A Volunteer Hut

We recently built this hut for Debbie, a USA volunteer who is coming in January full-time, to live in. Nestled in a grove of acacia trees, this grass-roofed hut screams "Africa!" It cost about $4,000 to build, and we are contemplating having churches or individuals who are interested donate funds to build their own hut (named after them!) for volunteer teams to use. What do you think???


The closet

A little office nook

Where the bed will probably go..

The shower!

And the septic...for indoor plumbing! :)

The roof from the inside

BYE TO MOM & DAD

AFTER 18 MONTHS APART, WE REALLY ENJOYED OUR TIME WITH MOM & DAD. MOM & I ORGANIZED MY WHOLE HOUSE, AND BLU & DAD DID PLUMBING ON THE WILCOX HOUSE. WE WANTED TO GIVE THEM A SPECIAL TREAT AT THE END OF THEIR TRIP, SO WE DID A QUICK TRIP TO ZIMBABWE! THEY SAW THE FALLS, WE ATE AT "THE BOMA", AND WE TREATED THEM TO A SUNSET CRUISE ON THE ZAMBEZI RIVER FOR DAD'S BIRTHDAY! WE WERE SO BLESSED BY THEIR SACRIFICE TO COME, AND IT IS SO SPECIAL TO KNOW THAT NOW, WHEN WE TALK ABOUT NEW DAY, THEY CAN SEE THE PEOPLE AND PLACES IN THEIR MINDS!

NOW WE HAVE 4 WEEKS IN BETWEEN TEAMS WHERE WE WILL BE VERY BUSY GETTING THE WILCOXES HOUSE FINISHED--LOTS OF PAINTING FOR DARBI AND PLUMBING FOR BLU! OUR CHILDREN WILL COMPLETE THEIR SECOND TERM OF SCHOOL AT NEW DAY ON AUGUST 5TH, SO THEY WILL HAVE A FEW WEEKS OFF BEFORE DARBI BEGINS HOMESCHOOL FOR CAEDMON IN GRADE 1 AND CAMBREE IN KINDERGARTEN. THE KIDS WILL ALSO CONTINUE GOING TO NEW DAY SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER (ONLY HOMESCHOOLING DUE TO OUR 3 MONTH FURLOUGH OCT-JANUARY).

WE ARE HAVING TROUBLE POSTING PICTURES BUT WE WILL TRY TO KEEP YOU UPDATED ON PROGRESS AND ORPHAN ARRIVALS (WE ARE PRAYING FOR 3 MORE GIRLS TO JOIN US!) DURING THESE NEXT 4 WEEKS! GOD BLESS!

Junior Arrives at New Day!

New Day received its 5th orphan yesterday as 6 year old Junior arrived at New Day! Here is his story:


Junior's mom died while giving birth to his younger sister (age 3 or 4). His sister went to an orphanage and Junior went with his father. When the baby sister was 2, the father collected here from the orphanage and they all lived together. His father passed away about a year later, and one relative took the sister and Junior went to an uncle. When this uncle died, Junior ended up with his 80 year old grandmother, who lives a few miles from New Day. This grandmother has immaculate medical records for Junior, and it is obvious that she loves him and has tried to care for him. However, the family met and encouraged her to release him into the care of New Day, so that when she dies she will know he is taken care of. She brought him to New Day yesterday and hugged him in the car the whole way, and she said she will come visit him whenever she can. We were touched by this obvious love and sacrifice of this old, Zambian woman who is desiring the best for her grandson, and she knows she is not capable of raising him. Her goal is to find Junior's sister so that they can be raised at New Day together.

Caedmon welcomes Junior to New Day!

This picture touched me, as I well remember Racheal's first day at New Day last December, a new orphan herself. She grabbed Junior, started a song, and told him how happy she was he was here!

2 months at New Day

Our first four orphans have been at New Day for 2 months now--these pictures say it all :) All I can say is THANK YOU God for choosing US for this!
Sisi

Muchoni

Misheck

Sankwa

Machila turns 7!

We never get tired of birthdays here at New Day! It's so fun for each person to get to celebrate their own special day, many for the first time ever!
Machila's princess cake

She got CandyLand (thanks Clanton team!), a doll, and some hair pins

Machila and Sisi doing a dance

Love that smile :)

Getting a splash of water from her cousin, Purity!

We play hard at New Day!

The boys in a hole :)

Cambree and Laurie

Cason loves dirt!

Misheck and Cason

Cason takes a book with him wherever he goes!

Dirty..

Lots of reading time!

Reading time at school

Sisi rolling a tire

Sundays at New Day

Walking to church from our house

Dad preaching and Mulenga interpreting

Sankwa measuring his hands against Grandpa's hands

The girls

Kids singing special music

A Child's Faith - July 12, 2011

On Sunday morning, Caedmon brought his children's Bible to Grandpa and asked him to read a story to him. Grandpa read about Nicodemus coming to Jesus and Jesus telling him he must be born again.

Caedmon said "I've done that! When I went to Lwiito's house (Maxwell & Priscilla's) last week, I went outside the house and I prayed and I asked Jesus to come into my heart!" We asked him, "Why did you do that?" And he said "Because the teachers at school said that if I ask Him, Jesus will come into my heart and make it clean. And I asked Him so I know He's there!"

Praise God for this simple, childlike understanding of why we need Jesus! We pray that Caedmon continues to grow to love Jesus and desire to serve Him!

Mom & Dad at New Day

Me & Mama painting in the Wilcox house

Dad and Blu carrying their supplies since the truck is broken down!

Dad leading morning devotion

Dad met Maxwell back in 2004 and offered to pay for his seminary training! Maxwell has completed seminary and is an amazing pastor at Mapanza Baptist Church!

Haircuts..

Dad & Blu headed to morning devotion and the kids headed to school

Mama Dee & Priscilla

Ladies Bible study at Mapanza Baptist

We walked through bush like this for 2 miles to get to Bible study at Mapanza Baptist Church because our truck broke down 30 min before Bible study! We were walking fast!!!

Mom & Dad finally at New Day!

Fun at Wednesday night devotion

More Protea Family Vacation Pics

All seven grandkids - oldest to youngest!

Amos and Cason bonding :)

Bubbles with Grandpa

Crafts with Mama Dee

Blake, Blu, and Grandpa on a 4 wheeler safari

Girls and their Daddy :)

Girls and their Mama :)

Pedicures!

Silly Sisters :)