Sister Dionelly is one of Jonathan's best "buddies". He loves to go to her in church and "cuddle" with her. Here she is asking him for a kiss and he smirks. I think he understands.
Blenski lives about 40 minutes from the church at the military base. He had been bringing his family to church on a motorcycle which was very risky, but they did it do be able to come to church. Blenski is a body guard for the General and Lissette, Blenski's wife, began to pray that the General would give them a car since he had so many.
God answered her prayer. God wonderfully provided a car for them through the General. Now they can get around to church and other places much safer with their family. God is good to those who trust and believe Him!

Miscellaneous pictures

Last week we had marriage class at Blenski's house. Blenski is Pastor Euddy's brother. He is in the Army and lives at the military base. The children enjoyed looking around at all the canons and tanks.
Lovebirds - Pastor Euddy and his wife
A gorgeous, tropical, evening sky
This is the sign Doug made and put up in the lawn of the church. It says "Very soon - Summer Bible School (VBS) - July 21 to July 25 - 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

10 days till VBS!

Wow! VBS is coming fast. We've been working very hard to create as much excitement as possible.

We rely on the help of all the church people to pass out invitations, to cover it with prayer, and to help the week of the VBS. Next Saturday is a workday to get everything ready to go.

Algenis, who got saved several years ago, is even flying back from Boston (where he currently resides) to help with VBS! Algenis has a talent for bringing children and young people to church. We are looking forward to his arrival next Saturday and will be so grateful for his help.

Also, it is looking like Blenski will have his vacation over the week of VBS. So 2 men helpers will be great!

We're relying on God to move through this VBS - not only the VBS itself, but also fanning the flame for calling and outreach into the community. The topic is creation with the plan of salvation explained as well. Will you help us pray?

Here is a copy of the invitation.

What we've been doing the past few weeks

Doug took a trip to San Juan - a town 4 hours away - to check on some properties that the mission owns. Here is one of them. We were told someone had broken in and was living here. Doug took Blenski, Euddy's brother, who is in the military in his military uniform to give some authority, if needed, to evict the intruder. God took care of the situation before we got there, and the individual was already gone! The neighbors' said he left the week prior. We had a youth activity 2 weeks ago in the park beside our community. Here they are playing the "washer" game. I know some of my friends remember that one from Camp Freedom! You put a washer on a string and pass it around. The guy in the middle tries to guess who is hiding the washer. Here Jimmy is making a paper airplane for a competition in whose airplane can fly the furthest.
Take off!
Back to our house for refreshments, charades, devotional and singing.

House service

A few weeks ago, we had a service in the house of Yolanda. She had gotten saved a few months ago, but has struggled in her new walk with the Lord. The church took a service to her house to try to encourage her in her new walk as a Christian. Doug delivered the message. Yolanda (pictured center)

Singing on her porch.

Copier makes the load easier

We were very excited to receive money donated by some precious folk for a new printer/copier/scanner. Ours had burnt out last fall and we made do with a cheapie that was very slow. This laser printer has already helped us immensely with ministries such as VBS and marriage class. Thank you to the donors for their thoughtfulness!

These are the VBS invitations we printed on the copier. It took about 15 minutes to print these and the marriage booklet (the next few photos) instead of the 2 hours our other one would have taken for this job. What a time saver!
This is the book we are using for our marriage class. It is by Dennis & Barbara Rainey. The color cover was printed on another color printer. The new printer does not print color. These booklets are reproducible. Our marrige class started 2 weeks ago and all of us seem to be enjoying the class.

Regina helps Doug put the booklets together.

Happy 4th of July

These are my favorite 4th of July songs. Sorry, I don't know how to paste the actual youtube video in like I've seen on other blogs. Can someone help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1J_cGxvgms

This one is especially for all the soldiers who have given and are currently giving their time to serve and protect our country. Happy July 4th, soldiers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E

Water!

Whooohoooo!! We have water again! Our water has been shut off since Sunday due to a damaged pump for the community. We ran out of what was in our tank on Monday night. For the past few days we have been washing, bathing and flushing toilets from 5 gallon jugs that we keep on hand for times like this. It was interesting bathing out of a plastic container using a plastic cup.

Yesterday it rained, so we collected the water from the rainspout and used it. The neighborhood children were out standing under spouts while it poured catching their "shower". One boy came on to our front porch and I said, "You look wet." He said, "There's no water in the house." It was his way of saying "That was my shower." The kids here in the D.R. do that. It's funny to watch them standing under rainspouts, sometimes with a bar of soap, getting their "shower". I guess it's because they don't have water 24/7. It is common to go for weeks without water for a lot of them.

I'm looking forward to a real shower tonight. In this community we have more electric than at the mission house, but more water problems! But hey, you can't have it all. Gotta go catch up on laundry and cleaning that has been waiting for water! I have pictures to post of the recent activities, but that will have to wait for now. Gotta go make use of the water!

Help in the heat

This air conditioner deal has really been quite a trial to me. It is not the most exciting thing to toss and turn and sweat the whole night through. I've forgotten what it was like when we lived here 3 years without AC. I must say it has been a wonderful blessing to have it as it helps us "cope" with the cultural and ministry stresses. It makes those stresses seem bigger when we are half-dazed due to our nightly encounter with the heat battle.

Last week one day I was praying and pouring out my heart to the Lord telling Him how frustrated I was about the situation. These verses came to my mind: Philippians 3:7-8 "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8) Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."

I had to face the question: Am I willing to count even that which seems gain for me (a good night's sleep in a comfortable temperature) as DUNG? After some time in prayer, I finally came to the resolution, "Yes, I would count it as 'dung' for Christ's sake!" I wasn't really looking forward to the nighttime sleeping battle, but I would rest in the Lord to help me whether I slept or not!

The Lord has been gracious to us the last few days and relieved us with some thunder showers. It dropped the temperature by 10-15 degrees! Instead of 88 when we went to bed, it was 78 last night. How good God is to His children! He does reward His children, but, I believe, after we're willing to suffer all. I'm sure many hot nights are yet to come, but I will endure as a good soldier of Jesus Christ with God's help.

Family News

Congratulations to my brother-in-law in his promotion in the Army from 1st lietenant (as pictured) to Captain yesterday! This picture was taken from his P.A. graduation last year so he doesn't have the proper paraphanalia (did I spell it right?) to show that he is now a Captain. We're proud of him! Congratulations Paul!

And..........Happy 40th Anniversary to my in-laws tomorrow! Wow! That is a long time! Mucho congratulations! We made a scrapbook for them of people's cards, letters, and own scrapbook pages. They were so surprised! We were shocked that they didn't suspect a thing. We participated in the presentation of the scrapbook via phone. It was so neat to hear their reaction. They couldn't believe all the people we contacted without them knowing. We could hardly believe it either. :-) Thank you to all who participated and who kept it a secret. It was a success and will be something they will treasure forever.

Pondering

This devotional really stuck out to me. I have been "chewing" on it all week. I put in italics the part that especially stuck out.


Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: 2 Timothy 2:24

Gentleness of Spirit

"The servant of the Lord must be gentle" (2 Tim. 2:24).
When God conquers us and takes all the flint out of our nature, and we get deep visions into the Spirit of Jesus, we then see as never before the great rarity of gentleness of spirit in this dark and unheavenly world.

The graces of the Spirit do not settle themselves down upon us by chance, and if we do not discern certain states of grace, and choose them, and in our thoughts nourish them, they never become fastened in our nature or behavior.

Every advance step in grace must be preceded by first apprehending it, and then a prayerful resolve to have it.

So few are willing to undergo the suffering out of which thorough gentleness comes. We must die before we are turned into gentleness, and crucifixion involves suffering; it is a real breaking and crushing of self, which wrings the heart and conquers the mind.

There is a good deal of mere mental and logical sanctification nowadays, which is only a religious fiction. It consists of mentally putting one's self on the altar, and then mentally saying the altar sanctifies the gift, and then logically concluding therefore one is sanctified; and such an one goes forth with a gay, flippant, theological prattle about the deep things of God.

But the natural heartstrings have not been snapped, and the Adamic flint has not been ground to powder, and the bosom has not throbbed with the lonely, surging sighs of Gethsemane; and not having the real death marks of Calvary, there cannot be that soft, sweet, gentle, floating, victorious, overflowing, triumphant life that flows like a spring morning from an empty tomb. --G. D. W.

"And great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:33).

********************************************
This classic devotional is the unabridged edition of Streams in the Desert. This first edition was published in 1925 and the wording is preserved as originally written. Connotations of words may have changed over the years and are not meant to be offensive.

Another burn out and braving the heat

Oh no! Our air conditioner went out over the weekend. We had a guy come look at it today and he said the compressor burnt out. Didn't I previously say that this is the country of burnout? We won't be getting it fixed right away, so I guess we'll be sweating it out. It's only 91 degrees inside right now. We can be brave. I know we can.

Happy Father's Day

To all you great dads out there......Have a happy Father's day. Keep up the good work.

My own father is deceased. I wish I had a picture of him, but don't here. Maybe in the States somewhere. After 13 years, I still miss him.

My father-in-law has been a wonderful father to me. He has treated me just like a daughter. Happy Father's Day, Dad. We love you.

My husband is also a wonderful father. He has done many heroic things such as change pampers, throw baseball, clean up spills, pull lose teeth, doctor hurts, wipe tears, play games, fix bikes, etc. In spite of his busy schedule, he makes a hard effort to spend time with the children. They know he loves them and respond to him in a loving manner as well. I'm so glad he's the father of my children.

I asked the children so they could speak for themselves, "What do you like best about Daddy?"

Regina - "I like that he plays games and stuff with us."
Ryan - "That he plays with us."
Brandon - "He spends time to play with us."
Jonathan - "ah - uh - ba" (I think it means "He plays ball.") :-)

There you have it. The vote is unanimous. :-)

Baptism pictures

A few weeks ago we had a baptism. It was on a holiday and much to our surprise, when we got to the river, it was full of people swimming etc. There was discussion as to what we should do. It was finally decided that it would be a testimony to all those observing and we would go ahead with the baptism. We sort of made our way into the river and others moved out of the way, watching as they swam by. It was a wonderful time and perhaps more of the way it happened in Bible times. Six people were baptized and God met with us.
Cindy testified that although she got saved a long time ago, her decision to get baptized is more of a definite decision to follow God.
We were thrilled to see Blenski, Euddy's brother, get baptized.
Also Lissette, Blenski's wife, got baptized.
Edy, Algenis' mother, also got baptized. She got saved a year or so ago. Algenis is a young man who got saved several years ago and has a real gift with young people. He moved to Boston shortly before we arrived here and is currently living there.

Jimmy
Antonia testifying of God's grace in her life. She lives directly across the street from the church and helps to keep a "watchful" eye on it.

Typical country shack

We saw this simple shack in the area where we had the baptism.

This is incredible

I don't have any desire to compete with this lady. :-)

http://www.duggarfamily.com/index.html

Another saint makes the crossing

This morning my mother called to tell me that my Uncle Abe Yoder made his landing in heaven last night. I believe he was 93 years old. He was a very Godly example to all of us. I'm thankful he made it to heaven and that we will be reunited with him someday, yet he will be greatly missed here on this earth. The wisdom he shared with us will be forever treasured and we will miss hearing his wise counsel.

Uncle Abe lived a simple life striving only to please God and not to gain wealth or approval of people. He proved that he had found the real meaning of life as his face always had a smile. He has left behind a great legacy.

English Muffin recipe

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/English-Muffins/Detail.aspx

I use http://www.allrecipes.com/ for everything! If I am hungry for something and don't find it here, I look up the recipe and make it!

The only thing with this recipe is that I did not cook my muffins for 10 minutes on each side. They would have burned! Maybe I had my heat too high - easy to do with gas stove. I did about 5 minutes each side.

Comment of the Day

After being told to eat clean up his plate containing one of his least favorite meals, Ryan sighed and said, "Dad, if I wasn't so tired, I would eat it all." You can't imagine how tiring eating is. :-) Especially when it's something you really don't like. But, it's good missionary training, they say.

Miscellaneous photos

Here are some photos from the past few months.

The first weekend in May, we were having a yard sale withdrawal. It was the beginning of community yard sales in our home area. We were dreaming of all the bargains that we would miss out on. :-) Just when we were beginning to feel sorry for ourselves, we received an email from a missionary family who was leaving the country and having a moving sale! I called and they said we could come over right away. Since the electric and water was off, we decided there was no better way to spend our day. :-) We were thrilled to carry home some wished-for items such as Legos for Brandon. All of his are stored in the States. Doug and Brandon spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Legos while we waited for the water and electricity.
We also got this stack of books. Perfect timing - just before summer so Brandon can entertain himself.
This is hookie dookie......alias Jonathan Paul. He's ready for the summer heat. :-)
One morning we woke up to water all over our kitchen and dining room floor. It was due to too much water pressure which caused the water to explode out the pipe from underneath our sink. Not to mention the careless Dominican plumbing might have played a part in it. :-) We spent nearly an hour vacuuming with a small wet vac and sopping up with a mop. It was quite a start to our day.
This is an open field behind the community where we live. This is taken from Regina's bedroom window. You can see the razor wire fence that is on top of the wall surrounding our community. We love having this "country" view from one of the windows in our house. You can see some houses that starts the edge of the capital city. We're actually located on the "beltway" around the city.

Goodies

I tried something neither my Gram nor my Mom have ever made - homeade English muffins. I got hungry for them and since they cost about $6.00 a pack, I would try to make my own. It was fun to watch how they began to look like real English muffins on the griddle.

The finished product. They really looked and tasted great!
While we were in PA, my sister took me to a "high" tea for my birthday. They had a yummy strawberries and cream tea that I loved! I was delighted to find this tea here.....and it was even decaf....my preference. It was a real gift from God and I enjoyed every sip!
Maybe you never really know what it's like to crave certain things until you've been in another country where they are not availabe. I LOVE vanilla Coke and have missed being able to have it. The day before my birthday, we stopped at a different grocery store, and I was amazed to find this can! Since it was the day before my birthday, I felt justified to indulge. :-) It was oh so good. If we ever get back to that store again, I just may have to get another can or 2.

I have to think how God gives His children the desires of their hearts. He has dropped so many little blessings on us the past few months. I have concluded that if he cares about strawberry tea and vanilla coke, then He has to be working on the big things we're praying about, too!

Pictures coming......

Pictures will be coming of the baptism we had this past Thursday.

I also would love to post pictures of some of the rest of our house. One reason I haven't is because our living room isn't real "homey". I still do not have the walls decorated and our couch is pretty shaggy. If I get it decorated once school's out, maybe it will be more "homey" and I will post some pictures.

Miscellaneous pictures

This is a typical way Dominicans make a move - stack it up and go. My brother thought we were going to move this way when we moved in December. :-)

Regina is our ice cream queen. She LOVES ice cream. It is very expensive here - about $3.00 a pint - so we don't buy it very often. She was delighted when someone sent us money specifically for ice cream. We bought a 5 quart pail (for about $9.00), made our own, and enjoyed Frostees at Wendy's. Here is a very happy little girl with her prize 5 quart pail and tin of homeade ice cream.
A few weeks ago, we went to hold a service at Chucha's house. Chucha is 75 years old and has been very sick. In fact, she has terminal cancer. She has not been able to make it to church for the past few months, so we loaded up a group of people in our truck and took church to her. She was very grateful for the visit and perked up quite a bit while we were there. Pictured with Chucha and our children is her great-grandson.
Here is a man-made lake. :-) [It's really a mud puddle.] It shows why you need a good, tough vehicle in a country like this.

Beating the Heat

Last night at 10:00 p.m., it was 85 degrees outside and 90 degrees inside! We decided to let the children sleep in our room. We blew up a big air mattress and they camped out for the night. Our room was a little claustrophobic with the air mattress and Jonathan's pack and play, but at least we were all able to get a good night's sleep.

In answer to one of the comments on our blog - No, our house is not air-conditioned. It would be VERY expensive to cool the whole house. Our electricity rate is based on usage. The more you use, the more you pay per KWH. If you use over 700 kwh, you pay twice as much as the base level. We do have an air-conditioner in our bedroom so we can at least sleep at night. The children do not. We would like to be able to get one for them. They wake up smelling like sweat when they went to bed clean.

Life in the extreme heat is different than life in the northern U.S. You wear out much quicker and are not able to get as much done. One of the things that amazed us when we were stateside for several years was how much better we felt and the amount of things we were able to get accomplished in a day. I imagine if the whole house was air-conditioned, we would feel much better and be able to get more done.

To beat the heat, you must drink extra water and juices. It is Dominican custom when you visit someone, to bring you a glass of ice-cold juice or soda.

The Dominicans also take time off between 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. - the hottest hours of the day. Most places are closed during this time, except for the big stores. Taking a "siesta" during that time is not that they’re being lazy, it’s their way of handling the heat. Smart! Days when the temperatures are high, we find ourselves with a headache by noon. If possible, we try to rest at least some between 12:00 and 2:00, also. They say only crazy people and "gringos" (white people) work during siesta time. :-)

President re-elected

Leonel Fernandez, the current President, was re-elected yesterday. He has called for 2 days of celebrations - today and tomorrow. The streets will certainly be full again today with loud music, flag-waving, dragging tin cans, and dancing to celebrate the win. We are going to play it safe and not venture out. We'll see what it's like tomorrow when we make our way to church.

We were told by a friend who works for the electric company that we were to have 3 days of solid electricity - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So far it has been true. The electric has not gone out since Thursday. This is the best part of elections for us! :-) It was sooooo nice to be able to start my laundry right away yesterday morning instead of waiting till 10:00 a.m. when the electric normally comes back on.

We turned our invertor off expecting not to need it till Monday. They should have elections more often. :-)

A New Nephew!

We are the proud Aunt and Uncle of a new nephew - Riley James Hoffman - born to Paul & Janice Hoffman. He arrived today at 12:11 CST, weighed 8 lbs. and 1/4 oz, and was 20" long. He made it just in time before his Daddy leaves for several weeks of special training.

Brandon beamed with a big smile when he found Riley shares the same middle name with him as with Doug, also.

We haven't had a newphew in 14 years and he's our first nephew on the Hoffman side! So we are very thrilled and can't wait to meet him - whenever that may be - a long while from now. This evens the score for Doug's parents to 4 grandsons and 4 granddaughters.

Elections!

Today is the day the country chooses a President for the next 4 years. The past several months have been very noisy as people campaigned in the streets. It is done a little differently here than in the U.S. They pile on the back of a truck or hang out windows of vehicles, and travel around all over beeping horns, yelling, waving flags, and playing loud music in an attempt to try to persuade the people to vote for their guy. Each candidate has a special song with a catchy phrase to advertise him. They will pile speakers up on trucks or in the streets, playing the song of the favored candidate. Needless to say, there has been a lot of noise and traffic jams in the city. Tomorrow will be a day of celebration for the winning man. Today has pretty much been silent, though, while we wait in anticipation to see who will win.



You can see here how they stand right beside the street yelling at the cars trying to get them to give the sign that they are in favor of their guy.

Maybe you can see the speakers piled behind these flag-wavers.

They are not advertising a human man. Their flags say "Jesus Christ, the President". How wonderful that would be if the country would elect Him!

Happy Mother's Day

We have 2 of the greatest mothers in all the world. My mother, unknowingly, raised me to be a missionary. It is especially real to me today as I see those living merely to rise economically. My mother lived a simple life, yet was always happy and content with what she had. She used the little money she earned wisely, using it first for the needs of her family. She did not teach us to live for wealth or fame, but to have only what is necessary. She gave away all she could to others. She did not hoard, or buy things she really didn't need. She was thrifty in every sense of the word and trusted God to supply the rest. My mother taught me some of the most important lessons in life.

She taught me to live by faith. She has her stories of how God provided when she and Daddy didn't know where the money would come from to make ends meet. That increased my faith which is very helpful today in being a missionary.

She taught me to finish the job. She would often say, "You just have to stick at it." That taught me that even when I didn't feel like doing something or didn't see how I could get it done, perserverance would get me through.

She also taught me patience with others. I would often hear her say, "You just have to look over them" when someone committed an error. She was patient and gracious.

I thank God for a Godly mother who taught us to live for God and not for worldy gain. She has never resisted God's leading in our life, but always been helpful and supporting.

I also thank God for my mother-in-law who has also taught me many lessons from her example. She, like my mother, lives a simple life and is content with what she has. She has always been encouraging to us as a couple, been willing to help in whatever way she could, and never stood in the way of our decisions.

On this Mother's day, I thank God for the 2 mothers in life that helped mold us into who we are. To both, we say "Happy Mother's Day" and we love you!

Summer's coming - or is it here?

It's already a humid 87 degrees at 10:00 a.m. Not much let up now till November. We really enjoyed the very pleasant winter this year. It looks like we'll be sweating from here on out. I don't know if I'm ready for the 6-month stretch. I guess ready or not, here it comes!