Merry Christmas everybody. . .we love you so much! We are going to be in the States for two more weeks, I hope we will get a chance to see you if we haven't already. Oh yeah, did you enjoy the video? As Tiny Tim says. . ."God Bless us, everyone!"
Monday, December 25, 2006
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas everybody. . .we love you so much! We are going to be in the States for two more weeks, I hope we will get a chance to see you if we haven't already. Oh yeah, did you enjoy the video? As Tiny Tim says. . ."God Bless us, everyone!"
Monday, December 18, 2006
Saturday, December 02, 2006
When I am weak. . .
“We will often feel weak in our Christian life, though we live by faith and have been given the Spirit, because in fact we are weak. But the Spirit manifests God’s power in the midst of our weakness.”
Donald McCullough – Waking From The American Dream
Dehydration, heat exhaustion, Dengue Fever, migraine headaches, CMV, and 5 days in a Dominican hospital. . .our weakness has never been more evident. It would be easy to focus on our many weaknesses looking back on our first 3 months here in the D.R. However, in this time of such great weakness, I have realized that God’s strength has never been more evident in our lives than it is right now. His grace has captivated us, His love has embraced us, His power has sustained us, and His faithfulness has not failed us. We have not suffered. . .we have only been made stronger.
Donald McCullough – Waking From The American Dream
Dehydration, heat exhaustion, Dengue Fever, migraine headaches, CMV, and 5 days in a Dominican hospital. . .our weakness has never been more evident. It would be easy to focus on our many weaknesses looking back on our first 3 months here in the D.R. However, in this time of such great weakness, I have realized that God’s strength has never been more evident in our lives than it is right now. His grace has captivated us, His love has embraced us, His power has sustained us, and His faithfulness has not failed us. We have not suffered. . .we have only been made stronger.
Memory Verses
The social structure in this country has a contrast that is drastic and sometimes very hard to grasp. The outskirts of La Vega (our city) are riddled with poverty, and many areas are left without electricity and running water. If you have kept yourself updated via our blog, you know that these are the areas that Sandy and I have been the most passionate about since our arrival here in the D.R. We arrived on a Friday (Sept. 1st) and that Sunday (Sept. 3rd) we had an opportunity to visit one of these communities nicknamed The Rails. Sandy and I have spent much of our time these first three months visiting this community (and one other just like it nicknamed Arinoso) and the children have captured our hearts.
The needs are great in these communities and Sandy and I have struggled with how to go about making a difference. Well, I am excited to announce that we have brainstormed an exciting plan of action. Up to this point we have just been visiting the children and trying to get to know them, their families, and trying to become a familiar face. Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer that relationships are the perfect building blocks for any foundation of ministry, but we are desperate to do more for these kids. Many of them are wearing the same clothes every time we see them. Their living situations are horrible and we want to help. I hope you will be as excited as we are to see this plan start to come together.
We are going to bring home two empty suitcases this Christmas and fill them with things like: underwear, socks, shoes, clothes, notebooks, pencils, crayons, markers, folders, etc. Oh, and don’t forget candy. The idea is to start meeting some of the basic needs of the children. Here is how we’re going to get started. We have a list of about 35 memory verses that we are going to start challenging the kids with each week. Each child will have the opportunity to learn a simple, yet impacting verse from scripture every week. Each week we will give reward bucks for learning the memory verse. Finally, every few weeks, we will have a time when the kids can use their bucks to purchase things from our stash (remember the suitcases we want to fill up?). We are hoping that two suitcases full of stuff will only be the beginning. I hope that you will pray for us as we set this plan in motion.
The needs are great in these communities and Sandy and I have struggled with how to go about making a difference. Well, I am excited to announce that we have brainstormed an exciting plan of action. Up to this point we have just been visiting the children and trying to get to know them, their families, and trying to become a familiar face. Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer that relationships are the perfect building blocks for any foundation of ministry, but we are desperate to do more for these kids. Many of them are wearing the same clothes every time we see them. Their living situations are horrible and we want to help. I hope you will be as excited as we are to see this plan start to come together.
We are going to bring home two empty suitcases this Christmas and fill them with things like: underwear, socks, shoes, clothes, notebooks, pencils, crayons, markers, folders, etc. Oh, and don’t forget candy. The idea is to start meeting some of the basic needs of the children. Here is how we’re going to get started. We have a list of about 35 memory verses that we are going to start challenging the kids with each week. Each child will have the opportunity to learn a simple, yet impacting verse from scripture every week. Each week we will give reward bucks for learning the memory verse. Finally, every few weeks, we will have a time when the kids can use their bucks to purchase things from our stash (remember the suitcases we want to fill up?). We are hoping that two suitcases full of stuff will only be the beginning. I hope that you will pray for us as we set this plan in motion.
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