February 2009

Monthly Archive

Dominican Republic: Friday

Posted by on 21 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life.

This morning we all went to work on the new El Calvario Ministerios office in downtown. This was my first trip to the offices, as I’ve been working on computers several mornings this week. So today I finally got to meet Jennifer, a Dominican who speaks very good English and will teach some classes out of the new offices. We worked until about 3 p.m. this afternoon.
After lunch (at 3 p.m.), I met with Dr Allyn about their web site, and I made a list of things for me to work on the site tomorrow morning.

I also had a few moments to jump into the pool. The locals all thought we were nuts for wanting to swim in the middle of winter, but when your winter consists of 75 degrees and sunny, the swim was awesome. Keith and I sat by the pool basking in the sunlight for a little while, too.

Tonight we went to the Missions conference held at an AG church downtown. This was hands down the largest church I’d been in, and it could seat probably 500 if it was packed out.
We heard from a Dominican missionary who will be leaving soon for India.
It was a great meeting.
After the conference, Keith and I had a few moments to say goodbye and pray with our new friends Miranda, Serria and Jennifer. Miranda and Serria are from Africa, and both speak English with a strong South African accent.

I am very encouraged by the quality of young leaders in the Domican churches. My friend Javier is such a joyous Christian. These people are so genuine in their faith. They have all garnered such a special place in my heart.

After the conference we went to a corner chicken barbeque place, and that was some very tasty chicken!

Tomorrow we will depart, and get into Chicago in the late night, and we will have a 12-hour layover before wecan catch a connecting flight back to Fort Wayne.

Dominican Republic: Thursday

Posted by on 19 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life.

This morning we went to a local AG school and taught the 135 elementary kids in a small chapel room.
Before the program began, we had a few moments so I pulled out my yo-yo and boy did these kids like it. I had used it before on this trip, but these kids’ reaction was really unexpected. I did a couple of tricks, and then they all started motioning for me to do the Rock the Cradle trick, so I did it a couple times, and the kids started chanting with the rhythm of the rocking. That was a pretty cool experience.

This afternoon we went downtown into a marketlookong for souvenirs but I faced a dilema: what to get my wonderful, beautiful wife.
Anyone have any suggestions here?

I have been speaking a little bit of the Spanish I can recall from my freshman-sophomore years. I am able to say little phrases like ‘I don’t speak Spanish’ and have enjoyed some time trying to communicate with the wonderful Dominicans here.
I also have recalled some of the German I learned in my Junior-Senior years in high school. It’s been amazing to me the amount of language stores in my brain that have come back to me after all these years.

I miss my wife a lot. This is the longest we’ve ever been apart since we got hitched almost four years ago. It’s been tough to be away from my wonderful, but I’m very excited to get to spend time with her when I return on Sunday afternoon!

Dominican Republic: Wednesday

Posted by on 19 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life.

I spent this morning working on some more computers. I clened out a desktop (very dirty!), and also got it fully functional again. I also looked at another laptop, and decided it was okay, and I believe the behavior was just a fluke.

For lunch today we had plantanes, which is the first time I have ever eaten a platanos (en espanol). We had what looked kinds like a breakfast quish (spelling?), but tasted completely diffenent.
I have seen some platanos in walmart back some, and am planning on getting dome to fry up at some point in the future.

This evening we went to a church across town pastored by an awesome brother, Pastor Donny. We arrived a little early and went door-to-door inviting people to come to the church service.
This church gave the first domican offering toward reaching the J. people. I have a photo of Pastor Donny presenting the offering to C.
The church building is very small for this congregation, and they are looking for a new building. We had 34 young kids squeezed into a 4’x15′ hallway. That was crazy!
I really enjoyed the people at this church, and know I will always remember them.

Dominican Republic: Tuesday

Posted by on 17 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life.

We had a breakfast of eggs and bacon (I only had one small piece of bacon–I’m trying not to put on too much weight on this trip). We also had this type of fruit juice, which is a mix of 5 different types of fruit. Oh yeah, we also were served papaya, which I have never eaten before. Now, papaya is my favorite melon fruit.
Today we went to a local Christian school about a mile from where we are staying. I got to ride in the back of a pickup truck with our supplies, that made for a bumpy ride on the pothole filled side streets.
At the school, we did two presentations of our Jambi program. The one the morning was in English–most of these students had lived in New York for a time before being sent back here to get out of the harsh environment in NY.
This evening I got to go shopping around town. We went to a Supermarket which is actually probably the largest store I’ve ever been in. It is much larger than our walmart stores–that surprised me a lot. It had a first floor grocery store about 2/3 the size of an entire walmart, and then a second story department store above that. This entire store was packed with people (like walmart is on a Friday night).

Tomorrow we are getting up early for a 6 am prayer meeting! I gotta go to bed now!

Dominican Republic: Monday

Posted by on 16 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life.

This morning we had ham sandwich for breakfast. I also had some canalope, orange juice and coffee. Coffee is always plentiful here, and for that I am very happy.
I spent the morning workin on a couple of laptop computers. One of the computers I replaced the hard disk drive, CD/DVD drive and upgraded the ram. It took some time to get it back upgraded with service packs and ready to go, but that one should be much better at this point.
The other computer I upgraded ram and then defragged, but it still has some issues I haven’t looked in depth at this point. The modem does not work, and the CD/DVD drive just doesn’t read any disc.

Today for lunch, we ate about 2:30, and by that time I was pretty hungry! We had the traditional Dominican meal, rice, beans and chicken. I am really digging the food here, it is all very tasty. For dessert I had a very tasty piece of brownie. This was no ordinary brownie, mind you.
After lunch we did some final prep for C to teach at the Bible Institute this evening.
I accompanied C and Dr Allyn to the Bible Institute tonight, while Keith and Darlene went to the new office building and did some work there. The Bible Institute proved to be very beneficial and the students asked a lot of really good questions.
There was talk of some taking a short-term missions trip to the Province in Indonesia.

We all arrived back home about 10 pm and had a small meal with tuna, cresent roles, chips and pineapple. The pineapple here is delicious and is much better than what I’m used to back in the states.
At dinner Eileen entertained us with some hilarious stories about her battles with rats and also the story of when she accidentially baked a very old dog. I’m still chuckeling about that one even as I type this.

Dominican Republic: Sunday

Posted by on 16 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life.

Sunday morning we had cornflakes and a banana for breakfast. Coffee is plentiful and good here.
We went to church at Christo para toda de nationales, which translated is Christ for all the nations. It was a wonderful church and the people were very friendly. In the children’s program, I led the kids in a Spanish verse, Marcos 16:15, and also led them in a Spanish song, with the help of a CD!
After church we had lunch at the home of one of the church members who has a takeout restaurant. It was really great rice, beans and beef.
In the afternoon I took a two hour nap. I didn’t realize I was that tired!
In the evening, we had supper in the city at an empanadas stand, and we ate on the side of the street. It was a really neat environment to experience.

In our evening devotion, C talked to us about suffering. We had some good discussion about suffering.

I went to sleep about 11 pm, but not before I finished up another chapter in Treasure Island.

Dominican Republic: Morning of Departure

Posted by on 14 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life., New Hope stuff.

As I type this, it’s 3:49 a.m. on Saturday morning. In just under an hour, I’ll depart from New Hope and head to the airport.
Today we’ll fly from Fort Wayne to Dallas, Dallas to Miami, and then Miami to Puerto Plata, RD.

Especially keep me in your prayers for my health. I’ve been battling a sore throat and stuffy nose, which I am pretty sure is allergies, so hopefully these symptoms go *POOF* when we land in the Dominican.

Not sure what kind of Internet connectivity and availability we’ll find there. I’ll post updates on our trip as I’m able.

Soon Up: Missions Trip to the Dominican Republic

Posted by on 04 Feb 2009 | Tagged as: my life., New Hope stuff.

On February 15 14, I’ll depart for a 9-day excursion to the Dominican Republic, where my team of four (C, Keith, Darlene and myself) will work to envision the local church leaders about missions.
We will talk to the children in the church about our unreached peoples group (a distinct group of people who have no churches among them), and excite them in song and spirit about the children who are living around the world from them.

Later in the week, we will be at a pastors conference for a group of Dominican churches. We have heard there are at least three churches very interested in our missionary efforts to the unreached peoples group.
Interesting side note: One of our current missionaries working among our people group is a Dominican!

Through the week, I am also going to use my computer expertise to fix a Toshiba laptop computer (parts are already ordered for it), and also brainstorm about their website. We also think we may be doing some finish construction work on a training center, but we’re unsure exactly what we’ll be doing there. All we know is we’re there to serve and do whatever is asked of us!

I’m going to miss my wife tons and tons and tons while I’m gone for these 8 days, but it’s all worth it to see our unreached peoples group find the knowledge of Jesus as their savior!

I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to update while we’re there, but I’ll be twittering all I can and also updating the blog if Internet allows.
my twitter