The Oxendales

2009-06-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

We've been busy, busy, busy. The team has been painting every day and I figured we only needed so many pictures of them painting right? Saturday morning we left Jarabacoa early and headed to the beach resort for one night. Everyone enjoyed themselves, although I don't know how much resting they did. We returned late Sunday night after a quick stop in Santiago for a little American food (McDonalds) to keep them going. They started painting again Monday, and many were feeling tired, they were really dragging. Today was a much better day, they were able to get a little more rest and were ready to go for the "summer camp" at El Arca this afternoon. Here's just a few pictures from today's camp. As the team is in their second week, pray for strength. They are doing great, we enjoy having them....thanks for sharing them with us for these two weeks.

2009-06-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the paint crew. Tuesday and Wednesday have been painting days in the morning. For any of you who are familiar with our Anija school campus, that is where the team is working, and its a BIG place with lots of walls that needed re-painting. Yesterdays Barrio Bible Clubs went great, and everyone came back from the clubs very excited and eager to return this afternoon. Chris and I have enjoyed spending some time with the whole team, it's been fun for us too!

2009-06-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

I'm a couple days behind...things are a little nuts here right now :) So here is a picture of the group from Sunday morning before we headed off to church. Monday the team worked all day at the construction site, and boy did they work! There was a lot of paint that ended up where it wasn't supposed to be, mainly body parts, so they were having a lot of fun as well. Today they are back at the construction site, more painting was waiting for them this morning. This afternoon they will start the first day of barrio bible clubs. I'll try and get some more pictures today so you can see their smiling faces.

2009-06-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

Although they were tired, the team was pretty hungry too! We walked to our local pizza place and they filled their bellies up. It was fun to sit and catch up with some of the teens that we know, and get to know the ones we have never met. Sunday morning we will be attending a worship service at a Dominican church, and then take a waterfall hike in the afternoon. This is our day of rest, Monday the real work begins.

2009-06-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hey all you Calvary families, your team made it just fine. I don't have any pictures yet, but I will try and get some at dinner tonight and post them for you. They had no problems at the airports and everything went very smoothly. They are excited to be here albeit tired!~Josie

2009-06-17T07:14:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from Wednesday morning as the team was getting ready to start camp at The Ark. They are doing a great job, and it is such a blessing to have them here.

2009-06-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

FEBC arrived safely Saturday afternoon, very exhausted but happy to be here. They started their work on Monday at the Anija campus painting and cleaning, they did a great job and accomplished a ton. On Tuesday morning they started the "summer camp" at our orphanage the kids there had a great time and were anxiously waiting for the team again this morning. Yesterday afternoon, they were pouring cement columns, by bucket.

2008-12-22T03:11:00.000-08:00

Here we all are, Merry Christmas!

2008-12-22T03:06:00.000-08:00

This past Friday we moved the furniture out of the living room and turned our house into a banquet hall! We had the Christmas dinner for the Palo Blanco employees. It was so much fun to see everyone all dressed up and in a festive mood, these people love to have fun. We had a yummy Dominican meal, and gift exchange.

2008-11-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

Our family just returned from the north coast where we spent Saturday at a resort with the Calvary Ladies group and then put them on the plane in Puerto Plata this afternoon. This group was such a blessing to our family. Our kids really enjoyed having them here, and Chris and I were so encouraged by them. It was like having a piece of home right here for a whole week, thank you everyone who had a part in getting them here. They have lots of stories to tell you some funny and some sad, but all will be interesting.

2008-11-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

So husbands how well do you know your wives.......these legs have been attacked by the Dominican no-see-um, and are having a slight allergic reaction. I wanted to protect the identity of the afflicted, it was the ladies idea to take the picture :)

2008-11-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

Awana Dominican style, it was really fun for the ladies to see our Owansa program at our Palo Blanco Care Center today.

2008-11-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

Jodi found it easier to paint in this position.....I'm starting to see a pattern here.

2008-11-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

Shelly, Jodi and Daphne painting the second classroom, and Jen working on the future nurses office.

2008-11-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

Here they are in the completed classroom.

2008-11-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

Today is day 3 of painting. They have completed one classroom and are working on the second, as well as the hallway and bathrooms.

2008-11-05T11:21:00.000-08:00

Paulette this picture is just for you.....see you're here with them in their hearts!

2008-11-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

What happens after you've been here for a few days is you start to make special connections with certain kids in the program. Here are some new special friends!

2008-11-05T11:13:00.000-08:00

So we have a friend Amy Green, who is here in Jarabacoa as a missionary with Students International. She is an OT who works at a special needs school right here in town. Yesterday she just happened to stop by the care center after visiting one of our Kids Alive families. She has been helping with their daughter who has CP. When Daphne, Jodi & Christy found out what she does they really wanted to see her site. This morning I took them there, where we were able to spend about an hour visiting. This was really neat for them to see how someone with their skill set was serving God in this way.

2008-11-05T03:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a very important day.....it was Daphne's birthday! We had the Calvary ladies over to our home for dinner and then celebrated with a cake.

2008-11-04T11:49:00.000-08:00

The afternoon paint crew, and honest Jodi only rested for about 3 minutes and then she was back up painting. They are doing a great job and have already been such an encouragement to us and everyone that they have come in contact with, thanks for sharing them with us this week!

2008-11-04T11:45:00.000-08:00

We have 12 ladies so 6 worked in gym in the morning and then painted in the afternoon, and the other 6 painted in the morning and did gym in the afternoon. They are all going to be pretty tired tonight!

2008-11-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

2008-11-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Monday we went to Palo Blanco Care Center and the ladies started their projects. They are painting the classrooms of the addition that they Calvary youth started in the summer of 2007, so that's pretty neat. Then in the afternoon we visited the Ark which is our orphanage here in town and the ladies were able to visit with two of the houses, the house parents and the kids that live there. They played with the orphanage kids at reeces, and then as we were leaving the director drove in with 3 brand new boys that were just arriving. They were dirty and all they had on them was underwear, it was sad but really exciting all at the same time and what an experience for everyone to have.

Today there was more painting to be done as well as gym class with the kids in our program. The above pictures are of the ladies who worked with the morning gym classes.

2008-11-04T10:55:00.000-08:00

They're here! They have been since Saturday night but I've just been having too much fun with the ladies group from my church to sit down and blog, that and the batteries in my camera died....So here they are just before we went to a Dominican church service Sunday morning. Right now I have to go pick kids up from school but I will try and get back on and put the pictures from todays work.

2008-09-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

Having a baby in the house does offer a lot of photo opportunities.....Matthew is keeping us busy, and isn't he just too cute!

2008-08-31T04:29:00.000-07:00

Our first week back in the DR after our US visit brought a lot of changes. Chelsea and Caleb each started at new schools. For the past two years they had been in the same school, and it was very easy to just drop them off and pick them up at the same time. Now they are on opposite sides of towns. The week went well for them. Caleb already knew two boys in his new class and they have been hanging out a lot, that helps! Chelsea also knew a couple of girls at her new school and she is enjoying it. They both came in late and have already caught up with missed work.

Then on Wednesday Matthew moved in with us. He's 19 months old, and is a real trooper! He has adjusted so well and our kids are adjusting to having a toddler in the house. Chelsea thinks he can do no wrong and Caleb thinks he's cute but since he's never been around babies he's just not sure what to do with him.

The Palo Blanco Care Center starts classes tomorrow and I will be going back to my "nurse" job. I have really missed my students and am exctied to get back out there and love on kids. I had a meeting this past week about 2009 Teams. It's crazy I'm already working on a schedule for next summer, and this one isn't even officially over. Over the next few weeks it will be a real balancing act to get everyone who wants to bring a team on the calendar, you can pray for me. Chris is also getting back into the swing of things with meetings and planning trainings for the coming school year. You can pray for the independent living program as it is really getting off the ground, that the teens in this program will make good decisions and continue to follow Christ as they spread their wings. Chris has put a lot of time and effort into creating this program and this is where the "rubber meets the road".

2008-08-26T04:32:00.000-07:00

When we woke up yesterday it was a little overcast but not raining. By the afternoon the rain had started to fall but intermitedly and it was actually nice at first. That continued until about 3:00 this morning when it started really coming down and hasn't stopped yet, we woke up to find that Tropical Storm Gustav had been upgraded to Hurricane Gustav congrats to him! So we aren't supposed to be in the direct path of this thing but we will probably get a lot of rain, rain and more rain. If this keeps up I'm sure school will be cancelled. In the north they have snow days, and here we have rain days. The fact that most people travel on a motorcycle or walk, with a lot of rain the numbers at school really drop!

And as a real welcome back to the DR gift; we woke up with no electricity this morning.......thankfully we have an inverter so we have lights and fans, just nothing that produces heat like coffee maker, blow dryer, however the inverter will only last so long?

2008-08-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

So as most of you know our kids are 16 1/2 and almost 13. We have loved having teenagers in our house, you can reason with them, they can tell you when they are hurt or hungry or bored. Yes we loved them when they were toddlers as well it just seems easier now? So if you read down our blog and check the post from July where I tell the story about my aunt and uncle adopting, that's where I can explain the above picture of the crib. So did you read it are you caught up now?

In true Dominican fashion, originally the whole adoption process was to take two months, then it was "changed" to four months, and a couple of weeks ago they found out that it will now be an additonal 6 months (at least!) and then they will have to start out all over with their time living here. So it looks like it will be at least 10 months before the adoption is completed and probably longer. That's where we come in, obviously they have a life and a family in Ohio and cannot live here for that amount of time but needed someone to care for Matthew until they can return to finalize the adoption, so long story short Matthew will be coming to live with us this week for an undetermined amount of time.

That's right it should be interesting. Chris and I will both continue on with our jobs with Kids Alive, and I will have someone to help care for Matthew while I am at the care center each day, just like families do in the sates. So please pray for us that we can be very good "foster parents" to Matthew and help him make the adjustment to his temporary family.

2008-08-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

He doesn't turn 13 until this week, but we celebrated with family before we left last week. Can you tell he's a Cubs fan?

2008-08-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

Does this picture scare you? It should....Caleb on a four wheeler, no actually he did really well and enjoyed himself a lot while we were at a family fish fry. The two little boys on the back are two of the three siblings that my cousin adopted last fall.

2008-08-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

Family....that was the theme the last four weeks at least for me. We just returned to the DR this past Friday after spending over four weeks in Valparaiso. We were back in the states for a break, but during that break we spoke at our supporting churches and visited with some of our individual supporters. It really was a great four weeks and we did come back feeling refreshed. When people ask me what I miss most about living in the states the answer is usually family and that still rings true. I do feel very blessed that we have been able to get back to the states as much as we have not like in the old days where missionaries went away never to be seen again, or maybe returning once ever four to six years. I was reminded while we were back that people really do read our blog, so I will try to be better about posting.......

2008-07-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

Our kids left for the states last over a week ago now, and our house has become very quiet (and clean!) It's a good time of the year for them to be there with friends and family. They will each spend some time at camp as well. Things are going well here, it's a little crazy, but that's summer. With 6 weeks of back to back teams, summer program, VBS, summer interns, visitors, well let's just say we are plenty busy.

The above picture is of Shandy the lizard slayer, in the past three days she has neutralized two of them in our house, she stands less than 6 inches above the ground to her shoulders, but she's a fierce killer. I guess this is what people without kids do, start paying more attention to their dogs. Anyway in the midst of some crazy days, she's managed to put some laughter in them with her crazy hunting antics. I was thinking of putting a picture of her and her kill, but well there just wasn't much left by the time she got done.

2008-07-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

Last summer my Uncle and Aunt brought a group from their church here to Jarabacoa for a two week service team trip. While they were here they were introduced to Moises who at that time was just 6 months old. He was abandoned by his mother at birth, and a friend of ours took him in out of the kindness of her heart, and the fact that she is a very godly woman. After meeting him they decided that they would adopt him. Well after all of those months on working on that from the states they just arrived Friday, June 20th to begin the phase of the adoption where you have to live in the country for 4 months before finalizing the adoption. Over the next four months one of them will be with him here at all time, and the others will travel back to the states at different time. Now as an official disclaimer.....Kids Alive does not facilitate or encourage adoptions, that's not what they do. This situation is totally outside of Kids Alive just a need in the community that we were aware of. You can pray for them that things will go smoothly with the government and that their time here will be good. They are in our friends house (she headed back to the states for a well deserved break) for now and then after that when most of them go back to school in August, Amy and Moises will probably be moving in with us for the remainder of the time.

2008-06-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

Friday night with the service team from FEBC ended with a hot dog cook out and Gran Circulo at the Ark. We cooked over 150 hot dogs and served them up with chips, cookies, pop and lots of smiles. The Ark kids love this sort of thing and it's very special for them, it was greatly appreciated. After we ate the kids performed some songs, dance and skits for the team, and then it was time for good-bye's. This was a great week of service, thanks again FEBC!

2008-06-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Working hard but having fun too! This morning they are mixing cement and then transporting via wheelbarrow downhill and pouring it with buckets to set the foundation of the wall. In the lower pictures they are taking turns trying to get the dirt in the hole of the mixer.....some got it some well ....they didn't. If you look close in the collage pictures there is a shiny new red wheelbarrow. Some of the team donated their money and this morning I was able to take the construction foreman to the hardware store and he was able to purchase two brand new very badly needed wheelbarrows, he was pretty excited about that, thanks again FEBC. One of the old ones was being held together with wire and rebar and it wasn't working very well.

2008-06-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

This morning the team was at the work site around 8:30 and they jumped right in eager to get things finished up. Some of the ladies were finishing the second coat of paint on the back wall of the existing school building.

2008-06-19T22:22:00.000-07:00

All day Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon the team has been doing construction and painting on our Anija School Campus, but today after finishing up with Bug Camp, we went on a tour of our Palo Blanco Care Center site, visited some of the homes of the kids from our center and then went back to the waterfall that we got rained out of Sunday. It was a well deserved break, and since it's been averaging 91 in the shade it was nice to cool off as well. Tomorrow they will be back at the Anija site for the whole day finishing off with a hot dog cookout and Gran Circulo at the Ark for final good-byes.

2008-06-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

The Ark Kids say thank you to FEBC!

2008-06-19T22:15:00.000-07:00

Thursday was the final day of Bug Camp and it ended strong. As you can see from the above pictures there was some kid bonding time going on as well. Everything the team planned was a great hit and the kids as well as us appreciated all they did so much.

2008-06-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

These pictures are for you Sharalee and Jason. Janna and Melana were able to give your sponsored child the presents that you sent. You can just tell from the smile on his face how excited he was, and he especially liked the photo of your new family of four. The top picture is of when he walked into the craft area and saw all of the sweets on the table, he just couldn't quit smiling and his expression was priceless.

2008-06-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Then for craft time the kids made "bugs" out of cookies, pretzels, candy and frosting. Let's just say they were a little excited about this. There were a few tummy aches later in the day, but I'm pretty sure that came from licking the frosting bowls!

2008-06-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

Tuesday for Bug Camp the kids were excited to spend time with the team again. They sang a lot of songs, Dominicans love to sing, and Brian told the Bible story.

2008-06-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

Today-Tuesday was the first day of Bug Camp at the orphanage. It went great the kids had a great time and I'm pretty sure the team enjoyed themselves as well. Lot's of happy kids!

2008-06-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Lunch break on Monday.

2008-06-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Monday morning started at 8:30 at the work site. The team from FEBC is helping us extend our school builind at the Anija campus. Because of all the rain on Sunday it was a muddy mess. They started the day with a lot of shoveling and ended it with laying block on the back wall of the building, we'll see how many rows they can get done before they leave.

2008-06-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning the team from FEBC went with us to Nueva Vida church. It was great experience for them a church service in another culture. We were going to go on a waterfall hike in the afternoon, but the weather changed our plans, a pretty strong rain storm came in and so we had to nix those plans, and we will have to try and get them to a waterfall later this week before they leave. Sunday night we went down town Jarabacoa to eat at a Dominican restaurant. A day of rest before the busy work week begins.

2008-06-14T18:55:00.001-07:00

Okay so they're not great pictures but they are proof that the group from FEBC did arrive in the Dominican Republic safe and sound. They actually made it through customs and immigrations in great time and we were in the team house in Jarabacoa before 9:00. The top picture is of some of the guys loading the luggage into the bus.

2008-06-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some fun pictures from a couple of weeks ago that I forgot to post. This is a little girl that attends our Palo Blanco Care Center, a couple of months ago I posted a little bit of her story and how she came to stay with us for one night. Well her 5th birthday was May 3oth, and there was not going to be any sort of celebration at her house, so we invited her to our house for a small party with cake, balloons, pizza, and gifts. When we lit the canldes and after we sang to her she didn't know she was supposed to make a wish and blow out her candles, so we got to teach her that, that was pretty cool. She was so happy to spend the evening with us, and was giving out lots of hugs. Caleb is well know for his strong dislike of hugs, but when she gave him one he melted. Our kids have grown to really care for and love this little girl and this has been an opportunity for them to live out their Faith by caring for her the best we can.

2008-06-14T08:08:00.001-07:00

Weeks ago we started preparing for the summer service teams that we would have here in the Dominican Republic. Lots of Americans coming and going over the next few weeks. Today we are receiving our first team here in Jarabacoa for the summer. Yesterday Chris and I spent most of the day getting the team house re-organzied and ready for it's new guests. We left Jarabacoa at 10:30 am and headed to Santiago to do the food buy, we bought food for the team for the week as well as food for a hot dog cook-out next Friday for over 120 people. Our carts were so overflowing, it was a little embarassing. People already stare because we are Americans, but wow they were really staring yesterday. We were back in Jarabacoa about 2:30, unloaded all of the groceries and stocked the cupboards and refridgerator. Then we realized that one of the fans wasn't working so Chris headed into town to look for a fan, thankfully he found one it's been pretty warm here lately, and trying to sleep without a fan is pretty difficult. So the team is from Faith Evangelical Bible in Valparaiso and we know or are related to a lot of the team, so it will be fun to see them and have them see where we work.

2008-06-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we had 13-5th grade girls from the Palo Blanco Care Center over to our house for a movie night. They were very excited to get to come into the big city of Jarabacoa and were dressed up with their hair all done as well. It was a lot of fun, and after they got here they were just sure that they should spend the night! We ate lots of popcorn and had a great time.

Also the same night Chelsea had a birthday party to go to where she had to dress up like the 80's.....my favorite era. We had a difficult time explaining in Spanish why she was dressed like that and the girls were very concerned that she was going out looking like she did.

2008-04-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

Up in the mountains behind our house only 30 miles but over an hour and a half drive time (because the roads are so bad) is the town of Constaza. Here is another Kids Alive orphanage campus that opened a year and a half ago. There are currently two houses with two sets of house parents and 15 children. These children like almost all of the children in our orphanages have terribly sad stories from before they arrived in our care. Every other week Chris travels there and meets with the house parents for training. He is also a resource for the house parents when they are having specific issues with children in their care. You can pray for Chris as he travels for safety and for wisdom when meeting with the house parents.

2008-04-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

Isn't she precious? We think so, she is also neglected, hungry, and abused. This little 4 year old is in our Palo Blanco Care Center, and everyone who works there calls her our "little chick" because she will just follow you around like a little chick follows it's mother. Her mother and father have a very tragic story. While her mother was still pregnant with her there was a terrible house fire and her two older sisters died in the fire. She would never know them. Her parents were unable to handle this tragedy and her father turned to alcohol, and her mother dealt with the hurt by ignoring this sweet little one when she was born. Many times she is at our care center gate in the morning at 7:30 waiting for the cooks to arrive even though her class does not start until 2:00 in the afternoon. And almost every day she walks all the way home by herself. Her mother has told us she doesn't want to keep her, but the drunk father who doesn't even live with them anymore won't let her go. The top two pictures are at our house where last week she got to come and spend one night. She watched a movie, ate pizza for the first time (which she now says she prefers over rice and beans) took a bubble bath, (where she splashed around and sang long after the bubbles were gone and the water had turned cold) and slept in clean clothes in a clean bed., with lots of soft pillows and a big fluffy blanket. It was a ton of fun and our kids as well as Chris and I have completely fallen in love with her. Even our German Shepherd who has an aversion to anyone new wanted to sleep by her bed that night instead of ours, it was like even the dog understood that this child needs a little extra care and watching over. Please pray for her, we know that God is in control, but it can be very overwhelming to us when someone so small and helpless is continually neglected.

2008-04-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today the team continued to do teacher's training and kids activities. I had an all day appointment at the dentist here in town that once in a while when her schedule allows will see our Care Center kids for free. I took 5 kids in this morning and then 5 more in this afternoon. The kids were great. Six of them had rotten molars pulled out, one had two fillings, another I have to take back Friday because she has a raging tooth infection, one needs to have a cleaning before they can even begin to do the repair work, and the last one got her front tooth fixed. She fell playing at our Care Center Monday and broke half of her front tooth off, she was so upset when it happened so she was also pretty excited to get if fixed. Yup this is what I do and I love it. You can pray for wisdom in promoting good oral hygiene. We have the kids brushing their teeth at school after lunch, but this just doesn't seem to be enough. The dentist confirmed to me today what I have been thinking for a long time and that is some of the worst teeth in this country are in Palo Blanco! She has traveled all over the DR, out into the campo and doesn't see teeth as bad as these. We only have so many hours every week to care for these kids, and it never seems to be enough time.

2008-04-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

Sidewalk chalk.....oh what fun!

2008-04-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

This group also brought an amazing amount of teaching supplies and tools which they are also instructing our teachers how to use effectively. Thank you Wheaton Bible!

2008-04-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening a Mother/Daughter group from Wheaton Bible arrived all excited to work at the Palo Blanco Care Center. They are hosting teacher workshops, and running different activity stations for the children during this time. Today there was a cake walk, face painting, sidewalk chalk, song time and lots more.

2008-03-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our baby girl turned 16. We had a party last night with cake, ice cream and friends. Does this mean I'm getting older too?

2008-03-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

In Jarabacoa right now we have 3 separate Awana programs running within our own Kids Alive program. One at the Ark (orphanage), one at Anija (school) and one at Palo Blanco (care center). These pictures are from Palo and any of you who have ever been involved with Awana will recognize this as the 3 legged race. Awana has done really well in our programs and everyone is very excited about it.

2008-03-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know these are strange pictures but let me explain. Last week we did immunizations here in Jarabacoa and Constanza. Now some of the immunizations were left over Hepatitis B vaccine from the Calvary Medical group that came last fall (THANK YOU!) But the others we requested from the health department in LaVega. The bottoms picture is a of a garbage pile outside of the building of public health! Just gives you a little example of what we are up against, a PILE OF GARBAGE outside of the health department! So then the top pictures is of the other vaccine that I picked up, and where they were stored in my refrigerator. Me, who number one isn't even Dominican, and secondly I'm not even a "medical" person. Thankfully a strong relationship has been built between Kids Alive and the health department and they are just glad that we are helping them get the vaccines out. I just thought that this is something that has become so normal for me, just would never happen in the states. Anyway at the end of the week we had immunized over 400 kids for polio, Hepatitis B, MMR, Dpt, and Td and we are getting very close to having all of our kids in program fully immunized!

2008-01-17T16:57:00.000-08:00

It's a long story but for those of you who don't know we just spent an unexpected 3 weeks in the states over the Christmas holiday and just returned to the DR Monday night. It's good to be back, and these faces.......this is why I love what I do!

2007-12-15T18:11:00.000-08:00

Okay maybe you can't tell real well in this picture, but the side of the mountain had slid down onto the autopista and cover almost both lanes. It was a pretty amazing site to see, I just hope there was no one under the pile of dirt!

2007-12-15T18:03:00.000-08:00

We work very hard here in the DR, but we play too! Last weekend we took a girls trip to Santo Domingo. We seem to have adopted some 20 year olds and so I drove 3 of them and Chelsea to the capital and we saw the sites. It was a ton of fun, and now I feel like a pro driving there. This picture was taken in Los Tres Ojos Caves, it was really a cool place to see.

2007-12-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

On my way to LaVega yesterday we were unable to take our usual way in because the bridge had been washed out from Tropical Storm Olga. It started raining last Saturday December 8th, and pretty much has rained every day since. There are landslides all over the roads, and lot's of bridges out. We are praying for the sun!

2007-11-28T15:01:00.000-08:00

Today was the day for our dentist appointment. We have a Dominican dentist in Jarabacoa who has graciously agreed to give us two appointments a month (most months) to see the children in our program for no charge. It's amazing that so shortly after the Calvary dental team was here, that we were in such desperate need for the dentist again.

Now going to the dentist is way different than we do it in the states. For starters because these kids are in our care program we don't even have to check with their parents to see if it's okay to take them. I just go around the classes figure out whose in the most pain, and ask them if they want to go to the dentist with me? Some have terrible teeth but are too scared, and so we are still working on them. But these brave 7 and 8 year old girls went to the dentist without a parent and had their teeth pulled all by them lonesome-well I was with them. While I was there I just couldn't get over the contrast of how I was doing this today, and how we take care of our kids teeth in the states.

All three of the girls that I took had to have molars pulled and one had 2 pulled. These weren't just little cavities, these molars were black and had broken off and were basically just gross! That's my medical description of them. One girl also had a very severe infection in her tooth which we were able to give her antibiotic for.

So just in case you were curious this is how I spent two of my hours today with these precious girls!

2007-10-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

Tropical Storm Noel has been pounding the Dominican for 4 days now, yesterday and today has been pretty much continual rain. This is a picture off of the bridge that crosses the Jimenoa River as you enter Jarabacaoa, for those of you who have visited and seen it you can tell that it is extremely high. One of our friends who has lived here for over 12 years has never seen the river this high, this morning it was over half way up to reaching the bridge, Chris and I began to wonder if it goes just how quick they could rebuild it, because it's the only way out of town down the mountain?

We are safe and sound in our house, schools were cancelled today because of the rain and flooding. Please pray for our Dominican friends who live in homes that don't fend off the rain as well as ours does. There are many shack type homes that line this river and I can only imagine that at this point they are either gone or close to being destroyed.

2007-10-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of funny thoughts today, first it's been raining for 3 days straight and now we hear that is because tropical storm Noel has parked off of the south coast of our island. Nothing can dry and we are all freezing then we realized that it's at least 75 degrees if not more and in Valparaiso when we checked the weather this morning it was 38? A slight change in our perspective, eh.

Second is more like a funny story, this morning when I started up our laptop it came up with an error message and after many minutes of trying to re-boot, it told me there was nothing to boot. So I took it to our friendly computer guy Jose Luis and he told me our hard-drive was shot.....for the second time in 8 months! I could have screamed this is so frustrating. We talked at great length about what could be causing this to happen again, with Jose basically saying he just couldn't figure it out. I picked up the hard drive he had just removed from my computer and looked very closely at it, and even my untrained computer eye could tell something was amiss. I asked Jose if he knew what this funny looking spot on my hard drive was, and at first although he didn't' know after further inspection of our laptop we found there to be a number of small red ants living in it! Whatever it was on my hard drive it was caused from the ants, so once it was cleaned off reinstalled and all of the ants blown out of my computer, we powered it up and........it worked! Now that's something else I didn't have to put up with in the states, now if I can just figure how to keep the little boogers out of there.

2007-09-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

The team thought he was ugly, but what they don't know is that he was their yummy chicken for lunch! This was a nasty snake/lizard/salamander/dinosaur that showed up in our care center today. He was over 18 inches long and ran like a snake slithers. Needless to say he cam to an untimely death by stoning. The locals swear they grow up big and bite, so we were protecting our care center children from the ravages of this terrible creature.

2007-09-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

In the bottom picture you must read the shirt of this 80 year old grandma it also applies to the two ladies standing on either side. Another day in the DR.

2007-09-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

This is the family of Nani, she is the girl with cerebral palsy. She needs medication daily to prevent seizures and her family doesn't always have enough money to purchase this very important medicine. Through the generous donations of many individuals in the Calvary Church family Kim was able to purchase more than 8 months worth of this medicine. The lady in the pink is her mother, the girl standing is her sister and the boy is her brother who also has hydrocephalus and has never had any treatment for this. What a great blessing for this family to receive this medicine. Please continue to pray as Nani's condition worsened today and she was taken to the hospital again.

2007-09-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here's one more picture that didn't make it on with the last post. We keep Kim and Dr. Wu busy, busy all day long (we do let them eat lunch). They each have a Kids Alive Missionary working with them as interpreters.

2007-09-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

This morning we did some re-organizing before the kids arrived, and we put the dental "office" in a much larger room, which allowed them to work out of 4 chairs not just 2 and they were able to see many more people, so that worked great! Noel is running the "pharmacy" where he is filling scrips and explaining how it should be used to the patients mothers. The girl in the yellow shirt in the bottom picture is a Kids Alive Intern Becky who is helping Kristy-no she's not a dental student but she was loving it. Also Jenine got to pull a tooth today-that's right she's a RN so you can see we are all just being used where we are needed. This was after she gave 100's of vaccines. Tomorrow will be our last day at the Palo Blanco Care Center. We have 46 more children to immunize and many more to see the dentists and doctors. So much has been accomplished already, and kids are being impacted. It's so awesome to be able to witness it from this end, from the months and months of preparation to the realization of the dream. Please pray for Nani, she is a girl with cerebral palsy and this morning her mother brought her to us because she is very ill. Kim checked her over and is pretty sure she has pneumonia, it's very serious, and she was given the medication that she needs we will be checking on her again tomorrow to see if she has improved.

2007-09-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

As promised here are some pictures, now I need to work on getting the faces of the team-members, but honestly they were so busy working there wasn't a whole lot of time for posing. FYI-no the big guy Jenine is giving the immunization to is not a kid in our program, it's one of our KAI missionaries who needed a meningitis vaccine. So much was accomplished today, and there is so much more to do tomorrow. Please pray for continued physical strength, yes they are all doing what they do every day-but in a third world country, and speaking a foreign language, everything even the most simple tasks can be more time consuming and difficult.

2007-09-23T21:24:00.000-07:00

The Calvary Medical Team is HERE! They all arrived safe and sound with all of their luggage and made it through customs okay. They were at customs for a good bit of time trying to explain some of the things they were bringing and why, but in the end, they and their baggage got through and that's the important part. I took my camera to the airport to take pictures, but I guess because I was getting a little anxious about them not coming out, when they finally did I forgot to take any pics at all. The trip back through the mountains was uneventful-although the car directly in front of us ripped off his front fender while trying to avoid an oncoming motor-it could have been a lot worse, but as it was no one was hurt. They have been piling piles of dirt in the road for some work that needs done, and the car in front of us either had to hit the pile of dirt or hit the bike-thank goodness he choose the dirt! So the people in my car who saw that were quickly introduced to the craziness on Dominican driving. Tomorrow we begin with clinic at Palo Blanco Care Center, and although I know I am going to be crazy busy I will make it a priority to get some pictures to put on for tomorrow. Thanks for all of your prayers, the team has example and example, of how they have seen God working over the last couple days.

2007-09-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you reading this blog to check on the progress of the much anticipated, and greatly awaited Calvary Medical Team..........they're not here yet. Unfortunately they had problems with their plane in Chicago and ended up leaving there over 4 hours late, which caused them to miss their connection in Miami and so they spent the night there last night. Gabi Osorio, is a Honduran dentist that was meeting the team in Miami and they were all supposed to come in together. She had no problems with her connection and was able to make it in last night. God was in that I had no idea who I was looking for and neither did she, but we found each other. So Gabi spent the night at our house last night and in a couple of hours we will be making the 2 1/2 hour trek through the winding mountain roads to Puerta Plata, because now instead of the team coming into Santiago which is 45 minutes away like they were originally supposed to last night the plans have changed. We always tell our teams when they get here that the number one rule while they are here is flexibility. That goes for us as well :) So we will work on getting some pictures and you may want to check in later this evening or tomorrow morning for an update on their progress. Right now we need to be praying that they arrive safely and that all of their luggage passes through customs with no problems or concerns.

2007-07-25T11:41:00.001-07:00

Fruits and flowers of our yard. One nice thing about living in warm weather year round is a constant growing season, not what I grew up with in NW Indiana. Unfortunately we leave in just 2 days and our bananas will not be ready so we have told our friends to cut them when they are ready and share the love! The fruit on the bottom is a guyaba that we let the neighborhood boys pick because we haven't really acquired a taste for them, and my favorite is the birds of paradise flowers we have in our side yard. We also have oranges, limes and guabanana (another fruit we really haven't come to love yet, maybe someday?)

2007-07-25T08:43:00.001-07:00

Maple View left Saturday the 16th of July and that night a team from Faith Community near Wheaton, IL arrived. They were a real fun team and did a Drama & Art Camp at Anija for summer program. Both the kids and the teachers were thrilled to have them here they did a great job!

2007-07-25T08:37:00.001-07:00

Okay so for those of you who regularly check my blog, sorry these are so late, but basically I got really sick about 3 weeks ago it was a nasty virus and i finally think I'm coming out of it. So blogging was the first thing to go. So these were some fun pictures of Maple View's last few days here in the DR.

2007-07-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

In the evening we had a pizza party for El Arca (the orphanage). This is a huge deal for the kids as they don't get to go out very often, let alone as one whole group. So in typical Dominican fashion, I made the arrangements in the morning for dinner at 6:30 and when we arrived absolutely nothing was ready. I asked very specifically if they had tables and chairs for 95 people and they said "no problema". So it was fine that we waited 45 minutes while they walked around town and scrounged up enough tables and chairs from other businesses. Nobody gets worked up or upset about it, it's just how it is. The team did great interacting with the kids and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

2007-07-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

After a first week of hard work the team earned a well deserved hike to two local waterfalls. First we walked over the swinging bridges to the lower Jimenoa and then hiked to the upper Jimenoa.

2007-07-07T05:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Caleb's first walleye, not too big but that means it's good for eating. Also as a right of passage grandpa is teaching Caleb how to navigate Lake of the Woods-I remember as a kid that was the coolest thing was to be able to drive the boat in after a day of fishing. For those of you who think it's just wide open water and you can run wherever you want, it's not! You've got to know the lake and even then sometimes you can get lost, or just in the wrong spot and loose a part of your motor. Way to go Caleb-keep up the good work. Now let's see if we can get a picture of Chelsea with a fish?

2007-07-07T05:34:00.000-07:00

So as most of you know our kids took off with the Calvary group last Saturday to spend some time with their grandparents and then they will be going to camp later this month. Here are some fun pictures of them enjoying the great north. They arrived in the States Saturday night, and then Monday afternoon hit the road for Canada for some vacation time, and most importantly fishing!

2007-07-07T04:51:00.000-07:00

On Friday the Maple View group spent the day painting at the Palo Blanco Care Center, and wow it looked great when they were done. They all worked very hard and managed to keep more paint on the walls than themselves.

2007-07-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

These are members of the Maple View team working in the afternoon VBS. They have had some great stories about their experiences and it sounds like even though there is a language barrier they are having a great time.

2007-07-05T13:06:00.000-07:00

Amy and I spent Tuesday morning separating all of the donations that Maple View brought down for us. It was amazing how much this small little church had gathered, small but mighty I say! Thanks so much not one thing will go to waste.

2007-07-03T04:16:00.000-07:00

In the evening they guys had kitchen clean up duty and then the rest started preparing the 300 craft projects needed for VBS. They did a great job and had a little assembly line going. They are doing great a lot of hard workers and great attitudes. It's been fun getting to know each of them. I know Heidi's birthday is coming and if you would like to send her birthday greetings, I can print them off and give them to her. We will be having a combined 4th of July Party/Birthday Party Wednesday.

2007-07-03T04:10:00.000-07:00

Okay these aren't great pictures and they don't really do the trip justice, but take it from me it was a wild ride! Amy, Shawn, Joel, Cassandra, Heidi and I all went and visited the 3 VBS sites they will be working at on Tuesday-Thursday afternoons. The one is in Boma, this is a town which is at least a 30 minute drive out of Jarabacoa, and it is rather primitive. To get there we have to cross a river that has no vehicle bridge, and we were in the back of a very large pickup style truck. The church was meeting in a house up until last fall, and now their new church is being built. There will be a small group that makes this trip out there this week for VBS and if they can handle the drive they will have a great reward in the beauty that surrounds it. This is really special, because there are even a lot of North American Missionaries who have never been here. Kerry Dougan the missionary that heads up VBS has lived here for 15 years and had never seen Boma.

2007-07-03T04:03:00.000-07:00

The guys worked on cleaning and leveling a section of this yard just outside the other house that we are getting prepped. Also they had to remove the top layer of red dirt and it will be replaced with black dirt someday.

2007-07-03T04:01:00.001-07:00

We have two houses at El Arca that we are working on getting some finishing touches on. Dave and his crew of 5 ladies worked on painting the inside of one of these houses on Monday. When I was taking pictures some were already done and working on cleaning up the floor.

2007-07-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

They had to wake the small boys up from naps to take them to dinner tonight, Joel still wasn't quite awake when we arrived. The team enjoyed some Dominican fare for dinner, they have been very busy for their first 24 hours in the country, but tomorrow the work begins not more touristy stuff!

2007-07-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

We visited the Salto Baiguatte today, it's a smaller waterfall here in Jarabacoa but it is an easy walk and not dangerous so that we wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting swept down stream. Although some of the member whose names I will not release were swimming behind the waterfall and jumping through it which was pretty cool to watch. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon, and it didn't even rain, although it often looked like it would.

2007-07-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

Okay this is one of the funniest things I've ever seen! For those of you who have visited us you have seen the tayota fields. For those of you who haven't it's a vegetable that grows on a vine, and then they build a sort of horizontal trellis for it. Anyway there is a mat of vines that are about 4 1/2 to 5 foot off of the ground, and then the vegetable grows under the vine and hangs down so that people can just walk underneath it to harvest it. On our way to the waterfall this afternoon we were coming up to a field and I saw this bull? or cow? not sure which. It has horns so I guess it's a bull. Anyway I thought that's odd it sort of looks like he's standing on top of the tayota plants, and sure enough he was! I have no idea how he got up there, it's crazy. Anyway we were at the waterfall for 1 1/2 hours or so and when we drove by he was still there, I guess if he keeps eating eventually he will fall through to the ground, but for now I think he might be stuck up there. If you look very closely at the second picture and enlarge it you can tell how he is on top of the vines which are above the ground. While we were watching him, we saw little cows walking under the field as well.

2007-07-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

After lunch today we visited El Arca which is our orphanage and where Maple View will be working for the first week. Shawn and Joel made instant friends with some of the boys that we visited and were very soon racing down the hill on skateboards, no language barrier here! In the middle picture that's Shawn riding on the back of the skateboard.

2007-07-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today we worshiped at Nueva Vida Church. This is the church where most of the children from our orphanage attend. It was a great worship service in both English and Spanish today. It's not always like that but today was special. The group really enjoyed that and had a great experience.

2007-07-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a special day........we got to make two trips to the airport. Calvary left in the morning and it was so sad to see them go, we really enjoyed our time with them. It was double sad because we sent Chelsea and Caleb home with them. It was a great surprise for Chelsea's friends they had no idea, she has know this since January and hasn't said a thing to any of them. Our kids are going to be spending some time with grandparents, attending camp, and just hanging out with friends. They couldn't wait for today so they could go to church at Calvary and then eat at Fazoli's. It's been almost 15 months since they were in Valpo and we know they will really enjoy themselves.

After we dropped Calvary off we went to Santaigo to buy 4 carts of groceries for the next team. We drove back to Jarabacoa, washed sheets and towels all day, getting ready for the next team. My Uncle is the youth pastor at Maple View Mennonite Church in Ohio and their group was the next to arrive at 7:40 Saturday evening. There are 13 total, but two of them are my 4 year old and 5 year old cousins Joel and Shawn. We are really looking forward to spending time with them and being able to show them our ministry first hand.
So the first two pictures are Calvary leaving and the second two are Maple View arriving. Now at least I don't think I have to go to the airport again for two weeks to do it all again.

2007-06-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

Today was the final day of work for the Calvary Youth team, this picture doesn't even begin to show the amount of work that they got done over these two weeks. But when they arrived this whole section only had 3 layers of block and now look at it! They were such a blessing to all of the missionaries and national staff at Palo Blanco Care Center everyone enjoyed having them here.

2007-06-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

The teens have been going out to barrio churches in the afternoon to help with VBS. This building is an actual church and is about the size of bedroom in the states. It was raining and so as you can see the teens and the kids were all wet.

2007-06-28T04:01:00.000-07:00

No pictures today, I sent my camera out with one of the VBS teams in the afternoon and the batteries went dead, so we will try again today. We are headed into the time where we all start to realize the end is almost near. We have so enjoyed having each and every one of these team members here, and the time we have spent with them. They are a great bunch of people and have worked hard without complaining. This is a huge encouragement to us and reminds us that we are not in this alone, but that we have an awesome support system in Valparaiso, IN. Today is their last day of work, and tomorrow is white water river rafting! Please continue to pray for the team and for Chris and I because when we send off Calvary Saturday morning we immediately have to prepare for a new team that is coming in at 7:00 Saturday night. Because I have been enjoying my time with Calvary so much, I have a lot to do to prepare for this next team in the next couple of days. Check back later tonight for more pics.

2007-06-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

More passing of the block, not very exciting but definitely needed way to go Calvary Youth! These guys have really rallied, they are headed into the second week ready to finish strong. We have been sitting in on their debriefing sessions at night and are so encouraged by the discussion. Today after a morning of construction, they were off to 3 separate barios for afternoon VBS, where they were able to interact with more kids. A couple of the barios they are working in for the next couple of days are extremely poor, one was the worst I've seen yet, and these teens are there showing the love of Christ to people who desperately need HIM!

2007-06-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Remember how I said that all the work was done by hand, well here is a perfect example. The load of block is removed by hand off of the truck that delivers it. Then we need to get it to the roof somehow, so the teens have created a very efficient system.