answered prayer.

For a long time here in the Dominican Republic there has been the dream of having a community of believers in the city of Rio San Juan. We have been praying about this for a very long time, and this summer we have specifically been focusing on that. We have asked all the groups to pray that the Holy Spirit come and take reign over the city. We spend one full morning with the going to a hill to look over Rio San Juan and talk about our dreams and pray that the Holy Spirit covers them.

Though our whole team is focusing on Rio San Juan, we have two couples that work directly with this dream. Evan and Rachel Aldridge work with the children and the teens. This program was started a while back and has had others work with it before including: Kayla Sparks, TJ and Holly McCloud, and Kyle and Vicki Graham. Evan and Rachel are doing great things with those kids and in a very short period of time have really made some great relationships that I know will turn into soldiers for Christ.

Our other couple working in Rio San Juan is Ronald and Rosibet Mena. They are our new Costa Rican addition, and I might add are pretty amazing people. I knew they were pretty amazing on their survey trip and we have been so blessed to have them here. They have been specifically working with the adults in Rio San Juan and trying to find those people that the Spirit is leading us to.

This coming Sunday the first church service will be held in Rio San Juan. That is truly an answered prayer. We are so excited and a little nervous but know that the Spirit is going to be in control and bring the people to us that are ready to turn their lives over to the one and only God.

Thank you for your prayers and continue to pray for us and specifically that the Holy Spirit flows down on the people of Rio San Juan.

Dear God.

We are truly amazed at the things you do everyday. This community of believers in Rio San Juan is something that we have desired for a very long time and we are in awe of you that once we finally commit to prayer your will we can see it happen. We trust that you are with us and that you will reign in on that service on Sunday. We love you everyday.

Interns.

This Tuesday four of our interns arrived for the summer: Audrey, Carter, Jill, and Nikki. We spent some time together Tuesday night but they were pretty tired and off to bed right after dinner. Wednesday was a day of cleaning, and that we did. The dorms were cleaned before lunch. After lunch we had a pretty nasty task to do: cleaning the cistern at camp. Water here is precious and it is not always easily available. We are blessed enough to have a water pump. It uses solar energy to turn on the pump to give us water. When we have filled up the tank the overflow water gets pumped into the cistern so that when we have a few days with no sun we have reserve water. The cistern was very dirty so we cleaned it out. We all got in there and got our hands dirty but we are so grateful that got done. Today, Thursday, we all headed to Puerto Plata. We had lunch there and did some shopping then picked up Glenn, another intern. We headed back to camp for dinner and some quality time together.

It has been some incredible days here with the interns. We are so blessed and expecting a terrific summer. God has blessed us with these guys and two more who will be joining us later.

Keep them in your prayers this summer as they take on a lot of responsibility and are working very hard. Please, even more so to keep them in your prayers as they use this summer to grow spiritually in their relationship with God. It gets hard when things get so busy to keep your focus on growing spiritually. We all need that prayer.

Luckson and Jordan will be joining us later to keep adding to our amazing team.

Oh, and I know this is random and unrelated but best of luck to the Boyd-Buchanan soccer and baseball teams on Friday, who will both be playing for state championships.

Lord, thank you so much for these guys. They are awesome and are going to be awesome. I know that my summers here as an intern truly changed my life and I pray that it can do the same for them. Help us all as we get really busy here really fast to keep our focus on you and to see you in everything we do and do invite you into every interaction, every step, and every breath that we take. I am just so grateful for the opportunity to be the best I can be. I love you every day.

firsts.

There are always firsts in life, and today I experienced a first.

I was at Carmen’s house, one of our Dominican friends who, I might add, is one of the most hospitable people I know. Well, we were drinking coffee one of her neighbors called her and told her that there was a cow trying to give birth but was having problems and to call the vet in Rio San Juan to come out and attend to it. Well I decided I wanted to see it and to see the vet deliver this baby calf. We, Chiquito (Carmen’s husband), Porfi, and I, went to see the cow and wait for the vet to arrive. He finally arrived about a half an hour later. The problem was the calf was trying to come out feet first. So the vet, with some very large gloves helped the poor little calf be born.

Wow, it was so interesting and so weird. Never seen anything like that before, but I guess there is a first time for everything.

Lord,

wow. What a weird experience that just seems so normal to so many people here. I know it is natural but for me to see it was definitely a first. I love you everyday.

home

I am not really sure what that word “home” means any more. I have always been from “5713 Browntown Road Chattanooga, Tennessee 37415”. I have had that memorized for as long as I can remember, and for a long time that was “home”. When I went to college at Harding University that sort of became “home”, but even when I returned to Chattanooga for a holiday or just for a long weekend I would say that I was going “home”. But it was that time in school that the term “home” began to change and take on a different meaning. And now that I live in the Dominican Republic it has taken on a whole new meaning yet again.

For my whole life this meaning of home has been thrown at me.

We had this thing in my house that I think my mom made that said “Home is where is heart is”.

I remember the hymn that says “This world is not my home, I am just a passin’ thru...” and along those same lines but a different song sings, “I am a poor wayfaring stranger just traveling thru this world of woe...I am going there...I am only going over home.”

My home now is in the Dominican Republic and that is where I feel at home because that is where my heart is. Though I am so thankful for all the friends and family that welcome me back to what was once my home and make the United States at homey as possible when I come to visit.

And even though I say that Bobita is now my home I realize that I am just passing thru this place called earth waiting to go home and no longer have to wander around here as a stranger.
Lord,

Guide me here and help me to remember that I am just a stranger. Help me to stop looking for home here and realize that home will be the reward at the very end. Help me to keep that quote from my mom in the front of my mind “home is where the heart is” and to always have my heart and mind focused on Jesus and the home he has created for me and for every child of yours. I love you everyday.

retreat

The weekend before I went to the United States for Trent and Micah’s wedding our team went on a retreat in Puerto Plata. Even though we had spent some time together, it was a time for us to really understand each other and to become the team that God wants us to be in the Dominican Republic.

Norm, our director, did and amazing job of putting the retreat together. Our theme for the week was all about the battle we are in. We were joined on our retreat by some members of our team that live in the United States. Tommy and Jill Reese and Mark Gibson are three people that have been a part of what is going on here on this island for a long time and they are huge people in our lives as a team. I am so grateful they were able to come and share in our weekend and help us be a team.

The first part of the retreat was spent getting to know each other. That might sound silly but it really was an amazing time. We did a personality test and within each personality understand how to interact with it. No one test came out the same, and I am thankful for that and I pray that we can learn to understand each other and our personalities. After learning more about ourselves we spent some time talking about the battle and what that means. We can not sit back and lie to you or ourselves. Being on the mission field, where ever that might be is a battle. It might look romantic at first but we must be honest, that romantic view goes away pretty fast. When it does go away you are faced with a bloody battlefield ahead that so many times looks so incredibly scary. But that is what we are here for we are here to fight for a cause we believe so much in. We watched the first scene of Saving Private Ryan and made analogies from the movie to the battle field that we are on. If you have watched that movie you know just how intense it is. As christians we are all on that battlefield, running on to that beach trying to take the front away from Satan. We know that God has the war won, but living day to day with so much war going on around us is oftentimes discouraging. Please continue to pray for us as we are on the battlefield and we will continue to pray for all of you as you are on the battlefield, fighting the same enemy, just in a different part of the world.

The last part of our retreat was focusing on our ministries in the Dominican Republic and how we are going to pull all of them together so that we do not have four or five separate things going on but that we have one team with one purpose working together for one goal and all of our works are working together for that one purpose and goal.

It was an incredible weekend together. Please pray for us as we learn to work and live together and as we try to be the team that God has called us to be.

GOD,

Thank you for giving us this past weekend to be together as a team. We all believe that you have called us to this place to be a part of what you are doing here. Help us to be the vessel you have called us to be to bring the Spirit into this place. Thank you for winning the battle already. We have no doubt that the war is won but give us the strength to fight every single day to keep fighting. I love you everyday.

a whirlwind

It has been a while since I have written on this blog and I am sorry. It has been a month filled with many events and emotions.

Just thirteen days after my grandmother, Inez Mynatt, was diagnosed with cancer she died. I made an unexpected trip back to the United States to be with my family. Thank you all for your prayers for our family during that time. The day I found out I was in my house cooking and Norm came to me with the phone stretched out and I immediately knew what had happened. After talking to my mother the first person to come to my comfort was Antonio. I got so many encouraging words from so many people.

To the Manna team: thank you so much for being there for me during that time, and letting me get back to the states and be with my family.

To my Dominican family: thank you so much for your comfort and kind words. To my friend, Overlin, I know you might never read this but you told me you were praying for me and I melted. For an eleven year old boy to tell me that really pulled at my heart strings.

While in the States I did get to make a trip to Searcy, Arkansas and Harding University. It was a terrific day. I got to spend time with so many people who I love and miss.

To all of my Searcy/Harding friends: thank you for your time that weekend. I am sorry I did not get to see all of you and I wish I could have. I love you and miss you all.

When I got back home there were many things in front of me before my next planned trip out.

Two families arrived to join our team.

The first was Evan and Rachel Aldridge. The arrived on a Sunday afternoon and the next Tuesday Ronald, Rosi, and Kevin arrived. We have spent a lot of time together, eating together and getting to know each other and it has been incredible how we have come together as a team. Evan has said that the first time we ate together it was incredible how it seemed like we had all known each other for a long time. We are quit the mixture of people, but that is how amazing God works. He pulls people from different parts of the world, some from the United States, some from Costa Rica and tells them to work together. It is also incredible how God pulls people together who have grown up together but never knew they would work together in a different country. God truly is amazing and it is going to be amazing to see how God works in this team.

To Evan, Rachel, Ronald, Rosi, and Kevin: I am so excited that you guys are here. I am excited to see how God uses us to be a team and to bring the Spirit into this place. I love you guys.

After those two families joined us, one other family’s time ended with us. Kyle and Vicki Graham left to return back to the United States. They truly are amazing people and did amazing things in this ministry. They touched the lives of so many children in Rio San Juan, and even if they do not get to see all the results of the things they did, we will have the privilege to see some of them through our continued efforts in Rio San Juan.

To Kyle and Vicki: I love you guys a lot and will miss you. Your love for children and each other is incredible. I hope you know how much you mean to me and how much I cherish our time together and the advice you gave me. You will truly be missed.

Before I left again our team went on a retreat, of which I will have a separate entry for. But after the retreat, I returned to the United States. This trip, unlike the last one, was planned. I returned for the wedding of my brother, Trent and his now wife, Micah. The wedding was beautiful and a great celebration of the union of two great people. There was so much happiness surrounding the whole ceremony, even though the majority of the wedding party was crying.

To Trent and Micah: I am so happy for you guys. You are both very special people and are going to be a great family. Thank you for letting me be a part of your special day.

Now as I return home very shortly I am so excited to be home but am grateful for the time I have been able to spend with special people in my life. But as I do return home I am going back to the battlefield, where I am going to be making some big choices here in the next few short days and weeks to come. I ask for you prayers in making some big choices, even if i can not express right now what they are.

Thank you again for your support, encouragement, and prayers. They are needed and are accepted with open arms and an open heart. And thank your for sticking with me when I have not given you updates in so long and seeing me thru a whirlwind of events and emotions.

Lord,

You truly are amazing. Amazing to give me friends and family that love and support me even when I fail to keep them informed of what is going on in my life. Thank you for an amazing family and team to support me when I seem to be always be on the move, whether it be within the country and out. They truly are amazing people. Thank you for the life Grandma lived. Thank you for the life Trent and Micah are starting together. I look forward to the day where I can hug Grandma again and I ask your prayers upon my brother’s marriage. I am thankful for our team for the ones who have left their final mark but whose mark will continue to make a difference long after they have gone, and for the ones, who like me, have just begun to attempt to make a mark in the Dominican Republic. I am thankful for the One who allows us to make a mark and be a part of the huge handprint that is the body of Jesus. I love you everyday.

A Very Special Person

When I came here to the Dominican Republic the first time I never knew what I was getting myself into. In fact, there was a boy that was in the Children’s Home that, to be honest, I saw as just a punk who did not want anything to do with anyone.

Now, five years later that boy lives with me. His name is Jean Carlos de Peña.

Jean Carlos grew up in a very hard situation. His mother was not able to take care of him and had no other family that was able to. His grandfather is a minister and was one of the initial people to bring the Church of Christ to Santiago. At one point in his life he was living on the street with his mom and some of his siblings. His grandfather knew of the Children’s Home here and had him put in, along with two of his brothers and his sister. While here, the three boys rarely got to visit their family were normally left behind here when the other kids left for vacation.

When I came back as an intern, Jean Carlos was the only one of his siblings left here in the Home. Jenifer had left shortly after she arrived, Alberto left and went to the States to live, and Antonio left the Home shortly after Alberto had gone.

As I said before, he was usually left

behind when most of the kids had gone home. For this, he was here in the summers when there were not that many kids here.

It was that first summer that I got to know that punk kid who I had many two years back. He opened up his rock hard outer shell to show me a broken but huge heart inside. He was someone dying for attention and love.

God used this boy to open my heart to a new world. I am forever gra

teful to him and the way he allowed God to use him, even though he had no idea.

I have many stories of the time I have spent with him but a new development in our relationship has come up in the last month or so.

His brother, Antonio, was kicked out of the Children’s Home shortly after Alberto had left for the states. He was quite a terror from all that I hear. But even thru that, he was also someone who was looking for love and attention.
Thru my relationship with Jean Carlos I have been able to get back in touch with Antonio and create a new friendship with him.

Antonio is someone who needs prayers, like the rest of us. He is someone looking for God. He knows what the world has to offer him, but has realized that the worlds offerings will not fill his needs. To be honest, I did nothing. He came running, like the prodigal son, a few weeks back and God did the rest. He worked thru my amazing cousin, Weston, to be able to talk to him and help him find direction for his life. He is still working, as we all are, but making the right steps toward his Savior.

Thru Antonio we were able to go on this retreat this past weekend. God used Antonio to talk to Jean Carlos and something beautiful happened.

The last night of the retreat we had a beautiful devotional. Many people responded and as we were singing Antonio said he felt the urge to talk to Jean Carlos. They talked for a little bit and Jean Carlos responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ and was baptized. He could not even wait until Sunday and went right then with three other people to a very cold river and was baptized. It was beautiful.

I can not say that I did anything. God used me as a very small piece in the puzzle of many pieces.

I can not even begin to mention all the pieces of this puzzle, but I am so very thankful for everything that has been done for his boy and am so proud and excited to be able to say that he is now a brother in Christ.

Please pray for him in his new walk with Christ. He will fail, as we all do but help him to know that even when he falls or even runs away, he will always be welcome back into the family of God and will be right there for him to embrace him.

Dear God,

I could not be more happy. You have had in plans something very special for this boy named Jean Carlos. There have been so many pieces to this puzzle that have helped him to make the decision to give his life to you. I was a very small one, but I am grateful for the privilege to be one. Antonio was one, and for him I am grateful. Brian and Tammie were huge instruments in getting him here to the Home.

LORD, thank you so much for the decision Jean Carlos has made. Be with him in his walk with you. Hold his hand and help him to know that you are holding him even when he is turned the other way.

I love you everyday!