Holloway Visit

A couple weeks ago my parents came to the DR. It was the first time out of the country for either of my parents.

I asked my mom if she'd like to write a blog post about her week and she agreed:

Ryan made sure that our Dominican Republic trip was full of adventure as well as getting to know his ministry site. We rode motorcycles, climbed mountains, saw the waterfalls, experienced the beach, ate Dominican food, and most importantly, met the women and children that Ryan and Caroline minister to every day.

My husband Greg and I spent one day with Ryan visiting the SI Base and learning about the work Ryan does and the preparation that takes place to make his ministry successful. We went to several bank sites and actually attended a bank meeting one evening.

It was there that we had the privilege to meet Miriam. Seeing first hand how she cares for the women and praying with them and teaching them Gods word really blessed my heart. I’m so thankful for her and what she does for the ministry.

Visiting with Caroline and participating in her ministry was the following day. The original meeting with the girls had been canceled but Caroline decided at the last minute to have the meeting. With little notice and a short amount of time Caroline told a few girls, “the meeting tomorrow is on, tell the others.” That they did!! The next morning 20 girls were bubbling with excitement and so happy to be together and especially excited to see Baby James. Caroline led the girls in prayer and singing and a study of

Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it. They were delighted to talk about God and share pictures with Caroline on how she and Ryan should train Baby James. What they didn’t want to do was…Go home. You could tell how much they loved her and wanted to stay. This too really blessed me.

I am so thankful for the time we had and all the different things we were able to do and see during our trip. What the Lord is doing through this ministry is amazing. The love I witnessed not only among the people but among the other site workers was truly phenomenal. Ryan’s colleagues were loving, giving, and very willing to sacrifice if it meant being a blessing to one another. It was refreshing to see the love of God in action through each one of them. This was a trip I will never forget!

MiBanco El Tesoro were thrilled to meet my family. One of the women made my mom a few bookmarks to take back to the US with her.


My dad clapping along to our opening song in spanish. Eso es Papi.


These two girls and James sharing a moment.


Prayer time.

Stage 4

The story of the Microfinance Site has gone in stages.

Stage 1: I passed my days walking around the community I hoped to work with one day, mostly just observing, or better said: absorbing. I also spent time 'absorbing' how Esperanza International does MF here in the DR.

Stage 2: I went for it. My Spanish was weak, and the site only existed in my mind and on my computer, but it was time to just go for it.

Stage 3: It actually worked. People borrowed, they paid back, they heard the Gospel and responded to it.

Stage 4: Miriam came along, and the site takes a great leap forward. I started focusing on long-term needs.

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I don't think I've shared exactly how important my Dominican co-worker is to the site. She is the site. When the women are in the hospital, she's their first phone call...literally. When they need an ear to vent to, she goes and she listens.

She wears many hats: pastor, mentor, confidant, teacher, nurse, (oh, and loan officer). She wears each one well, and her investment is paying off. At least one woman has accepted Christ in every group we've started.

I realized just how powerful her ministry was last Sunday at Church. Next to me sat the coordinator of our first group, her husband, her daughter, her grand-daughter, and her grand-daugther's friend. Ramona accepted Christ at a bank meeting about 2 years ago, and now her entire family is following in her footsteps.

This has given me the opportunity to look down the road. I'm less involved in the day-to-day activity of the site. I don't go to all our bank meetings. Instead, I'm focused on the structure and order of the site. Creating an accounting system, writing policy statements, writing down how to do everything, developing a curriculum, raising loan capital, searching for supporters for Miriam. It's a blessing really, because Miriam and I both fit nicely into our 'stage 4 roles'.

Stage 5: Pass the site along. This will be a sad stage, but it's coming. The good news is that I'll be leaving it all in very good hands. More to come on this soon.

Policy Book

This past fall we had a semester student, Margie Ewald, work with us at the Social Work site. She had several responsibilities including leading Bible studies and activities with several of the groups at the site. But her biggest contribution was a site policy book that she completed almost entirely by herself. We came up with a list of 79 issues that we are confronted with in the community (such as adultry, parenting, financial issues, etc) and looked up Bible verses that relate to each of the issues. Then Margie wrote 1-2 paragraphs summarizing where the Bible stands on each of the issues. The idea is that the book will be kept at the site as a reference when these issues come up. Many times Daisy and I are confronted with issues and though we can often share our own opinions and paraphrase what the Bible says, with this book at our fingertips, we can now share with the person exactly what the Bible says and share specific verses with them. We also hope that this book will continue to be a resource for new site leaders that come in this future, so they can know what types of issues they will be dealing with and how the Bible says to confront them. I have been using some of my time at home (between cleaning/cooking/caring for James) to translate it into Spanish (which has been quite the task...79 pages!)

I really like what Margie wrote as the purpose statement of the book:

The purpose and the heart behind this book is that it would be used as a resource to minister to and build relationships with the women, teenagers, and girls of El Callejon. This book was not created to be a policy book on life, a piece of literature to give to someone who is struggling, or a rigid rulebook on how to deal with problems. On the contrary, it was created to be a foundation for heartfelt and personal conversations where Christ can work through us, with words and loving embraces to walk alongside women who are struggling. Because there is no reasonable way to write comprehensive summaries of each of the topics within, this book promotes conversation, thought, and further study. This is simply a resource to do God’s work of building relationships and coming alongside other people who are in need of a friend or someone to talk to. Other uses for this book might include ideas for the formation of Bible studies or personal study.

Margie with Rosa- a girl that comes the activities at the site