What's been happening?

August already??!!  What??!!  I know it has been quite some time since our last post, and I must say quite a bit has happened since then.  For starters, we are now a healthy family of 4!  Praise God.  Ryann Nicole Arredondo (pronounced Ryan) was born 7/11/14, weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 20 in long. 

Now, she is a thriving 5 week old weighing in at 9 lbs 4 oz.  I believe we have done a little bit of growing since birth. :)

Aubrey is doing amazing with her little sister and absolutely adores her.  She is full of kisses, hugs, touches and just love for Ryann.  This is such a blessing as I prayed for this for many months before Ryann.  For an easy transition for all of us but especially Aubrey.

J has been quite the traveling man this Summer between the Dominican, the States, and Cuba.  After Aubrey and I left in June to come home for our new "bundle of joy", J stayed to wrap things up and prepare for our being gone until August/September.  He came back to the States in time for his 31st birthday and Aubrey's 2nd birthday (same day).  He was here for Ryann's birth and then a few days later headed back to Sosua for AIM's second summer camp.  According to J, it was a wonderful week full of love, play and even more salvations.  They had several prayer walks, crusades and lots of time spent with the youth from the Woodlands church. 

(A beautiful masterpiece from God in Sosua.)

 

J returned in time for us to drive to Amarillo and surprise my mom for her 60th birthday.  This was a great reunion with my family (my oldest brother and family flew in from Virginia and my middle brother and family live there in Amarillo). 

 

 

We returned to Houston and J left a week later for camp in Cuba.  According to J, the trip in Cuba was amazing!  "It was incredible being there with the children and teaching them about baseball, soccer, and volleyball.  More importantly though, we got to play with those kids.  And thank God for our Cuban brothers and sisters who did an amazing job of preaching and sharing their testimony.  Because of their obedience, many children prayed to receive Christ.  Cuba is a beautiful country with even more beautiful people."

 

 

 

 

We are planning on visiting my dad this coming weekend in Arizona and then looking at heading back to the DR either next week or the following week.  We have officialy received Ryann's passport in the mail, so we are ready to go according to the government.  We will await the final ok from our pediatrician, but so far she does not see any reason we shouldn't be able to go back soon. 

Other than that, we have been spending time with J's family, our donors and ultimately adjusting to 2 kids and an infant again.  I must say we are extremely blessed to have two very easygoing kids who are willing and able to travel wherever, whenever. 

We are excited and ready to get back to work in the Dominican with our brothers and sisters.  Praise God for this opportunity!

And as always, we could not do this without your prayers and support.  Thank you to each of you who have spent time in prayer for us and the work AIM is doing, and thank you to each of you who are supporting us financially.  Our being in the Dominican is only possible through your generosity.

With love!!

"Daniel said:

'Blessed be the name of God from age to age,

for wisdom and power are his.

He changes times and seasons,

deposes kings and sets up kings;

he gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to those who have

understanding.

He reveals deep and hidden things;

he knows what is in the darkness,

and light dwells with him.

To you, O God of my ancestors,

I give thanks and praise,

for you have given me wisdom and power,

and have now revealed to me what we

asked of you,

for you have revealed to us what the king ordered.'"

 

Daniel 2:20-23

Playing catch up

I have been the worst at keeping up with this over the past few weeks.  I cannot explain why other than a feeling of not having the right words or the right way to describe camp and what it meant to me.  And then it's easy to push it aside and put it off longer and longer which in turn makes it even worse.  So, here I am, weeks late with my attempt at putting into words my emotions...

Camp was amazing, passionate, stressful, indescribable!  I don't know the exact amount of kids who attended camp or those who accepted Christ, but I do know many lives were changed including most of the missionaries and definitely my own.  For me, I cannot imagine going on any type of mission trip where your heart is not affected and your life changed forever.  And although I am slightly bias towards the Dominican (maybe only slightly...haha), I cannot imagine anyone visiting who is not affected by the sweet nature of the kids, the loving and welcoming culture of the Dominicans and the overall beauty of their life.  I still remember my first time at camp and the overwhelming, confusing emotions I felt while there, and then the clear feeling of leaving my heart with the people as we boarded the airplane.  Although I know not everyone is called to the full time mission work as J and I have been, I have heard countless stories of people leaving a piece of themselves behind and I must be honest, nothing back at "home" can replace it.  This year was a very different experience for us as we were helping lead the camp rather than simply being a participant and had worked behind the "Dominican scenes" from the beginning.  (Although we led the Nagua camp in March, this was very different in numbers and people attending).  And I must say lots of growth, stretching, and some frustrations developed along the way, but as always our God led us throughout camp and was holding our hand as we grew in ways we didn't know we could.  During the week, we actually split our time between Las Terrenas and Sosua (we had 2 camps going).  Las Terrenas had a mixed team of Dominican missionaries and Americans, whereas Sosua was solely Americans.  Although we were only in Las Terrenas the first 2 days of camp, we were able to witness our team of missionaries come together as a family because of the love of Christ!  And just as in Nagua, witnessing our Dominican missionaries growth and hearts for their own people was, and I believe will always be, inspiring.  During story time on our first night as J translated the stories back and forth (English to Spanish and visa versa) God showed me the reason behind all the work and previous stresses, it was for this!  For Him to be glorified in all the work, in all the love, in all the time, in ultimately everything.  Just for the one day of camp (much less 3 more), the work and countless hours spent in all the details was all worth it.  It was a true blessing to be a part of both teams and see God's hand moving across the island at the same time.  Nothing is too big for Him to handle and we were able to intimately be a part of that.  We cannot wait for the next camp (which happens in only a few short weeks) in both Sosua and San Luis (on the South side of the island), and I cannot wait to again hear about our Dominican missionaries reaching out to their brothers and sisters!!

In other news, all 3 of us are back in the States ready and waiting on baby Ryann.  She is due July 12, but here is to hoping she comes a little earlier.  :)  Aubrey and I came back with the chartered flight after camp, and J joined us this past Friday just in time for his and Aubrey's birthdays (same day).  It was a fantastic, simple celebration with so much love poured on us.  So, we now officially have a 2 year old... eeekk! 

In prayer requests, please continue praying for the team currently in Guatemala putting on their first camp there.  From what I have heard, things are going great.

Also, please be praying for the final preparations for camp from July 15-22 in Sosua and San Luis.   

And please be praying for the camp scheduled for the beginning of August in Cuba.

I will keep you all updated on camps, baby, and all the other amazing things God continues to do in our lives.  Thank you for your love!  And thank you for your patience throughout this time of growth in my life.   Much love to all of you!

"Never once did we ever walk alone
Never once did You leave us on our own
You are faithful, God, You are faithful"

-Matt Redman, "Never Once"

 

(an amazing song that always reminds me of our Daddy God's love for us... He does not leave us in times of need but lifts us up and carries us through our trials) 
You should listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e02UNZRsdSQ

Cupcakes, birthdays and watermelon...oh my!

Less than 1 week until camp time... woo hoo!!  But, as I have been so neglectful at posting pictures for um, let's see, a LONG time, I wanted to catch up on some of the fun.

Just wanting everyone to know, we still eat our cupcakes and healthy items here in the Dominican.

Aubrey before church one Sunday.  I thought it was too precious not to include.  (and the dress is from Ross, so we didn't spend too much either!)

A picture of one of my birthday parties.  Yes, I had several from our Dominican family.  They were singing here (very loudly).

A picture with Rosemery and the HUGE watermelon she brought over for my birthday.

A crazy, high stress game of Candyland! :)  It's very funny to listen and watch them play because every other word is "tramposo", "noooo", "Candace"...  They always think the other one is cheating (which I'll admit I have seen my fair share of, but I'm like it's Candyland).  Haha.

Daddy and Aubrey cleaning the car.  Aubrey loves to help mix the soapy water and clean water... hahaha. 

Aubrey getting her washcloth ready to wash.

A picture of Aubrey eating the watermelon from the birthday party.  She can eat her weight in watermelon.

 



Things are still going great here, busy and great.  Super countdown mode now as we only have 6 days until our team arrives.  (But 6 days full of tying up odds and ends).  So, please keep praying for all those working countless hours behind the scenes to make this camp possible.  And pray for all the coaches, pastors, community help and youth who will be reached during camp. 

With much love!!

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness. Jeremiah 31:3

T minus 2 weeks

Sorry I have not kept you all updated on what's happening here.  It has been a great, crazy, busy few weeks.  Only 2 weeks from today until camp time!!  And with that comes lots of details and final preparations/planning.  But again, we praise God for this work because it is good work. 

Let's see what's been going on...

• Financial Peace has been fantastic and our guys seem to be really taking it in.  Every week at least one of them comes back with a story of someone they shared the information with or something they have done to change their current finances.  1 week after the first lesson, one of our guys came to show us he had paid off a credit card and had it cut up in his hands!  He was beyond excited and explained what his plan was to continue getting out of debt.  Another staff member told us about a friend he knew who recently got a job as a taxi driver and after receiving his payments for the week, his wife went to the supermercado and spent ALL of the money on food minus propane and meat (therefore this man has no money left to pay for the gas needed to work as a taxi nor money to cook the food).  Our AIM staff told us how he explained to the guy the importance of budgeting and including your wife in the finances of the household so they have an idea of how to manage the money.  It has been amazing to see some of the transformations in our staff in regards to money and how to handle it.   

• It's hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left of ESL.  But again, watching the transformations in those who have regularly attended has been a privilege.  Our class size has dwindled since we started, but I know the majority of that is attributed to the amount of work it takes to learn a second language.  Believe me, I understand the difficulty of learning another language, and I have it a bit easier as I am completely immersed in the language here in the DR.

• We visited Las Terrenas this past Thursday and Friday to confirm the hotel, restaurant and all the plans for one of our camps in June.  Although this was an exhausting trip, I cannot wait to see how God moves in this city.  The coaches and pastor are thrilled and almost giddy about the camp.  God has provided the "man of peace", the church help, the coaches with a heart for Him, and the needed sites.  This specific camp will be hosted by a mixture of Dominicans and Americans and right now we are looking to have about 750 kids in camp just in this area. 

• And other than that we have been planning and preparing for June and July camps.  Again, good work but lots of it.   We are grateful and truly blessed to be here in preparation to receive the missionaries.  Please keep praying for the camps this Summer and specifically the missionaries, the Dominicans and Americans who are working behind the scenes to pull everything together, and especially the kids/youth who will attend the camp.  Pray for their hearts and minds to be opened to the Holy Spirit and Jesus's love for each of them. 

Thanks for your love and support!!

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 
1 Corinthians 15:58

T minus 3 1/2 weeks... and batteries

Happy Thursday!  Countdown is on... only 3 1/2 weeks until our first camp of the Summer!!  We are so excited and cannot wait for the group to arrive to love on these children in Sosua and Las Terranas.  However, as I said before, so many people are working extra hard to get all the plans lined up and organized, so please keep praying for Brittney, Fred, Barbie, J, our AIM staff, Pastor Rivas, Luis Chimpin, myself and everyone else working behind the scenes.  (I must admit I do enjoy this work... organizational, spreadsheets, budgets, administrative stuff... nerdy I know!)  :) 

We started Paz Financeria (Financial Peace) with our AIM staff this past Saturday, and the class went great.  They were very interested in what the course has to offer and were willing and ready to do their "homework" of drawing up their budgets.  However, none of the Pastors were able to make it because of a story I'm about to tell you...

This past Saturday, Pastor Rivas's church (and all the Septimo Refugio churches) visited Las Espinas as a time to spend together and do a small fundraiser for Mother's Day (which is Sunday, May 25 here).  They were planning on leaving and returning to Sosua about 3 pm.  However, when they went to load up the safari, the battery had been stolen.  They called another Pastor for help, but while waiting, Tati (Pastor Rivas's wife) got the feeling that the battery was actually still in the area.  As the group was searching the area for the battery, a young man walks up to ask what they were doing.  After they explained, the young man told them he had an idea of where someone may have hidden the battery.  Come to find out, he was correct and they found it.  Pastor Rivas asked everyone in the group if someone had a tract.  When they found one, they made a note on it saying, "We are servants of the Most High God and He watches over us.  Please repent of the things you are doing.  We hope one day to hear someone in church stand up and tell a story that I repented after receiving a tract from the people I tried to steal from."  As the young man heard this, he began to breakdown.  They shared with him the Gospel and he accepted Christ in that moment.  He showed up at church the following day and was greeted with a multitude of hugs and love.  Praise God for "just one more"!!  And please be praying for our new brother in Christ.

Right now, prayers are the most important thing we can ask for.  Thank you for your love and support!

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 6:22-23

T minus 5 weeks... and Cuba

Hey family!  Aubrey and I landed safely back home in the Dominican this past Monday.  The flights were great and Aubrey was fantastic (slept both flights), Praise God!!  It is great to be back and back at work.  In fact this week has been full which is a blessing.  As of right now, we have less than 5 weeks until our first camp... yes that's right... less than 5 weeks!  Which is so exciting but also a tiny bit stressful as we and everyone in the States try to finish all the details.  So please be praying for this journey and all those involved as we want to put on the best camp possible for the kids. 

We restarted ESL on Wednesday, and it's hard to believe we only have 4 more weeks until we finish the book.  And tomorrow, Saturday, we start Paz Financiera with our AIM staff and several local pastors we work with.  (Many people have heard of Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey, this is the same thing but for Latin cultures and in Spanish.)  I must say I am really excited about offering this course for our leaders, and I pray they will be blessed by the knowledge and wisdom gained from such a course.  And special thanks to the Ablacks for helping get this set up.  The entire package including the leader pack and the additional 11 books were donated by various people in the States... so thank you for your support of these Pastors and coaches!  :)  I will keep you all updated on how this is going as it is a 6 week intensive course.

Tonight, J has a Christian Sports Association meeting which is AWESOME because the whole time will be directed towards our camps this Summer and getting many of the details lined up including numbers of kids expected, sites, sports, etc.  Praise God for this organization and the men who lead it! 

We also wanted to include a few pictures of Cuba and a short letter from J. explaining his time there.  From what I can tell, it was life changing for him but let me let him tell you...

Cuba.  A lot of emotion tied into a simple name.  Fear, mystery, anger, pain…  I admit my own level of fear beginning our trip to Cuba was considerable.  I recited scripture and remembered stories of the saints who faced the fear of the unknown.  Yet, I am grateful for this experience and the fear I felt because I was given the opportunity to see God in a new way. 

God, in His wisdom, allowed me to experience this fear knowing He would provide my comfort.  And He showed His power multiple times in our stay in Cuba.  I cannot imagine how what we saw with human eyes looked like in the heavens.  We saw God change the attitude and spirit of the woman who checked us in at the airport.  Within 15 minutes, she changed from a woman who was obstinate in her assertion that there would be no room for the equipment bags we brought to a woman who collaborated with us in making sure those bags were on the plane.  Later, as we gathered our bags in the Cuban airport, God showed us we were indeed "invisible to the enemy".  And throughout our time in the country, God showed His power and mercy over and over. 

Also, Cuba is simply a beautiful country.  The people are beautiful.  The land is beautiful.  The coaches are beautiful.  The church (body of Christ) is beautiful.  Many of these people have so little.  Little food.  Few jobs.  Little hope.  And yet people smile and greet you.  They hug each other, they laugh with each other, and they share what little they have.  The coaches are dedicated to the idea that through sport, they can reach a generation with the Gospel and discipleship which will change their communities.  And they do this with one glove to share between all the kids. 

I loved my time in Cuba and eagerly await the opportunity to return.  I encourage others to visit and be a blessing to the people God is using to change the world.

 

And some pictures of Cuba...

J and Rudy (our brother who lives in Cuba).

"Yo tengo my caballo amarrado..." (this is Fred's favorite song) :)  Just riding some horse statues in Cuba... which apparently were SUPER HOT! 

There is a prehistoric park in Cuba made up of cement statues (where the horses were from above).  Here Fred is saving J from the mammoth.

A view in Cuba.

A picture of a beach.

One of Rudy's wife's family members.  J had a "first" here as it was his first time to use an outhouse... great experience from what I understand.

About 1/3 of the cars on the road are cars that were imported from the States before the Revolution.  Therefore, the cars are "seasoned".  But awesome...reminds me of Back to the Future.  According to J, you don't throw anything away, you just fix.

This is an enormous Sago Palm.

 

Another view from Cuba.  According to J it is a very beautiful country.

 

 

Thank you for all the prayers and love!  We love you guys.

“He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field…’”  Luke 10:2

Black and White

Hey prayer warriors!  Fantastic news, J and Fred have landed safely in Santo Domingo in the Dominican.  From the few minutes I have been able to speak with J., there are some amazing works being done by our God throughout Cuba.  And I understand there are some stories about what it's like being "invisible to the enemy"!!!  Gloria a Dios!  As I find out more, I will write them to share the power of our God, for He is mighty and big! 

Everything else is going great.  Aubrey and I are getting ready to head back on Monday, May 5.  And I must say we are ready to see J. and ready to hit the ground running for all the planning and items needing to be accomplished before our first camp in June.  I'm ready to tackle it! 

And just one short story about God taking care of EVERYTHING, as always!  :)  When we found out J was going to Cuba (we didn't know until a few days before he was going to leave), we started making arrangements for Aubrey and I to stay in the States until he was back in the Dominican.  Now, to change the date for our flight is a $200.00 fee plus the difference in plane ticket.  Luckily, Aubrey is still a "lap baby" and doesn't have her own ticket.  So, I was praying for God to make it easy, simple and "black and white" for me because you may not know that I am "resourceful".  J sometimes likes to say I'm "cheap", but I prefer resourceful.  Therefore, I think any amount is too much (I want it to be free!).  :)  I realize that desire is a little ridiculous, but I can dream.  Anyways, so I call and ask about Friday, May 2... which was going to cost $700.00 ($200 for the change and $500 for the difference in ticket)!! (not pesos mind you!)  Immediately a negative.  So the lady (who was amazing) asked about Monday, May 5 because the ticket was..... drumroll.... a -$175.00 difference from our original.  Therefore, we only had to pay $25.00 for the ticket change!!!  Praise God for He answered in the way I needed!!  He made it very "black and white" for me.  And then to top it off, Aubrey's fee was only $40.00 when it is normally about $100.00!!  (Although she doesn't have to buy a ticket yet, she still pays for taxes and fees and such.)  Anyways, just another story of God providing in everything and answering the "small things".  I pray you all continue to seek God even in the "small things" and "red lights"!

Lots of love to all of you!

 

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Philippians 4:4