Mathew's Memoirs

Rainy DR

2012-02-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

I have visited my blog several times over the past month in hopes that by looking at the page, creativity would swarm my mind with ideas of what to share with you. Clearly I have had no luck as there is nothing new since Jan. 11th.
The last two weeks in January we hosted a team from Hume Lake, which is a Christian camp up in the mountains of California, about two hours from Fresno. It was great to see the leaders again, we spent some time at our favorite restraunt, the ribs place as we call it, catching up and hearing about their lives. The outreach went well with no real glitches. Really the only thing that didn't cooperate well was the weather, it's been quite rainy here since we got back from Christmas holiday... kind of feels like Seattle weather... only warmer.

Since that team left Josh and I have spent a lot of time working from home where our schedule is pretty flexible. We have several different projects we're working on which makes it fun... we like variety.

For our 7 year wedding anniversary we decided to do something a little different and went to IKEA in Santo Domingo where we walked through empty handed... we had hoped to find a few things for the baby, but it was still fun to walk through something so American. Afterward we had lunch at one of our favorite American restaurants here, TGIFridays.

For Valentines Day, we spent all morning in the doctors clinic for our 24 week check-up. Following the appointment, our doctor personally took us through the maternity ward where we saw all our options for pre-delivery rooms and post-delivery rooms. It's so great to know where we are suppose to go and (more or less) what we can expect. Our doctor will for sure deliver the baby and his wife is the pedriatrician. He has said on several occasions that she speaks English really well, which for me is a huge relief since I'm sure after having delivered a baby, speaking in English will make it so much easier on my brain! I don't know that I mentioned this on here yet, but we're having a girl and we're naming her Julia Marcella Mathews. She is doing well, but the sonogramist found that there is extra fluid. They measured it yesterday and when we go back next month, he will do so again to see if it's increasing in volume or staying the same. If it increases then he said there is something to worry about. Since it's out of my control, I'm trying to not worry about it, and trust that God has this little girl in His hands and He will take care of her.

After spending all morning in the clinic/hospital we had a very American lunch at McDonald's... don't judge... I hadn't been off the mountain in over a month and needed some good ol' fashioned American burgers.

For dinner that night we made, together, Chicken Cordon Blue which turned out really yummy and drank Martinelli's Apple Cider, which I had a friend pick up from the only store that sells it... membership required. It turned out to be quite a fun day!

At the end of this month two friends, who are former semester students, are coming down to visit for a week. We're really excited to see them again and catch up.

Quick snapshot taken of a few of us staff that happened to be standing around at the Hume Lake team banquet.

The Cross Night event that I lead with our two-week outreach teams. I get to play piano and sing... definitely my favorite event!

Baby Girl Julia at 23 weeks

Josh and Wally... our other kiddo... Lucy wouldn't stay for the picture

Our first days of 2012 in the D.R.

2012-01-11T11:20:00.000-08:00

Normally I enjoy the flying experience; the airports, the fun American treats that can be found in there, and flying with Josh while making him play silly games with me. However, our flying from the D.R. to Seattle this year was the worst time flying we’d ever had, therefore making me feel a little suspicious about what we were about to endure at the hands of Delta. We have not had any good experience with Delta thus far, but flying back with them was the only reasonable choice as American Airlines wanted 24 hours to get us home whereas Delta could fly us back in 10 hours.

Walking to the baggage drop-off in Seattle, my nerves were pinging, and Josh’s stomach was full of butterflies as we were hoping and praying they wouldn’t invent some new fee we’d have to pay or make us go stand in the long line at the common counter because they didn’t like the tickets that we’d printed off the internet. To our surprise however, everything checked out just fine! And away we went! Baggage drop-off… check! Security… check! Bathroom… check! Our last Starbucks double-chocolate chip frappuccino… check! Bathroom again… check! 10:00pm plane departs… check!

We were on an incredible plane, great leg space, great reclining seats, personal monitor with several great movie options, free plane treats, and they offered beverages more than once! We were so elated with this wonderful turn-around that we couldn’t sleep. We both watched two movies and slept the final 30 minutes of the flight as we descended into New York. When we landed we looked at each other with a start, and at least I was wondering if I had made the right choice not to sleep… I was SO tired!

We disembarked the plane at 6:00am New York time and staggered to our next gate where we waited about 30 minutes while watching birds fly around the terminal. Josh dozed in and out of sleep while I stared blankly at the desk waiting to board the plane so that I could sleep. Finally we boarded and were off yet again, but this time our next stop would be home! We slept the whole flight making us feel a little more alert as our plan was to stay awake the remainder of the day… 9 hours to go.

Our director and his wife picked us up from the airport and drove us home. We found it nice and orderly, all but one thing… the electricity was off. After reading a somewhat confusing note from Raul, our friend who house/dog sat for us, regarding the electricity, all four of us set off to try and fix whatever had happened. Luckily, just a switch had been pulled, so all was okay. However, over the course of the day, we began to find little things out of place or missing, locked doors in the house, and an extra lawn mower in our back yard. So we got the house back in order and all was well, and what’s missing is easily replaced.

I set off for town while Josh was playing basketball to buy some groceries because our house was bare… just condiments in the fridge. As I pulled into town I could tell immediately that it was a holiday therefore the chances of me being able to change money into pesos was not very likely. People covered the streets without regard for cars or motos. I slowly moved through the crowds praying that something was open. Well, I was right, no money exchange places open but I had 1400 pesos ($35.00) and figured that was enough to get us through the rest of the day. I was able to find one grocery store that was open and the fruit market too!

The rest of the day is really just a blur. Josh and I ended up going to bed at 8:30pm which felt wonderful! And we didn’t get out of bed until 9:55am the following the morning, when our fan turned off, meaning that our inverter (battery operating generator) wasn’t on. We thought that we had fixed that yesterday when we arrived home, but apparently not! So I set off to the inverter unit to see what was up, and apparently it had been switched off. So we got that all set. Next we wanted to get showered up and ready for the day, however, for some reason, the instant hot water heater wasn’t working. Well, it was late in the morning, and we had just showered yesterday late afternoon, so we weren’t going to worry about that at the current moment. So on we went with our day, exchanging money, going to the bank, paying bills and buying groceries. Shortly afterward, we took off for staff meeting where we got to see Lowell, our former director who was in for just the day. After staff meeting we had dinner with our current director, Lowell, and the visitor that he brought, the Green College President. We got home around 10:15pm from dinner and thought if we read perhaps we might get sleepy, because at this point, we weren’t. Well, 12:30am came around and we weren’t very tired, but we just decided to try and sleep.

7:30am Wednesday: both of our alarms go off. Time to get up and go to the lab clinic in town for blood work, etc., and down to Santiago for my doctor appointment. Well, I did not want to get out of bed, but Josh being the great man that his is, continued to nicely remind me that it was time, so 8:00am, I finally rolled out to find that oh yeah, we can’t shower because we never got that fixed. So we tried messing around with a few things on the heater but with no success. We decided to just take the propane tanks in and get them filled hoping that this would magically produce results. Once we got back, still nothing. Well, the day was getting on and I needed to get the lab work done so that I could eat breakfast, so we ran out and did that only to come home and smell our house full of propane gas. We walked around the back of the house to see that the gas was spraying out of the tank! We shut if off but it was still spraying out! We had never encountered this before and so immediately started making phone calls to see what to do… well no one knew what to do! Our friend William, who works for the base, came over about 30 minutes later and explained that the guy who filled it had over filled it and the tank was just releasing the extra pressure. So he fixed it. Great! And we got ahold of the handy-man who after lunch, came and fixed our hot water heater, some expensive rubber piece had torn.

So now here we are, 3:00pm, Josh is heading off to play basketball, and I am going to go to town yet again to try and finish paying our bills… sometimes it takes 30-60 minutes in one place! We think that our house is finally in order, all things working, praise the Lord! And now off I go!

October update

2011-10-03T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hello! Sorry for the long absense... we've been insanely busy! Here is a little update as to what has been going on lately!

Semester Abroad 2011

We are now entering our 5^th week working alongside 13 students who have come from Indiana for a cross-cultural experience in the Dominican Republic. Running this program is the highlight of our year, we absolutely love this program! Weekly we put on activities to develop unity, build community, and make this an unforgettable experience. No experience is like the next; each year is different and presents different challenges, learning experiences, and blessings.

This year the unforgettable experience is already in the making. I have had the privilege and honor and of walking alongside a gal who comes from a life of sorrow, anger, pain, shame, and fear. We have journeyed these past 4 weeks through a rigorous path of healing and there is still more mountain climbing to come. But this experience has been an amazing path of grace, peace, love, forgiveness and healing.

Having those moments where God takes your breath away are the moments worth living for.

I am living in one of these moments. I am “unqualified” to help this gal walk through this healing process, but God is so much bigger than qualifications, her hurt and pain, and my qualification and training. He is using her desire to heal and my willingness to be there for her and to pray for her, to bring about the most beautiful and incredible redemption I have ever witnessed. And it’s simply God being God and us walking faithfully with Him and allowing Him control that is bringing this about.

I am physically watching God change this gal’s life forever. She will never be the same.

I am humbled at His great power and ability.

What else is going on?

· We will begin traveling on Saturday with the semester students. We’ll be traveling for one week.

· We have a new house mate, Mark. He was a semester student of ours from 2009 and he’ll be with us for 6 weeks as he helps out in the medical site.

· Melody and Adam will be visiting in November! We’re super excited to see them and to share with them our life here.

· I (Vicki) am going to start helping out with the worship team at church. I know that I’ll be playing the keyboard and maybe I’ll get to help with singing.

· Josh will be graduating with his master’s degree in Discipleship ministries in December.

Farewell Party

2011-09-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the despedida (farewell party) for our four fearless leaders (as I like to call them). Our directors, Lowell & Cheryl and pastoral care/ministry site supervisors, Nate & Maggie will be leaving us shortly to continue on their journey in ministry with SI in Nicaragua. It's been a long time coming, but now that it's here I can't believe it. I have been practicing a song all week that I'm going to be sining at the party, and I haven't sung through it once without getting teary-eyed... hopefully I can make it through the whole thing tonight :)

This weekend we are taking our semester students on one of my favorite excursions. We're going to creek through the river from our town to a mountain community where our friend will meet us and cook us lunch! It should be a great time!

Semester Program 2011

2011-09-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

We're kicked off! Josh and I just finished our few days of orientation with the semester students and we moved them into their homes today. The past few days have been spent waking up together and worshiping through music, Josh sharing a devotional, and spending alone time with God. And to break up the sitting and receiving information we gave them a scavenger hunt through town, played games to help understand cultural difference, had cake and met the host parents, and had dinner out in town at Pica Pollo (a road side Dominican dining place), and playee games at our house. It's been a busy but great last few days and we're enjoying a little (much needed) rest today!

Hope you are all well! Happy September!

Season of Change & Costa Rica Family Trip

2011-08-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

One characteristic of life in missions here is change. People come and go all the time, year 'round. These past several months we've seen the face of SIDR change significantly as we've welcomed on many new staff members and have said farewell to many. One of the lastest staff to leave was Amy Green. She was a great friend and fellow missionette (AG version of Awana). She was the one who gave us our dobermans when we first moved here.

Our interns and volunteers left August 10th after a good debriefing and re-entry period at the beach.
We were so blessed with a great group of interns - it was hard to watch them go.

We're in the preparation stage for our next program - semester students. They arrive Aug 31st. and will be with us until mid-December. This is our favorite time of the year; getting to devote ourselves to a small team of people for 3 1/2 months. This year we have 13 students (12 girls and 1 guy...pray for him!)

Last bit of notice - we went on a vacation with Vicki's family to Costa Rica for 5 days. Vicki's parents, siblings and grandparents (mom's side) all were there. Below is a family photo and some pictures from a boat tour that we did with grandma, grandpa, mom and dad.

Family Fun!

Baby crocodiles

Land Crabs

Monkeys!

Mangrove Trees

Not sure what type of tree this is... but don't touch it

Flying from Liberia to San Jose the boarding tickets they gave us were laminated tourist brochures... interesting

Egg in the Hole

2011-07-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening is usually intern/volunteer Bible study, where everyone comes over to our house and we have a yummy dessert of some kind and of course the Bible study. However, we spent the entire day at the beach which we wrapped up by having an American meal experience (thanks to TGIFridays) and didn't get back to Jarabacoa until after 10pm. So we made a quick change to the plans and decided to have breakfast and Bible study Monday morning before the teams arrived. This morning I had for the very first time "Egg in the Hole".

These are my summer intern/volunteer buds!

Rachel making us Egg in the Hole... it was so good!

Angie cut all the holes out of the bread for this breakfast speciality.

Josh and I feel incredibly blessed - our group of interns/volunteers are amazing! We really believe in our daily investment in them and know that God has called us to work alongside college aged students; mentoring, discipling, and just experiencing life together. I can't believe they leave in three weeks.

Our summer staff

2011-07-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

Summer 2011's Internship and Volunteer Program Participants

This summer we have three volunteers: Jeff, Myles, and Angie. Myles and Angie interned for us last summer and returned for this summer to seek out God's calling for them and to see if SI was a fit for them. Angie has been working in one of our women's social work centers and Myles has been heading up our media site. Jeff has been here since mid-January where he started as an intern and in May moved into the volunteer program and has been also seeking out God's plan for him and searching SI as a possible fit. He's been serving in out special education school.

We have 7 interns remaining (had 9 to begin with): Chris and Meaghan, they are from Louisanna and stayed for 6 weeks. Chris just began dental school and Meaghan is finishing up her senor year of college. One day they want to do dental missions. They are engaged to be married next year. They honored Josh and I by asking us to take them through pre-marital counseling.

Rachel - she's just graduated from Wheaton College and was a semester student of ours last fall. She has really connected with SI and the ministry here and is applying for full time staff.

Christine - she's from California and has been here since mid-January. She's been serving as an intern these past 6 months and also has felt a calling to serve with SI. She would like to work with special needs children and will be going back to the states to finish college.

Brittany - she's from California and has been serving in our women's sports ministry site. Brittany is a gifted muscian and has used her gifts to bless us and our teams every week. She's sweet and always smiling.

Kelly & Jesse - they are a dating couple from Long Beach, CA. Kelly is serving in our art site and Jesse in the men's sport site. Jesse is easy going, laid back, and loud (which is mean in the nicest way). Kelly is soft spoken, thoughtful, creative, and very go with the flow. They want to get married one day.

Ariana - she too is from California and is currently attending ASU. She's really fun and adds great personality to our team dynamic. She is working in one of our women's center's and is connecting well with the girls in that community.

Erin - she's from Colorado (went to school in CA) and just graduated from college. She's applying for medical schools as I type and is pursuing a career as a doctor. She's very joyful, constantly smiling, and has such a heart for serving others.

This picture is from the mountain restaurant - Aroma de Dios - it overlooks our town, Jarabacoa
Here is Chris and Meaghan - our Louisanna buds

Angie... she's from Bellevue which means we "get" each other :) She calls us mom and dad... something that started last year (can't remember why) but has continued ever since then. She's been living with us this summer as our little (or not so little) daughter... good times!

Living it Up!

2011-06-22T15:53:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend Josh, I, and our interns/volunteers were all in need of a break. So we took Saturday to relax and reunited that evening for some gumbo fun. We have two interns (who are engaged by the way) who are from Louisianna and they made for us a traditional dish called gumbo. It was delicious! The following day, Sunday, we headed down the mountain to an excursion called 27 Waterfalls where we played in the river for 2 hours cliff jumping, watersliding down natural waterfalls, climbing up waterfalls, and goofing around with each other. It was perfect! Then we headed to our favorite beach, Cabarette, where we hung out until dinner. The water felt like bath water, the wind was in good form therefore allowing kite surfers and wind surfers alike to get good action on the ocean. It was so fun to watch all that talent on the water.

Josh and I feel refreshed and renewed and are having a wonderful time with our new team. Included in this team (of 61 people) is a woman who was a missionary in Mexico for 20 years. She has been such a light and source of wisdom, insight, and great stories.

Josh and I have been without our jeep for about 3 weeks now as our mechanic has been slow on repairing it. So we've become quite Dominican in these past several weeks as we've been carting our laundry in baskets, small matresses, 40 lbs bags of dog food, and groceries on the bag of our moto... we must be quite a site. We checked in on our jeep AGAIN today and it looks like we should have it by the end of the week... but who knows really, that's what he said every other time (sigh).

Forgotten God

2011-06-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

Forgotten God

I have been reading the book “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan and have been intentionally wrestling and challenging myself with the things that he writes about. Grappling with these things has been so impactful and amazing to me that I really want to share them with you. If you haven’t read the book yourself I whole hardly recommend it.

“Reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit” – is the tag written below the title of the book. Francis Chan sheds light on American Christianity and its lost condition from the Holy Spirit. The book was not written from a denominational bent; merely just a man seeking what Jesus meant when he said to the disciples that it was better that he leave so the Spirit could come.

With Love

“Without Him [Holy Spirit], people operate in their own strength and only accomplish human-size results. The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation.”

America breeds independent, individualistic, I-can-do-it-myself type people. Asking for help or relying on others is typically considered a weakness and not valued in our society. But that’s not how it was meant to be. We are to rely on the Holy Spirit for his guidance and assistance to accomplish greater things. Sure, as humans we can perform tasks and do things, but with God those actions are brought to a powerful level with larger impact.

“But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural.”

What does that mean – live in the power of the Spirit? It means to allow the Spirit to fill you up, to trust in Him, and to give Him your life. You do this by reading the Bible, praising God, praying to God, investing your life completely in God. When you do this you will see a changed life. A supernatural life. A life fragrant with passion, joy, and purpose.

“We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.”

How many times… how many times have the words come out of my mouth “I did, all by myself”? How many years have I spent relying on myself, doing it all myself without consulting God, without asking him for help? The difference is unmistakable when I involved God in my life. The burdens aren’t as heavy, I experience 100 times more joy, and the outcome is better. I do not want to do it all by myself ever again.

“If it’s true that the Spirit of God dwells in us and that our bodies are the Holy Spirit’s temple, then shouldn’t there be a huge difference between the person who has the Spirit of God living inside of him or her and the person who does not?”

Ever since I read the story in Exodus about Moses having to wear a veil over his face because it was glowing after having spent time in the presence of God, I knew that I wanted that to be me. I wanted to glow. I wanted people to know that I had been spending time in the presence of God. To this day I still pray that. I know that I have fallen short of being a glowing light for God… many times. But as I read this it encourages me to push on and glow. I want to be different. I want people who don’t know the Lord personally to see that there is something different in me; and most importantly, I want them to want it.

This list isn’t exhaustive. But it’s a glimpse at the way that God is shaping, challenging, and stretching me.

Summer is Here

2011-06-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

Themes from the past several weeks:

Lots of rain (which means dirty water)
Lightning storms (gorgeous bright skies)
Booming Thunder (Lucy finds safe refuge in our closet during these)
New Interns/Volunteers (fun, great talks, desserts)
Summer Program (we're back in the swing of another great summer!)

The picture below is of our interns (minus one) for the summer. We're all doing great and having a great kick off to the summer.

The first day of each team is spent in orientation. We give them samples of Dominican coffee called "cafecito"

Below Josh is teaching them the Dominican greeting (for guys who know each other, they will rub each other's bellies)

Right now we have to volunteers living with us. Angie and Jeff. They're both wonderful people and we enjoy having them with us. Angie was an intern last summer for us and Jeff interned for us from January through April and now he's in the volunteer program through the beginning of August.

This year I am running an activity called "The Cross: Letting Go" where the purpose is for each participant to consider their own personal "race". We're all in a race for something and as Christians we are called to run the race for Christ and pursue Him with our total being. So the activity is centered around the race and realizing what extra baggage we're carrying around with us as we try and run the race. Then everyone has the oppertunity to nail these things (for example: greed, lust, pride, anger, hatred, lack of forgiveness, etc.) to the cross symbolizing their commitment to God that they are going to work hard at running the race without letting themselves get bogged down by that thing. And should they pick it back up again, once they realize it, they will hand it back over to God and continue running the race with endurance.

Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

~Romans 6:12-14

Just What I Needed

2011-04-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

Just what I needed... a little getaway.

1/4 pound of stress each week (x) 104 weeks = ... too much extra weight.

I hadn't realized how much I had been putting on myself. I didn't see all the little extra things being that big of deal. It wasn't until we landed in DC and hopped in the back of Melody's mini-coup convertable (with the top down, wind blowing in my face) that I realized that this was just what I needed.

I needed a chance to be somewhere with zero responsibility, no one calling me, and no one who knew me. It was the breath of fresh air and R&R that we needed.

We stayed with Melody and Adam in their cute town house like 4 blocks behind the Capitol building (amazing location). We had some time for ourselves to get out and be tourists, and we had lots of time with them catching up, getting to see them in their environment, and we got to attend the fairwell party that Melody put on for Adam. It was wonderful to see Adam's family again and meet some of Mel & Adam's friends.

Our trip to DC happened to be on a very busy weekend. There were hundreds of tourist and kids on school field trips walking around. It was not only the Cherry Blossom Festival, but some kind of "Kite Festival" as well. There were all kinds of parades, tents, booths, carnival rides, and people.

To the clicking sound of many cameras getting their visual proof of being a visitor in DC, we stood at the feet of Thomas Jefferson. Behind him on each side of the walls were snippits of remarkable things that he had once said.

Here is where Jefferson stands - looking across the basin towards the White House.

We walked through the Franklin D. Roosevelt twice once as the sun was setting and the second with a bike tour we took. It's a very calm (and for the most part) quiet place where one can silently think, read quotes, and see importants moments through his presidency captured through art or staues.

Josh & Vicki's favorite type of food = Mexican food. Our dinner was amazing!

Eternal flame in Arlington Cemetary

On my top 3 three things to see, the White House was number one. It might sound silly, but I've wanted to see it for a long time, and with my own eyes.

World War II memorial.

Vietnam War Memorial.

Bike Tour! Adam, Mel, Josh and I took a bike tour after church on Sunday and had a really nice time. The sun finally decided to grace us with its presence. It was a 3.5 hour tour, covering 3-4 miles, and we visited 8 memorials.

Melody and her boys!

We're at the Jefferson Memorial but the Washington Monument is behind them.

Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial at night

My favorite building - The Capitol Building. The morning/afternoon/evening when congress was in session debating the new budget, we were running, walking, or driving past the building. We even got to see with our own eyes the light in tower (which only shines when congress is in session). It was fun to be around the capitol on such a big day.

Josh and I took a tour of the Capitol Building and here is a glance at the rotunda. The center painting is George Washington sitting with 13 women... and I wasn't listening to why it is that way b/c I busy taking the photo... so you might have to wiki that.

Standing at the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Monument is radiant isn't it? And lit up next to that is the Capitol Building... my favorite!

Our trip was amazing. We had the best time and even with seeing a lot, I felt like it was quite relaxing. I returned to the DR feeling refreshed and renewed and ready to take on the rest of the year! The trip to DC was just what I needed.

Life through a lens

2011-04-05T05:02:00.000-07:00

Over the past month I've had several different oppertunities to practice with my camera in different settings. So I'll tell a little story with each photo which will capture a little bit more of my life here. The following two photos are of my co-worker and friend Caroline. She recently had her first baby, James, here in Santiago, DR. He was born in late January. Caroline used to work in one of our women's centers but has been taking a break to be a mommy.

We take our teams on an excursion while they are here. Salto Jimenoa is my favorite waterfall excursion, it never gets boring to me. I was just there on Saturday and practiced this particular shot with my camera. I think it's a success - the point was to get the water to look silky.

This little red flower here is actually a weed - and I've had several sprout in an empty flower bed in my back yard. They don't do much more than this... I think they offer a certain charm of their own.

Camera Duty! Because we currently don't have a full time staff memeber in our media site, I've been filling in there over the past 2 years when we need to have video/photo presentations prepared for our teams. Last week I spent quite a bit of time out at one of our pre-schools and got a chance to play with and help the kids in class. The little girl below told me that I was her "special friend" for the day and she wouldn't let me out of her sight. At snack time she unexpectedly shoved a chocolate muffin in my face... not my mouth. In class I listened to her confirm with her fellow classmates that eating glue is not good for them. She then followed this profound statement with telling her friends that she had chicken-goat for dinner the night before, which then sent her table of little munchkins into a fit of laughter. I love listening to little kids... they say the most awesome things!

This little boy attends the same pre-school with the little girl pictured above. He's sitting in the little pirate ship-sand box (donated to the school by friends of ours) contimplating where to sail next in his world of imagination. I had been sitting next to him listening to him spout off all the different places he would like to go. He was taking this choice very seriously.

This is our friend Eric, who just finished up the volunteer program. He lived with us for 2 months and has now returned back to the states where he is going to begin fundrasing as he will be returning for staff. He asked me to take some pictures of him for his prayer card. It was perfect for me because I needed some experience in taking these types of shots, and it worked out for him because it was free... and if I don't say so myself, it turned out quite good!

Home Remedies

2011-03-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

Word of advice: if you tell a Dominican that you have "gripe" (Dominican Spanish for "sick") then it is 100% guaranteed that they will tell you what to eat or drink to cure it... and everyone has a different "definite" cure.

This morning I was at the height of my flu while talking with my friend Alberto (he works as a teacher at one of our schools). He immediately caught on that I was sick and told me that I needed to drink "te de cebolla" (onion tea). I gave him a look of disgust and verbalized my thoughts by saying I was trying to get healthier. He laughed and told me that I needed to try it and that he would make for me if I would drink it. I figured I didn't really have anything to lose, so off he went to find the necessary ingredients: onion, sour orange leaves, and cinnamon. I was happily surprised that it tasted wonderful (although a tad sweet from the heaping amounts of sugar Josh added to it). With pleasure I drank the full glass of onion tea, which, if nothing else, made my throat feel much better.

It's days like these when I just love being in the Dominican Republic!

Here are some pictures that I took a few days ago... remember my new year's resolution of taking more pictures? Well these aren't anything special, they're more my experimental pics... but I had a lot of fun!

March 13th...

2011-03-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

The picture above is a sample shot of my new hobby... photography. I'm not good yet, I'm still learning. However this flower just bloomed the other day in my yard, and I felt it was worthy of being a model for my "trial pix" portfolio.

Someone once told me to keep a journal of all the differences that I experience between my new culture in the DR and American life. I worked at it for about 3 days before succumbing to busyness which led to forgetfulness which then led to misplacing that "journal" which in my world really means "piece of paper." I've never thought of that lonely, college ruled piece of paper until last week when a college student pursing missions asked me about some of the differences, great and small, that I have encountered in my time living abroad. I sat there for a few moments trying to recall them. My mind ventured to that list I had once upon a time created. I stressed my brain hoping that some image would appear in my head containing words with which to answer his question... but no success. That journal will forever be lost.

Throughout the rest of that evening I looked back over my two years here working to replay any and every funny, strange, difficult, and confused moment I have had. I laughed quietly to myself as fond memories flashed through my mind's eye... our first encounters with cockroaches, consecutive days of limited cold water for shower taking and washing dishes, my first time having a conversation in Spanish and knowing ALL the words that were said to me. The night that Diamond - our first dog as a couple - passed away. Our first day in our new office... no bug spray needed!

From there my mind swept to how I feel like I belong here... how I don't feel different, I feel Dominican. I don't compare the two cultures anymore. The US is one place with it's own identity, and the Dominican is it's own place with it's own identity.

With that said, I have some items in my house here that up until my life here, I never had. Here we have an abunance of different types of bug killer underneath the kitchen sink (killer for cockroaches, wasps, ants, mosquitoes, etc). In the bathroom we have at least 6 bottles of sun screen on hand (SPF 15 for Josh, 30 & 50 for me). We don't have any electrical units which need constant electricity (besides our fridge) because up until 2 months ago we've never had a generator. When it's cold out, we wear everything we own because we don't have heaters. We also have a fly-swater per room so when the careless wasp, bee, flying beetle, or grass hopper flies in, we can take care of it quickly without have to run around looking for the swatter.

Shower in the yard?

2011-02-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

Last night we took out the leaders of the team we are hosting to the local road-side stand, Dominican fast food dining called Pica Pollo, and we didn't get back home until after 11:30pm! This requires an exclamation point because our bed time is between 10-10:30. Because of this late night adventure, the team leader gave us a very special gift... sleeping in! He told us that he would run the morning activities and told us not to come in... SO NICE! So we got to sleep past the usual 5:30am wake up call and didn't roll out of bed until just before 7am.

All was going well until I turned the shower on to find a slow trickle of water. While this isn't an unfamiliar experience (the public water gets turned off Thursday afternoons through Friday evenings every week), I knew that it was still early on in the week... the water control people surely wouldn't turn it off this early on in the week... right? So I walked out of my room into the living room and looked out into the yard to find a fountain! A fountain that shouldn't exist.

The water spicket in the yard was spewing water all over our yard. I ran outside with my dogs following at my heals. Lucy ran up to the lake we had developing in our yard and barked at the gyser to "protect" me from it... she's so great! After about 3 minutes of securing all the joints (and with Josh's muscels and sharp mind) we were able to finally stop the flood. Needless to say after we were done, we were pretty wet. But we had a nice hot shower... so it was all worth it.

Awe... the wonderful things about foreign culture life.

Resolutions & Adjustments

2011-01-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

Goal: to lose weight
Method: attend gym
The #1 news year's resloution each year.

I have never before made a new year's resolution. I have always thought them to be the number one unkept promise made nationally (maybe even globally) every year - and therefore never felt the need to participate in a global failure to myself. This year, however, is different for me as I have a number of personal goals and therefore am embarking on a new journey! I am walking the road greatly traveled and am going to make my first new year's resolution: take more pictures!

I have a beautiful camera and love to use it but because I don't know how to use it well, I don't use it. So thanks to my friend Michael Martin, I have basic photography books volumes 1-3 and am hoping to get through them all before June. If I succeed, you will be able to see my accomplishment here on the blog!

Adjustments, it's the one thing you can be told about a million times but until you experience it yourself, you can't fully understand. Though we've been going through transitions and adjustments our whole lives and a lot since we moved here (every time we go back and forth from the states) it's always a different experience and usually throws me off a little. Since arriving back here there is the usual time difference (4 hours), culture difference, and, oh yeah... language difference! Last year after we returned back, getting back into Spanish was much more difficult than it has been this year thankfully. But this time the cultural and convenience difference has been the more difficult adjustment. For example, things closing around 6pm... like the vegetable market. Or on Sunday's the big supermarket is closed and smaller one didn't have any non-broken eggs. What can I say besides "welcome back!"

Things are going very well here, we are for the most part adjusting well. Today was great; our first work day since being back, and that has really helped with adjusting. Last night was the first thunder and lightening storm since being back - those are always really fun. And the days have been beautiful and sunny!

Thanks again to everyone for your love and support.

A Few Moments to Spare

2010-11-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

The past few months have just flown by, but when I look back and try to remember everything that has happened I'm blown away! So I will break it down to bullets points.

The first week of October we hosted a team led by the future director of SIDR and his family. With them they brought a small team of doctors. I had the priviledge of driving them around to various locations where they ran clinics. One day Fernando (our SI doctor) told me that we'd be driving to a community really far away, and up a road that nobody else wants to drive. Well, me having a love for driving, welcomed the "road less traveled". Which I quickly discovered WHY it is the road NOBODY travels. We weren't exactly driving like this... (see below photo).

But we were driving like this... only up a mountain - through a dried up river bed... NOT to be confused with an actual road.

I had the time of my life... but I would be lying if I didn't tell you that there were one or two times where I thought... "there's just no way!"

The week following that team, we took our semester abroad students out for 1 week to Santo Domingo and the national park. This part of the program is to focus on history and culture. There are many highlights from this trip - basically the entire time! But possibly the scariest thing I have ever gone through in my entire life happened during this trip. One of the students participating in the program has a sever allergy to peanuts. She had been doing a great job with being careful but in a foreign country where packaged food doesn't necessarily give all the disclaimers can be dangerous... as we found out. One afternoon she had an allergic reaction to a cookie. We were 20 minutes outside the nearest town. She carries an epi-pen which buys her time to get to a hospital. We spent the following 2 hours rushing in and out of clinics (with medical personel attempting to help, but not with confidence) while trying to get back to the capitol where we could (should we still need it) receive better attention. Finally we were able to get the treatment we needed and she was in the clear. Meanwhile, while this was going on, we had another student who suddenly had food poisoning and was vomiting out the window all down the freeway! Crazy!

Shortly after we returned from that trip, my family arrived for some family-fun! My highlight from that trip was just sitting around playing games... "Catch Phrase" to be exact. We played boys vs. girls and the girls won almost every game!

Since my family has left we have been back to focusing just on the semester students. We have unfortunately had to cancel our trip to the Haitan border do to the cholera outreack and issues that have come about because of that - like the rioting, etc. But we're having an amazing time serving and ministering too the 15 students that are here.

Changed

2010-10-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

How has God used our time in the Dominican Republic to change us?

After stepping off the plane in 2007 into a hot, humid, new and different world, we have been forever changed.
(Santiago Airport)

(Vicki's perspective of Josh's changes)

Josh was changed within the first week of our first visit. The 200 mosquito bites (not repelled by the repellent) did not detur his interest and love for this country.

(Yes, this is really a picture of Josh's leg from the summer of 2007)

After we returned from that 2 week trip Josh told me about everyday for months that he wanted to sell everything and move back down to work in the D.R. After some "rational" thinking, we decided that the next best step would be to try out the internship.

(Our team of summer interns 2008)

A little history lesson on Joshua Andrew Mathews... when I first met him (and the man I married) he was very quiet, shy in groups, and NEVER spoke in front of groups of people. Well... after our first week of interning, he was talking with everyone, joking, initiating conversations, and once an outreach helped lead a small group through a poverty activity. He was changed. I remember asking him a few times, what's going on? You're different.

Since living here full time the love of God flows from within him touching hundreds of people every year. Now Josh is a "talker" and allows God to use him for whatever comes our way.

(Josh with the boys in Haiti)

Final thoughts - Other things that have changed... he likes driving, he loves reading the Bible, he has a huge heart for discipling, he's flexible when it comes to schedules

(Josh's perspective of me)

Josh said that I am more relaxed. I used to be obsessive about being punctual and would get very stressed in relationship to time. However now, I am much more relaxed about time... much of that is just related to the culture, people here run about 15 minutes later than the time given.

Another change that Josh has seen in me is my love for baking. Since being here I have taken an interest in celebrating people's birthdays with a fun new dessert. My grandma told me last year while standing in her kitchen that she wasn't going to repeat another recipe... that for the rest of her life she was going to try new things everyday. I have carrierd this into my baking. My friend Chastity and I used to bake every weekend and we would make something new every time. (I must admit that it surprised me a little when Josh mentioned this because he wouldn't eat like half of what I made... his excuse would be that it looked weird, that he was allergic, or "wasn't hungry". That said, I should add in that Josh has - lately - been trying new things... awesome right?)

The last change that Josh mentioned was my love for hosting. We host people all the time and it used to stress to me out with making sure that everything was perfect, but now it's such a joy. And I have my wonderful dogs to keep me company.

Final thoughts that Josh shared were how, especially over the past 3 months, that I have been loving my daily reading in the Bible. He also said that he never noticed before the passion I have when praying.

(My new kitchen where all critical food thinking takes place)

(This picture is really just here b/c I think Wally is so great! This was from our last house)

Well - there you have it... the D.R. has been a transformational time for both of us. God has been teaching us so much.

Tornado

2010-09-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

“Tornado” is the term I would use to describe how our lives have been lately. I use this term not in the negative sense, but as a verb to capture the intensity and thrilling-ness of our lives; but in the eye of the tornado there is also a calm which, if even just for a moment, we have sacred moments of stillness where we can just exist in our world together.

Our lives have been consumed with our semester team. From simple tasks such as daily transportation and home visits to calls first thing in the morning with people who are sick and need transportation to the clinic, this is our journey for the rest of this 2010 year. Our favorite part of this particular program is our longer-term investment into the lives of the students. I personally get the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a particular female student each week and check in less frequently with another gal who is on an interesting and exciting journey with God right now. In addition to this we have been asked by others to simply hold them accountable. It’s been an amazing experience so far, and we know that God will continue to grow and teach us through this time.

Each Monday night Josh and I have two students over for dinner. It’s such a great time to get to know them better and just have a fun relaxing night away from everything else. Tuesday and Thursday evenings we host Bible study at our house. On Tuesday evenings I open with worship and Josh leads the Bible study. On Thursday evenings the student open with worship, then we share testimonies, and close with prayer groups. We absolutely love our time with the students; they are such a wonderful group of people.

Josh and I have really grown to love the ministry that has been placed in our lives. We get to invest in people for a short time during an experience, which for them, will remain in their minds and hearts for the rest of their lives. This experience can make or break their decision for a future in missions or even ministry. Additionally it shapes them for the rest of their lives. We enjoy the questions of what a life like this is like to the more deep questions about the purpose of life and “religion.”

The past year and a half has been such a remarkable journey. God has taken us and united us in more ways than we could have ever imaged. Before we moved here we were happily married and believed we were super close – but today is a different story. We are closer, stronger, and more united with God and each other than we have ever been. Our joy for live comes through amazing moments like playing with our dogs, going for walks, singing worship songs, and hanging out at the river or beach – but joy is also in the hard times – losing our first pet and second pet and being robbed. God means so much more to me now than ever in my life. I love having my “God Times” in the morning when I read through scripture and pray over the day. Jesus is now my source of peace, joy, patience, forgiveness, grace, and energy… I do not have to rely on myself anymore.

“For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalms 100:5

Blue Thunder

2010-09-08T14:39:00.000-07:00

Today is a rainy day… a very welcomed rainy day. We haven’t seen the rain in some time now and it’s been very hot.

We are just a week into the semester program and we’re having a great time. There are 16 students (14 gals and 2 guys) from 4 different colleges. Since their arrival last Wednesday, Josh and I had all day orientation with them Thursday and Friday and then we moved them all into their host homes Saturday morning. Everything has been going so well, we’ve been really enjoying getting to know them. Monday evening we had 2 girls over for dinner and then last night (Tuesday) we had the whole group over for Bible study. We are using the gazebo that’s in our yard as the study area – it’s so fun and everyone loves it.

Tonight we have staff Bible study and right now we are going through a series called “The Truth Project”. It’s a really awesome study where for 12 weeks we develop a biblical Christian worldview. We watch a video for 50 minutes and then break up into small groups for further discussion. Josh leads one of the small groups – I’m so proud of him!

Friday night we are going out with the semester team for pizza after Spanish class as a way to celebrate “survival of the first week!” Then on Saturday we are taking them on an excursion where we will creek through the river to get to one of the communities we work in called Los Higos. A woman that we know from that community is going to cook a huge lunch for us at the river – it’s going to be GREAT!

So… a funny story:
Yesterday I was driving in “Blue Thunder” (my favorite base truck… I named her) to pick up our students for Spanish class. As I was headed up the hill (just around the corner from the base) the hood of the truck flew open! It was so crazy... I couldn’t see anything! The rearview mirror on the right wasn’t at a good angle for me to see, and the hood was in my face, and there was a guardrail on the right hand side. So I had to drive the truck a bit further to get beyond the guardrail so that I could pull off the road. Once I stopped I got out to close the hood, but the latch was bent about an inch from where it should have been, so no luck there. My precious Blue Thunder suffers from old age, so even when I closed the hood, it still sat about 2 inches from where it should have been, due to this problem, I couldn’t continue to drive it safely to pick up the students. So I very slowly made the trip back to base (about ¼ mile) staying in first gear the whole way… it was a very sad drive home.

Vacation?

2010-09-01T07:16:00.000-07:00

Vacation isn’t usually a term I would think about when I think about missionaries. I think about 24/7 work, jungles, and different languages. Well, Josh and I just officially had our first vacation and it was great! We had two different sets of visitors. Our first guests, Russell, Cindy, and Cole, were a family that I nannied for in college. The first few days were spent seeing our town, our home, local attractions like waterfalls, and a little of where we work and what we do. Following that they treated us to several days at the beach with them. During that time Russell taught Josh and I how to windsurf which was AWESOME!

Celebrating Cole's birthday (a month late, but who cares!) He decorated cookied that spelt out "Happy B-Day"

Cole was demonstrating his "Batman strength" by pushing Josh off his seat

Hanging out at one of the waterfalls

At the hotel where The Freeman's stayed during their time with us in our town

Our first night together eating dinner on the bank of the river and having a BLAST!

Russell spent two mornings teaching us to windsurf - Day #1

Day #1 - finding my sea legs - I did actually get sailing my first day... YEAH!

Day #2 - sailing together

Following their visit a friend that goes way back came to visit – Michael Martin! Michael stayed with us in our home and therefore got to experience a little Dominican living; meaning: times with no electricity (though we have a generator now), random people showing up the door, loud music through all hours of the night, roosters crowing at 11pm, among other things. We visited all 3 waterfalls, saw the coffee factory, visited the historical part of the capitol and stood in the tallest tower of the old fort contemplating if we could ride out any storm that came our way, went to the beach for 2 days/1 night and took on the waves in the very warm ocean playing all the silly games that Josh made up. But in all those things we talked… a lot. Catching up with a friend that shares so many fond and great memories can be one of the

best medicines to relaxing.

We spent this evening at a mountain-side restaurant in the hopes of watching the sunset... no such luck - rain and clouds

What now?

Tonight the semester abroad students fly in and thus begins our 4 month journey with a new batch of students.

What does this journey look like (from our side)?

• Hearing conversations about cultural differences (that remind Josh and I of how far we’ve come culturally - and how much we've forgotten)
• Learning about 16 new people and getting to invest in their lives emotionally and spiritually
• Regular conversations regarding “bathroom” talk
• Driving people around every day and having “car talks” with them; which mean very random and usually hilarious chats
• Seeing people change more into who God created them to be
• Watching their lives change as they re-evaluate what their future looks like
• Having the students over to our house 2-by-2 for dinner
• Leading the students through Bible study where they can express who they are
• Participating in small groups of 4 people and getting to pray for each other each week and see God move in each other’s lives

Interesting news about me: I just had my first dream in Spanish

Since the Move...

2010-08-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned before that when it comes to moving Josh is not a patient person, in fact he is quite the opposite, doing his best to get it done as quickly as possible, even if that means we're walking zombies from being so tired. Well, Saturday morning after we took the 6:00am group down to the airport, Josh got started! Some friends and Josh moved our entire house in two hours while I stayed at the base all morning taking care of the remaining teams. After I sent the final group on their way at 1:15pm, I went to our new home where I began blazing trails through the boxes and piles trying to get things put in their proper place. Josh and I were running on nothing but fumes as we had just come through our final week getting little sleep each night and no rest throughout the days as we were full steam through that last outreach. While I was in my room assigning each item it's new location, I could hear my mind tempting me to curl up on my very cozy bed and just sleep... so I left my room. After about 4 hours of work and watching our dogs run around like crazy not fully understanding what was going on, we sat down. Not one minute had even gone by when we realized how hungry we were, we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast! We looked at each other and knew right away what this called for - sandwiches! Our fail safe food supply is a little place in town that makes these amazing chicken sandwiches. After our tummy's were satisfied we powered through till 10pm then turned in.

Since our move, Josh and I have traded on and off being sick. Thankfully, today, we're both feeling much better and ready to get out of the house and do something fun. AND we're eagerly awaiting the arrival of our friends on Monday! Lots to look forward too!

Moving

2010-08-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

The definition of moving = stress; exhaustion; assessing one's "stuff"; big piles of garbage; pizza; friends getting together to help; saying good-bye to a memory filled home; (and if you're moving with Joshua Andrew Mathews) it means doing it all in one day!

I'm guessing that you have determined from the above that a move is in our near future? Yes it is. For awhile now Josh has wanted to move closer to the base. After we were robbed, the "want" changed to "we ARE". We had been on the hunt for a while searching the communities that are near the base and finally found a place that met all OUR requirements like: big yard, near base (only 1 minute away), nice kitchen, neighbors (for the safety factor), and a house with no repairs to be done. We were a little concerned that it was going to be too expensive because of how nice it is, but the owner said that because we're missionaries they would knock the price down 1,500 pesos. Actually, getting this house was totally a God thing... here's the story.

We signed a 2 year contract for the house we're living in now and we've only lived here for 1 year 5 months. So once we found the house we really wanted we just prayed that our land lords would let us out of our lease without any penalties. But we also had to act fast and had to accomplish communication with a variety of people within 3 days. We got in contact with the go-between guy who said he would contact the owners but thought he would need a whole day. We asked if he could do it in 30 minutes. After a moment's pause, he said he would try. Thankfully it worked and he got ahold of them over the phone and they said, without much thought, they would let us out of the lease if there was no damage to the house. So our go-between guy came over right away looked over the house (for about 2 minutes) and called the owners back saying the house was fine. They approved our early dismissal but said we had to contact the lawyer for the final details. So we got ahold of him and he said that not only could we leave the lease early, but we would also get our deposit back! (We really need that deposit to put down on the next house, how perfect!)

So because Josh is the determined man he is, our goal is to move in on Sunday morning - the day after our teams leave. So, that's what we're aiming for! We are really excited and can't wait to be in the new house. Pictures will follow in the next months update!

Interesting fact about us: by this next Sunday we will have moved 7 times in 5 1/2 years of marriage.

Changes coming to SIDR

2010-07-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

Transition and change, whether painful or wonderful, is a necessary part of life; it keeps things fresh and aids against complacency. Working on the mission field where people are coming are going all the time, transition and change has become normal. Year round we see around 500 short term missionaries here for 1-2 weeks; interns giving a summer of 10 weeks; semester students who live here for 4 months; and then our 2-year missionaries. Change is a normality that, like everything else, is something that we get used too; it’s a part of our life. There is a transition coming in the lives of everyone here at SIDR (Students International Dominican Republic) that was very unexpected, and while so amazing, it’s going to be very difficult. I have been saying good-bye’s a lot over the past 2 years – between school, family, friends, and now to all the teams – that this next good-bye will be the hardest since we moved here. We found out a little over a week ago that half of our leadership team – Lowell & Cheryl and Nate & Maggie – will be moving from SIDR to begin a new country with SI in Nicaragua. Lowell & Cheryl have been our biggest support network here, not to mention tremendous friends whom we consider family.

They will (thankfully) be making this transition over a period of 12-15 months so it’s not super sudden, but now begins the count-down of “lasts”. We are very excited for what’s in store for them in their new future of developing a new SI base, but we will miss them dearly. A bright spot in the midst of this shocking news is that the future directors of SIDR are Brian & Sissy who were our supervisors when we were interns here in 2008. Many people here know them well and are excited for their transition back to SIDR.

What else is happening?
~Our summer program ends in 3 weeks.
~We are excitedly waiting for our friends to come and visit – Cindy & Russell & Cole (a family I nannied for in college) are coming mid-August; and another great friend Michael Martin is coming in late August for a visit as well. These will be the first visitors ever to visit us in our own town since we have been here in the D.R.
~Sept 1 – Dec 16 is our semester abroad program – there are 15 students this year
~ Late Oct – early November my whole family is coming to visit! I am so excited to see them and for them to see where we live.
~Dec 16 we fly home for Christmas break!

Since the break-in

Since our home was broken into we have received enough extra donation money to each purchase new laptops and some friends bought us a new DVD player. Some other friends bought and sent down to us “mock security cameras” for our home, hopefully to scare potential burglars away. We are no longer hiding a spare key around the house, and we are no longer going to leave anything valuable looking within view of the front door, so if someone actually does walk up to our front door and looks in, they won’t see anything. We are also going to avoid at all cost leaving our laptops home while we’re not there, and if we have to leave them home, we’re going to hide them.

All the strange feelings that we had following our brake-in have, thankfully, gone. We pray daily for our safety and trust that God will protect us. We are however, looking to move. Even though we only live 5-7 minutes from the base, Josh really wants to live right next to the base. So we’re not in any rush, but he’s keeping an open eye for homes close by that are for rent.

Well, I think that just about sums up what’s happening here.

(This photo was taken by one of our interns at our beach trip with them)

Latest news... robbery

2010-07-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about writing a blog for some time now, wondering what to write, wondering what you want to read about. Writing this can be a challenge at times because writing about my life is not something I've ever done before, let alone journaling. So any tips or ideas would be great!

My topic for today I guess will be on the most recent activity in our lives... the robbery at our house. Two Saturday's ago now, Josh and I left our house at 8am and went to the base to say farewell to the teams that were leaving. Following that we went to play tennis with our friends. We arrived back at home around 12pm to find that our house wasn't locked and the door slightly ajar. As we walked into the house we noticed things had been moved around a bit and key items missing. My first thought was that someone was playing a prank on us, but as I walked into the bedroom and saw the contents of my purse everywhere I knew that it wasn't so simple.

As we surveyed the house we quickly realized that the person who had broken in was someone we knew as they had used our spare key that was hidden outside the house. They had kindly left it sitting right on our table. We felt lucky that the intruder had been kind to our dogs and house - the dogs were fine, and our house was not left in shambles. Things were a little messy, but easily re-organized.

Right off we noticed that my laptop, skype camera, $15.00, DVD player, Josh's deodrant and toothpaste had been taken. A few days later we realized that my ipod and Josh's electric razor had also been taken. We feel fortunate that everything is replaceable and that we are all safe. We have since changed all of our locks and have tried to mix up our schedule a little. Lowell told us that because we have a similar day-to-day schedule (easily learned from someone watching) that we need to try and mix it up. We don't hide a spare key outside the house anymore either.

Despite the fact that this is totally a bummer, we know that the events of the past month have prepared us for such a time as this. So instead of feeling horribly disappointed, we are happy to know that all that prayer for patience is working. We trust that God is looking out for us and it is encouraging to know that we are experiencing trials and trouble because Satan is trying to distract us and discourage us from the work we are doing here.

Since the break in we have already been given a new DVD player and money to purchase not only my stolen laptop but money to replace Josh's which broke down a few weeks ago. God is good, all the time. He is just waiting for us to lean on Him and to trust Him.

Other news...

I am heading up a new outreach - a music outreach. With each team we do an evening outreach specifically geared toward sharing the gospel message. We have a sports outreach, a kids club outreach, and now we're introducing the music outreach. So on Wednesday we're going to one of the communities that we work in and we're going to put on a praise and worship time in their park. We are going to conclude with two people sharing their testimonies. The local pastor has given us her consent and is really excited about it as well. I can't wait!!!

Thank you everyone for your prayer and support, as always, we REALLY appreciate it!

Tropical rain and electric fiasco

2010-06-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

Today is another rainy day in Jarabacoa. Usually the rain is welcomed by all to cool us off and refresh the earth... however, it's been raining quite a bit lately so we'd really like to see it go. So here I am, sitting on my couch during lunch break listening to the sound of pounding rain on the tin roof and watching as it drenches the earth, leaving puddles all over our dirt driveway and watching the dogs perform "muddy-paw-print" art all over the white patio tile, and I thought that it would be a good day to write a blog.

It's been a peaceful few days, not to much out of the ordinary has happened, that is, aside from Sunday's 2:30am power transformer explosion. (Can you sense that a story is on the way?)

So there we were sleeping peacefully in the wee hours of Sunday morning when to our shock and surprise we heard a very strange and loud sound coming from outside. As we turned our heads toward the window we saw a brilliantly bright light, almost like fireworks. I opened the shutters and out by the street we could see sparks flying everywhere and a giant glowing yellow light. About 10 seconds later the light went out and so did our electricity. We laid in bed for like an hour afterward, just laying there. Neither of us could sleep after that, not to mention the room got a little stuffy without the fan on. About an hour later, much to our astonishment, the electricity came on, but only for about 2 hours, when it went away again. When we woke up later that morning, we were delighted to find that the electricity had restored itself once more. When we walked the dogs we stopped by our electric post to find the entire thing covered in black smoke and a rather important looking piece melted on the wet ground below. We were relieved to see that it hadn't been the fault of our neighbor trying to steal electricity again, but then we couldn't figure out what had happened. Later on that morning as we were preparing to get showered, we came to realize that, while we had electricity, something had happened to our water, as in, it wasn't working. So we quickly grabbed all of our clothes for church and shower supplies, and headed off to the base where we were able to grab a quick (but ice cold) shower just in time to get the group ready and off to church.

Now there are two things you should know about the DR: 1, customer service is not valued the same here as it is in the States; 2, Sunday's are a day when everything is closed, no one works. So, Josh and I thought we'd be without water until Monday when someone from the electric company could come out and fix the mess. However, Lowell, being the persuasive person that he is, got a crew to come out and take a look. It turned out they had to completely rebuild our electric circuit, it had been totally fried.

That was Sunday.

I Will Priase You in the Storm

2010-06-11T06:53:00.001-07:00

Through the hoops and hurdles of life our character is refined and sharpened. We can use the challenges that come our way to grow and get stronger or fall into a pool of self pity and depression. Josh and I have been walking through a dark forest of despair, each day delivering to us a new mountain to climb. Every morning we walk the journey clinging to the hope that God will deliver us from what lays before us, praying that the uncertainty of the day will not bring anything more to push us down.

With each passing trial we can see God’s love, grace, faithfulness, and provision. God has been our joy, our energy, our strength, and our hope. Even though the world around us seems to be crashing in, God meets us each morning with the promise of His love for us. Each morning we are reassured of His goodness and glorious plan for us - one not to harm or hurt us, but a plan of hope and a future.

I have walked these past two/three weeks with so much joy and happiness that sometimes I forget what is and has been going on. While there have been some tears shed, we remind ourselves who is in control and who can use any and every situation for His grand purpose. We rejoice in our suffering, knowing that it is because Satan sees the work being done and wants to put an end to it.

Our affliction has been in all areas of life -
* in our minds through bad dreams giving us restless sleep
* in our bodies through sickness
* in our work place through conflict and discouragement
* in our finances through extra expenses (car repair, medical testing, both dogs sick)
* in our friendships through conflict (largely based simply in miscommunication)
* in our pets (sickness)
* in our relationship together (the stress of everything ripping apart our harmony)
Praise God that He deems us worthy enough to suffer for Him. Praise God that amist the storm we have been growing stronger. Praise God that we have been able to see His provision in a very real and dramatic way.

This blog is not an appeal for sympathy but to share about the Savior I daily follow and His provision and faithfulness to us during such trying times.

I want to brag a little about my God...

We just recently lost Josh's laptop and believed that we had lost mine as well (Ron was able to fix mine). The day after it happened I received an e-mail from the mom of a girl who is coming here on Monday and she asked me for any prayer requests. I had asked for prayer in health and for extra funding to come in for a new laptop. The next morning Josh and I spent some time in prayer together for everything that has been going on in our lives - including the laptop. Following that time of prayer I went to check my e-mail and saw that the mom had e-mailed me again. She had decided to send us $500 for a new laptop! Praise God!

Another huge blessing in our lives has been our 9 (soon to be 11) summer interns. So much of our ministry here is in short term relationships - every week or two saying good-bye. But we get to invest in, build, and grow in these 11 relationships for 8-10 weeks. Each and everyone of them is so unique, beautiful, and special. We get along with them so well and they're so great. We have already been blessed by them and I know that the remainder of the summer is going to be amazing!

As the past few days have come and gone, it seems that the hardships have been passing along with them. I think we have finally reached the the edge of the dark forest and see the light. I feel stronger, and more in love with God than ever before. Thank you to those of you who have been praying for us recently, we have needed them.

Buenas Tarde - (good afternoon),
Vicki

Wally

2010-05-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Meet Wally!

Wally is the newest addition to our family. Josh and I had lately been thinking that it was time to get a new buddy for Lucy. Josh asked our friend Jose if he knew of anyone that was selling a pure Lab - Josh has wanted a pure Lab ever since we were married. Jose just happened to know of a man who had 2 labs, a girl and a boy. Last night Jose took me out to the man's house, Josh couldn't go but gave me full power to make the decision. After talking with the man who who was selling them I just knew that this was our dog.

Wally's Bio:

* Half black, half brown pure Labrador

* 7 months old

* Current on all vaccinations

* Very sweet and eager to learn

* He had not received a name, any training, nor much attention. As a result, he is quite timid and easily scared. He is however a very fast learner and loves his new home. He and Lucy had a great "get-to-know-each-other" session and are friends already.

* He learned his name in an hour and now responds when we call him.

* He plays fetch really well

We are so happy to have him. This morning I'll admit I was a little nervous and anxious about adding another member to our family, but today has been a great day. New beginnings are fun. It's been 4 hours since he hopped out of the back of the car into his new yard, and after playing and exploring all morning - and nearly breaking my camera - he and Lucy and Smokey Joe (the dog we've been dog sitting for the past 6 weeks) are quietly sleeping next to me in the living room.

Haiti Day 3

2010-05-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Baking, laughing, sharing and crying all add up to a great day!

The evening of "Day 2" right after we left the community that evening, we went for a drive through the capitol to see what had become of the city. It was incredible. Nowhere else did the construction compare to what we saw right in the heart of the city. The Presidential Palace still lies in ruins as its people look on each day wondering what is going to happen as their beacon of hope lays untouched and their President out of sight. The largest and most crucial financial building was completely destroyed and not even safe to enter as the roof mostly caved in and its walls barely standing. And the building of justice and all legal records for the entire country lay in a heap of rubble.

Josh, a few others, and myself went back to the community that evening after our tour to show a movie - "Something to Sing About" - a older Christian film. We quickly got it all set up as dark quickly approached. Once we had a gathering of viewers we played the movie. The response was amazing. As we sat there watching the movie play in French, we listened as the crowd engaged with the movie; cheering when someone got what they deserved, clapping to the music when there was singing, and laughing at the funny scenes. About 20 minutes to the end Francine called on us as she had prepared dinner for us. We were so hungry as it was 8:30pm and we hadn't eaten since lunch, so we went into the kitchen with eagerness. I was really excited to try real authentic Haitian food. It was absolutely delicious!!! She cooked some noodles (that tasted somewhat similar to chow mien noodles but not as greasy) chicken, some kind of sausage, salami, and a little salad (which was super hot due to some kind of sauce she put on it so I did not try any).
We had such a great time and even though we were completely exhausted from the heat and work day, we were so glad that we put on the movie for the group.

Okay, so moving on with day 3...

We arrived in our little caravan to another day of excited people. As we got out of our vehicles kids were running all over the place calling the names of the people they knew in our team. Once Maggie, Cheryl and I made it to baking corner, we started off the day with teaching our ladies how to make baguettes and cinnamon twists all with the dough and same recipe that we had used the day before. We all had a great time teasing each other, tasting one another's goodies, and talking more with each other that the time past so quickly we hardly knew it was lunch.

When we returned from lunch we made... PIZZA! And it was the most delicious pizza I can remember eating ever! The dough was the same recipe as the bread. And we provided chicken, pulled steak, and provolone cheese (all items not used in our lunches during our time there). The women provided the sauce (which turned out to be ketchup - but different from what is typical for Americans, it was sweeter), green bell peppers, and onion. They took the meat that we brought and stewed it in Haitian spices and sauces. The first group of 3 women all made more or less the same kind of pizza which as I told you before, was superb. The second group of women added something that surprised me a little, mustard. Every two inches or so was a dab of mustard. I thought it was strange until I tasted it, so yummy!

We concluded our time with them by distributing to each woman her own started kit made up of all the baking supplies she would need to make four recipes of the dough. Additionally each kit included all the supplies like a bowl, mixing spoon, measuring cups, baking sheet, etc. for putting it all together. We were honored to hear each woman share her appreciation with us as they bared their soul. It was a very special time.

As a team we meshed together and now stand stronger than we have before. Experiences like these don't just help those you set out to bless but they permanently impact the person or people who go out of their comfort zone trying to make a difference.
My life is being changed one day at a time, one experience at a time; there is no going back.

Pan de Agua - the bread that we had planned to bake the entire time

Maggie is wearing the purple shirt and Cheryl the green. We worked together in the bread ministry. In this photo we are waiting for the dough to raise.

We just finished laying out the baguette and the cinnamon twists.

The guy on the right was our translator - Woodsie.

The PIZZA!!!

Haiti Part 2

2010-04-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Day 2~

Our second day was spent working in the tent community that we had connections with.

Some background on this community: There are about 150 families living in the community. They have an advantage that many do not; they are in a secure area with four walls and a gate. This provides them more security. In this camp is a building that had been a woman's home (her name is Francine and she is on the committee). She moved out of it even though it is safe because her husband died in it when a wall fell on him. She is only in her late 20's or early 30's. This community has its own "government" you might say. There is a commitee of five people and they make decisions and are the spokes people for the community. And I believe it is because of the committee that the community is doing so well.

The first morning we arrived we had a lot of unpacking to do. We had 7 different teams working with different ages and genders of people from kids to adults. Everyone was excited to see us and very eager to help us get everything set up. Inside of the building is where the dental team set up and worked and where my team, the bread making team, set up and worked. Outside under tarp-tents that we brought is where the kids age 4-6, 7-10, and girls 13-17 were. The boys 13-17 were out in the sun playing sports all day (with Josh), and our construction team brought and assembled 4 shower stalls.

Each team had a translator so that we could communicate. Haitian's speak two languages, Creole and French, and none of us spoke either. So with our translator's help we began! My team worked with 6 women to teach them how to bake a bread called "Pan de Agua" which is a typical Dominican bread that a Haitian friend of ours said that the Haitian's in Haiti would probably like. After we explained to the women what we were going to be doing they got really excited and couldn't wait to learn. For our morning session with them, we demonstrated how to make the bread as they watched and asked questions. After we finished preparing the dough and were waiting for it to raise (1 hour) the ladies asked if they could begin making their own, they wanted to start trying right away! Because of their eagerness we figured we could steer away from our plans and let it just happen naturally and see what happened. These women were so excited and loved doing it! They never once used their directions they had already memorized it from watching Maggie do it that one time! Because of space in the oven we had to do it in shifts, 3 women first and then the other 3 could follow 20 minutes behind them. So in the morning session 3 women got to make bread for the first time!

When we came back from lunch break we let the next 3 ladies make their bread. While we waited for the bread to rise we sat around the table just getting to know one another. I spent a little bit of time getting to know our translator, his name is Woodsie. He did a great job translating and was really fun to interact with. He is an intelligent guy with an opinion on many things.

When we returned from lunch break the second group of ladies began. When they finished - and we all sampled - they began asking what other things we were going to teach them. We were totally unprepared for their excitement and enthusiasm and so had only prepared to teach them how to make bread. Maggie did some quick thinking and came up with some other ideas of how to use the same dough to make other things. After we talked it over with the ladies and received some ideas from them, we came up with 3 other ways to use the dough.... and to find out you will have to read the "Day 3" blog!

Here are a few more short videos from our trip.

This video gives you an idea about street life. I explained in Part 1 that just about everything is sold on the street. In the beginning of video you can see two women preparing food to sell. The video then pans past what looks maybe a buisness where lotto tickets are sold. Then you can see another area where someone cooks things to sell. There is an upturned refridgerator where they probably keep the food in order to protect it from bugs.

This video shows the larget tent community that I saw. It went for what seemed like forever! These tents were really nice tents, we saw communities where the "tents" were made from sticks and sheets. Clearly these had been brought by other coutries in their aid packets. This tent community also had shower facitilies and toilets - you can see them, they are grey tall and skinny tent looking structures with the Red Cross sign on them.

Haiti - Part 1 (revised)

2010-04-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hopelessness, Desperation, Powerlessness, Starvation

Can you imagine a country where this is the reality?

Day 1~ 12 hour car ride to Port-au-Prince

What I thought would have been one of the longest days of my life turned out to be so fun! I was in the van with Lowell, Cheryl, Josh, and Chastity. (The rest of the van was full of our luggage and our supplies.) We had SO much fun joking around and teasing each other that the time passed by quickly. Our fun and games came to a sudden halt when we reached the border and had to sit in the most chaotic mess I've ever seen in my entire life. It took us about 2 hours to get through because of the disorganization. This border crossing is nothing like one could imagine without experiencing it for themselves. When you arrive to the crossing you would never know that you had actually approached it because of the heap of semi trucks lining the road as they wait to cross over. The many people walking around and selling things in the mud and heat is also a distraction to what awaits. When we finally reached what could be mistaken as a traffic jam, turns out to be a building and a few security guards deciding who to let through without trouble and who to hassle - we were hasseled... I think I actually saw money signs in their eyes when they saw us. After about 3 different stops - all within 70 yards - we were finally through! Once we were in Haiti our van was silent as we watched. Every now and then someone would comment on similiarities or differences to the D.R. but we all just watched.

We made it into the city of Port-au-Prince about an hour before dark. At one time in my life I thought 5:00pm traffic in Kirkland was bad, but this was worse! Because the city is without power, everyone tries to get home before dark. We hardly moved, just inched our way through the streets trying to find our way with the written directions we had. Luckily we brought along a Haitian lady with us who was able to guide us to our destination for the night, but not before Nate tried to do it himself... we had to turn 3 vehicles around in the middle of the street where traffic wasn't moving, and our van was hauling a trailer! INSANE!!!

Once we made it to the hospitality house we all just crashed. It was 7:30pm and it was hot! We ate dinner, took showers (BTW 23 people, 2 single-person bathrooms), a few of us sang worship music and then tried to sleep in the heat with ridiculous humidity. The entire city is without electricity so after 11pm the generator was turned off which meant no fans... we were all sleeping and sweating... gross.

Poor photo quality, I know, but it was through the car window. I really wanted to show you this one because this happened to several buildings we saw... they completely crumbled, one floor on the next.

In this community you can see houses that stood and houses that fell. Lowell was telling us a lot of the buildings that crumbled did so because of poor construction or really old constuction. On the side of the street we could see people making the "block" that is used for the walls. Lowell said that they are not using the chemicles in them that make them strong and durable.

This is the same community, just a different view

Same community, different view

There were 2 men knocking down the walls in the upper level. You can see a pile of rubble in front of the house from what had been the roof, other walls, and balcony.

This photo was taken right in front of the Presidential Palace. A huge tent community living right on the street. There is a line of Honey Buckets out in front, which is a huge advantage, many communities have no place to go to the bathroom.

Presidential Palace - Left side. You can see a UN vehicle sitting on the lawn in front of the building. There were a few UN members standing at the entrances keeping guard.

Presidential Palace - Middle

Presidential Palace - Right Side

There were people sitting all around the palace just looking at it. It's a constant reminder of their failed government. No one knows what the President is doing besides sitting in his mountain home over looking the destruction from his air conditioned, comfortable, well stocked home.

This was the legal building holding all the records of the country and its people in it. Most of the legal records were destroyed in this building when it collapsed.

Another view of the legal buiding with documents all over the road.

Tent community in the middle of the city.

Driving through the city with difficulty as we had to watch for large pieces of rubble in the road.

We rarely saw restaurants or stores, everything was just sold on the street. Here this women is preparing her little road-side restaurant.

Another tent community

Another tent community

The UN kind of left a bad taste in mouths while we were there. We never, not once, saw them doing anything but driving around in their vehicles holding their guns. I'm sure their job is be a presence to keep some kind of order, but we never saw them helping out... that was dissappointing.

The streets were lined with people all the time. Everywhere we went looked like this, packed with people.

Below are some short videos I took from the van we were driving in, they will give you a little glimpse into what we saw.

This short video offers a breif look of the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Many people are walking, headed toward the city. The paintings on the walls are advertizements for local buisnesses or brands. You can see that people have set up things to sell on the street, this is their market. We rarely saw any shops, everything is sold on the street by vendors. Once we got into the city, the streets were just packed with people, there was little room to walk on the side walks because everyone is selling their goods there.

This video is just outside the heart of the capitol. (In the capitol the traffic is too crazy that I couldn't get a good video.) There is rubble all over the sides of all the streets. As we would drive around we would have to dodge huge piles of block and rebar. 13 seconds into the video you can see a truck with people on it pull out in front of us; this truck is called a tap-tap and it is a taxi. All the taxis look like that.

You can see in the beginning the market on the side of the road... this is what it looks like everywhere in the heart of town. On the right you can see a building that came down. As we went on our tour around the capitol we would see buildings that were completely unharmed by the earthquake standing next to buildings that were completely destroyed.

More to come tomorrow... thanks for being patient!

Jarabacoa Half Marathon 2010

2010-04-19T07:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday April 18, 2010
Jarabacoa Half Marathon
Start Time: 6:30am

Being that I was the only contestant in the race and my husband was the President of the function, we started a few minutes late at 6:45am. The race began at a hotel near our house called Hotel Pinar Dorado. After Josh took a few “start of the line” pictures he said go and off I went. It was a perfect day for a race, bright but slightly overcast with white clouds which kept the morning cool. The beginning of the race was out in the country where cows and horses were waking and wandering in their fields. The middle of the race was through town where street market vendors were getting set up for the day; and then for the last few miles I was on the main street and at last, ended at the river, which I gladly sat in once I crossed the finish line.

Josh rode his moto alongside me, almost the entire time, shouting “Go Vicki!” and “you’re doing great!” among other words of encouragement. He also told me my time, estimated about how much further I had yet to run, told me how many minutes I had left to beat my time from the race in 2008, took pictures, and handed me water. Talk about an amazing guy!

Our friends, Ryan and Caroline Holloway, ran the final mile with me. They encouraged me along the way and Ryan finished out the end in a sprint with me, challenging me the whole time. I finished the race in 2 hours 7 minutes and 9 seconds. I have to check with my dad but I think this beat our November 2008 time.

After I pulled my pruny body from the river, we headed home and celebrated with Ryan & Caroline over waffles and Wizard (a card game). Then Caroline and I enjoyed some girl time over mocha frappaccinos (which I made) while the boys went off to play ping pong (a daily event) and we all met up for lunch at the Holloway’s house and watched the movie “The Blind Side.” To wrap up the evening, Josh played in a soft ball game, which I left shortly after arriving due to finding out that the game wouldn’t be starting for another 45 minutes and I didn’t want to sit alone on a hard concrete bench. So I relaxed at home with Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and have been listening to Moon River non-stop since.

My final thoughts: I have now enjoyed and conquered 3 half-marathon races and am ready for something more challenging – possibly a full is on the horizon.

Interesting Fact: I have worn that red WSU shirt in all 3 Half Marathons

Before the race began in front of the hotel sign.

About 1/2 mile into the race headed out to the cows and horses

Almost 4 miles... I still have some spunk

Running my final steps in town, headed for mile 7

Last 75 feet... that's Ryan, he volunteered to run the final stretch with me to make sure I didn't wimp out

The President & The Champ

My race shirt - Josh made it for me

Life up-to-date

2010-04-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

There's no better way to enjoy R&R than spending it on the couch with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon 1-4. Watching them blow things up in four exciting movies was how we decided to enjoy our few days off before getting back to work; well that and sleep and eat what little food we had in our house. Our vacating also consisted of battling over games like backgammon and eurorail, drinking homemade frappuccinos, exercising (believe it or not), and grocery shopping in Santiago... so that we'd actually have more to eat than pancakes and water.

Life since Snicker's passing has been fine. We have all adjusted well and are enjoying our time as the 3 Musketeers. Lucy and Josh have enjoyed sleeping together at night (I lay comfortably - at times- on my side alone, happily I might add); and our morning routine has changed in her favor, she's learning to run with us. We alternate days, so every other day she's with me and I have been taking her for 2 mile runs. We are highly considering finding another dog for safety purposes and to keep her company, especially for when the summer hits, but we're not rushing into anything.

The rain has been moving in which has made it much cooler, I must admit that its quite nice to have a break.

Tonight at staff Bible study we learned Creole in preparation for our up-coming Haiti trip. It was fun to do this as a team, we had a great time and our instructor laughed at us a lot... all in good fun of course. We're all really pumped and excited to go - 2 weeks exactly from today!

My half-marathon is on the 18th, the one Josh is putting on for me... so tomorrow is a 9 mile run day, which means I need to go to bed now. Good Night, Buenas Noches, and I can't remember what it is in Creole... uh oh

The Lord Gives and the Lord Takes Away

2010-04-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away"

This is one of the those verses that many of us hope to be able to understand or receive clarity on when someone or something is taken from us; but many of us know that "complete understanding" is a place to far off to reach. The hope we have lies in knowing that God is with us no matter what, he permits that things - good and bad - happen to us but He is also there with us to grieve, laugh, cry, smile, scream, etc.

March 30, 2010: between 4:30-9pm someone poisoned the first dog we've had as a couple leading to his death. Snickers was a Doberman who entered our lives when we first arrived in this country. He and his mother were given to us by two missionary woman who also work for SI. Diamond (Snicker's mother) died within the first month we were here, she was very old. We believed however that Snickers would still be with us for another 2-3 years.

I've been asked "why would someone do that?" I'm not entirely sure, though we have our speculations. Taking all the circumstances into consideration we believe it to be the neighbors next door who own the chicken coop. They haven't taken any precautions to keep their chickens from entering our yard, though we have taken every precaution to ensure that our dogs don't get out the yard let alone onto their property. All that to say, their chickens come wandering into our yard all the time, and Snickers - being the protector that he was - would kill the chickens... I know of 4 chickens for sure that he killed. So we think it was them, but we don't have any proof, nor are we liked too.

Please pray for wisdom, that God would give us forgiving hearts and that we would be able to work things out with whoever did it.

More Work, Less Vacation...

2010-03-25T12:27:00.001-07:00

Today's writing definitely calls for some orange - my favorite color. Yesterday I spent some time driving in the car with some "first-timers" (they had never been to the D.R., let alone a 3rd world country). It caused me to think, trying to remember what I felt when I first visited here in 2007. These two women who were in the car with me were asking all sorts of questions that I thought were really weird, but then it brought to mind - I wonder what kind of silly or weird questions I asked when I first arrived. It's amazing to think about humans adaptability... what used to be odd to me is now just the "norm".

After I dropped them off and headed back home I spent some time trying to recall "un-normal" things. Chickens running around all over the place, unreliable electricity, loud music and vehicles everywhere, crazy driving, lizards, random wandering cows and horses, I'm sure the list goes on but I'm having trouble remembering more.

Yesterday evening we received some very exciting news, all of the staff who are interested get to go on a very short mission trip to Haiti! I am so excited. There is a man in our town, Samuel, who is partnering with an organization in Haiti to help. So we are going to lend our assistance. Lowell, Cheryl, Nate, Maggie, and Samuel just got back yesterday from a "vision trip" to see what we can do to help, especially since we are only going to be working with them for 2 days. There is a tent community of 200 families that we are specifically going to work with. I can tell you briefly what I know now, and fill in more detail later. Our dentist is coming and will work on people's teeth for free for 2 days; Maggie, Cheryl and I are going to teach the woman how to bake bread, this will then give them something to eat and sell; there will be a team to play with the kids (these people literally have nothing, no toys, no balls, no clothes, no dishes, no entertainment), so for these kids it will be a huge blessing; I'm sure about the other teams yet, but will learn more tomorrow in the meeting. Besides the day activities we are going to show a movie one evening (we just have to find one in French) - we will bring a generator and sound system (there is no electricty in this tent city). I'm SOOO excited!

At Bible study last night we had a Haitian guest speaker who shared about the history and culture of Haiti so that when we go we'll have a better understanding of the people. Haitians speak Creol and many French as well, but no Spanish or English, so the speaker is going to come back and for 2 hours teach us a little about Creol. Neat, eh?

"Vacation" Day 2

2010-03-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

The title I chose may have been slightly deceiving as Josh and I are not technically on vacation. We are on a break from teams, which feels like vacation, but we still have planning and administrative tasks to do. One of the perks of being "on break" is that we can work from home. The photo below is our "home office". This is where all the great thinking takes place *wink wink*.

Tuesday was a great day. The morning we spent reading - I'm reading a new book called "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan, he is the author of another book I loved - "Crazy Love". My brother Stephen told me about them. I completely recommend both books, they're amazing.

Following a lovely and relaxing morning of reading and laundry we played games, took our car into the car wash - it's only 120 pesos ($4.00) to get the car cleaned inside and out! After lunch we went to work in "our office" where we enjoyed the gorgeous day of 86 degrees (in the shade).
The rest of the evening was great and relaxing, we watched the movie "Fools Rush In" - funny movie.

Josh is sitting in "our office" waiting for me to work, so off I go to join in!

Vacation Day One Adventures

2010-03-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

The day started off at the wonderful hour of 5am. As the alarm went off - quickly followed by the whines and jumping at the door from our dogs, Lucy and Snickers - we sleepily rolled out of bed, grabbed our shoes and keys, and walked outside to take the dogs for their regular morning walk when we realized that we lost Snickers collar the night before as we had left it on the back of the CRV and then went out. What could have been a huge crisis was quickly adverted by our quick thinking, suprisingly our minds were still working, and we found a substitute! We made one quick lap with the dogs, hurried through the shower and hopped in the car. We picked up our traveling companian, Lowell, and then began our trek down the mountain and to the capitol for their (Josh and Lowell's) 8:30am appointment with the US Embassy. Josh had a few things to do for our residency process, and Lowell needed more pages in his passport, so we decided to go for the adventure together!

We made great time getting to Santo Domingo 1 1/2 hours, but then something happened... traffic! And not just any kind of traffic, Dominican traffic... the worst kind! We thought we would be okay, that we would make it right on time because we still had one hour - who knew it would take us 1 hour 20 minutes to go 10 miles. But the fun doesn't end there - who knew that the directions from the embassy website would be incorrect! So, once we found the embassy another suprise was awaiting us, the embassy was not where we were suppose to go, we were suppose to go to the consulate (none of these buildings were clearly marked). Once the embassy people directed us to the consulate building we were so worn out just from trying to find the embassy AND parking, that we disappontingly staggered our way down the street to the consulate - really frustrated that we drove all this way and probably would not get assistance.

Once we finally made it through the first line (which is outside in like 110 degree weather) to went to the second line, Lowell remembered something... no cell phones allowed. Just as he said that, the woman who was checking my purse said I'm not allowed in with phones (as she's saying this Josh and Lowell handed me theirs and walked through to the next room - boys). They direct me back outside and tell me to come back when I have no phones. Great! All I could think was "I'm alone, in the capitol, I'm American, and I'm a woman... awesome." So after I thought over my options I decided I would walk back to the car, lock the phones inside, and try to get back in even though I have no paperwork and no passport. Once I returned to the consulate the guards decided that they "didn't remember me" (I had only spoken with them 5 minutes ago) and they made me go stand back in line in the increasing heat. After about 5 minutes a guy came to tend the lines. When he got to me and I told him what had happened (with the phones and all), he didn't believe me and thought that I was lying. At long last I was able to convince to speak with the woman who had helped me before, once she noticed me she said that I could go back in.

After I made it in, I wasn't sure I really wanted to be there, the waiting room was like something out of a movie... only worse. It was hot, the air was muggy, and there were probably 200 people waiting in uncomfortable chairs just sitting and waiting for their situation to be addressed. After I looked around a little, I remembered overhearing what the attendant had told Lowell earlier on and recalled that he and Josh probably wouldn't be waiting in this room. I found my way through the sweaty crowd to - at long last - find Lowell and Josh. The process was a little crazy, but both Josh and Lowell were tended too, even with having missed our appointment.

The experience in the consulate is something I hope never to repeat, it was insane. But one thing I really do appreciate is how friendly the Dominicans are, even the ones who work in jobs like these. I can recall every visit I have made to the DMV in the states, and each attentand was rude, appeared to be annoyed just from the sight of the people in the room, and short in their dealings with me. The attendants here, aside from the guy outside, were all friendly and patient.

And this was the start our first full vacation day... oh the adventures*

First Blog Question

2010-03-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

Can you tell us about your friends there, and what you like to do with them in your free time?

There is a saying among missionaries, "you don't get to pick your friends, your friends are chosen for you". I think this saying created because when you work so closely in ministry away from what is normal and familiar, you draw close to those around you, and in our case that is the other missionaries that we work with. If all this is true, then God has been very good to us because we absolutely love the people we work with and we have made friends with everyone, some more closely than others which, I think is to be assumed.

We have made good friends with another couple on staff here; their names are Ryan and Caroline. (Ryan is the leader and pioneer of the microfinance site and Caroline works in one of the social work sites.) We get together when we have time and play games typically. A few nights ago we got together and had a "cook out" - and for you west coast people this is what we call a BBQ. Ryan and Josh play ping-pong almost everyday... and currently Josh is the champion.

I have a cooking/baking buddy that I hang out with often, her name is Chastity and she is one of the MK's here (missionary kids). We usually bake something delicious, talk, look through cooking magazines like Bon Appetite, and watch movies. Our goal is to never make the same thing twice, an idea I got from my grandma. This new baking mission has pushed us to try many different and fun recipes.

Last - but definitely not least - is Lowell and Cheryl. Lowell is the director of the Dominican Republic branch of SI and his wife Cheryl does so many different things that it would take paragraphs to explain - she plays a huge role here. We love to go to their house and just hang out... our conversation never ends, when we leave their house we're still talking as we walk out. We all play games together and have dinner together a lot. Whether we're working or just hanging out, we're constantly joking around and having a really good time together. Because the 4 of us are all on the leadership team, our schedules and situations all mesh together. We can discuss things with them that we can't with any other person, and we usually have the same free time - or lack of free time.

We have several other people that we enjoy getting together with, but it happens less frequently and isn't as intentional as it is with Lowell & Cheryl, Ryan & Caroline and Chastity. There are a group of people that we play ultimate frisbee with. Over the fall/winter we played every Sunday, but since our schedule hasn't been consistent we haven't been able to get it going routinely since Christmas break.

New Idea

2010-03-16T05:59:00.000-07:00

Hey readers, I am so sorry for how quiet the blog has been lately, we have been slammed here... even finding down time for ourselves has been quite the puzzle lately. In the midst of such craziness a friend of mine made a fun suggestion for the blog. He thought it might be a neat idea for you as the reader to send in questions that you have for Josh or me and then we will twice a month use a blog to answer the incoming questions. Please send questions to me at: vickimath@hotmail.com.

Meanwhile, a little of what has been going on...
We have been busily working with teams; we are on our 3rd and final team of non-stop back-to-back teams. We have had the priviledge of working with college, high school, and adult teams from all of the States. This past week I got out into the communities that we are working in to visit with some of the Dominican's and I had a great time hearing about their lives and how God has been providing for them. Our construction team spent last week working on a guy's house. The house has been standing incomplete for 3 years and our team pushed the house production into the next phase which was really incredible.

I visited with a woman , Franci, and she told me that her husband died in a moto accident in December. She shared with me all about how God has been providing for her. She has been so blessed that she was even able to fix her house - now when it rains she shouldn't have rain water running through her bedroom and kitchen. Amen!

Due to the crazy schedule, I have to go for now, but I will try and get a better up-date soon.

Freezer Fan

2010-02-05T05:56:00.000-08:00

This morning I am sitting on my couch enjoying the beautiful crisp morning with the sun shining through the clouds overhead as I listen to Kutless's rendition of "It is Well", which I must add, is a definite must listen. I have just returned from leading worship at one of the Christian schools in town. I had such a good time... I ended with the "Happy Song" which for kids their age (12-14yr) is a really fun song and for most of them, it was their first time hearing it. All this comes, however, after a night of interrupted sleep. The fan in our freezer has been giving us trouble again and randomly it will start to screech, which I have to say is one of the most obnoxious noises in the world! So can you imagine being happily asleep at 1am and then suddenly waking to that? Well, that's been my life the past two nights... all that to say, the freezer fan is going in for fan surgery.

So last night (before the fan made me it's enemy) I was reading in 1 Corinthians and read 4:1 which says, "Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." I thought this was really beautiful and wanted to share it. I love how the end says - "stewards of the mysteries of God" - this leaves me in awe of God; He is so intricate, complex, and majestic, and how amazing that He would allow us to be stewards of His mysteries.
What have we been up too?
So lately our time has been occupied with work - planning, preparing, working with teams, and giving other people a hard time (like Lowell)... I'll be honest, that's my favorite part :) Other than that... at home I daily battle with Josh over a game of backgammon or speed scrabble - I'm pretty certain I'm loosing right now at both - we have a running tally. I have also been doing some baking which is always a favorite activity of mine. I recently made a Mocha Ribbon Cake which was amazing. Additionally we have been trying to get connected and more engaged in activities that are really important to us, so for Josh that is basketball and for me it is running.

Do you want to hear a super sweet story??? So I was telling Josh about a week ago that I was really sad that I was missing all the races that had been going on in Seattle and more importantly I was sad that I was missing out on running in general. The very next day following this sad-tale-of-woe, Josh presented me with registration and a map for an up-coming half-marathon in Jarabacoa (the town we live in)... he said he spent a lot of time searching but finally came across one. After reading through the "panphlet" I discovered that the President of the Jarabacoa Half-Marathon was none other than my own husband, Josh Mathews; and after discovering this it made the winner's prize more exciting - a date with the President of the Half-Marathon - Josh Mathews! He wrote out a whole "entry rules" sheet and made the map himself, which he drove to make sure it was actually 13.1 miles.

Later this month...
Lowell, Josh, and I are leaving Feb 14th to fly to Indiana where we will visit two different colleges (Bethel College and Taylor University) to promote our semester abroad program. We will work between the two schools for the week. On Saturday the 20th my grandparents are going to fly us out to see them for a few days too! I am so excited! It will be Josh's first time out to see my family in Canada, and it will be the first time in 5 years that we'll have had a chance to see my aunt, uncle, and my cousin.

Prayer Requests:
- Our dog Snickers is having some problems with his back end, the vet tried something and it isn't working, so pray that the issue doesn't require surgery and that he will not live out the remainder of his life in pain.
- We have about a solid month of teams coming and going with no break (beginning Feb 27), please pray that we will have energy and enthusiam for each team, along with good health.
- For wisdom, guidance, and discernment

Our 5th year together...

2010-01-18T05:21:00.000-08:00

Josh and I just celebrated our 5th year anniversary which I think requires a little reflection. We have been immensely blessed by God over these several years as He has prepared the way for us to be where we are now. When we first were married we had purchased a condo in Poulsbo and a new car. It was our first experience living on our own, as we each had come from our parent’s house, so we were maybe a little careless with our money therefore racked up a little credit card debt on top of our new purchases. As our lives veered in different directions one thing that remained stable was Josh’s interest in basketball. This interest brought us into relationships with two people who are responsible for us having attended Northwest University. Within 4 months of their pushing, we had sold our condo, which was totally a God thing because it sold without us having an agent, decent advertisement, or the knowledge of how to do it; and we made enough money on it to pay off all our credit card debt, our car, and the move to Kirkland. While in Kirkland, we met so many wonderful people and had good jobs. During our time at college God changed Josh’s heart in a direction for missions. It had been my desire since I was 18, but I had never really told Josh. God provided the funds for us to travel to the Dominican Republic for a 2-week missions experience the summer of 2007. The summer of 2008 we returned to participate in the 10 week internship program. During that time we had been asked to pray about a job position here. After weeks of prayer and searching out God’s direction for our lives, we applied, interviewed and were accepted. We finished our final semester at college, raised the funds, and are serving here now. We have almost been here for 1 year! I can hardly believe it. The time has flown by so fast.

Some stories…
• Today it will be two weeks that we will have been back from our trip to WA. Since that time we have seen the sun like twice, today included.
• Also in that time, someone tried to steal electricity from us by attaching their cord to ours. However it completely fried the line leaving us without power for a day and half. In that ordeal our microwave was fried too and no longer works.
• Our water heater doesn’t work anymore. Lowell came over to fix it and the first thing he did didn’t work, so he has one more option. If that doesn’t work then we have to buy a new water heater… bummer. So we have been showering at the base each morning. We tried showering in the cold for two days and it was so horrible… especially because it’s been so cold and damp with all the rain.
• Lucy caught a little baby chick in her mouth on Friday. When I saw it I bolted out of the house and started chasing her all over the yard screaming at her to drop it. After about 60 seconds of this she dropped it and the little chick was able to hide behind some rocks so Lucy couldn’t get to it. Then it took Josh holding the dogs, and me like 5 minutes to actually catch the thing myself. After I caught my first chick (or chicken for that matter) I released it into its yard. Hopefully it won’t come back again.

People have been asking how the earthquake has affected us and if we are going to go to Haiti. The answer is that it has not directly affected us yet, although we know it will begin to soon. There is going to be many Haitians trying (many have already) to get into the D.R. There is not enough infrastructure here to sustain proper Dominican living let alone all the thousands if not millions that will try to come across from Haiti. Additionally, the cost of gas, water, and food along the border has shot through the roof as Haitians come across to buy it here to then go and sell it over there. We are far enough away that we should not be affected directly by this however. As for us going there… we will not be going. It is unsafe to go without an organization that is set up and prepared for mass distribution of food and water. And we don’t have the tools to help dig people out of fallen buildings. So we will be here to encourage and help the Haitian families here who lost loved ones or who still have yet to hear from their family.

Verse to remember:
Romans 1:16a – I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes

Feliz Ano Nuevo - Happy New Year!

2010-01-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

I feel so blessed to have great friends and family, some of whom we got to see over our short stay in Washington over the holidays. We had a lovely Christmas holiday but are so glad to be back in the warm Caribbean. After our trip in August, the adjustment back here was very difficult for me which created some hesitation and anxiety for ever leaving again… especially so soon. But God is so good and during our time in the States, I felt so confirmed of our being in the Dominican Republic which made returning wonderful. We both felt ready for our return, and can say with 100% certainty that this is our home.

Since returning, the hardest thing has been re-adjusting to the time change – 4 hours ahead. We would lay in bed at 2 or 3am just staring at the ceiling asking each other if we felt tired yet. We’re almost back to normal. One of our biggest joys since returning is being with our dogs. We missed them so much and love to be with them. They are our daily entertainment.

Our first spring team just kicked off yesterday afternoon. Today we spent a few hours taking them through orientation and this evening after church we had fun teaching them a few cultural things like dancing, playing a typical cup game, and sampling coconut milk (which I personally have an aversion too). Tomorrow we kick off working in the communities at our ministry sites. I am very excited because I get to help out with translating in one them… go me!

Two prayer requests: since being back Josh’s moto hasn’t been running very well and our water heater isn’t working either! Please pray that the fix will be cheap and quick!

Happy New year!

Slaughtered Pig Anyone? story by Vicki

2009-12-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I went over to a friend's house, her name is Yajaira, because she wanted to give me a pedicure... I know, I know, life is rough sometimes. So we're sitting out on her patio talking, and the next thing I know I hear a pig squealing really loud... and then not squealing... (I know you're wondering what happened right?) About 30 minutes go by and I had completely forgotten about the pig. Then I saw Yajaira's husband, Daniel, throwing a rope over the branch of a tree and then hoisting up what had been the squealing pig. It was HUGE! Daniel looked ever so proud as did the many helpers that he had, children and adults alike. They all stood back and looked at the pig in awe. After they cleaned the outside and inside of the body with water they all headed back to where they had been hiding. About 5 minutes after they left the dangling hog, I heard another squeal... this time I knew... bye-bye pig! Another 30 minutes went by and there, slung over the same branch next to the other hog, was pig number 2. Bad day for pigs! As I learned yesterday, eating pig for Christmas is very traditional here in the D.R.

Shortly after asking Yajaira how many pigs there would be for the feast (held at our church) one of the boys that had been helping Daniel, walked over with a fairly large bucket. He set it down right next to me... and low-and-behold, contained inside this bucket were all the innards from the 2 pigs. Amaody was very happy to show me that he knew what everything was. After the display of pig guts, he took the bucket into the kitchen and left it there. Curiously I asked Yajaira if she would be cooking the bucket full of "goodies". She looked at me and laughed... then responded, no, that she would only be boiling them, (as if that is common knowledge). I must admit, I am grateful to have missed the skinning of pigs.

Up-date on us:
The semester students flew out on Thursday morning and since then we have been on vacation. It feels so weird to have nothing planned that we have to do. We fly back for Christmas holiday on Monday 21st. and stay until Jan. 3rd.

We are getting very excited for another year. We have successfully made it through our first year of work and now have experienced all the aspects that our jobs demands. Now having experienced it all, we feel very prepared, excited, and ready for another full year.

Prayer Requests:
For wisdom as we approach a new year
Health - I am sick right now and therefore dreading the flights back to WA
That our love for God would continue to grow and that our knowledge of Him expand
For patience

Josh and I cannot thank you all enough for your continued support and partnership. We would not be here if it wasn't for you. Thank you for helping in God's plan of making a difference in the lives of people both American and Dominican. You are growing the numbers in the Kingdom of God.

Merry Christmas!

A Visit to the Border... - By Josh

2009-12-02T05:57:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we took the students on a weekend excursion to a town called Dajabon. It is right on the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We went to mainly check out the big market that they have every Friday and Monday. My understanding of what happens is that items get donated to Haiti and then the Haitians bring it over to the DR side and sell the items at a low cost. It was a lot of fun to see but it felt so chaotic and crazy for us Americans who are not used to it.

We almost crossed over into Haiti but the guards wanted some money from us in order to enter. A river is what separates the two countries and so we did get to stand on the bridge and see into Haiti. It was very different then the DR side. It appeared more desert like and looked like a garbage dump in some places.

Some other interesting things we saw were people buying big blocks of ice and carting them back over into Haiti on their wheelbarrow. We saw one lady carrying a bunch of paper or styrofoam type products on her head. I have no idea how heavy it was but it was stacked at least 10 feet high. We saw guys pushing 500 lbs of rice in their wheelbarrow. It was 10 bags of rice that weighed 50lbs each and they would load it all in their little wheelbarrow.

(This huge load is on a woman's head!)

(above picture are the ice blocks)

All in all it was a very good experience and we were able to learn what life can be be like for Haitians.

A Tribute to my Parents - by Vicki

2009-11-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

Before Josh and I embarked on this amazing journey we went to Colorado as many of you might remember. We had a 3-week intensive training for missions where much of the content from the classes was self-discovery. That discovery however was mainly concentrated in conflict and stress awareness and management. Since our time here, a whole new type of discovery has been taking place... complete self-discovery. I've been learning so much about me, my family, and my home culture.

What has been catching my attention mostly these past few weeks has been my parents. I have been learning and understanding what amazing, outstanding, and wonderful parents I have. While I have always believed my parents to be great and loving, this new level of realization has taken place through a better understanding of myself. As I learn more about me (which has been a lot this past 10 months); and as others recognize things about me, it has been coming more and more clear that this stems from the great upbringing I had. Just yesterday Dave, the president of SI, said to me, "you must have a great dad." So often I forget how lucky I am and was growing up. So I really want to say - Thanks mom and dad!

To all you parents who are reading this, please let this be an encouragement to never cease loving your children with everything you have. It will make all the difference in the world when they grow up and live in the world without you there 24/7 and also when they are confronted with tough situations - they will want to make you proud.

I want you to know that I have been praying for you. You help Josh and I out so much by your faithfulness to us through prayer and finances, please know that we pray for you and thank God for you.

Thought for the day - by Vicki

2009-11-17T04:31:00.000-08:00

ARE YOU READY???

I am reading through the book "Crazy Love" again, which I totally recommend to anyone who hasn't read it yet, and there was a short section of the book (literally one page) and it was titled, Are you ready? The question is directed at death; are you ready for death? The story in there is very touching but aside from that it made me wonder if I am truly ready to stand before the God of this universe... the creator of me. Have I lived for Him in a way that he would be proud of? Have I really done my best in this life? When I stand before God will He be proud of me?

My challenge is that you would think about your life and where you are at... are you proud with how you've been/or not been living for God? Are you ready to stand before God as He either welcomes you home or says to you that he never knew you and sends you away?

Matthew 10:32-33 says: "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before me Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before me, I will also disown before my Father in heaven."

Today I am going to be praying for all of you, that as you read this God will speak to you, direct you, convict you, and /or challenge you.

Learning to be a Good Samaritan - by Josh

2009-11-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

This is Josh and I know it has been a while since I have written anything but I will try to do better. As I was trying to think of something to share I just remembered a conversation I had with a guy tonight during dinner about the friendliness of Dominicans.

Currently, we are having a men's outreach and so he is apart of that. Today was his first day working in the community and something had happened to where he had ripped a hole in his pants. A lady from the community saw the hole and told him to come to her house and she would fix his pants. And so she patched up the hole during their lunch hour. (This may not sound like a big deal but this was not where you would want a hole in your pants for the rest of the day).

I was just thinking about it and trying to learn something from his experience and I can remember how in my time here there have been many times where a complete stranger has helped me out of a difficult situation. For example, I have had a lot of flat tires on my moto and some have been a long way outside of town and would have been a long walk, but before I had even walked 1/4 mile someone (or many people) were calling me over to their house to try and patch up my bike.

One thing I am learning from the Dominican culture is how to be a Good Samaritan. When I see someone in need of help that I should try to help them to the best of my ability.

Very overdue blog

2009-11-11T05:53:00.000-08:00

A hope of mine is that the people around me get to know "the real me." I feel that I am a transparent person, (hopefully I don't overdue it), and even though I am away, I desire that you would still feel like you know me. So, I am going to share briefly the highlights and downers of late.

Highlights:

Josh and I have been learning and growing a lot in our relationship together. We have a whole new appreciation and understanding of each other since being here and working together - it's been really great.
I have had a chance to bake and cook a lot! Which I love to do.
We have become great friends with many of the other missionaries on SI staff and have some good friends outside of SI, and in the communities where we work as well.
We've been blessed by all of our financial supports, everyone has been so awesome in remembering us here.
We absolutely love our two dogs - Snickers (doberman) and Lucy (mutt) - and they provide a lot of entertainment
We really enjoy our "job" here. We love that it changes from season to season and that we get to implement our own ideas and talents into it.
I love that every morning I get to watch the sunrise and daily see the beauty of this place... it's another daily reminder of how gorgeous God is.
Our residency process is finally started!

Downers:

I've been really tired lately, not just in the morning but throughout the entire day
Josh and I have been experiencing spiritual warfare - which is a mixed feeling really. When we go through warfare it's really hard and exhausting but a blessing at the same time to know that we are fighting for God's kingdom.
By now we had hoped to be further along in Spanish... we have learned quite a bit which is good, but it's still frustrating to not be where we thought we'd be.

Prayer Requests:

Language learning
That God would continue to show us how best to invest in the semester student's lives
For energy
For strength to fight in the spiritual battle
For God to fill us each day with an abundance of joy and love so that we can give that to those around us

Final thought: I have been thinking a lot of past missionaries... in Biblical times and recent history, and have been learning/remembering how God used not people who were perfect, but people who were willing. I have been learning about how "un-perfect" I am. And sometimes I am so certain that I am messing up God's plan. The great encouragement to me has been remembering that I don't change peoples hearts, but God does... all He askes of me is that I am available to Him.

On that note, I am going to go... but I wanted to let you know that Josh's and my new goal is EACH try blogging once a week... so if you check back in soon, Josh should have one posted too.

Thank you all for your love and support, both in prayer and in finances. We love and appreciate you all so much.

How does one take care of the homeless?

2009-10-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

How does one describe the pain of injustice to another when they have not seen the faces or shared in the stories of the ones who daily live under the night sky and rely on kind strangers to provide their daily food?

During my short stay here in Santo Domingo I have had the privilege of meeting a homeless woman named Esperanza (which means hope). She is the sweetest lady I have met and so sincere. She is an old woman who lost her home in the hurricane that passed through Santo Domingo 10 years ago. Every morning she crawls out from under a cardboard box and takes her post at a little nook on the main drag in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo. Daily she is passed by hundreds of strangers consisting of tourists and locals alike. Not many people take an interest in her, as she sits in old clothing with a washed out leopard print scarf wrapped around her head.
Should one sit down and share a conversation with her, they would learn that she has the joy of the Lord in her heart and that she loves to laugh. She is expressive and shares her whole self with you. She will protect you from those whom she knows to be bad, and tell you that you are her daughter/son. She loves to hold the hands of those that she loves.

I have had the honor of holding her hand and hearing her story. I have heard her call me her daughter and watch her threaten bad men off with her stick. I have seen her eyes light up when we bring her boxes of food that she can eat and share with her friends on the street. I have heard her pray a blessing over us. I have watched her brighten with uncertainty as she clings to the promise that we will return to visit her the next day. I have watched her head and eyes turn from side to side as she is constantly aware of what is going on around her. I have watched her eyes sink and heart melt when she learned that me and the others girls did not live locally and would be leaving shortly. I have heard her say, “Please leave me something to remember you by, I never want to forget the names of the people who the Lord brought to provide for me”.

Now I ask you, what is my role… what is your role? It is written in the Bible that we are to take care of the widow, the orphan, and the homeless. What do I do? What does God ask of me? How do I continue to help Esperanza? Or do I? Will God lead another to help her? Will he lead me to someone in my town that is homeless? If he does, how do I help them?

My heart has been aching been for Esperanza since I met her. I feel uneasy… materialistic… selfish… unworthy… wanting… ungrateful… deserving (when in reality I don’t deserve anything)… rich… sad…

Lord teach me your ways, guide me in your plans, let me not get distracted from what you want of me.

birthday video

2009-09-30T04:01:00.001-07:00

To all of you at North Kitsap Baptist Church who helped to make my birthday video, I want to thank you so much. It was very neat to see that after two days of very tiring and intensive Spanish classes. It meant a lot to us.

See you at Christmas!

Sometimes I miss home...

2009-09-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I really hate looking at facebook; it makes me so sad to see all the moments from people's lives that I am missing... all the traditional trips with friends and family that I am no longer a part of. But my comfort lies in the truth of why I am here and how much I love the D.R. and the people. God is so faithful to provide things that are so dear to our hearts. So I guess what I am trying to say is that I miss you all SO much!

Alright... I am going to take a 180 degree turn now and share about our weekend. On Friday night we all went out to a pizza place after language class and had yummy American food to give the students a break from Dominican food. It was also someones birthday so we surprised her with a cake afterward. Then Saturday we took them all down to Santiago where we did activities that were school related like visiting a museum and The Monument (pictured below). Following these sites we took them to a store called La Sirena; it's equivalent would be something like a Target. We don't have anything like this in our small town, so it was chance to get needed items that are off/on available to us up in Jarabacoa. This small tour took nearly all day... we left just after 9am and didn't get back until 5:30pm.

Now I sit and ponder... do I procrastinate? Work on Spanish homework? Or come up with my Bible study for the ladies? My deadline for homework and Bible study prep is tomorrow... so I should probably get working on that, eh?

This photo was taken at the top of The Monument

Our 15 college students from Bethel College in Indiana

The middle flag is the Dominican Republic flag

The Monument

Before I do that I have a final thought to leave you with... "Don't scare a man carrying a machete from behind". I did that accidentally yesterday on my run and that machete went flying. If my heart wasn't beating fast before that it was after that!

Prayer requests:

Ability to pick up language quickly and correctly

Energy for all the things we have going on right now

Patience with both our language teacher and the students

Wisdom in Bible study preparation

Thank you everyone for you love and support!

Did you miss me in this long absense?

2009-09-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

Life is passing by and my blog page has gone untouched for like a month now… sorry!

Our brief visit to the states was good – here is the breakdown: when we landed in Seattle we were both sick, we were freezing most of the time, Melody and Adam were married on Sat 22th - which Melody and the wedding were beautiful, we got to visit our family and see a few friends, overall it was really great.

Since we have been back – the adjustment, to be perfectly honest was really hard. When we first walked into our home my first thought was… “This is our home? It doesn’t feel like home.” After we started unpacking our things and getting everything back in order, the feeling of “hominess” began to reappear. But it took a few days for totally recooperation to happen. Once it did, I felt right at home. And now, to be transparent with you, I am dreading going back for Christmas because I hated the feeling when we returned. I’m just praying that it doesn’t happen again… that it was just that first time.

On September 6th the semester team arrived and since then we have been busy. The first 2 days were orientation days and then they moved into their host family’s homes. That same day we all began Spanish class. It is 3 hours a day, Monday thru Friday. My mind is so tired... between language learning, working, keeping up things at our house, aka: Snickers and Lucy, and SI requirements… I am exhausted. Last night I went to bed at 9:15… which is REALLY early for me... that's how tired I was!

Language learning has been an interesting beginning… the first 3 days of classes the lady that heads up the program couldn’t be there because her daughter had an emergency in Miami and she had n .,to be there. So Josh, myself and Lowell knew, but somehow she failed to mention this to the other teachers. So the other ladies show up and asked us where Aurelis was. We told them that she wouldn’t be there until Monday and they freaked out. Not only did they not know this, Aurelis had not given them our curriculum or any direction. The first 3 days were horrible – and that’s being nice. However since Aurelis has been here, the class has picked up significantly… she is an amazing teacher and she knows Spanish inside and out (not to mention backwards and forwards)!

Story of interest…
When Josh and I moved into this house in April, the landlord had gone and paid all the bills for the house so everything was up-to-date. Since we have lived here, our phone bill has come, but we had never received an electric bill. So we figured since 3 ½ months had gone by (and still had electricity thankfully) we should go down and try and figure out what was going on. So we get to the electric bill pay store and ask about it. We told them about everything and the lady looked it up in her computer and said that everything was fine. We asked her to print us a bill of whatever needed to be paid up to that day and when she handed it to us it read 15 pesos –which is like 50 cents. So we paid it and went on our way. Well just a few days ago we received our first bill at our house and when we looked at our balance to be paid it read 30 pesos! A dollar! Can you believe it? So we asked Lowell and Cheryl about it and they said that whoever lived in this house before us may have paid off someone at the electric place and now our bill is NOTHING! So we’ll see how long this lasts… they said that once they figure out that Americans live in our house, they’ll put us in the highest paying bracket, so I guess we had better enjoy this while it lasts.

Well, I’m off to relax! So in the words of Aurelis - Chao Chao

Me... a blogger? I don't think so!

2009-08-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

I've decided that "updating" my friends and family via blogspot is not "my cup of tea" as Russell and Cindy might say :) I have a hard time taking my life and experiences and putting it to words on this page; however I am determined to be decent at this one day... so here I am, continuing to try this "blogging" thing, and probably to no success, but onward I go.

These past few days have been crazy, therefore leaving me incredibly tired and grasping at any pillow I find... even if for only 10 minutes. Since I dropped our car off on Monday to the mechanic, we have been relying on our trustee moto to get us around. Which is usually fine, until it rains... like it did all night the other night. When we arrived home, Josh was completely soaked from neck to toe (he wears a helmet) and my legs and arms were unmistakably drenched. The other issue I am faced with, is in the morning. I can either be ready to leave by 6:25am with Josh on the moto, or I can run to the base. Usually this question is a no brainer... I would run to the base (as I have been the past few weeks), however, as sleepiness seems to have taken over my body, running has not been my first choice. So this morning I crawled onto the back of the moto and came to base where I found comfort on a little cot in one of the back rooms. I slept very happily there until I heard a rooster, pig, goat, and cow making obnoxious noises at me... as I searched around the room, my eyes stopped at my cell phone... it was my phone alarm going off. Why am I so cruel to myself! Why would I ever set my own personal alarm to such ruckus first thing in the morning!? I think it goes without saying that I will be changing that tonight.

I think I got a little side-tracked there... back to my crazy days. Besides the usual meetings, planning, and prep we have each day, we are down to just one base vehicle right now which happens to be a manual (Josh hasn't learned how to drive a manual yet) which means I get the privilege of driving everyone around who needs transportation during the day. Usually this task isn't one of inconvenience... until now... of course :) So I have been driving around a lot lately in a truck that doesn't have AC and has leather seats. No one should ever have a vehicle with leather seats when the weather is usually scalding hot and humid. So showering more than once a day has become a necessity.

Other bits of craziness... as you may know, I am participating in the semester abroad program that we host here. So not only are Josh and I working very hard to plan and prepare for the program, but I am still working on getting myself registered for the program! It starts in like a month and I'm not quite in yet... ahhh!!!!

A very weird experience was taking our summer interns through the debriefing process who leave Saturday. It was strange realizing (again... it happens from time to time) that we aren't going home... for good anyway. We will go home for Mel's wedding but then we'll be right back here 2 weeks later. Strange feeling

A routine part of our day... especially in this blissful heat, is ice cream. The soft-serve place is our afternoon hang out. This is our happy place. Another happy place is watching Lucy... she is so entertaining! The stunts she pulls... no wonder she had a broken leg when we first got her!

Despite her general energetic mood and love for attacking Snickers she took about 3 minutes to sit peacefully with me. To mark this unusual event, we took a picture. She is getting so big, and therefore more mischievous, but all the more fun.

Little random notes:
~ we just watched the 2nd James Bond with the blond guy... Daniel Craig (I think)... I think it's called Quantum Solace... anyway... I was totally disappointed! What a bummer sequel to the Casino one which I thought was great!
~ Mairyn leaves in 15 days for the states, so it will be back to just Raul and us 2
~ notice how in the above picture I'm not tan... it's because I'm not, I don't tan. So when I come home, don't ask me why I'm not tan (*wink*)

Lots of love from Josh and I to all you who read this blog... thanks for your support!

Summer Recap

2009-08-03T06:43:00.001-07:00

The summer is almost finished! We are so happy with how this summer turned out and glad that we can say we have made it through one summer... YEAH! We are older and wiser now... or something like that :) We have a long list of what to change, add, or keep and are excited to implement that into the spring program.

My summer recap:

saw several teens make the decision that Jesus was going to be their God - AMEN!
adopted Lucy
saw my first serious accident... still praying for you Pat
witnessed about 150 teens and adults alike take the "servant challenge" (servant challenge= tying a rag around one's wrist committing to seeking out ways to serve others even when it's not convenient, pleasant, normal, or comfortable)
was in my first car accident (3 days ago... don't worry, I'm okay and it wasn't my fault)
learned a lot about myself, Josh, and our working styles

I wish I could say that I did something really crazy or ate something disgusting... but really I just leave that up to my dogs :) Lucy eats nasty bugs all the time.

All in all, this has been a great experience, and I know that so much more lies ahead of us. We are so excited for what the future holds.

What's next for us?

After this group leaves Saturday all the staff have the week off for rest. Then on Friday we all go to the beach for a staff retreat... it is mandatory that we have fun :) On Monday 17th we fly home to WA for Melody's wedding!!! We will leave August 28th and return to finish final preparations for the semester team that arrives September 6th. They will be with us until Dec. 17th. We follow shortly after, returning for Christmas break on Dec. 21.

Highlight of my day?

Watching Lucy jump from the second stair and fly through the air right into Snickers head... it was hysterical!

Excursion Improvised

2009-07-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was excursion day for our teams. We send them out white water rafting or hiking to a waterfall. However for this outreach we have a man in a wheel chair, which makes these activities a little more difficult. Josh and I had been brainstorming some fun ideas and thought of taking Brian and his wife Barbi to Jamaca De Dios. The pictures will help to describe the beauty of the place. It's the top of a mountain that overlooks our valley... our town, Jarabacoa. The top of this place happens to be the top of a very expensive and new housing development, which means not just anyone is welcome to this view. We made reservations at the restaurant up there, which gave us passage to the top.

We spent a little time at the very top and then went down a little to the restaurant - which sits right on the side of the mountain... so we received an amazing view from there as well. The chef at the restaurant is a retired chef from the states, and actually cooked/baked at some of the nations finest restaurants including (I can't remember the name) the bakery/pastry shop at the top of the World Trade Tower. He is a really neat guy and treated us very well.

Josh and I with Brian and Barbi. They are from Bakersfield, CA. They brought a team from the their church. So while their team was out hiking through the forest to a waterfall, we enjoyed amazing food, company, and a gorgeous view! I ordered the prime rib with mashed potatoes. It was amazing!!!

This was Josh's desert, chocolate mousse... it was fabulous!

This was my desert... chocolate ravioli (the name on the menu sounds more amazing than what I wrote... but who cares... it was SO good!!!)

We had an amazing time... and the food made me feel like I was in the states for brief moment. It was a great time and if you ever come to visit us we will take you to this restaurant!

What I miss...

2009-07-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

So Josh and I were calculating yesterday and realized that we have been here for just over 5 months now. It's gone by so fast in some respects... and others, it's gone by so slow. Since our trip back home for Melody's wedding is drawing nearer, I can't help but think of the things that I am most excited to taste and see.

Taste:
Guacamole (and lots of it)
Mexican food
Maple boy (from Sluys bakery in Poulsbo)
Kettle Chips - black pepper flavor
Milk
Cheese - Tillamock cheddar, medium and sharp :)
Raspberries
Dreyers Ice Cream - cookies & cream, choco-chip cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, etc...

See
Family - especially Melody and Adam's wedding
Friends
NKBC - our supporting church and family
Seattle
Beautiful Poulsbo - it's gorgeous this time of year!

So a note for those of you I am going to get the chance to see and visit with... most likely I will require that part of our "together time" include one of the mentioned "tastes"; I don't have very long before I go another long period of absence with said items :)

Much needed joy

2009-07-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Quick update... on Friday Pat had been safely transferred to a Miami hospital where he was waiting for an MRI and another CAT scan. He was very comfortable and much more happy with the familiarity of American doctors, and pain medication :) I am hoping to post a web site soon where anyone who would like to keep up-to-date with Pat can log into to view his own posts :) When it's available to me, I'll post it here.

What's up with Josh and I?

This past week was very crazy with running teams and driving back and forth to the hospital to see Pat. We were so happy that we could be there for Pat, we wouldn't trade that for anything. Through the exhaustion God showed me glimmers of joy and happiness that glowed with his love; for example - on Friday morning Josh and I drove out to one of our pre-schools and picked up 11 little kids between the ages of 3-5. We piled them into the van and drove them into town for a special ice cream treat. As they got into the van I could hear precious giggles and jokes being shared by the kids. As we drove down the mountain to the ice cream store, the kids would shout "adios" at everyone we passed... literally everyone. After they exclaimed their farewells laughter would fill the van again - beautiful, pure, innocent excitement. It was so precious... and brought me so much joy... truly this was the bright spot of my whole week.

(This photo is of the class we took to get ice cream, and their teacher, Johanna)

He also taught me where I really find my strength... definitely not in me. Sometimes we were getting back as late as mid-night from the hospital and waking up at 6am to get ready for the day. With this happening day after day, I was wearing out for sure. One morning I just didn't know how I was going to make it through the day. Josh and I were 3 days behind in our paperwork/admin stuff. That morning Josh said he would go to the hospital and I stayed behind to catch up. I knew for sure I would fall asleep on my desk... but God not only gave me the energy to make it through (without a nap), I was so happy, bubbly, and full of life! Honestly, I was shocked! I know God can do anything that we ask of Him, but I didn't expect to be blessed even more than what I had prayed for... AMEN!

Yesterday we said good-bye to our 4th outreach groups and arrived at home by lunch. We rolled our t.v. into our room, brought in our lunch, and watched movies almost all day. It was just what we needed... rest and escape from thinking. Today we are wrapping up work from this last team and preparing for the next team.

For those of you interested in challenging yourselves... read these lyrics - World Apart - by Jars of Clay... if you really do pray them, I know that God will begin to challenge you.

I am the only one to blame for this
Somehow it all ends up the same
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
With a world I try so hard to leave behind
To rid myself of all but love
to give and die

To turn away and not become
Another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves
more deeply than the oceans,
more abundant than the tears
Of a world embracing every heartache

Can I be the one to sacrifice
Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow

To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees

All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me

Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart

I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and cleanse my pride
take the selfish, take the weak,
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
the sin-soaked heart and make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now, take it now
and serve the ones that I despise
speak the words I can't deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and thrown away
I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
so wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
so steal my heart and take the pain
take the selfish, take the weak
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
take my world apart

Amen

Update on Pat Lynn

2009-07-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family, and others who are following Pat's condition...
Sorry I haven't been updating here... it's just been so crazy with leading teams, taking care of Lourdes and Pat's team, and driving back and forth to the hospital, I haven't even had time to sleep.

After two very long days of Brian (Pat's friend who flew in on Tuesday night) making calls and arrangements, we believe that Pat will be flying out of here (hopefully) some time this morning. They will first send him to a Miami hospital that has an MRI machine ready for Pat. He has not yet received an MRI because the equipment here is not appropriate for him. Once he receives an MRI and they can tell what the extent of the damage is (or hopefully NO damage!) they can better assess what hospital to send him too from there. Ideally his friends and family would like him in Seattle, but depending on his condition he may stay in FL. for a while.

As of yesterday evening Pat...
~ is still immobilized on an air mattress like hospital bed
~ has complete feeling in his body
~ he can move his legs up/down/and around, but cannot wiggle his toes
~ he can flex his biceps and butt
~ he can move his left arm from side to side, but he cannot lift it off the bed
~ he can speak normally, but he's been having a little trouble with breathing and therefore cannot finish a sentence in one breath
~ he still has his sense of humor... but he's ready to go home

Please pray that he will have a speedy recovery, that the insurance will cover all of the expenses, that he will be taken to Seattle soon, for his family but more importantly his Mom who hasn't yet been able to be with him, for the doctors and nurses who are treating him here and the ones who will see him in Miami.

I truly believe in the power of prayer and believe that God will answer specific prayers. Please be praying specifically for the prayers above... I know that God can answer them and will according to His perfect plan. God has done miraculous things in Pat's body already and I believe He will continue to do so, but please partner with me in praying for him.

Pat is a tremendous guy, I feel so honored to have met him and so blessed to have been given this opportunity to be by his side during this time. Thank you everyone for your prayers and I will let you know when he is in a plane bound for Florida.

Blessings

Accident...

2009-07-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick blog to update you on Josh and my past 24+ hours.
Yesterday morning a student (girl) began having seizures and tremors (not uncommon for her) but we had a lot of prep to do before we could send her down to the hospital with our doctor, Fernando. Shortly after Josh and I finally arrived home from that incident, we received a call notifying us that one of the leaders from a team here, and someone we know, Pat Lynn (Justin Lynn's older brother) dove into a river and hit his head on a rock, causing a serious head injury. We rushed to the hospital in Jarabacoa where he was being stabilized. They had stitched up his head and had him firmly secured to a gurney with a neck brace. Once we learned which hospital he was going to be transferred too, we got a few people together and sent them after the ambulance.

Josh and I had to stay behind but were receiving updates as soon as our people in the hospital could provide us with some. We were so thankful that Fernando was at the same hospital that Pat was being sent to, so he was able to assist in the process. Things looked very grim when we saw him off at the first hospital. Once we returned to the base, we assembled everyone, relayed the info that we knew and began praying. His mom had already been notified by Josh and she was calling people she knew to pray as well.

As the day progressed, little pieces of info would come in... but nothing concrete that could really tell us of his situation.

This morning I went to the hospital with Nate and the other leader from his team to visit and PRAISE GOD, he was able to move his legs, flex his biceps, and he speech has improved greatly from yesterday. He is in ICU so we can only visit for 5 minutes only 3x per day. I go back in 4 hours and will have more info then... but PLEASE PLEASE be praying for Pat. He is very strong and pushing through, but he is in a lot of pain. We are unsure of his spinal situation, they told him it looks okay, just very swollen... but please please pray for healing.

...a bit of randomness...

2009-07-03T07:05:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned recently how much I love the Caribbean?! Are you jealous now? Well, everything is going just fine here. We returned from the beach on Monday afternoon and had about 15 minutes to breathe before the first group arrived. Our time at the beach was very relaxing, and we got some much needed rest. I left with only a few little sun burned places on me where my swim suit had rubbed off the sun screen. I did however get one comment on looking tan... but my tan looks like most people's natural skin color. And of course when I stand next to Josh people wonder if I ever go out in the sun.

While we were at the beach we learned that there was a girl who attended the outreach and not only had she come to accept the Lord as her personal Saviour, but she was also baptized by her site leader! PRAISE GOD!!! It's so amazing to watch all these students and adults alike come here thinking that they are going to influence and bless the locals when in fact, most of them leave even more impacted or changed.

Josh and I are feeling quite settled into our roles and now we're starting to dream! We are coming up with new ideas for how this program can be run... what is a definite keeper, what needs to be changed, and what just needs a little more sparkle? We are really excited about tweaking the normal and making a program that looks a little different from the past few years.

Prayer Requests:
As we develop new ideas for the program that they will be from God
Wisdom
Energy
Patience

The Happenings

2009-06-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

Our third team is coming quickly to a close and we are getting excited for our weekend beach excursion with our summer interns. Summer has kicked in with a bang of heat and shortage of loud wet storms these past few days.

Lucy Update…
The vet removed her cast on Tuesdays (about 5 days earlier than he originally told us) which was good because the cast had been rubbing on her leg and developing some really nasty sores. At times however I think it may have been a little early because she is such a high energy puppy who isn’t the smartest at times and has pulled some silly stunts which have resulted in hurting her leg a little. The bone is completely healed, praise God, but her leg seems to still be a bit tender.

Besides Lucy…
This past week I personally felt a little worn out, partly because of Lucy, and partly because we’re halfway through the summer. The task of befriending a new group of people every two weeks is wearing. I knew to expect it because it’s what we did last summer, however, it’s one thing to know it and another to experience it… again.

The group we are wrapping up has been largely a group of high schoolers and I always find that high schoolers change the dynamic greatly. They ask a completely different set of questions, many times I find that they “know it all” (which I find hysterical), and they love to hear themselves talk, which is great because I only have to ask one question and they carry the conversation for the rest of time.

Tomorrow we leave for a weekend at the beach with our summer interns. We are very excited. We went to this same resort last summer and LOVED it. It’s an all inclusive hotel with a private beach. We can’t wait for the rest, relaxation and total pampering that we will get there. We are going to Puerta Plata and staying at the Lifestyles Hacienda resort for 2 days and 2 nights. YEAH!!!

Prayer Request:
Josh and I have been praying, and ask your aid in this prayer as well, that we would have guidance in whether or not to ask Raul and Mairyn to move once their baby comes. Mairyn just went to the doctor a few days ago and found that she is 15 ½ weeks along with a baby boy. She is due to deliver in mid-December. She however will go back to the states in late August where she will wait to have the baby, and then return in January sometime.

We want to follow God’s direction in this process… so please be praying for wisdom. Raul has a long way to go on his house before it is finished. So unless we ask them to move, they could be with us the lifetime of our lease… 2 years.

(The photo below is of Josh with the interns on a weekend excursion he did with them 2 weeks ago)

God speaks

2009-06-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

I have desired to share this with you all but haven’t had the time to put onto paper… so here it is now. (Better late than never, right?)

We received Lucy on Monday morning, only to find she had a limp in her front left leg. Tuesday morning we took her to into the vet to find out she had a broken leg… like, the bone was completely broken in half. He took her for the morning and put her bones back in place and put on a cast which we were told had to stay on for 20-25 days. We brought her back to the base with us and she was just whimpering and crying all afternoon… she was in such agony and completely frustrated that she couldn’t walk… she kept falling over. I was so frustrated and overwhelmed that this could potentially be what the next 3 weeks would look like. We had to help support her to walk, eat, drink, and get situated to sleep.

That night I was leading the “Foot-washing” activity that we have here (based off of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet in John 13:1-17). The night is an evening of praise and worship through singing, followed by a significant time of prayer (with music playing in the background) and then each person gets together with a partner and they wash each other’s feet. It is an amazing night. So leading up to this event I was a mess, I was so frustrated over Lucy’s situation, and felt so unprepared, and fake… my heart was not into singing praises to God when I was so sad over Lucy. I also didn’t want to leave her, I felt like I needed to be there for her.

During the prayer time I just cried out to God. I said to him that I wished we would have just put her down from the beginning, and how I still wanted to do it because it would be easier. I felt like I was going to be looking after a handicapped child for 3 weeks and didn’t think that I could, or wanted, to do it. I said to God that it hurt me so bad to see her in so much pain, and it made me want to cry every time I had to help her walk around because she would just cry the whole time.

After sharing my frustrations and pain with God I waited in silence for him. He told me a little while later, “Vicki, there are so many times when you are just like Lucy; pathetic, hurting, in pain, and in need of constant help, but I never think of “putting you down”. And though it hurts me to watch you walk through the painful situations and see you struggle and cry, I know that when you come out on the other side, you are going to be so much stronger, better, and you are going to know me better.”

I was in awe. To hear God so clearly, and have him use Lucy’s situation as the example to show me what I am sometimes… or most of the time… it was so powerful. God has been teaching me so much, but it is a completely different experience when God speaks to me. It was an amazing night. And not only that, the time that I had spent doing the activity with the team, Josh had been watching Lucy, and she began walking on her own! It was such a great night. After Josh told me that about Lucy, I felt like God has given me a little gift… a little something to say, “Don’t worry, you’re going to make it! I love you!”

God is amazing... and I just wanted to encourage you all through this... God knows what He's doing even though we can't see it the majority of the time.

Lucy's Cast

2009-06-11T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here she is!!! Our precious little hopping puppy!

Lucy

2009-06-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

Lucy is our latest concern and takes up A LOT of time... particularly at night :)
When we received Lucy, she had been found by a friend who discovered her on the side of the road. We adopted her not knowing she had a really bad limp in her front left leg. We took her to the vet and he examined it looking to see if it was just out of place. Lucy had a lot pain when he was "feeling around" her leg, so he suggested we get an x-ray. The x-ray showed that her leg, closer up toward her shoulder, was completely broken in half. She he took her and performed "minor" surgery on her. He knew she couldn't survive a surgery where they opened her up and inserted a pin into her leg, so he knocked her out and put the bones into place by feeling around. He then wrapped her leg up in a cast, which also wraps around her chest for support. Yesterday she was in a lot of pain, and didn't know how to walk with the heaviness of the cast... she just kept falling over. However today she is much better. She is walking around and learning how to get comfortable when she sits and lays down. The cast prevents her front leg from bending, so it is extended all the time, which really presents a disadvantage when she wants to sit or curl into a cute little ball.

The vet has been really helpful and didn't even charge us for our visit today. He said that he wanted to help people, "us", who are helping a puppy who should be dead now.

It's been a whole new kind of culture shock as we went about this business trying to help this little puppy. We had to help take the x-ray, which was taken at a "human" clinic; then we had to drive the x-ray back to the vet who examined it and then said, "okay, I'll take her now and fix her up". I have to say I wasn't prepared to leave her... it was really strange, I didn't even really know Lucy yet. We had only had her for 24 hours! We went back at 2pm and picked her up. Josh and I were discussing how fast and different the process was here and how something like this would take forever to get done in the States (mostly to liability issues we think). Anyway, it was a shocking experience.

A huge blessing is that she really prefers to go potty outside. So she'll whimper when she needs to go, or we'll notice her heading to the corner which means potty time! The only downside to this is that at night, she cries when she needs to go, which means I have to get up, get her, and take her out. This might not sound like a big deal, but when I'm exhausted, getting her and having to unlock a million locks to get out, it's a big deal! But I know in a month or so when she can hold it through the night, I will be SO grateful.

I have a picture of Lucy in her cast, but I forgot to bring my camera, so I'll post it tomorrow.
Good Night!

Addition to our family

2009-06-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hello fans! Sorry we have had such a huge gap between our last post and now. Having summer teams has really occupied our time. Everything is going very well. We are halfway through our 2nd team of the summer and we have been enjoying every minute of what we do.

I had a revelation the other day (a couple weeks ago) when I was talking with my mom. She was asking me some questions about what we do and if it was what we expected or not. As I was talking (and processing out loud) I realized that we are basically doing youth and college ministry abroad. I was an interesting revelation because when I was 16 years old I told my dad that I wanted to be a youth pastor. I had been enjoying everything that I had been doing with Rick and the youth group that I was certain being a youth pastor was my calling. That desire slowly faded away and new ideas filled my head. But during that time I had been learning so much about what youth ministry was about. Now, here we are, doing ministry with Dominican natives and Americans; bringing them together for the kingdom of God. It's amazing how God works!

Last night Arlene, one of the staff here, found a box on the side of the road with 3 puppies in it. She brought them to the base to show Josh because he had expressed interest in taking one. One look at them sealed the deal for Josh. So now we are the proud parents of two dogs. Both are very different in size, shape, color, and hair type. Snickers, also known as "Snicky", "Sneaky", and "Bubba", is very big, short haired, and brown. Lucy, our new addition, is teeny-tiny, black, has a little longer hair, but it's still a little too early to tell what she will look like for sure. We don't think she is even 2 months old yet. So we are learning how to take care of a prematurely separated puppy. She is so sweet. Snickers doesn't really know what to think about her yet. He ignores her for the most part and doesn't really like to be too close to her. But we're hoping in a few months that they will be BEST friends!

Another new beginning

2009-05-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Today we welcomed our first summer team. So here forth begins 12 weeks of non-stop teams and team activities. Josh and I are very excited... as this has been what we were brought here for. Unfortunately today I woke up at about 2am to find that I am sick. Bhooo! So today I stayed home almost all day and just laid in bed, and eventually moved to the couch. During this time a very thing happened :) A thunder storm loomed about for about an hour or so today and Snickers is terrified of thunder. So as I was laying in bed he came over and put his head right next to me and I pet him to try and calm him while the storm persisted. But it kept getting louder and louder and suddenly there was a huge KA-BOOM! With that huge ka-boom, Snickers jumped right on the bed with me! NEVER before has he ever been allowed on the bed because he is so big! So when he jumped on there, he dropped on all fours and gave me this look like, "is this okay? what are you going to do?" I pondered for a moment what I wanted to do about this situation and decided that for the present this was okay. However, when I decided that it was time for him to return to his own bed on the floor, he flat out refused to get off. It was actually quite humorous... but I have learned my lesson that if he's allowed on once, he thinks it's his territory now.

This weekend we have been busy with our new summer interns who arrived here on Thursday. We did orientation type activities with them Friday and Saturday and a little on Sunday. They are a great group with lots of energy. They were a huge help to Josh today in my absence.

Other news...

We have been loving our new lives here. Each day gets easier as we get more involved in our hobbies, work, and making new friends. I had been telling Josh about 2-3 weeks ago that for about a week straight I thought about Poulsbo constantly: the downtown area, the cafes, the water front, family, games, etc. I was beginning to really feel home sick and long for the things that we can't get here. A great idea happened upon me one day as I was working, and that was that I needed to get into my hobbies more. So I told Josh that I really wanted to get into cooking, piano playing, and exercising regularly. He happily agreed that that was a good idea, so we took a trip down to Santiago to do a little grocery shopping where I found many needed and hard to get items. Since then I have hosted 3 parties (and made food and or desert for all of them), played the piano nearly everyday (I brought the base's keyboard home), and I have exercised very consistently. It's amazing how just doing those few things have really made me feel at home here.

There are still many days when I wake up and look outside, and say to God, "I can't believe you called us here". We are so happy with our co-workers, with our jobs, with how our lives are adapting, that it still shocks me when I think this is where I call home now.

Prayer requests:

for energy for the summer
for wisdom
for guidance
for flexibility
for health - more immediately, that I would get better. If I still have Diarrhea tomorrow then I have to go to the doctor so they can find out what I have and treat it. But if I have something, then that means it could still be a few days until I am better.
Raul's wife moves back to the D.R. on Wednesday and moves in with us on Thursday. Please pray that this living arrangement will continue to be a blessing to all 4 of us, and that as little kinks come up that we will be able to handle everything with peace and grace.

Praises:

That in my absence today, Josh and the interns were able to get all of the last minute prep done and still get to their own tasks
Our safety
that we are working with a great team who loves God
that one of our summer volunteers was able to fix a broken button on my laptop!!! Praise God because otherwise I would have had to mail it into dell and paid probably a lot of money
that (for the most part) we have been very healthy
Lastly - for all of the continued prays and financial support from all of you! Thank you all for being so faithful!

Finished Kitchen

2009-05-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

I posted pictures some time ago of the new house we moved into. The kitchen was very unimpressive but the land lord said she would fix it up with no cost to us!!! So here are the before and after pictures.

Before...

After...

We are so happy with the new kitchen... it is so beautiful!

More of life

2009-05-07T09:19:00.001-07:00

İHola familia y amigos! (Hello family and friends!)

I type to you today from my laptop which happens to be crawling with teeny-tiny ants and spiders. I guess they thought it was a great place to lay eggs… and now call their home as thousands (I’m not even exaggerating) have recently hatched. It’s quite gross really and I’m using it now because I think I killed about a couple thousand of them… finally. So as I sit here and type, every minute or so I grab the napkin sitting next to me and squish a few more ants or spiders that spastically crawl about.

So far in our time here “routine” has not been a word we could use to describe our lives. Developing a schedule is pointless as we rarely ever accomplish even half of what we were expecting to get finished. If someone planned to live here my word of advice would be “flexibility”. If you can’t be flexible you would never survive. We thought we were flexible until we moved here, only to find we still have a lot to learn. The culture is so laid back. The Dominican number one priority are relationships. When I drop off a vehicle at the mechanics, I don’t just explain the problem, hand the guy the keys and walk off. I sit down, chat for about 30-45minutes (usually this time is me getting a language lesson).

Another change for us is that we must always have cash on hand. We never know what the day-to-day is going to bring and we must have cash. Debit card, credit card… yeah right! No one has the machine to run cards.

Last Thursday Josh and I needed some groceries and needed to pay rent but someone was at the house working on it. So I offered to go so Josh could stay home with the worker. It was the first time it really struck me that one-stop-shopping is not available to us up here in Jarabacoa. So, I first had to go to one supermarket which didn’t have what I needed. So I walked around the corner to the other supermarket where I did find my needed items. Then I walked the few blocks to go to the fruit market. From there I made my final stop at the meat market to buy the meat I needed for the next few days. Another reality I have learned (thanks to disgusting smells) is that food does not last long here… even in the fridge. So frequent shopping has also become a regular part of our lives.

We just wrapped up several weeks of Spanish lessons, and now have to rely on our own determination and motivation to continue learning. We do really enjoy the language and like learning about it however, so that is a great start. We just recently purchased a bi-lingual Bible, and a children’s Bible… which had been suggested as a great way to learn Spanish. I have been reading it, and really enjoying it to!

Okay, well off to work again… this is just the beginning of several more longish blogs to come!

Quick update

2009-04-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

We are so sorry that it has been a while since our last blog posting. We have been so busy!

On April 17th we did an outreach for the "bomberos" (firemen) here. In the Dominican Republic, firemen are not respected. The whole idea came about because one day Nate was talking with a fireman who said he wished he could move to the United States to be a fireman, because he knew that there firemen get respect and are appreciated; where here, no one respects them or appreciates them. So Nate thought it would be a great idea to have a evening for the bomberos. We put on a beautiful dinner for them (at our base), and then showed them the movie "Fireproof" (if you haven't seen it yet, you should, it was really good). After the movie Raul gave a little message and then he handed them certificates of appreciate. Raul is in the military (not on active duty) and he wore his uniform for the evening which made it more special for the firemen. The evening was really fun and a great way to show the firemen that we care about them and respect them.

From April 21-23 we went on a staff retreat that was geared toward spiritual growth and edification. The guest speaker was amazing. He lives in the US and has for the last 10 years (I think), but he is originally from Colombia. He has the gift of prophecy and prophesied over many people, Josh and I included. It was an amazing experience. We have never seen people prophesied over let alone had it done over us. It was incredible.

The following day, April 24, my grandparents came to Samana (on the eastern side of the D.R.) by cruise boat. We drove over there to meet them and spent the day with them. It was so fun and we got to see a beautiful waterfall called "Salto El Limon". Here is a picture.

Yesterday we worked all day on our house. I painted for awhile... the inside is nearly finished! And Josh worked a lot on the outside of the house. And when Raul got home from work he helped chop down a lot of branches that were threatening our power lines. Once he did that Josh and Raul chopped up the branches. I worked in our 3 flower beds and cleaned them up a bit.

Today we are working at the base, getting some more planning done, and checking our e-mails and typing some much needed blogging!

So I suppose I should get back to work, but hopefully this will satisfy you blogger hungry readers for a short time until I can write some more.

We made the move

2009-04-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

Josh mentioned in his last note that our final spring team is gone. We are now in a transition stage from one season to another. The spring and summer schedules are quite different from each other, the summer is more routine, but longer and more tiring. We are excited for our break to rest and prepare.

So you may know that Josh and I have moved. It is interesting what we have noticed in this new house as a comparison to our old house... here are a few observations.
~ We don't have to lean against the wall in the shower to catch the few drops that leak from the shower head, we have full water pressure now!
~ There aren't swarms of bugs flying around at all hours of the day and night
~ There isn't dirt, leaves, dead bugs/lizards, other misc items falling from the ceiling panels
~ Once I sweep the floor, it stays clean for the day instead of 30 minutes... maybe
~ When we turn the lights on, they light up the room
~ When someone flushes the toilet or turns the faucet on while someone is in the shower, the water continues to flow into the shower while accommodating the other action that has taken place

We are grateful that we had the experience in the other house because we are now thankful for these things in our new house.

Other noteworthy items:
For my devotional times in the morning I have been reading from the book of Ezekiel. I am not very far along yet, but it has been an interesting read. Reading about Ezekiel's obedience to God when God instructs him to lay in the fetal position for 390 days in public! CRAZY! I really don't think I would have said "yes" to God if He asked me to do that.

Easter was an interesting experience here. It's not celebrated at all like we celebrate it in the States. Good Friday is a big deal here. Large groups of people gather together and walk long distances while carrying life sized crosses. While they do this, they are reading through the events in the Bible up to Jesus' Crucifixion. When they walk they sing, pray, or recite phrases. It's quite interesting to see. Saturday then is a day of fiestas and parties. Family and friends get together and BBQ and have games. Almost every business in town is closed for the whole weekend. There are town festivities too like races for people, bikers, and horses. On Easter Sunday, our big day in the States, nothing special happens. No more events, no more celebrating, in fact, in church, most pastors do not even talk about Jesus' crucifixion or resurrection. It is so interesting to me how all cultures have their own unique and different way of recognizing (or not) different events.

My final note.... some of you may know that Josh and I had been praying for a way to use our house for some kind of ministry. We asked others for advice and prayer and received all kinds of suggestions and words of wisdom. One day Josh came home and said to me, I think we should ask Raul, the guy who runs the sport ministry site, if he would be interested in living with us. Raul has begun to build a home up here in Jarabacoa, but right now he commutes on his moto from another town further down the mountain, and it takes him about 40 minutes to get here. We thought if we could offer him a place to stay, free of rent, he would maybe be able to save up the money from no rent and less gas to finish his home by the end of the summer.

We prayed about this idea and asked for some advice from others here, and it was received very warmly as a great idea. We prayed about it some more and felt like God was leading us to ask Raul if he would be interested. It just so happened that he was very interested and was planning on moving to another apartment the same day we were moving in. So he moved in the same day we did. He helped a lot with lifting heavy furniture items, and cleaning up the yard which needed a lot of help. He is so grateful and doesn't take anything for granted. He offers to pay for his own food or to pay me for cooking for him. He takes Snickers on walks, and offers to help us with our Spanish, as we help him with his English. So far (all 2 days) everything is working out very well. We are really excited about this opportunity to help him in this way.

Raul is lately married and his wife just found out that she is pregnant. The down side to this story is that she made a commitment to her parents that she would finish studying in the states. So, on Friday she flew back to New Jersey to finish studying. Raul says it is likely he wont see her until after she has the baby, which will be born in the states.

During this time of change, transition, and new a house mate, Josh and I would like to add this to our growing list of prayer requests. We don't foresee any problems, but I'm sure some will arise as our "home-sharing" days continue. Please pray that God's hand will be upon this partnership and that the three of us will only grow more in our knowledge and understanding of God and in our language.

God Bless You and thank you for being a part of our lives!

Preparation for Summer

2009-04-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

We have a month before our next outreach which then follows 12 weeks of back-to-back outreaches. You may ask what we do now? Well, for the next couple of days we are hopefully going to be doing nothing and trying to take it easy and get rejuvenated. When teams are here we pour a lot of energy into the outreach, so now we need the rest. But after a few days of restoration we have to start planning for the summer. Summer is our busiest season and we need to get everything planned out so when people start arriving we are ready for them.

This "in-between-time" is where we prepare for the next year. We get a whole new schedule planned with the Bible studies, praise and worship, evening activities we want to do, and where we are going to take people to church. Now is the time that we have to do a lot of coordinating with staff and with the different communities we hope to be working in. Additionally we are taking Spanish lessons just about everyday M-F from 2-4pm. To really practice what we are learning we hope to spend time in the community (Josh at Sports, Vicki at Social Work) to practice our Spanish as well. So, our next month is going to be busy, but well worth the effort we put into our Spanish and preparing for the summer outreaches.

This is off topic...but I wanted to encourage those who read this that we appreciate any comments that you would like to make. I know some of you do already and we appreciate hearing from you! For those that don't and are not sure how, just click on the comments link at the bottom of the current posting and then you just type a message and put in your name and then submit the comment. We are always checking for new comments and will always read them! Again we thank you all for reading our blog and supporting us in this way by being interested in what we are doing.

Another team gone...and God teaching me a lesson about who He is!

2009-04-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

The last spring team left yesterday. During this outreach we saw a lot of spiritual growth in the team. There were 38 participants from a church in California and most of them were in high school. They arrived last Saturday and the leaders mentioned to us that a goal was to get their students to sing during worship time. From Monday night until they left, they were up every night, at least until 11pm, doing praise and worship, and many of the students sang. With every outreach we schedule the teams to go to bed at 10pm because they have to wake up early to get the day started at 6:50am. This group however never wanted to go to bed and they just wanted to be outside singing. One night they were even singing in the rain!

There were many students that re-committed there lives to Christ and there was even one student who came to know Jesus. One of the leaders was talking with Vicki and said that usually on mission trips the last night of the outreach is when they students really seem to connect with God. That's when they open up to the group and share their hearts. However this happened on the second day of the team arriving! It was truly amazing and very cool to hear.

This last outreach taught me a very valuable lesson about who God is. Let me explain...as you know it is Easter today and here in the DR the week before Easter is called Holy Week (Semana Santa) and things are completely different. In the D.R., Semana Santa is a vacation time. Schools are closed, some businesses close and most people take the week off. Because of the Holy Week traditions, we knew that our ministry sites would not look the same primarily because many people take the week for vacation. For example, at the Special Education site and Developmental Therapy site there were only 8 kids and usually there are at least 30 kids.

The reason that this church team was here was because they were supposed to go to Mexico but the trip got canceled because of the events happening there. So, 3 weeks ago we were asked if we could host them. We said we could but we were not sure how things were going to go.

This is where God started working because as Vicki and I made the schedule I was thinking to myself that the outreach is too short, I mean they are only going to have 4 work days at their ministry sites. And with their ministry sites having less people to work with I did not think they would be impacted and I felt that the students might have a negative experience. But was I ever wrong. I was completely limiting God and His awesome power. God was teaching me and re-emphasizing to me that it is not I that changes people but God. I really learned that Vicki and I are just here to help create the best atmosphere we can for people to encounter Christ and serve others but that God is what changes people, God is who saves people; Vicki and I are servants trying to do our best to serve God and His purposes. Sometimes we do well at our service, other times we learn through our failures and we continue to serve God.

Sample notes

2009-04-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

¡Hola amigos! Este es Vicki. (Translation: Hello friends! This is Vicki)

So I find that my typical blogging style is to note current events in our lives and cultural observations. I believe this style of blogging comes with the nature of my studies in college and my natural curiosity… which I believe comes from my dad. This blog however is going to veer from its normal course and take on a different form.

Since our arrival here in this gorgeous country, I see God differently. I account for this change in that our surroundings have changed… people, scenery, occupation, relationships, daily living, etc. We live in a country where “religion” is the center. Whether people really believe in God or not, Catholicism intertwined in this country and its inhabitants. People greet others by saying, “Dios le bendiga” = “God bless you”. Being surrounded by a people group who use God in their everyday speech and live a life with less material things than we are used too, is another reason for this change. I see God’s beauty, love and mystery more clearly here than I think I have before. I am learning to sense his promptings and hear his voice. Life here is at a different pace, which has opened more time and desire in me to search God out and find him.

A common question that Christians and non-Christians alike ask is, “If God is a loving and compassionate God, why does he allow people to live in conditions such as these?” The best answer I have come up with is that our idea of love and compassion is so polluted from God’s idea of love. God never said in the Bible that his way of showing love was giving us material things. Because we as Americans are blessed with much, we see that as God’s way of showing love, and that those with less are clearly suffering and being treated cruely by God. (Sorry if I offend you here) That way of thinking could not be any more wrong. The people here are blessed in a completely different way, and are richer if you ask me. Riches in the form of “things” easily deceive and distract. Richness in faith is what you will find here. This is a richness that is hard to find in the U.S. The wealth of faith and reliance on God found among the people here is amazing (to say the least). It puts me to shame… but pushes me in my own relationship with God.

Do you remember that saying in the Bible, (paraphrased here) “it is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven”? Now that we are living here and experiencing more of this culture, I can see this phrase in its fullness. In the U.S. people rely on themselves for everything because they have the means to do so. It’s so easy to push God aside and just say, “I can do it”. People here long for a creator God, someone who will take care of them amidst the hardships and trials. They are looking for a God who will love them in the good times and when they fail. When Dominicans pray “The Lord’s Prayer” – “give us this day, our daily bread”, they are really praying this prayer. When you do not have the resources to provide your every meal, that prayer really comes to mean something. In America we have been blessed with opportunities to provide not just our meals for the day, but to have cupboards, drawers, and pantry’s full of food. It’s not common to have a fridge or shelves in the kitchens here because the food they do have gets cooked and eaten when they have some.

I am not writing these thoughts to make anyone feel guilty, because that is not my intentions, nor does God ask those with abundance to feel guilty. I am writing these thoughts so you can read how I am growing and learning in this amazing culture.

Through these and many other deep-thoughts, I am learning more about God and love. I am praying differently, my world view is changing, and my love for life, people, and God have changed in a great way. This short blog is merely a sample of the wonders God is teaching me.

The Results Are In...

2009-04-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Maybe you are wondering what happened today with the house and negotiations??? Well... we got the house!!! And the "house keeper", at no expense to us, is going to completely clean out and sanitize the water cistern, replace the kitchen with new cabinets and cupboards, and pay for all new paint to repaint the house (we are going to be the painters). And he is going to move that huge, ugly antenna that is sitting in the front yard on the left of the house. YEAH!

We are SOOOO excited!!! We wont be able to move in until this next team has come and gone, but we are hoping to have the house ready to moved into by Saturday (which means all the cleaning and painting has to be done inside). Then, once this team heads back home on April 11, we can move in!

The yard needs some work, and the outside needs a good paint job, but we figured that could be worked on once we're in the place.

Anyhow... we just wanted to deliver that GREAT news.

Prayer Requests:
1. this next team is here during an important time for the Dominican people - semana Santa - "Holy week". It is a time where many people don't work, or only work through Wednesday. Many staff members are having a hard time with the fact that they have to work through Thursday, so attitudes are not at their best. Please pray that God will adjust attitudes and make this a POWERFUL time for this team. This group has never been here before and they are very excited. However they are coming at a time when the city is a very different place than it usually is - please pray also for safety, culture sensitivity, and God's hand to move.

Pictures of hopeful new house

2009-03-30T19:00:00.001-07:00

This is the house that we have been looking at. We meet with the attorney on Wednesday to discuss contracts, etc. We are praying hard, that if this is the house for us that all the details will work out. It's perfect for us and Snickers... the yard is fully fenced and perfect for him to run around in. It's in a great area and within walking distance from Nate and Maggie's house and next door to other missionaries from YWAM (Youth With A Mission).

Please pray that God's will be done!

The house is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom, it's quite a bit larger than our current home... but only $90 more in rent. The roof is fully enclosed so we wont deal with bug and lizard problem we have been in our current home. This new house also has a well, so we will always have water which is really great. The fireplace in the new home is actually functional unlike the one in our current home... it's just for decoration. Additionally the pump is working well at the new house, where at our current home it is leaking. Another huge perk for us is that the front gate is easy to open. The one at our current house is SO hard to open and close... it's just so old and rusty. Another great thing is that most of the windows are "real" open/close windows; which means in the winter months, we may stay just a little warmer than in this house. When we first arrived it was SO cold here. So, all that to say, this other house is a huge blessing!

Here are some more photos!

After you first walk through the front door this is the view... the living room and dinning room. The opening on the right leads to a bathroom and two bedrooms.

This is the other angle... there is the "working" fireplace. The door on the left goes into the master bedroom. and beyond that (all the way to the back), that opening goes into the kitchen.

Here is the view of the entrance to a bathroom and the two bedrooms (one on either side of the bathroom). On the left is a closet. The connections for an inverter (small generator) are inside there.

This is one bedroom... the view is from the door.

The closet

This is the bathroom... not necessarily the colors I would have chosen :)
But everything is in working order... which is the most important!

This is the master bedroom. Off to the right is the entrance to the closet and around the corner from that is the bathroom.

Here is the closet

This is the bathroom in the master bedroom

This is the kitchen. Unfortunately this is a typical Dominican kitchen... it's not my favorite, but hopefully after a little work, it will be ready for fun meals and treats :)

This is the view from inside the house to the outside... it's a little hard to see because I didn't open the gate all the way... oh well... you get the point :)

This is the view from the front porch. Nice big front yard for our great big dog! He will love it. There is not a back yard at all, but there is very small porch on the back... we probably wont sit back there because it's not very pretty... in fact, it looks straight into the backyard of our neighbors.

So this is it... I hope you enjoyed the virtual tour!

Thoughts from Josh...

2009-03-27T09:18:00.000-07:00

I have had some interesting transportation issues happen to me the last couple days. While I was riding my moto up to a work site I noticed that my front brake was not working all of a sudden. Not the most comforting thing to notice when I am going down hills. I was not sure what happened at the time and I figured as long as the back break works I will be fine, so I continued on. As I got closer I saw a lady that I got to know from working last year and offered to give her a ride on my moto to her house. After dropping her off and about to leave she noticed that my front brake had fallen off and was barely hanging there by the cords it was attached to. In typical Dominican fashion she got someone, a boy that maybe was 15 to fix my bike for me. I was very thankful for that because I had no clue how to fix it.

Today, I was driving three students that work in our Health Care site to the clinic to get some supplies and then to transport them to their work site. During the car ride one of the girls was asking me about traffic laws and other things related. I basically told her that there is not a whole lot of rules like in the states but that they do have rules but they are rarely enforced.

Well, on the way to the work site (I prolly should not be sharing this because some of you might think less of me but anyway...) I decided to take a little short cut and go down a one way street...one of the students mentioned this fact and I told her very confidently that "the rules are more of guidelines." As I turned and got back on the right road there was some police officers who promptly waved me over to the side. We said our hello's to each other and then he started talking about something and I just gave him a blank stare, told him I don't speak Spanish and did not understand and he let us go right away.

Anyway, things are going well with the teams that we are working with. Our 3rd outreach is almost over and we have now worked with about 130 students or adults since we have been here. It has been very cool for Vicki and I to see the impact that the ministry at Students International has on the people that come on short term trips. At the end of every outreach, they turn in evaluation sheets and we really get to see how God has been working in everyone's life.

2009-03-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize that when I am writing blogs, I don't really have any specific order, just many random comments... so here are more thoughts from Vicki.

Today I went running for the first time since I have been here. I was passing by probably 20-25 kids who were on their way to school and about 15 of them started running with me, ahead of me, trying to push me along (I wonder if they thought I was going to slow?). It was such an amazing moment.

Today Josh and I had our first Spanish tutoring session. We think that we are really going to enjoy our tutor. She is really neat. I think she is younger than us and she speaks (that we know of) English, Spanish, and French. She is Colombian, and she teaches at Dulos, a Christian school here that, I believe, speaks both Spanish and English. We are hoping that by May 15 we will have had over 60 hours of tutoring. We really want to be at a place where we can do everything we need to do in Spanish by the time summer teams arrive. We are SO excited.

Prayer Requests:

Language learning - that we will really benefit from the Spanish lessons
Home hunt - before we get locked into the home we are in currently, we are going to look around a little to see what else is available - we need God's guidance and direction in this decision
Wisdom, guidance, direction, and leading from God as we begin to prepare a schedule for next year (May - April). We are really excited for freedom and flexibility but we want a solid schedule that teams will benefit from the most
Health - so far we have remained healthy and we would really like to continue

We love and miss you all, thank you for your support through prayer, e-mails, skype calls, and finances. YOU ARE THE BEST TEAM WE COULD HOPE FOR!

Other Details I Failed to Mention

2009-03-18T06:21:00.000-07:00

The Day
I write to you today from a very rainy and dark Dominican day... which just so happens to be our day off... and we were planning to go for a hike. Oh well... I get to writes blogs and catch up on e-mails! We have this week off, Mon-Fri, and then we receive another team on Saturday. We have been enjoying our time off, we went to the beach on Sunday; on Monday we went into Santiago to do some shopping for needed supplies that we cannot get up here; yesterday we took it easy and just enjoyed the beautiful day that we had, then had friends over for dinner; and today it's raining, so another forced day of rest and relaxation.

Prayer
During our time here, I have been learning the power of prayer and how it prepares me for the whole day. Every morning (when we have teams) we set them up for their devotional time from 7-7:30am every morning. I have been using that time specifically to pray over the day. Talk about a transformation in me and my attitude, and how God blesses that time by giving me grace and patience. Amen!

Hablas espanol???

Josh and I have been learning Spanish, but at a much slower rate than we would like to be. So we are going to hire a Spanish tutor really soon, we are just working out details. It's very inexpensive, 150 pesos for an hour - which is about $4.50. We are hoping to begin at 3-days a week, an hour a day and then when we have no teams (April -12 - May 7) we are hoping to do 4-days a week, 2 hours a day. We are so excited to begin.

Friends, fun, food

Last night we had some friends over for dinner, dessert (chocolate eclairs), and games and Josh got a picture of me cooking with my faithful companion... Snickers... also known as Bubba (that's what we call him the majority of the time because he is so thick and big!)

Cindy... if you look close enough, you'll notice that the apron I'm wearing is the one you and Cole gave me for my birthday!

Moto
Josh finally got a picture of his moto...

Thanks for reading!

"A Few Random Thoughts" by Vicki

2009-03-18T05:51:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking yesterday about life in the D.R. and how there are things that we have to be aware of here that I have never thought about before... basic things that have to do with daily living. Additionally there are just some random thoughts... here they are :)

We have to remember to turn the well pump on at least once a week for several hours if we don't want to run out of water in our house. This has happened once already... (no showers for us that morning)
When the electricity gets turned off, we have to remember to turn everything off, especially if we plan on leaving before it has turned back on. This happened the other day, and we had to leave. When we got home 6 hours later everything was on... which is bad for the power bill :)
Currently our hot water heater only provides about a 3 minute warm-to-hot shower... shower fast!
Before we eat any fruits or vegetables, they all have to be soaked/washed in iodine for 7 minutes.
If I don't want a cockroach invasion, I have to make "special" cockroach food/poison. This gets placed by all their entry points into the house and in all the cupboards and drawers.
The sun is slightly showing itself about 6:30am and it is completely dark by 7:30pm - this is fairly consistent year round.

Well, that's all I can think of for now... more to come later I'm sure!

How We Spend Our Day

2009-03-12T12:54:00.000-07:00

Hola amigos! So I have been thinking that you must be wondering what Josh and I do? What does our schedule look like? Here it is!

6:00am – wake up, get ready
6:30am – leave for Base
6:40am – set up chapel for morning activities
6:50am – facilitate morning scripture reading – we are going through the book of Colossians with the teams – Josh usually leads this. Following the reading everyone gets 30 minutes to do their quiet time alone with God.
7:30am – facilitate morning worship and devotional – we don’t lead either unless someone forgets to show up. We make sure everything runs smoothly and I (Vicki) get the sound system up and running. I have led worship one time because the staff that was scheduled was sick
8:15am – eat breakfast
8:45am – get the teams onto their trucks and sent off to their work sites – Josh usually does this
9:00am – 4:00pm – this is our time to plan, get things accomplished for upcoming events and future teams. Additionally this is our time to relax and take care of personal things, like fixing our car (we just got that back) or paying bills which is done quite differently here, you have to go to the store to pay for your bills. To pay rent we have to go to the landlord’s house.
4:00pm – be available to team leaders and participants
6:00pm – dinner (we eat on base with the teams)
7:00pm – lead evening activity – we do not lead every evening activity, so some evenings we get to go home after dinner
9:00pm – end evening activity, go home

This is what our schedule “typically” looks like. On our evenings off we will usually play games with friends or go home and watch a movie. I really enjoy baking and so have been doing a little of that. Many people have not had Crème Brûlée here, so I made that for everyone – it was well received. Next I plan on making chocolate éclairs because no one has had those either! I have to wait to go to the city to get the ingredients however… I have been learning that up here on the mountain, we don’t have many necessities (or what I would consider a necessity)… such as baking soda! So I have to wait to go and get crucial ingredients.

We also enjoy spending time with Snickers – he is really sweet. We like to spoil him when we are home because we are gone so much. He is a great guard dog so he deserves it. We take him on walks sometimes, however Dominicans are terrified of dogs, so when we go walking down the narrow streets with him, people get really scared, I don’t like to do that to people. We also enjoy just sitting on our porch just talking and hanging out.

So there you have it! That’s our schedule right now. In the summer it will look slightly different and have more routine. Right now there is a little craziness… but we have been enjoying it.

We want to thank everyone for their love, support, and prayers… we wouldn’t be where we are without all of those things. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

A word from.... Vicki

2009-03-08T13:32:00.001-07:00

I am so happy to finally have some time to write... it has been so crazy around here that writing on the blog is the last thing on my mind. (This is Vicki by the way)

So a funny story... since we have been here I kept saying, "we don't need a mosquito net, we'll be fine, eventually I'll stop reacting so badly to bites and it will be no big deal". WELL! Let me tell you... we have one now, and it was not a bug bite that won me over... here is the story. So last week I was laying in bed and my eyes were closed when I felt a "tap" on my stomach. I asked Josh, "yes?" He answered, "yes, what?" I said, you tapped me, what would you like? He said, I didn't tap you. So I opened my eyes and looked at my stomach to find lizard poop! GROSS!!! A lizard must have been in our rafters and pooped right down on me! I know, I know, totally disgusting. That night I slept with the blanket over my head and the next day I put up a mosquito net.

So besides that fun story :) We are doing outstanding. God has been faithful to fill us with energy and excitement. Yesterday we had a great day of rest and relaxation, and today we welcome another team. We are excited for this team, as it will be the first time we will lead EVERYTHING on our own.

We have been training Snickers (our dog) to be an inside/outside dog and it has been going very well to my surprise. He is finally getting used to the bed I bought for him and now when he comes in the house, he almost always goes straight for his bed and stays there without me having to tell him. It's been working really well and he is enjoying it more and more. I can even shut the front door now without him getting anxious... in fact, he doesn't even care! YEAH!
We still think we are going to find him a buddy, but probably not until the end of the March.

Anyway... I think that's it for now... not to much new information to share.

God is good, all the time!

First team almost done

2009-03-05T05:59:00.001-08:00

It is Thursday and this team will be leaving Saturday morning. The next team arrives on Sunday. The next group we will be working is mostly college students so it should be a little different experience. It has been enjoyable working with the high school students but we are excited for the oppurtunity to work with college students.

I think we have progressed pretty quickly with our training. The first couple of days of the outreach we did a little more observing but this last week we have been doing most of the leading. This next outreach will be all ours to handle from start to finish, so we are really excited for that oppurtunity. We are starting to feel comfortable doing what we are doing and have been getting more organized.

One struggle we have had is our language is not perfect so that has made it more difficult at times to communicate what we are trying to do, so at times we need to ask for help or have someone talk with another person for us. For the most part though we are able to communicate what we need to communicate. We have definately learned more spanish these last few weeks than we learned all of last summer. You are sort of forced to learn when you have to go into town to take care of business. We are looking into getting a tutor to help us progress a little faster. Hopefully, the times will work out and we will get that started soon.

We have also realized that we need to get some physical exercise so we are probably going to start going to the gym. It costs less than $10 a month to go to the gym, it is not the greatest gym you will ever see but I suppose it will do.

Rain, Rain and more Rain...

2009-03-05T05:50:00.000-08:00

It has been rainy terribly here for the last two days and it does not look like it is going to stop until Saturday. As you have read I bought a new moto the other day but have only driven it twice because of the rain. In fact, as Nate and I were in the office filling out paperwork and about ready to leave it just started down pouring. I don't think I have seen it rain so hard before. We decided to leave the moto there at the shop and pick it up later. Eventually it quit raining and Nate picked up the moto for me and brought it to the base. After evening activities with the teams we left for home and it was not raining at that moment we were getting ready to leave but right when I pulled out on the road it started pouring again. My first time riding the bike I had to do in the dark with it pouring down rain. Needless to say I was soaked when I got home but thankfully arrived safely. I am still learning how to shift on the bike and things like that so it was quite an adventure to do that in the dark with it rainy so hard. Also, it is confusing because there is a handle break which is for the front and I always think that it is the back brake. The back break is actually located by my right foot. I was a little nervous a few times that I might go flying over the handle bars.

Some Sad News

2009-03-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hello Josh & Vicki Fans! We hope that you are all doing well.

This is just a brief quick up-date... we had a sad incident happen Sunday night, our dog Diamond past away. It was really hard for both Josh and I. Even though we hadn't known her for very long we got really attached to both dogs. We are watching Snickers closely and allowing him in the house now. We are trying to train him to be an indoor/outdoor dog. In a few weeks we will see where he is at and if we feel that he is still really lonely, then we will probably get him a buddy. The past two nights he has been crying at night... and he has figured out which window is ours because now he sits there and cries.

Anyway, besides this really sad event, things are going extremely well. Yesterday Josh bought our first moto, he LOVES it. Today we were sitting outside with Snickers and Josh went over to his bike and just sat on it. He then asked me, "do you want to go for a ride around the block?" even though it was sprinkling and about to rain really hard... silly guy :)

Alright, I have to go but will report more later!

First Day of Ministry Sites...

2009-02-26T09:02:00.001-08:00

Yesterday our first team arrived. The size of this group is 39 people. 36 are from a Christian high school in Florida and the other 3 are college students from New York. This is the smallest team we will have, the rest of the teams we will see are estimated to be over 40 people and when the summer arrives we have six 2-week outreaches with over 60 people in them.

Last night we did an orientation with the students and today they are serving their first day at their ministry sites. While the students are working at the ministry sites we stay busy by preparing and planning for the upcoming activities. Most days we will at least go out to one or two ministry sites to check on the students and see how things are going. Today we went into town to change all of the student's money from US dollars into pesos, which can be a long process. I do enjoy that process because it gets me into town and it is one of the things that Vicki and I both enjoy most. We like going to town because we get to interact and meet new people. We also love to take that opportunity to practice our Spanish. Everyone is so friendly and usually very patient with our poor Spanish.

I also went to the Sports site for my first time since being here and that was a lot of fun for me being able to see my old friends from the summers past. It is always a cool feeling to know that you are remembered. They were in the middle of a baseball game when I arrived and so they asked me to umpire for them. For some reason it can be a lot of fun to call someone out on strikes.

Please continue to pray for us as we minister and serve this group that is here. They leave next Saturday, March 7th. We hope that during their time here they will be able to grow in their relationship with Jesus or if they do not have one or do not know what a personal relationship with Jesus is, that they will learn about that during this time. Our jobs are to serve the student's and hopefully create an atmosphere where they will be able to experience and encounter Christ while they are here. We ask that you pray that through the student's working in the different ministry sites that they learn to serve God while being a physical therapist, a doctor, a teacher etc. etc. and that when they go back to the States they will carry that lesson with them into their school, jobs, hobbies and whatever else it may be.

.... and some side notes from Vicki.....

Today has been yet another gorgeous day. It's amazing the change in energy I find I have when there is sun to look forward to nearly everyday.

Josh and I have spent the past several days in preparation for this team and are so glad that they have arrived. We are enjoying this experiencing of learning, however we are anxious to call this job our own.

For all of you who are freaked out by all of my bug stories... and who maybe don't want to come and visit because of them, you may be happy to know that we have hired an exterminator to come and spray our yard, trees, house, etc. tomorrow. This will rid our house of all pests!!! I can't wait. Then hopefully, Josh and I will be able to screen the rest of the house before more make our house theirs :)

God has been so faithful to provide and protect us, and we just can't thank our prayer warriors and financial supporters enough for all of your help. We are so happy to be here - sometimes I still wake up and can't believe that it's real.

Blessing

Staff Photo

2009-02-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday all the staff went out to a beautiful home outside of the city and took a day of rest and solitude. It was really nice. While we were there, I took a staff photo for an up-coming idea that Josh and I had. I thought some of you may enjoy seeing it. Here it is!

Reflections

2009-02-18T14:03:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody! This is Vicki here... I haven't had chance in quite some time to reflect a little on here, so I'm jumping in on this opportunity.

First I need to tell you that I have like 20 bug bites; 3 on my face (which happen in the middle of night), 12 on my arms and hands... 7 of those happened in the middle of the night - the sneaky bugs, and the rest on my legs, and one on the bottom of my foot... which I don't understand because I wear pants and shoes all day long! And today I got attacked by ants. I received several bites on my ankles from them. I just thought you should all know about that. Okay, enough complaining :)

Anyway... things are going really well. Our home is basically all set up. Job training has been good too. It's been a little slower paced than we expected, but that's great because it's allowed us to really concentrate on the things we do have to work on.

A friend suggested to me right before we flew out to come here, that I keep a journal of things that are different here. He said, one day, those differences won't be differences anymore, that I may forget. I thought that seemed like a good idea so here are a few...
~ chickens and roosters clucking/crowing at ALL hours of the day and night
~ the constant smell and sight of gas as we're driving down the road
~ how friendly everyone is here
~ how willing people are to help us learn Spanish
~ the electricity cutting in and out
~ finding cows in the most random places
~ we can watch a storm as it comes for us
~ it is second nature to honk the horn on ones vehicle
~ one can basically park their vehicle anywhere
~ it seems that each bumpy and pot-hole covered road can be beaten out by another
~ needing several keys to open and run ones house - we haven't quite figured out how many we have yet
~ the Coca Cola is so much better here
~ many stray dogs
~ it is so lush and bright green here

This is just a start of some of our observations

I'm still working on the video... I'm having problems with the uploading process. I've tried a few things and they haven't come through, so I will keep trying other options.

Waiting for the video...

2009-02-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

Well... I am sitting in our office at work (I know...very official) and I am waiting for Vicki to edit the video we took of our house. She is taking a long time but thats ok. We hope you enjoy it.

We are waiting to get internet at our house so the blog posts might not be posted as often. Hopefully we will get internet sometime in the next week.

We have been busy this week finishing our house set-up and also learning all the details of our job. We have a team coming from Feb. 25-Mar. 8 and we will be training during that time on how to run a short term outreach when teams are here. But right now we are getting trained on how to plan for the outreaches.

It has been raining a little more than we have been used to and we have a tin roof, so when it rains it can be pretty loud inside our house. This was the case last night as we were trying to go to bed.

Today while Vicki was filming the video, we left our front door open and Snickers came running inside and instead of kicking him out right away we decided to see what he would do. At first all was well because he just kept running from room to room but after a few minutes of that, he started sniffing the couch which we were both suspicious of. And sure enough he lifted his leg up and tried to pee on our couch. Luckily Vicki grabbed and moved him in time so he only went on the floor but I think that we will not experiment having the dogs in the house for a while.

UPDATE: It looks like the video is having trouble loading so we will try and fix the problem and get it posted in the next couple of days.