Gifts from God

This morning was a beautiful reminder of how relational this culture is. I woke up with my mind swirling with the details of the busy day before me -- Language study, details for the upcoming trip to the States, more details regarding a full month of teams and visitors in October that need to get done BEFORE our visit to the States. Before I could even fix my morning cup of tea, I hear that the kitchen and grounds crew are going to go visit one of the cooks who has recently had knee surgery - do I want to go? The first thing that grips me is a little bit of fear because I am still so unsure of my language skills and heaven forbid I sound foolish! But I decide to go and jump in the van to go visit Lucila.

We head out toward the mountain range that is across the valley from the base. I have never been in this area before and it is a beautiful drive. We leave the main road and travel roads that are narrow, gravel, and full of pot holes. We have to dodge a horse grazing by the side of the road and the occasional chicken that runs into the road. We pull over to let a hay laden truck that is traveling the other way go by. They smile and wave.

As we go, I love listening to the friendly, joking banter between Mili, Carlos, Joan, Fico, Juana, Rudy, Hans, and Wilian. And I find that I can actually understand most of what is being said and can laugh along with their jokes. I remember a year ago listening to the same banter and wondering if maybe they were laughing at me and my futile attempts to communicate. They may have been but I have come to know them well enough to know that they are not malicious - they just love to laugh!

As we enter the community that Lucila lives in, Angela, another one of our cooks and Lucila's sister, comes out of her house to wave us in for a cup of coffee. Now I'm sure you are different from me but honestly, if a van load of nine people that I knew drove by my house in the past, I'm not sure that I would have done the same thing. I mean, is the house clean, do I have enough coffee creamer, do I have the time? Somehow those questions don't seem to matter so much anymore.

We drink our cafesita (a small cup of Dominican coffee with LOTS of sugar), leave the van there and walk down a few houses to see Lucila. We sit and talk for a bit, well, I sit and listen while they all talk about her surgery, then we head back to the van and drive back to the base.

As I sit here ready to get busy with my Spanish "tarea" I can hear the guys working on the grounds. I'm sure that Mili is busy in the cabins, getting them ready for our fall visitors. I love how willing they are to stop their busy schedules to go and sit for a minute with a friend so she knows that they are thinking about her. I think back to the many times that I should have put my friendships first and let my business go for a brief hour to be sure that that friend knew how important they were to me. I purpose in my mind to do that more.

Thank you Lord, for the gift of this morning and for reminding me that you created us to be in relationship with each other. Thank you for these wonderfully, warm, loving people that we get to walk along side of, who extend so much love and grace. Thank you for laughter and "cafesitas" that help bridge the language gap. Thank you too for bringing us to this place in our lives, to this country, to these people, to serve You in this way. We pray that we represent You well!

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