Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Adopt a Staffer

Meet Lance and Staci Norton from Oklahoma.

After a recent trip to Zambia, Lance and Staci returned home and prayed about how they could help New Day Orphanage. They felt led by the Lord to “Adopt a Staffer,” and they have chosen to support Elizabeth, who will work as a social welfare liaison at New Day, for the sum of $90 per month.

We would love to have every staffer at New Day “adopted” by someone
in the States, so that both we and the staffers know that their monthly salary is secure, which is something very rare for a Zambian worker!

Look at these faces—is God calling you to “adopt” one of our New Day staffers?


Kalenga--our cook and Bible study leader--SPONSORED!

Mulenga--Foreman--SPONSORED!

Hildah--Teacher--SPONSORED!

Abby--Teacher--$90/month

Cecilia--Maid and Storekeeper--SPONSORED!

Maxwell--Agriculture Head--SPONSORED!

Witton--Security Guard--$40/month

Mutinta--Grinding Mill Operator--$40/month

We are praying that God will provide sponsors for ALL of these staffers during the month of October!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Happy 29th to Blu!

We celebrated Blu's birthday with a trip to the capitol city of Lusaka (to buy electrical equipment! We made the day special by going to Munda Wanga, a mini-zoo with a pool and a waterslide!

We did presents and cupcakes, and Blu got a nap. Tonight we have a babysitter and we are going to enjoy some Indian food and a movie! Happy Birthay Blu! I'm blessed to have spent the last 13 birthdays with you!!!

Blu licking an asbestos sign...because he is Blu..

Caedmon, our very cautious firstborn, finally liked the slide after 2 or 3 times!


Brave Baby Cason!

Fascinated by the ostriches!

Red velvet cupcakes- Blu's favorite!

Cambree got to pick out her own present for Daddy. For the last 3 days she has repeatedly told him what it is (water gun) but she was still SO excited for him to open it!

Caedmon picked Daddy out some tools and said "now daddy can work like Paw!"

Star books from me..if you've ever seen the huge African sky from the bush then you understand why!

An awesome weather station from Mama Dee & Papa Ron! Here in Zambia, we are a bit obsessed with what the temp is at all times of the day!

And, a MacBook from Blu's parents!! What an awesome birthday!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Painting and more painting

We spent 5 days in the bush this week...all 5 of them were spent painting!!

The boys room, painted sky blue, or as we call it "Zambian school room blue!"

Our very Zambian, brightly colored guest room!

Kalenga leading a Bible study for the workers

Kalenga singing and dancing before Bible study

Meanwhile, I was still priming...

Brushing our teeth as a family..

Thursday, September 16, 2010

We've been doing a unit on Rocks in our Science curriculum, so today we got to make our own volcano!
First, Blu read to them about volcanoes from our Science book.

Then, we used homemade playdoh to shape a volcano around a glass coke bottle.

Then, they decorated it with trees, grass, baseball guys, and toy cars!

Finally, it exploded! They thought it was awesome!

Even Baby Cason thought it was pretty cool!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Started Bad, Ended Good!

We spent the last 2 days in Mapanza--it didn't start off so well, as we got to Mapanza only to find that 2 of our 5 gallon buckets of paint had busted in the back of the truck..where all of our luggage and bedding was...ugh! Then, as I painted the first room in our house, I discovered that the color "cream" in Zambia is not really cream..more like tangerine... and "red floor paint" is more like bright orange/barn red. Thankfully, we didn't buy much of these colors so back to the paint stores we go...
Tank stand arrives - one step closer to running water inside!

The plumbers doing...something...The funny part is that as I was about to take the picture the man with the white bucket runs over there to hold the bucket there and look like he was actually helping so he could be in the picture!

The first orphan house, hereby known as "Luyando House" (House of Love), has trusses up!

My gorgeous rock floor going in the kitchen!

Guys digging holes outside to build a shaded play area for our kids


But, our time in Mapanza ended well! First, we got a call from my mom saying that New Day got an unexpected donation in the mail! Thank you so much, if you are reading this :) Secondly, we got a call from the electrical supply store today. They said "Are you the guys wanting to buy the bigger transformer?" Then, they told us that another customer wants to buy our transformer. So they will be ordering us the bigger size, driving here from the capitol city, taking our current one down, and putting our new one up!! GOD IS GOOD--that is answered prayer!!

I. Love. Africa.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Building Update

If you get our email newsletters, then you know that our last newsletter focused on how God has provided for us in the past year. I know many of you missed hearing about the progress going on where construction is concerned, so I will give you an update here!

Electricity: Blu’s dad was here April-May to get us all set up with electricity on the land. The electric company, Zesco, then had to come to the land and inspect everything and let us know what changes needed to be made. They didn’t come until late July, and there were several things that needed to be fixed. For example, in some places the distance between the poles was too large so we need an additional pole in between. This seems minor, but to “get more poles” means we have to go into the forest, have the men chop down and debark trees (we got 13 additional poles), then we have to use Blu’s truck to pull them to the main road, then we have to hire a truck to take them to Mapanza. Then we have to paint them with creosote to protect against termites, drill them and put the new electrical lines on them, and then put them up. I get tired just thinking about it! A huge issue where electricity is concerned is that we purchased the wrong size transformer. We got the biggest you can get in Zambia, but apparently it’s not big enough. So now we are looking at how to get the transformer down, return it and get a refund, and find and import the larger one from South Africa.

In the meantime, we do have power on the land via 3 generators we brought from the USA. They are cool because they can be switched from 220 back to 110 power.

Blu is planning a “Zesco Week” two weeks from now, where the workers do nothing but make the changes the electric company required. The transformer will take longer, so we are assuming we will probably move into our house and be using generators for awhile.

Water: We have two boreholes that we use for all water. However, to get water inside the house, we have to purchase a 5000 liter tank, get it on a stand, run a pipe from the borehole to the stand, get a pressure pump to pump it up into the tank, and then run all of the plumbing in the house. We already have our tank purchased and ready, but the stands have been a hassle. Quotes have been about $4000 each! (we need 4 for the land) But today, Blu found a man, the one who has welded our windows, who has experience building tank stands. He agreed to build four of them, deliver them, and help us get them set up for a total of $4,400. And ours will be delivered this Friday!!

Our House: Our house is completely plastered, electrical outlets/switches are in, lights are up, and countertops are in. Here are the steps to be done to finish our house: Finish plumbing, paint the ceilings white, pour concrete floors, paint the walls, paint the floors, build pantry/laundry/closet shelves, build and install kitchen cabinets, stain kitchen countertops, move in!!

Boys Workers House: Mulenga and Kalenga (funny, I know..) are currently living in the guys house. Mulenga (age 28) is basically the overseer on the land. He is a jack of all trades and everyone likes him so he does well with the workers. Kalenga (age 50) will eventually be the cook at New Day. In the meantime, he is a servant who does whatever is needed. He will be starting a weekly Bible study on the land in the coming weeks. The poor guys have been living in a half-finished house because we got busy doing other things. But we have given them the job of finishing their house, so they have finished painting their ceiling, given the walls a second coat, and their floors were finished a couple of days ago. Now, like us, they await plumbing/tank/tank stand to get their bathroom completely done.

Girls Workers House: The girls house is done up to roof level! The man who built this house, Emanuel, is a carpenter by trade and has agreed to oversee the roofing of this house. Blu was happy to give him the job of truss-building!

First Orphan House: It is up to roof level. The man who helped start this in June quit unexpectedly, so Emanuel finally finished it up for us. He will oversee the roof on this as well. Goal is to get the roofs up by November—rainy season!

Second Orphan House: Has a slab! We may wait on the building of this one for financial reasons.

Kitchen/Dining/Laundry/Classroom: It is built up to roof level and we are very pleased with this structure! It is HUGE. It has plenty of storage for food and other items, and we know this is where the kids will spend most of their time. We are building a small stage in the dining portion where we will put a white screen behind it (movie nights/worship services) and we’ll have Blu’s guitars/drumset, etc. on the stage!

Ideally, we’d like to see these structures completely finished and live-in ready by January 1st. We’ll see if it happens! There are still bunkbeds to build, tons of painting to do, etc.! It’s going to be a busy Fall! We are putting the most energy into our house right now because we feel that once we are on the land full-time, the building will go twice as fast. It’s hard to build from 45 minutes away! As you can imagine, we are spending tons of money on building at New Day. If you have thought about giving, but haven’t yet and you would like to, let me tell you how!

You can give via paypal at www.newdayorphange.org
OR
You can mail a check to New Day Orphanage, 3112 West Avenue R, Temple, TX 76504

This should get you updated on what is happening in Mapanza for awhile! God bless!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Visitors from California!

This week, one of our New Day Board of Directors, Ashley, and her husband, Cole, came to Zambia to visit us! OK, they really came to see their aunt and uncle, Wes and Laurie, but they wanted to see the progress at New Day as well! We got tons done and had a great time together!

Favorite quote of the week:
Ashley--This is the most I've ever camped in my life!
Cole--Ashley, we're in a house...

Ashley did a LOT of painting

Cambree in a hole :)

Cole and Ashley getting water for the dishes at the borehole

Cole hooking up some lights in the house

Darbi puttying the screw holes before painting

Lala in the kitchen...she is such an amazing cook! For example, we had LASAGNA in the bush!!

Wes and Cole putting crown molding around the ceiling

Wes putting up trim

School Days

Every night the kids read a chapter with Daddy. We've been reading Boxcar Children, and they LOVE it!

Can you tell we've been learning about Ancient Egypt?? :)