Cell Group Christmas Dinner

As part of the local church that I belong to, I attend a weekly cell group. Every year they have a big Christmas party and this year I opened up my house for the party since we combined 2 groups for the party.

Important changes!! Please make note...

We here at Students International Dominican Republic have decided to change missionary mail carriers. We now use Agape flights. Please take note of the following address for all letters and packages;

Katie Lombard
c/o Agape Flights STI #25923
100 Airport Ave.
Venice, FL 34285

SUPPORT CHECKS SHOULD STILL BE SENT TO THE SAME ADDRESS IN VISALIA!

Can't wait to get a letter from you!!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in another Dominican wedding for my friends Chulo and Rossy. You may remember me writing about Rossy before (living with her boyfriend, lost a pregnancy a while back). Well several months ago they both made a life change and came back to the Lord and decided that they wanted to get officially married.

They asked me to be the Madrina (god-mother) of the wedding. In the Dominican tradition there is always a Madrina and Padrino who take part in the wedding and help the couple with the cost of the wedding.

In the DR, a Christian pastor does not have legal authority to marry, so the couple has to have a civil ceremony performed by a judge in addition to the church ceremony. One of the other jobs of the madrina is signing the marriage certificate. Here I am signing the certificate during the civil ceremony.

Here we are at the wedding: Padrino #1, me, Chulo, Rossy, Padrino #2

Oh, and I caught the boquet ;-)

December birthday

We celebrated Francis' birthday at the beginning of December. He turned 5 this year.

Volleyball

When I first moved to the DR, I was afraid that my love for volleyball would not be satiated here. However, I have actually had many opportunities to continue playing. THere are alot of people who like volleyball and I have gotten to know quite a few people who play at a competitive level. Starting in the summer, Jessica (SI missionary who runs a girls sports site) and I started practicing with a team in La Vega (about 30 mins away) in our spare time. It has been so fun to play with really competitive girls, and the level of play is almost like it was back in college. Here is a picture from one of our tournaments, we were hoping to qualify for the national tournament, but we lost in the finals. I'm up in the front by the net, second from the right.
I am so thankful to God that He has allowed volleyball to stay a part of my life, even as a missionary. Jessica and I hope that we can continue to play with this team and get to know the girls and coach better.

(late) November birthdays

We actually celebrated the birthdays on time, but I am just late in posting this blog.

Here are Isaias and Kyarolin, who both turned 4 this year.

Family Dinner

Whenever we have American groups come down for a work week, we always take them into the community one night to have dinner with one of the families. This is a great cultural experience and always one of the highlights of their trip. The last time that we had a group, our Dominican host, Katty, was curious about typical American food. So I decided to invite some of my friends from Mata Gorda to my house one evening for an American meal.

Here is Katty, Meri, Alberto, Enmanuel, Maira, Johanny, and Raffa in my living room.

The meal: Pork tenderloin, ravioli with pesto sauce, sauteed green beans, garlic bread, iced tea. They loved it!

Enmanuel especially enjoyed nibbling at the garlic bread and since that night mentions almost everyday at school about how he got to come to my house.

Cristian and I eating Molten Chocolate Baby Cakes for dessert. MMMMMM....

It was such a special night having these special friends at my house and cooking for them, which is something that I love to do.