"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."
1 Peter 4:10-11 (NIV)

Sunday, May 10- Tuesday, May 12: Travel and Arrival at New Day Orphanage

**This is the first of many posts to do a day-by-day recap of Prosthetic Promises' May 2015 mission trip to Zambia. New Day Orphanage in Mapanza, Zambia hosts us for the trips. Check out more info about New Day at www.newdayorphanage.org




Intro: For anyone who read my vow in an earlier post to take notes and more pictures on this trip, I'd like to let you know I did it! There are so many amazing stories to tell from this trip, and I'm excited to share! The best summary statement is "God is so awesome"! He kept showing us so many amazing people, situations and events that we can't help but raise our hands in praise. So I don't tumble out an endless post that would likely not make much sense, this will be chronological. My intention is to let all who support us in donations and prayers know what exactly our mission is all about. 

Our flight left Sunday evening, May 10th, from DFW airport. Between rain storms, flash flooding and tornadoes in the metroplex, there were over 400 flights cancelled on May 10th at DFW. Our flight was delayed, but it was a huge blessing that our flight was not cancelled. All of our flights went smoothly and all 12 bags of luggage made it to Zambia. We were so thankful for the safe and smooth travel! 

Those traveling were myself, Chris, John, John's daughter Erin, Carolyn (teacher at New Day Orphanage who was traveling back after being back in the U.S. to visit her family), Cindy and Sarah (Cindy is Debbie's sister, who lives at New Day and Sarah is Cindy's granddaughter). In London, we had almost a 12 hour layover which left us time to go out into the city for a little sightseeing before our next flight to Johannesburg. Carolyn opted to stay at the airport to rest since she's seen London sights before, so Chris, John, Erin, Cindy, Sarah and I went out for sightseeing. I loved the architecture!! Such a beautiful city! [I know you aren't reading this blog for "look at my tourist-y London pictures", but I just want to share a few] :)



This guy looked so peaceful at St. James's Park.

Buckingham palace--looked different than I imagined.


Couldn't pass up the iconic telephone booth.

I really like this photo angle. Beautiful and intricate architecture! 

John, Chris and Erin being tourists.


Okay, back to the trip.... We arrived at Livingstone, Zambia early afternoon on Tuesday. After getting all our bags, convincing the guy at customs he didn't need to searched each bag we brought and loading them on Bus Number New Day, we stopped at a grocery store for snacks for our stay and headed to New Day. 

Group picture at the Livingstone airport.

We stopped a Kalomo on the way to New Day for a restroom break. The use of the restroom facility costs each person 2 kwacha (about $0.28 USD). We arrived at New Day after dark, since it took about 4 hours to travel from Livingstone to the orphanage on the bus (the bus doesn't travel fast). 
Bus picture of Erin napping on the way to New Day.

View out the front of the bus with Ricky driving. Ricky and Niki are the volunteer coordinators at New Day and picked us up at the airport.

Scenery pictures from our drive to New Day.




When we got to New Day, the kids greeted us singing outside of the dining hall. It was so fun to see everyone in a group, all excited to greet us. Ms. Carolyn returning was the biggest excitement I think...the kids swarmed around her as she got off the bus. 

They had gotten all of our equipment and supplies down from the attic of the Ark (guesthouse) where we stored it since last year and had it all sitting out in the garage. The garage was our work area for this trip. We had dinner at the Ark and then walked down to the garage to pack up our casting supplies to leave out early Wednesday for Choma to cast patients. 
Daytime picture of the garage to show where we worked everyday.

We arranged our work benches and the foot lockers around the garage...and generally made a big mess before it was all done. All foot lockers had to be shut at night to keep bugs, critters and potentially snakes from getting in.

*Next post: Wednesday, May 13: Patients in Choma

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