Counting Our Blessings

Today after church service our teammates and the community had a special send off for us. It was truly a blessing. Vicki Graham put together a booklet of photos, scriptures and notes from everyone, we will cherish it always. Thank you for everyone who helped organize and execute, it was a very special morning for us.

In the evening the community got together to have a service for us at the house where we drilled our first well. Many gave kind words of thanks, blessings and some tears. We are emotional as we leave but, are so thankfully that our time in the DR will always be remembered as a highlight in our lives. Dios les bendiga!

Magi Project

Fairfax Group

Everyone listening to the story of Jesus' birth.

Everyone enjoying the Christmas party.

Cristo Daniel overindulging.

Pigs roasting on an open fire.

This week a group from Fairfax was here to help with the Magi Project. Every year Manna gives out over 1,000 gift boxes to the kids in the DR. Churches from all over the US help put together the boxes and this week we got to hand them out! Saturday we also had a party for the kids in the Children's Home and all the Manna employees. We had a great week! Thanks to everyone that participated in Magi this year. Feliz Navidad!

Precious Moments

As our time in the DR wraps up we are trying to slow down on our "desk jobs" and really spend time with the people in our community. I've mentioned JB's family in many blogs, they are incredibly dear to us. Saturday we took JB and the girls out for a day at the beach. Rich and JB grilled hot dogs while the girls and I played in the surf. It was a beautiful day in God's creation.

Fafa, Wilmide and I went for a walk hand in hand down the beach. We sang songs from the movie Mary Poppins which, they had just seen for the first time that week. The didn't believe me when I told them it was an old movie. Let me tell you it is extremely difficult to sing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in Spanish.

JB and Rich played in the waves until it made them sick. We all made efforts to build sandcastles. In Bible class the next day Ashley was asked if the beach was "rich" and she responded "no, it was salty." We love this family so much and will miss them terribly. What a great day of wonderful memories!

Difficult Decisions

MannaDR is under a new organization structure which is now called Manna Global Ministries. These organizational changes mean that many things in our work have changed. After many conversations with Manna and our supporting church we have decided that now is a good time to transition out of the program. This decision has been made with much prayer, thought, counsel, study and tears. To say that the decision has been difficult and complicated is an understatement.

Most of you understand how many things don’t turn out as planned. We have faith that God is in control and we continue to pray for His guidance. We are thankful for the peace and clarity He has given us while suffering through this decision. Though the past year and a half has been a roller-coaster ride ending sooner than we anticipated, we are thankful for every moment. We truly believe that God will bless Manna, the Dominican people and us in this decision.

We don’t have many plans yet. We will return to the USA on December 15. We plan to be in Little Rock, Arkansas with our supporting congregation for about a month to rest, recuperate and debrief. After that, only God knows for sure.

We ask for your prayers of peace, comfort and wisdom for us as we transition back into American culture. We also ask prayers for Manna as they continue to seek God’s face and direction in the work to preach the Good News to the lost in the Dominican Republic and all over the world.

We are so thankful for the time we’ve spent here in the DR, the Good Works the Lord allowed us to accomplish and the things that we learned. We’re grateful that God gave us water in two wells that we drilled. We’ll forever treasure the close bonds we’ve made with the community where we lived and our teammates. We are appreciative for the involvement that we had with summer groups and interns. And we hope that we have blessed this place as much as it has blessed us.

To the Dominican people: thank you for your acceptance, patience, love and friendship. It will be hard to say goodbye. To our Manna teammates: thank you for your understanding, compassion and companionship. We love you and we will miss you. To our wonderful support system from back home: thank you for sharing this journey with us, giving Godly counsel and reassurance all the way. We love all of you dearly!

Updates....

We are finished drilling in Bobita. The well isn't recovering water as fast as we had hoped but, we are in the dry season so hopefully it will only get better with time. We are waiting on a part for the rig and then we'll be able to drop the pump. Everyone in Bobita is very excited to have clean water!

We have our plane tickets for Christmas! Only 33 days until we leave, we can't wait to see all of you! Our tentative plan is to fly into Minneapolis, MN December 15, drive to Little Rock, AR and stay in the area December 20-29, then back to Minnesota until January 12. We want to see as many of you as we can so please let us know if you are available.

Rich and I are off to Haiti tomorrow. We plan to be in Haiti November 13-17. We are going to meet Brian Wallace over there and look at Manna's camp while getting to know the people of Haiti. Rich has been before and is looking forward to another adventure. This will be my first time to Haiti and I must admit that I'm a bundle of mixed emotions, excited and nervous. Please pray for our safety as we travel. Also that we would be protected spiritually, voodoo is the national religion there so, you can imagine how dark a place Haiti can be. I'm going to journal while we are there so we can share some of our experiences with you. We won't be able to be contacted in those five days so, assume no news is good news. Thanks everyone!

Cavamos!

We are drilling again! Note how shiny and bright the rig is! After a long process of getting the rig fixed and painted we started drilling Wednesday in Bobita. There was an existing well there but, it was only 50 feet deep and wasn't producing enough water for the village. Rich had a large audience and when I was out visiting in Bobita yesterday so many people were thankful that we should be able to fix the problem.

Hopefully in a week or so the people in Bobita will have a clean source for water. All this depends of course on how the rig holds up, what kind of mud we run into and how deep the water table is. Thanks for your prayers everyone!

Where there is no Salon...

Before Daniel's First Haircut

After! Looking good!

You may have been able to guess that there aren't many beauty salons in our neighborhood. I've cut Rich's hair since before we were married but now, he is cutting mine! I had to help a little but, all in all it turned out pretty well.

We had our teammates, the Cordobas, over the other night and the whole family got their hair cut. Word got out in the neighborhood that I can cut hair and I now have a two o'clock appointment this afternoon. We'll see, maybe I just stumbled on a new career!

Time well spent

A couple weeks ago we had our fellow teammates the Grahams and the Cordobas up to our house for a day 'o' fun. The day was filled with fishing in our pond, food, a singalong with Rich playing the guitar and our dog making new friends. It was very refreshing to all be together for a time of fellowship, not just "work stuff." We love our teammates and are so thankful God has blessed us with great people to serve with in the DR.

Welcome to Juan's

Here in the Dominican we have a little different shopping experience than in the States. This is Juan's vegetable store. Every Monday he gets fresh vegetables for the week. So, Monday we come to do the shopping for the Children's Home.

It is kind of crazy and unorganized for what I'm used to but, it somehow always works. Sometimes there are as many as twenty people in this little shop. Thankfully, Juan and his helpers are gracious enough to put what I need together for me otherwise, it would be overwhelming trying to find everything.

Lessons with Uncle Rich

Usually Rich has an audience while he works on things, yesterday was no exception. He and Wilson are working on repairing and putting back together the rig right now. One of the young men that came to observe started talking about how one day people would call him "Don" because he is going to have lots of money. (Don is a title of respect.)

Rich asked "so you want people to respect you because you have money?" The young man answered "yes." Rich then asked "what will happen if your money is stolen or you spend all of it? Then will the respect people had for you be gone too?" The young man was silent and thought for awhile.

Rich told him that you should be respected because you are honest, hard-working and walk with God not because of money or other things that will perish. The kid just looked at Rich for awhile thinking about this new concept then remarked, "you should be a preacher."

We have started to figure out how smart Jesus was with His teachings. Most of His lessons were conversations and problems of everyday life not some issue of doctrine. We are praying and looking for opportunities to teach in this way because lets face it neither of us are going to be in a pulpit any time soon.

We encourage all of you to read in Matthew 6 today. Spend some time examining yourself and where your heart is.

Matthew 6:19-24

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Mourn with those who mourn

Sunday afternoon Rich and I decided to take a motorbike ride out to visit Carmen and her mother. When we first arrived we went to see her and I wasn't sure she was even in the bed because she was so thin. After sitting with her for awhile we moved out to the porch to talk. While I was chatting with Carmen some of the sisters started yelling. Carmen's mom passed away Sunday afternoon about 4:15.

In the Dominican culture wailing is a huge part of the funeral process. Rich and I were unsure what to do but, Carmen wanted us there. It was difficult to see her in such pain. Monday we spent all day with her and Rich helped with digging the grave. Usually we don't have a very emotional and culturally enlightening day all at once but, this was definitely both.

Carmen will stay at her mom's house until next week. Her family is Catholic so they will pray the rosary for nine days. Please pray for Carmen and her family at this time and that we would be able to help comfort her.

Skin Kaleidoscope

Sunday before church I was sitting with JB's daughters. Ashleigh, the youngest, was holding my hand and noticed that I had some freckles on my skin. She asked "what's that?" I told her that God is so creative that He made everyone different and that He gave me freckles for decoration. At first she thought it was strange to have dots on your skin but, then started looking for "decorations" on her arms. She was excited to find one! Then she proceeded to pet my arm hair and told me it was soft like a cat.

I love the kids here, especially JB's girls. They have such an inquisitive spirit but, with innocence and never meanness. There is a lot of racial tension here between the Dominicans and Haitians so it was good to have a little impromptu lesson on how we are all made by God to be special.

Where there is no Whirlpool or Maytag...

Where Rich's work ends... mine begins.

Many of you have asked how we wash our laundry down here. Well, we have a "Dominican" washer and dryer. I fill the washer side with water, put the clothes in and it twirls around for 15 minutes. I take the clothes out and put them in the spinner/dryer that spins the water out of the clothes. Then they go back to the washer part for a rinse cycle, put in the spinner again and hung on the line. I spend at least 16 hours a week doing laundry. As you can imagine Rich's clothes are filthy from drilling and repairing things. I hand scrub his work clothes to get the dirt and grease off before I put them in the machine. It is quite a bit of work but, it keeps me in good shape!

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

Mama Carmen and Barbara (my mom)

This is Carmen or to many of you that have been here, Mama Carmen! She works at our mission camp as the cook. And has rightfully earned the "mama" title. She takes care of everyone in the community. I had a very close relationship with her when I was an intern and now that we live here and have the ability to speak Spanish we have become even closer. Carmen is extremely generous! She always wants to have us over to cook for us which, is fantastic by us!

I would like to ask special prayers for Carmen's family. Her mother is dying of cancer, there is nothing the doctors can do. Each day Carmen appears more frazzled and tired. She feels really helpless in this situation. Please pray that God will bring peace that passes all understanding.

So Happy Together!

This summer we had several friends come visit. Jerrad and Ami Powell and Andrew and Julie Dorsey from our supporting congregation in Little Rock, AR came to visit which, was really fun and encouraging. My parents also were here for the last week of the summer program. It was great to be able to show them our work with the summer groups.

A few days after the interns left my friend Annalisa Briggs came to visit! We grew up together in York, NE and then we interned here together the summer of 2005. It was so fun to be together in the DR again and reminisce about all the crazy things that happened that summer. She was also gracious enough to help me put my house back together after our busy summer schedule. Thank the Lord for the amazing support system we have! We are so encouraged by all the visitors, phone calls and e-mails we've had. We love you all very much!

Burrito Anyone?

Okay, I know this is really dumb but, I love this little donkey! He was born this summer and is super cute. Every time we drive by I ask Rich to slow the car so I can look at him. The owner noticed my love for the donkey and offered to sell him to me for a good price. I tried to think of a reason to justify having a donkey. We don't have to haul our own water so really it would just be a friend for our dog. Also, he won't be a cute little donkey for very long and would just eat everything in our yard. I wanted to capture his cuteness for all of you out there that don't have such a variety of animals in your neighborhood.

Well Drilling Update

Now that the summer is over and we have recovered from our bout with a bacterial infection we are ready to start drilling again, almost. In May when we took hiatus from drilling Rich noticed that the rig needed to have some parts replaced to keep the machine running safely. Multiple groups throughout the summer brought in a piece here and there. Thank you to all of you couriers!

For the last week Rich has been fixing and replacing parts. Our plan is to fix a well and possibly drill a new one in Bobita then, return to La Caribe to finish the well there. The goal is to do all this before we go back to the States in December.

Summer Time

Well everyone, the summer has officially come to an end. We had four camp interns, one Rio San Juan intern, one Children's Home intern and eight mission groups come and go. Although we did have a few minor injures and a few bouts of illness all in all, it was a GREAT summer!

Week #1: Park Plaza from Tulsa, OK

Week #2: Men's Work Group from Lake Cities, TX

Week #3: Southside from Milwaukee, WI

Week #4: Northland Missions from Kansas City, MO

Week #5: Northside from Benton, AR

Week #6: Red Bank from Chattanooga, TN

Week #7: Lake Jackson, TX

Week #8: Richfield, MN

Every week we had a similar schedule including the following endeavors: work projects to serve the needy, visiting those that live at the dump and the sick in the hospital, spending a day with a family in the community, VBS, cultural safari, and an afternoon at the beach. (I hope this busy schedule will excuse my lack of blogging, sorry!) Each team brought a different talent with them and all were able to have a big impact here on the north coast. We hope that they were blessed as much as we were to have them here.

The interns were amazing! I can speak from personal experience that the internship is a challenging and rewarding job. As an intern you help lead the group while striving to build relationships with the Dominicans we work with everyday. This year our interns not only survived the summer, they really thrived! We are full of joy when we think of how much they grew and hope they will continue to stay involved with the work here in the DR.

Una Pausa

We have made it to break! After having five summer mission teams come and go we have made it to our five day break. Friday, after a slight scenic detour, we traveled to Jarabacoa for some rest and fun. Upon arrival Rich and Tim took the interns for a hike to some beautiful waterfalls. We had a nice dinner at our hotel and then everyone was in bed by nine o'clock! None of us ever go to sleep that early during the summer, it was wonderful!

Saturday morning we headed off to go white water rafting. The water was freezing but, the mountains and river were beautiful. Thankfully we had amazing guides that got us through the rapids with ease and no one flipped their raft. I'll try to post photos soon.

Today we are going to take it easy. Hopefully I can get some laundry done and get the house back into order before the crazy schedule picks up again. On Tuesday we begin the final strech of the summer with the last three groups from Chattanooga, TN; Lake Jackson, TX; and finally Richfield, MN.

Como se dice "ouch"

Friday afternoon while walking through the children's home I fell on my knee. I'm not sure how it happened but, I landed on a sharp rock. I've had surgery on this knee before and so immediately I was worried that I had messed something up. I can walk and the swelling has gone down so, I think I'm okay. Next time we are stateside I'll probably get it checked out.

On another note, we only have three summer mission teams to come this summer. The time has flown by. The interns are doing a great job and the teams have been a blessing. Please continue to pray for the summer program, that lives would be changed by God's love and the hope we have in Christ.