Five Alive

When we realized that we had five staff birthdays this month, we decided that we needed to celebrate them all together, so we chose May 10th as the special day. The birthday five included, from oldest to youngest: Wes, Carolyn, Diana, Abby and Hildah.

Darbi and I did some brainstorming while riding bikes one morning, and came up with a plan. We would make one face cake for each staff member. It was a lot of hard work on Darbi's part--all I had to do was draw their faces on paper and she did the rest.



Wes on the left and teacher Hildah on the right, two of the birthday cakes made by Darbi.

 Meanwhile, Blu was using his creative juices to figure out a way to pour water on the birthday five (the tradition here at New Day),in a way that would totally surprise them. Of course, knowing Blu, they were all a little cautious as they entered the dining room for the birthday celebration.



Teacher Abby is a little leery of walking into the dining room because she knows very well about the "water pouring tradition," since she helped to bring it to New Day.

 And truly, Blu came up with a creative plan. He hooked up a water hose to PVC pipe that he attached to the rafter in the dining room.  The pipe had five spouts, one for each of the birthday five. 

The children had planned a little birthday skit,  which worked perfectly for Blu's scheme. Below the five spouts he placed five chairs, with Wes' chair being below the one that would release the most water.

The children came marching in; several carrying baby dolls representing the birthday five.



Muchoni on the right was carrying the baby doll representing Papa Wes.

 The birthday five were a little hesitant to sit in the chairs, but once the children started doing their skit, they relaxed a bit. But when the water came on the five came alive, jumping out of their chairs so quickly that I couldn't get a good picture.

Hildah on the left, wearing a shower cap, was prepared for getting wet, but I don't think any of them suspected that the water would come from above.

After a few minutes of laughter, Wes and Hildah went back over to their chairs, and Diana  told me, "We should have Blu turn it on again." We got Blu's attention, and this time he left it on while everyone who wanted to get wet, did so.

The children decided to join in the fun when Blu turned on the water the second time!

It was a fun-filled birthday--one I'm sure we will never forget!

An Emotional Day

Today was the first time that Wes and I have been present for the arrival of new children to the New Day family. It was quite an emotional experience as the vehicle drove up with Wes, Elizabeth (our social worker) Mukuwa and Christina and family members who were entrusting these two children into our care.

Wes introduces Mukuwa to Misheck, and the rest of the New Day family.

I can't even imagine the feelings of these two precious children, as they saw the jumping and shouting and excitement of the children and staff here at New Day. I'm sure they did not comprehend what was happening. They must have been thinking, "Why are all these people so excited to see us? Why are they all hugging us?" Although neither of them cried, they both had a look of confusion on their faces mixed with a little fear of the unknown.



Mukuwa, age 5, does not quite understand what is happening to him. Please pray for him as he adjust to life at New Day.



Christina, age 4, meets her new house mother, Margaret.

After lots of welcoming, the family was ushered into the dining room for a hot meal, which they seemed to appreciate very much. Wes and I came home as well, as Wes had not eaten since he had been out picking up the children.

A few minutes ago I decided to go down and see how they were doing. I'm glad to report that they were adjusting well to their new surroundings. Both were dressed in their new clothes, standing around the cooking fire with their new mother and aunties, and both were holding dolls in their hands. Christina had a big smile on her face, and for the first time ever, she was wearing shoes. Mukuwa let me hug him, and those big brown eyes just melted my  heart. 

While we were standing there, the other NDO children finished their afternoon classes and came to invite their new brother and sister to come play with them. It was precious to watch Kelita grab hold of Mukuwa's hand and take him to join the others. Purity tried to pick Christina up and carry her, but decided it was best to let her walk. Cambree came over and grabbed Christina's hand, and off they went for their first afternoon of play.

This is why we are here at New Day, and for these children we pray that this new day will be one of special beginnings for both of them. Welcome Mukuwa and Christina.

April Showers

April is almost over, and I haven't written in a while due to a busy schedule and some unforeseen situations with our electricity and water that have caused our house to be in a state of disarray the last few weeks. 

We praise the Lord that the electrical problems are fixed, and the water problem is in the process of being repaired. I have confidence that Wes and Blu will get it fixed this week. When it rains it pours, but I guess we can call these situations “Showers of Blessing"!

Two heads are better than one! Blu and Wes are working hard to fix our hot water problems.

Although many of you keep up with Darbi's blog, I'll recap what has happened in the month of April, and add a few pictures to the mix.

April started out with the showing of the "Passion" on Good Friday for the people that come to work here at New Day.  While the adults were watching the movie outdoors, we had the New Day children at our house to watch the "Jesus Film for Children," followed by an Easter craft prepared by Darbi and some snacks.

Darbi and Misheck enjoying the movie together.

You may have read on facebook about how God provided water for a new well at New Day just last week. It was an awesome day as we watched and waited and saw God miraculously provide water. The first two wells that were chosen by a diviner were dry, of course. The last well was chosen by the representative from Living Waters International and much prayer. It was a great time of celebration, when just before dark, water was found in well #3. Praise the Lord!

It's an amazing thing to watch the well-diggers at work!



No doubt who gets the glory for the finding of water in well #3.

Axer had her fourth birthday. At first she was not sure she wanted to be four because she would be older than Cason. She was really shy at her party, but I think she really enjoyed being the cetner of attention.



Caedmon (Superman), Misheck, Purity and Cambree waiting for the birthday girl to arrive so the party can begin.

 Papa Wes had to go and get Axer because she was being very shy about her birthday, and she doesn't usually have a shy bone in her body!

Axer had to be given a little assistance to sit in the seat of honor.

It didn't take long and Axer was enjoying opening her gifts and cards!

Debbie celebrated her birthday the day before Axer, but both received the special water on the head birthday custom, and they were both good sports!

 Other happenings for this month:


April is one of the three months that Zambian schools close. So, to help the children keep up with what they have learned, we have had some morning classes with the children for one hour.


We went to Lusaka to renew our work permits, actually we applied for a residence permit since we have been in Zambia over ten years. It was a chaotic time and we had to fill out the application many times, run here and there and by the time we came back to the bush, we were worn out from all the running.


Well, speaking of worn out, it is past my bedtime. Good night everyone!

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!