advice.

I had a great weekend this past weekend. I am so blessed just to be here at this point in my life. I have been here almost a year now and one of the major things I have learned is that I need lots of advice. I need those people in my life who I can share what I am going thru with and those people who are always in prayers for us.

We have formed an advisory board for our ministry that consists of four people. Two of them are people that I have known for a very long time: Tommy and Jill Reese. The other two are people who I have met thru the ministry here: Mark and Casey Gibson.

Our advisory board was here this past weekend, all except Mark. This is the second time we have had our advisory board here with us and both times have been amazing.

This time we focused on our ministry and how we are to continue trying to integrate every aspect of our ministry into making disciples for Jesus Christ.

It truly was a weekend to focus on the ministry here and the plans that God has for us in the future, both near and far.

To Tommy: Thank you for the joy that you bring to everyone’s life here in the Dominican Republic. Thank you for the disciple that you are of Jesus Christ and the discipler that you are to so many and the example that that is to me.

To Jill: Thank you for the example that you are and always have been to me. Thank you for being the prayer warrior that I know you are. Thank you for the logistical planning and talents that you have and how much that helps out here making things run smoothly.

To Mark: We missed you here. I pray that your trip went well. I am excited about the next time that we can all be together. We missed your wisdom here.

To Casey: Thank you for being here. You bring so much to our team but most of all your peaceful spirit. Thank you for being a comfort and a friend to all of us here.

To all of you: Every time I left the Cube to come home, or the times I stayed over at the Cube, I just had to rejoice to God of how blessed I am that all of you were here. Thank you all for opening yourselves to the Spirit of God to be able to share it with us.

Dear God,

Thank you so much for Tommy, Jill, Mark, and Casey. They are amazing people who I love so much. Thank you for the Spirit they bring to this place. Thank you for an amazing weekend and the encouragement it brought to me.

Be with us as we plan for the future. Help us not to let our plans get in the way but to listen to you and let you be in control of everything that happens here.

I love you everyday!

a month long battle, finally won.

There are a lot of things that we battle here and for the past month or so I have been battling Mickey Mouses evil, and quit large, twin.

I have been trying to catch this rat for a while and been extremely unsuccessful. At first, I would put out this trap with some cheese on it. I would come back in the morning and the cheese would be gone but the trap would not have even been set off. Then I tried to put some fried salami but that just got attacked by the ants and then the rat would want nothing to do with it.

For about three weeks after that I would lose some food article every night. It was usually a banana or a piece of yucca or a plantain. I would wake up and have to throw something out everyday.

I did not see him for the longest time but I knew his tendencies. One day I when I got home I finally spotted him. We stared each other down for a while, then he turned an ran out, which was fine with me because I was not armed.

I got some advice from some friends on how to set the trap so that the ants would not get the bait and so that I could finally reign victorious over the one who battles me daily for food.

Last Sunday as Tommy, Jill, and Casey left I got home and again met my little friend in the house. He ran pretty quickly but I saw where he ran to hide. I put on my shoes, got my weapon of choice, a steak knife, and a broom and made the decision to leave the job to experts. I went and got my friends Carlos and Overlín. They immediately came over, excited and prepared for battle, accompanied by their brothers, Oliver and Alexandro.

The enemy had set up camp in my hot water heater when Carlos went in to lure him out to persuade him to come out for some hand to hand combat. He got him out but the enemy fled quickly to another site, my stove. We tried to put a towel under the door in the kitchen so that he could not escape in the case that he got out of the stove alive. After a few minutes, he did escape and pushed the towel out of the door way and escaped.

The battle was won by the rat but we were ready for the next attack.

There were no major battle wounds, although Alexandro did take a hard fall in an attempt to keep the enemy at bay.

The next day, I got a trap and with the help of my far superior and more tactful soldier friends set it up ready for war.

I went into Rio San Juan and by the time I got back I had a fresh rat corpse on my hands. The trap did the trick and the battle was finally won.

God,

It was a long month but I am so thankful my rat friend is gone. I am so thankful to have friends to help me out with things like this. Yes, it was quite annoying to have to battle a rat for such a long time but thru it I did get closer to Carlos and Overlín, something that is invaluable and worth the 30 pieces of food that I lost. Thank you for them and help me to not let things like this get in the way of my life here. Help me to understand that this is life here and Satan is going to use whatever he can to trip me up. Give me the strength to keep fighting and keep looking to you.

I Love you every day.

Times of Peace.

Yesterday I was walking to my house from the Children’s Home and a sense of peace swept over me.

I do not get this kind of peace everyday here. Some days it is very hard just to be here and it is those times of peace that really get me by.

It came upon me for no reason. Nothing, to my knowledge, happened yesterday that was spectacular. It was just God giving me a peace that totally surpassed my understanding. In that moment I was at total peace with calling this place home. I was at total peace with what I am trying to do here. I was at total peace with was we as a team are trying to do here. I was at total peace with being in a house all by myself. I was at total peace with not knowing what challenges tomorrow will hold. I was at total peace with all the things that had been on my mind and worrying me all day.

I am so thankful for that moment but Satan does not let them last very long. By the time I got to my house Satan got in the way and I had a hard time just getting to sleep and settling down from a lack of peace. Those times are more numerous than the others, but I am so thankful for that brief moment of total peace.

Lord,

Thank you for that beautiful moment. It was glorious just to live in it for a few minutes. But even more than that I am thankful that you faithfully stuck by my side when that time came and I had no peace but you were letting me know that it was all just a lie from Satan trying to rob me of the peace I just felt from you. Yes, it was still hard to get over but you let me know it was a lie and help me thru it, as always.

I am so thankful God that I am here. I am at peace with that. Thankful for being my God and being the one that gives me that peace when it makes not sense why it would come at that moment.

I know you are always trying to let me have that peace but I get so busy, I can not see it. I love you everyday!

Police.

Police here are silly.

I have had only a few run ins with them but they never seem to go well. The first one happened right before I went to the United States last year. I know I wrote about that whole experience and that was part of it. I have actually run into that police officer that impounded my car a few times. One time was this summer when the mayor of Rio San Juan introduced us to him and told him that we were friends with the mayor and if they ever had a problem to go to him. That policeman has never bugged me again.

The thing with the police in this city is they do so much of what they do to get a few extra pesos. You can buy them off pretty easily. I hate this because they love going after the gringos because we have the most money.

We have had some interesting run ins with the police in the past few days.

The first one did not involve me but it is funny. At the outreach center in Rio San Juan not too long ago there was a little accident. Someone had run into the downstairs window and bent the metal sliding door. Norm was there, heard it, and went down to see what had happened. Well, upon seeing what had happened he called a good friend of ours and asked her to call the police. He could not exactly tell her what had happened because she does not understand a lick of English. Well she ends up going with one of our really good friends, Freddy to the police station. They told the policeman we had an emergency and he proceeded to say that he was the only one on duty at the moment and could not leave the station and we would have to deal with it ourselves. We finally did get the situation worked out days later, but our Dominican friends were not happy with what that man said and we will just say he will not be wearing a badge for a while.

The second one did have to do with me. I was leaving Rio San Juan going back to Bobita when they had a ton of police stopping every car that went by to check for papers and seeing if anyone was carrying fire arms. I had to stop and as I was waiting they stopped a man on a motorbike. They got him off and were going to empty his pockets because he looked suspicious. Keep in mind, this man to this point has done nothing to merit being stopped or being frisked. They end up hand cuffing him and throwing him in the back of a truck because as they emptied his pockets some money fell out and started to fly away and he tried to grab it. It was unbelievable.

I was carrying apparently the wrong insurance paper and they, again, were going to impound my car. They ended up letting me go but I had to wait a good hour on them. (Oh yeah, and I was on my way to watch the Tennessee versus Florida game so I was kind of in a hurry.) For nothing, they were going to impound my car and make me come get it the next day.

That is how police work here. Men with no uniform, caring huge guns (that probably have nothing in them) stopping people for no reason and just trying to get a few extra pesos. Oh and one man that day drove up shook a policeman’s hand and the policeman did not even look in his car. The man was his cousin, so he let him go.

Even though it was a frustrating experience I had an opportunity open to me to be an example. Carlos was with me and he was not happy either, but we got to talk about patience even when you have done nothing wrong. Sometimes it is the innocent that get the hardest time. That is exactly what Jesus did for us.

Lord knows that I am not innocent, but Jesus was and look what they did to him.

God,

Thank you for the opportunity to have a lesson from you and a door open to talk to someone like Carlos. I do not know why things like these police situations happen. I hate that they are just in it for a buck, but the whole situation turned out to be a blessing. Thank you for that.

I love you everyday!

bobita is being vacated.

Since Ronald & Rosi and Evan & Rachel have joined our team we have all been out here together in the countryside town of Bobita. This came with purpose. We wanted everyone to be together so that we could build our team and family with a sense of unity before we all split up. That mission, I feel like, was accomplished. We are all really close and it has been really nice to have everyone together. But the time has come for us to move on.

Yesterday Ronald and Rosi moved to Rio San Juan. Rio San Juan is where their main focus is, and have already done amazing things with the people there. They knew coming in that eventually they would need to move and they have now found an apartment for themselves. We all helped them move into town yesterday in the Daihatsu. We will miss them being around here in Bobita, but we know for sure how much this will help them in their ministry.

Then yesterday after we finished up their moving process, Evan and Rachel finalized their moving plans to Rio San Juan. Their ministry focus is also Rio San Juan and this is the best thing for them too. They will be going this weekend. Again, we will miss having them around here but we know this is the best thing for them.

Both of these families will be so blessed to be there so close now to their ministry.

Pray for both of them as they make that transition into a new home and town.

Pray for us as a team that we continue to be in good communication and continue to spend time together and be there for each other whenever we need it. This will be much more of a challenge now, but I think we are up to it.

LORD,

Bless Ronald, Rosi, Kevin, Evan, and Rachel as they move into Rio San Juan. We have so much enjoyed having them out here in Bobita, but also know that this is what they need for their ministry. Continue to pour out blessings on them as they continue to do your work in Rio San Juan and be with them as new challenges come their way.

I love you everyday.