Faces

We did this a few times a while back and in continuation with this theme here are a few more faces of the some of the people here.


Lindsey, Kathy, and Rachel. Lindsey and Rachel came down with their university and Kathy is a 15 year old girl who lives in El Callejon. Kathy is very sweet and well-behaved, and like most girls her age is a little boy crazy. But recently she has been going through some tough times. A 40 year old Italian man recently took interest in her and wanted to marry her. He gave her dad some money to help with some health issues he has been having, and because of this, Kathy's parents started to pressure her to marry him. But clearly Kathy did not want to marry him, so he went back to Italy. But now Kathy's parents are mad at Kathy and have been ignoring her and treating her badly. Now Kathy is in a very tough situation because even though she did the right thing, she has lost the love and care of her parents. Please pray that Kathy will continue to be strong and will learn to rely on Christ during this difficult time. Please pray that her parents will realize the hurt they are causing her and that would stop.



Genesis and Rachel. Genesis is an adorable 2 year old girl. She comes to the Social Work site with her mom and grandmother. She was born premature at 6 months, and since then she has had a lot of physical problems. She is now mostly healthy expect that she can't walk. Her muscles are like jelly. She has been going to the Students International developmental therapist (Amy Green) and it has helped her a lot. She has made a lot of improvement. She can now walk when she is holding onto something. Please pray that God will continue to heal her and that she grows up to be a strong healthy woman.

Boy's Club

One thing I love about our blog is that my spouse and I never really say who's actually writing. I think sometimes you can definitely tell, but other times you can't. Ever since 2007 when we started fundraising we consistently had to collaborate on writings together, and our styles have become more and more similar.

Almost a year ago I started a Boy's Club ministry in El Callejon with the purpose of sharing the Gospel with these boys, printing my own money (haha), and teaching the boys how to work, save, and manage dinero. It's been a blast. I get to act like a 12 year old 1 day a week and I love it. At the end of some of the meetings, we go in the yard behind the SW Site where the boys have one goal: to try and knock me over. It normally goes until they can get enough boys together to actually take me down.

It's also been an effective opportunity to minister. Many of the boys have come to know Christ and each week they learn more about how to walk with Him.

There are about 35 boys that come to the Friday Club meetings. Enjoy some of the best pictures of time spent with them.

The very first meeting back in May. The man helping me is a Dominican-American who used to played in the MLB.


I have Dominicans come and share lessons whenever I can. This lesson was about being a Warrior for God.


Flashin their paper. Have I posted this picture before?


Joandre earned 20 pesos for washing this motorcycle. they get 10 Ryan dollars for every peso but they have to pay 5 pesos for materials. He earned $150 de Ryan.


Hidalgo saved for 10 weeks to earn that bike.


Diego ready to take a swing.


Right before I left for Christmas we had a huge field day. There were 2 teams in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. It was my team "Los fuertes" (The strong guys) against the 'other' Ryan's team "Los chevere 9" (the cool 9). My team won in the morning but lost by 1 point in the afternoon.

Los Chevere 9


Five (he was the fifth child and goes by the english word five) and his partner Jose. The purpose of the game was to guard your team's egg while trying to swat the other teams with a sandal. Five did not want to play because he didn't want to get his hair all eggy. I finally convinced him and they ended up winning and his egg didn't explode. I thought he was being a baby for being afraid of a little egg so I broke it after the game was over. He was very upset and late I found out that there was no water at his house to take a shower and he had to go to school in the afternoon. I felt terrible but he found it in his heart to forgive me.


A gross-food eating contest. Francis is enjoying dog food, mayo, mustard, and cayenne pepper.


Frangi.


Miguel.


Luis.

The US of A

We got back on Saturday from a 4 week trip to the States. It was an awesome time with friends and family. We were really happy to go home this year, since last year we stayed here in the DR for Christmas.

Highlights of our vacation:
-spending 24 hours in the JFK airport (not really a highlight but definitely worth mentioning)
-doing Christmas baking, cooking, and eating
-American shopping
-time with friends and family
-being able to spend Christmas with our families (instead of over Skype like last year!)
-Caroline visiting family in Massachusetts
-Ryan being a groomsman in Andrew and Brittany's wedding
-staying in the house that the Whites rented for 3 nights for Andrews friends with many of our college friends
-Nathaniel and Brett's wedding
-visiting Covenant Presbyterian Church
-receiving very generous and awesome Christmas gifts from people from Cov Pres

I could go on but you would get bored. Overall we had a fun, event-filled but restful vacation. Here are some pictures.....


Some of us at the house in Williamsburg that the Whites rented for us. This picture I think is a combination of caroling, a Propel advertisement, and general awkwardness.


Andrew and Brittany's first dance. They are adorable.


Brandon at the meat carving station.


The dancing train.


Nathaniel and Brett's wedding. First dance.


The Into Hymn girls serenading Nathaniel and Brett with "Feels like Home," which is me and Ryan's song....even though he is convinced it is he and Tripp's song :)


Brandon's comedy show


Ryan holding June Coleman...Kyle and Melissa's beautiful baby girl.


A guy dressed up as the Statue of Liberty dancing at a major intersection in Newport News. Our guess is he either lost a bet or was advertising Liberty Tax Services....but he had no sign or anything that said he worked for them.....

Marriage

It is typical in many Dominican families, especially in the poor communities, that the man and woman are not legally married. Most of the time a man and woman move in together, have children, and call themselves husband and wife, but they are not actually married. There are several reasons for this. One is simply that it is a cultural thing. Another is that the cost of marriage (and divorce) and fairly high. Thirdly, the esteem of marriage is not very high; adultery and separation are very common. It is pretty normal for a man or woman to have 5 children and they are all from a different spouse.

This is one of the cultural things that was hard for me to accept/understand when I got here. How can these 2 women in El Callejon have children from the same man and still be good friends? Or on the other extreme, how can this man and woman have 4 children together, have been faithful to each other for 20 years, and not be married?? I try to explain this to the students that come down, but it's just one of those cultural things that we can't really understand. This was especially challenging for a group of 3 American women that came down from a church in California in August. Through discussions and interactions with these women, we came up with the idea to legally marry some of the couples in El Callejon.

We first presented this idea to the Dominican women one day at Bible study in September. But because this is such a counter-cultural idea, a lot of the women just thought we were crazy. But after we got them excited about the idea of a wedding with cake and dresses and flowers, a handful of women started to consider the idea more seriously. We started to have weekly meetings with the couples where we would watch movies like Fireproof or have an outside speaker come in and give a sort of "pre-marital counseling." We continued this until December when we finalized it down to 3 couples. We have spent the last 2 weeks figuring out all the legal paperwork and details; figuring out food, cake, and decorations; and helping the women prepare by giving them facials and manicures.

On Thursday we had the formal ceremony. It was very simple. It was just outside of the Social Work site, but the couples came dressed to the nines and glowing with joy. One of the Students International leaders, Luis, gave a talk on marriage. We ate sancocho (a Dominican specialty). We had a beautifully decorated cake. It was wonderful!

















Our prayer is that God blesses the 3 couples. That they understand what God's will for marriage truly is. That this may be an example for other couples in the community to take this same step for their relationship.

We know that things like this that are so deeply ingrained in the culture we cannot change. Only God has that power. Please pray with us that God will change the culture's view on marriage.



On a totally separate note....we will be in Virginia Dec 19-Jan 16. We will be in Newport News most of the time and will be taking a short trip to Harrisonburg. We would love to see all of you, so let us know how we can make that happen!!