Ministry update

This is a picture of our newest convert, Vladimir. He has been pretty faithful to attend the services.

God is helping and moving among our young people! We have seen a growth in the Sunday school class. They have been running around 13 the last few weeks. Praise the Lord.

We sense God is really moving among them. It is exciting to watch so many come so faithfully and be able to hear the Word of God. Several seem under conviction and very interested in becoming a Christian. However, the devil is really trying to destroy what God wants to do. This past week in S.S. Doug said was his worst week since we've been here. There were distractions, feuding between the young people, and a lot of pessimism toward the all night service we have planned for the youth on the 31st. God led us to do this all night service focusing on the young people and we feel He wants to do something special in it. We would covet your prayers that God would break the chains of the devil and these young people would surrender their lives to Christ. Some of them are bound to drugs, peer pressure, drinking, street life etc, but God is able for any need!

Jimmy, first pictured on the left, is a faithful Christian and has been helping Doug out by going and visiting the young people through the week. It has been a real help! Doug also goes calling to their houses on Saturdays. We're doing our part and trusting God to do His!

Algenis (second guy standing in on the right) came back from the States for a week for Christmas break. He is a magnet for young people and always brought a pile of young people with him to church before. He made sure there was a full house last Sunday when he was here. Here is part of the group that came out to S.S., part of them because of Algenis. Some of them had already left when this picture was taken.
This is what Doug has been up to! He is trying to put a finished look to the building. The side still needs stuccoed and painted, but God is helping him to get it done. That concrete job he had in the U.S. has really benefitted him.

This is his next project - painting the roof with a sealer to keep water from filtrating through. He has tried the last 2 weeks to rent a pressure washer to strip the rest of this paint off before applying the sealer. They will not reserve one in advance. You have to call the day you want it and all the days he's called, they haven't had one available. Life here sure is interesting! So....we wait until he can get a hold of a pressure washer to strip this before he can finish the job. Looks like it will have to be after Christmas now.

Miscellaneous pictures

I tried to do these in order from top to bottom, but to do so you have to think backwards. I missed these so these are after-Thanksgiving pictures. :-)

Jonathan & Ryan are tuckered out after a hard day of playing in the jumping castle.

The children listen to an Odyssey cassette while Mommy gets supper.
Brandon helps wash the truck. Good job, Brandon!

This kid is a nut. We walked into the bedroom one night and this is what we found. He had unsnapped his jammies and they fell down when he stood on his head. That is why he looks undressed.

Thanksgiving pictures

I better get Thanksgiving pictures posted before Christmas gets here!! We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with some other American missionaries in the capital. They are young families and our children are about the same ages so we always enjoy our time with them.

This is Josh & Joy Wesson and their four children.

This is the Scheper's with their 4 children - the hosts of Thanksgiving dinner.
Stew likes optical illusions and has a whole case of them that he uses to work with children. He always presents the Gospel message along with his tricks. Doug is also interested in tricks and was thankful Stew shared some of his with him. For those of you interested in tricks and optical illusions, you will have to visit Stew when you come down. He has a load of them.
Scheper's have a jumping castle that someone donated for their ministry. They set it up for the missionary children to enjoy on Thanksgiving. They sure had a blast!!
Jonathan was content to sit at the end of the slide and enjoy the "bounce" the others gave him as they came down.

Christmas village

The "in" thing this year in our neighborhood is to have a Christmas village. Four ladies in the community took a class on how to make these villages and each one has a village displayed in their foyer. Our closest neighbor, Ally, invited us up to see her village. We were intrigued at the details and that most of the pieces comes from used or everyday items. One lady said to us, "You know this is all made from trash, don't you?" :-) She used leaves from banana trees, bark, sticks, different leaves and many natural things to make this village. It was quite interesting! It is supposed to be a village similar to the time when Jesus was born.

Her display goes from her foyer clear around to her stairs banister. You can see how high she built it. She has lights weaved through it so at night it looks really neat.

The manger scene. She did not make the figures, but she did handpaint them.

These "houses" are made out of orange juice cartons.

This one is out of order. It's the saw to the blacksmith shop. Notice her saw - the blade off of a saran wrap or foil carton. Pretty creative!

Notice the details in this one - some of her vessels are thimbles.

Marketplace.

Village blacksmith

The details are intriguing. Notice her "tools" are electrical terminals. I like her drill - looks like a headphone plug.

Village florist.

The bakery

These rooves are made out of straight noodles.

Our neighbor, Ally, with the results of much hard work.

Ally gave Regina this house.

I really didn't forget

I did not forget about the picture of the new convert. I really did remember the camera and remembered to take the picture and remembered to post last Monday (that was half a miracle!) BUT I am waiting on my overly busy hubby to download the pictures to the computer. I haven't learned how to do that yet. So I patiently wait until he has a few minutes to collect himself and download them. Hopefully I'll still remember to do it by the time he gets it done. :-)

Memorial service

Doug is gone today to a Memorial service for a brother of a lady in our church. Our adult Sunday school class was interrupted a few weeks ago when one of our ladies received a call that her brother had been killed in a car accident. She came in S.S. crying. Pastor Euddy responded immediately by handing the lesson book to one of the ladies and left to take Esperanza to be with her family and start the funeral arrangements.

When they arrived at the funeral home (burial is normally done the same day here since they do not normally embalm the body), they learned that he really wasn't in a car accident, but that he had died of a heart attack the evening before! The funeral was held at 4:00 p.m. Sunday. Doug found out he was to preach the funeral message about 5 minutes before the service started. :-) He said the Lord helped him.

It is customary to have a memorial service for the deceased person about 10 days after their death. I think it is based on the Catholics praying them out of purgatory, but the Christians turn it into a memorial service and use it as a time to evangelize the family.

Ryan's birthday pictures

Somehow I missed posting these. Oops! Ryan's birthday was 2 months ago already! We invited some American friends to go out for lunch with us to celebrate. They have a little boy, James. He also turned 5 in October. He and Ryan sure are a pair. As you can see from the pictures, there's never a dull moment with these 2 together!

Ryan got a sword and patch for his birthday.
Ryan and James on their "twin" bikes.

This was the cake I did for him. The writing is really sloppy because the icing was way runny!! It's always a challenge to work in such high humidity.

The big 5-year old with his cake and matching shirt.

Miscellaneous pictures

Alexis is our neighbor at the mission. He came to Christ in our first term when he was about 10 years old. Over the years he has gone his own way and strayed from Christ. He is now 19 and we sense he is empty and looking for hope again. We are praying he will return to Christ. We believe God is dealing with his heart. We invited him to our house one afternoon to spend some time with us. Just before Doug took him back, I served them tuna wraps, popcorn, and Pepsi. Alexis loved the tuna wraps and has talked about them ever since! He also enjoyed his time and is asking Doug when they can play soccer together. Doug is going to try to take some time out in the next few weeks to be able to spend some time with him playing soccer.

Alexis

Jonathan likes to line his cars up in his bed before sleeping.

Regina & Ryan put on several layers of shirts to keep warm in the 70 degree weather. :-)

Another convert

God is really moving among us!!! We had a young man come to Christ a week ago. I want to get a picture of him tomorrow at church, if I remember, and then I will try to post it on Monday. God is really moving among the young people. Pray that I'll remember my camera tomorrow and that I'll remember to take the picture and then that I'll remember to update on Monday! My memory is pretty bad these days. You know it's bad when you forget to wash your hair. :-)

Pictures of children

We had a picture shoot a few weeks ago for our newsletter. Here were some good shots of the children. These will also be their school/fall pictures. The background was taken in our community. One of the houses has a gate that goes into their backyard. It is beautiful.

Happy Thanksgiving

We are still on the map folks! Between blackouts and being busy, blog life just hasn't been happening.

We are "freezing"! It is a "chilly" 73 degrees. We've had days in the 70's and sometimes not even making it to 80. The children have been putting on 2 and 3 layers of shirts in the evenings to keep warm. It has been a pleasant break from the 90's and 100's. It even gave us a festive feeling. We decorated for Christmas already.

We will be spending Thanksgiving with some other American missionaries in the capital. We will all enjoy a break from school!

God has been helping us and moving among us and I have much to post. Until then, here's my "I'm thankful for" list:

a Christian family & heritage
salvation and promise of eternal life
a wonderful husband
4 healthy children
a beautiful house
the privilege to serve God on the mission field
our supporters
Christian teachers, preachers and leaders who influenced me
friends
hot water (we didn't always have this and boy has it been nice these cool evenings!)
an automatic washer and dryer
wonderful neighbors
food to eat (especially in this country as you see those who don't have enough to eat)
health and strength
the joy of homeschooling and raising my children

and many, many more!!!

I will try to post - maybe over the weekend since we won't have school!!! Hurrah! Can you tell I'm excited? Teachers look forward to the break just as much as students!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Electric situation worsens

Electric blackouts are just a part of life in the D.R., but recently they have gotten worse. In a community where we are to have 21 hours of electric a day, we have gone to 6 - 12 hours a day. Yesterday we only had 6 hours of elecric in a 24 hour period! It has made life pretty difficult. One night I did a load of laundry at 11:00 when the electric returned because I had been away when the electric was on that day and my laundry was already backed up due to the electric situation. I fell asleep while the load was washing, woke up at 1:00 a.m and put it in the dryer.

We have an invertor, but with only 6 hours of electric at a shot, it is not enough to recharge the invertor. Our invertor has been shutting down leaving us unable to do school, taking a risk at losing things in our fridge, and causing us to toss and turn at night in the heat with no fans to run. Yes, it's still hot here. We pray that they will come up with a solution soon!

Here's an article from a Dominican paper explaining the electric situation.

"Power situation worsens"

"Rolling blackouts have continued nationwide. Yesterday the energy deficit was of 976 MW, or 42%. Extended blackouts are threatening businesses of all sizes. Business owners say that they only receive between three and four hours of power each day. Businesses with inverters and generators are finding there is not enough power to re-charge inverters and fuel bills for running the generators are skyrocketing. Ramon Perez, a business owner in Villa Mella says even with no power, a bill for RD$106,000 (US $3,000) still comes every month. As if that were not enough, he has to pay more or less the same amount for generator fuel per month. The blackouts are being attributed to a US$364.9 million standing debt owed to the energy generators. Hoy explains that the government's debt to the energy generators totals US$700 million, US$300 million in standing debt and US$400 million of a "frozen" debt. Quoted in Listin Diario, Pablo Linares, director of the Dominican Foreign Investment Association (ASIEX) asked, rhetorically, why anyone would want to invest in a country that can't provide the basics to operate. Linares said the DR is at a crucial moment considering it has formed part of the DR-CAFTA and EPA trade agreements and has the potential to attract foreign investment. Manuel Cabrera, director of the Herrera Industrialists Association (AEIH) has also voiced concern about the situation and is calling on the authorities to do something urgently. Pablo Piantini, president of the National Young Entrepreneurs Association (ANJE) said the solution is not to rent new floating generators, but to invest in a real solution. Former president of the National Council of Business, puts it simply as reported in the Listin Diario: "The solution is simple. Rid the system of politics and hire real managers."

Ministry update

The Lord has really been helping us! We sense He wants to bring revival and He is certainly capable - no matter how impossible it may seem! Last Friday night during our normal prayer service, where we all pray for about an hour, the Holy Spirit broke in on us and led us to pray longer naming out the names of our young people. God is really dealing with them! Doug says the Firm Foundations curriculum is bringing them to a sense of how Holy God is and how He sees sin and how dirty they are before Him. Last Sunday night we had 3 young people in church, who do not profess to be Christians, yet they were "Amen"ing the preacher! It was astounding.

God has also been helping in our ladies' meetings. It has been rewarding to watch God work as we have tried to be obedient to His leading for these meetings. We have services in homes of neighbors of our church ladies, our own church ladies etc. In each service God has blessed us with His awesome presence! In 2 different services, 2 ladies have come to accept Christ. There is no greater fulfillment and joy than having part in leading someone to Christ.

This is our church ladies pictured with Jehovan, a lady who has been attending our church some recently.
My heart was touched one Sunday night when we were singing the song "Take My Life". When we got to the part that says, "I bring my life to you to be yours for eternity," I saw Abner (pictured above with Brandon) with both hands in the air and his eyes closed. He is only 10 years old but says he wants to be a preacher when he grows up. It is for people like Abner that we are here!

Roof project

Doug has been working on filling columns and patching up holes where water is seeping through and causing the roof to leak at the mission. When he gets all of the prep. work done, we will be sealing it to stop filtration. The concrete job he had while we were in the States was a big blessing as it gives him the knowledge in what to do in this situation.

Jimmy, one of our faithful young people and church custodian, mixes concrete by hand. It's a tough job here!

House service

Pastor Euddy moved a few weeks ago. It is custom here to have a house service when you move to dedicate the house to God. Here are some pictures of that evening.

I always think house services are neat because the doors and windows are open year round, and the people are not embarrassed to sing loud. So any passersby and neighbors get to hear the singing. No one seems to mind since there is no law of disturbing the peace. It is a great privilege to work in a country that gives a lot of religious freedom.
Doug gave a short message.

Help in homeschool

Ryan on his first day of Kindergarten

I haven't been posting because I'm finally trying to get on a schedule for teaching Ryan Kindergarten this year. We got held up when his books came late, and then trying to figure out how to get it done in our already busy schedule! But we're doing it. Ryan enjoys learning and is a blast to teach. I love being able to teach my own children. There are times and days I think I can't do it, but then I remember, "I can do all thing through CHRIST who strengthens me!"

Looking at the beginning of this school year was very overwhelming for me. I wondered how I would teach Ryan Kinder with the already demanding schedule and a 2-year old running around. Over the summer, it kept me busy in the mornings just to get everyone fed, dressed, and around, family devotions, laundry done before the electric or water went off (usually afternoon) and trying to prepare our main meal for noon. We have adapted this Dominican custom.

I have been amazed at how the Lord has been helping. I do believe He helped me by allowing Ryan's books to come late. It gave me 3 weeks to get Brandon & Regina in their routine without Ryan pesting to do his school. Some days He has helped me by allowing the electric to go off - it keeps me from worrying about laundry while I'm doing school! :-) You have to learn to take everything as a blessing!

Some days we have changed our main meal back to the evening and then I just fix something quick and simple (usually sandwiches) for lunch. I have also learned to start my meal before school and then let it cook while I'm doing school. It hasn't always been easy but God is helping. Some days it seems every time I go to start my schooltime with Ryan, Jonathan is getting into something.

These days are challenging, but they are definitely worth it! I love the fulfillment of teaching my own children and having them at home with me. I pray that these "sowing" years will be worthwhile and I will reap a bountiful harvest in due season.

Another praise

The electric has been on ALL night for the past 4 or 5 nights which has been WONDERFUL!!! Thank the Lord! We're actually getting 6 - 8 hours of sleep at one shot! That makes the difficulties of the day easier to handle. It has been going out at 6:00 a.m., but that's okay because the room is already cooled down and it's starting to get light anyway.

Praise

I should have known the Lord was up to something with all the trials coming at us! When the devil is working his hardest, you can be sure the Lord is working more!!

The Lord has really been blessing our ladies' meetings. We have them weekly and each week we do something different. One week we gather for a Bible study, other weeks we have a service in the house of one of our neighbors, another week we do something fun etc.

Last week we had a house service in the home of Lucrecia - neighbor to Mercedes who faithfully attends our church. We were elated when the invitation was given to accept Christ, Lucrecia said she wanted to. The ladies were very excited. One of them said to me, "It's not in vain, is it?" I said, "No, it's not."

This neighbor lady was a bother to Mercedes to the point that Mercedes prayed, "Lord, either change her heart or help her to move." Mercedes was thrilled when God answered her prayer by changing Lucrecia's heart!

Sorry I do not have a picture. I hope to get one of Lucrecia when she comes to church. Pray that she will be able to come. She has obstacles hindering her from coming to church, but she needs the support of the brothers and sisters in her early Christian walk.

God is faithful!

We're also praising the Lord for a spiritual refreshment He has poured on us this past week and a new faith to pray and believe for revival in the darkness of the community where our church is - called Sabana Perdida.

Chillin' out

Thank the Lord, the guy finally showed up this morning to check out our fridge. "Tomorrow" actually came! :-) He took out a small part and left to find a new one to replace it. He came back this afternoon, put in the new part, and the refrigerator ran! So now we will have to set out to the store to get some things to put in it.

Our Dominican neighbors across the street from us have to be among the best neighbors in the world. This morning Doug went over to get a pack of meat out of their freezer and they offered for us to bring over a jug of water to put in their refrigerator and cool. We delightedly accepted the offer since we were dying for cold drinks! By noon it was cold and we enjoyed cold water. They have been so sweet and helpful to us. Thank God for good neighbors!

Doug reminded me that the people in Texas hit by hurricane Ike went for several weeks without electricity! This trial was minimum compared to theirs - many lost their homes. Even in our little trying times of life, God is good. Yet I am very thankful to have our refrigerator cooling again. The luxuries of life are wonderful!

Jonathan's latest accomplishment

I've never seen a 2-year old ride a scooter before! Our little Jonathan has accomplished it pretty well. I guess he's had the other children to watch and learn from.

The "birdie" family

Since that birdie landed in those neighbors' yard (see post from Sept. 16) , we have struck up a friendship with them. Brandon has gone to their house several days to play with the boy and last night we invited him to go to the park with us. His name is Emmanuel. He is bilingual as are his Mom & Dad. The sad thing is that they stay inside almost all of the time and Emmanuel knows little more than playing video games and watching TV.

He went with us to the park and took a cel phone so he could stay in touch with his parents. We played a game similar to horseshoes and Emmanuel loved it! We were touched as he called his parents in the middle of the game and said, "Dad, I'm having a good time!" He also told them "I'm sitting on the grass. It's soft." We figured since he is inside almost all of the time, he may have never even sat on grass!

Tonight he and Brandon were riding bikes together. He's not real steady on a bike, but again, probably because he is inside almost all of the time. Tonight he was intrigued by the beauty of the clouds. We are trying to teach him that there are lots of things to do outside of the house! We pray that Emmanuel and his parents will find the Lord.

Trials and blessing

For an update on our electric situation, the electric is still going out for 3 - 5 hours at night, BUT for the past 3 nights it has rained in the evening which cooled it down and made it comfortable during the blackout time. We haven't woke up as much. Thank the Lord!

On Sunday morning we noticed our refrigerator was not staying cool. The light was on, the fan kicked on, but Doug thought the compressor was not turning on. It indeed proved that the compressor was not kicking on as the food grew warmer and warmer. Monday morning we salvaged what was still okay and asked a few of our neighbors to store it for us, and pitched the rest.

Doug called a guy to come fix it and he said he couldn't get here till this morning at 10:00 or 11:00. Doug had made plans to work at the mission and cancelled them so he could be here when the guy came to fix the fridge, but the guy still hasn't come!! Doug has tried his cel phone numerous times today but can't get through.

We are hesitant to call someone else because this guy fixed our AC and he was very detailed and good. We feel he would do a good job. Some seem to beat and bang things and we're afraid that they may do more damage than repair. :-)

So....another day in the Dominican Republic.....waiting for tomorrow. You never know which day "tomorrow" will be. :-) In the meantime we're surviving without cold water or cold anything, cooking nonperishables such as box macaroni and cheese and pancakes etc., and counting the other blessings we have.

If the guy never comes, we'll have to go to plan B. I'm not sure what that is yet.

In the midst of these trials, we had a wonderful service on Sunday evening with much of the Lord's presence. After we sang "The Love of God", the church was noisy. Almost everyone was vocally praising God. It was a beautiful time and a reminder that God is still in business - even when everything seems to be going wrong! He deserves praise just because He is God - whether everything around is falling apart or staying together.

The verse keeps coming to my mind: "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 38,39) And I add nor refrigerators, nor electric! :-)

Also II Corinthians 4: 7 - 18 has greatly encouraged me.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 ¶ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Sweating it out

I have not been blogging much recently. The past few weeks have been incredible. Just to survive has been a challenge. We have had multiple electric and water outages (thank the Lord for that 500 gallon tank of water on the roof - it has already been used!), and one day we had our phone lines out. That has kept me bouncing between striving to get the household chores done and keeping up with the rest of the schedule.

Now that the storms have passed, we have had extreme heat the past few weeks. We are still seeing temperatures of 86 outside when we got to bed at night and it is 90 degrees inside. It makes it a little tough to sleep since they are now turning the electric off in the middle of the night, too. Last night it was off for 6 hours. We had the children in our room so they could enjoy the AC, and then when it shut off, we were all tossing and turning and the children were fussing because they were hot. Nights like that carry into the day and make the daily duties like school etc. a challenge. Life is never boring here! :-)

I know it sounds very simple to you, but if you think of it, would you help us pray that the electric would at least stay on all night so we can sleep comfortably? It sure makes a difference in how we function through the day. If it were just Doug and I, we could handle it better, but when the children don't sleep, they have a hard time applying their minds to school. I've always said we could handle the demands and heat of the day if we can just sleep through the night.

I'm sorry I talk so much about heat, but it is a major factor that we have to deal with here daily. I think we're going to have mandatory nap this afternoon so we can get rid of some of those grumpies that are invading our home.......if the electric stays on! :-)