Crushed

The last two weeks have been the most difficult since I have been at New Day. What happened is probably not as important as how I responded......not very well. I have listened to more messages, via mp3 files, the last 10 days than I have in the 7 months I have been here. When I was to tired to read my bible, I turned on the computer and listened to Ray Steadman and Charles Swindoll. Through them, God gave me the exact words I needed to hear. He is constantly pruning us. (God...not Chuck  ;)  A twig here a branch there. He knows exactly where to cut for the desired effect but unfortunately this is where it hurts the most.

"When God wants to do impossible things,  He

finds impossible people and crushes them."  - Swindoll 

 

 In a fallen world where unmet and unrealistic expectations collide there are many opportunities. When I am squeezed what is inside is forced to the surface. Not always pretty. God has a lot of work to do in this redneck heart and I know pain is always going to be part of the process.

King Saul sought to destroy David, but his only success was that he became the instrument of God to put to death the Saul who roamed about in the caverns of David’s own soul. Yes, David was virtually destroyed in the process, but this had to be. Otherwise the Saul in him would have survived.
Edwards, Gene (2011-06-14). A Tale of Three Kings (pp. 22-24). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.


 Today I am feeling a bit stronger but need to keep the lessons of the last few days fresh in my mind. I knew shifting from Texas to Mapanza would be difficult. God does not call us to "easy." He calls us to "HOLY."

So what about you? Where has God been pruning you this week?  Will you allow yourself to be broken before Him...to endure the growing pains?

Please keep praying for me as my prayers for you never cease. Thank you for choosing to make this journey with me. I need your encouragement and accountability. Most of all!

 

THANKS BE TO GOD!

 

 Recommended reading.

Master Potter by Jill Austin
A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards

Be still, there is a healer

His love is deeper than the sea

His mercy, it is unfailing

His arms are fortress for the weak

Let faith arise

Let faith arise

I lift my hands to believe again

You are my refuge, You are my strength

As I pour out my heart

These things, I remember

You are faithful, God, forever

I found this Blog rather interesting...more later

http://oweninzambia.blogspot.com/2007/07/culture-shock.html

6 months and counting

We have been "in country" for a little over six months and I had my 6 mo review with the Tidwells and Wilcoxes. I guess I passed because I am still here! On one hand I can't believe it has been that long and on the other it feels like we have been here for years....kinda weird.




                                                                           

Generous donations have been made to purchase livestock for New Day. We now have 8 rabbits, 3 goats, 23 chickens and 1 cow. Oh, I almost forgot. 1 duck...sorry Sherry. We have been busy building pens and a small swimming hole for the duck. I am waiting with baited breath to see Blu milk Martha. (our cow) She is due to calve the middle of next month. The goats, rabbits and Nala....my cat are also PG so we will have babies running
around every where in a few months. Just in time for the hotest months of the year.

Speaking of warming up. The weather has been nice but it is getting hot in the afternoon. Pretty soon it will be 100 plus with no AC. Can't wait. ;)  There are 3 seasons in Zambia cool and dry, which we are coming out of, hot and dry, hot and wet. It rains six months out of the year and there is 0 rain the other six months.

                                   Thorn bushes i thought were dead




The kids are great! They are learning to take care of the livestock. Some day in the future they will be in charge of caring for everything. They are growing like the proverbial weed. They are so different. SiSi is very shy and really doesn't like to be hugged much. Muchoni is a sensitive leader. Francis, a quiet thinker. He looks at something and you can almost hear him thinking...."How can I take this thing apart?"  The two newest children, Joeseph and Christina are doing great and are learning English. Christina calls me Uncle Debbie which is funny enough but she calls Darbi Uncle Debbie too. Darbi, Debbie. They do sound alike. Then there is our DIVA...Axer. ...nuff said.  Please pray for each one of our kids. They love to be loved and we love to love them but they need more than us. They need Jesus.

                                  Axer and Christina gathering eggs

                                     

Me casa

Ketchup

Due to a computer malfunction, it has been awhile since our last chat. A lot has happened so lets take a look.

 I finally received my work permit so I am legal until next fall. Then we'll do it all over again.

My first birthday in Zambia!

The water is cold!

The guys giving me their birthday present ....a hug. I am blessed. :)

I also received a BIG jar of Yum Yum peanut butter (my favorite), a nsima spoon, a handmade Zambian purse, a towel rack, chocolate and a teak table. A big twalumba to my New Day family.

New roof for my hut.

New bed and new cabinet for my hut. Pics to come.

New diggs for the chickens.

New Kittens in the bottom of my closet.

Finally! The best for last. 2 new kids.

Mukuwa

Christina

Please pray for these little ones as they adapt to a new family.

Closest to Christ

Ok! Just call me miss blogsalot. :) I was not going to post this because it is kind of personal but here goes. We all take turns helping the kids with skills, music and bible stories. Thursday is my day. Last Thursday i was holding our youngest (Axer)  while Ba Kalanga was showing the kids how to make animals out of numbers...which i might say is pretty cool. She was haveing a bit of a "tude" so i started whispering "i love you", very softly in her ear. She started whispering back, so the chorus was.... i love you...i love you...i love you .... i love you....God loves you....God loves you....God loves you....God loves you. AMAZING! Then tonight while we were singing i looked at the children and was moved beyond words. I was tough though and didn't cry. The kids don't really understand my kind of crying. They think i am hurt. ;) These children...born in a third world country where the average life expectancy is mid forties... no parents and little family... these children are blessed and highly favored because they are being told about Christ. Hopefully they see Him also.

Have You Seen Jesus My Lord?

Have you seen Jesus my Lord? He’s here in plain view

Take a look, open your eyes He’ll show it to you.

Have you ever looked at the sunset With the sky mellowing red

And the clouds suspended like feathers Then I say you’ve seen Jesus my Lord

Have you seen Jesus my Lord He’s here in plain view Take a look, open your eyes He’ll show it to you.

Have you ever stood at the ocean With the white foam at your feet

Felt the endless thundering motion

Then I say you’ve seen Jesus my Lord

Have you seen Jesus my Lord He’s here in plain view Take a look, open your eyes He’ll show it to you. .

Have you ever looked at the cross With a man hanging in pain And the look of love in His eyes

Then I say you’ve seen Jesus my Lord.

Have you seen Jesus my Lord He’s here in plain view Take a look, open your eyes He’ll show it to you.

We worship the creator...not the creation but he reveals himself to us through nature. Romans 1:20

I see Jesus my Lord every day! Thank you Father.



Kidz

The children "helping" Mrs Choma wash their toys from the play ground. They were a bit dusty.  Good job!!

What happened to my roof ?

Agriculture at New Day!

                                 

Banana Plants

These banana's were planted in a ditch about 3 ft across and 4 ft deep. The hole was then back filled to a few inches of the top so we can water. In about 9 months we will be enjoying sweet Zambian fruit.

Noah's Garden.

The garden is a total of six beds. Maize and green beans are bottom left. Sweet corn and English Peas are top left.  Green beans and peas bottom center. Rape, lettuce, spinach top center. Next week we will plant the top and bottom right beds with  potatoes, onions and fill in with radish. A row of sunflower will be to the left of the beds for the corn. Garlic and Marigolds will fill in the rest of the border. We are implementing companion planting techniques and will rotate crops from year to year.

Cheese Cave or swimming pool? 

Actually Blu could not wait for us to get a cow before starting the cheese cave. The hole will be 4 meters deep before they start putting up the walls and ceiling.  (about 12 feet)  The ceiling in the  finished cheese room will be approximately two meters high.  The picture is not that great but you can get some idea of the width by looking at my shadow.  I am at the edge looking down.

Side view of cheese cave.

New chickens are a cross between Rhode Island Red and Leggerns.  They are only 21 weeks and are already laying fairly well. We did have to move the roosters to a separate pen though.

Poultry condo complete with river sand beach and dust bathing.

This is Noah. He is the young man Blu assigned to work with me. He is just beginning to break ground on the "beeeg" garden. 30 ft beds. We will start planting tomorrow.

We are also growing cats. ughhhh      This is my new room mate.  She has a "bad name" in the neighborhood as a loose woman. What about the men involved??

                                          

Rednecks in Africa!

Blu wanted me to post a pic of my hut with the tarps on it. My roof is leaking so this was the only alternative until the rain stops which should be in a month or so.

                                                          



The following is a message from FB, for those of you who do not indulge. My future niece asked me a question about Africa...i tried to answer.   
Mindi: 
I'm curious with as different as things might be there compared to here. How similar are things??

Me: Mindi...a lot of things here are the same...a lot of the same flowers....some birds ie dove...crows... if I tooks pics of south Texas and parts of Zambia u could not tell them apart...things here are bigger...flowers...bugs ..... most things are very different....most of the bush folks only eat one meal/day of ground corn ....they wear what clothes they can find...Blu was telling me about a big guy that bought a jean jumper that really was for a woman...must have been for a big woman :) all of the children do not go to school because they have to help raise the younger children and they have to pay to go to school    ‎....the internet just goes away for no reason...wait...that happens in the states. ;) people take our empty water bottles and tin cans to use for containers at their homes. I gave my friends Cecilia and Mutinta a pear each yesterday that needed to be eaten...their very first.....they were "very good." People here work all day for around two US dollars and that is good money. The tax rate is 16% and gas sells by the liter. I can see the sun rise from my window and set from my front porch. The Zambian sunset is AMAZING...very red like the earth. The stars are like diamonds thrown onto jet black velvet and the moon is so bright it keeps us awake at night. I am extremely grateful and humbled by this experience and would not change a thing. Hope this answers your question. Its sort of like comparing apples to oranges. Both are good!

Mindi:  Yes it does answer my question it sounds amazing I'll have to come visit!!

Youth Day Activities at NDO

Today is yet another Zambian holiday! Youth Day. Complete with a huge parade in Choma and policemen on the street. We celebrated by playing games and snacking on cookies and kool aid.

Papa Wes finally has hair!

Water games.

 This was a relay race. There were two teams and the object was to lie down and have your team mate fill the bottle. Of course some were better at "hitting" the bottle than others. I am sure Darbi will post some of the "others".

 Darbi and the children watching in anticipation.

.

Darbi and Mulenga

The "CREW" 

We also played volley ball with bed sheets and water balloons and had a relay race where you put your head on a bat...spin 5X and TRY to run to the other end, dress in the clothes waiting for you, get cleared by the "judge"  (Mrs Dianna) and run back. Did the egg toss with...you guessed it...water balloons.  And of course a massive water fight at the end! Most valuable lesson learned:  I can NOT run after spinning 5X with my head on a bat. Thanks Laurie for keeping me from totally crashing.

We played soccer with the kids yesterday afternoon and after today the adults are pretty much

 D-O-N-E. The maguas anyway.

Check out Darbie and Laurie's blog for more pics. I have a pretty good one of Darbi on FB also.

 

We actually do work! The second house for the children is almost finished thanks to:

The Texas Team

I guess i should say. They work and i chase chickens.  :)

birdie high rise

Things are quite noisy at New Day! Bright yellow and black weaver birds have been frantically building nests in a tree in front of Blu and Darbie's house.  Blu is so excited. J  According to Wes Wilcox, the male will build the nest and try to coax a female in for a date.  After the nests are built, the female birds will arrive to inspect them and choose one to raise her babies.  It looks like there are at least 50 nests  and the birds hang upside down to build them which is quite comical. It’s like a noisy birdie high rise.

Today is Ash Wednesday which is the beginning of the Lenten season. Lent is a time of reflection and preparation for Easter Sunday. My denomination usually doesn’t observe Lent because we focus on the Good News of Christ’s resurrection which is great! I guess I have hung around the Methodists long enough that I enjoy taking this time to think about the sacrifice Christ made for me. We usually don’t dwell on the suffering of Christ much but the bible tells us we are called to suffer as he suffered.    1Peter 2:21 "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him."

Whether you observe Lent or not the Weaver birds remind me of the newness of life we have in Christ. He has prepared a place for us in heaven and invites us to join him. I don’t know about you but I will not need to do much inspecting before I move in.

New Day News Letter for February 2012

New Day News for February is up! Click on the link to view.  Thank you for your love and support for the children and the workers......us too. :)


www.newdayorphanage.org

Kitchens, Kids and Kows

Ms Carolyn in the kitchen at the Matthew house.

Things are moving right along at New Day. The teachers are busy with assessments and I have been working at the store and practicing my Tonga. ;) 

We toured a local farm yesterday and talked to the owner about good farming practices in Zambia which are very different than America. There was a group of men listening to our discussion and they laughed out loud when I told them we milked cattle up to two months before they were due to calve. They dry their cattle off after the calves are weaned at six months. Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Blu has made a plan to purchase a couple of milk cows next week so I better learn fast. :)

Darbi posted pics of the Matthew house where we are staying. There is a link to her blog on this page if anyone is interested. (The Tidwells from A-Z)  Laurie Wilcox has updated her blog as well.

Febuary 4 2012

It has been exactly one week since we arrived at New Day.

 One thing God is reminding me of is just how brief our lives actually are. My bible study today is in Psalm 90 which speaks of Gods wrath against diobedient people and the bervity of the lives of men. (V 10)   The cry of Moses heart in v 12 is that God would teach the children of Israel to number their days that they may ”gain a heart of wisdom. “  He was watching an entire generation die in front of him; burying as many as 70 people per day. Now that’s a lot of funerals.

The sermon Sunday was about being a good steward of the time God has given to us. J

None of us knows how many days we have left on this earth so the cry of my heart this week is that God would teach ME to number my days. Wheather it be 2 or 7,200 I pray I will not waste one

Git along little dogie!

The Zambian cattle have bells around their necks so you can hear them coming? After lunch yesterday I heard them in the distance but didn't think a lot about it until I turned around and they were in our front yard. They had escaped from the land joining ours and were looking for water.    yeeeehawwwww   There were  big ones, little ones, brown ones, black ones, big horns and small horns. There was even one giant one with big horns and a hump on his back. I think it was the bull. :) 

Never a dull moment! I love it!

The great chicken roundup.

New Day has about a dazen chickens and 4 turkey who have been roosting behind Kalingas house in a tree. We deceided we needed them to come live in the chicken house Blu and company built so..... we waited until they were in the tree for the night. Kalinga climbed up and knocked them down. We were supposed to catch them?  What? I am old and slow. :)  Kalinga shouted for Ba Margaret to turn the children loose and the race was on. Kids feet and feathers flying everywhere. Long story short the chickens were moved in the dark.  

I lied :)..various see ya later pics

Saturday

We are up once again trying to pack up for the bush. We actually slept late. 4:40 am.   Sorry no pics :( Internet is spotty.

Today we travel around 4.5 hours to get to New Day. My house isn't quite finished yet so i will be bunking with the teachers. Carolyn and Diana. We are great buds already. I can't wait to meet the kids and see Margaret and Kalinga.

The older posts on this blog are the ones i posted when we were here two years ago. It will be interesting to see the difference.

Friday

Blu warned us we may be up at 3:00 am suffering from jet lag and sure nuff....it is 3:00 am and i am updating my blog...ugggggg The mosquitoes are flying so i am in my bed tucked away beneathe my mosquito net. Today we are going food shopping while Blu and Wes head to the Embassey to take care of some business. The rain sounds nice. Wes is the other half of the  missionary couple that are working along side Blu and Darbi.

Bye Bye Texas

From Texas.  the "the crew"



to England  (Carolyn in our room)

to Africa (grocery shopping)...this pic was stolen from Darbi  :)

We are on our way! We left the US Tuesday January 24 around 5:00 pm headed to London England. The flight was cramped but uneventful. We landed in London the next morning around 7:00 am and jumped a train for the Comfort Hotel for a brief nap and hot shower. The people in England were very friendly but kept looking at us like we were a little different and i guess we were! We headed back to Heathrow via the bus, ate supper at The Giraffe restaurante and back on the plane for the second leg of our journey. The flight from London to Lusaka was not as cramped and i met a very nice man who works for some government agency teaching farmers to plant crops. How cool is that?

We finally landed in Lusaka and it was raining like a cow .........well you know...:)  We did not have the original receipts for our work visas so we had to pay to enter the country. I should say Blu had to pay. We escaped without futher ado and headed to the mission house in Lusaka soaking wet and exhausted. I believe the day is Thursday.  We traveled to a government office in search of our names in some sort of log so we could get our actual work visas but no luck. I do not exist in Zambia. mmmm I have a 30 day temporary visa and will have to come back. I thought I was unorganized! We headed back to the mission house bobing and weaving out of traffic like mad. Dallas traffice is nothing compared to Lusaka. Pizza from Pizza Inn for supper and bed.   nite nite