Dane & Bailey: Discovering a New World at New Day: New Days Hope

When it rains in Africa it RAINS. When the rains come it rains really hard and if it rains for a long time it can flood.

One day it rained really hard for a couple hours and once it stopped we were hanging out in the house and we heard the car honking and Ricky was saying he needed help getting ropes to pull out Malenga. He told us that Malenga and some workers were getting bedrock and tried to cross the creek and didn't make it all the way through. And because it rained the creek was rising and they were scared it was going to sweep the truck (Canter) away. So we rushed around trying to find ropes and found some and sped off to pull him out. Well it was about a fifteen minute drive to where the creek was and we were scared we wouldn't be able to make it to him since the road we had to get there was completely covered and flooded with water. Not to mention our car (the Ford Everest) its four wheel drive was out and not working. So Calenga our other worker who was riding with us had to run out ahead of our vehicle to see if the road was washed out before we could drive through (see below).

It was a little miracle that we even made it to where Malenga had gotten the Canter stuck. When we got there the water level was below the headlights and by the time they got the Canter tied up to the Everest with rope the water level had risen to above the headlights. So it was rising really quick and we needed to get it out fast.

You can see how powerful the water current was, you can see a whole tree floating down the creek behind the Canter.

So once we got the Canter tied up to the Everest we tried pulling it out. By God's grace amazingly with a two drive vehicle, pulling uphill, and a Canter loaded down with around 1000 lbs of bedrock, we got it out.

It was a crazy day full of excitement and scary at times. But we will definitely remember it forever. Thanks to all the Zambians hard work and Ricky's fast action, and God overseeing everything it all ended up ok.

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It was sad to have our roomy leave us to go back to the states and see his family and make final preparations to return to New Day. We had a lot of fun and after all the excitement lately Ricky deserved a break :).

After things settled down a little bit we got to enjoy some alone time with the kids. At school they get points at the end of the day for being good and they can save their points for special things. Cynthia and Laurie chose a movie day with us! So did Mweene, Ben, and Kelitah (below).

Me driving the bus to get rolls for the New Believer's Bible Study. It's crazy driving on the opposite side of the road. Also driving a stick shift and shifting with your left hand takes a little getting used to ha.

Amazing to still see how Zambians farm. 2 oxen and a plow, makes us thankful to think of all the equipment farmers are blessed with in the States.

Playing in the shelter. Muchoni was pushing on me so I put him in a arm lock and then lifted him up. And all the girls were like "you can't lift us up" and I was like "oh yah" and I grabbed the three of them all together and picked them up at the same time and they were all laughing haha.

I'm sure a lot of you have heard that follow New Day but while we were at the orphanage one of the kids "Precious" passed away. When we got there she already wasn't feeling well, she would fall asleep in class and just wasn't the same as she had been prior to our coming. Throughout our time there she went to two different hospitals, the first one close by the orphanage and when the doctors couldn't find what was wrong with her they transferred her to the best hospital in Zambia located in Lusaka. The doctors couldn't find what was wrong with her and after about a month and a half she passed away with heart failure. It was sad knowing that we would never see her again on this earth but what kept all of us at New Day going was the hope of eternal life after death. Believing that if you trust in Jesus and trust that God sent Him to pay the penalty for our sins so that we can have life after death gave us all comfort and a joy that we could never experience apart from knowing Him.