My Sister is Here!!

My sister and her family, (missionaries in Zambia with the International Mission Board) are on their way to a conference and took a longcut to New Day to come and see us! :) We were so excited to see them after 8 months and show them our home!

Me and Dawni - we never could have imagined growing up that we would both be living and serving in Zambia, Africa!!!

Amos & Cason make silly faces for Grandpa :)

Isaac & Caedmon were hiding under the bed in the girls' room, waiting to scare them!

What they didn't know was that the girls were in the living room fixing their hair and had no intention of returning to their room :)

Blake, Blu, & Wes transport a bunkbed to the new Joy House!

Today was my day to teach tutorials to the kids in their outside "electives" time, so we read a few good books!

The kids learned about accordions and xylophones at music time with Kalenga today! :)

Most days, the kids gather around 4pm to play a tough game of soccer - girls versus boys!

Abigail and Cason having fun on the Whirlybird!


The kids had fun going to school and playing together. They were so excited to spend a couple of days together and get some cousin time!

Around New Day

Debbie & Darbi checking out the New Day garden!

Ms. Carolyn teaching Caedmon & Machila with one arm :) She has a bad shoulder sprain from water balloon volleyball!

Ms. Diana and Hildah working with the Moonlight Class. (I promise Cambree's hair was fixed when I sent her to school!!)

Goodbye to the "Texas Team!"

John, Mrs. Dianna, & Caleb are headed back to Texas tomorrow morning! It is incredible what having 3 extra people at New Day can accomplish:

1) painted the entire Joy House
2) finished Debbie's hut so that she could move in
3) built 3 bunkbeds for the Joy House
4) did the plumbing in the entire Joy House

That makes the Joy House about 1 week away from being move-in ready!! And of course, our teams always help by building relationships, planting seeds of Christ's love, and helping corral these 14 kids :)

Thank you John, Dianna, & Caleb and your families for sacrificing you for these 3 weeks! You will always have a special place in the hearts of the New Day Family! :)

Youth Day!

Wes got a little crazy... ;)

Wes & Elizabeth took first place in the water balloon toss!

All lined up for the adult water balloon toss! :)

Look at these faces and tell me who you think had the most fun...the kids or Debbie & Wes?? :)

Staffers with Caleb

All ready for the relay race!

Mulenga making an AMAZING catch! (but still came in 2nd place.. :(

Muchoni and Purity in the relay race - love those smiles!

Even poor Margaret had to participate in Youth Day :)

Kalenga concentrating on a water balloon catch :)

Francis loved the balloon toss!

Debbie was a little bit dizzy after spinning around a baseball bat! :)

Hildah let me borrow her hair :)

Go Ms. Carolyn Go!!

Everyone thought the best thing to do with the rest of the water was...dump it on Caleb! :)

Sadly, Caleb & Mulenga came in 2nd in the water balloon toss after this burst!

Caedmon had a blast :)

Don't mess with me Joshua Blu Tidwell! :)

A rare picture of all 14 kids at New Day together! :)

Trip to Livingstone!

We took the team to Livingstone for a quick weekend trip! Since the kids have seen the Falls, and been on numerous safaris, they stayed at the hotel with either Blu or myself this weekend and swam! Fun!
Caedmon & Cambree

Poor Baby Cason only had one floatie that worked - that's a quick way to teach a 3 year old to swim! :)


Tomorrow is a Zambian holiday called Youth Day. A "youth" in Zambia is anyone from age 13 to age 30, or older if they are unmarried! We are having a fun day with games and food, so I will post pics tomorrow!

Happy Birthday to Kelitah!

Kelitah turned 6 years old today, and it will NEVER get old watching a child have their first birthday party ever! She was excited but a little overwhelmed :) Kelitah's mom died last July and she and her sister Axer joined us in August. She is a joy to have at New Day, and we look forward to celebrating many more years of birthdays with her!

Kelitah got a light up ball, sticker earrings, a mini kite, and a children's Bible from New Day, and she got a Coke, chocolate cookies, and suckers from her sponsor in the USA (thanks Marie!)

She got dunked, on a day that turned out to be cool!

Silly Cambree & Mama at the birthday party :)

EXCITING!!!!

Some exciting things have been happening here at New Day!

1) Last week, a young man named Protashow gave his life to Christ! He has been our "truck driver" the past 2 years, driving Blu's truck to collect sand, crushed stones, bricks, etc. for building. I can't help but think of a volunteer from Arkansas, Mike Phillips, who was the first person to work with Protashow and who told us what a good worker and driver he was - volunteers plant seeds! Wes had the opportunity to lead Protashow to Christ!

2) Yesterday at church, another one of our workers, Biggie, accepted Christ as His Savior! He came up to Blu after the service and told him that he wanted to talk to him about following Christ! Blu's dad worked with Biggie on the electrical lines two years ago - more seed planting by volunteers!

3) And speaking of electricity...apparently the government did make a call to the electric company, because they were here bright and early this morning with poles and a huge work crew! We only need about 2-3 days work before they can switch us on - seeing electricity become a reality is beyond exciting!!

4) The government worker who visited a couple of weeks ago also came back today with a Chinese man who is the head of the road construction crews in our area. They discussed what needed to be done to improve our turn-in onto our land and build a strong, gravel road all the way up to our staff houses. They said they would begin work next week on our roads!

5) And last, but not least...the two crates that our ladies shipped from the USA in December have arrived at the Zambian border! They will be in the capitol city in the next few days and Blu will pick them up next week!

THANK YOU JESUS :)

Moving Day!

Debbie is finally moved into her hut! We had major problems with the roof leaking and were going to wait until the rainy season was over to replace the grass, but we decided to just put some tarps on the roof and let her move in! She was very excited, as she has been ready to live in a hut for almost 2 years now!
It was neat that she was moved in by an Alvarado, Texas moving crew :)

We had to admit, it was an easy move....2 quick trips about 1/4 mile apart :)

Ready for her first night (it rained but she stayed dry..mostly..) :)

After all that work, Cambree was worn out and asked Johnny Boy to rub her feet. He said "If you'll rub my feet too!!" :) We love our Johnny Boy! It was neat at church today when he stood up to sing and announced that this was his THIRD trip to New Day, and that he was at the very first New Day church service last May, which had 20 or so people at it. There were 79 there today!!

New Day Happenings

Remember when Zambia won the Africa Cup in soccer?? Well yesterday the trophy was on display in Choma! We wanted to drive by, just to see all of the chaos (Zambian flags, people everywhere), but just as we were driving into the area, a police motorcade came by and we saw people running toward us. Sure enough, here came the trophy on the back of a truck, headed to the next town along the road. Yes, that is a man with an AK-47 in the back of the truck ;)

Fridays are American fellowship nights! We made homemade pizza and played the card game Scum :)

Blu & Mulenga discussing some important plumbing stuff...but Mulenga is just pretending to listen while he jams out on his mp3 player :)

Axer is smitten with Caleb :)

Ms. Carolyn & shy Sisi :)

Mrs. Dianna brought gifts for all of our kids and staff, which is always so fun to watch them open!

Dianna got big hugs from Hildah for her gift!

The girls LOVED their crowns from Dianna :)

John & Axer, who is sponsored by his mother, Mrs. Valentine

John & Kelitah, who is sponsored by his sister, Marie

Laurie & Machila

Kalenga is SO talented...he asked Caleb to start playing a tune, Mulenga was on the drums, and Kalenga made up a praise song improv! :)

Cynthia loves Papa Wes :)