Would we really be Rich and Audrey if...

Would we really be Rich and Audrey if we weren't doing a home improvement project? I honestly can't think of a time when we haven't been in the middle of something! Our house has a cement sofa built into one of the walls, wood doesn't do very well here so it is a great idea. We extended the couch a little to make it deeper so someone could sleep, we'll get cushions made of course. Also, we remade the gate to our yard. JB, a Haitian man, made the concrete posts and Rich put our old gate on a steel pipe frame. Last of all we extended our side walk from our house to go all the way to the generator. It is nice not to have to step in the mud when we need electricity from the generator. I'll update you with pictures after we finish painting and get cushions made.

A Little Bit of Home

Working on the well.

Extreme home makeover - Dominican Edition.

VBS in Bobita.

Community Day.

Mixing cement for the playground at the Children's Home.

Cleaning out the river and under the bridge.

Saturday after we took the FHU team to the airport we picked up a team from Little Rock, AR. Central is our sponsoring church so we were extremely excited to see familiar faces! This was the first time to the DR for this group. They had a busy week of mixing cement, cleaning out debris under the bridge, putting on a tin roof and painting a house, fixing a well, two VBS', a day in the community, visiting the sick in the hospital and people at the city dump, and of course a half day at the beach. It was such a blessing to have old friends here and to make stronger ties with them. The week went by very quickly and we wish they didn't have to leave. Hopefully they will all be back again very soon!

A Great Week with Freed-Hardeman

Saturday, March 14, our first spring break group arrived. They are from Freed-Hardmen University. We had a terrific week together. The group put on a VBS in three locations, painted a house, laid the foundation for a new playground at the Children's Home, mixed and poured cement to pave an entire courtyard for a struggling school in Rio San Juan, visited the people in the hospital and those that live in the dump, played lots of soccer and spent a day with a Dominican family. We were very impressed by this group's work ethic, ability to love the Dominicans, and encouragement that they brought to us. We hate to see them go today but, are so thankful they came!

Working with concrete at the school in RSJ.

Everyone playing soccer.

Rachel and Hannah painting one of the MannaDR homes.

Welcome Back!

Wednesday Brian Wallace returned to the DR! Brian and Tammie started the work here in the Dominican and we are thrilled to have him here for the next couple of weeks. It will be so nice to have a seasoned veteran around for the spring break groups. Our time with him is truly precious! 

The Things We Find

Sunday we had our missionary team over for lunch after church. Rich was grilling up some burgers when he found a delightful treat. Shown above is a snake skin we estimate to be about six feet long. We have not seen the actual snake yet. It would be nice to know where it is living so that we won't be surprised by it. We'll let you know what other fun things we find. Life in the Dominican is never dull.

Happy First Third Anniversary

Tuesday, March 10, was our first three year anniversary. For those of you that don't know our complicated story let me fill you in a little. Rich and I met here in the Dominican in May 2005. Rich lived here for six months being Brian's sidekick and general handy-man. I was an intern for the summer. We became good friends and feel in love over the summer. When we left in August we were pretty sure we would get married. We got engaged in September and started the long grueling process of immigration. 

We received our fiance visa but, found out that it was better to get married right away, so we could file the paper work, than to wait for our original wedding day. Unfortunately, our wedding was already paid for and the invitations had been sent out. 

So, over my spring break we got married in Arkansas. We weren't able to get everyone together in time so, it was just us and our parents. My dad preformed the wedding. After we got legally married at Camp Wyldwood I had to finish school. While I left for Nebraska with my parents, Rich stayed in Arkansas to look for housing and jobs. Two months later we got "married" again in our church wedding. 

People have all sorts of questions about our weird path to marriage. One of the most popular is which anniversary to you celebrate? And of course the answer is: BOTH! 

Rich surprised me on Tuesday by taking me to a nice restaurant. We both had steak, which was wonderful! Three years have flown by. We feel very blessed to be where we are today.  

A Couple of Updates

First of all, the rig was running again. We got the part last Saturday and Rich fixed the truck. Unfortunately, another part broke last Tuesday. Rich went to Santiago on Wednesday to have the part remade. While trying to put the new part on Thursday something else broke. The rig is a great machine but, has been sitting for the last decade. This is one of the reasons we wanted to drill the first well close to home.  We are able to keep an eye on the truck while we try to work out all the kinks. We have a group here from Freed this week and next week is CENTRAL, our supporting congregation! After the groups leave hopefully we will be up and running again. 

Secondly, we've had lots of people asking the status of the horse we doctored a few weeks ago. I'm happy to report that the horse is alive and well.  You can barley tell he had an accident. I will try to get a photo of him so you can see how well he is doing.

Slight Glitch

While drilling on Monday a small part on the rig broke. I would go into all the technical details but, honestly I  have no idea what they are. If you want to know you'll have to ask Rich. He assures me that it isn't a big deal and we just need a new part. Thankfully Rich's parents, Graham and Fannie Amy, are on the case. They have found what we need Stateside and are sending it in with the Bynums daughter.  Hopefully we will only be setback about a week.  Our goal is to get this first well completed before our supporting church, Central of Little Rock, comes to visit in 16 days. (not like we are counting down)  I'll let you know when we are up and running again. A special thanks to Dad and Mom Amy for getting the part and to Lindsey for bringing it in. This ministry truly is a group effort!