The Hanley Family

Po Plume Christmas Party (Batey 41)

2011-12-24T09:10:00.001-08:00

We celebrated the end of the semester with a Christamas Party in Batey 41.

Side note, after being here a year and a half I finally found out the
name the Haitian community uses, and will try to start referring to it
as Po Plume, of course I am not sure how to spell it, but I think Pó
Plúm or something similar with crazy accented vowels. I work on that,
and hopefully in another year, I can get the spelling right. But Po
Plume gets the sounds right, at least what my ears understand.

The Christams Party included watching The Jesus Film, handing out
report cards, singing, gifts for the students and guests, a lunch of
chicken, goat, beans and rice, and piklis (spicy cabbage salad). We
had two visitors for the Haitian government, which is a huge step in
the right direction of getting the school recongized by the department
of education, and this coming year they are working with us to get
birth certificates for all the kids and national identification cards
for all the adults.

I think the pictures say a lot more than I can and I am gong to try to
post some videos of the singing.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Rwanda, Cousins, and Computers

2011-10-04T14:23:00.001-07:00

Isaac Serene Hank omenmrs.xcf Download this file

October 8th I have an amazing opportunity to visit Kigali, Rwanda. We are implementing an electronic medical record system for the clinic in Jimaní to support and enhance our medical outreach and help us effectively target needs as well as collect health information for our community and specifically maintaining health information on all the kids in our school programs. This program will support our collaboration with International Children's Heart Foundation as we work with an informal network of clinics throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic to identify and treat pediatric cardiology cases. I am very excited about this program. After a lot of research I identified OpenMRS as the medical records program that will meet our needs. OpenMRS is an open-source project supported by a community of implementers and developers from all over the world working in some of the leading areas of prevention and treatment. The potential this program has to support our mission and vision for the health care aspect of our ministry is huge.

I have been working bit by bit at implementing the program, and a few weeks ago received an e-mail that this years Implementers Conference is being held in Kigali, Rwanda. The government of Rwanda started using OpenMRS as a national health records system to be implemented in all public hospitals and clinics. So, in addition to seeing how OpenMRS is implemented in other settings, I will be able to attend training classes and learn from key programmers and developers in the OpenMRS community.

Rwanda has a personal interest as well. For close to two years, my cousin Isaac and his wife Serena and their son Henry have been serving as the administrators of an orphanage just 30 minutes outside of Kigali. So, I am going to be able to spend a few days with them on either end of the conference and see the orphanage they have been a part of just as they come to the end of their two-year commitment to this ministry.

Please pray for:
Safe Travel
Melissa, Mom, and Dad as they hold down the fort

That my brain can take-in and retain everything I need to learn
This is longest I've been away, so please pray for separation anxiety on both sides of the world
Also, health and safety for my family while I'm gone, well always, but we have a history of health issues while I'm away (Maicol had his appendix out when I was on a two-day camping trip, and we thought Kate was having galbladder issues when I was on a three-day trip to Santiago)

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July Team - a belated updated

2011-09-04T15:43:00.001-07:00

To say I'm behind in posting is a huge understatement. I need to go back and look how many posts have started with that or a similar statement. A lot has been going on, and I don't want to miss keeping you in the loop on the great things that are happening, but it seems that every time I sit down at the computer with the good intentions of posting an update something comes up. If it isn't due to technical difficulties such as internet connectivity or not being able to find the picture I wanted to post, then someone walks up to talk or a child starts crying, screaming, arguing, or needing/wanting something. We were in the States visiting Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina back mid-June to mid-July. It was a good time that was a mix of relaxation, reconnecting, meeting new people, and sharing what we had been up to. It had been 12 months since we had been in the States, and we enjoyed every minute of it. When we got back home, Mom and Dad, the kids, and staff had prepared a welcome home party for us. After a full day of travel that started at 5 AM and finally ended just after 9 PM it was a great surprise.

Three days later, we had a short-term team come and work along side us for a week. It was a group from St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Largo, Florida. It was a first foreign mission trip for most of the team, and the first team sent out from that church. It was great to come back and hit the ground running with them. Being able to see our lives through new eyes is one of the great things of working with short-term teams, and I was quickly reminded of all the many blessings we see in our lives on a daily basis and the joy we have in serving here. We also got to see a long-time friend from our college years. Kelly Hueble and her daughter Elya joined the team from Florida, meeting them in Miami and spending the week with us. Not only have we known Kelly and her husband Jamie since college, they've been supporters of our ministry for the full 4 years we've served in the Dominican Republic. I'm going to try and get back to a good idea I had once, and do a spotlight on our supporters, and give a better introduction of this family, my college spades nemesises (nemesi?) Jamie and Kelly.

The main focus of the week was working with the Mennonite Church's Vacation Bible School, but we also had many other community ministry activities in the Batey community, our local neighborhood, and plenty to do around our campus. The evenings were full of great worship lead by the team members during nightly devotions. They even got up earlier than we scheduled for extra morning devotions. Kate and Maicol were excited to join them in the activities and made fast friends with many of the team members. We've recently heard from some of them, and they are already wanting to come back and work with us this November.

A few things I hope post about soon:

July Team
Batey 41 Border Crossing Update
Batey 41 School Starting
Cloisi and Evelyn
Our Jimaní Pre-School Program
The New School Year - Batey 41, Pre-school, and our kids
Upcoming Visiting Prosthetist
Rwanda

John

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Name that tune.

2011-05-27T08:17:00.001-07:00

VID 00015-20110527-1107.3GP Watch on Posterous

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Everybody Sing Along

2011-05-27T08:08:00.001-07:00

VID 00013-20110527-1104.3GP Watch on Posterous

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If You Give A Pig a Bath

2011-05-02T12:26:00.001-07:00

You go to jail! It's against the law!

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Success in the DR - Loudjenka's follow up story

2011-02-21T10:21:00.001-08:00

The following e-mail is the e-mail I received from Amy, the nurse working with Children of the Promise that provided initial care for Loudjenka, and accompanied the family to Santiago:

I am back in Cap Haitian and am writing this email with a heart full of thanks and praise!

I'll try to keep this brief. Here is a summary of our trip to the DR.

We got across both borders without any difficulty. It felt like God softened the hearts of each person that stopped us before letting us pass.
Chance and Renee were waiting for us on the Dominican side.
The paperwork with the authorization was waiting in the office on the Dominican side. We were stopped at many check points on the road to Santiago. Each time we showed the authorized papers we were waved ahead.
When we arrived at the hospital I stumbled into a group of what seemed to be American Rotary club members in the hospital lobby listening to a presentation from some ICHF people. It was perfect! Dr. Ramirez was even standing in the group answering questions.
I approached them after their presentation. They'd been waiting for Loudjenca and ushered us upstairs where they were just finishing an echo on another child. One of the cardiologists immediately started her echo.
We were told that the hole in Loudjenca's heart had begun to close on its own. She did not need surgery. I heard the news first in English, then in Spanish, then in Creole. It was a great moment.
Loudjenca's parents were ecstatic. Loudjenca's mom shared that her exact prayer had been "Jesus, when we get to the hospital let us hear that surgery is not necessary." ....an answered prayer.
Loudjenca's parents were able to voice their other concerns to Dr. Ramirez regarding Loudjenca's breathing. He ordered a chest xray and blood work.
These tests were completed immediately. Loudjenca's lungs were clear. Everything looked good in her labs.
All the nurses, doctors, med students, etc were incredibly caring and helpful.
We were told to have Loudjenca return for a follow-up echo at one year of age. (She will have a passport by then!)
We all stayed at a hotel near the bus station. Loudjenca and family left for Haiti Saturday morning and arrived in Cap without any problems.
Jenn and I stayed an extra night in Santiago and took the express bus to the border. We arrived at COTP via bus and moto this afternoon. We had a great day as well.
Jenn and I couldn't help feeling extremely blessed by this whole experience. God worked out all the little details for our arrival at the Children's Hospital knowing all along that we would be met with the most wonderful news. Praise Him for his mercy.

Thank you for all of your efforts.

Amy

Loudjenka's parents now have the peace that their daughter's condition is not life-threatening, a confirmation they could not have received with the limited capabilites in Haiti. Their faith in God is strengthened and they know they have an extended family supporting them.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Loudjenka

2011-02-21T09:07:00.001-08:00

On February 3rd I got an e-mail about six month old Loudjenka who lives with her parents in Cap-Haitiean on the North Coast of Haiti. Physicians n Cap-Haitiean thought that she showed signs of a hole in her heart, but without access to better quality diagnositc equipment they could neither confirm the diagnosis or have any means to intervene if the diagnosis proved correct. The Chadasha Foundation through a grant to International Children's Heart Foundation is working to provide pediatric cardiology procedures in the Dominican Republic. ICHF currently has a pediatric cardiology medical team volunteering for two weeks at the Arturo Grullon hospital in Santiago. The only thing we needed to do is get Loudjenka across the border to Santiago, but we faced a hurdle, she did not have a passport, and neither did her mother, and the process to get one was taking longer than expected, and would likely not be completed until after the specialty team had completed their trip. So, with the help of Amy and Karen a nurse and volunteer with Children of the Promise, the ministry in Cap-Haitien providing primary care services for Loudjenka and her mother, I started working to get a special permission for her to get across the border without a passport. I might not be able to perform heart surgery, but I can talk someone's ear off! Based on the recommendation from the head of the immigration office here in Jimaní, I went to the Dominican Consulate in Port au Prince, where I thought I had arranged an introduction to the consulate through the husband of one of the physicians in Santiago; however, we missed each other, and my reception was less than stellar. I barely got my foot in the front door, and was only given the procedure to request a humanitarian visa for someone that has a passport, and while the secretary kept running messages back and forth behind a closed door for me, no one else was willing to speak with me. After I returned from Haiti, I made a few calls, and got a hold of a man I have met a few times who works for the Dominican First Lady's office and works on Haitian humanitarian issues for the First Lady. He started making things happen. I met him in Santo Domingo, where we went to the main consulate office and he was able to introduce Chris Keylon, the executive director of Chadasha, and me to the Ambassador in charge of the Domincian Consulates, who coordinated a meeting with the head of Dominican Immigration where they approved a special pass, and forwarded it to the Dominican/Haitian border crossing at Dajabon, the border crossing closest to Loudjenka and her parents. The next step was actually transporting them to the facility, a trip to Dajabon from Jimaní would probably take 12 hours, so I called our friends Chantz and Renee Cutts with GoMad Ministries who were able to go pick them up at the border and drop them off. The process of driving a car across the border is even more difficult, so having someone pick them up on the Domincian side, was a huge blessing. Of course just to make things more interesting, the day before going to pick them up Chantz and Renee's car broke down, so after trying to get it fixed in time, they had to rent a car to make the trip. So now, after 15 days of meetings, phone calls, e-mails, and letters, Loudjenka is checked into the hospital and scheduled for her procedure. Please continue to pray for her, her parents, and the physicians, and pray that God will touch her life.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Visiting the mountain communities

2011-02-03T11:16:00.001-08:00

I made a trip up to visit three communities in the mountains near Jimani to do some prep work for an upcoming short term trip. Unbelievable views. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

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Redondo, Yveson, and Cleiford

2010-11-23T06:40:00.001-08:00

I want to share a bit of what I know of these three boys. Basically, we have seen them around town for the past month or so, and we have given them water and food a few times, but we didn't realize initially that they were living on the street. We thought that they, like many children in Jimani, were just left to their own a majority of the time. About three weeks ago, we ran into them again at our regular grocery store, and with six weeks of Creole lessons under my belt tried to have a conversation with them, and from that conversation understood that they were living on the street. We started to try to verify their story and the store owner said they were just always on the street. I began praying for wisdom and guidance. Well, we didn't see them again for the next two weeks or so, until last Friday when we were on our way to Port au Prince for the weekend. We ran into them as I made a last stop to buy water to hand out to the border guards. I decided to postpone our departure and took them to the facility to speak with Hostey, one of the facility staff that speaks English and Creole.

We gave them money for food for the weekend and asked them to meet us on Monday after we returned from Port au Prince. Well, yesterday they showed up with the clothes on their back, and an extra garment or two a piece. We got more of their story, and their mom's died in the earthquake. Two of them are cousins. They worked for a bus-driver for a short time after the earthquake finding people to ride on his bus, and when they earned enough for their own fare, they managed to get across the border into Jimaní.

We don't yet have legal permission in place to take in children. My biggest concern about taking them in without any permission is the potential impact to the future ministry, which led me to the meeting with CONANI, the Dominican Republic's government office for the protection of children and adolescents. I met with a Reuben, a man specifically in charge of dealing with the increased number of street kids as a result of the earthquake. He was very open to our working with these children and gave us temporary permission to house them, and scheduled a meeting with a coalition of organizations in Jimaní that oversees services for the area's children and adolescents. At this meeting Melissa and I will be presenting plans for use of the facilities as a Children's Home.

We always knew that God would be the one to make this happen, and He seems to be putting the pieces together.

We appreciate your prayers as we prepare for the meeting and your prayers for these boys.

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Morning Assembly at Batey 41

2010-10-18T19:43:00.001-07:00

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assembly.mp4 (4177 KB)

Melissa and I were at Batey 41 this morning, and once again we were confused on the time change. While it take us 20 minutes to get there it because of the road conditions and not the distance, and since we don't cross an official border crossing, I always forget that they follow the time zone for Haiti which is one hour behind the DR. However, it was nice to be there before school started to see all the kids on their way to school, and excited to be going. It was also nice to catch the morning assembly as the kids line up, sing, and pray before starting their morning.

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Today's Morning Assembly at Batey 40

2010-10-18T13:52:00.001-07:00

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desfila.ps (3342 KB)

John Hanley
DR: (809) 876-7163
HT: (509) 3-895-5764
US: (863) 248-6242

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Kate's Goat

2010-09-12T12:33:00.001-07:00

This is Kate's as of yet unnamed Goat. You can send us any name suggestions.

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A Unique Clothes Dryer

2010-03-20T19:01:00.001-07:00

We have a clothes line that we have hanging in our living room so we can dry our clothes without worrying if it is going to rain or not. However, to take full advantage of the sun, we also have one that is hanging over a planter outside our back windows. In order to hang or retrieve clothes Melissa has to climb out the window into the planter. The planter connects to the room next the living room, which is what we use a TV room. Tonight, she startled Michael and his friends, who were in there playing video games, when she decided to climb into that room from the windows instead of back-tracking to the living room! It's not just laundry, it's a sport!

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A Fun Week

2010-03-12T20:00:00.001-08:00

We have a group of nurses down this week, mostly from the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They have seen all of our school students in the four programs in Sosúa. This picture is a group of kids showing of their fingers that just got stuck for a blood test to check the iron levels in their blood which can be used as part of a nutrition assessment. Check out their blog http://projectassessment2010.wordpress.com/

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An Fun Game of Air Hockey at McDonald's

2010-02-18T19:36:00.001-08:00

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We have Arrived

2010-02-03T05:47:00.001-08:00

We'll after months of struggle, court paperwork, and government agencies we have finally begun our first visit to the States with Michael. We are so excited. Experiencing the United States through Michael's eyes has already been interesting. Here are a few of my favorite moments so far.

1. Michael asks, "Is there a bathroom in Nana and Poppo's house?"

2. In the Miami Airport, he needs to go to the bathroom and I inform him, "Michael, just so you know, here they throw the toilet paper in the toilet to throw it away." He looks at me with a very puzzled expression, and asks "Why?". I tell him, "It's just the culture here." I need to make sure he knows that I meant in all homes in the United States, and not just the Miami Airport. I'm telling mom and dad this story on the way to their house, and my dad says, it's okay, I've made sure that there are plastic bags in all the trash cans in the bathrooms, because of Kate's visit in January, I evidently forgot re-entry cultural counselling for here, and she kept with the Dominican custom of throwing the paper in the trash can a few times. Just a heads up for the homes we will be visiting!

3. He was amazed when we passed a car transport truck on the interstate with 10 cars stacked up on it.

4. His excited face on the plane for his first flight.

5. Him trying to convince us that he is not going to be shy when he meets all the new people here, and he keeps reminding us that he, "Speakies Englesh"

6. When we got to Nana and Poppo's and started settling in, he asked, "Do they have air conditioning?" I said "Yes, but right now it is hot air that comes out to make the house warmer, because it is colder outside." Another puzzled look from Michael.

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Information from New Missions in Haiti http://www.newmissions.org/News/2010HaitiEarthquake/EarthquakeBlog/tabid/293/Default.aspx

2010-01-13T11:32:00.001-08:00

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Trucks and Christmas

2009-12-24T06:34:00.001-08:00

Interesting morning of mission work today. We run three truck routes on church nights to pick up members from three different communities. However, on holidays like Christmas, New Years, and Easter the laws say that large trucks and passenger trucks can not be out on the roads; however, if you get permission from Civil Defense, then you can run the trucks. Well, our church services are on Friday nights, and this year Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall on Fridays, so in order to pick people up we need this special permission. So, with the help of one of our church leaders we called the head of Civil Defense yesterday, and he said that we could get special permission, we would just need to meet him this morning. So, we headed down to meet him this morning. I assumed we were going to the Civil Defense office, but found out that he was working out of his business today. A tire repair store just minutes from my house. It is actual a place I have used often, since it is so close to our home. It's surprising how many times here you can have trouble with tires, but you have to see the roads to understand. Right now for instance the city did some work with water lines or something and they have left gouges in the road that wreck havoc on tires. So when I mentioned tire repair store you may be thinking Firestone, Goodyear, Sears Automotive. It's not anything near that. I found it humorous that we are doing this official city government business in this little mechanic shop. Well, we get there and he says, "Sure, no problem, can I have the copies of the truck paperwork?" Well, sure, except I didn't bring copies, because this is the first anybody mentioned copies (I think to myself as I'm smiling politely). I ran to the office were I keep the copies of the paperwork, and headed back to his store. Somehow he had a computer hidden among the car and motorcycle parts in a back room, and he types up these nice forms that give us permission to run the trucks, and of course gives them an official stamp!

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Yellow Tickets

2009-12-19T07:51:00.001-08:00

On Wednesday nights in our Spanish Church is Bible study and we break into age groups. I teach the 5, 6, and 7 year old class with two Dominican ladies from the church. It is quite an active group, so I started a reward system. They earn little yellow tickets throughout the evening that they can trade in for toys and other goodies. Some of the kids were having trouble saving up for bigger toys, because they were loosing their tickets during the week, so two weeks ago I started letting them turn any tickets in at the end of class and I would save them for them until the next week. At first I only had a few takers, but as the kids saw that the kids that let me save their tickets were getting bigger prizes they have all started saving some tickets from one week for the next. Well, this past Thursday afternoon I was walking around down town doing my regular errands for the mission, banking, changing money, paying bills, etc. I ran into Elias a kid that was new to my class the night before, and he was with two of his friends. They were playing with a parachute toy that Elias had "bought" on Wednesday night. When Elias saw me he came running up to me with two yellow tickets in his hand and said, "Can you save these for me for next week?" This was something I was not expecting, but he was so excited about his tickets, it was a special moment in the middle of the day

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The Thirteenth Month

2009-12-18T12:44:00.001-08:00

I just finished the 13th month! For those of you that thought there were only 12 months in a year, well you've never lived in the Dominican Republic. The labor laws here in the DR make concessions for a 13th month. Basically, every employee gets a 13th month of pay during December. I have been working the past week to finish calculating and paying this employee benefit to the 55 Dominican employees that work for the mission in either one of our schools or churches, and I'm celebrating the end of the 13th month!

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Hanley Family Fall Update

2009-12-08T15:18:00.001-08:00

Well I realized we put out a paper newsletter, and I never made it available to those of you that receive our electronic updates.

Here is the link

John

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Clap Hand Game Video

2009-11-06T14:35:00.001-08:00

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033.AVI (1949 KB)

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The clapping hands games, they are universal

2009-11-06T05:09:00.001-08:00

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If you need to buy a Christmas tree in Sosúa I know where you can get one

2009-10-24T06:51:00.001-07:00

So, my camera doesn't take the best pictures, but I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the man selling an artificial Christmas tree on one of the main streets in Sosua. If you can't tell, it is actually decorated as well.

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We have a court date!

2009-10-16T15:18:00.001-07:00

We found out today that the paperwork made it through the first steps! Thank you for your prayers. November 16th @ 9:00 AM we have a court appearance scheduled with the judge that can overturn the restriction the first judge placed on our guardianship approval. Please continue to pray with us that this hindrance will be removed. Based on our understanding of the judicial process, we are not expecting the judge to make his decision on this day, but we also know that nothing is impossible.

Also, on a side note, we should be getting our truck back tomorrow. It is running, and today they were painting the "new to us" hood the same color as the rest of the truck.

We appreciate all the prayers and support we have received through the ordeals of the past few weeks. We know that God is with us through all things, but it is so nice to know that we have so many friends beside us too.

John, Melissa, Kate and Michael

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Uniform Distribution at Redemption Village

2009-10-14T11:57:00.001-07:00

We provide uniforms for our students at Redemption Village and
Bombita. Uniforms are very much a part of the cultural expectations
regarding attending school in the Dominican Republic. I have not seen
a school yet that does not require a school uniform, including all of
the public schools. Unfortunately some students are not able to
attend school because of the inability to purchase a uniform.
Well, purchasing the uniforms this year was quite an ordeal. One
thing I need to learn is just because it happened one way means it
will happen that way again. Last year I called a local department
store, the same store that handles the uniform for Colegio Nueva Vida.
I gave them the order of over 400 uniforms, while this was only 75
uniforms more than last year the quote was twice the price. Yikes! So
I did made phone calls with the help of CNV's school secretary and
found a good price from a store that we had purchased items from
before. Well, I the salesman that we were working with evidently has
some side business, because when he called to tell me the shirts were
ready I loaded up in the truck with Melissa and Dustin after dropping
the kids off at school one day, and we headed to Puerto Plata. I went
into the business and asked for the salesman, she said he wasn't
there, but she would call him, if there was something she could help
me with. I told her that I was there to pick up the uniforms for New
Missions. She had no idea what I was talking about. So after a few
minutes the salesman showed up. He got in the car with us and told us
that he had the work done at another store across town. So we drive
across town to this small shop, I'm thinking it couldn't have been
more than 20 square feet. And there are all of our shirts stacked up
on a table. They made and embroidered the shirt. We counted them and
packed the up as they finished ironing and trimming the last few
shirts. And our salesman headed back to the original store to clear
up his mess there.
I really do enjoy uniform distribution each year. We get a chance to
spend just a few minutes with each student and try to make sure that
each of them leaves being called by their name and a "God Bless You."

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A.W. Tozer

2009-10-13T20:37:00.001-07:00

"You'll never find in heaven a group of holy beings finding fault with the way God conducts His foreign policy." A.W. Tozer

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Gravity

2009-10-03T11:41:00.001-07:00

I was sitting in Spanish Church last night, and trying my hardest, with all my good Spanish, to follow everything, but my mind started to wander to a concept I've been trying to put into words for awhile. God's Love is like Gravity. I was thinking that if I asked someone to define gravity, the common answer would be that it is the force that pushes us down and keeps us on the Earth. What is interesting is that this common answer is wrong. The actual definition as confirmed by Wikipedia and asking my wife is: a phenomenon where two objects are mutually exert a force of attraction towards each other. So, you might think that this definition of mutual attraction is where I am headed with comparing God's love to gravity, but actually what I find interesting is that even if you got the scientific definition of gravity wrong, you didn't go flying off the planet hurtling into space.

In other words, even if you've never heard of gravity, if you have no idea how to explain why we remain on the surface of the Earth, gravity continues to exist and continues to have an affect on your life. This is how I think gravity is like God's love, even if you can't define God's love, even if you have the definition wrong, even if you have never heard of God's love, His love continues to have an affect on your life.

Another thing that I thought was interesting is that there is a possibility that there is a rocket scientist out there somewhere reading this post, and when they are asked to define gravity they can spit out the following answer:

Noun

theory of gravity - (physics) the theory that any two particles of matter attract one another with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them

There is probably someone out there that could write a 108 page paper defining gravity, what I find interesting in that aspect is that gravity has no greater impact on their lives than the person that can't even begin to explain it. God's love exists in an equal portion for all people regardless of the level of understanding or acknowledgment. But, without understanding gravity you can't launch a rocket into space, you can't orbit the earth, you can't take full advantage of everything gravity has to offer.

The more we understand God's love and the impact His love for us has on our lives, the more of His benefits we have to enjoy.

Koinonia

2009-05-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

I recently read a book Escape from Ephesus by Lance Webb. A short-term missionary team member had brought it along with an assortment of other book for us to read. I didn't read it immediately because I thought it was one of the Christian romantic-type novels. Follow the link to a picture of the cover and you'll probably agree. However, it was a very encouraging and challenging piece of historical fiction based on the life of Onesimus, the slave mentioned in Paul's letter to Philemon. One of the interesting aspects of the book was Webb's description of First Century Christian koinonia, which can be translated as community or fellowship, but has a much more intimate meaning than I feel these two English words have today.

It made me think of our life here in the Dominican Republic and the ways that Melissa, Kate, Michael, and I experience Christian koinonia in our daily life. God has chosen to provide for our needs through the support of our home church and other friends and family. We are dependent on this koinonia for our monthly needs. We are so grateful for the support we receive, and know that it comes from people being obedient to God which allows us to follow through with the work he has for us to do.

Secondly, we experience koinonia with our short-term mission teams. I don't feel I can fully express how wonderful it is to continuously meet Christians from around the country (and world), there is an instant connection from the moment we pick people up from the airport for the first time. Melissa had an interesting observation with our last team, that we have no idea who the short-term team members are in their own social and work environments, they could be the janitor or the CEO for all we know, but when they are here working alongside us, we are all in koinonia, working together to share God's love.

Through this book, I've been challenged to further develop this koinonia in my life.

Where is your Church

2009-03-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Dustin, a missionary that is serving along side of us for a six-month term, organized a beach service. Dustin loves to surf, and began going to a local surf beach where he started to meet the local surfers, several of whom work as surf instructors at the beach. He began to build friendships with them, and several of the Christians in that group mentioned a desire to spend time together, and spend time in the word, so Dustin met with a few of them and provided a very simple time of fellowship and bible study right there at the beach. There were days that the surf was good, and they couldn’t meet at the originally set time, because the guys needed to be out while the tourists were there, so they would simply wait until the surf died down, the tourists left, and a small group could get together. So, he planned the beach service as a time to get a larger group together, invite people that hadn’t been joining the small group, and just get to know more of the local surf community. Even though I’m not a surfer, I was invited. It was a really great time. One of the great things I got from the event is that church doesn’t have to happen in a building, God says very clearly, “If two or more people are gathered in my name, I am there.” This means, that the smallest common denominator, the minimum number of people necessary for a church service is two. I read a very interesting book Organic Church by Neil Cole, and it details a church planting movement built on the premise of going to places where people already congregate, and bring church services to those places, not with amplifiers, speakers, an microphones, just a small gathering of people sharing what is happening in their lives, and encouraging one another on this journey of life. A small group of men from our English-speaking church meet for breakfast on Saturday morning. Now, there are a lot of good restaurants in Sosúa, after all, half of the community caters to tourists, but we chose a comfortable little hole-in-the-wall that is one of those places full of regulars. We show up for breakfast to encourage one another, but also for opportunities to build relationships with the other people in the restaurants. So, my question is where is your Church? Sunday mornings are a great training ground, but I’d like to encourage you to find an informal church, maybe at work during a break time, a local coffee shop, a parking lot, a park, wherever you find a few minutes with a small group, even if it is just a group of two. I’ve had some great church moments just talking with a friend over a cup of coffee. You, know it sort of reminds me of this guy I read about once, he used to meet with people in homes, at local watering holes, down at the boat docks, on the side of a hill, on top of a mountain, in parks, and in gardens. He went where people were living their lives, and was able to introduce them to a loving God that the new very well. After all, he was His son.

Saturday Morning

2008-12-06T11:23:00.000-08:00

My plan for Saturday was to try to clear out the house so I could work on the message I am sharing Sunday morning, well fortunately I got some work done on it yesterday, because that sure didn't happen. Friday night, we had three extra kids staying the night. Kate had a friend over, and Michael had two. Melissa needed to be at a Women's Breakfast by 8:30, and I needed to have Michael and one of his friends at soccer by 9:00, so we were all up and out of the house at 8:30. We dropped Melissa off at her breakfast, got Michael and his friends to soccer (the other friend wanted to stay and watch), and then Kate, Rhea, and I headed to breakfast where we met up with another of Kate's friends and her dad, and Dustin. Breakfast was not the best experience, it was the first time to try a place close to the soccer field. After breakfast we picked Michael and Kate back up headed home where we were joined by two more girls, and two more boys. The boys jumped in the pool for a while while the girls played in the house, and the picture at the kitchen counter is them getting lunch, a salami and cheese sandwhiches with avocadoes and chips. The picture at the bottom is all of them somehow enjoying playing a computer game. As I'm typing this up three more girls have come over, so we are up to six girls and five boys.

Even though it wasn't the day I had planned it has been a good day, and somewhat typical around here!

What did you do today?

2008-10-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

So, I don't have a typical 9 to 5 job. When people come visit us, they like to know what a typical day is like. I've said several times, there is no typical day. Today was a good example. I got up this morning and worked from home. Melissa is working with a short-term team this week. So she had activities with them this morning. The kids, Kate and Michael (our foster child), didn't want to go, so I planned on staying home with them. When Melissa was leaving Michael decided he did want to go, so he and Melissa headed off to the tent-school. I worked on some of the mission payroll and personnel issues, worked on a grant for some funding for our school in Bombita for a Canadian organization, answered e-mails to the Orlando office, and personal e-mails too, and completed some worked related to child sponsorship. I know it's exciting. Melissa and Michael came home for lunch. During a lunch conversation had an idea for a blog post (not this one--hopefully I'll get to it this week). Then we headed off to school. Michael and Kate both attend the afternoon session, so school for us starts at 1:50. Melissa had a meeting scheduled for the afternoon, so we all headed out. Now, dropping the kids off for school requires a small detour through the neighborhood of Policlinica where we pick up about 10 kids and take them to school. So we head to school singing along to the CD in the car. The CD is in English, and the kids love two of the songs on the CD so we listen to them everyday as they sing along with their own version. You may not have known it, but one line of the song "Every Move I Make" is "taca taca taca". Okay, you probably sing it "I take I take in you," but not in our truck!! We drop the kids off at school, pick up our mail from Agape flight, that we normally pick up in town, but a neighbor dropped it off at the school for us. Them Melissa and I head to the Health Center, where Melissa has a meeting, and I need to get material for an afternoon training. I meet Kathy LoSasso (fellow missionary) at the Health Center, and we head to Bombita for an afternoon training with the volunteer community health promoters. We have scheduled to meet with them for training on the monthly weighing of community children that are five years and younger. We have a great time with the promoters practicing with the scales and growth charts. We head back to the Health Center to pick up Melissa, I have a few minutes to talk to the Doctor to see how the afternoon clinic went and then we go to pick up the kids. For some reason the number of kids we are taking home this afternoon doubled from the morning. We head back home amid a chorus of "taca taca taca". Melissa, Kate, Michael, and I head to dinner before church, we eat in a small local restaurant in Charamicos, just down the street from our home. Melissa and the kids head to the house to get ready for church, and I take a motoconcho back to the school so I can hand out keys to the men that drive the trucks we send out to pick people up for church, and I am driving the truck to Bombita tonight. I get in the truck, it is low on gas, so I swing through the gas station to get gas, and it is going to be a 20 minute wait, because the gas truck is filling up the tanks and evidently they can't run the tanks and fill them at the same time. I am running a little early, so I decide to grab a Dr. Pepper (the store stocks them occasionally) and wait. I get my gas, and go pick up the people from Bombita. We head to church, enjoy a night of the kids singing. I am able to talk to a few of the church members about some problems they are having and encourage them. Then we make the return trip to Bombita. I swing back by the school, to drop the other drivers off where they can catch a public car (taxi) home. I get home, and get a call from one of the members from the short-term team that they are having a medical emergency. I ask the hotel to call a local doctor, and head to the hotel to help out. Thankfully it was a minor issue and resolved without the 30 minute drive and a night spent in the ER. Get home, chat with Melissa, and decide to type up what happened during the day. And now I'm going to bed excited about what tomorrow holds!

Myth Busters

2008-08-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

I find it an obligation to bust a myth. I have recently come to understand that I have been misled and lied to my entire life. This deception started in preschool, and has been propelled by the liberal media machine. Be careful, because you and your children are being misled as well.

So, to set the record straight, roosters do not wake up just before the sun rises, and crow to welcome a new day. It is just not true. I have believed all my life, that these barnyard alarm clocks were created for this sole purpose. Nursery rhymes, cartoons, movies had all lead me to believe in the philanthropic nature of roosters, Nature's wake up call.

Well, I now know first hand that roosters crow whatever time of the day or night they choose. The one that lives behind our house enjoys midnight or 3:00 am, and then chooses to ignore the rising sun. Now, you may think, as I did, that it is an isolated incident, that he is simply choosing his own way casting aside years of rooster heritage. But then how do you explain the rooster down the street that answers his call any time of the day or night. You can't!

It's a big rooster conspiracy, and I'm busting it wide open.

Anybody want to come over for dinner tomorrow night? We're having chicken.

A Typical Shopping Day

2008-06-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

We went to Puerto Plata Saturday so Josh (the guy from our home church that's living with us for a couple of months) could buy some new tennis shoes. I had a couple of things I was looking for as well. Puerto Plata is about 25 minutes away and is a much larger town that Sosua. It's not huge, but it's got a Burger King...in a gas station... The closest McDonald's is 2 hours away. So, we decided to try Burger King, our first time in the year that we've lived here. It looked like a Burger King from the States, even smelled and tasted like one, and at first glance you'd have thought that the only difference was that the menu was in Spanish. But when we ordered the lady standing behind the cash register took our order but didn't key anything in. Then she repeated our order to make sure that she had it right, walked away to some other cash register out of sight (or maybe just an adding machine or a scrap of paper??), and returned to tell us our total. I just found that a bit odd. Then as we were eating, one of the employees came out from behind the counter with a couple hundred pesos and put them down on a guys table without saying a word. I said, "Hey, you can come put some money on our table." John told me that it was his change. When he had paid they didn't have change for his 500 bill (about $15). I don't know why I still find that hard to believe since it happens ALL THE TIME. You pay for a 70 peso item with a 100 peso bill and they don't have the change! Often times the cashier or shopkeeper will pull money out of their own pocket to try to make change. Or, as we've blogged about before, they'll give you a cough drop or candy or gum as change. And speaking of, our next stop was to a little junky store a lot like Dollar General. I did find a couple of things I couldn't live without and when I paid she was 5 pesos short on my change so she gave me 2 hair clips!! As we were walking out the door something caught John's eye that he wanted to get. So when he paid he called to me and asked if I had 5 pesos...No, but I can give you the 2 hairclips she just gave me!

We made it to the sports store and didn't find shoes for Josh but he did find a basketball. It was a little flat though so we asked the guy if he'd pump it up before we bought it. He said "Sure" and reached to the rack where the pumps they have for sell were hanging, took one down, pumped up the ball, and put it back on the rack! We decided we weren't sure what else we'd need our pesos for and since they accepted credit cards, we'd pay for the ball with our debit card. The machine had some malfunction so they had to pull a phone from some other part of the store and plug it and the machine in together so it would work. It was quite the shopping day!

I was thinking about how truly "Dominican" these experiences are and that I wanted to share them with you. Then last night I tried to purchase tickets for our trip to the States in July. I can't do it online this time because we each have a $60 travel voucher and you can't use those online. (So you have to call, and that adds an additional $10 to your ticket price...don't get me started!) So, everything was going good. She asked me the value of the voucher and then went on to get my credit card number and some other information. I thought it was odd that she didn't ask for the voucher number to verify the amount. Then at what I thought was the end of the process she said, "Now, we'll need you to mail in that voucher to us and it'll need to be postmarked by June 12th. Well, with the way our mail runs that's a near impossibility. After explaining the situation she recommended that I go to the airport to purchase the tickets. Fortunately, it's not far away at all. But all I could think was, "I have to mail it to you?! Are you serious? You can't just type in a number and pull it up in your system?" So, maybe my experiences from earlier in the day weren't so uniquely "Dominican"!!

~Melissa~

Go to the Top

2008-05-30T06:16:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God by David McCasland. It is a biography of Oswald Chambers (greetings from Captain Obvious). It's an amazing story and I have a whole new respect for the little devotional My Utmost for His Highest that I dust off every few years. In reading this, I came across a quote of Oswald Chambers, "You see, I believe that Jesus Christ our Lord has all power in heaven and on earth; do you? I find most people believe that He has all the power in heaven, but are not sure about earth."

This quote just stirred something with in me. And lead me to search the scriptures that support this statement. Where does it say that Jesus has all the power in heaven and earth? I mean, I knew it was in there, but I wanted to read it for myself straight from the source. I found myself reading in Ephesians, I've been spending a lot of time there lately, and I came to Ephesians 1:19-23. I love the way it is worded in The Message

Ephesians 1:19-23

Oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him - endless energy, boundless strength! All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

Then, I was preparing to share in our Sunday morning English-speaking service. Now, when God and I agreed on this Dominican thing, I clearly remember one of my stipulations regarding sharing messages on Sunday mornings, or more specifically, not sharing messages. What had planted the seed about being a missionary was the combination of administrative and social work needs that is a great match with my skills and education. Preaching wasn't supposed to be on the table; however, the needs of the English church are such that Melisa and I each share on the occasional Sunday morning. So, as last Sunday was approaching the Chambers' quote and Ephesians 1 were on my mind. To top it off, God threw in a few issues the week before speaking that I thought I would try handling myself, but quickly realized were outside of my abilities to handle, but they I had to turn them over to him.

Also last week, I attempted to set up the mission phone and electric bills to be paid on line. Which, for you North Americans, it probably sounds like it should be an easy process. You probably thought, "You have to do something to set up on-line bill payment?" Well, actually, it requires coordination of our local bank and the electric company. Then it requires the coordination of the local bank with the phone company. Needless, to say it hasn't happened. The Electric company seemed like the easies, so I set up an online account, listed the bank accounts, and now, over a week later, I'm waiting for the pending confirmation, a process that should take 24-48 hours, according to the information online. Well, I decided to call the bank, to check on the confirmation, because they have to confirm that I have entered the correct information. The bank told me I had to talk to the electric company, and when I called the electric company I was told I had to talk to the bank. All, I wanted was some good ol' customer service. I just wanted to talk to someone who had the ability and the authority to make the changes that.

So, I shared these thoughts and experiences with our Sunday morning church. And I asked a few questions:

Are there areas in your life, or problems you face that you are trying to control with your limited power?

What limits does God have on what he has the power to change?

Okay, so this one was a rhetorical question. There is no limit to what God can change.

What limits do we place on what God hast the ability, power, and authority to change?

Through this message, I feel that the primary way we limit God's power to change things is by trying to do it ourselves, using our limited power and ability, instead of Christ's unlimited authority, power, and ability. I know that I often get a, "I can handle this myself" mentality. Most of the time, it is not a conscious thought. I don't think. I have two choices here, I can do it within my own, feeble limited strength and authority, or I can allow Christ in his full authority and power to handle it, and so I pick "me."

Normally it is based on habit, my first instinct tends to be on what I can do, and it isn't until my efforts fail, that I think, "Oh, wait a minute, I have this other option, Christ is in charge of everything, why don't I see if he can take a swing at it."

I'm trying to switch that around so that I first turn to God, without trying it on my own first and then waiting until I mess it all up before I give it over to him.

Those were my thoughts, from the experience in customer service of just wanting to talk to someone that had the power and authority to change things, to realizing how often I forget I have direct access to the most powerful, the one with the highest authority. Oh, and if you need one more scripture Matthew 28:18, Christ says it himself, "All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me." So, why not face this coming week seeking the one at the top of it all?

One Year

2008-05-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, May 20^th, marked our one year anniversary in the DR. All day long I kept thinking, “This time last year we were...on a plane...driving to our home...having our first dinner with the other missionaries...” It's wild to think that it's been a year. As the date was approaching I tried to come up with a list of things I've learned in this year:

I can live without air conditioning, a dryer, a microwave, and Chick-Fil-A sandwiches!
Hugs and tears are a powerful language.
Kids are kids no matter where you are.
Keeping in touch with friends and family is more difficult than we thought.
Do things while you can because you never know when the power might go out!
Vanilla is a good mosquito repellent.
Church 3 and sometimes 4 times a week really isn't that bad!
Everything about us was made to be here.

I asked Kate last night what was her favorite thing about living here and she answered, “The food!” Lovely! About a month ago she drew a picture of herself and titled it “Kate, la Princesa de la Republica Dominicana”--Kate, the princess of the Dominican Republic. She is doing great learning the language and living a happy life. I am so grateful for her ease in transitions. I am also grateful for the friendships we've made, the miracles we've seen, the people we have the privilege to minister to on a daily basis. We couldn't ask for more!

~Melissa~

Kate's Birthday - A Belated Post

2008-04-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

This is Melissa's First Blog Posting. However, I never got around to posting it when I should have in March. Better Late than Never.

Friday night at our church service 2 girls I know very well came up and started to ask me a question. Then they pulled another girl, who I'd seen before but really don't know, into the conversation and asked if I could bring a cake to them the next day. We had just moved to a new home, and I had a lot of unpacking to do and John and Rhonda were coming in that next day. But how could I say "no" to a cake. I asked what time they needed it. 4pm. Ok, I could definitely do that! Then they told me that it needed to go to the house of the girl I didn't know that well. I figured it must be for her birthday. I was a little confused when they mentioned another child. For a second I thought that maybe they were telling me that it was his birthday but I knew we'd already celebrated his birthday a couple of months ago. Since the entire conversation was in Spanish I didn't ask any more questions...just brushed it off as a misunderstanding on my part! Well, the next day I made a cake and cupcakes, decorated them, and took them to the girls. Several girls met me at the truck. Their first question was "Y Kate?" (and Kate? Where is she?) She was playing with George and Jeanne's grandkids who are here for 5 months. Some of the girls ran off with the cake, but one stayed behind. I was about to get in the truck and head back home to do some more unpacking, but something made me ask, "So, who is this party for?" The girl said, "Kate" Huh? Kate? Are you kidding me?! I am soooo glad I asked. Imagine if I'd hopped in the truck and driven off!

Then the other girls came running back and asked me for help. I thought they were asking me to help blow up balloons but I quickly realized that they wanted to go shopping with me to buy balloons. So we got permission from the parents and headed off to the store, where we picked out balloons and headed to the checkout. But they said, "We need chips...and soda...and cheese." Whoa! Chips and soda will be enough. But as I was finishing paying one of the girls asked, "What does Kate like to eat, cheese or salami?" I said, "She likes both", so off they ran to get both. So, I checked out a second time, looked at my watch and realized that I had to get the girls back so I could get back home to pick Kate and John and go to the airport to get John and Rhonda. On the way I explained to them about Kate's grandparents coming in and that we would have to postpone the party until 6:00. Fast forward an hour or so, we told Kate that we were going out to dinner but had to make a quick stop first. When we drove up kids came running. I asked Kate, "Do you know what this is? It's a surprise party for you!" She was thrilled. A group of 5 or 6 girls ran the whole party. They brought out drinks and plates of food...chips, cheese and salami on toothpicks, crackers, popcorn. It was quite a feast. And quite a special party. When we got home Kate said, "I've always wanted a surprise party." What a memorable first birthday in the Dominican! And what a lesson--when asked to bake a cake, always ask who it's for!

Habichuelas con dulce (Sweet creamed beans)

2008-03-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

We are currently at the end of Semana Santa (Holy Week) here in the Dominican Republic. Easter week, the Dominican Republic comes to an even slower crawl. Schools are closed, business have reduced hours, and Friday through Sunday you will be hard pressed to find an open business. Traffic laws are stepped up, and the police presence on the street is very noticeable. Because, ironically, because accidents are more likely due to the increased drinking. Another interesting tradition during Holy Week is a traditional dish, Habichuelas con Dulce, or Sweet Creamed Beans, three words that I never imagined together. Here is recipe I got off of Dominicancooking.com, so that you don't think I'm just making this stuff up.

Habichuelas con Dulce is one of Dominican's most cherished traditions. It is prepared in Easter in large quantities and shared with relatives and neighbors.

Time: 60 Mins
Difficulty: Advanced
Serve: 6 people

Before starting to cook: Cut the sweet potatoes into small cubes. Boil with a teaspoon of salt until tender. Put the beans and the water through the blender. Strain the beans to get rid of the skin.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of raisins
2 teaspoons of butter
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cups of boiled red kidney beans
2 cup of water from boiling the beans
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of coconut milk
3 cups of evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Cassava bread (may be omitted)
1/2 lb of sweet potatoes
10 cloves
1 cup of milk cookies (may be omitted)

Preparation:

Put the beans, the coconut milk and half the milk in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the rest of the milk, sugar, raisins and sweet potatoes and let boil medium heat for 10 minutes. Stir regularly to avoid sticking. Add the rest of the ingredients and boil to the desired consistency.
Spread butter on the cassava bread, sprinkle with salt and put in the oven until it turns golden brown.
Serve the beans chilled with the cassava on the side. Put cookies on top of the beans.

So, if any of you have would like to whip up a batch, you can experience a taste of the DR. I have to say it is actually surprisingly tasty.

Melissa was introduced to the specialty this time last year, when we were down looking for a house, at a church member's home in Bombita. A visit I missed. Melissa is not what I would call an adventurous eater, but when you are sitting in someone's home and they offer you a glass full, it is very difficult to say no. So, she tried what she thought was a drink, and actually enjoyed. She was a little shocked that a piece of banana was floating in it, but she managed to be polite. However, she really didn't believe that it was a bean drink until the lady went to the kitchen and brought out the dried beans to end any language barrier. This year, we bought a few cups of the beans in front of the house of one of the church kids, that had set up a little Lemonade stand, and she was selling her mom's Habichuelas con Dulce. We have been given a few jars from friends, and are able to enjoy it in small servings.

Una Via - One Way

2008-02-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

Imagine that you live in a town that is full of one-way streets. It's a small town you've lived in for about 8 months and you've learned the way around town. You have standard routes you take on a daily basis, and now rarely think twice about how you get from point A to point B. Then, you wake up one morning, drive into town to find that overnight they have changed all the one-way streetsto the opposite direction. Welcome to Sosua!!

Melissa and I have recently found ourselves relearning our little town. The local law enforcement has decided to make unofficial one-way streets official, change the directions of other one-way streets, and turn streets that had been two-way traffic into one-way streets. I've come to a few intersections that seemed to indicate I couldn't turn left, right, or turn around and go backwards. Add the local tradition where the majority consider traffic laws optional and you can understand the local street scene the past few days.

We've come to find out that the seemingly unwarranted sprucing up of our little town may have been prompted by a visit by the president of the Dominican Republic as part of a campaign stop to inaugurate the refurbishment of a local public school. The visit was subsequently postponed and then eventually canceled. However, the potential visit prompted several last minute work projects and the completion of other projects where progress had been stalled.

I was reminded of the attitude some people have, when they think they will wait to spruce up their own life, or their relationship with God only when it seemed there was no other way to avoid a meeting with him. I was also reminded that our eventual meeting Him will not be canceled or postponed. I'm glad to know that Christ has already done all the sprucing up in my life. He and I do a little street maintenance and road improvement from time to time, but it's the work of Christ that has prepared me for the eventual face to face meeting

God's changed a few one way streets in our life, or actually removed some road blocks. Melissa and I have found ourselves singing at one of the Spanish churches. Those of you that may have had the unfortunate experience of hearing us sing will attest that we are not on our way to a recording contract, but more apt to be on the Best of the Worst American Idol auditions. However, we meet in Bombita with a faithful group of believers on Sunday nights, and they enjoy singing and are not concerned with such trivial things as keys, notes, tunes, tones and other bothersome musical norms. We make a joyful noise! Melissa and I continue to speak occasionally...this past week Melissa shared a message at a local Spanish-speaking congregation with the help of an interpreter (this time). I also shared this past Sunday as part of our English-speaking worship service. While this is not our primary role in ministry, and one we would have gladly avoided in the past, we are both learning to enjoy these opportunities that God provides to help us stretch and grow. We are also praying that God is stretching you. We'd love to hear what He's doing in your life.

This Wasn't In The Job Description

2007-11-28T17:28:00.000-08:00

For those of you that have ever had a job description, there was probably a disclaimer at the bottom that says something along the lines of, “and other duties as assigned.” Well, evidently God has a similar disclaimer. Tonight, I found myself on a city planning committee. That's right a committee. We received a notice that there was going to be a meeting at the City Hall regarding paving and repairing the road that runs along the main school campus in Sosua. I attended this meeting along with one of our school teachers, and we learned of a plan to repave the road; however, the question is how it will be paid for. According to the mayor, the city can only cover 20% and the rest will come from the residents of the road. This includes, our school program, a private school, several hundred private homes, a hotel, and several apartments. In this meeting it was decided that the large group was not going to be an effective way to resolve the issue, so they created a road committee, and wanted representation from our school, since there was not a representative from the other school. We got a call this morning that there was going to be a committee meeting. So tonight, Gloria, the school director, and I went to our first committee meeting. We were there with about eight other committee members, the mayor, and two of his staff. Tasks were delegated out, which we fortunately avoided at the mayors directions, because he didn't want to burden us, and we scheduled another meeting, which we offered to host at the school. They have actually moved the meetings up a few weeks so as not to conflict with my families plan to be on furlough. I really am not sure why I am part of the committee, but it is interesting. There are three primary languages, Spanish, German, and English. There are people on the committee that seem to have a different primary language, but one of these three can serve as a common language. The Mayor has two interpreters, one that translates Spanish & German, and another that translates Spanish & English. It is somewhat comical. Many of the committee members speak two of the languages, so the conversation shifts from Spanish to English to German with no warning. At the conclusion of the meeting we talked in small groups, and one of the guys mentioned the fact that it is interesting that with all the problems in the area we are discussing how to get a better road, which allowed me to share the mission and vision of New Missions and specifically the school affected by the road improvements. Again, I'm not sure why I am part of this committee, except that I don't want us the school to shoulder any unfair burden to have the road fixed. Something, that we have not asked for, and aren't sure we want, because it slows down traffic on the road. But, I want the Mayor to know that we want to be of service and be involved in the community. Missionary life is anything but boring, and with that disclaimer on my job description, it doesn't look like it ever will.

Baptism and Body Surfing

2007-11-05T19:09:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a very special day. Aeng Jin Lee, had traveled from Canada to be baptized Mrs. Lee's daughter Kim and her husband Gerry have traveled to the Dominican Republic on several occasions, on their second trip they found New Life Church, the English-speaking ministry of New Missions in the DR. They have made New Life Church a regular stop on their trips to the DR. As they were planning this trip, Kim's mother said that she wanted to be baptized in the ocean. Mrs. Lee is turning 90 soon. She has been a Christian for many years. She had been introduced to Christianity as a child, and remembers a Christian missionary in North Korea encouraging her to sing. However, as an adult, she practiced Buddhism, but converted to Christianity before moving to Canada over 20 years ago. However, she had never been baptized Kim and Gerry contacted Pastor George and Jeanne to discuss the possibility of her mother being baptized in the DR. We have been planning for this day for about a month, but Pastor George and Jeanne had to return home sooner than expected and were unable to officiate the baptism, and the honor came to me. Some of the background to the trip, first of all Mrs. Lee made the robe she was baptized in for this occasion. She bathed for three-hours before their trip, because she did not know that she would have access to a bath or shower during the trip. She had thought she would be sleeping on the floor or in a hut. She came any way, and was determined to be baptized in the DR. Her friends cautioned her fearing for her health and safety. She responded to them, "I'd rather die attempting to get there, than to not even attempt it." Wow, what a message of obedience!!! I decided that I wanted to baptize her in her native language, Mrs. Lee speaks very limited English, so I contacted a Korean Church in the States. The person who I spoke with not only sent me a phonetic pronunciation, but attached a sound file. I was able to say "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" in Korean. I practiced with Kim several times as well. We had a nice beach side service; however, the waves were a little rougher than normal as the aftermath of Tropical Storm Noel. We got out to the water with some splashes in our face, as we turned around for the baptism, one wave went over our heads. As we went backwards for the baptism, the water became very shallow, a sign to what was coming. We came back up and steadied ourselves for a few seconds, but were suddenly toppled by the next wave. Mrs. Lee went under, and Kim was pushed to the shore. Mrs. Lee came up laughing, and once we quickly got to the beach, she was hugging and laughing, and all smiles. She said, that she hopes to live to be 120, and she will never forget her baptism as long as she lives. Gerry tells me after the baptism that neither Kim nor Mrs. Lee can swim, and that they are actually afraid of the water. You would have never known. It was a great honor to be involved in this event, and I believe this is just the first of many baptisms we will participate in here in the DR.

Placas y Revistas

2007-11-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

I've had a Dominican week. We were told several times before moving here that things take longer to accomplish, and if you accomplish one thing in a day, it has been a great day. With all the warnings it really has not been as bad as it seemed, but this week made up for it. The National Government announced early October that vehicle stickers would be available throughout October. Well, October was full of two short-term teams and several events which prevented following up on the vehicle stickers. This week, I finally had some time to devote to the stickers, and we started the process of renewing our Revistas. Well, come to find out, revistas are like vehicle inspections stickers. Heather and Lisselotte purchased the necessary paperwork to renew the stickers. You have to have a Dominican cedula (residency) to purchase the form to get a revista. Ponder the fact that a cedula is not required to purchase a car, and that might shed some light on the week. This took several trips to the bank (yes the bank, not just any bank, one specific bank) because you can only purchase two at a time. We were renewing seven vehicles including both personal and ministry vehicles. Fortunately, Lisselotte knew the person (a phrase I will be using often in the story, so let's call this #1) and we were able to purchase all of them in two trips. So, the next day, Lisselotte and I head to the tax collectors office in Sosua where Lisselotte knows the person (#2) and were told we had to go to Puerto Plata, twenty minutes away for the stickers. We head to Puerto Plata, turn into a very DMV looking building and are stopped by a man at the front desk. He follows us out to my personal truck, and then asks where the other vehicles are, because he needs to check them, by the way, this is when I found out revistas are inspection stickers, I thought I was just paying a tax. Did I say this is October 30th and we have been informed that all the stickers expire on October 31st, and you can be fined our have your vehicle impounded. There is no way that I can get all seven vehicles to Puerta Plata before the office closes. The guy informs us that for a special handling fee (read that however you would like) he will process all of the paperwork. Lisellotte handles the details, we go back to the table, the paperwork starts being processed. So, my assumption is that after the paperwork is finished I will go in the office and pay the per vehicle tax, but they hand us the Revistas, and we head to the car with our new friend, and pay the special handling fee. We don't have to pay the tax? Wow, that saved a significant amount of money, WRONG!! We head back to Sosua thinking we have accomplished our task with great success, and go about our day. The next morning Heather calls and she had learned this morning, that the tax is paid at a second bank, and we need to get that taken care of. So, keep in mind, this is the last day we can pay the tax. The line in Sosua is out of the bank on to the street, so we head to Puerto Plata, again, where we have been told the lines are shorter. We got to Puerto Plata, and the line is no longer shorter. It is know about 12:00, and the bank closes at 3. This line will not be gone by three. I call Heather, she goes to the bank in Sosua to wait in line until we get there. We stand and wait, and they close off the line, because they are out of forms. WHAT???? They tell us there has been a fifteen day extension, whew. Lisellotte talks to someone that she knows that is standing outside (#3), and is informed that this process is only for personal vehicles, that vehicles owned by an organization have a simpler process, they just go straight to the tax office. Great!!! We head to the tax office, and are informed it can only be handled at the regional office in . . . Puerto Plata!!! Well, the adventure is going to have to wait until the next day, and so will the story. More to Come!!

I forgot I've got avocadoes in my purse

2007-10-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

We were getting ready for bed last night, and when Melissa finished brushing her teeth she said, "I forgot, I've got avocoadoes in my purse." She heads out of the room, to put the avocadoes in a place they will ripen. Now, why am I writting about avocadoes, it is just another part of our life here I wanted to share. Most every week we are given gifts from members of the Spanish-speaking church. Mainly fruit, often avocadoes, chinola (passion fruit), or mangoes when they were in season. These are great gifts from people that have very little to give. It reminds me of the widow's mite. Many of the ladies in the church that give us these gifts are caring for their children, and their children's children. I don't see how they have enough for themsevles, let alone to think to share with us. Melissa and I have been touched by the giving-spirit of many of the people here. We are blessed each time we receive these precious gifts.

Using Your Gifts on the Mission Field

2007-10-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

When Elizabeth Vasquez signed up to go on a short-term mission trip to the Dominican Republic, she asked her friends coordinating the trip, what she should put down as skills, since she did not feel she had any skills appropriate for the mission field. Elizabeth is an Epidemiologist with a Master Degree in Public Health working in New York, completing her dissertation for her PhD.. Little did she know that she had the exact skills we have been looking for to start an outreach to local doctors on the North Coast, providing them access to professionals able to provide seminars on their field of expertise. We were able to invite the local doctors to hear Elizabeth, a Dominican-born, Spanish-speaking, health professional present information pertinent to their local practices. The physicians enjoyed a wonderful evening of professional camaraderie. While I was talking to one of the physicians, he stated, you never see even five physicians in one room together. He shared that they are rarely able to meet together and share information with one another. He said that a lot of good information was provided during the evening and he was grateful for the opportunity to meet with his colleagues. Not only, did they receive som3 great information, they had a wonderful Italian dinner to top off the evening. All of the doctors that attended are looking forward to our next gathering.

Making Change

2007-09-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad are in town. We spent the day with a short-term team that is here for a week. This morning we went to Policlinica and this afternoon we spent the day at Pastor Domingo's house just enjoying time with his family and letting the team get to know him and his family. They have a river behind their home that we splashed in, and hung out playing dominoes and eating guacamole. But, that's not today's story.

Hanley Wiki:

Policlinica - a neighborhood near the Iglesia Nueva Vida tent where a large number of church members live. At one point it was going to be a Clinic, a small hospital, but it was never completed. Following a natural disaster in which many peoples homes were flooded, the government moved them to this area. Thus the neighborhood of Policlinica was born.

After dropping the team off at the hotel we decided to get pico pollo, grilled/rotisserie chicken sold at little stands throughout town. One of our favorites we call "Poli-Chicken" because it is near Policlinica. Unfortunately, the only denomination of peso we had was a 1000 peso bill, about 30 dollars. Well, a whole chicken with yuca is only $200 pesos (about $7). I knew breaking a 1000 was going to be trouble, so when I ordered I asked, "Can you change 1000", they checked and decided they couldn't. However, there was a white truck parked down the street that sales bottled cokes and water to the little restaurants, and the chicken vendor say, "Go ask him, he has money." So I walked down the street, waited for him to finish a conversation, and asked, "Can you change 1000". He checked and said no, but he told me that he needed to collect a bill from a restaurant, and if they paid he would have change. So, I waited for him to go collect his bill. When he returned he told me that they didn't pay today. I returned to Poli-chicken with my 1000 pesos. The vendor suggested the grocery store, the other direction. I went to the grocery store, and they told me that they could give me to 500 peso bills. So, with my two 500 peso bills I returned to Poli-chicken. The assistant chicken vendor, pulled all the bills out to change my 500, and had to take some coins from her back pocket to change my $500 for the chicken. So now, having worked up an appetite we went home to enjoy some tasty chicken!!!

For more pictures of the day, click on the album below:

Day with team at Domingos

Day Trip to Jarabacoa

2007-09-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

We took a day trip to Jarabacoa (Hair-uh-buh-coa) with two other families. This town is about three hours south of Sosua, and is in the mountains. We started the day at 8:00, when we all met, and left around 8:40. We got to Jarabacoa around 11:30. We did not have directions to the place we were going, but stopped at a small gas station and called the number we had. A one-eyed motorconcho driver met us at the gas station and led us to Rancho Jarabacoa, and recreational area owned by the cousin of church members. This Rancho had an area to swim in the river, horses, ping-pong table, pool table, dominoes, and a restaurant. For a set price we were able to eat, be driven to a waterfall, and take a horse ride, as well as use all of the equipment on site. We played a few games of ping-pong, pool, and dominoes as we waited for lunch to be ready. We had a typical Dominican Lunch of salad, rice and beans, and either chicken or pork. After lunch we were driven to the waterfall. We spent close to two hours climbing rocks, swimming in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, and exploring the river. When we got back to the Rancho, there was a small thunderstorm, unfortunately it did not clear up in time for us to ride the horses. We just played games and drank coffee at the Rancho until it was time to get on the road. We really enjoyed the day. It was nice to see a different part of the island. It was also, very cool, a nice break from the heat of the coast. You should be able to see more pictures of our day here.

Are you sinning tonight?

2007-09-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

Well, that wasn't my intended question, but it was the one I asked someone tonight.

The Spanish Lesson:

There is just a slight difference in the verbs to preach and to sin.

To Sin - pecar
To Preach - predicar

Well, they look a lot different than when you say then. Then go to the next step and make it the ing form of the verbs and you get pecando and predicando.

The Story:

For the Friday night church services, two of the pastors, a church member, and I drive big trucks to four different neighborhoods to pick people up for church. I arrived to hand out the keys and one of the pastors, Domingo, was already there. He normally wears a nice shirt and pants, but tonight he had on a tie, and so I asked, "Estas pecando?" The strange look on his face let me know that I had made a mistake. I quickly reviewed the phrase in my head and realized my error. If only I had asked him if he was fishing, pescando, instead. Oh, well, we shared a good laugh.

Normal Day?

2007-09-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

I've been asked what a normal day is like for me here in the Dominican Republic. The truth is that I have not had two days alike yet. The past 24 hours are an excellent example. Monday night I met with two families that have been having a dispute, which led to a physical fight primarily among three girls. The two families agreed to meet at the church with the pastor, myself, and Heather, another missionary. I basically led a four-hour group therapy, discipleship, conflict resolution, bible study session. That's right, about fifteen of us sat in a circle at the tent in Bombita. We spent four hours discussing forgiveness. It was really very powerful. Instead of simply reading bible passages and discussing them abstractly, we were able to discuss how to implement them in this situation. Did I mention that it was in Spanish. Heather and I had attempted to intervene the night before during the two-hours we spent with them Sunday after church, but we were overwhelmed with the Spanish, and the families were too heated to slow down for us. We invited and interpreter to assist us on Monday night. The meeting lasted until 10. Heather took me home. She is borrowing Becky's car while Becky is on furlough. Becky's car was backfiring and just not cooperating, so I followed Heather home in my truck to make sure she got home safely. Heather lives below Pastor George and Jeanne who were on their front porch when we arrived. So I went up and spent about an hour talking with them. It was close to midnight when I got home.

I decided not to go to Tuesday morning prayer, but woke up at 7:30 anyway because the workers building the house next door were bantering back and forth. Melissa, Kate, and I spent most of the morning responding to e-mail, writing letters, and catching up on paper work. We had lunch, curry chicken and potatoes over rice, and got Kate to school by 1:50. After dropping Kate off at school we ran our errands. We parked in front of the copy center downtown to make copies of invitations for a Health Center meeting in Bombita this Thursday. We then walked down the block to pay my cell phone bill. We returned to the truck and drove to the bank so we could deposit our rent check in our landlords account. Walked next door to get some fresh juice, and across the street to see if the small electronics and home appliance store in town had a curling iron, and then walked back across to a small condominium complex to see if we could find an American man that had visited the Friday night tent service. We didn't find him and walked back to our truck. We then drove to the Supermarket so that we could pay our home phone and Internet bill. We took the time to buy a few odds-and-ends that we needed. I dropped Melissa back off at the house and returned to Bombita. I got there around 3:30. I began going door-to-door to hand out the invitations for the Health Center meeting. My first stop lasted twenty minutes as I was offered a seat and chatted with the family, which happened to be one of the families from the previous night. I turned down the offer of coffee so that I could get the rest of the houses visited. Most houses offered me a seat, some I took, others I had to politely decline. I managed to visit about 20 homes before five o'clock. Now if you are picturing a paved street with evenly spaced homes along a straight city-bock, that is not at all the picture. It is a unpaved dirt road, with more pot holes than flat spaces. I would park off the side of the road and walk to many of the homes. Some homes are behind others, and I had to follow paths to get to them. One of the homes is at least a five minute drive away from all the others. I had to stop at 5, because tomorrow Melissa and I are going to Santiago. On Wednesday Nights I normally drive one of the big trucks to pick people in Bombita up for church, but a friend, Joe is going to make the run for me. However, he had never been down Bombita before so I needed to go pick him up, show him the route, drop him back off at home, and go pick Kate up at school by 5:30. I got a call from Melissa that I was taking Heather home as well. So I picked Kate and Heather up, dropped Heather at her house, and went home. We were home long enough for Kate to change clothes and Melissa, Kate, and I went to dinner. We went to a new restaurant we heard about, and enjoyed a roasted turkey leg, 1/2 a baked, chicken, and a hamburger. I also had fresh pear-pineapple juice. The restaurant is open air with a palm thatch roof right on the main road. We returned home and spent some time on the phone with people in the States including my parents, to check on our house closing today!!! Then I sat down and typed this blog post. So was this a normal day? Since for me each day is different, then I guess it is pretty normal. A day that I do the same thing I did the day before will be very different. Tomorrow I have to visit about 15 more houses in Bombita, while Melissa does some work at the school, and we are going to be driving to Santiago where we will be spending the night so that we can work with Agape Flights Thursday Morning.

Chicken Poop and Pastors

2007-08-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

I was in Redemption Village visiting Pastor Alejandro and his family.

HANLEYWIKI - Redemption Village is a mostly Haitian village where New Missions sponsors a school program. There are about 200 homes, and they are all cinder block homes approximately 12 foot by 12 foot divided in the middle. Some have been added to while others the owners have divided in half and rented the other side to another family.

Pastor Alejandro and his wife Noelia, have five children. He is Dominican and pastors a Spanish-speaking church we hope to visit this Saturday. I have been visiting the three pastors that have churches in Redemption Village to begin planning the Health Center programs in this area. I was visiting with Alejandro with Kate and Melissa. There was a baby chick running around on the floor, and Pastor Alejandro picked it up and handed it to Kate so that she could hold it. As we were talking Kate and the kids were playing with the chick, and eventually Kate handed it to me. Melissa and I were talking outside the home on the way to the truck, and yep that Chicken pooped on my shirt. It's all in a days work here in the DR.

Quick Update

2007-08-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to fill everyone in on, and really need to be working on a newsletter, but the animal update is:

Rats holding steady at 4, we are not counting the ones outside
Snakes up 1 to 7
Bats making a surge by 2 up to 3 Bats.

The most recent bat was not lucky enough to escape unharmed, one of our cats grabbed it before it could find it's way out of the house.

So we have:
Snakes 7
Rats 4
Bats 3

Rats and Snakes and a new Contestant

2007-07-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

Sounds like the first season of Survivor, wow I'm a geek. Anyway, this is a game we play in our new home. When we moved in, the house came with two cats that Kate has named Chico and Chica, for Spanish language aficionados, this translates to boy and girl. We are very original. The previous tenants brought the cats home to keep the rats out of the house. They told us they were constantly fighting to keep the rats out of the house, but as soon as they brought the cats home the rats were no longer a problem. However, the cats enjoy bringing us gifts, namely rats and snakes. The rats they bring in are dead, they just leave them for us on the floor or on the porch. The snakes they bring in, however, are normally alive, and it is a fun family game to sweep the snakes out of the house. They are not large snakes, just little garden snakes. But, we are now keeping score. The current score is:

Snakes 6
Rats 4

Needless to say we actually prefer the snakes, even the one that stayed under the stove overnight.

We have added a new contestant to the game, the other night after Kate went to bed while I was sitting on the couch working on the computer and Melissa was in the kitchen a bat flew into the living room from the back porch. It banged into a few walls and finally made its way back out. Unfortunately, he got out before we could take a picture. Score 1 point for the bats.

Dengue Fever

2007-07-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

We have had our first bought with a tropical disease. Unfortunately, Kate is the one that got it. Kate has Dengue Fever, which is a mosquito borne viral infection. Kate started with a fever on Sunday and throughout the week continued to have a fever go up and down. She did not complain of any other symptoms, she simply broke out in a rash the second day. These were similar symptoms she had before when dealing with a viruses in the States, and by the third day she would be better. But by Wednesday, day four, her fever was still coming and going and she began compaling that her legs were hurting, so we decided to go to a doctor. Dr. Elizabeth Perez had been recommended to us, and her office is about two minutes from our house. Dr. Perez's office is in Charamicos, the heart of Dominican Sosua. This is the non-tourist, real-life, day-to-day, Dominican Republic. Dr. Elizabeth has a small office on the main street in Charimicos.

We walked into the office and were greated by a secretary, Nadia De La Cruz. Nadia recognized us from La Iglesia Nueva Vida, the Spanish-speaking church ministry of New Missions. Unfortunately we didn't recognize her. I guess, when you are three of the seven white people that attend the church you stick out a little. (On a side note the town does seem to get smaller the longer we are here. We rarely go somewhere now where we don't see someone we know or someone does not recongize us from the church.) She called the doctor and let us know she would be there in 15 minutes. It seems that most doctor offices are open 24 hours, and the doctor arrives for appointments or is called for walk-ins. She arrived, and we went back to an exam room, for what is called a consulation. The exam room has an exam table as well as a desk and chairs where you can sit and talk with the doctor. She examined Kate, and let us know that she would do some bloodwork to help determine the cause of the fever. She said she was not willing to diagnosis it as Dengue Fever without the bloodwork, but let us know that we would treat her with increased liquids and Tylenol if it were Dengue. She drew blood to get a basic panel, but said that we had to wait until the next day to test for Dengue Fever. She said that it was something that had to be done after five days. She also wanted to rule out a bacterial infection that is often accompanied with leg pain. She sent us home and instructed us to keep using Tylenol to keep the fever down and come back the next morning for more bloodwork. Several hours later she called and said, "You come back now?" Ok, sure...she told us that there was evidence of viral infection and that her platelet count was on the lower end of normal.

We went back the next morning, Thursday. The blooddraw this morning was much more difficult for Kate. I don't think she knew what to expect the first time, but she knew what was going to happen this time. It took much consoling and a lot of effort to get the blood sample today. Dr. Elizabeth said she would have the results in a few hours and she'd call us then. Did I mention that she speaks English very well? THANK YOU LORD. We went home to wait. Dr. Elizabeth called a few hours later and asked us to come to the office. We drove back to her office and she confirmed the diagnosis as Dengue Fever. We were a little confused about the following point, but there were two tests for Dengue Fever, one was negative and the second positive. The gist of what we understood from the difference, is it shows that she had the virus for sometime, and it is not a new infection. How long, and why the symptoms surfaced now we aren't clear about. Regardless, it was good to know what she had and the course of treatment. Dr. Elizabeth gave us the choice of either going to a clinic in Puerto Plata where she'd have to stay until she was better or staying home and having a nurse stay with Kate through the night. She said that she was going to have to give Kate an IV and wanted to make sure there was someone to monitor it through the night. She put the IV in right there in the office, Kate was a trooper, it wasn't easy for her, but she did a good job letting them put the IV in her hand. They taped her hand to a splint to immobilize her wrist. We went home and took an IV pole with us.

Dr. Elizabeth came by the house in the evening to change the IV bag and brought Maribel, the nurse, with her. Kate and Maribel hit it off quickly and even though Maribel doesn't speak a word of English they were doing puzzles and playing games together immediately. She also made mango juice for Kate and got her settled in for the night.

That night Melissa and I slept through the night for the first time in five days. THANK YOU LORD. In the morning Maribel got Kate dressed and ready for the day. She drew blood that morning to check on Kate's platelet level. Dr. Elizabeth had been concerned. Her inital platelet level was 144, and 150-400 is a normal level. Dr. Elizabeth came by that morning to pick up Maribel and check on Kate.

She came back in the afternoon, and said Kate's platelet level was lower. It was in the 90s, but she was confused, since Kate appeared healthier and much more active, so she wanted to do a second blooddraw. We got the results back that evening and her platelet level was down to 89. Dr. Elizabeth said that if it continued to go down that we would have to go to the clinic in Puerto Plata, because the platelets are the component of the blood that assists with clotting, and if Kate were to get a cut it could be dangerous. In a clinic she would be able to get platelets if necessary. For me this really caught me off guard. I was not prepared for Kate to need to recieve blood. I think I would have been as upset in the States, but it was difficult to hear. Dr. Elizabeth said we could wait until the morning, but if the platelet level did not start coming up we couldn't keep treating her at home. Maribel stayed the night with us again. This night, Kate wanted to sleep with us. We slept with the door open so Maribel could come in to check the IV bag and medication. At this point we had run out of the children's Tylenol that melts in your mouth and had to move to liquid medication that Kate did not like and didn't want to take. We had to use a syringe to put it into her mouth. This was a very rough sleepless night. We were very appreciative for the help Maribel gave us. Despite the difficulty with communication. she was very supportive and good with Kate. That next morning Dr. Elizabeth returned for another round of bloodwork. Kate no longer fought and argued about the blood draw and sat there bravely and let Dr. Elizabeth take the blood. One thing that has amazed me is the resiliency and adaptabilty of children. Kate's IV pole quickly became like an appendage and she had no trouble getting around the house and going about her normal routine. We got the results that Kate's platelets were up to 100. Still low, but we could stay home. THANK YOU LORD!!!

Kate was now on the upswing. Saturday night we did not have Maribel, she had to work at a clinic. It was a much better evening. Melissa had been praying about the medication issue and prayed that Kate would be able to take the liquid medication without trouble, as she prayed she was reminded of another spot in the medicine cabinet where she had stored a different kind of children's Tylenol. It is one that Kate had difficulty taking in the past but this time, faced with the alternative, she took it with no problem. THANK YOU LORD!!!

Sunday morning Dr. Elizabeth came back to check her IV and switch the bag. She did one more blood draw and said that if it was up she would stop the IV that afternoon. We asked her if we could take Kate to church. She said as long as we used bug spray on her so that she wouldn't get bit by a mosquito and pass it along to someone else. Dengue Fever is a mosquito borne virus and is passed from an infected person to an unifected person by mosquitos. We sprayed her down and went to church. Kate's first time to leave the house since our Thursday visit to Dr. Elizabeth. Everyone at church was so glad to see her, and she just walked around with her IV pole like nothing was different. We got back home that afternoon, Dr. Elizabeth called and said her platelet count was up to 120, THANK YOU LORD, and while still low we could treat her with juice and water, and she would come take the IV out. She took out the IV, and we took a family trip to Splash, our favorite ice cream shop, to celebrate. We will be going back tomorrow for one more blood panel, and probably a few days later to recheck for Dengue to see if it is out of her system.

This has been a difficult time, but we received such love and support from friends and family through all of this, we never felt alone. People here in the DR came by to visit and pray with us, we received countless e-mails of friends and their children praying. It was wonderful to hear of so many of Kate's friends praying for her, even the ones that didn't know why they were praying for her "plates". The faith of a child. It's Father's Day here in the Dominican Republic, and what a great one for me. We have a wonderful heavenly father that cares about us. He's there for the bumps, and bruises, and tropical diseases.

That will be five pesos and two chicklets

2007-07-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

We were at Playero (pronounced PlyJero) the other day. For those of you that have not been to the Playero it is the closest we have to an American Grocery Store. Nice aisles, refrigerated meat sections, frozen foods, Canadian chicken breasts, you know all the staples. Anyway. We stopped off with the team from the Mid-west. They were buying snack foods for a youth event with the Dominican Youth Group. As, one of the team members said it, we were going to introduce the Dominican Youth to the "Trashy American Diet". Melissa and I took the opportunity to get some of our shopping done. When we checked out the check out lady handed Melissa her change, Five Pesos and two Chicklets. She said, "I'm sorry, I'm out of pesos." She didn't have any 1 peso coins, so she decided to give us our two pesos in Chicklets. Now, all the rest of the team just thought they were given a mint like when you go to the bank, they weren't yet as quick on the peso math, but anyone that day that was getting less than five pesos back got the balance in candy. Just another fun day in the DR.

Guest Blogger

2007-07-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

That's right, I have acheived the status of guest blogger, which is really pretty funny because I can't even keep up with this blog. We had three friends visit this past week, and Alan posts a regular blog, and he asked me to guest blog. Check out my guest blog and check out the rest of Alan's posts about his trip. and call my agent if you would like me to make an appearance on your blog.

A View From Church

2007-07-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

Just a little piece of one of our days I wanted to share.

On Sunday nights we attend service at the "little tent" in Bombita. This past Sunday night I looked slightly to my left and thought, "How many people look out their church to see this."

It just seemed like a really nice view.

The "little tent" is in Bombita. It is a small community and the tent is used during the week as an escuelita. It is a supplement to the public education some of the children receive. The tent is open on three sides, and as people walk up and down the road going about their daily business there we sit having church. Even though they are not sitting there it is as though they are still a part of the church. The service literally takes place in the middle of a community. It is not a secluded building it is an active part of the daily life of all the people in Bombita. I just thought, isn't this what church is all about.

Also, if you didn't get our recent e-mail update check it out at http://www.godleadsus.com/ you can find it in the News Section.

John

Gomeria

2007-06-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well, Pastor George and Jeanne are in Orlando for a few weeks and they left us their car to use while they are gone. We are a two-car family once again. Of course that was until today when the left front tire started going flat. There is a tiny tire repair place, gomeria, in Charamicos a neighborhood close to where we live. Melissa was driving the flat, so I met here their and we switched cars. It was actually a short wait in Dominican standards. I was only there for maybe 30 minutes. They were working on a few motorconchos, the motorcycle taxis that are common transportation for the area. Kate noted the other day, "I think there are more motorcycles than cars here." She is right. They were banging tires onto the motorcycles with a flat piece of metal. It seemed downright prehistoric, or as though they had my handyman technique down, you can fix anything with a hammer!!! Then all of a sudden they pull out a air compression powered lug nut remover. What??? One minute they are bullying a tire into place with a piece of metal, and then they pull out a power tool? You just never know. And speaking of never knowing, it cost me all of 50 pesos. That is just over $1.50 (32 pesos to the dollar if you want to do the math) or the equivalant of two 12 ounce cans of Dr. Pepper. The entire process consisted of waiting about 15 minutes while they hammered the motorcycles, then the guy jacks up the car, brings over the power tool to remove the lug nuts, rolls the tire into the repair shack (I took a picture, but only had my cell phone and don't know how to get it off the phone and actually us it), I wait another 10 minutes he rolls the tire back out, puts it on, and says it was a clavo. A what I ask, he says he'll bring it out. It's a nail. My new spanish word of the day is clavo. I pay 50 pesos and hope they really patched it. Just a little bit of today's adventures.

Dominican Rush Hour - Stuck Behind Four Cows

2007-06-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

I went to Tuesday morning prayer at the big tent with about five members of the
Spanish church.

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I learned that 7:00 prayer starts around 7:30. I know that they
spent some time praying for me "el misionero de la clnica". It is good to know
when people are talking about you!

As I left the prayer meeting I was driving down one of the main streets and
found myself stuck behind four cows and a calf. They were not in a hurry to get
where they were going. I couldn't get around them and they didn't care if I
honked my horn. It was just one of those times where I think, "This is my life
now!"