New Blankets!

A group that came down last year sent down a donation of new nap blankets for the school. We are all so thankful for these beautiful, soft, new blankets.

January and February Birthdays

This week we celebrated January and February birthdays. Shown in the picture are Jose Agustin, who turned 5 in January, and Camilo who turned 6 this month.

Happy Birthday!!

:-)

We're engaged! Date is set for April 30, 2011.

Please pray for Cristian and I as we embark on this adventure. Pray for God's leading and presence as we plan the wedding, that it would be enjoyable and free of stress. Pray also as we begin looking for a place to live that we could find something adequate and affordable, or as the Dominicans say, something with the 3 Bs: bueno, bonito, barrato (good, pretty, cheap). :-)

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.