was pointing to the houses and screaming "ZESCO! ZESCO!" It was then that it dawned on us that their joy was twofold, the coming of Joyce to New Day, and the arrival of electricity.

 Do you see the lights in the house in the background?

There were lots of hugs, dancing, and praising the Lord for answered prayer as we had been praying for both--the arrival of Joyce and the arrival of lights!