Our first days of 2012 in the D.R.

Normally I enjoy the flying experience; the airports, the fun American treats that can be found in there, and flying with Josh while making him play silly games with me. However, our flying from the D.R. to Seattle this year was the worst time flying we’d ever had, therefore making me feel a little suspicious about what we were about to endure at the hands of Delta. We have not had any good experience with Delta thus far, but flying back with them was the only reasonable choice as American Airlines wanted 24 hours to get us home whereas Delta could fly us back in 10 hours.

Walking to the baggage drop-off in Seattle, my nerves were pinging, and Josh’s stomach was full of butterflies as we were hoping and praying they wouldn’t invent some new fee we’d have to pay or make us go stand in the long line at the common counter because they didn’t like the tickets that we’d printed off the internet. To our surprise however, everything checked out just fine! And away we went! Baggage drop-off… check! Security… check! Bathroom… check! Our last Starbucks double-chocolate chip frappuccino… check! Bathroom again… check! 10:00pm plane departs… check!

We were on an incredible plane, great leg space, great reclining seats, personal monitor with several great movie options, free plane treats, and they offered beverages more than once! We were so elated with this wonderful turn-around that we couldn’t sleep. We both watched two movies and slept the final 30 minutes of the flight as we descended into New York. When we landed we looked at each other with a start, and at least I was wondering if I had made the right choice not to sleep… I was SO tired!

We disembarked the plane at 6:00am New York time and staggered to our next gate where we waited about 30 minutes while watching birds fly around the terminal. Josh dozed in and out of sleep while I stared blankly at the desk waiting to board the plane so that I could sleep. Finally we boarded and were off yet again, but this time our next stop would be home! We slept the whole flight making us feel a little more alert as our plan was to stay awake the remainder of the day… 9 hours to go.

Our director and his wife picked us up from the airport and drove us home. We found it nice and orderly, all but one thing… the electricity was off. After reading a somewhat confusing note from Raul, our friend who house/dog sat for us, regarding the electricity, all four of us set off to try and fix whatever had happened. Luckily, just a switch had been pulled, so all was okay. However, over the course of the day, we began to find little things out of place or missing, locked doors in the house, and an extra lawn mower in our back yard. So we got the house back in order and all was well, and what’s missing is easily replaced.

I set off for town while Josh was playing basketball to buy some groceries because our house was bare… just condiments in the fridge. As I pulled into town I could tell immediately that it was a holiday therefore the chances of me being able to change money into pesos was not very likely. People covered the streets without regard for cars or motos. I slowly moved through the crowds praying that something was open. Well, I was right, no money exchange places open but I had 1400 pesos ($35.00) and figured that was enough to get us through the rest of the day. I was able to find one grocery store that was open and the fruit market too!

The rest of the day is really just a blur. Josh and I ended up going to bed at 8:30pm which felt wonderful! And we didn’t get out of bed until 9:55am the following the morning, when our fan turned off, meaning that our inverter (battery operating generator) wasn’t on. We thought that we had fixed that yesterday when we arrived home, but apparently not! So I set off to the inverter unit to see what was up, and apparently it had been switched off. So we got that all set. Next we wanted to get showered up and ready for the day, however, for some reason, the instant hot water heater wasn’t working. Well, it was late in the morning, and we had just showered yesterday late afternoon, so we weren’t going to worry about that at the current moment. So on we went with our day, exchanging money, going to the bank, paying bills and buying groceries. Shortly afterward, we took off for staff meeting where we got to see Lowell, our former director who was in for just the day. After staff meeting we had dinner with our current director, Lowell, and the visitor that he brought, the Green College President. We got home around 10:15pm from dinner and thought if we read perhaps we might get sleepy, because at this point, we weren’t. Well, 12:30am came around and we weren’t very tired, but we just decided to try and sleep.

7:30am Wednesday: both of our alarms go off. Time to get up and go to the lab clinic in town for blood work, etc., and down to Santiago for my doctor appointment. Well, I did not want to get out of bed, but Josh being the great man that his is, continued to nicely remind me that it was time, so 8:00am, I finally rolled out to find that oh yeah, we can’t shower because we never got that fixed. So we tried messing around with a few things on the heater but with no success. We decided to just take the propane tanks in and get them filled hoping that this would magically produce results. Once we got back, still nothing. Well, the day was getting on and I needed to get the lab work done so that I could eat breakfast, so we ran out and did that only to come home and smell our house full of propane gas. We walked around the back of the house to see that the gas was spraying out of the tank! We shut if off but it was still spraying out! We had never encountered this before and so immediately started making phone calls to see what to do… well no one knew what to do! Our friend William, who works for the base, came over about 30 minutes later and explained that the guy who filled it had over filled it and the tank was just releasing the extra pressure. So he fixed it. Great! And we got ahold of the handy-man who after lunch, came and fixed our hot water heater, some expensive rubber piece had torn.

So now here we are, 3:00pm, Josh is heading off to play basketball, and I am going to go to town yet again to try and finish paying our bills… sometimes it takes 30-60 minutes in one place! We think that our house is finally in order, all things working, praise the Lord! And now off I go!

October update

Hello! Sorry for the long absense... we've been insanely busy! Here is a little update as to what has been going on lately!

Semester Abroad 2011

We are now entering our 5^th week working alongside 13 students who have come from Indiana for a cross-cultural experience in the Dominican Republic. Running this program is the highlight of our year, we absolutely love this program! Weekly we put on activities to develop unity, build community, and make this an unforgettable experience. No experience is like the next; each year is different and presents different challenges, learning experiences, and blessings.

This year the unforgettable experience is already in the making. I have had the privilege and honor and of walking alongside a gal who comes from a life of sorrow, anger, pain, shame, and fear. We have journeyed these past 4 weeks through a rigorous path of healing and there is still more mountain climbing to come. But this experience has been an amazing path of grace, peace, love, forgiveness and healing.

Having those moments where God takes your breath away are the moments worth living for.

I am living in one of these moments. I am “unqualified” to help this gal walk through this healing process, but God is so much bigger than qualifications, her hurt and pain, and my qualification and training. He is using her desire to heal and my willingness to be there for her and to pray for her, to bring about the most beautiful and incredible redemption I have ever witnessed. And it’s simply God being God and us walking faithfully with Him and allowing Him control that is bringing this about.

I am physically watching God change this gal’s life forever. She will never be the same.

I am humbled at His great power and ability.

What else is going on?

·         We will begin traveling on Saturday with the semester students. We’ll be traveling for one week.

·         We have a new house mate, Mark. He was a semester student of ours from 2009 and he’ll be with us for 6 weeks as he helps out in the medical site.

·         Melody and Adam will be visiting in November! We’re super excited to see them and to share with them our life here.

·         I (Vicki) am going to start helping out with the worship team at church. I know that I’ll be playing the keyboard and maybe I’ll get to help with singing.

·         Josh will be graduating with his master’s degree in Discipleship ministries in December.

Farewell Party

Tonight is the despedida (farewell party) for our four fearless leaders (as I like to call them). Our directors, Lowell & Cheryl and pastoral care/ministry site supervisors, Nate & Maggie will be leaving us shortly to continue on their journey in ministry with SI in Nicaragua.  It's been a long time coming, but now that it's here I can't believe it. I have been practicing a song all week that I'm going to be sining at the party, and I haven't sung through it once without getting teary-eyed... hopefully I can make it through the whole thing tonight :)

This weekend we are taking our semester students on one of my favorite excursions. We're going to creek through the river from our town to a mountain community where our friend will meet us and cook us lunch! It should be a great time!

Semester Program 2011

We're kicked off! Josh and I just finished our few days of orientation with the semester students and we moved them into their homes today. The past few days have been spent waking up together and worshiping through music, Josh sharing a devotional, and spending alone time with God. And to break up the sitting and receiving information we gave them a scavenger hunt through town, played games to help understand cultural difference, had cake and met the host parents, and had dinner out in town at Pica Pollo (a road side Dominican dining place), and playee games at our house. It's been a busy but great last few days and we're enjoying a little (much needed) rest today!

Hope you are all well! Happy September!

Season of Change & Costa Rica Family Trip

One characteristic of life in missions here is change. People come and go all the time, year 'round. These past several months we've seen the face of SIDR change significantly as we've welcomed on many new staff members and have said farewell to many. One of the lastest staff to leave was Amy Green. She was a great friend and fellow missionette (AG version of Awana). She was the one who gave us our dobermans when we first moved here.

Our interns and volunteers left August 10th after a good debriefing and re-entry period at the beach.
We were so blessed with a great group of interns - it was hard to watch them go.

We're in the preparation stage for our next program - semester students. They arrive Aug 31st. and will be with us until mid-December. This is our favorite time of the year; getting to devote ourselves to a small team of people for 3 1/2 months. This year we have 13 students (12 girls and 1 guy...pray for him!)

Last bit of notice - we went on a vacation with Vicki's family to Costa Rica for 5 days. Vicki's parents, siblings and grandparents (mom's side) all were there. Below is a family photo and some pictures from a boat tour that we did with grandma, grandpa, mom and dad.

                                                                      
                                                                       Family Fun!

                                                                  
                                                                     Baby crocodiles

Land Crabs

Monkeys!

Mangrove Trees

Not sure what type of tree this is... but don't touch it

Flying from Liberia to San Jose the boarding tickets they gave us were laminated tourist brochures... interesting

Egg in the Hole

Sunday evening is usually intern/volunteer Bible study, where everyone comes over to our house and we have a yummy dessert of some kind and of course the Bible study. However, we spent the entire day at the beach which we wrapped up by having an American meal experience (thanks to TGIFridays) and didn't get back to Jarabacoa until after 10pm. So we made a quick change to the plans and decided to have breakfast and Bible study Monday morning before the teams arrived. This morning I had for the very first time "Egg in the Hole".

These are my summer intern/volunteer buds!

Rachel making us Egg in the Hole... it was so good!

Angie cut all the holes out of the bread for this breakfast speciality.

Josh and I feel incredibly blessed - our group of interns/volunteers are amazing! We really believe in our daily investment in them and know that God has called us to work alongside college aged students; mentoring, discipling, and just experiencing life together. I can't believe they leave in three weeks. 

Our summer staff

Summer 2011's Internship and Volunteer Program Participants

This summer we have three volunteers: Jeff, Myles, and Angie. Myles and Angie interned for us last summer and returned for this summer to seek out God's calling for them and to see if SI was a fit for them. Angie has been working in one of our women's social work centers and Myles has been heading up our media site. Jeff has been here since mid-January where he started as an intern and in May moved into the volunteer program and has been also seeking out God's plan for him and searching SI as a possible fit. He's been serving in out special education school.

We have 7 interns remaining (had 9 to begin with): Chris and Meaghan, they are from Louisanna and stayed for 6 weeks. Chris just began dental school and Meaghan is finishing up her senor year of college. One day they want to do dental missions. They are engaged to be married next year. They honored Josh and I by asking us to take them through pre-marital counseling.

Rachel - she's just graduated from Wheaton College and was a semester student of ours last fall. She has really connected with SI and the ministry here and is applying for full time staff.

Christine - she's from California and has been here since mid-January. She's been serving as an intern these past 6 months and also has felt a calling to serve with SI. She would like to work with special needs children and will be going back to the states to finish college.

Brittany - she's from California and has been serving in our women's sports ministry site. Brittany is a gifted muscian and has used her gifts to bless us and our teams every week. She's sweet and always smiling.

Kelly & Jesse - they are a dating couple from Long Beach, CA. Kelly is serving in our art site and Jesse in the men's sport site. Jesse is easy going, laid back, and loud (which is mean in the nicest way). Kelly is soft spoken, thoughtful, creative, and very go with the flow. They want to get married one day.

Ariana - she too is from California and is currently attending ASU. She's really fun and adds great personality to our team dynamic. She is working in one of our women's center's and is connecting well with the girls in that community.

Erin - she's from Colorado (went to school in CA) and just graduated from college. She's applying for medical schools as I type and is pursuing a career as a doctor. She's very joyful, constantly smiling, and has such a heart for serving others.

This picture is from the mountain restaurant - Aroma de Dios - it overlooks our town, Jarabacoa
Here is Chris and Meaghan - our Louisanna buds

Angie... she's from Bellevue which means we "get" each other :) She calls us mom and dad... something that started last year (can't remember why) but has continued ever since then. She's been living with us this summer as our little (or not so little) daughter... good times!