Nagua photos

As promised, here are some pictures from Nagua:

In La Entrada, the school allowed us to use their facility for the second day of camp where we had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the school kids.

La Entrada, 9 boys accepted Christ this day.  Checo is praying with them and Gary is on the left.

Aubrey, Salomon and J walking into the school.

Some basketball drills.

One of my favorite pictures as you can see the laughter and fun that was happening here. :)

Some volleyball drills.

Checo doing soft toss with the girls.

 

Some baseball drills.

A group of kids in Jaguita having fun.  (I'm not sure what they are laughing at.)

Some more baseball drills.

A few of the ladies from the community helping us fill the cups with ice and soda and hand out the snacks. (hot dogs in the morning and crackers in the afternoon)

222

Hey prayer warriors!  Well, I failed on the daily updates, but I am going to fill you in on all the good stuff and as many pictures as I can to let you know about the week. 

For starters, 222 kids and youth gave their life to Christ this week!!!  Praise God!!!  It was a miraculous week, and I know God was preparing and moving in these kids lives well before the camp to prepare them spiritually, mentally, and emotionally to accept this free gift of salvation.  As we continued to pray for "just one more" to come to know God's love and freedom, God answered bountifully!  Throughout the four days of camp, we had about 800-900 kids in 4 different communities join us for devotions, sport, fun and love.  (oh and the hotdogs and soda as well, I cannot forget that part!)  :) 

We met about 12 different pastors and were able to speak with them about what this camp is, who AIM is, and what our goal is.  This is such a big step because here in the Dominican, sport (baseball) is often looked at as sinful.  If you are a Christian, you don't participate in it.  This thought process comes from the Dominican baseball league which is surrounded by alcohol, drugs and women.  Although there is truth to the "big leagues", one of our goals in AIM has been to break down these barriers and show the pastors how useful the coaches and sport can be to reach kids with the Gospel.  Many of the pastors were very interested in the camp and asked when we would come back.  Again, God had laid the foundation and prepared these men's hearts for this. 

J was also asked to preach last night at a culto.  (A culto is a church service.)  We started by arriving at about 6:50 to hand out tracts and invite the local community to the culto (and the culto started at "7:00 pm"- Dominican time!) :).  Basically the opposite of trick-or-treating... you go to their doors, invite them to the culto, we gave them candy, and handed them a tract.  Following this, Raphael started the culto with prayer and talking and simply inviting them out of their homes (also remember, there is no "disturbing the peace" charge here, so it can be outside as loud as you want).  Then Checo was the emcee who directed the culto with prayer, singing, more devotions, singing, J preaching, and Pastor Rosario finishing in prayer.  Although many people did not come out of their houses for the culto, you never know who you reach behind the walls of their houses.  In fact, Raphael shared a story with us:

There was an evangelist who was lying down in bed one night when God spoke to him and said, "Go to this bridge and say, 'Christ saves, Christ saves, Christ saves'."  So he went to the bridge in the middle of the night and nobody was there.  But the voice said to say, "Christ saves, Christ saves, Christ saves."  So he did it, shrugged and walked home.  Two years later he went to a church service in the mountain, and the preacher began by introducing a special guest, a guest who had an amazing testimony.  The guest began to speak and said, "I was living under a bridge with no hope.  When one night, I heard a voice say, 'Christ saves, Christ saves, Christ saves'." 

 

This story reminds us that you never know who is listening or watching you.  So, preach the Word and show Christ's love because God may be working in their hearts already. 

 

And just a few pictures to get started:



Raphael preaching during Day 1 of camp.

Luis Santos working with the younger baseball kids during Day 1 of camp.

Just a little cuteness to bring a smile to your face. :)

Pastor Rosario praying with 2 boys who asked Christ into their lives during Day 3 of camp.

37+1

I know...only a day in and I'm already behind.  But what a great few days it has been!  First, 37+1 kids accepted Christ today!!!  Praise the Lord!  I don't know if I can actually put enough exclamation points on that statement.  :)  And let me explain the numbers and the +1.  So, we had our second day of camp at Jaquita and La Entrada today.  The Gospel was presented and 37 kids accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior!  The +1 comes from God working in ways even beyond our set camp and planned outreach.  Some of our guys heard there was a baseball field nearby and went to visit.  Upon arriving, Alfre started preaching.  Some kids walked away, some stayed, but most excitedly 1 kid asked Christ into his life!  (Hence the +1).  Gloria a Dios!

So, one of my favorite times during camp is "story time".  Every evening as dinner is coming to an end, those from all the different sites (although only 2 right now) share some of their favorite moments, funny stories, God movements, etc. so those who are not at their site can be a part of the entire camp and get the God-size vision for the camp.  Yesterday, my favorite story (and one I was able to witness) was from Jaguita with Keka (a volleyball coach who has been part of AIM for a long time, and the only other girl on the trip besides Aubrey and me).  As she was running drills and practicing setting the volleyball with the girls, one came up and was struggling to get the positioning correct.  She tried several times and eventually said "I can't do it."  Keka stopped her immediately and said, "Don't tell me I can't.  Tell me I will learn, I will do."  Keka made the girl repeat "I will do it" (in Spanish).  And guess what happened on the next try, the girl did it perfectly!  This stuck out to me because you never know where someone comes from.  I don't know what kind of home life this girl has, I don't know if she has support, I don't know anything about her, but Keka had faith in her and made the girl believe in herself.  Sometimes sharing the love of Christ is simply believing in someone and not allowing "I can't do it" to stop you. 

It is such a blessing to be a part of the team where we can see and feel God moving constantly.  His hand is all over this team, these kids, these camps and even the communities.  Please keep praying because each one of you has a part in the story God is telling through this camp. 

(And yes, lots of pictures to come... I will get them uploaded and post them soon.) 

"...A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil.  It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.  Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop- a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.  He who has ears, let him hear."  Matthew 13:3-9

Team Nagua

I know, 2 posts in 1 day... astounding.  But, I wanted to let everyone know we arrived safely in Nagua with our team of 17 people (18 with Aubrey).  So far, God has laid the way and everything is going so smoothly (Gracias a Dios!!).  Tomorrow is our first day of camp in Jaguita and La Entrada (surrounding communities of Nagua) with an estimated 510 kids.  Again, please keep our team, the camp, the children, their coaches, the pastors and the communities in your prayers as we share the love of Jesus with them through sports camps.  I am including a picture of everyone on our team so you can pray for each of them:

The team gathered tonight after dinner.

Salomon

 Jorge Luis

 



 Alejandro

 

 Julio Angel

 

 Franklin

 

 Jhose

 

 Rafael

 

 Luis Santos

 

 Gary

Angenis 

Carlitos

 Alfre

 Keka

Freyson

 Checo

Pastor Rosario (our main contact in Nagua)

Aubrey (the youngest member on our team) :)

Jay

Candace

My goal is to update each day, so I am going to try my best!  Thanks for all of your prayers up to this point and in advance for all your prayers throughout this week.

With love from all of us!!
-your Dominican Nagua team

Happy Independence Day Dominican

So, I realize I have been very negligent to you all about posting pictures.  So, this is basically a time to catch up on pictures and let you know some of the super fun moments we have had lately!

The Dominican celebrated their 170th Independence Day this past Thursday.  They had a big parade where many schools participate with drums, cheering, marching, etc.  Here are a few pictures from the day.  We have several videos, so I will try to upload those soon.  But it was a really neat experience.  In the picture above, Genesis (Aubrey's favorite neighbor on our street who she always refers to as "Anna") is in the middle looking at the camera.  The kids practiced for about a month everyday for the parade.  We could hear the drums every morning for about 2 hours from the school around the corner.

Another shot of the parade.  We didn't realize Sosua had this many Dominican flags.

 

Aubrey and me at the parade.  Aubrey would actually wave her little Dominican flag around.  She loved the parade.

Aubrey helping Daddy with the laundry.  To the right in the picture is our washing machine.  You hook the hose up to it to fill it, put in the detergent and laundry and then turn it on.  You have to drain it (drenado) and then refill to rinse it and drain again.  Then you put the clothes in the spinner to get rid of the majority of the water and then we hang them.  Aubrey loves helping and has gotten really great about shaking the clothes out before handing them to us. 

A picture of our trip to Santo Domingo to obtain Checo and Freysy's visa for Guatemala.  From left is Pastor Joaquin (a phenomenal man with a love for Christ; we did camp last Summer in San Luis with some of his communities), the police officer who works in this part of the embassy (he is actually from Sosua and is a Pastor himself; he helped us obtain the visas and move the process along), Checo, Freysy, me and Aubrey (and yes she only has one shoe in this picture, she had 4 or 5 mosquito bites on her foot that were bothering her.)

 



A little fun in the sun with our sunglasses.  She wouldn't wear them very long, but I was able to get a few pictures.  Thanks to Tiffany McKinley for these AWESOME shades.  :)

Aubrey's new swimsuit for the season.  This was actually taken several weeks ago (yes, you can be jealous of our warm weather!).  I must say for the first time I am grateful stores put their summer clothing out in January because we needed a new suit for Aubrey while we were in the States.

Daddy and Aubrey sporting their Dominican gang signs.  haha... :)  Thanks to Aunt Martha for this beautiful princess hat for Aubrey.

 

 

 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23

Is This Real Life?

One thing I have learned so far: mission life is a lot like parenting.  Let me explain.  Before kids, you have this idea and fantasy of what it will be like with children.  The smiles, the laughter, the sweetness, and obviously overwhelming cuteness.  The perfect days of playing with your children while inventing crafts, maintaining a spotless house, preparing full meals every day... And then you have children, and you sit back and think "is this what parenting is all about?!"  But, even with the frustrations and stresses and often exhaustion, it is so worth the effort, love and self sacrifice required on a daily (sometimes minute by minute) basis.  The hugs and kisses you receive, the "mommy" or "daddy" said in a way to melt your heart, the look of excitement when they do something by themselves, their prayers to God... 

Being a "missionary" is quite the same.  I had a basic idea of what a missionary did and the work we were getting ourselves involved in.  I could dream about what it is like living on a Caribbean island that only speaks Spanish.  I could plan our finances out and proposed needs for the time we would be here.  But, I was not prepared for the family, the heart, the love and work to be done.  Lately, J and I have been very busy with our work on the ground.  And lately God has seen it fit to continue pushing us beyond our comfort levels in this work.  It is not always fun (and by that I mean it's not fun at all to be pushed in directions you don't really want to go- just ask J about making TONS of phone calls in Spanish, it's his favorite!), but there is so much joy in the work God has laid out for us.  There is so much joy in our lives, and through this work and these "growth spurts", God continues to bless us and guide us. 

We have been planning for a little over a month a Dominican led camp in Nagua.  We leave this coming Sunday and will be there through Saturday.  We will host camp Monday through Thursday in the morning and afternoon in 4 different locations, and it is proposed we will have 1700 kids throughout the 4 days.  I know I have written about it before, but we are thrilled to be a part of their camp.  We are overjoyed to be a part of this mission when Dominicans are reaching out to their fellow brothers and sisters here on the island with the love of Christ!  The time is coming for them to "step up to the plate" and reach out beyond their churches and immediate community.  We will not be here with them forever, and we are pumped about this opportunity for them to step up and do the work we have all been called to do.  Please keep this camp, the children, their coaches and pastors, and our team in your prayers this next week!  We are praying for "just one more" to come to know Christ as their redeemer! 

Thank you for allowing us this opportunity to be on the ground floor with these Dominicans during this camp.  And thank you for being a part of the camp even if from a distance! 

Monica (J's sister): What do missionaries do?

Cael (our 4 year old nephew): They Skype!

We all have our idea of what missionaries do!  :)

There is work to be done

Wow!  February 20 already?!  I must say the time is flying by and before we know it Summer will be here and our main AIM camps in the Dominican.  But before I can get ahead of myself, I want to keep all of you updated on what's going on here right now...

We restarted ESL and it's going really good so far.  The classes are still smaller than the fall, but again this isn't too big a surprise for us as we took quite a break in between and there is no "mass email list" we can reach the class through.  However, the people who have returned were some of the more dedicated from the fall, so it is fun to see their progress.  J has started talking mostly in English now during class which adds to the learning process.  As I have learned with Spanish, the more you hear it and the more you practice, the faster you learn. 

As I mentioned last week, we visited Santo Domingo (the capital) for 2 days.  It's still crazy to me that we only drove 4 hours and were basically across the island when we have to drive 10 hours in Texas alone to reach Amarillo from Houston!  As I mentioned, it was very eventful and a great learning process for all those involved.  The primary objective was to get a Visa for 2 of our AIM guys to travel to Guatemala.  Through the day (hours of waiting and sitting and talking...), we befriended the police officer who works in that area of the embassy who just happened to have lived in Sosua for about 20 years and who is a Pastor!  God is good!  Throughout the day, we were able to talk with him about what we do as AIM, and I know he had a hand in helping obtain the Visas as fast as we did.  Praise God for He lays the foundation and path and places all the right people in the right places to get His work done!! 

And on that note, Checo and Freysy left yesterday and made it safely to Guatemala!  Please be praying for the other AIM people joining them today from the States (Fred, Brittney, Darren, and Nick) and for the work to be done there.

We are still preparing for the Dominican led camp in Nagua from March 2-8 (a matter of days away!).  Being the first time J and myself have planned a camp, there is a huge learning curve.  So far, God is continuing to lay the foundation and all the pieces in order.  We had a meeting with the AIM coaches last night who will be joining us on the trip, and they were so excited.  For the first time, AIM will be hosting a camp with only 2 1/2 native English speakers!  Praise the Lord!  So please be praying as we continue to lay the foundation for this camp.  Pray for Nagua and their youth.  Pray they would be open and accepting of the message we bring of Jesus and the love we hope to share.  Pray for the 4 pastors and their coaches as the leaders of the area and the ones who will continue to show the love and passion of Jesus to these youth.

As always, we are beyond blessed to have such an amazing team behind us every step of the way.  Your prayers are felt constantly!

With much love!

p.s.  For those of you wondering about Tati... they went to Santiago last Friday for the biopsy.  However, because she had taken an aspirin, they had to put it off until this Friday (tomorrow).  It should take about 2 weeks for the results.  Again, please keep them in your prayers.

 

"Is any one of you in trouble?  He should pray.  Is anyone happy?  Let him sing songs of praise.  Is any one of you sick?  He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.  If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  James 5:13-16