March Madness... check!
We have wrapped up our crazy month of March - back-to-back-to-back-to-back teams. One month of no breaks, but a very fun month of getting to meet and re-meet a whole bunch of people wanting to serve the Lord over their spring break. It didn't come without it's problems of course. We were plagued by a wave of sickness through our staff (about half contracted something), a robbery in one of our bases' dorm rooms, a robbery at one of our staff's home, and LOTS of rain. However, God is good and brought us through this time safetly and successfully!
Many wonderful things are happening here with SI. Besides a healthy staff family and positive energy our new women's social work site in the community of El Callejon has a roof, floor, some paint (the current project underway), and will soon have doors and windows!
This week is Semana Santa (Holy Week) which is celebrated here with many fun activites. So on Friday and Saturday at the river are several different competitions including a basketball tournament that Josh is going to play in.
This month we are moving into summer planning and baby prep. Should be a great relaxing month!
Monday, April 2, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The Year of Good-Bye's
Saying good-bye is something that we are used too, but this time it's different... this time it's final.
This time it's a year of good-bye's. We work through seasons here: spring, summer and fall. Each season brings a vast array of beautiful and colorful people that we've met and come to cherish over the past several years. After every visit we've always said, "see you next year!" but this time we have to say a real good-bye with no certainty of whether or not we'll ever see these amazing people again.
Today we said our first series of good-byes to our spring teams. It was the strangest feeling when we waved these teams off for the last time. There was a team we said good-bye to today who was our very first team when we arrived a little over three years ago. The leader encouraged us last night saying that he has enjoyed watching us grow into our position here and loves seeing us in "our element." It hit us today that leaving this place may be more difficult than we imagined. This is our element... this is our home... this is our life. When we leave, we will be leaving behind four years of our lives that very few people will understand and be able to relate too.
One thing I love about God is that he doesn't waste any oppertunity to teach, stretch, and grow his people. I can tell that this year, like the many before it, will be a year of stretching and growing. We are so excited for this year of transition as we become parents, as we hand off our ministry to another wonderful pair, and as we move. I know great things will come of this year. I have to say that after today however, I'm a little more nervous than I was yesterday.
So on a completely different note... we went whale watching about two weeks ago with our friends and below I posted a few photos from our trip.
This time it's a year of good-bye's. We work through seasons here: spring, summer and fall. Each season brings a vast array of beautiful and colorful people that we've met and come to cherish over the past several years. After every visit we've always said, "see you next year!" but this time we have to say a real good-bye with no certainty of whether or not we'll ever see these amazing people again.
Today we said our first series of good-byes to our spring teams. It was the strangest feeling when we waved these teams off for the last time. There was a team we said good-bye to today who was our very first team when we arrived a little over three years ago. The leader encouraged us last night saying that he has enjoyed watching us grow into our position here and loves seeing us in "our element." It hit us today that leaving this place may be more difficult than we imagined. This is our element... this is our home... this is our life. When we leave, we will be leaving behind four years of our lives that very few people will understand and be able to relate too.
One thing I love about God is that he doesn't waste any oppertunity to teach, stretch, and grow his people. I can tell that this year, like the many before it, will be a year of stretching and growing. We are so excited for this year of transition as we become parents, as we hand off our ministry to another wonderful pair, and as we move. I know great things will come of this year. I have to say that after today however, I'm a little more nervous than I was yesterday.
So on a completely different note... we went whale watching about two weeks ago with our friends and below I posted a few photos from our trip.
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| Sitting on the top deck of the boat waiting for some action |
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| In this photo are our friends who we went with... taking the picture is their other daughter |
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| Whale |
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| Mom and baby whale waving at us |
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| Samana Peninsula |
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| We ate lunch on this little island after we finished watching the whales |
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Rainy DR
I have visited my blog several times over the past month in hopes that by looking at the page, creativity would swarm my mind with ideas of what to share with you. Clearly I have had no luck as there is nothing new since Jan. 11th.
The last two weeks in January we hosted a team from Hume Lake, which is a Christian camp up in the mountains of California, about two hours from Fresno. It was great to see the leaders again, we spent some time at our favorite restraunt, the ribs place as we call it, catching up and hearing about their lives. The outreach went well with no real glitches. Really the only thing that didn't cooperate well was the weather, it's been quite rainy here since we got back from Christmas holiday... kind of feels like Seattle weather... only warmer.
Since that team left Josh and I have spent a lot of time working from home where our schedule is pretty flexible. We have several different projects we're working on which makes it fun... we like variety.
For our 7 year wedding anniversary we decided to do something a little different and went to IKEA in Santo Domingo where we walked through empty handed... we had hoped to find a few things for the baby, but it was still fun to walk through something so American. Afterward we had lunch at one of our favorite American restaurants here, TGIFridays.
For Valentines Day, we spent all morning in the doctors clinic for our 24 week check-up. Following the appointment, our doctor personally took us through the maternity ward where we saw all our options for pre-delivery rooms and post-delivery rooms. It's so great to know where we are suppose to go and (more or less) what we can expect. Our doctor will for sure deliver the baby and his wife is the pedriatrician. He has said on several occasions that she speaks English really well, which for me is a huge relief since I'm sure after having delivered a baby, speaking in English will make it so much easier on my brain! I don't know that I mentioned this on here yet, but we're having a girl and we're naming her Julia Marcella Mathews. She is doing well, but the sonogramist found that there is extra fluid. They measured it yesterday and when we go back next month, he will do so again to see if it's increasing in volume or staying the same. If it increases then he said there is something to worry about. Since it's out of my control, I'm trying to not worry about it, and trust that God has this little girl in His hands and He will take care of her.
After spending all morning in the clinic/hospital we had a very American lunch at McDonald's... don't judge... I hadn't been off the mountain in over a month and needed some good ol' fashioned American burgers.
For dinner that night we made, together, Chicken Cordon Blue which turned out really yummy and drank Martinelli's Apple Cider, which I had a friend pick up from the only store that sells it... membership required. It turned out to be quite a fun day!
At the end of this month two friends, who are former semester students, are coming down to visit for a week. We're really excited to see them again and catch up.
The last two weeks in January we hosted a team from Hume Lake, which is a Christian camp up in the mountains of California, about two hours from Fresno. It was great to see the leaders again, we spent some time at our favorite restraunt, the ribs place as we call it, catching up and hearing about their lives. The outreach went well with no real glitches. Really the only thing that didn't cooperate well was the weather, it's been quite rainy here since we got back from Christmas holiday... kind of feels like Seattle weather... only warmer.
Since that team left Josh and I have spent a lot of time working from home where our schedule is pretty flexible. We have several different projects we're working on which makes it fun... we like variety.
For our 7 year wedding anniversary we decided to do something a little different and went to IKEA in Santo Domingo where we walked through empty handed... we had hoped to find a few things for the baby, but it was still fun to walk through something so American. Afterward we had lunch at one of our favorite American restaurants here, TGIFridays.
For Valentines Day, we spent all morning in the doctors clinic for our 24 week check-up. Following the appointment, our doctor personally took us through the maternity ward where we saw all our options for pre-delivery rooms and post-delivery rooms. It's so great to know where we are suppose to go and (more or less) what we can expect. Our doctor will for sure deliver the baby and his wife is the pedriatrician. He has said on several occasions that she speaks English really well, which for me is a huge relief since I'm sure after having delivered a baby, speaking in English will make it so much easier on my brain! I don't know that I mentioned this on here yet, but we're having a girl and we're naming her Julia Marcella Mathews. She is doing well, but the sonogramist found that there is extra fluid. They measured it yesterday and when we go back next month, he will do so again to see if it's increasing in volume or staying the same. If it increases then he said there is something to worry about. Since it's out of my control, I'm trying to not worry about it, and trust that God has this little girl in His hands and He will take care of her.
After spending all morning in the clinic/hospital we had a very American lunch at McDonald's... don't judge... I hadn't been off the mountain in over a month and needed some good ol' fashioned American burgers.
For dinner that night we made, together, Chicken Cordon Blue which turned out really yummy and drank Martinelli's Apple Cider, which I had a friend pick up from the only store that sells it... membership required. It turned out to be quite a fun day!
At the end of this month two friends, who are former semester students, are coming down to visit for a week. We're really excited to see them again and catch up.
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| Quick snapshot taken of a few of us staff that happened to be standing around at the Hume Lake team banquet. |
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| The Cross Night event that I lead with our two-week outreach teams. I get to play piano and sing... definitely my favorite event! |
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| Baby Girl Julia at 23 weeks |
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| Josh and Wally... our other kiddo... Lucy wouldn't stay for the picture |
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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!
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!
Monday, October 3, 2011
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 5th 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.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
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!
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!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
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!
Hope you are all well! Happy September!
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