Summer coming to a close (at least here)

      Our last team for the summer is here now and will be leaving on Sunday, August 3rd. It has been another busy time but yet we have had a lot of opportunities to make new friends and build relationships. We also have had the privilege of working with 12 interns this summer and they also will be taking off in less than a week. Hard to believe as it seems like not too long ago I was in the Santo Domingo airport picking up three of them, and now a week from today I take those same three back to fly to their home in the US. Part of the way I spend my day here is working with the two people that take care of teams and the interns. It has really been a special privilege to me to get to know the interns on a closer basis than before. They are a great bunch of young adults that have a positive attitude and will for sure make their mark on the world. It will be hard to see them go for sure.

Marcy reading to Nina.

     Karen is also finishing up this week too at Genesis (the special education site). They currently have 33 kids registered along with 10 staff including Karen. With two of the teachers leaving this fall to take jobs in the public school system, it will look different when they start up again in September.

Janae Helping Marcy with some harder words

  Nina is now one of the older students at Genesis. She loves going to school there and is picking up on Spanish little by little, she loves eating with the team members and interns at meal time at the base. She will turn 19 this December.

Mike and Janae on their date night. 

        Janae returned from her two weeks in the states. She spent one week in Indiana visiting friends and family, then went to Georgia to work as a counselor at WellSpring Camp (a camp for special needs children). She then spent the past two weeks helping Karen at Genesis. She will start at Doulos again on August 11th. Tonight Janae and I had a date night at a restaurant in La Vega. It was fun to just sit and spend time catching up with her. It is easy to get busy and not take time for those moments.
     Marcy will begin tutoring with the wife of a new SI staff member coming on next week. Megan Adams will be working with her for 2-3 hours each day and then she will be going to Doulos again for a couple of hours of Bible, Spanish, Art, Music, and PE. Her curriculum books came in last week and she is already 3/4 of the way through her first reading book, "Henry Reed Inc." We have seen real growth in her this summer - both physically and emotional. Pray for her as she enters the school year in a few weeks as it will be a different learning style than she has had in the past.