60 things I love about my Dad :)

1.Rubbing his head after he gets a crew cut 2.His freshly shaven cheeks

3.The alliteration he uses in his sermons 4.His sermons are less than 20 minutes

5.His calves 6.How he cries at movies, birthday cards, etc. :) 7.How he loved his mama 8.How he loves my mama 9.How he kept a little index card with all of my basketball stats at every game 10.How he came to EVERY game 11.His dog/lawn mower joke 12.His chuckle laugh 13.How he talks incessantly while playing 42 14.How he always knows the right thing to say in difficult situations, like deaths

15.His bright orange sweater 16.His bright orange sweater with his bright blue shorts 17.His bright orange sweater with his bright blue shorts and his black dress socks 18.Our shared love of Survivor 19.How he has read the Bible completely through for the last 20+ years 20.How he taught me to stand up for what is right 21.How he taught me G-O-M (God - Others - Me) 22.How fast he can watch a football game with his DVR 23.How he always has chapstick and breathmints in his pocket 24.How he smells after he shaves 25.How he has an amazing green thumb and can grow anything 26.How he falls asleep with his mouth wide open 27.How he jumps out of his chair when I scare him when he's asleep 28.How he’s ticklish and pretends it makes him mad when I tickle him 29.His half-court hook shot 30.How he hides chocolate and thinks I can’t find it 31.How he packages up all of the leftovers into TINY servings after every meal 32.How he picks his clothes out every night 33.How he gets irritated when mama makes a comment about the clothes he picks out 34.How he says it’s 7 when it’s 6:05

35.How he honks the horn to scare mama when she gets near the car 36.How he took us on family vacations 37.How he loves my husband 38.How he loves my children 39.How he’s good with troubled teenagers 40.How he loved me even when I was a troubled teenager :) 41.How he cut up toast into tiny pieces for me every time I was sick 42.How HE writes random THINGS in his emails in ALL CAPS 43.How he can tell you what happened 17 years ago today in your life 44.How my son Caedmon looks just like him 45.How he drives 10 miles under the speed limit (and denies it) 46.How he can get Jesus into a conversation with someone within 5 minutes 47.How he loves to volunteer at CTLC food/clothes pantry 48.How he brags on me to everyone he knows 49.How he saved up enough to buy me and my sister bicycles from a pawn shop when we were dirt poor in seminary 50.How we never knew we were dirt poor in seminary 51.How he sat on the edge of the bathtub with me in the middle of the night when I was five and my stomach hurt 52.How he always killed spiders for me 53.How he loves getting older 54.How he makes awesome cinnamon bread and pancakes 55.How he’s one of the few men who can pull off a sweater vest 56.How he baptized me and was the preacher at my wedding 57.How he always had $1 in his pocket for me (and still does) 58.How he's the best ever grocery shopper (way better than Mom!)

59.How he sings loud and usually has the right note 60. How he loves me I could have come up with 60 more. I love you Daddy - Happy 60th Birthday!! :)

Church :)

Carolyn is 50!!

Ms. Carolyn is 50 today! We had a small party for her & Wes last night. Carolyn didn't know that her home church, Ocker Brethren in Temple, had sent her FIVE boxes of goodies for her birthday, and they miraculously arrived in time! At the party, we pretended the first box was for Wes - then when he read her name, she was so confused! She proceeded to open the remaining boxes with such joy!

This was her face when she saw the big poster all the kids in the church had signed :)

The Texas table center piece thingy (sorry mom - I forget what it's called!) my mom made her!

We told her that she probably never in her wildest dreams thought she would be so excited to receive grape jelly on her 50th birthday!

Or Crisco... ;)

Team Pics!

Me and my honey :)

This is what we do when teams are here...and when they're not here.. :)

The guys did everything on our project list! Here are shelves for the kitchen pantry.

Jodi with some cute New Day kids :)

Jodi handing out gifts to the kids. Here she is with Phillip. We let her, Reed, and Trevor give Mukuwa an English name, and they chose Phillip!

Kelitah has glasses!! Thank you Dr. Epp from Sayre, Oklahoma!

Margaret teaching the kids how to shuck maize

Reed and Blu with the kitchen accordion shutters they built

Jodi's mom made cute skirts that our staffers loved!

Reed needs a bigger lap!

Wheelbarrow!

Love that New Day sunset!!

Trevor and Kalenga doing some musician bonding!

Trevor and Mulenga built a ceiling for our school bathrooms in hopes to keep the snakes out!

Tire swings are fun for big people too!

Love this boy :)

Cambree & Axer :)

Christina working on a puzzle during Tutorials time at school

Pretty Cynthia

He's almost too big for this!

Debbie and her agriculture helper, Noah, planting strawberry plants!

Elizabeth

Shy Francis :)

New Believers!

Every Tuesday for the past 16 months, a group of women has been meeting at New Day for Bible study. We have been going through the book of Luke, in the hopes that these women who don't know Jesus will meet Him and He will become real to them! Last week, four of these women gave their lives to Christ! This is Dorica. She and her friend used to show up right at the end, but lately they have been some of the first ones there, with tons of questions!

This is my Lois, the women who cleans my house. She calls me her daughter, and I was SO excited to hear that she gave her life to Christ! The next morning, she told me (in Tonga) that Satan had been confusing and troubling her, so she decided, "Let's receive Jesus!" :)

This is Lilah. If you have been to New Day Church, then you remember the faithful man, Mubun, a faithful attender who only has one leg (he was baptized last August). Lilah is his wife, and he has been praying for her to accept Christ!

And the woman on the right is Erica. Not just any Zambian woman, but a traditional healer (also called a witch doctor). She has come with so many questions that Laurie has done an amazing job of answering. Laurie was able to lead her to the Lord and will soon begin discipleship with these women.

Satan is not happy! Please pray that these new believers will grow in their faith and that God will use them in a mighty way in Mapanza! Please pray for other women who come to the study to also make this decision to make Jesus Lord of their lives! (Eness, Abigail, Joyce, Sarister)

San Antonio Team

We are enjoying our San Antonio team of 3! Jodi, her son Reed, and her nephew Trevor are helping get a lot of things done at New Day! Reed, Blu, & Trevor building wardrobes for the Joy House (in matching tshirts :) They finished all 3 wardrobes in one day!

Jodi attended two Bible studies in Tonga on Tuesday! These are women from the New Day Women's Bible study

Trevor led music class in school - This Little Light of Mine!

Moonlight and Rainbow class at electives time!

The new school building is going up!

Teams!!!

It's summertime in the USA! Which means it's wintertime in Zambia, and it's volunteer time at New Day! I love having volunteer teams. I think it's interesting to meet new people and hear their stories, to greet repeat teams and see their reaction at what has been accomplished since they left, and of course, some good old American fellowship! It is also awesome to get to see New Day and Zambia through the eyes of someone else - it refreshes me and reminds me of why God called us here! If there is a hard part about having so many volunteer teams, it is the logistics! In 2012 alone, we have to figure out how to transport, house, and feed 110 volunteers! Teams that have over 8 people use an organization called ACTS which takes care of the feeding and transporting - a huge blessing to us! Teams with 8 people or less pay a daily fee to us and we do the feeding, housing, and transporting ourselves. Here is a glimpse of life before teams - a massive grocery trip to Livingstone to feed 2 teams over 2 weeks!

Happy Birthday x 5!

This past Thursday, we had a massive birthday for FIVE of our New Day Staffers! Abigail on May 3rd, Diana on May 9th, Hildah on May 13th, Wes on May 19th, and Carolyn on May 20th! We made special cakes for them of their faces!

They were all anxious about the New Day "water pouring" tradition, but Blu had something different up his sleeve for them! *insert evil laugh here* First, we made them come into the dining room and take a picture with their cake faces.

Then, we had them sit in 5 chairs all set up and we marched the New Day kids in for a special presentation. They did a skit and then we all sang Happy Birthday. At the end of the song, water came pouring down on them from the roof! Blu had rigged up a pvc pipe with 5 spigots to land on each of their heads. We have never seen them move so fast! It was AWESOME :)

Of course, then all of the kids got draggged into the water and it was complete chaos for awhile. I think we traumatized our new kids, Christina and Mukuwa! :) Check out Laurie's blog at www.wilcoxzambia.blogspot.com for some better pics of the party!

New Arrivals at New Day!!

Today is one of those days. One of those days where God nudges me and says "Hey, you know how this is sometimes hard? You know how you miss Sonic? You know how you are tired of dirt? You know how trying to communicate in another language is frustrating? It's worth it." Two new orphans arrived at New Day today, and we got to witness today being the first day of the rest of their lives. Christina is four years old, a double orphan. Mukuwa is five, and is also a double orphan. They are not related but lived in the same area. Their relatives brought them to New Day sometime last Fall and learned that the next house wasn't ready yet for kids. Once the house was done, and we had beds available, we did a follow-up visit, gathered infomation, and did medical check-ups on the kids. And here they are. Please pray for them as they settle in here, start school, and adjust to a new life. Please also pray for our other New Day kids (especially Axer!!) as they adjust to the changes and have to share some attention with their new "brother" and "sister." God is so good. Mukuwa, a tad bit overwhelmed :)

Christina with her new "mother" Margaret