Great time in Miami

Luncheon with the staff at Nutri-Medics

Eating with Dick and Mary Ellen in Orlando FL.

    The middle of November I had the opportunity to go to Miami for a few days to visit an SI donor and also a former staff family. I started my visit there with a luncheon at Nutri-Medics in Jupiter, Florida. They have a staff of about 30 or so and had invited me to come and talk about SI to their staff during lunch on Friday. A couple of the staff there had actually been to the Jarabacoa, DR location a few years ago and so it was good to hear their stories as well as to share a few of my own. Tim Eaton and his team there were great hosts and if there are two things I love to do it is "talk" and "talk about SI". Nutri-Medics has been involved in SI for a number of years now and are great partners with us here in Jarabacoa especially.
     Then on Saturday I had the opportunity to visit Dick and Mary Ellen Meyer that had been the Hospitality Hosts for a number of years here in Jarabacoa. Actually they had been the hosts ever since Lowell and Cheryl Troyer moved to Nicaragua back in the fall of 2011. I had a good visit with them (and Kip, their dog). They left the field about 3 months earlier than they had wanted due to health problems with Dick's heart. He is doing much better there after a couple of surgeries and they anticipate another one yet in April, I am sure they would appreciate your prayers.
   

The food table

Janae showing off some of the desserts

On Saturday on this weekend, we sent off our last team of 2015. While they were here, we had a great Thanksgiving meal with the team and our staff on Thursday evening. Of course that is not a traditional Dominican Holiday so most of the food items are hard to locate here also. We will now have until the first week in January to get ready for our next Work team in Santiago. As we look forward to Christmas and some time off, we will also be having our annual Christmas dinner at our home for the staff at Genesis where Karen works. That will be this Wednesday night. So as usual, we have a lot going on just like all of you this time of year. Thanks for the prayers and support you send our way. They are much appreciated. 

No news is New news

      Well, I went to write an update a couple weeks ago and I just didn't have much new to write about. So I waited until now and............. I still don't. Seems like the longer we are here the more our life's happenings dont really stand out anymore to us. Many things are now becoming normal and hardly worth mentioning in the blog. But, as God is working in our lives constantly, how can I call our days boring? So, like my last post, I still continue to go to Santiago each day and work there on the new base. I've been doing many different things like knocking out a part of a wall to put in a new

Janae putting the final touches on the pool

exterior door, or pressure spraying and then painting a pool (with the help of our daughter Janae), or building an outside dishwashing station for the teams that will be coming down, or teaching a Dominican man who lives on the property how to run and operate a push lawn mower. So many times in our time here especially I am reminded of how many things I was taught by my parents (probably mainly my dad) that I now realize so many others were not taught the same skills, and/or values. Often I take things for granted that I was taught at home and just assume that everyone was taught the same things. The deeper I get into life, the more I realize that that was not the case. Some may call it "Farm Sense", but I think it is more than that. I am sure it was intentionally taught and most likely maybe I was not the best student at times. As I am now again in the role of Drivers Training Instructor for Janae, she has been learning on my small truck here, better known as "The Tonka" It is a 5 speed with a whopping 43HP/ 3 CYL motor. I get questions like "Why do  I have to learn to drive a stick?" "Well, you never know..........." Is about all I can come up with :)

Marcy helping clean fish at a comador at the beach

      Oh, another highlight of my life at this time is that we are in the middle of a remodel of our home here in Jarabacoa, Well, it is kind of a remodel of sorts I guess.  We had water coming through the ceiling (cement) in our dining room (again in less than 2 years) and so it seems like the galvanized water lines going to our guest bathroom upstairs decided that they had lived a long and rusty life and gave way. So the great thing about that is that since it is an all concrete construction, they put a layer of sand between the ceiling and top floor (about 6") in which to put the pipes, that way when they do give way, they are easier to replace. Well, kind of. Actually what happens is the sand starts to absorb the water from the leak it has about a 12'x15' area in which to "absorb" so in reality, you have no clue where the actual leak is even at. The water just finds the easiest way through the ceiling which may be close to the actual leak or 8-10 feet or more away from it. So the fun begins of breaking out the ceramic tile and concrete floor at random trying to find the pipe. Good news is, the guy doing the work found it on the 6th try so it was fairly fast. With today being a national holiday, he will return tomorrow and try to finish up yet this week.
     Well, keep praying for us as it seems like several of us in the U house here are going through some trying times the last number of weeks. There is a country song called "I'll hold on" and I think of that often as we just keep holding on the the promise that we have that ".... and we know that all things work together for good of them that love God......" Not that it will be for what we consider good at the time, rather for the good of God, and that is what matters more. So we keep holding on to that promise.

Scenery on the way to work one morning.

Using a perfectly good wheel borrow for a trash can.