Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Birthday Parties, Kids Club, Church & American Night


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! WE LOVE YOU!









Saturday, September 14 – This morning Laurie and Niki baked birthday cakes for Gertrude and Misheck.  The sponsors send gifts for their birthdays so we packaged them in gift bags.  We then headed to the dining room to setup for the party and decorate the tables.  The kids came in around 10am to start the party.  I like the song, “Happy Birthday to you, We love you!”  After singing to them and blowing out candles, they opened their gifts.  Then it was cake time!  And after that, Debbie had a surprise for the kids.  They all lined up and walked over to the cow farm, where they saw the surprise.  Daisy (the momma cow) had a baby GIRL around 5:15am.  Because it was Gertrude’s birthday, she got to name it.  The name she gave the calf was Gertrude, so we will call her Gertie!





Then it was time for the traditional watering of the birthday persons.  Everyone fills a cup or bucket with water and they pour water on the birthday person.  It was fun getting to experience this first hand after seeing pictures of this for so long.  Abby dumped water in Caedmon, Cambree, and Cason’s absence!
After the party was finished, Niki had to look at Ben’s foot again, and clean it again and re-bandage.  There was time for a quick nap until Kids Club.  There were about 127 kids that came.  Kids Club usually begins around 3pm and ends around 6pm.  First, we let the kids have free play time, which is usually kickball game, football (soccer), Frisbee, jump rope, parachute game, and just hanging out with the kids.  Then, we gather them together around 4:00 for the Bible lesson.  Today Debbie led the lesson time, and she did a little game as an icebreaker, and then she did reviewing with them over what they have been learning the last few weeks.  They talked about the Gospel story, and then several children recited the books of the New Testament.  Once Bible lesson time was finished, Ricky and I helped get the kids to line up for washing hands.  The New Day kids really help out with this ministry!  So the kids wash their hands and then proceed to fix their plate with food that our church ladies have prepared – nshima, beans, cabbage.  Then they all sit on tarps which have been spread out on the ground, and they eat their meal.  After they have finished eating, each child must bring their plate to the washing station, and once they have washed their plate they can receive a cup of water.  Most of them want lots of water so they continue waiting in line (sort of) for a refill (or more).  Once everyone has finished, the New Day kids help us with clean-up and washing the dishes and putting everything away.

It has been a long day, and the temperature was over 100 degrees (maybe 104?) today, and so we are exhausted from the heat.  Tonight’s dinner was made-up from leftovers – dough for rolls, lunch meat, cheese, onions, broccoli, mushrooms – so I sautéed all the veggies with garlic, and then rolled out the dough and made a calzone of sorts minus the tomato sauce (cause I didn’t have any), and then baked them – more like a hot-pocket snack.  After dinner, Niki went back to check on Ben’s foot once he was finished with his bath.  He wanted to remove the stitch, but it was hurting too much, so we left it open to heal during the night. 
Tonight we picked out a DVD movie to watch – Nights in Rodanthe – one of our favorites that we saw in South Africa when it came out in the theater.

Sunday, September 15 – At 7:30am our power went off.  Luckily we had already made the coffee, so we just made our breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast (using a gas stove has its advantages).  There was still hot water so we were able to take baths before church.  Mulenga led the Bible study time, and Ricky preached on the story of Nicodemus (John 3:1-5).


After church, Niki checked on Ben‘s foot, and the stitch was gone!  He told that Muchoni had pulled it out late last night.  So, the swelling was still there, so we are sending him to the clinic for them to check for infection.
At 2pm, we went over to the Wilcoxes for team prayer time.  The 5 of us were on our knees praying for several requests:
* vehicles - it seems we always have at least one broken vehicle. Currently the Ford Everest is in the shop in Lusaka for transmission and rear end problems. The van that we use at new day is having issues as well with starting / acceleration. We are thankful that our large bus is working. And the cantor truck has some oil leak issues but its running. New Day has the funds to purchase a brand new Toyota hilux 4-door truck, however, the government is wanting us to pay taxes and duty. We are asking Gods help in showing mercy upon those in higher government positions that will grant us duty free tax.
*fires - it is the time of year when the villages begin burning the fields in order to kill the tall dead grass before the rainy season. There are fires being burned all around our homes, and the wind is very dangerous. We ask The Lord to protect us and our homes from the fires around us.
*sickness & injury - the measles are making their way through our children. We ask a special prayer for those infected. We've also had several children injured in the last couple of weeks: Ben had stitches in his foot where he stepped on a stick, and it looks to be infected; Mweene fell off top bunk and hurt his forehead and jaw. He seems to be doing a little better but still swollen; and our son, Coby, broke his wrist at school playing basketball.

About 4:30pm the power finally came back on, just in time for me to bake the enchiladas for our “Mexican” themed American night.  Each Sunday night, the Americans get together for a meal and fellowship.  Laurie brought taco salad, Debbie brought salsa and jalapenos, and Diana brought beans.  Oh, and Ricky and I made homemade tortilla chips!  Once everyone got to the house at 6:30pm, the power went off again.  We gathered all the candles so we could see to fix our plates, and then the power came back on – and then went back off – and then came back on.  It finally stayed on so we could finish our meal, and then we played cards – Baptist Poker!  Ricky won the first round (again!) and Diana won the 2nd round.

No comments:

Post a Comment