Road Trip

Ready to head out for our road trip.

One of the deeper rivers that we crossed

Our first water crossing

   So one of the things on my "bucket list" to do while were are in the DR is to ride the moto cross country to San Juan de la Maguana. When we normally drive there, we go through the capitol and it is about 325 KL. If you could fly direct, it would be about 60-65 KL. I did some looking on Google Maps and on Thursday morning at 8:15 am, Marcy and I headed out on my 225cc Yamaha. The first 50 kl went really well, newly paved road wide enough for three vehicles. Then we ran out of asphalt. From there on it was mostly 1 path for a moto. Some spots a truck could have driven, but for the most part it was only intended for motos. We drove through rivers and streams, 3' wide wooden bridges. Several places it was steep enough that I am not sure I could have made it up without Marcy sitting on the luggage rack sticking out the back for weight (and she doesn't weigh much). We arrived in Bohechio at 3:00. We spent 1/2 hour catching up with the lady that cooked our meals for us when we were there to build a church for them back in 2004. That was my very first time in the DR. It brought back lots of memories of my two weeks there, missing Marcy, our 4 month old foster baby at the time. All the new sounds, the roosters, the dogs running wild at night, the cows in the street roaming free, the donkey braying at night. the hot, sticky, humid temperatures, taking our daily swim/bath in the river (the very one we had just crossed 4 times on our moto), eating things that I had never heard of and realizing just how much taste Ranch Dressing can cover up. hearing over and over again "it tastes a lot like_____". Just a whole lot of memories came flooding back all at once as we pulled into town with wet shoes from crossing the river and dirt on our faces from the dusty roads.

    We then took off for San Juan de la Maguana, our destination, to see Dan and Kari and Nicole Eby at the Solid Rock Guest house. We arrived there about 4:00 and spent a little time chatting with Kari and then it was off to our Hotel/hostile. Marcy wanted pizza for dinner so I figured that after putting up with my crazy idea of riding moto all this way, that was the least I could do for her. We found an internet cafe so I could find a different route home, not going through Bohechio, 145 kilometers, one way, up, down, backtracking, switchbacking, sliding down the slopes, spinning up the slopes. It was a wild ride to say the least. After a semi-good night's sleep, we had breakfast and did a little sightseeing around town, and headed back for Jarabacoa. It is hard to capture the view from a camera but back in the hills where the roads are almost non existent, the view even made Marcy comment on it. We arrived back home about 4:00 - 425 kl, sore rears and a really dirty bike later. It was a great time had by all. Would I do it again? I don't know, maybe. But for sure not without getting a new back tire with more tread. 

      While we were out having fun on the moto. Karen, Janae and Nina were back home defrosting the fridge at Genesis, cleaning out closets at our house and doing some deep cleaning that needed to be done. She still claims that she had more fun that I did. I would really question that.

Looking across to where we had been a few minutes earlier

Looking ahead to what is next

The bridge really is a bad as it looks here.

The water in this river was moving faster than the others.

Last water crossing on the way back home.

 

Peso gets into The Word!!

      As I write this it is the day after Thanksgiving, or better known as Black Friday. Why is the best shopping day for businesses called "Black" Friday? Last year at SI we had a Thanksgiving meal for the staff but this year we decided to not have that but rather let everyone have some time on their own. It has been a great year but a full one so a little down time was nice to have. We also celebrated our 30th anniversary on Monday of this week. Interesting how we both will have celebrated our 50th birthdays as well as our 30th Anniversary. Who would have ever guessed that 5 years ago? God has a way of changing our plans and making His way clear for us. It has been a great 30 years. We are super excited to see where the next 30 years will take us. Only He knows.
      Life here has been good, We have been busy interviewing people for open positions and moving people from one site to another and training up new staff for whatever comes next in their lives. It is really energizing to be part of this. At times it seems like we are trying so hard to keep our heads above water that we don't have time, energy or resources to look to the future. Things are changing and moving forward. There are growing pains involved but with many changes things are going well. Karen continues to hold the attendance at Genesis at about 40 children. With 9 teachers, it keeps her busy trying to keep things afloat there. She loves it and is doing a great job. We are not planing on going back to Indiana for Christmas since we were just there in Sept. So I plan to do some work at some of the sites that is hard to do when they are open. Marcy and I will also probably do some moto riding.
    For the last week, we have had the privilege of hosting a couple of ladies from Harrison VA - Kelsy and her sister Kate Miller. They are friends of Eric Miller, our Micro-finance site leader. They came to see what he was doing here as well as to help Karen a few days at Genesis. Kelsy has interest in being an Occupational Therapist and  Kate is wanting to become an RN. Kate also followed Rachel Snyder, our staff Physicians Assistant, for a day. So in the end, Eric's friends have now become our friends. Thanks for staying with us and you are welcome back anytime.
    So the photo for this blog is of our guest dog Peso (he is Buddy's son). If you remember we are housing him for a family that has gone home to do more fundraising and will be returning in March. We the other day I came home to find he had gotten a hold of my bible that I use in the mornings for my devotional time on the front deck. I guess he did a better job of me than "digging in and really eating the word". Looks like there is a lesson in everything.  That's about it for the life in the U house for the last couple of weeks.

"Where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal"

     That verse from Matthew 6 was a great reminder last week when we got broke into and had some laptops stolen, probably never to be seen again - by us at least. We had left for our last night at the base for meals at about 5:30 and returned at 8:30. When we walked in, Janae said "Dad, why did you take that window out?" First thing we looked for were the laptops and sure enough that is what they usually take. We had gotten pretty confident in our dogs, but obviously they were smarter than the dogs and got in. Calling the police and filing the paperwork on that was another cultural experience in itself. They were pretty sure it was the cleaning lady that comes for about three hours every week. My biggest objection to that theory was that SHE HAS A KEY!!!! Why would she break in?? Anyway, we are all safe and the came up the next morning and life goes on. The house we are in has a pretty long record of break-ins. Between the last two renters, I think it was been broken in maybe 4-5 times in about 7 years.
    It is almost embarrassing though of how we put our trust in a couple of dogs and not so much in prayer to the Real Security. It was a good reminder though of how God protected us, by us not being there when they came in. It is not uncommon at all here to have people break in to your home at night when you sleep, get your goods, and leave, and you never hear them. Seems almost unreal but it happens and they are really good at it. Later that night Karen made the comment that she is not really even scared but it is just such an inconvenience to not have all that information that was on the laptops.

     Thanks so much to my folks and our Sunday School Class at Sore Mennonite for helping us out financially to replace them. What a huge blessing that was. Then the LIFT team that was here from New York, also wanted to help out somehow, so they took up a collection that covered the Alambre Trinchera (razor wire).  I put that up then this week to at least slow them down the next time. This is again, one more time that I was thankful for my upbrining as I had to think of the way that my dad taught me to handle barb wire with respect. I can assure you that razer wire demands even more respect. The funny thing is that you learn to move     v e r y   s l o w l y. Those of you that know me very well, the words "very slowly" or "mas despacio"  are not generally part of my vocabulary, in any language. Regardless of all that, several Band-Aids and a couple of days later, we now are the proud owners of 9 rolls of razer wire as they line our property.





     Other things that are going on here - Karen continues to work with the local part of the ministry of Education as she is attempting to get Genesis registered with the Country as a recognized school here in the DR. She is very close to that and hopes to be ready by the fall of 2014. She is now done with teams until the second week in January. She still has Elizabeth, a great Bethel College Semester Student. She will be with Karen until the first week in December. She has been a huge help for Karen and a great encourager also. It will be hard for Karen to see her go, just as it was to see Erin, her summer intern, leave this fall. But, again, the sun will come up the next day and life will go on. It is great though to build those new friendships and keep in touch.

     I saw this on one of my trips to Santiago a few weeks ago. This is very common to see here. Usually there is a person or two riding on top but this time there wasn't or there was at one time and they fell off.   

Thanks so much for the continued prayers. They are felt and appreciated much. May God bless each of you, as he has blessed us, especially this last two weeks. Mike for the family.

Why is our family never bothered by mosquitoes?

   So as I watch Facebook posts and news from our home area of Northern Indiana, I see that winter is trying to set in. The temperature has been dropping, it has attempted to snow a couple of times and when we Skype our children or our parents, they have flannel shirts or sweatshirts on. We are also seeing signs of the change of season here but they are different. We see Christmas lights strung up on cone shaped Christmas trees made out of dried vines wrapped in a circle. We are starting to hear Christmas music in a few of the businesses, and we are getting ready to host our last two week team of 2013, arriving here on Tuesday the 29th. Where did the year go?

Making fresh squeezed Orange Juice. 

      I am constantly reminded of how our life here has slowed down from what we had in Indiana, and only by choice. We could have made some of the same choices there but just, for whatever reason, didn't.
      It seems like not a lot has happened since I last blogged but when I look at my October pictures, I see that actually a lot has happened in our lives. I see the day that Marcy and I made fresh squeezed Orange Juice for breakfast. I remember when Karen and the girls watched a movie together one night, or when Karen went to the girls' school to see Marcy give an oral book review of a book that she had authored. Then there was the night that I took all the crew guys from the base along with Eric Miller to go Bowling in Santiago. Now that was a true cultural experience.

Joan helping Carlos (blind) see where the ally is. 

We have made numerous trips to the river and the waterfalls, maybe even a couple of trips to the local ice cream stand. Buddy and I still try to walk every morning about 2 1/4 miles. Karen still enjoys her role at Genesis Special Ed School. I still enjoy overseeing some of the sites and doing some building maintenance as it needs done. Janae has been having more after school activities now that she is in 8th grade. Marcy is really picking up Spanish fast now since our new Dominican neighbors have a girl in her class.
      Speaking of our neighbors, I went to my first bible study at my neighbors last night and it was in Spanish. All went well until they started out by asking what our blood type was. I am thinking, is this a contact sport where I may get hurt, and end up in the hospital?????????? I thought it was a bible study.   I found out that the church wants that info to have on record in case there is an emergency with someone in the church and they need blood. Good idea. Problem is when they asked me what my type was, I told them I didn't know. If looks could kill....... I think the things is, that here they know that stuff like I know my passport number. It is a great idea though. So today I went to the clinic and paid the $2.10 for the blood draw, and the lab work and results and 15 minutes later found out I was B+. Funny thing is, I was concerned that I may not understand some of the Spanish, HA! I understood most of it fine - I just didn't know my blood type. Now I am a little worried about what they will ask next week that I don't know.

Buddy and Peso getting aquainted 

     We are also now officially house sitting for another families dog. Peso, one of Buddy's pups is about 2-1/2 years old now. At first neither was too sure about the arrangement but all seems to be good now. John and Rachel Sawyer work at Carribe Mountain Academy here in town, and they will be moving to the North
coast in February after they spend a few months back in the states fundraising, connecting with family and friends and so on.  I am not sure how many of you have ever been around a St Bernard dog, (Peso is not a St Bernard) but they have a very distinct characteristic about them, besides their size. Peso has somehow picked up that same trait. We now have to be very careful when we go outside as the sidewalk is always wet.

Buying our milk at the local comado.

    Lastly I want to share a story about our health. The milk that they have here for sale is not refrigerated, it is sold in Quart boxes on the shelf and it has a shelf life of about 4 months or so. It is ok, not great, but ok. We had joked about getting a cow when we get here but for many reasons, that has not been an option. However, I did find a colmado about 6 months ago that sold raw milk. It is delivered every morning at about 7:00 and it costs about 1/3 of what the store bought does and it tastes a lot better. We bring it home and cook it to 150 degrees and then put it in the fridge and we are good. Sometimes I get there right when the moped does that the farmer drives that delivers it but usually I don't. On the days that I am there, he has two yellow jugs of his own and dumps them, through a regular screen strainer into the colmado owners containers then he leaves and I buy my milk. Great process. It was only during one of my visits a few weeks ago that I realized that the two yellow jugs he was using to transport, were actually 2- 1/2 gal Pesticide Jugs. NO WONDER WE NEVER GET BITE BY MOSQUITOES!!     Ha! We still get the milk from him and we still are not getting bit. Is there a correlation? I don't know, I am not sure that I even really care.
      Thanks again for all that take the time to read these. My hope is that is gives you a glimpse of what we do, how we live and the impact that God is making on the lives of us and the people in Jarabacoa.

Un viaje a Los Estados

It has been more than my attempted two weeks between posts, for a couple of reasons. We had been back in Indiana for a week and a half but that is kind of a poor excuse. After all, they do have internet in Shipshewana and I could have found time to do it. I mean, I did find time to go to Dairy Queen three different times. Anyway, our trip back was kind of work related I guess. At least the timing of it was for sure work related. Every year at this time, Students International has a banquet in Northern

Dad and Marcy with the picker

Marcy unloading one of the loads of corn. OSHA approved of course

Indiana and I tried to help them get a few tables filled so it was good to be back for that. It was a great time to catch up with the California staff, past SI DR staff, Past SI DR team participants, and of course family, friends, and supporters. I spent the first few days making contact with current and past supporters of some of the ministry sites and current and past supporters of some of the national staff. It was great to meet some of them and to hear their stories of how they were affected by their short term trip there. Part of my job description now is to help the national staff with their fund raising efforts which includes, but is not limited to, "Thanks You's" for those that have helped them. Several of them had written letters of appreciation that I could hand deliver.
      The rest of the trip was spent with family and friends. Breakfasts, lunches, dinners and just visiting. Of course the timing could not have been better for Marcy and me to help out my dad get the fall corn harvest started. That is one of the things (few things) that I miss about being there, is helping him with the harvest each fall. I am not sure how much it really helps him but I sure enjoy being out there hauling and unloading the ear corn. We were even able to get in on a Sunday School class party.
     Another great short DR story to close with. About three weeks before we left, I had to make an airport run and while I was there, I asked about leaving a car there long term, maybe 2 weeks or so. They said no problem and just showed me where to park and said anywhere in that lot was fine. I got the pricing and did the math and it came to a little less than two trips there and back so I thought I would try it once so no one would need to take us there when we left. Upon returning on Tuesday evening, I went to get the car only to find a wheel lock on the front wheel. I looked for a security guy and he said that I had not filled out the right paperwork prior to leaving but it was no big deal (not to him it wasn't) and I could just take care of it when I left at the toll booth. I get to the toll booth to pay the $27 expected price, only to be told that my bill was $175. It was then that I was told that I was supposed to fill out the correct papers BEFORE leaving. I said that no one had told me about that, his reply was that I had not asked (deja vu of the water line at Genesis that they installed but there was no water in the lines in that part of town). As I looked at him dumbfounded ( I am getting real good at that look) I tell Karen and Janae to get every spare Dominican Peso bill they had and pass them forward. HA! another lesson learned in the DR.

The only thing missing in this move is a baby in the jumper (top left). I quickly got around him before something (or somebody) fell off.

Encountering God

     Starting next week we start a new bible study series on the mission of Students International. "Bringing students and the poor together cross-culturally to encounter God, share the Good News, disciple and serve others in occupational ministries". We will be breaking into 6 different weeks, beginning the first week with "Experiencing God". Thinking about that, how have I encountered God in my life? Many ways, would be my answer. I do have to admit though that sometimes when I experience Him, it is not in a happy way. There are times that our experiences are really hard to go through and those are some of the times that we need Him the most. At the same time, when we finally admit that He is the only way that we can get through those times, He is so alive and close to us. I am looking forward to digging into these studies being led by our staff spiritual director, Fernando Gonzales.
   We all continue to be doing good overall. We will be heading back to Indiana next Thursday the 19th for a 12 day visit. At first it was, what will we do for 12 days? Now it is, WOW, there is no way that we are going to get to see everyone we want to in just 12 days. So I will apologize now to those of you that we don't get to. It's not that we don't want to, but......  Janae and Karen have already been working on their "Walmart" list, as I have a Menards list of my own.
     Marcy and Janae are enjoying their school a lot. Doulos is a great fit for both of them. Marcy is a lot like her day. SHE LOVES SCHOOL!!!!!!! She just struggles with the classes. Recess, lunch, and gym all went great. She is doing OK though. One thing Marcy is looking forward to when we go back is, going to "the talk doctor." Dr Gerald Wengard in Goshen was one of her favorite places to go and so we will make a couple of trips to see him while we are back.
       We enjoyed having Bev Hooley and Kris Bontrager here with us for a week as they helped with the base garage sale. If you see either one of them you need to ask them about it. Quite an experience it was. The things on the garage sale were mostly from teams that had been here in the last year and left clothes back for us. We then have a Pulga (garage sale) with the funds going towards our fall beach trip each year with the staff. It is fun, but yet it is a bit different here as a garage sale in the DR is a contact sport. We contemplated having an ambulance on standby, but opted not too. We actually did have a pair of hand cuffs this year at the sale. I am still unclear if they got sold, or got used during one of the scuffles.
     Not sure when my next post will be but most likely, not until after we get back on Oct 2nd. Thanks for all the prayers and support that you send our way. It is just one more huge way that we "Encounter God" here in the DR. Mike for the family.
       

The U's visit the U's

     How cool is that to have your two sons and daughter-in-law come to visit? WAY COOL. That's how cool. So Greg, Fred and Lauren were here for a little over a week and we had a great time (as we always do when family visits). We started off by climbing Magote on Sunday morning and then several waterfalls including Agua Blancas, an hour and a half away. We visited La Presa (local dam) and still got a lot of work out of them at a couple sites and at the base. As we were coming home from the beach on Friday afternoon/evening, Fred asks me how hard it is to find the drive to Magote in the dark. I

Greg, Marcy, Fred, Lauren, Janae at Salta Baiguate.

was reading his mind and said well we need to leave for the airport by 11:00 tomorrow so we would have to leave the house by 5:30 am to have time to climb it and back home again. Greg pipes in with "ARE YOU NUTS? I am not climbing that thing again!!" So at 5:25am Fred, Marcy and I headed out for one more trip up the mountain. It was a great time and a great view, again. Thanks to all three of you for taking your vacation time to spend with us. It meant a lot to all 5 of us.
    We now look forward to a couple of women from our home area, Kris Bontrager and Bev Hooley, that will arrive on this coming Saturday to help out SI with the annual Pulga. We look forward to having Kris back again. She and her husband Fritz spent a week with us in February and it will be a treat to show Bev the North end of the island as she was on one of the trips that our church made to the South side a couple of years ago.

Janae and Marcy's first day of school

       Things are going well here. Marcy and Janae started school on Monday of this week at Doulos and they both like it a lot. Most of the SI staff send their children there this year so it is great to see the SI family dropping off and picking up kids along with us. Karen has been getting Genesis ready for the teachers to come back tomorrow and then the Genesis kids return a week from tomorrow. I have been doing what I do with site maintenance except without Marcy. This last week I had Greg and Fred help me out but now I will be on my own for a while. God continues to bless us here and we feel the support from so many of you. Thank you for that.
   This morning at the English church at CMA, Scott preached from Genesis 3 and how we live in a fallen world. Things will go wrong because of sin in the world and not always because of something we did to deserve it. He used the term "it's just not fair" often during his sermon. But yet the one thing that just hit me head on was in verse 9 when Adam and Eve had just eaten the forbidden fruit and God asks "Adam, where are you?" I had to think maybe the last while God is asking "Mike, Where are you?" Not necessarily because I am intentionally hiding from Him, but yet do I come to Him on a regular basis? Then at the afternoon service the sermon was based on Genesis 3. So I had one more opportunity to have God speaking to me saying "Mike, where are you?". When ever I get a double reminder like that so close together, I always feel sorry for the other 200+ people that had to sit and listen to a sermon that was obviously intended to for me. I just challenge all of you, is God asking you "Where are you?"  Think about that.
            Mike, for the family

   

On the move again

Having some work done at our previous house.

In the first 48 years of my life I had lived in 4 houses in two different states. Now in the last two years I have lived in 5 different houses in 3 different countries. My how things have changed and how God is alive and well in all of it. Yes we did move again. This time only about 300 yards around the corner from where we were. We moved kind of out of necessity since the owner of our previous house put it up for sale and we were not actually perspective buyers. The house we moved into has been in the SI family for many years. It is again a much larger house (which Karen likes), like our first one here but unlike that one or the last one, it is cheaper in rent (which I like) than either of the other two. One thing that we were not looking forward to is that this house has a history of getting broken into. So far we have been fortunate and have 7 nights here and no break ins. They often break in the first night after you move as they see you carry things in and they know what is available. Usually they are after electronics. I am guessing that our security system that we brought with us (Buddy, the African Bull Mastiff) may also have something to do with us being in the clear so far.

Taping right into our old breaker box for enough amperage.

Handy with the meter so close to the work site!!!!!!!!

      One thing that I did want to do when we got here was to work on the lock on the front gate. It needed a little bit of welding done and some re-enforcement. Not a huge deal except that here, you can't just plug a welder into an outlet and use it. First off, the house was most likely wired with #14 wire and the complete house would be on one 20 amp breaker except for the fridge, washer and well pump.  We needed to do a little work at our last house and I got a big kick out of the way the workers hooked up the welder, going right into the breaker box and using the main leads off the street. Well, here at the new place the main breaker box was too far from the place I was working so I found it handy that the meter was only a few feet from where I needed the power. As I am welding away I had to laugh to myself as I thought of how shocked I was to see them go right into the box for electric and here I am getting it right off the meter. Midway through the job I was shockingly reminded that maybe I could have waited until it at least stopped raining................ Anyway, that job got done and the lock works great.

This is what you call getting the electric right from the source.

      Marcy and Janae start school on Monday (or maybe Tuesday) Monday is actually a holiday and so they told me yesterday that they are not sure yet exactly when the first day is but they will know by "this weekend" (which is good since Monday would be the first day after "this weekend"). Karen had been utilizing Janae to the utmost this week as she gets ready for the next semester at Genesis. I have also been taking advantage of Marcy's help since I will not be having her along anymore either after this week.
      We also are now looking forward to having our two sons Greg and Fred, join us along with Fred's wife Lauren on Saturday afternoon. They will be here for 1 week. We always look forward to visitors but especially when it is family. God is good, All the time.

You sold our hot water heater????

    As I mentioned in a previous blog, we will be moving again in a couple of weeks. There are several reasons for this decision but foremost is the fact that our landlord told us that she is putting the house up for sale. Soon after that notice we were told that an SI family would be moving back to the states and their house was up for rent 1 block away from our current house. It is a little bigger and (my biggest draw) it would be less money per month. Don't mind that they had been broken into an average of maybe once every 2-3 months, it was a no-brainer for us as a family. Here in the DR when you rent a home, it will normally not come standard with common household items like ceiling fans, light bulbs, a hot-water heater, battery inverter system (even though almost every rentable house in town has an inverter) so those items belong to the rentee. I listed the items that we would no longer be needing as for sale and all is/(was) good.
    During the last outreach Brian, our director, had informed me that one of the hot-water heaters had caught fire and needed looked at so as my job of maintenance, I go to find out that sure enough - the wasps had built a nest in it and had plugged the flame to where it blew a gas line and literally "blew up". With no parts available and a team here, Brian told me to replace it with a new one and then made the mistake of mentioning "Hey, didn't I see that you had one for sale?"

Previous location of the hot water heater.

    Back track to several weeks ago. With the temperature rising, the other members of my family here (all female species) would come home in the afternoon and say, Boy I am looking forward to a cold shower tonight". So, remembering those comments, I told Brian, "Sure, I will go home and get it." All went well until that evening at precisely 4:45 when Janae comes out of the shower saying "Dad, there isn't any hot water." I then tell her well no, there isn't, because I sold it. "YOU SOLD OUR HOT WATER HEATER????????"  It is only at that point that I am told they didn't really take cold showers, they just said that it would feel good. Too late now, no hot showers until we move the first week in August. I do have to say though that after a full two weeks of it, we have kind of gotten used to it (well at least I have).
      So it is cold showers for another week and a half. But remember that it gets to the mid 90's each day and only down to mid 70's in the evening so it really is not that bad, and God always provides. He has provided us with a different house with  a hot water heater.
    Just another day at the U house in the DR.
     

Visit from the Cross Family

     It all started close to 20 years ago now, when I worked at HMI, Honeyville Machinery Inc. I

On one of our many excursions to the waterfalls.

was repairing woodworking equipment and Joe Cross was the salesman for the company. Then as the company was being sold, Joe went to work for Honeyville Metal in the sales field and Karen and I bought Kurtz Custom Canvas. 10 years later when we opted to sell the Canvas Shop, Joe approached me about coming on board with Honeyville Metal to help him in sales with the Dust Collection portion of the company. That begin a 5 year working relationship with Joe that went deeper than your normal working friendship. Spending a lot of time together on the road working trade shows and sales calls gave us time to share about our kids, wives, churches, younger years, and older years ahead of us. We had many things in common and formed a tight friendship. Upon making the decision to go into full time missions in the DR. Joe was one of the first people that I told of our decision. He supported us fully and we continue to keep in contact through emails and occasional phone calls. It was a real treat for our family to have Joe and Alpha join us for 6 days last week and we had a great time showing them what we do, where we shop, what we do for fun (waterfalls). Even though the trip ended up with several getting sick,

Joe and Marcy taking a break on one of our hikes

we still consider it a great time. Of all the places we took them (even to a woodworking shop to look at their dust collector system), I have to say that the time spent on the front porch just visiting and catching up was the highlight of their trip for me at least. THANKS JOE AND ALPHA for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come, visit, and support us in what we do here. It meant a lot to us.

Beginning the living-room addition for Samuel and Maribel

     We continue to do well here. Karen keeps getting more applications for new children at Genesis, Marcy and I keep getting new calls for things that need fixed and Janae and Nina, well, they just keep doing the laundry and dishes. We have one more Outreach coming for 1 week next week and that will complete our summer teams. I will be running the construction site again with 2 young men, a 16 and a 17 year old. We will be working on the house of one of the teachers (Maribel) at Genesis. We started to do an addition onto their 2 bedroom, one bath, and kitchen. Hopefully by week end we will be able to put a roof over all of it.

Dominoes is a huge sport here. (even in the street at times)

    One area that you can be praying for the SI DR family is that we are beginning to look at exploring new possibilities to minister to the Dominicans. That can look many different ways and we want to be patient on God and follow His lead and not jump into something and then say "Here we go God, are you coming with us, or not?". Pray for guidance as we look into different options.
    

Keeping the Main Thing, the main thing

Brittany

   In January of 2012, we went to California to the SI main office for orientation before coming to the field.  We were given boatloads of information to remember and I have to admit the I have most likely forgotten some of it. However, probably the most important thing they told us, over and over was that once we arrive at our locations. we need to keep the Main Thing, the main thing. Meaning keep God in the forefront and all else will fall into place in His timing. Don't get bogged down with the sites that we are at, with the many things we need to get done in a day,  all the people that we will affect while they are here but rather keep Him as the main thing.
       Keeping that in mind, as we reach our mid-point through the summer teams here, it is easy to get tired, worn down and out of energy. Even more than that, just loosing focus of why we are even here. We are told that each team deserves our best, our most, our all. We truly enjoy having the teams here and hearing their stories of how they got where they are in life. They all bring us a renewed source of energy and encouragement (and donations), yet in it all we would not be honest if we said we are not tired. With that, I need to think of all the people that in my life have gave their all to me even when they were tired. My parents, my siblings, my Sunday School teachers, my own children, the teams that I was with on the many trips to the south end of the Dominican before we moved. And what about God, does He ever get tired? Discouraged? Ready to give up on me? I don't know but I do know that He never does give up on me! Keep the Main Thing, the main thing.

     So with that, our update: We have all doing good even in the busyness of the summer. Karen is still getting more students at Genesis. They now have two babies (8-9 months old) with Downs Syndrome. They added several new staff, some paid, some volunteer. She has an intern named Erin that has been a huge blessing to Karen and overall she continues to love her position there. With the addition of Chuky and Checky (the special needs goats), they are now considered a petting zoo (if you can get close enough to pet them anyway).
      I had a team of 4 men the last two weeks in June for the construction site. We worked a couple of days on a deck for the guest house. When our group was here from Shore in April, they would all sit on the sidewalk outside of their rooms and the guesthouse host's felt sorry for them so they ask me to put a deck so that the interns and other guests would have a place to sit and relax. It has already been used a lot and seems to be functioning quite well.

Mostly finished new deck

    Then the second week of the outreach we worked at the house of one of the teachers at Genesis, Maribel and Samuel. We added two rooms, a bathroom and a front porch to their house. Thanks to our home church for the funds for purchasing some of the materials for this project. The other project that our church helped fund was the new home for Paulina. We were able to build her a new house, put an inside bathroom in, buy a new cook-top stove and a new bed with drawers under it. She was so excited to move in last Monday. Thanks Shore for helping to fund those projects. The house for Maribel and Samuel continues to be worked on as they have time and funds. I will keep updates on that as progress continues.

OLD DECK!!!!!!!

Paulina's house before.

 

Paulina's house after.

Marcy and Paulina enfenta her new house.

     
 

The Rowe ('S) in the DR

Set of Car Hood Skins used as front gates for a drive to a house.

        So our daughter Rachel joined us on June 4^th for about 4 weeks. Her husband Elliot Rowe will

Rachel, on one of our many excursions.

be getting here (hence the title of the blog) on this coming Wednesday night, the 19^th for a week and then they both fly home on the 27^th. While Rachel has been here, she has spent a lot of time at Genesis with Karen just observing the classrooms and teachers. Then tomorrow (Monday the 17^th) there will not be classes and Rachel well be helping with some teacher training. She has a degree in Special Education and also a major in Spanish. Karen is looking forward to being part of that training and the two of them doing that together will be great I am sure. Many of the students at Genesis are the same ones that were here when Rachel worked here at Genesis in the fall of 2010. Most of the teachers are also the same. 

     

           We have also been spending a lot of time “exploring” on the motos. That has been a great time for me to be with her. Both Saturdays we took extended trips to parts of the island that she had never been to before (of course, they are places almost not accessible by car) so that was neat to do that with her. She has

also really enjoyed being able to worship at the

Spanish church again after several years of not having that. It has been great to have her here with us

as we look forward to Elliot coming in a couple of days. We enjoyed having all of “the Bigs” visit us now in the last 12 months. We are able to show them how God has used us here and all that happens here in the DR. 

       

       Next week I have a team coming from the states to work construction so I have two jobs lined up for them. One will be putting a deck on the guest house at the base and then after that we will be moving to work on the house of Maribel, the assistant director at Genesis with Karen. They have been living in a two room house for many years now. They added a kitchen that you need to go outside to access and they would like a living room that will then also put the kitchen under the same roof as the rest of the house. Our sending church in Indiana had a fund raiser several weeks ago for us and we choose (with their blessing) to use some of the funds in this way. We will not complete that job I am sure, but it will be a big boost for Samuel and Maribel.

View of one of the streets in the capitol that we cross over.

     

        One other big news item at Genesis for Karen is that we were able to hire a new teacher/helper as the number of children has increased since the school moved to its new location. The coolest thing about hiring the new teacher is that it was funded by a monthly gift from a family in our home community. Part of the way that SI DR works is that at the 15 different sites, each site director is responsible for raising funds for that particular site. Such as, paying the teachers, food for the lunches, electricity, internet, gas, rent………. Some of the sites the monthly cost is much less but the Special Education site is by far the most expensive site to operate with the large staff on payroll. Almost all of that money is sent in monthly from people that have spent time at the site, or had children at the site, or had some sort of tie to the Special Education site. It was such a God thing that the first family that I had contacted agreed to cover the extra teachers payroll for the next couple of years.  WOW! They know who they are and THANKS SO MUCH for that. That is just one example of the blessing that we receive and see here that I keep referring too in this blog. God is so evident here and we are SO blessed to be a part of His work here in Jarabacoa.