How does one take care of the homeless?

How does one describe the pain of injustice to another when they have not seen the faces or shared in the stories of the ones who daily live under the night sky and rely on kind strangers to provide their daily food?

During my short stay here in Santo Domingo I have had the privilege of meeting a homeless woman named Esperanza (which means hope). She is the sweetest lady I have met and so sincere. She is an old woman who lost her home in the hurricane that passed through Santo Domingo 10 years ago. Every morning she crawls out from under a cardboard box and takes her post at a little nook on the main drag in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo. Daily she is passed by hundreds of strangers consisting of tourists and locals alike. Not many people take an interest in her, as she sits in old clothing with a washed out leopard print scarf wrapped around her head.
Should one sit down and share a conversation with her, they would learn that she has the joy of the Lord in her heart and that she loves to laugh. She is expressive and shares her whole self with you. She will protect you from those whom she knows to be bad, and tell you that you are her daughter/son. She loves to hold the hands of those that she loves.

I have had the honor of holding her hand and hearing her story. I have heard her call me her daughter and watch her threaten bad men off with her stick. I have seen her eyes light up when we bring her boxes of food that she can eat and share with her friends on the street. I have heard her pray a blessing over us. I have watched her brighten with uncertainty as she clings to the promise that we will return to visit her the next day. I have watched her head and eyes turn from side to side as she is constantly aware of what is going on around her. I have watched her eyes sink and heart melt when she learned that me and the others girls did not live locally and would be leaving shortly. I have heard her say, “Please leave me something to remember you by, I never want to forget the names of the people who the Lord brought to provide for me”.

Now I ask you, what is my role… what is your role? It is written in the Bible that we are to take care of the widow, the orphan, and the homeless. What do I do? What does God ask of me? How do I continue to help Esperanza? Or do I? Will God lead another to help her? Will he lead me to someone in my town that is homeless? If he does, how do I help them?

My heart has been aching been for Esperanza since I met her. I feel uneasy… materialistic… selfish… unworthy… wanting… ungrateful… deserving (when in reality I don’t deserve anything)… rich… sad…

Lord teach me your ways, guide me in your plans, let me not get distracted from what you want of me.

birthday video

To all of you at North Kitsap Baptist Church who helped to make my birthday video, I want to thank you so much. It was very neat to see that after two days of very tiring and intensive Spanish classes. It meant a lot to us.

See you at Christmas!

Sometimes I miss home...

Sometimes I really hate looking at facebook; it makes me so sad to see all the moments from people's lives that I am missing... all the traditional trips with friends and family that I am no longer a part of. But my comfort lies in the truth of why I am here and how much I love the D.R. and the people. God is so faithful to provide things that are so dear to our hearts. So I guess what I am trying to say is that I miss you all SO much!

Alright... I am going to take a 180 degree turn now and share about our weekend. On Friday night we all went out to a pizza place after language class and had yummy American food to give the students a break from Dominican food. It was also someones birthday so we surprised her with a cake afterward. Then Saturday we took them all down to Santiago where we did activities that were school related like visiting a museum and The Monument (pictured below). Following these sites we took them to a store called La Sirena; it's equivalent would be something like a Target. We don't have anything like this in our small town, so it was chance to get needed items that are off/on available to us up in Jarabacoa. This small tour took nearly all day... we left just after 9am and didn't get back until 5:30pm.

Now I sit and ponder... do I procrastinate? Work on Spanish homework? Or come up with my Bible study for the ladies? My deadline for homework and Bible study prep is tomorrow... so I should probably get working on that, eh?



This photo was taken at the top of The Monument



Our 15 college students from Bethel College in Indiana



The middle flag is the Dominican Republic flag




The Monument

Before I do that I have a final thought to leave you with... "Don't scare a man carrying a machete from behind". I did that accidentally yesterday on my run and that machete went flying. If my heart wasn't beating fast before that it was after that!

Prayer requests:

Ability to pick up language quickly and correctly

Energy for all the things we have going on right now

Patience with both our language teacher and the students

Wisdom in Bible study preparation

Thank you everyone for you love and support!

Did you miss me in this long absense?

Life is passing by and my blog page has gone untouched for like a month now… sorry!

Our brief visit to the states was good – here is the breakdown: when we landed in Seattle we were both sick, we were freezing most of the time, Melody and Adam were married on Sat 22th - which Melody and the wedding were beautiful, we got to visit our family and see a few friends, overall it was really great.

Since we have been back – the adjustment, to be perfectly honest was really hard. When we first walked into our home my first thought was… “This is our home? It doesn’t feel like home.” After we started unpacking our things and getting everything back in order, the feeling of “hominess” began to reappear. But it took a few days for totally recooperation to happen. Once it did, I felt right at home. And now, to be transparent with you, I am dreading going back for Christmas because I hated the feeling when we returned. I’m just praying that it doesn’t happen again… that it was just that first time.

On September 6th the semester team arrived and since then we have been busy. The first 2 days were orientation days and then they moved into their host family’s homes. That same day we all began Spanish class. It is 3 hours a day, Monday thru Friday. My mind is so tired... between language learning, working, keeping up things at our house, aka: Snickers and Lucy, and SI requirements… I am exhausted. Last night I went to bed at 9:15… which is REALLY early for me... that's how tired I was!

Language learning has been an interesting beginning… the first 3 days of classes the lady that heads up the program couldn’t be there because her daughter had an emergency in Miami and she had n .,to be there. So Josh, myself and Lowell knew, but somehow she failed to mention this to the other teachers. So the other ladies show up and asked us where Aurelis was. We told them that she wouldn’t be there until Monday and they freaked out. Not only did they not know this, Aurelis had not given them our curriculum or any direction. The first 3 days were horrible – and that’s being nice. However since Aurelis has been here, the class has picked up significantly… she is an amazing teacher and she knows Spanish inside and out (not to mention backwards and forwards)!

Story of interest…
When Josh and I moved into this house in April, the landlord had gone and paid all the bills for the house so everything was up-to-date. Since we have lived here, our phone bill has come, but we had never received an electric bill. So we figured since 3 ½ months had gone by (and still had electricity thankfully) we should go down and try and figure out what was going on. So we get to the electric bill pay store and ask about it. We told them about everything and the lady looked it up in her computer and said that everything was fine. We asked her to print us a bill of whatever needed to be paid up to that day and when she handed it to us it read 15 pesos –which is like 50 cents. So we paid it and went on our way. Well just a few days ago we received our first bill at our house and when we looked at our balance to be paid it read 30 pesos! A dollar! Can you believe it? So we asked Lowell and Cheryl about it and they said that whoever lived in this house before us may have paid off someone at the electric place and now our bill is NOTHING! So we’ll see how long this lasts… they said that once they figure out that Americans live in our house, they’ll put us in the highest paying bracket, so I guess we had better enjoy this while it lasts.

Well, I’m off to relax! So in the words of Aurelis - Chao Chao

Me... a blogger? I don't think so!

I've decided that "updating" my friends and family via blogspot is not "my cup of tea" as Russell and Cindy might say :) I have a hard time taking my life and experiences and putting it to words on this page; however I am determined to be decent at this one day... so here I am, continuing to try this "blogging" thing, and probably to no success, but onward I go.

These past few days have been crazy, therefore leaving me incredibly tired and grasping at any pillow I find... even if for only 10 minutes. Since I dropped our car off on Monday to the mechanic, we have been relying on our trustee moto to get us around. Which is usually fine, until it rains... like it did all night the other night. When we arrived home, Josh was completely soaked from neck to toe (he wears a helmet) and my legs and arms were unmistakably drenched. The other issue I am faced with, is in the morning. I can either be ready to leave by 6:25am with Josh on the moto, or I can run to the base. Usually this question is a no brainer... I would run to the base (as I have been the past few weeks), however, as sleepiness seems to have taken over my body, running has not been my first choice. So this morning I crawled onto the back of the moto and came to base where I found comfort on a little cot in one of the back rooms. I slept very happily there until I heard a rooster, pig, goat, and cow making obnoxious noises at me... as I searched around the room, my eyes stopped at my cell phone... it was my phone alarm going off. Why am I so cruel to myself! Why would I ever set my own personal alarm to such ruckus first thing in the morning!? I think it goes without saying that I will be changing that tonight.

I think I got a little side-tracked there... back to my crazy days. Besides the usual meetings, planning, and prep we have each day, we are down to just one base vehicle right now which happens to be a manual (Josh hasn't learned how to drive a manual yet) which means I get the privilege of driving everyone around who needs transportation during the day. Usually this task isn't one of inconvenience... until now... of course :) So I have been driving around a lot lately in a truck that doesn't have AC and has leather seats. No one should ever have a vehicle with leather seats when the weather is usually scalding hot and humid. So showering more than once a day has become a necessity.

Other bits of craziness... as you may know, I am participating in the semester abroad program that we host here. So not only are Josh and I working very hard to plan and prepare for the program, but I am still working on getting myself registered for the program! It starts in like a month and I'm not quite in yet... ahhh!!!!

A very weird experience was taking our summer interns through the debriefing process who leave Saturday. It was strange realizing (again... it happens from time to time) that we aren't going home... for good anyway. We will go home for Mel's wedding but then we'll be right back here 2 weeks later. Strange feeling

A routine part of our day... especially in this blissful heat, is ice cream. The soft-serve place is our afternoon hang out. This is our happy place. Another happy place is watching Lucy... she is so entertaining! The stunts she pulls... no wonder she had a broken leg when we first got her!



Despite her general energetic mood and love for attacking Snickers she took about 3 minutes to sit peacefully with me. To mark this unusual event, we took a picture. She is getting so big, and therefore more mischievous, but all the more fun.

Little random notes:
~ we just watched the 2nd James Bond with the blond guy... Daniel Craig (I think)... I think it's called Quantum Solace... anyway... I was totally disappointed! What a bummer sequel to the Casino one which I thought was great!
~ Mairyn leaves in 15 days for the states, so it will be back to just Raul and us 2
~ notice how in the above picture I'm not tan... it's because I'm not, I don't tan. So when I come home, don't ask me why I'm not tan (*wink*)

Lots of love from Josh and I to all you who read this blog... thanks for your support!

Summer Recap

The summer is almost finished! We are so happy with how this summer turned out and glad that we can say we have made it through one summer... YEAH! We are older and wiser now... or something like that :) We have a long list of what to change, add, or keep and are excited to implement that into the spring program.

My summer recap:

• saw several teens make the decision that Jesus was going to be their God - AMEN!
• adopted Lucy
• saw my first serious accident... still praying for you Pat
• witnessed about 150 teens and adults alike take the "servant challenge" (servant challenge= tying a rag around one's wrist committing to seeking out ways to serve others even when it's not convenient, pleasant, normal, or comfortable)
• was in my first car accident (3 days ago... don't worry, I'm okay and it wasn't my fault)
• learned a lot about myself, Josh, and our working styles

I wish I could say that I did something really crazy or ate something disgusting... but really I just leave that up to my dogs :) Lucy eats nasty bugs all the time.

All in all, this has been a great experience, and I know that so much more lies ahead of us. We are so excited for what the future holds.

What's next for us?

After this group leaves Saturday all the staff have the week off for rest. Then on Friday we all go to the beach for a staff retreat... it is mandatory that we have fun :) On Monday 17th we fly home to WA for Melody's wedding!!! We will leave August 28th and return to finish final preparations for the semester team that arrives September 6th. They will be with us until Dec. 17th. We follow shortly after, returning for Christmas break on Dec. 21.

Highlight of my day?

Watching Lucy jump from the second stair and fly through the air right into Snickers head... it was hysterical!

Excursion Improvised

Yesterday was excursion day for our teams. We send them out white water rafting or hiking to a waterfall. However for this outreach we have a man in a wheel chair, which makes these activities a little more difficult. Josh and I had been brainstorming some fun ideas and thought of taking Brian and his wife Barbi to Jamaca De Dios. The pictures will help to describe the beauty of the place. It's the top of a mountain that overlooks our valley... our town, Jarabacoa. The top of this place happens to be the top of a very expensive and new housing development, which means not just anyone is welcome to this view. We made reservations at the restaurant up there, which gave us passage to the top.

We spent a little time at the very top and then went down a little to the restaurant - which sits right on the side of the mountain... so we received an amazing view from there as well. The chef at the restaurant is a retired chef from the states, and actually cooked/baked at some of the nations finest restaurants including (I can't remember the name) the bakery/pastry shop at the top of the World Trade Tower. He is a really neat guy and treated us very well.

Josh and I with Brian and Barbi. They are from Bakersfield, CA. They brought a team from the their church. So while their team was out hiking through the forest to a waterfall, we enjoyed amazing food, company, and a gorgeous view! I ordered the prime rib with mashed potatoes. It was amazing!!!

This was Josh's desert, chocolate mousse... it was fabulous!

This was my desert... chocolate ravioli (the name on the menu sounds more amazing than what I wrote... but who cares... it was SO good!!!)

We had an amazing time... and the food made me feel like I was in the states for brief moment. It was a great time and if you ever come to visit us we will take you to this restaurant!