Thank You Just Doesn't Sound Like Enough ...

Four months ago today we landed in the Dominican Republic. Tomorrow, way before the sun rises, Lowell and Cheryl Troyer will get in a car and drive away from the place they have called home for the past 11+ years. We cannot begin to express how much we have come to love and appreciate them and their hearts for the work of the Lord. As we have trained along-side of them (and Maggie Slabach too) we have at times been overwhelmed by the many details of running a ministry such as Students International. For years, we have been on the other-side of this ministry, bringing teams from Jupiter Christian School. We always appreciated how smoothly things seemed to run as team leaders but we didn't fully understand the length and the depth of that until now.

The day after we landed in the DR, we went with Lowell and Cheryl to Santiago to shop for the group scheduled to arrive a few days after us. It was an impressive thing to watch how the van load of groceries was bought, paid for and stashed in the van in an amazing order. We came home, looked at each other and said, "what in the world have we gotten ourselves into." We felt as though there was no way we would ever be able to do the shopping on our own. Over the next couple of months, Lowell, Cheryl and Maggie gradually transitioned out as we transitioned in. I don't know when the actual full shift took place but this past week we went to Santiago and managed to buy groceries on our own ... granted it was for a much smaller group, but we were encouraged that we accomplished this once daunting task on our own! We were trained well by the masters!

As we have gotten to know the kitchen crew (Mili, Carlos, Angela, Juana, Nieve, Milagros, and Lucila) and the grounds crew (Son and Rudy) and the sweet family that lives next door (Wilian, Isabel, Samuel, and Isabella) we have witnessed the deep love that they have for Lowell and Cheryl, Nate and Maggie. There are deep bonds of friendship that will last a life-time between them all. We know that the only reason the "fearsome foursome" as they have been dubbed, would leave is because there is Someone much bigger at work in their lives.

All of us who have stepped into roles to fill the vacancies left by the Slabachs and the Troyers do so with a tremendous appreciation for the vision and the ground-work laid by them. We love you so very much and look forward to seeing and hearing all the Lord is doing in your lives and through you as you move on to planting a new work in Nicaragua and overseeing your new roles in Students International.

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

traditional gaelic blessing

How Great Is Our God!

Today is Sunday and we went to the little church we have settled into here called La Vid Comunidad Cristiana. This was the first Sunday since moving here that we came away feeling like we actually understood what was being taught and were mostly able to pronounce the words in the songs being sung. We know we still have a long way to go until we aren't trying to translate everything in our heads but this is real progress and we are encouraged. Thank you Lord.

When we got home, we listened to a teaching from the 2011 Desiring God National Convention called The Global God Who Gives the Great Commission. The essence of the message is that when we receive the Gospel of Grace we become inherent participators of God's global purpose. Lou Giglio is the speaker for this session of the conference and he talks about the universe and the quest of man to explore the universe. Man's reason for reaching into the heavens is to prove that there is life on other planets; the universe is just way too big a place if it was only created to house humanity. But as we read in Psalm 148, the primary function of the universe is to magnify the creator!

Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD from the heavens;

praise Him in the heights!

Praise Him, all His angels;

praise Him, all His hosts!

Praise Him, sun and moon;

praise Him, all you shining stars!

Praise Him, highest heavens,

and the waters that are above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the LORD,

for He commanded and they were created.

He has also established them forever and ever;

He has made a decree which will not pass away.

Praise the LORD from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and mist;
stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
Mountains and all hills; fruit trees and all cedars;
Beasts and all livestock;
creeping things and flying birds;
Kings of the earth and all peoples;
princes and all rulers of the earth;
Young men and maidens together; old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for His name alone is exalted;
His majesty is above earth and heaven.
And He has lifted up a horn for His people,
praise for all His godly ones;

even for the sons of Israel, a people near to Him.
Praise the LORD!

So, if all the universe and everything in it, and all the earth and everything it contains was created to praise the Lord, can you imagine the symphony that is playing for our heavenly Father? After reading the above Psalm, Lou Giglio takes the actual sound of stars (yes, stars make music) and the sound of whales and mixed it together and played a version of "How Great Is Our God" by Chris Tomlin. It brought tears to our eyes to think that we are such a small part of a continuous symphony of praise and worship to our God. The You Tube video below is the song we listened to.

There are so many wonderful hymns and songs that lead us into what we call "worship." But maybe we should take a lesson from the heavens and the earth. Let our lives, the whole essence of our being, be lived out in such a way as to bring honor and glory, praise and worship to our Lord.

Español ... otra vez!

It's Saturday morning and I should be doing homework, but after three solid weeks of Spanish classes and homework, I'm taking a little mental health break. We started class on September 5th, and since then we have been immersed in a five week college course, worth 3 college semester credits. One of the college students remarked, after we got our our first graded assignment back, "What are you guys worried about, you aren't doing this for a grade ..." No, we are not in this for the grade. We are doing this in part, out of necessity, but mostly out of a deep desire to be able to communicate with the Dominican people we work with and those we interact with in the stores and streets of Jarabacoa, Santiago, and anywhere else we venture!

Our schedule looks pretty much like this:
Between 6:00 - 8:00 a.m., wake up, have quiet time, and then breakfast ...
Between 8:00 a.m. and noon, work on Spanish homework ...
We break for lunch somewhere between 12:00 & 12:30 ...
Then it's back to the books until it's time to trudge down the hill to attend class at the base ...
We attend Spanish class from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Following class, we take a little time to unwind and eat dinner ...
Somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m., it's back to the homework until we can't keep our eyes open ...
Go to bed, wake up, and do it again the next morning!

On the weekends, we sometimes travel down the mountain to grocery shop, we attend church but  then pretty much the rest of our time is spent doing ... you guessed it, more homework!

We have been told that verbs are the heart of any language. Some verbs that describe what we have experienced in the midst of language learning are (mostly in their gerund form =): Challenging, annoying, interesting, exasperating, gratifying, stressful, valuable, perplexing, useful, puzzling, thought-provoking, taxing, satisfying, vexing, fulfilling, provoking, nerve-wracking, delightful, frustrating, worthwhile, infuriating, and rewarding. It just depends on the day ... sometimes on the moment!

I think one of the things we are looking forward to the most when this is all over is reconnecting with our co-workers and friends. While it has been a tremendous gift from everyone we work with to be able to set aside our job responsibilities to concentrate solely on learning Spanish, one of the things we love the most about this culture is that it is a very warm culture that puts great emphasis on relationships. Because of the pace of this course we are in, we haven't had much time for that lately.

The reality of our living in the DR is that we will spend the rest of our days here learning to communicate. In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, we read, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Please join us in praying that in the midst of our learning to "speak with the tongues of men" we don't become a noisy gong and lose sight of the reason that we are here, to love in a way that it is evident that Christ lives inside our hearts and we are here to serve Him.