Christmas Party

This past wednesday we had a Christmas party for the kids in Mata Gorda. In true Dominican style, nothing went as planned. :-) The projector that we were going to use got loaned out to someone else, so we had to find another one at the last minute. THanks so much YWAM!!! Then the movie that we were going to show (the Nativity Story) ended up not having Spanish audio so we decided to show The Jesus Film for kids instead, since it was in Spanish. Then I was trying to make stovetop popcorn at the school but the stove was so slow in heating up that I stood there for like 30 minutes without a single kernel popping. Needless to say I was feeling a little stressed and frustrated, but God took care of all the details and everything ended up working great/ ANd nobody really seemed to mind that we were running late because events here typically don't start until at least an hour after the announced time. THe movie was a huge success and the popcorn was ready just in time Once the actual movie started the little school was packed. Many community members showed up for the movie which was wonderful. After the movie everyone was treated to some home-made treats. The party continued with each child receiving a bag full of gifts. The gifts included stuffed animals, toy cars, purses, playdough, puzzles, pencils, candy and a new toothbrush and tube of toothpaste. The kids were so excited to receive these gifts as many of them would otherwise not get any gifts for Christmas.
The party was so much fun and it make me so happy to see the joy on the kids' faces when they received their gifts. Praise God for the joy He brings us during this season. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to share this joy and His love with the children of Mata Gorda.

A very sad event

This past week we experienced an unfortunate event in the community of Mata Gorda. A women who lives near the school was shot and killed by her abusive husband. She is survived by 3 small children all under the age of 10. On the day of the murder the children came to the school crying after witnessing their grandmother collapse upon hearing the news. It was kind of surreal having the kids with me all day, because I could tell that they were upset, but they didn't quite understand what was happening. It simply broke my heart looking at these kids and knowing that they would grow up the rest of their lives without their mother. Fortunately, the community of Mata Gorda has rallied around the kids and are all pitching in taking care of them. One family is even talking about adopting the daughter, which would be wonderful as they are a strong Christian family.

Please pray for Mata Gorda during this hard time as many are still suffering the after-affects of this tragedy. Especially pray for the children who are now without parents. Pray that they would grow up being loved more than they could ever know and that they would learn to know and love God, their heavenly Father, who is always with them no matter what tragedy strikes.

Semester Student

Here in the DR Students International has a partnership with Bethel College in Indiana. Every fall they send a group of mission minded students down to study spanish, take cross-cultural missions classes and work in our ministry sites. I had the pleasure of having one of those students helping out in my classroom for the last 2 months. Meet Caitlin.
It was such a pleasure having her in my class. She was a big help and such a sweet girl to get to know. She just left this past week to head back home and it was very sad to see her go.

I have 8 grandchildren... make that 'grandpuppies'

Yep, that's right. Feíz had her puppies.

FELÍZ!!!!

As many of you may remember, back in January I got a cute little lab/dalmation/great dane mix puppy. She was the sweetest dog ever and I loved playing with her and going running with her. Sadly, at the beginning of the summer she disappeared. I'm still not sure if she ran away or was stolen but it was very sad for me as I had grown very attached to her. Well, the summer went on, me still missing Felíz and then I moved into a new house in the middle of August. This new house has a nice yard and I was planning on looking around to try to get another puppy. Then, one morning, Felíz miraculously finds her way back home!! I was so happy I almost started crying. It is such a mystery, I have no idea where she was; she was gone for 4 months!! It has been so nice having her back, she is still the sweet, gentle dog that she was as a puppy.


Well, to make the story even more exciting, about 2 weeks ago I started noticing that she was looking a little plump. Not just like I had been feeding her too much, but seriously large. Yep, you guessed it: she's pregnant! So, my thinking is she much have gotten pregnant before she came back to me. Nice that she came back home to have the puppies.... Now she is huge and I think she will have them any day now. Oh joy....

Bomberos

Water is always an issue here in the DR. It is kind of strange, actually, since it rains so much here, but more often than not there is no water flowing through the pipes here in the campo (countryside) of Mata Gorda.

This past week our cistern had completely run dry and there was no water coming from the street to fill it up. This meant not only the school but the entire community was out of water. THere were still dirty dishes from lunch from the day before and the classrooms hadn't been mopped in 2 days, so we decided that it was time to take some action. We called the firefighters in town and had them bring out a truck full of water to fill the cistern.
The kids went crazy seeing the firetruck and had lots of fun watching the fireman fill up the cistern with the huge hose.



Francys even got to sit up in the front of the truck!!

Thank the Lord that we have water again!!

Video Post

I put together this video to send to churches and supporters. These clips were taken this first week of school of my new class of 3 and 4 year olds. Enjoy!!