Thanks for praying

I wanted to write and thank those of you have been praying for our youth. God is definitely working. We did not see great results on Easter Sunday as we hoped to, but we are not discouraged. We are encouraged because we know Doug did his best to bathe each S.S. lesson with prayer and "we will reap in due season if we faint not". We're going to continue to pray and wait for the harvest of these precious young people as we have done our best to sow the seed in their hearts. It is a comfort to know that some sow, some water, but God gives the increase.

Aside from youth Sunday school class, we did have a young lady come Sunday morning and get saved! That was exciting. Pray that God will continue to help Anna.

We are encouraged as we see God moving among us, and people are getting saved! However, we long for still more of His presence. We want to see these new converts get such a taste of God's presence that it will keep them in and they will not desire to go back to the world.

We know our enemy Satan is astute and is doing and will do his best to overthrow anyone who is trying to faithfully serve the Lord. But we know our God is a mighty Victor and through the blood of Jesus we are more than conquerors!

Please pray for Jimmy, a young man who will start teaching the youth Sunday school class this Sunday. He has a heart for ministry, but this is his first time to assume this responsibility. He is quite nervous. Pray that God would use him mightily.

Praying for more of His presence and waiting for the Harvest in God's time................

God is at work!

In this culture we see a large turn over of people. They seem to be quick to accept Christ, some of them not really being serious and some being quickly lured back into their previous ways. Some come and pray and in a few weeks are back to street living again. We are encouraged with the ones who come and stick with it.

Angela is one of the young people who got saved several weeks ago. On Sunday Doug gave her a study for new converts and in tonight's service, with a glowing face, she handed him the study back completed! That shows her eagerness and dedication! She has come faithfully to just about all of the services since she got saved.

Another person who got saved in the past few weeks is Frederick, son of one of our ladies. Frederick is about 30 some years old and has a boy. Frederick did not get saved at our church, but he and his boy have been attending our church faithfully. Pray that Frederick will stay true to Jesus. It is very hard in this culture for men to stick with it after having lived in the streets, but God is able to help them!

Doug is also giving studies to the other 2 new converts, Leidy and Dennis. As he handed out the pamphlets, 2 more people who have been saved for several years asked for one. They had never done them! Also, a lady who was saved last year has never done them. So we have 4 new converts and 3 former converts doing these studies and it is exciting!

We appreciate your continued prayers as we come into this weekend. We are expecting great things from God! We're trusting God to move among the young people. There is a sense of anticipation and victory, but we cannot let up praying! Thank you for participating in this work through your prayers. Your reward will be "out of this world."

Will you help us pray?

I know some of you have been praying for our youth Sunday School class, and we thank you for that. This past Sunday there was a strong sense of conviction and the young people were fidgety. The lesson was on how the death of Jesus paid the price for our sins. During the time of invitation to accept Christ, one young man distracted another young man and there was a small squabble resulting in both storming out during the time of invitation.

We are in a real spiritual war. This is no game. We have had numerous attacks from the enemy on our family and church people the past few weeks.

In this war, we recognize that there is nothing we can do in our own power to bring the victory. It is totally up to God to break the chains of bondage in the lives of these young people. Our main weapon is through prayer and fasting. God is totally capable of delivering these precious lives, but He moves in response to our fervent prayers. In our praying and fasting, we humbly surrender to the King of Kings and plead for Him to bring down every stronghold of Satan.

The second thing we recognize in this war is that the price has already been paid for the lives of these young people. All they need to do is accept the gift.

As I thought about a physical war, it would be nearly impossible for a group of just a few soldiers to win a war. It takes hundreds of men, each doing their own job, to win the battle.

This is a war in which you can be involved. You do not have to leave your family and travel overseas to fight in this war. You can fight on your knees. Would you join us in the battle by prayer and fasting for these young people? They are a great group and we feel there is much potential for the church if they would surrender their lives to Christ. We are asking for prayer from now up to Easter Sunday when the lessons will conclude and will draw them closer to a point of decision. What a great celebration of victory that would be on Easter Sunday!

Cultural Quirks

This week has been very interesting. On Thursday, it was a beautiful, sunny, breezy day so I decided to hang out 2 loads of laundry. After they were hung out for about an hour, large billows of smoke started rolling by. It got thicker and thicker and soon the air was white from the smoke. It filtered through our house and I started to cough. It was from them burning the fields around us. They burn down the brush that grows and gets out of hand. Since it was a breezy day, it was carrying the thick clouds of smoke right into our community and all through our house. I knew that the clothes would smell of smoke, but I certainly was not washing them again. I didn't bring them in to throw them in the dryer because I was trying to conserve electricity in the first place. So we've been wearing smoke-smelling clothes. :-) The good thing is that we will wear them once and then they will get washed and hopefully smell better next round. :-)

Today I decided was going to be the day I cleaned my bedroom from top to bottom. I was going to wash the curtains, etc. I got my sheets in the washer early and hoped to get them hung out to dry before I pursued the curtains and rest of my laundry. The cycle was half way through when the electric went off! Of all days! There went my plans to hang my sheets out, wash the curtains, as well as finish my regular laundry. Ugh! The electric never did come back on till 6:00 p.m. so I did laundry this evening. I never did take my curtains down (thankfully) and I never got them washed. Maybe on another day when there's electric and water, it will happen. If I really get desperate, I can wash them by hand, but I'm not that desperate yet. :-)

Since the electric was off so long and we couldn't do anything else, Doug took us out for ice cream. It was also partly to celebrate an recent answer to prayer as well as have some family time. We got six sundaes and they only gave us three spoons! We had to go back in and ask for three more spoons.

On another note, we're anticipating how God is going to work the next several weeks. Tomorrow in youth Sunday school class, Doug will present the death of Jesus. It will climax the next several weeks and then, providentially, on Easter Sunday, it will conclude with the resurrection of Jesus.

Doug has been preparing and praying for these next few weeks with all of his energy. We've been feeling the kickback from Satan. Yes, it seems when he is working is also when we have electric and water problems - which we've had multiple times this week. Not just in the physical ways, but we also sense Satan working in the spiritual realm. He does not want to let these young people go!

We would appreciate your prayers specifically for the young people over the next couple of weeks. There is no better time for them to come to Christ than Easter! That's what it's all about!

God is moving!

Praise the Lord for His help! We have gone from an intense spiritual battle with a lot of resistance to feeling some of those chains broken and a deep sense of conviction. It has been quite a spiritual fight, but praise the Lord for the victories He has brought!

Yesterday morning in Doug's youth class there was a strong sense of conviction and when Doug asked at the end if anyone wanted to pray, Leidy raised her hand. After the rest of the young people filed out, Doug and 2 of the other young people who are Christians prayed with Leidy,age 18. After she was done praying, another guy who was kind of hanging around said, "Is it too late? I want to pray, too." Doug told him it wasn't so they prayed for Dennis, age 19, and he got saved, too. It was very exciting!

There are other signs of conviction among the young people. They are thinking! Doug says the next few weeks will be very crucial for them because the lessons will bring them to a point of decision. We would appreciate your prayers that God would continue to move in the lives of these young people. There are 36 of them who have attended the S.S. class, with an average of 10-15 per Sunday. No task is too big for our God!!

I forgot what it's like!

I forgot what it's like to have electric 21 hours straight until about 5 days ago, then I remembered! It's kind of nice! For the last 8 months or so, they've been giving us electricity for about 8-10 hours at a shot and then it goes off for 3-5 hours. Last week, they changed and started cutting out one of the outages, which now means our electric is only off 3 hours a day!! Isn't that exciting? It has made me rethink my morning schedule. Now maybe I can thaw meat before 10:30 a.m., start my laundry as soon as I get up instead of waiting till 10:30 a.m. Just think of the difference! Wow! But I won't ponder too long in case they decide to change their mind and switch us back. :-)

From the mouth of a five-year old

As I was teaching Ryan how to make the letter "V" today, I told him, "The guy goes down the hill, and then climbs back up." He wanted to make a line across the top once he ended at the top of the "v". He said, "Now the guy has to go home." I said, "No, the guy just goes up the hill and then jumps off the pencil and walks home." He said, "Mommy, that's so mean. The guy doesn't have a way home." :-) What an imagination!

Sometimes I feel like I have my own day school with children in three grades and a toddler in preschool (which is exploring the house while Mommy teaches), and one of them being Kindergarten. Kindgergarten always takes extra time and effort, but it is mostly fun teaching them and watching them learn.

Pictures from the past few months

In January, we were able to get away for 3 days for a mini-vacation. Since we were "alone" for the holidays, this was part of our way of celebrating Christmas. These first 3 shots are out of order as I missed them when posting the rest.

We got to go mini-golfing on the north coast, where we vacationed. This was a big joke! There was no green mat, just concrete. You barely tapped the ball and it raced off. We scrapped score-keeping and just had fun trying to get that contrary ball in the hole.

You wouldn't believe what Doug got snorkeling. Don't believe it!! It's just a background that has a hole to stick your face through. We thought it might look real if I stood beside the body painted on the backdrop. :-)
Driving out of the city and our first view of the mountains! Hurrah!
This island boasts some beautiful mountains.

Sights along the way

Since I had my camera along, which I always forget, it gave me a chance to take some pictures of the culture and country. Here is a common sight. There is no sense of overload on a vehicle here.

These are handmade rugs along the road ready to sell.
These roadside stands are very common. It is a way the people in these small towns try to make a living. This is fish for sale.

This is sugar cane. We are told these white tops mean the sugar cane is past the time of harvest.

Rice fields.

Hand made pottery for sale.

Looks like civilization ahead.
After a quick bite at McD's, we headed up the into the mountains. We have to go all the way up a mountain and down the other side to arrive at the north coast. Here is a man with the scenery of the valley in the background.

A typical roadside fruit stand. This is likely the only way these people get fresh fruit and vegetables. Any supermarket would be a long ways away.

Jonathan slept as we bumped along. Evidently he covered his head with his blanket before going to sleep.

A country house up in the mountains - right by the road. Since these people are away from "civilization", my thought was "Do these people living in the mountain know Jesus? Have they been told? Could we evangelize them?" I was somewhat comforted when I saw one or two churches as we bumped along the rough, mountain roads. The typical Dominican clothes dryer - any tree, post, line or concrete wall works great for the sun to dry them.

This is the top of the mountain. It was different for me to see palm trees growing on the very top of the mountain, but it was very pretty.
As we arrived at our destination, a peacock came out to greet us.
Since it was the off season, we got a great room for a great price.

Our main reason for coming to the north coast was to enjoy this go-kart track. It is the only one on the island that we know of. We all got to ride together as a family since there were 2 double cars and Doug could take Jonathan and I could take Ryan. Brandon and Regina each drove their own car. We got unlimited rides (which were only $10 per person for the day) and since there was no one else on the track at that hour of the morning, the control guy let us ride for 20 minutes or so. We had a blast!

This was Regina's first time to drive any kind of a car and she did a great job.
I love this picture. If you look closely, you can see the joy on Doug's face as he keeps the lead, the eager look on Brandon's as he desperately tries to pass, and Regina' s look of disappointment as she realizes there's no way she can catch these guys.

We also enjoyed bumper cars.

Jonathan enjoyed this playground the most.

I love this picture of Ryan.

We stayed right beside a golf course so the landscaping and botanical life was beautiful! It was doubly beautiful to have this mountain in the background.
Such a pretty place!

The restaurant where we ate was "open-air" with big arches. It was neat to be able to eat while soaking in the tropical surroundings, except for the birds who kept flying over our plates of food. :-)

A view of the tropical surroundings from the restaurant.

One last look at the Atlantic ocean from the mountains. Back to the city - traffic jams, horns, people, busy-ness.....It was nice to get away for a few days.

Doug found a tarantula in a cup in the sink one morning. He turned it right side up, added water, clorox and soap, and the tarantula gave its last breath.

He had the children pretend they were drinking "tarantula tea". :-)

"Ice" skating

In January, we went "ice" skating. Well, it wasn't real ice, for real ice would not stay solid in the tropical heat. It's actually some kind of sport board that feels like ice. It's similar to one of those plastic type cutting boards. It was a bit harder than real ice skating, but it at least gave us a taste of ice skating. We imagined we were cold, although it was a comfortable 80 degrees outside. It drizzled a little so we imagined the rain drops were snow flakes. :-)

A close up of the sport board surface.

A fishing we will go

For the first time in our lives here on this island, we went fishing. Our friend, Luke, invited us along. It was a relaxing afternoon and we were surprised to find this stream only 10 minutes from our house. Here are some pictures of that experience.

The scenery around the stream created a relaxing, peaceful environment.
Jonathan had more funs throwing rocks in the water and making a big splash.

A neighbor gave us a plate of strawberries from the country. Mmmmm! I think is the 5th time we've had strawberries in the last year and a half. You can imagine how delighted we were!

My mom and brother came for a visit in January. Grandma taught Regina how to make shoo-fly pies.
Someone gave us some fresh beans. These are kidney-like type beans - not exactly sure what they're called. We eat them with rice like the Dominicans.
In January, Bro. David Middleton preached revival services at our church.

In February, we attended 3 nights of the Holiness Convention held by Evangelistic Faith Missions. Steve Hight was the speaker. We had Bro. Hight, along with Middleton's in our home for lunch, but I have no pictures to prove it. :-) Since I knew Bro. Hight liked Mexican food, and we do, too, I served fajitas with Dominican-flavored rice.

Roof sealing project

This past week, we were happy to have Doug's parents here with us. Doug's father came specifically to help seal the roof of the mission building. It was a blessing to have his help. The first 2 days they spent cleaning the roof with a pressure washer (notice the area that has been washed as opposed to the "black" area that had not yet been washed) and sealing any cracks. Jimmy, our Dominican custodian and guard for the mission (blue shirt) also helped.

The third and fourth day, they painted the roof with the sealer. This is done to all of the roofs here as they are flat. The roofs must be sealed in order to prevent filtration down through the concrete.

Pastor Euddy helped to seal the roof. The Lord wonderfully answered prayer as the whole Dominican church had been praying for a few months that it would not rain for these few days when they would be working on the roof. It did not rain one drop till yesterday afternoon, the day Doug's parents left and 30 hours after the sealer had been finished. Doug said yesterday, "It can rain after this afternoon," and it did!! It poured late yesterday afternoon and evening. We were thankful for the refreshing rain and that God held it back till the project was over and the sealer should have been dried! What a mighty God we serve!!!

Doug has some concrete work to finish and then this project can be considered accomplished! To God be the glory!