Struggling Against a Culture

Neither Ryan and I are fans of "downer" blog posts. We usually like to write about the successes of our ministries. However, the reality is that not everything we do is a success. As you all know, my co-worker and I have been working on encouraging the couples in El Callejon to legalize their marriages. The past several weeks have been focused on just this...helping them through the legal process and planning for a celebration ceremony. This has not been easy. The intention was to marry off 3 couples. There have been complications with each of the couples, but I'll share with you the details of one...

Censio and Tona have lived together 18 years and have 4 children together. In order to get married in this country you need 3 things: an identification card (cedula), a birth certificate, and your children's birth certificates. Both Censio and Tona had their cedulas....check. They also have all of their children's birth certificates...check. However neither of them had their birth certificates. Tona's problem was relatively easy to solve. Her birth certificate was expired (didn't know that could happen!), so we had to go to Santiago (about 1 hour away), fill out some paperwork, and done. But Censio has been much more of an issue. He did not have any form of his birth certificate, and on his cedula there were only zeros in the area where it usually tells you his identification number. So we were told that we must go down to La Vega, where he was born, (1/2 hour away) to get his birth certificate. We went once, with no success. They told us that we had to go to the hospital where he was born. At this point it was already late so we went back to Jarabacoa. The next day, we decided we had done enough traveling, so we gave Censio the money and information and told him to take care of it. Later that day he told us that he had given everything to a friend and told him to get the birth certificate for him. However, we found out that this was a lie and that he had used the money to pay a bill he had. So we realized we needed to take care of the problem ourselves. We went to La Vega to the hospital he was supposedly born, they sent us to another government building, then another, then another. At the last building they told us that we needed to go to the capitol (2.5 hours away). At this point we were ready to give up, but my co-worker, Daisy, has family in the capitol that could help her out so she decided to give it one last shot. Failure. It turns out that Censio's cedula number is just completely wrong. My best guess is that he got it during elections at some point and they just gave him a random number so that he could vote.

By this point we were exhausted, frustrated, and ready to give up. It seemed as though we were trying to do the right thing...get this couple married, but everything was going wrong. We went to our site director, Nate, for some advice. He shared with us that Satan has had a grasp on the community of El Callejon for years and years....especially in the area of marriages, and that he is not going to give it up without a fight. That is why we were being attacked by the government, the lawyer, and the couples themselves. Satan wants us to be exhausted and give up. But then he would win. We must be wise on how we spend our energy and time, but if we continue with the legalization of these marriages....we are going to see a great change in the community. We already have! We have seen and heard about (from people in the community) how the men that got married last year have changed. They no longer drink too much, or sleep around, and they even sometimes help with the dishes!

We don't know what the next step should be with Censio and Tona. A fellow staff member said we should get a lawyer involved (i.e. lots of extra expenses). It's just shocking to me how so many people in this country live this way, without any valid paperwork on themselves. How do we handle a problem like this??

Please pray for wisdom in what to do. It seems as though we have had many failures in this part of our work, but the reality is, we are fighting against something that has been engrained in this culture for who knows how many years. Therefore, the fact that 4 couples have been married (and many more are interested) since we started this project is a huge step forward! I'll leave you with Ephesians 6:12 that has been an encouragement to me...

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

New Mailing Address

Hi everyone! Please note that we have a new mailing address. We will still have access to our old one until January (so don't worry if you already sent us something!). But from now on please use this address:

Ryan & Caroline Holloway
AGAPE FLIGHTS STI - #25921
100 Airport Avenue
Venice, FL 34285

Please note that we still have to pay $1.50 per pound to receive packages. To help us with this, there are a few options...

-you could just avoid sending heavy things
-you could include in the box a check made out to Ryan and Caroline Holloway for the amount
-you could send us the money through our Pay Pal account (see link on blog)

Please let us know if you have any questions and remember we always love getting mail!!

Long Distance Relationships

Everyone knows that long distance relationships aren't easy. Even in an age of twitter (look to the right) and "face time", actual physical quality time together is crucial to any relationship. The work that goes into maintaining an LDR is twice as much, with half the reward. Jealousy and loneliness creep around every corner. The result is often bad. Really bad.

2 years ago I choose to enter an LDR with football. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew that our relationship would be tested. Would we slowly drift apart? Would I leave football for baseball? Would I use her name to refer to her black and white international cousin? Or would I go the extra hundred yards and make it work? To be honest, I wasn't sure...only time would tell.

Well, I'm proud to say that we've made it. Despite a crawling internet connection, spanish commentators saying words like "far vay" and "vikingos", and nearly 3 years w/o owning a TV I am proud to say that we're still as in love as ever. At the start of this season we finally purchased a TV and have the US networks in English. We also just recently upgraded from 200 kbs to 2000kbs thanks to Claro TresG going nationwide here in the DR. I also started a Fantasy Football league among some of the American staff here and everyone has gotten really into it. I'm currently in 2nd place, but will get passed by my boss if Frank Gore doesn't go off tonight.

Anyway, people often ask what we do for fun here in the DR. Now you know that at least 1 day in 7 is spent maintaining a relationship with my first love.

-Caroline

Partnering with Microfinance

One of the coolest things about Microfinance is that it's a much more sustainable way to help the needy. That's what first attracted me to the concept way back in college. I remember reading about Mohamed Yunnis and the Grameen Bank and how it all worked...and worked well.

I decided to put these success stories to the test and see if it might work in the DR. I've shared on this blog before how the site has gone well. We've had our bumps along the road but we're still cranking out new groups, and the existing groups are still paying back their loans.

Also, the site is sustainable. Our current monthly budget is $250 and we're making about $300/month in interest.

However, when we added Miriam on as a full time staff our budget changed. Now our total expenses our $1000/month when we include her salary. We have 3 choices:

1. We can raise interest rates, but in order to meet costs we would have to lend at 72% APR.

2. We could add groups, but we’d need 15, that would be 300 personal visits and 60 group meetings each month.

3. We can find financial partners to support the difference.

I'm in the process of building financial partnerships with individuals and churches that have come to the DR and worked with the MF Site, but we must share our need with a broader audience.

I know that many of our readers already support our work here, but if you're looking for a place for some end of the year giving, a one-time gift, or if you'd like to partner with our site on a monthly basis, here's what you need to do:

• Make an official donation (with tax-deductible receipt) by calling SI at: 559-627-8923.
• Another option is to use the Donate button on the right and donate online. I put this as an option because SI is stuck in the 90s and has no way to give online. So, while unofficial, this at least makes online giving an option, if tax-deductions don't matter to you.
  

My goal is to raise $5000 by the end of 2010. I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Spiritual Fruit

This summer, Miriam Sicard started working full-time in the Microfinance Site. It was my intention from the beginning that I find a national to work with me in the site. She has done an excellent job of filling that role.

We compliment each other well. I can handle the administration of the site. I created the accounting system and work with the money. But I just can't connect on a significant level with the women in the site (for a variety of reasons). Miriam is just the opposite. She's not as skilled with managing all the details of the site, but can be that connection point, a light in the communities we work in.

Every morning she visits women in their businesses. Sometimes she talks about their work, other times it's just to have a café and talk about life. She teaches one woman how to read, and takes another to pray with her elderly mother each week. She normally has lunch at a woman's house in the community she's in that day, and that afternoon all the women meet for their MiBanco meeting.

I can't say enough how crucial this is to my ministry. I don't care if we have a 100% repayment rate for 10 years, if people aren't hearing the Gospel and responding to His Call for us, than the site is a failure.

Well, I'm happy to say that one of the women Miriam is discipling gave her life to Christ. She is in our 4th bank in Mata Gorda and her name is Georgina. She owns a food stand. She is very soft spoken and deals with an abusive husband. The very first day we went to her house for an interview she broke down crying because her mother was dying. Miriam was able to come along side her through the whole process. Now, Miriam goes to her house every Monday to cultivate her new faith.

Please pray that in every community we go, womens' lives would be changed the way Georgina's was changed.


Miriam enjoying a cup of juice with one of our summer students. Free snacks is the occasional perk to our ministry.


Georgina posing for her picture that will eventually go on her MiBanco ID Badge.

Women's Retreat

This past week we had a 5 day retreat at the Social Work site. It was wonderful!! Three amazing women from Indiana and Chicago came down to lead it. It was based on Beth Moore's Bible study "Breaking Free." We talked about being trapped in a prison of lies and how to break out victoriously with Christ on our side. We also did some fun activities each day such as manicures, pedicures, massages, haircuts, and jewelry making. Several of the women shared how blessed they had been by the study and how much they had learned. I have learned from working in the community that people are pretty inconsistent with attendance and committments. But this week a consistent 25 women came every single day! On the last day we took all the women to a waterfall (which most of them had never been to!) where they were able to relax and have fun. We also used the time to show them that just like water is everywhere and unending, God's love is more than enough for everyone in the world to have without it ever running out.


Debi sharing about Step 1: Recognizing our captor


Lori grew up in Mexico, so she was able to be our translator for the week....a huge blessing/break for me!


Looking up Bible verses


Karen giving a haircut


Debi giving pedicures


Some of the women making beaded cross pins.


Salto Biguate. If you look closely you can see Ramona all the way at the top!


The whole group

Job Opening

As everyone knows, Caroline and I have committed to another year here in the Dominican Republic. However, as we look ahead to finding our replacements, that process needs to start now. There is already someone very interested in Caroline's position. We'll let you know more information as we learn it.

If you or anyone you know is interested in working as the Microfinance Site Director, please contact me.

Here is a job description for the position.

24 weeks

People have been asking for some belly pics so here I am at 24 weeks...

Social Work Site Happenings

There's been a lot going on at the Social Work site lately. Let me catch you up on a few things...

• We're getting a new site!! For several years now SI has been praying for the money to build a new Social Work site in El Callejon. A few months ago, God answered our prayers when someone donated about half the money we need to build a new facility! If you have ever been to the site, you know that the building we currently work in is way too small to accommodate all of the people that come on a daily basis. Needless to say, we are very excited! We purchased the land and have plans to start construction in October. Please pray with us that the rest of the funds come in. Here is a picture of the current Social Work site...quite small...

• Wedding season! As many of you remember from last year, 3 couples from the community got married in a culture where legal marriage is not a cultural norm. This December we plan to do the same thing. We currently have 6 couples who are interested. We will soon be starting a "pre-marital" counseling where once a week we have a lesson, movie, or guest speaker come and talk to the couples about Christian marriage. We've seen the blessing that this decision has been for the 3 couples from last year, and we pray the same from the couples who will make the commitment this year.

Daisy and I with one of last year's happy couples

• Semester students! In about 1 month we will have 2 girls from Bethel College that will be working with us at the site until December. They are currently here taking Spanish classes every day, so that when they come they will be excited and able to talk! They will be a huge help to us in that they will take charge of some of the site activities as well as help us with special projects we have like the wedding, Christmas parties, and creating a site policy book. They will be especially helpful to me because I know that as my belly gets bigger and bigger, my energy level will get lower and lower. Please pray for Rachel and Margie that during their time at the site they would not only minister to the community in great ways, but that Daisy and I would be able to minister to their lives as well.

Well as always, I could go on and on, but I'll leave you with that for now. Check back for more details about these new happenings!

It's a...

It's a boy. His name will be James Warren Holloway.

Both Caroline and the baby are doing very well.

Hey look, a new look

So, we thought we'd spice our blog up a little with some new fonts and color schemes...enjoy.

Also, we added a cool PayPal "Donate" button. However, click the "read before donating" link on the right first. This donate button is for direct giving and is not a substitute for regular, tax-deductible giving.

Videos

Over the summer, the Microfinance Site summer intern created 3 videos about our work in the DR. The links our below.

Microfinance Site

Social Work Site

Boy's Club


oh, and we should know the sex of the baby pretty soon. So stay tuned...

Summer's Best 2 Weeks

(I also posted about the MF Site below this one)

My first trip to the DR was with my college small group, Gladdeus, in 2005. We went to Monte Plata to start building a SB2W summer camp. Well, that summer camp is now built and has been going strong for several years. Since I started working with boys last year it's been a dream of mine to send some of them to the camp. Well, 2 boys got that chance this summer: Nickaury and Franyi. They're both leaders in the club and have a lot of potential.

It was funny because, for several weeks, I kept building up at the boys leadership meetings that there was a great prize coming soon. When I finally told them that 2 of the 5 leaders would be going across the country to this camp their reaction surprised me: silence...total silence. It wasn't that they didn't think it would be fun, it was that they'd never left home before. They've spent 90% of their entire life in a little community about 1 mile life. This prize would take them further from home then they'd ever gone before. Thankfully, they braved it out and ended up having a great time.

They spent a week playing all different types of games, sports, and activities, as well as learning about Christ from their counselors. The first thing the boys asked me was if they would be able to go back next year. They will. They most encouraging part was that they came back on fire for God. Now it's my job to make sure that fire doesn't fade.


Nickaury.


Franyi. I know he looks American...even the other boys at the camp thought he was too until he spoke spanish.

100% and going strong

I haven't blogged much on the microfinance site lately, but that's not because it's not going well. Here are some encouraging stats after just 16 months since our first loan was given:

1. There are now 4 microbanks of 8-10 women each; MiBanco La Victoria, MiBanco Progresando, Mibanco Esperanza, and MiBanco El Tesoro
2. Nearly 40 women have loans
3. We have a bank in all 3 communities SI has been involved in over the past 10 years (El Callejon, Los Higos, and Mata Gorda)
4. We have a 100% repayment rate with no major problems to date.
5. MiBanco La Victoria has already paid back loans of $250 and $500. They each got a $1000 loan 2 months ago and are voluntarily paying it back at double the rate.
6. 2 women have accepted Christ and all of them have heard the Gospel and participated in Bible studies.
7. We regularly have women that show up at bank meetings with lists of women from their community that are ready and waiting to start businesses.

God has really blessed the program this past year. Pray that we would continue to grow as we continue to grow. Enjoy a few pictures from the past year:


Miriam, Lucy, and Milagros at Milagros' fried food stand. Miriam now works with me full-time in the microfinance site, Lucy worked with us as a student for 2 weeks and was one of the most amazing people I ever met. Milagros is in MiBanco La Victoria and started her stand with the loans.


Some students and I at Ramona's restaurant. Since this picture she's added a house behind and a roof over the area where all the students are sitting.


Dulce peeling the skin off of a yucca. She will later grind that yucca into a pulp and turn it into a flatcake called Casabe. Then she'll walk through town with her Casabe on her head until she sells it all.

SI DR Website

Hey everyone! We know we are way overdue on an update, but don't worry, we're on vacation this week so expect a good one soon. But until then...check out the new Students International Dominican Republic website...

www.sidominicanrepublic.com/dr

Our baby's first pictures

On Tuesday we had an ultrasound. It was the second one...but since I was only 4 weeks along on the first one...this is the first time (s)he actually looks like a baby instead of a dot. We were so excited to know that the baby continues to develop healthily, has a good heartbeat, and is already moving around! It's so crazy that (s)he already looks like a baby even though (s)he is only like 3 inches tall. Here are some ultrasound pictures. I don't know how good the quality is, but our families have been dying to see them :)


In these 2 pictures, the top one shows the whole baby and the bottom one is the placenta


Top- leg, middle- abdomen, bottom- head. All of which measured perfectly at 12 weeks!

Pregnancy

As of today Caroline is about 9 weeks pregnant. The baby should be born sometime around January 23rd. We'll be having the baby here in the DR at a brand new hospital in Santiago, DR. Fernando Gonzalez is an OBGYN and is also a full-time missionary in charge of the medical site for SI. He will be caring for Caroline during her pregnancy.

Caroline has been doing great, she hasn't felt any discomfort or nausea. With teams here, our lives are particularly busy right now so it's been a blessing that she hasn't been feeling bad.

Thanks for all the congratulations and we'll keep everyone posted on how she's doing.

Middle Management

Two months ago, JMU sent a spring break team to the DR for a 1 week outreach, like they do every year. This year was particularly exciting for me because I had 2 JMU students, CJ (the IV staff worker), and a bank president from Florida with me at my site. It was a great week for me and the students and they also made a lasting impact on my work here.

One afternoon during the week, I presented a problem I had that I needed them to solve: When I started the boys club it was with only about 10 boys and it was easy for me to find them each jobs every week and then be around to verify that they're doing them. However, over the past year as my main job (MicroBanks) started to take off, so did the boys site. 8 months into the club over 50 boys were involved it was impossible for me to find and verify so many jobs.

After some brainstorming they came up with a genius idea: Middle Management. I elect and train leaders (boys from the club) that are in charge of their own work crew. The leaders get paid for finding and overseeing the jobs of their crew. In turn the leaders get a Ryan Dollars salary plus a commission on every job successfully completed by their crew. They are given a total amount that their crew can earn each week and are responsible for choosing how much to pay for each job they selected and then who gets what job. They want to give their best workers the best paying jobs but they have to balance that with their younger workers who don't want to be taken advantage of.

Over the past 8 weeks I've been training the leaders about how it all works and about what it means to be a leader. We studied the life of Jesus to learn that leadership means service. Each week I help the boys manage problems in their group and assess them on their job quality. Every 10 weeks all the managers doing a good job will get to join me on a special trip to the movies, the beach or a baseball game.

It has been a complete success. I have 7 leaders, each with 5-member crews. I gave each of them a fancy padfolio to maintain all their records. It's wonderful, but also really funny, to see all these boys walking around El Callejon like little inspectors.

Pray that God would use all this to teach these boys about male leadership, which is something El Callejon desperately needs.


Josh and Will were the brains of the idea. While they were thinking of this great idea CJ was defacing my currency with pirate patches and cowboy hats.


Fill up 1 bag of trash from the street: $250 de Ryan


Francis and I before a bike ride. He has been my most faithful follower and God has really worked in his life through the site. He's in charge of his own crew, Los Fuertes, and he loves every minute of it.

Haiti Pictures

Some pictures from our trip...


At the border. People have set up all kinds of things to sell.


One of the largest tent communities we saw. All of these people lost their homes in the earthquake and are living in these tents indefinitely.


The remains of a building.


The tent community that we worked in.


Doing the "human knot" with the teenage girls.


Ryan dancing or fighting (not sure?) with one of the boys.




A view of the city and a collapsed home




The Presidential Palace. Not the best picture but you can see that it collapsed.


A 3 story building collapsed into a big mess.


Crowded streets


Ryan getting his face decorated with stickers


The teenage girls working on their purses made out of plastic bags and old jeans.



We took a lot more pictures, but hopefully this gives you and idea of what our trip was like and the current condition of Haiti. As Ryan said before....please keep praying for Haiti.

Haiti

Last week Caroline and I had the privelege to spend 4 days in Port-au-Prince, Haiti with 20 SI staff and their families. We worked with a tent "city" of 500 people living in the parking lot of a fallen down car dealership in the heart of Port-au-Prince. The trip was very "SI-style" in that we were divided into several sites to minister to different segments of the community (dentistry, construction, bread-making, and kids groups of different ages).

I worked with the teenage boys playing sports and other games. Our field was small and also doubled as the trash dump but we had a great time. The boys really loved the water balloon launcher I brought. I would launch water balloons about 100 feet in the air and they would try and catch them, resulting in a pint-sized shower each time. After each activity we had a short Bible lesson.

Caroline worked with teenage girls. The highlight for them was making hand bags out of old jeans and strips of plastic. They learned to make something beautiful from trash, a Bible lesson in it's self. The other Bible study they did I thought was brilliant. They taught the girls about how the Israelites fled from Egypt and had to start a whole new society with new rules, values and customs. Then Caroline (via their translator named Paper) shared how the girls are in a similar point in life. She asked them what values and rules they want to have in their new city. As a group they shared what was important to them and then wrote down their ideas. Here's what they wrote:

Leadership-We think our city needs leaders to be in charge and maintain rules
Respect-We think everyone should respect each other
Cleanliness-We want our city to be as clean as possible
Community-We want to work together in whatever we do
Prayer groups-We want to start and maintain prayer groups that meet together every day.

As I saw the destruction on every corner of Haiti, I couldn't stop thinking about what these girls value in their new city. It's been 3 months since the crisis and it's already an afterthought for most of the world, but somehow these Haitians have to start over. Where do they begin? The government is broken, the buildings are destroyed, their whole world has changed. What now?

That's all I thought the whole trip: What now? I felt like the initial shock was wearing off for everyone and that's the question they was asking. People's most basic needs are being met but they can't live in plastic tents forever. What now? The first task is a morbid one, finish destroying what the earthquake started. Before any rebuilding can be done, rubble must be removed. So goes the slow task of hacking at fallen buildings with a pick ax and then tossing the remains in a truck to be dumped in whatever open field isn't already filled with tents.

I noticed commerce was starting again. Since most the large businesses were destroyed small scale markets had formed along the street. Imagine taking everything out of a walmart and then selling it on both sides of a road the size of your driveway. It's not very efficient for consumers or cars. What now?

Now is the greatest opportunity for Christians to share the gospel in a tragically poor and historically dark place. My prayer is that as everyone from little girls to governments are forming new rules and values there would be Christians at their side to speak Truth into the process.

Pray for Haiti. Pray that God uses this tragedy to rebuild a country based on Him. Pictures to come soon.

Lourdes

Some of you may remember Lourdes Pichardo from previous updates. About a year ago she was diagnosed with a very serious case of cervical cancer. We knew from the beginning it would be terminal, but we did not lose hope. Especially Lourdes. I could go on and on of all of the amazing ways the Lord has worked through Lourdes' sickness. He brought the other women in the community together to donate and raise money for her chemotherapy. He used her testimony to deeply impact the lives of many American students. Most importantly, He brought Lourdes to salvation.

Lourdes' health roller coastered this past year until the last few months when she drastically got worse and worse. Then last Thursday night she passed away. We are of course very sad to lose such a wonderful and beautiful person. We are especially sad for her 3 young children she left behind. However it brings us great joy knowing that she is rejoicing with our Savior right now. Though he sickness had caused a lot of pain, it is all worth it for this one reason.

Though I have a peace knowing where Lourdes is now, I continue to be concerned about her children. I worry that without their mother they could end up on the wrong paths. I need your help in praying for them. Their names are Eloisa (15), Yoemmy (11), and Yeimi (4).


Lourdes with her oldest daughter Eloisa


The 2 younger ones- Yeimi and Yoemmy

Thanks for your prayers and God Bless!

The Shoe Crew

Last week we had a team here from Taylor University in Indiana. Usually when teams come down the students are divided up among the already established ministry sites. But this year there were about 7 students from Taylor that decided to do something a little different. Throughout the week they traveled to several communities in Jarabacoa doing different activities. On Tuesday they were in El Callejon. They started by doing a variety of running races with the children. Then one of the leaders shared the Gospel message with them by saying that when he was young all he cared about was being the best runner until the Lord showed him that that was a hollow goal. He shared how he then started to live for Christ and learned that the only true victory comes through Him. The students then gave a brand new pair of tennis shoes, a t-shirt, and a Bible to every child. They then washed their feet and prayed for each child. It is such a blessing when people can come into the community and share the true and generous love of Christ. And the kids were sooo excited about their new kicks. A lot of them have never in their life owned brand new tennis shoes! Thank you Taylor University!

1 more year...

Caroline and I have committed to staying with SI a year beyond our original commitment, until October 2011. We love our work and feel like God has us right where he wants us. It was my goal from the beginning that I start the Microfinance Site with the intention of passing it on to a Dominican leader. Praise God that Miriam Sicard has been helping me from the start and has committed to be full time staff starting this summer. With a full year to work with I'm confident I can leave the site well equipped for the future.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Happy Easter!

Pizza!!!

Today I took some of the El Callejon girls into town to eat pizza. To us this doesn't seem like a big deal at all....but to them it seemed like the greatest thing in the world. Most of them don't get the opportunity to leave their community very often...so when they do it's a big deal (especially when they are going to eat pizza)! They were soo cute! These girls are between 9 and 12 years old, but they all came with their most fashionable clothes, their hair styled, and makeup on. They continued to share lipsticks and fix each other's hair even once we got there. The restaurant we went to has a small playground they got to play on too. These girls definitely have an appreciation for the simple things in life. I know I could learn a few things from them. Enjoy some pictures!!


On the way out..



The whole group waiting for the bus


Ready for pizza!


Swinging


Edelin in some shnazzy sunglasses


Yeni


more swinging!