New Day is Official!!

Today we had our official New Day Orphanage Opening Ceremony! 150 people attended, including 7 headmen, 2 senior headmen, the Mapanza Councilman, and Chief Mapanza's representative, the General Secretary. It was a great ceremony and I think the people really enjoyed it!
Caedmon & Muchoni, best buds, waiting for the ceremony to start!

Darbi & Michelle watching from the kitchen

The New Day kids did traditional dancing and Scripture verses in Tonga

Laurie busy preparing - we served popcorn, banana pudding, cookies, and cokes to 150 people!

New Day kids waiting for the program to start (we waited 2 hours for the chief's representative!)

People watching a slideshow of the construction of New Day!

The ribbon cutting at the Luyando House!


We feel like everyone who has prayed for New Day, donated to New Day, and come to volunteer at New Day was with us today at the opening ceremony! Thank you all! :)

Happy Birthday Blu!!

Blu celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday!! :) We had a good day of cakes, presents, and of course, the Americans are not exempt from getting water poured on them!

One of the 3 cakes I made Blu - a chocolate truffle cake.. :)

Blu's present from me - letters written to Blu and signed by Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, Nolan Ryan, & Matthew Fox wishing him a happy birthday, and tickets to see Garth Brooks in Vegas in November :)

Blu got muck boots from Wes & Laurie - ready for rainy season!

And the water....




Happy Birthday Blu! We love you! :)

MOVING DAY!

WES & LAURIE ARE HERE!! IT IS A CHAOTIC WEEK AS WE ARE HELPING THEM MOVE IN, ZESCO (ELECTRIC COMPANY) IS STARTING WORK ON OUR LAND, WE ARE TRYING TO PACK FOR GOING BACK TO THE USA, AND WE ARE HAVING OUR NEW DAY OPENING CEREMONY THIS FRIDAY!! AAAHHH!!

WE FINISHED THE HOUSE BEFORE THEY ARRIVED - THANK YOU TO ALL OF OUR TEAMS!! :)

STUFF INSIDE THEIR HOUSE!

CASON LOVED TO HELP "WESI AND YAYA" :)

NO WES, IT GOES HERE! NO HERE! THERE? NO NOT THERE! HERE! NO, OVER A LITTLE BIT! :)

MOVING DAY...CAEDMON HELPED SO MUCH!

LAURIE, AND HER BROWN SUGAR, WERE INTRODUCED TO OUR MAPANZA RAT FAMILY :)

Somewhere along the way....

these 8 kids have stolen my heart.. :)

Sisi, the shy one

Muchoni, the leader

Sankwa, the most lovable!

Misheck, the mischievous one!

Junior, the quiet one!

Kelitah, the hugger!

Axer, the baby!

Cynthia, the smiler!


Check out the new playground equipment at New Day! We had about 14 injuries in the first 5 minutes as the kids were just a LITTLE excited! :)

TOP TWELVE

WELL, VOLUNTEER SEASON FOR 2011 HAS COME TO AN END! WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME WITH OUR TEAMS, AND WE CAN NEVER EXPRESS OUR THANKS TO THEM FOR THE SACRIFICES THEY AND THEIR FAMILIES MADE TO COME HELP US AT NEW DAY! WE HAVE MADE FRIENDSHIPS THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME!

IN HONOR OF THESE FABULOUS TEAMS, WE ARE CLOSING OUT OUR VOLUNTEER SEASON WITH A TOP TWELVE LIST - THE TOP TWELVE MOST MEMORABLE THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS VOLUNTEER SEASON (IN ORDER OF THE TEAM'S VISITS)! ENJOY!

12) CROSSING THE FLOODED BRIDGE WITH THE NEBRASKA TEAM TO GET TO CHURCH!

11) DENISE AND BETH WALKING 1 MILE IN THE WRONG DIRECTION TO GO SHOPPING IN LIVINGSTONE!

10) JOHN SAYING "WHERE IS MY HAT?" AND CAMBREE RESPONDING WITH "I STOLE IT AND THEN I TOOTED ON IT!"

9) PUCCIO BEING REPEATEDLY MISTAKEN FOR A GIRL, DUE TO HIS LONG HAIR. HE WAS EVEN CALLED MRS. BLU WHEN HE WAS IN TOWN WITH BLU!

8) PLAYING TABOO WITH MRS. CAROLYN - "I SEE TREES!"

7) ALLISON AND LYNDSEY GETTING LOCKED OUT OF THEIR HOUSE BY OUR ZAMBIAN STAFFERS WHEN THEY CAME HOME LATE ONE NIGHT!

6) SCUM, SETTLERS OF GATAN, AND VOLLEYBALL WITH THE ALABAMA TEAM!

5) LINLEE'S AMAZING ABILITY TO TRADE ANYTHING IN THE WORLD FOR A ZAMBIAN SOUVENIR! (HOW I WISH I COULD GO INTO DETAIL HERE.....)

4) MAMA DEE INTERRUPTING A BIBLE STUDY TO TELL SOMEONE 'BLESS YOU' WHEN THEY SNEEZED, CAUSING MUCH CONFUSION!

3) BLU GIVING DAD THE JOB OF CHISELING INTO CEMENT FOR 2 WEEKS!

2) SHARING/HEARING AMAZING TESTIMONIES EVERY NIGHT WITH THE ARKANSAS TEAM!

1J) JORDAN'S BAPTISM!

WE ARE ALREADY GETTING EXCITED ABOUT OUR VOLUNTEER TEAMS IN 2012 - WILL YOU MAKE OUR TOP TWELVE LIST?? :)

Murals are done!

Hope did it! In five days at New Day, she painted our logo mural, a fruits of the spirit mural on the girls' staffer wall, some cute additions to our Luyando house bathrooms, a jungle scene mural around our shelter/church, and 4 huge New Day road signs pointing people to our land! Hope has forever left her mark on New Day, and we can never say thank you enough for the time and effort she put into these murals!







Hope's husband, Jordan, is a journalist and is doing two big write-ups in the Temple Daily Telegram about New Day! He also made
the decision to get baptized while he was here, saying "After 10 years I am finally ready to take the first step to follow Christ!"


And my camera ran out of battery right here..... :)

New Day is Full!

We are SOOO excited to announce that for the time being, New Day is FULL! We built our first house, the Luyando house for 8 orphans - 4 girls and 4 boys, and we are full! Here are the stories of the last 3 girls:

Axer and Kelitah:
These sisters are ages 3 and 5 lost their mother one month ago. Their father is still alive somewhere, but he has another wife and had no relationship with these children. The family could not find him, but his mother said he was not interested in the children and released them to New Day. Please pray for Axer, our youngest orphan, as she is having trouble adjusting (very aggressive behavior - needs LOTS of love and discipline!)




Cynthia:
Cynthia is six years old and her grandmother brought her to New Day last week. Her mother died in 2010, and her father died a few years ago, although the grandmother told us that the mother got pregnant after a "night at a bar" and wasn't really sure who the father was. The grandmother lives in a tiny house and crushes stones for a living to provide for Cynthia and her older brother. Cynthia became the final girl to fill up our Luyando House!


Cynthia, Elizabeth our social worker, and Cynthia's grandmother Laila

Painting Updates! One Day To Go!!

Hope & Jordan are here!

Our muralist is here!! We have long been awaiting the arrival of Hope (the painter) and Jordan (the journalist) to Zambia...
However we had no idea they were bringing 11 boxes of stuff for us and New Day!!!

Hope used ALL 13 New Day kids to help her get the base coat of paint on the shelter area!


Here's Kelitah, our newest girl, giving it a try!

And here's the mural in progress after just 2 hours!!

Caution - Men at Work!

The GracePoint guys have been busy building, building, and building!

One crew built SIX nice picnic tables for our dining hall! This is important because our opening ceremonies are on September 30 and we are expecting quite a crowd!

Another crew built ALL of the screens for the Wilcox house! They used a nice design and they look great!

And yet another crew built kitchen cabinets for our guest house!

And Mr. Mike plotted out our whole land and buildings on his GPS to make us a future site plan!

When you think about the fact that this team is working in conditions that are not quite American, in blazing 95 degree weather, and did it all in 4 days.....WOW.

Stacy & Brad work on the Wilcox screened windows

Brian and Rob build guesthouse cabinets

Rob and Aaron hauling lumber

Paul working on picnic tables

Brad & Doug working on picnic tables