Vacation?

Vacation isn’t usually a term I would think about when I think about missionaries. I think about 24/7 work, jungles, and different languages. Well, Josh and I just officially had our first vacation and it was great! We had two different sets of visitors. Our first guests, Russell, Cindy, and Cole, were a family that I nannied for in college. The first few days were spent seeing our town, our home, local attractions like waterfalls, and a little of where we work and what we do. Following that they treated us to several days at the beach with them. During that time Russell taught Josh and I how to windsurf which was AWESOME!

Celebrating Cole's birthday (a month late, but who cares!) He decorated cookied that spelt out "Happy B-Day"

Cole was demonstrating his "Batman strength" by pushing Josh off his seat

Hanging out at one of the waterfalls


At the hotel where The Freeman's stayed during their time with us in our town


Our first night together eating dinner on the bank of the river and having a BLAST!


Russell spent two mornings teaching us to windsurf - Day #1

Day #1 - finding my sea legs - I did actually get sailing my first day... YEAH!

Day #2 - sailing together

Following their visit a friend that goes way back came to visit – Michael Martin! Michael stayed with us in our home and therefore got to experience a little Dominican living; meaning: times with no electricity (though we have a generator now), random people showing up the door, loud music through all hours of the night, roosters crowing at 11pm, among other things. We visited all 3 waterfalls, saw the coffee factory, visited the historical part of the capitol and stood in the tallest tower of the old fort contemplating if we could ride out any storm that came our way, went to the beach for 2 days/1 night and took on the waves in the very warm ocean playing all the silly games that Josh made up. But in all those things we talked… a lot. Catching up with a friend that shares so many fond and great memories can be one of the

best medicines to relaxing.

We spent this evening at a mountain-side restaurant in the hopes of watching the sunset... no such luck - rain and clouds

What now?

Tonight the semester abroad students fly in and thus begins our 4 month journey with a new batch of students.

What does this journey look like (from our side)?

• Hearing conversations about cultural differences (that remind Josh and I of how far we’ve come culturally - and how much we've forgotten)
• Learning about 16 new people and getting to invest in their lives emotionally and spiritually
• Regular conversations regarding “bathroom” talk
• Driving people around every day and having “car talks” with them; which mean very random and usually hilarious chats
• Seeing people change more into who God created them to be
• Watching their lives change as they re-evaluate what their future looks like
• Having the students over to our house 2-by-2 for dinner
• Leading the students through Bible study where they can express who they are
• Participating in small groups of 4 people and getting to pray for each other each week and see God move in each other’s lives

Interesting news about me: I just had my first dream in Spanish