TS Isaac ... Life as Usual

About to be slammed, we are at the tip of the pink section.

 As I type this, Tropical Storm Isaac is dumping lots of rain over us. Earlier this morning, the mountains were crystal clear for the first time in days, washed and blown clear by the torrential rains and high winds last night. They are cloud and rain covered once again and it looks as though they will be for most of the day today.

For the past two days Dick and I have pondered the differences of life here with a storm on the horizon and life back in Florida under the same circumstances. The picture below kind of sums it up - the first entry under "Favorites" is Jarabacoa. There is a little rain cloud next to our town's name as we sit in a torrential downpour from the tropical storm. Next to Jarabacoa is Jupiter. After Jupiter is a triangle and when I click on that, it tells me that Jupiter is under a Tropical Storm Warning. In the past week, that triangle never appeared next to Jarabacoa.

I am thankful that the National Hurricane Center puts out plenty of warning so people can prepare for storms. I have seen first hand the results of Hurricane Andrew and watched in horror the results of Katrina. I remember all too well the 2004-2005 Hurricane seasons when our hometown took 3 direct hits from hurricanes in the span of 13 months. I was thankful that I had followed the advice of the weather experts and stocked up on batteries, put away cans of food, prepared bottles of water, and had plenty of propane for our camp stove. I remember my goal being to prepare to resume life as close to normal as possible once the storm had past.

But we have been reminded once again how different "normal" here is. The inconveniences of life after a storm in the US are everyday occurrences on the island of Hispaniola. Power outages are daily, sometimes hourly, sometimes minute to minute occurrences here; and the power can be out for days at a time. There are many people in the communities we work in that don't have power - ever. We are blessed to have a battery inverter in the house and a generator on the base. We use bottled water every day - we prepare our food with it, we brush our teeth with it, we only drink bottled water. We have seven 5 gallon water bottles sitting outside our kitchen door as I speak. And we are blessed here on the SI base to have a large water cistern with a pump. Many people locally do not have running water in their homes so they collect rain water in a oil drum or lug buckets of water from the river. Electric stoves are the exception in the Dominican. If a Dominican home has a stove, it is more often then not powered by propane - which makes sense in a country where the supply of electricity is so sporadic.

The day before yesterday, we drove down the mountain to go to the big grocery store. There were no long lines at the gas pumps, the grocery store was no busier then usual, there was plenty of bread, water, and canned food on the shelves, and people still lounged on their porches visiting with their neighbors. So it kind of makes sense that Weather Underground would not have a little warning signal next to Jarabacoa. In so many ways, life just continues as normal here - storm or no storm. The power will go off, there will be rain to gather from the barrel out back, and food to fix over the stove powered by propane. Granted, we are only dealing with a tropical storm, not a Category 5 Hurricane, but please pray, because with so much rain there will likely be mudslides and flooded homes. Families who have so little already may lose what little they have. The risks of disease and infection goes up when the rivers get stirred and when there is standing water around. That too is life as usual here. Pray that we who have been called to be Jesus' hands and feet will serve in a way that bring honor and glory to Him and in a way that brings hope and healing to those who need it.

"For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Colossians 1:9 & 10

Summer Time

We are well into our summer season of teams here in Jarabacoa. We have been so busy that our one year anniversary of being here in the DR came and went without us even realizing it. It's hard to believe that we have been gone from South Florida for over a year and we can honestly say that while transition here has been rough at times, it is happening and this is feeling more and more familiar and more and more like home to us.

Here are some high points of what has been going on in our lives.
We have a puppy ... depending on who you ask on which day, this is either a high point or a low point! If you read our last blog post, we introduced you to Kip, who is a Border Aussie that is now almost four months old. He is a very good natured, lovable, high-energy dog who keeps us on our toes. Mary Ellen has become a big fan of  Cesar Milan, "The Dog Whisperer" and is about half-way through the dozens of episodes posted on YouTube. We have learned a few very helpful tips that have made life with Kip much more enjoyable!

We have a new granddaughter. On June 19th at 8:45pm, Amelia Grace Meyer was born to Jason & Christina Meyer. She weighed 6lbs, 15oz, was 19 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing well although there were some challenges to begin with and Amelia had to spend her first night in the NICU where Christina works. This is our first grandchild on the Meyer side of the family, She is absolutely beautiful and we can't wait to meet her in person. 

Our oldest granddaughter, Kylie, arrives tomorrow and will be here until about mid-August. She will spend her first two weeks here participating in an outreach with the team that will also arrive tomorrow. We are so excited to have her here! She will make the 12th person in the house this summer (we have 8 interns and one volunteer living on the lower level of the guest house for the summer) but we still have one bedroom available if anyone wants to visit!

About 2 months ago we began to attend a church that has an English-speaking pastor. We had been going to a wonderful Dominican church where the teaching was great and the pastor and the people were warm and inviting. When we first began to go there last summer, there were lots of American teams visiting and the messages were all translated. After the summer teams all left we tried to remain there and glean what we could but it was difficult at our current level of Spanish understanding. So we found out about a church just on the outskirts of town and visited there. We have really been blessed by the little church at Caribbean Mountain Academy and are thankful for the bible teaching we receive there.

We have been encouraged by the teams that have been here thus far this summer. A highlight for us is attending the banquets at the end of the outreaches and hearing how the lives of the students, the leaders, and the communities they work in have been touched and changed during their two weeks here. Meal time is a rich time for Dick to be able to interact with the teams and their leaders (Mary Ellen is busy in the kitchen until most of the team is gone from the dining hall). Please pray for the remaining teams that will come through our gates this summer. We have recently been challenged anew to be certain that as we live out our busy lives, going about our daily tasks, that we represent Christ well.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.  Titus 2:11-14

Gearing Up For Summer!

Here's a quick post to catch you up on what has been happening lately in our lives.

In January we welcomed a gap-year program for their 2nd visit to SI-DR; the Joshua Wilderness Institute out of Hume Lake, CA. In March we had a full four weeks of back-to-back teams, including two teams from Jupiter: the Musicianaries and a team from Jupiter Christian School! In April and the first part of this month we had no teams but spent time doing projects we don't have time for while teams are here (general maintenance and organizational stuff) and working on plans for the year. It is still strange to us that while the school year is winding down in the States, we are gearing up for our "season" here.

In April, we welcomed a six-week old Border-Aussie pup (Border Collie-Australian Shepherd mix) named Kip into our home. He is adorable, energetic, and entertaining to say the least - there's lots of personality packed into his little body! We had forgotten how similar to having a baby it is to raise a puppy! Thankfully, the night trips outside have almost stopped and we have an arsenal of chew toys to help curb his appetite for furniture!

The first of May, Mary Ellen was given an opportunity to take a quick, last-minute trip to the Orlando area to settle some of our things into her parent's new home and visit with her brother's family, three of her four daughters, and six of her seven grandchildren during an impromptu mini family reunion. The only down side to this trip was that Sarah and Nadia were not able to be there due to Sarah's work obligations. It was a very brief visit but such a precious time and it did her heart good to see her parents settled into their new home with her brother and his family close by.


This past weekend, we joined the rest of the SI staff at a retreat that was held on the property that SI-DR used to call home (La Casa Tranquila). It was a wonderful weekend full of fellowship, refreshing and renewal. We were challenged to accept fully God's ferocious love for us and to make solitude with Him a priority in our lives. In doing this we are free to look to the Lord for all that we need - affirmation in our call to ministry, the ability to live in community with each other, and grace to extend to others.

We returned home ready to dig in to our final preparations for the summer. We are one week away from the start of our summer teams and there is a lot of activity here on the SI-DR base. We are excited and ready to get going again after a bit of down-time. We will spend this week making sure the guest house is ready for the ten interns who begin arriving on Wednesday, filing orders for delivery, and shopping for our first team that will arrive on the 21st.

We covet your prayers for a smooth summer and fall with lots of energy and grace to see it through! Please pray that all that pass through SI-DR will be free from sickness and harm. Pray too that those who have not yet committed their lives to the Lord would do so and for those who have given their lives to the Lord, that they will leave with a better picture of God's call on their lives.