The clapping hands games, they are universal

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

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!

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

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

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

Posted via email from John's posterous

Gravity

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

1.

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

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.