Friday, November 23, 2012

Baseball day!

El Juego

Greg in right field where he belongs on a ball field.
Arriving in the community this morning we went directly to the baseball field.  There the local kids and their coach, Daniel, were practicing while they waited for us.  The game was a lot of fun and as we prayed afterwards they told us this is a tradition that we must play with them on the Friday that we visit the community.  They all hope to be the next big sensation in the Major Leagues.  But somehow we managed to pull out a win with the normally great play from Bob, some lucky hits from Greg and Dan playing a splendid 2nd base.  Oh, and we had a few ringers on our team too.
Dan at bat.  Nice Hit!

With our fellow ball players!
Bob and Elva.
Bob with Leysi and his mom.
Today Bob made his last two sponsored child visits to Elva and Leysi.  Elva lives in the home we were able to repair extensively 2 years ago.  It was such treat to see that the family is doing well.  She and Bob connected last year over their shared birth date.  He found her picture on a sponsorship packet once we returned home and snatched it up right away.

Massiel translating during Bob's visit to Leysi's house.
Once we competed final home visits to sponsored kids we stopped by to visit Basilia, one of the ladies who is a leader in the church.  She was sick and what was just going to be an opportunity to check on her led to a house call by Dr. Bob.  He diagnosed that she most likely had an infection in her leg from a puncture wound a over a week ago.  Bob was able to secure some antibiotics and advise her on future care.  Please pray for her.  We thank God that Bob was able to serve her in this way.

Visiting Enerfries.
It seems that the schedule that we plan has gotten flexed a lot this week, which has been just fine.  The farewell service was moved around due to the medical errand. So we started the Movie night at about 6:30. It was a very well attended event.  We showed Courageous, the theme was very pertinent to this community.  Once movie night ended there was a brief farewell service.  A few tears were shed throughout the day as we said good-bye to our good friends here.  We look forward to seeing them again soon.  All through the week people have been looking for those who have come with us before.  They remember and said at the farewell that they hope many of them can return.

The movie night was well attended with people even across the street watching through the door.
This ministry we have had here would never have been possible with out the very effective and servant hearted people who have served us all week.  Isa, is a local pastor who takes her time to cook all our meals or oversee the community women cooking our meals.  She is very energetic and happy to serve.  Carlos, who we first came to know 2 years ago, has been our host and is now the team coordinator.   He already was a good friend and has taken great are of us this week.  He and our translators have been constantly with us in minstry and we have grown close.  Massiel is a college student in  Santo Domingo, who has been translating for us.  She keeps things lively and fun which has been a great help with the children.  Daniel is a young business man from Santiago.  He has translated so well and takes great care in helping us connect with the people.  We will miss these friends a lot, but know we will see them again at the very least in heaven.
We enjoyed our visit with Kelvin!

After finally arriving back at our quarters, we were able to connect with our old friend Kelvin, who is now the coordinator over this region for FH.  His smile is contagious and his passion for God even more so.  Cesar was also here, to greet us before we left.  All of the community staff were in training this week so it was blessing for these guys to take time to spend with us even though they had not seen their families all week.


 
Giving a English Spanish Bible to Rachell.
Daniel translating as we give Manuel an English Spanish Bible
 God Bless!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Day of Jonah

  VBS


Dan getting into the Jonah story.
This morning started off at VBS. Bob and Dan taught the story of Jonah with a lot of creativity. VBS started as we led, with a lot of help from our wonderful interpreters, some songs with lots of actions.  The lesson time really kept the kids attention and was very enjoyable.  After the story, the kids colored some pictures of Jonah and the whale.  

Some of them put a lot of time and effort into their pictures.  After coloring we went outside to play a couple games and then back inside for some more songs.

Kids paying close attention as Bob and Dan teach.

We have noticed an improvement in the kids behavior over the last 2 years and this year in particular they were very well behaved and a lot of fun to lead and play with.  All of them were so orderly in sharing the crayons and coloring their pictures.  The influence of the church and the FH staff is producing noticeable results in this community.  Not the least of which is seen in the lives of the children. 

Anna Rosa coloring a picture of Jonah and the Whale
Pray that they will continue to grow in character, and a knowledge of God.  This community is being transformed and you are a part of it!

Since I'm(Greg) writing I'll share a bit more about one of my families sponsored children.  Anna Rosa has been a very soft spoken and shy girl from the first time we met 2 years ago.  She was sitting alone by the fence outside her house as she baby sat her little 2 year old sister who was asleep.  During the home visit this year she was alone once again with Juan Martires, her 11 year old brother, and her 4 year old sister.  Here mom works in the city and leaves early in the morning and returns about 5.  Today she came to VBS with here sister and brother.  Even though she is so shy that she doesn't  want to interact we pray we can be a positive influence on her and her family.  There are so many kids with similar stories here.  the great new is that things are improving and we look forward to continuing transformation in this community.



Visiting Amo

The Amo Program in action.
Each week 100 kids gather in groups of 25 to be trained in Biblical principles.  Normally a FH full-time staff person leads the training, however this week local college student, singer(see below), community leader, and aspiring high school teacher  Rochell was filling in.  The kids really love the learning they are receiving and payed close attention even when we stopped by and created a bit of a distraction.  Funds for sponsored children are used to make this happen.  They hope to have every child in Sierra Prieta attend the 1 year program over the next 7 years.

Evangelism visits turned leadership training

Looking into the Scriptures during leadership training.
This afternoon we had planned some home visits to the final sponsored children and to invite people to the evening service.  However we had some delays and before we could begin some folks from a church in a nearby community showed up to accompany us on some evangelistic home visits.  As we didn't think that 20 of us showing up on someone's doorstep to share the Gospel would be very effective we decided to put together an impromptu leadership training.  With a few folks in attandance from the previous training, Greg led the group through a look at some leadership principles we can find in the book of Acts.  There were some great questions which led to some good discussions.  Though not what the group expected the time together seemed to be well recieved.  Tomorrow after the baseball game and before the farewell service we will complete the visits to sponsored children.

Evening Service

Greg Preaching
The evening service was a great opportunity to share that God's plan to bring salvation will not be denied even by our disobedience, but he is most glorified when we respond with obedience.  The service started off with some traditional singing and then we were treated to a couple special music numbers by Rachell(see video below image is poor voice is great).  Greg shared the sermon and it was well received by those in attendance.  We praise God for the opportunity to continue to share the truth about his grace and love this week!


Thanksgiving celebration


Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  One of the benefits of this trip is that our thankfulness quotient goes up.  We were once again provided with a great meal, rice with beans, beef in gravy, green salad, pasta salad with tuna and fresh fruit.  After the evening service we stopped for some Dominican ice cream.  It was a nice treat.  We also were treated to a basket of a complete Thanksgiving meal, including turkey jerky, yogurt covered cranberries, loaded baked potato Pringles, pumpkin pie Pringles and much more.  Thank You Ladies.  We love you and appreciate the care that went into that.

Contents of our Thanksgiving basket
Our delicious Thanksgiving Day meal













Tomorrow


Tomorrow will be our last day in the community.  We will be playing baseball in the morning and then making the final visits to sponsored children.  The afternoon will be a farewell service with the community and then in the evening we'll take a run at the movie again.  So far all the new equipment has tested fine. Keep these people and God's work here in your prayers.


Love to our Families.  We look forward to seeing you all soon!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Lets try that again


Dan with Jahaira and family
We had a lot of anticipation this morning for the events of today. Visits to sponsored children are always a highlight of the trip and today was no exception. Today we visited 4 of 7 sponsored children we have between the 3 of us. It has been just wonderful to be a part of the lives of these amazing kids over the last few years. We all value the opportunity to connect with, encourage, pray for and learn from them. One of the ones that continues to impact all of us is Dan's sponsorship of Edwin. He is 10 and his brother Scarling is 8. Their mother Jahaira was widowed about 4 years ago and despite the obvious real pain she lives with she always has the greatest smile. It is clear that she is grateful for even the limited exposure the boys have to Dan. The relationships they have are very precious.
Bob visiting with Paquita

Other homes we visited today we those of Paquita, Christopher and Anna Rosa. We really are blessed to see them and try to encourage them and their families. So many times they are without parents close by due to work or in other cases the parents are out of work and at home but disappointed they cannot provide a consistent income for their family.

Greg and Anna Rosa
Christopher and his family

the parents meeting
Bob speaking about health issues
The afternoon was a challenge and a joy. We had a meeting with many of the adults of the community. It was a conversation intended primarily for parents but other adults attended as well. It was a very productive time. Bob shared extensively about the impact of clean drinking water, balanced nutrition, and some other basic but vital pieces of health information. They were very attentive and interested asking many different questions. Dan shared very effectively about the challenges of being a single parent and many issues that effect children of divorce. It was ell received and appropriate for this community with many broken families. A number of parents asked questions which he handled better than Dr. Phil. Then Greg shared some concepts of parenting and discipline which led to discussions including how to teaching kids responsibility with money(thanks Dave Ramsey). Then as we opened it up to general questions a discussion about how we were going to bring them jobs came up. We were able to communicate that we were not here to bring resources. God has provided all the resources they need. We have come to help protect the most vulnerable and help them all develop the resources they have so they can take the lead in creating their own solutions to the challenges they face. After some time in the conversation we saw a few different people really start to get the concept. The final things we shared was that the greatest need we have is to find hope in Jesus Christ.

In the evening we planned to have a movie but some damaged equipment made that impossible. We worked for over an hour and borrowed DVD players and spliced cords but to no avail. The group waited patiently and graciously accepted our request for a rain check until Friday night. Other options were available but too far away for the evening.

Wilson his wife and 2 young daoughters
Some great relationships have continued to develop with people of the community. Wilson and his family. our first friend in Sierra Prieta, have been around helping us and have been involved in everything each day. It is very exciting to see his growing interest in things of God. Manuel, has been a young leader in the community since we arrived 4 years ago. He takes time from his hair cutting busienss and university studies to help us. He is one of the really great role models in the community. Rachelle, is 18 years old and is the assistant leader of the Amo program. She works with the FH staff to lead the kids in their weekly Bible study lesson. They are focusing on learning principles for Godly living. She helps us all the time. We really appreciate these and so many more special relationships


Rachelle and her ever present smile






Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Hoops today!

Dan sharing insight at leader training
Leaders Meeting
This morning was a little slower for us as we are starting to feel the effects of the heat more.  But we are thankful for the strong Dominican coffee to help jump start the day (even Greg has a cup or 2). Our morning was filled with a leadership seminar for the leaders of the community.  We did a vision casting exercise with them and then shared some leadership skills and answered questions regarding some current challenges they are having.  It was also a great opportunity to help motivate them by reminding them of how far their community has come and how much work they have done since the involvement of FH and Cornerstone.  We enjoyed the fellowship with them and their encouragement to us.
Praying with the community leaders after the training.

Seeing the filter in action
After being served another excellent lunch we were able to see a water filtration unit in one of the homes.  FH has been working with Sawyer filters to bring simple, affordable water filtration to places like this.  The filter is very simple and is good for up to 20 years.  In order to help people afford this valuable health device, still feel the value of it, Food for the Hungry is selling them at a discount but financing them for up to a year.  






Bob teaching the teens
Picuture with all the teens
The afternoon brought us to the meeting with the teenagers.  Bob led the meeting challenging them to define their future aspirations and then spoke to them about things that would hinder their dreams.  He spent some time speaking to them about the importance of abstinence, not only for health reasons but also for reasons that it has a great impact on your future.  One of the related issues is the absence of fathers frmo may homes due in part to early pregnancies.  Speaking to them about fathers revealed they have clear ideas of what a father should be, encouraging, supportive, motivating, dependable... all the words they chose were about character and connectedness   Bob encouraged them to see themselves becoming a father like that or marrying a man who would be a father in this way.  He also spoke with them about relationship issues and other topics the asked of him.  

Coach Dan
A little 3 on 3










After the teen meeting Dan held a basketball clinic for the teenage boys.  He taught some fundamentals and helped them clarify some rules.  Then led in a few skill development drills and we had a short 3 on 3 game.  The old white guys won 3 to 2.  We really enjoyed working with them in this way.
 

Bob had the opportunity to look at this man's foot.  It had been run over by a mini van last week.  He should be fine.

 Tomorrow brings home visits to sponsored children and then a parenting seminar in the afternoon.  The evening we will be showing the movie Courageous.  We appreciate your continued prayers for God to work in the hearts of the people to draw them to Jesus and make them fellow kingdom laborers.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Ministry Begins in Earnest

Monday morning began with devotions and prayer followed by breakfast and Dominican coffee.  Heading into the community we picked up the 2nd of our interpreters.  We new have Daniel and Massiel serving as interpreters for our team, so along with Carlos our coordinator we are now a team of six.

Pedro and most of the team (no Daniel)
Ciela's home now painted yellow and standing strong
We began the morning in the community by visiting a number of different homes, some new and some old friends.  Each  person says how pleased they are with our work in the community over the years and that they are so great-full that we have returned.  One of the homes we stopped at is the home of Pedro.  He and his wife have been married for 45 years have 8 children, 25 grand children and 3 great-grand children.  He shared how blessed he was when we gave him a Bible 2 years ago and that he reads it occasionally and that his family often speaks of our visits to the home.  God is working in his family and its incredible to hear how long the impact can last.  He is a neighbor to Ciela whose house the team helped to rebuild 2 years ago.  We stopped by to visit her and her children, they are still enjoying the home and doing well.  The kids have finally secured their birth certificates and as soon as they get to the capitol and pick them up they can continue with high school.

Manuel sharing his life with us for a moment

Another visit brought us to Manuel, he is 88 years old, mostly blind, and very unable to walk but is definitely all there mentally.  His wife passed away just this year so his son and grand daughter, Pamela, have moved in to be his eyes and feel.  It was a privilege to speak to this kind man.


Sharing wisdom and experience
Dan with the principle and three of the teachers
After another great lunch, we began the afternoon program.  Dan headed over to the school with Massiel to observe the teachers a little and met with, Santa, the principle before having a meeting with the teachers.  He got to learn a lot about the Dominican education system as well as spend some time training the teachers.  He shared 12 characteristics of effective teachers they asked a lot of questions and considered practical applications to their situations.  He concluded by asking them to share about their challenges and where they found the most joy about teaching.  Dan noted, "It was interesting to see they are very similar to teachers in the US."

Church leader training
The meeting with pastors and church leaders was a positive experience.  There were about 12 people in attendance from 4 different churches in the area.  Greg encouraged them to make sure that before all of the things in ministry that they have to do that they focus on their own personal relationship with Christ, a reminder that "normal Christians"  are totally sold out pursuing Christ daily, and an encouragement to work together for the cause of the Gospel. Topics included an encouragement to look closely at the spiritual qualifications of elders before earthly qualities. And Bob was able to share the concept of Pray and Watch with them as a way to keep focused on lost people.  The participants were very thankful and left at least encouraged if not taking away some new motivation and vision.

We covet your prayers for God to use us in His way.  Tomorrow we plan to be speaking with the teenagers about their decision making and how it impacts their future, and we will also do a workshop with the community leaders to help them continue to focus on and pursue their vision for the community.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Sunday of Blessings

We were so tired when we arrived Saturday we didn't notice the weather too much.  Now that we have spent a little time here we are very blessed to know we can still sweat as well as ever.

This was our view in church this morning - quite the packed house.
This morning we attended church in Santo Domingo.  It was enlightening and encouraging to see the packed house that had a similar feel to Cornerstone.  The worship band led in songs that we knew the tune for with the Spanish words on screens. The encouraging and Biblical message was even translated into English via wireless headsets.  Seeing a church with Biblical passion for the lost was a real blessing.

Reunions with Sponsored Kids!
Guadalupe and our interpreter Daniel at the Welcome.
Rafelina and her grandmother.
Old friends - called to us as soon as we arrived.
For lunch we headed to the community.  It was a great time to reunite with old friends and to make a few new ones.  After eating the typically incredible spread of food, we toured the community and found some more old friends.  The warm welcome from everyone, while familiar, is no less encouraging and motivating.  We send greetings back from Wilson, Gregorio, Guadalupe, Vassilla, Pastor, Juan Armando, Yairan, Enerfries, Juan Rafiel, Christia, Paquita, Edwin, Escarling, Wilmon, Leoni, Rachel, and so many more. At the welcome meeting we were encouraged to treat Sierra Prieta as our home and told that we would always be welcome and be a part of the community.  We were welcomed by representatives from many parts of the community, including the community leadership group, young people's group, catholic church, local church, mother's group and more.

Plush living arangements
Our living arrangements often bring a surprise and this year is no exception.  The community center where we have stayed the last 2 years is being used for the Amo Program, a weekly children's Bible program so we are staying at the regional office for FH in Yamasa.  It is a big step up from before with tile floors, consistent electricity and an actual bathroom.  But this puts us about a 1/2 hour drive from the community.




This week we have some new opportunities due to the smaller size of our team.  Each of us will be teaching and giving input to the community based on our background and training.  Dan will be observing at the school and giving input to the teachers on discipline, morale and any teaching issues he can address.  Bob will be speaking to different groups, including mothers, parents and young people about issues from pregnancy health, to general hygene to healthy sexual relationships.  Greg will be preaching and meeting with church leaders from 3 different churches to do training in church leadership and then will be meeting with community leaders to share about Biblical leadership issues.  We will have some overlap in the leadership training, parenting workshop, one day VBS and will make home visits together. Another new opportunity will be to have a basketball clinic.  Basketball is 2nd to baseball here but still very popular and a group of kids has begun playing here regularly.  Other events planned for this week include a number of evangelistic home visits, sponsored children home visits, a movie night, baseball game and an outreach service.  We pray that God shines his light into many lives during our time here.


More old friends!


Please pray specifically for these events that God will work in the lives of lost people to draw them to himself and make them kingdom laborers.  Thank you for being our partners.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Arrival

After more than 20 hours in airport and on airplanes. We arrived in the balmy Dominican Republic.  It was great to be greeted by our good friend Carlos. After getting a little bit settled we had some lunch, and made plans for the ministries of the coming week. Is going to be a full week with lots of opportunities to share in depth with a number of different groups in the community. We are just looking forward to God blessing our time here and are enjoying being with old friends already. Thank you for your prayers. We look forward to sharing more with you.