Prayer Requests

Hey prayer warriors!  I have a special prayer request for all of you... today, Fred (the president of AIM) and J. made their way from the Dominican to Cuba.  I know they boarded the plane to Cuba mid-afternoon, and I know it was going to be a trek upon arriving to Cuba (not only getting through security and out of the airport with the sports equipment they took) but also to get to their final destination.  Basically it would be an 8 hour bus ride after their initial flight or another plane ride.  I am not sure which they decided on, but regardless I know it would take a toll on them.  So, I am asking each of you to lift them up during this next week.  Their trip is to spend time with our brother, Rudy, who lives in Cuba and as a prep trip for a sports camp this Summer.  Please continue to pray for God's hand as He paves the way, for the enemy to remain blind to them, and for strength and endurance throughout the week.  Although their was some slight fear from all of us regarding this trip (when you mention Cuba to people their is always a slight intake of breath), I know our God is in control and BIGGER than anything or anyone.  I know J and Fred are in His hands which is more comforting than anything I could ask for.  But as always, I wanted to ask all of our mission family to be praying for them throughout this week.  I will update if I hear anything (right now I'm going on a "no news is good news" as we were not sure what the communication would be like from Cuba). 

In other news, God has been moving throughout the FCA camp this week.  Please continue praying for the 200+ Dominican coaches present, the varying mission groups, the Americans present and all those in charge of the camp as they finish up strong tomorrow. 

Look to the Lord and his strength; seek His face always. 1 Chronicles 16:11

He is RISEN!

Hey family!!  Sorry for not being better at keeping up... I think this is the longest I have gone without blogging and letting you all know what is going on with us.

First, Happy Easter to each of you.  I hope you all had a chance to reflect on this special time and what it means for each of us.  Church today was excellent and I must say I should have worn waterproof mascara as more than once I was brought to tears about this season and Christ's sacrifice for me.  But, He is RISEN!!  Praise the Lord!!

I think many of you know, but we returned to the States this past Monday night, and what a whirlwind of a week it has been.  Lots of family time and lots of working.  But. as always, God paved the way and so many people we need to see or reach are falling in our path.  My mom was able to visit as well which was great.  Aubrey is loving her time here and enjoying her family time.  And in other exciting news, we visited the doctor the other day and had a sonogram done for baby Siete (what the Dominicans are calling the baby).  And although I was 100% sure it was a boy...SURPRISE... it's a girl!!!  Needless to say we are beyond thrilled (I know we would have been either way) and cannot wait to meet this little miracle in July.  The thought of Aubrey being a big sister is still unreal to me as she won't be the "baby" but the older one.  Just crazy to think about. 

Also, please be praying for J, his dad, Fred and Daniel as they make their way to the DR this coming Wednesday for a FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) camp on the South side of the island.  This camp hosts baseball coaches from all over the island for a few days of training, leadership development, and most importantly discipleship.  We actually have over 100 coaches attending the camp from Sosua and the surrounding areas and San Luis.  We are very excited for these coaches to attend and for their growth, so please continue praying for them. 

Thanks for all of your love and support throughout this journey!  We love you guys!

And in honor of this special season:

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.  Matthew 28:6

Llanta de Fortuna

Happy Monday!!  Hard to believe we only have 1 week left until we head back to the States.  It doesn't seem like we have been here another 3 months.  But praise God for work as the time flies by when you are busy.  :)

This past Saturday we attended a baseball tournament with 2 of our AIM guys teams.  Alfre from La Cienega played Checo's Cangrejo team and let's just say Alfre's team demolished Checo's team.  But it was so much fun, and before the game Jay got to share a few words with the boys after their Bible lesson...  Jay shared with them that the States and the Dominican share the same problems.  We both have issues with violence and drugs and bad things happening, but luckily we have a solution, God.  Jay explained that he is grateful for each of these boys because even though we are two teams against each other in a game, we begin and end the game as 1 team, brothers in Christ.  As Jay and I have continued along this journey and this work, God has continued to lay on our hearts the importance that these youth and young adults learn that there is more to life than baseball or sport.  There is a big world out there and the majority of them will not get signed to a major league team (one of the primary dreams on the island).  So, imagine how much time we all spend practicing our sport and how little time we spend teaching these young boys how to be proper husbands and fathers and leaders of their community.  As cliché as it sounds, these children are the next generation, so we need to continue to raise them up and prepare them for this time.  Please continue to pray for this island and these people! 

On another note, we played "Llanta de Fortuna" in ESL this past Wednesday... Wheel of Fortune (or when actually translated it was Rim of Fortune...but we will just say Wheel).  It was so much fun, but I must admit slightly frustrating because they kept trying to guess the entire word with no letters or 1 "E" or 1 "A".  We were like just guess a letter, any letter, and they would respond with "pass".  No, you can't pass, you have to guess a letter!  :)  But it was so much fun and they worked on their verbs.  We also made a crossword for them to complete which again was interesting as the majority of them have never done one.  They were like, "how can there be two 13's?"  We would explain one goes across and the other down, but it was still mindboggling to them that this could be possible.  One of our guys actually turned his crossword 45 degrees so his letters would be written toward the bottom of the paper (rather than just writing the letters one above the other in the "down" columns, he wanted them to be correctly horizontal together).  One of those things that just makes me smile. 

And some pictures...

Aubrey with Ruth Ester this past Saturday during the baseball games (Alfre's little girl).

After the baseball game and morning...out cold!

 



And something very special for our AIM family... last week after the meeting our guys were able to pray over Gabriella, Rafael's daughter.  She has sickle cell and has been having lots of pain, nausea and bleeding in the past several months.  Please continue to lift her up, Rafael and her family throughout this time.  As Rafael told us yesterday, "I have to give her to God."  So please say a few extra prayers for this situation.

God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all.  1 John 1:5

 

(thanks Sarah Morris for the verse!)  :)

Water, water everywhere

Hey family!  Once again, another week has flown by.  I keep meaning to blog in the evening once everything settles down and Aubrey is in bed, but I also keep falling asleep so the blogging hasn't happened.  But again, things are cruising along here. 

We visited Las Terranas this past Thursday/Friday and as always, our God paved the way for us!  It was an excellent trip and so many details were discussed and decided.  We had a meeting with the coaches on Thursday night and about 12 showed up from Las Terranas and Limon (a community about 15 minutes away) where we will have camp this summer.  And I must say the 12 coaches who showed up were pumped up to hear what AIM is about and what we do during camp.  And for me, 12 coaches to show up was a big deal especially for something new and unknown.  We followed this with a meeting with 2 pastors and a brother from the church.  It is always important to us to have a church and pastors on board when we preach the Gospel and during camp as it means so much more to the Dominicans coming from their own people and not the "white Americans".  Generally the pastors are the ones we have more trouble with jumping on board, but man were they excited!  Praise God!  On Friday, we visited a sister in the church who owns a colmado (basically a small grocery store) and who is excited to help us with the purchasing of sodas, cups, ice, bags, etc.  All the needed items for camp... and directly next door to her was a brother from the church who works at a panaderia (bread shop) who is going to help us with the bread for the hot dogs.  Again, so easy!!  The traveling was great and easy (no police stopped us this time!)  :).  So thank you for all the prayers for this trip!  God truly laid the foundation.

Our meeting last night was great as we started a few more detail planning for Summer camp here in Sosua (I cannot believe we are only 2 1/2 months away!!)... aaahhh!!  :)  Very exciting time (also very busy) but very exciting.  Please start praying for these camps as we begin the detail portion of planning and nailing down important items, and as Brittney and Fred have already started this portion.  Although we will "hit the ground running" when we get back from our visit to the States, some of the preliminary details are getting started now.

And this past week, we got to meet a great group of girls from Arkansas here for a week long mission during Spring Break.  And I must say, these girls are go-getters... wow!  I am highly impressed with their drive and vision.  As only freshman and sophomores in college, they dreamed up this mission trip, sold t-shirts (over 400 to be exact!), planned their trip out, made contacts here in the DR, etc.  When I heard their story I was blown away at their maturity.  We had a great time getting to know them, and who knows, maybe some (or all) will be back this summer!!!  :) 

And now for a few funny stories to brighten your day:
-This past Tuesday evening, Pastor Rivas' church opened a new church in El Catey (about 45 minutes away).  Basically, his church which is the Septimo Refugio church has many locations with different pastors and leaders at each location.  They had a big service and fed the community (what else but hotdogs!).  Right before we leave, Pastor Rivas asks J if he will translate for those speaking Spanish to be translated into English (Pastor Rivas had a group of Canadian missionaries visiting who needed translation).  Of course J says, no problem.  During the course of the evening, however, when the primary Pastor (who is Canadian) steps up to preach, Rivas looks at J and says, "you are doing a great job, keep going."  ok... so J translates throughout the entire message with some help from Rivas and does a great job!  However, the best part comes after the service is over and J is stopped outside by one of the Canadian missionaries who tells J, "wow, your English is very good."  (let us just pause there for a moment... I admit we have all gotten a little more sun and even I have quite a nice flip-flop tan going on, but I don't believe we have gotten THAT tan.)  J's response was, "yeah, it's the Spanish that's difficult."   So, J just wants to take a second to thank his parents, his teachers and the 30 years of practicing English that have made his English "very good".  :)

-Just a true Dominican story here (or a country story, remember I am a city girl)... so J and I return home from somewhere mid-afternoon and see all the kids from the neighborhood near the front of Via Karen (our street) running up and down chasing something.  When we stopped and asked a few what was going on, their response was straight faced, chasing a chicken.  Haha... I don't know why, but this cracked me up.  I mean we have a ton on our street (with more hatching every day) but for all the kids (and I mean 9 or 10) to be chasing a chicken, awesome!

-Lastly, our street has been having trouble receiving water since we returned in January.  Praise God, our cistern has been full for the most part and in fact we have been sharing with our neighbor (Jose- Mister fix it man) and his family for awhile.  However, in the past 2 weeks all of the sudden our cistern was quickly draining.  Jose (again being a fix it man) hooked up a pump to the cistern and water supply so when we did receive water from the city, it would pull it in much faster and help refill the cistern.  However, one night I guess Jose got tired of it and called a friend of his in the press and told him the situation.  Something along the lines of, our street has been having trouble with water for months (I mean some people don't have water at all) and the city is aware of it.  So, Jose tells his friend in the press that he believes the person in charge at the water plant is stealing money because they are not using it to fix the problem... well let me just tell you that our problem now is not too little water, but the opposite.  haha... once again living in a small town and always knowing someone definitely has it's benefits. 

Anyways, just a few stories of our life here.  Things are still going great and we are loving it.  It's nice and warm (some days a little too warm) but we are preparing for summer and excited about what this summer will bring.  Thanks as always for your love, support and prayers!  We are blessed to have such a big team behind us every step of the way!

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4

Little bit of R&R

Whew!  Praise God for rest and rejuvenation.  I must say it has been a much more restful week for our entire family (and I think we all look a little less haggard after some much needed sleep)!  :)  We have basically settled back into our routine pre-Nagua planning and pre-Nagua trip.  ESL is still going strong.  The classes are smaller than the Fall, but there is definitely a plus side to this as J. can act more like a tutor and help individuals with specific questions and take more time on things they don't understand.  We had 2 new people join us this past week, and I must say they brought a lot to the table. 
We still meet every Monday night with our AIM staff which has been truly amazing to witness their transformations throughout these months.  Although we still have some trouble with Dominican versus American time (but welcome to another culture), they come prepared, with questions, with ideas...  It is so exciting for us to witness this growth in these men as they are leaders of their communities.  We pray for God's hand to continue raising them up as leaders of leaders (something we are really working on instilling in them). 
We have gotten the chance to play with the neighborhood kids more often lately which has become more and more fun (and less stressful for me).  Not only have I learned more Spanish (I know certain phrases such as leave her alone-regarding Aubrey, share with each other, no arguing, get down...), but I am just more comfortable in exhorting my "mom-ness" as needed and hanging out.  I know I don't have to entertain them anymore.  We actually had 11 over here the other day.  And I never thought I would be the "neighborhood mom", but once again look what God can do in your life to change your character and priorities. 
We will be visiting Las Terranas this week (a new location for camp this Summer) to nail down all the hotel, food, site details, etc. so please be praying for God's guidance and direction during this time.  We are planning on driving down Thursday (about a 3 hour drive) and returning Friday, so please also pray for travel mercies and safe roads. 
It's hard to believe the end of March is coming up on us!  We return home April 14 for a few weeks which we are excited about.  Again, it is so comforting to constantly see God taking care of the little things in our life.  For example, our goals set for this quarter are winding down which is such a blessing because I would be a crazy ball of stress (and not very happy about it) to have to leave a big project right in the middle and leave the country!  But as always, our God knows what I need and He has planned our timing and the "big picture" out so perfectly that one of our next major projects will start when we return....FINAL PLANNING FOR SUMMER CAMPS!!! :)  I am beyond pumped to dive into this process, but am truly grateful for some time in between for a little bit of rest. 

And for your viewing pleasure, a few pictures! :)

A family selfie.  Aubrey has learned to say "cheese", but it's all about the timing.

2 weeks ago, we were asked to come back to Nagua for the First Annual Infantile Baseball Tournament.  Checo, J, Aubrey and I drove down to accept an award for the work completed in Nagua during the previous week.  It was such an honor and very kind of them for the recognition.  They gave several plaques out that day to people and groups in the community they wanted to recognize for their work in Nagua.  We actually met a few Canadian missionaries who have lived in Nagua for 11 years and who host a small sports camp in Nagua in the Summer.  As always, God paves the way and places people in your life for a reason!

 

They even brought in a team of baton ballet (the words the Dominicans used) to perform before giving out the awards.  The Dominicans are always very professional and thorough when it comes to their tournaments.  They sing the national anthem, have someone throw the ceremonial first pitch (which actually was J in this case- sorry I was unable to get pictures), prayed, and Checo had an opportunity to preach.

Checo and J with the plaque.

 

A group shot of all the players at this tournament.  Several of them had banners displaying what leagues (teams) they are part of.

Aubrey and mommy selfie while we were waiting in Nagua for the awards presentation to start.

 

 

 

God is most glorified when you are most happy in Him.

-John Piper

Parfait

I know we have done quite a few posts about Nagua and the camp there.  But, J and I were/are so excited about what it means for AIM to have completed their first entirely Dominican led and Dominican run camp.  How many missionaries are given the opportunity to take the people they have been ministering to and lead them on a mission trip?  I must be honest, I don't think many receive this opportunity.  It has been so important to us to tell the stories and show the pictures of this amazing, God-filled trip.  For one last post, I wanted to share with you just a little about our team and God's movement in them since the trip. 

As amazing as it was to witness 222 youth pray to receive Christ, it has been equally amazing to witness the transformations among our Dominican brothers and sister on the team.  J attended a Christian Sport's Association meeting this past Friday night where time was set aside to talk about the Nagua trip.  Some of this time was to inform the other coaches/leaders about the camp, the work completed and overall how it went, but another time was spent with an "open floor" for whoever to speak about their experiences personally and how it has impacted them.  Keka stood up first to talk about the opportunity she was granted to preach and I must say she was utterly thrilled (as J says, she was controlled but she looked like she was going to bust out of her skin).  She was not only grateful for the opportunity granted to her to preach, but even more emotional about the fact that although she had prepared something specific for the day (and spent time prepping with Rafael), the Holy Spirit intervened and something completely different came out of her mouth!  As she has said over and over, she cannot wait to have more opportunities here in Sosua and elsewhere to preach the Word of God!! 

Gary also took the floor and told his story about being asked to give the devotional one morning.  As he has stated several times, he was shocked to be asked by J as he had never done anything like this and did not feel he was "mature" enough as a Christian to lead one.  However, J reminded him of the friend he had next to him (Luis Santos) who could help.  Although Gary has only been a Christian for a short time, he has been working with AIM for many years and is one of our leaders amongst the coaches.  It has been amazing to see the transformation in him just over a few weeks.  He pointed out that before camp he would read his Bible occasionally, but since camp he has been reading everyday!  Praise God! 

Jhose also spoke about the impact the trip has had on him personally.  Although he works for AIM part time, he also teaches/coaches in a school.  He told us that he was sharing his experience with the kids in his classroom when after listening, they decided (on their own) they want to gather old clothing, shoes, sports equipment, basically anything they have and personally deliver it to some of the areas in Nagua.  Although this is exciting in itself (and great to hear kids wanting to do something), it was even more exciting for Jhose and us to hear as these kids tend to be "poor me", "I don't have anything"...  So to see and hear a change immediately in these children as they realize that although they may not have everything their heart desires, there are others out there who have less. 

There are always so many stories to tell of how God is paving the path before the trip and how He works during the trip.  But there are also so many important stories of what God is doing and how He is moving after a trip.  His work didn't finish in Nagua on the last day of camp, but rather He was just getting started.  The camp and 222 kids were the icing on the cake, and now we are cutting deep into the layers to see what happens when people simply share their story and experience.  Just like the story I posted a week ago, tell your story (bear witness), tell of God's power and love, let others know what God has done for you because you never know who is listening and how it will impact them.

 

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

Nagua 3

And a few more...

Aubrey with some friends... and I must say she was flirting with them.  :)

A group of boys resting for a time.

Salomon preaching the Gospel and hands showing who wants to accept Christ!  Praise God!

Alfre writing names of children who prayed to receive Christ.

A group shot of the kids and coaches in Nagua.

J praying with a group of kids who prayed to receive Christ.

Pitching drills.

Volleyball drills.

Aubrey and me in Nagua.

As I have said countless times, the camp was absolutely amazing!  We are truly blessed to be a part of this ministry and these kids' lives.  We pray God would continue to use us in whatever way He sees fit!

 

 

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;
    make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
    tell of all his wonderful acts.
Glory in his holy name;
    let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always.

Psalm 105:1-4