Summer's Best 2 Semanas

God really worked in the lives of my boys during camp. Their counselors did a great job pouring into them spiritually and they came back eager to tell me all the stories of what happened during their trip. Enjoy a few pictures.



All 6 cabins getting ready to watch a skit. Each cabin has 10 boys and 2 counselors. The first week was for boys 8-12 and the second week for boys 13-17. I sent 5 boys the first week and 10 the second. All the pictures are from the first week.


Jim Welch with two of my boys. Jim is inspiring and I always love when I get to connect with him. He's the founder of SB2W and his son Kyle was in my college small group.


Morning exercises.


Gotta show those teeth if you want your table to get dismissed. The boy in the blue jersey is Luis Miguel, one of my favorite boys from El Callejon.


Back in 2005 these steps were just a river bank. Ryan Joyce (My college small group leader) and I labored hard on creating this river access.


Romans vs Galatians. All the boys are part of one of the two teams and they compete throughout the week in various sports and activities. The Romans one for the first time!


Galatians.


That's a Tarantula. I found it outside my bunk. Definitely the biggest spider I've ever seen.


Have you ever wondered what a pineapple plant looks like?


Gladdeus help clear the land and dig the footer holes for this cabin.


The view from below the spider web. Each boy has to pass through a different hole, but if you touch a rope you've gotta start over.


Learning how to play Ultimate Frisbee.

Dominican Traveling

I had a uniquely Dominican experience today:

I spent the last 2 days in Monte Plata (about 4 hours from Jarabacoa) because I took boys from El Callejon to Summer's Best Two Weeks DR. SB2W has a special place in my heart. My first time in the DR was in 2005 when I came with my small group to help build this camp. Now 6 years later I'm sending 15 campers. More on this in another post.

I awoke this morning to the sound of rain pounding down on the tin roof over my head. It was a pleasant for sleeping but a problem for my morning departure back to Jarabacoa. The heavy rains raised the river about 4 ft and made the gravel road to the camp unpassable...for a car.

So, my journey back to Jarabacoa began with me crossing a fast moving 4 ft deep river on a horse. I rode the horse about 20 minutes out to the highway that happened to pass right by the camp. I dismounted and began walking down the highway waiting for someone to respond to my thumb, which only took about 30 minutes. (check hitch-hiking on my life's todo list).

I rode standing on the last step of the entrance of a bus for about an hour back to Santo Domingo. From there I hopped into a concho along with 7 other people on my way to the bus station. What's a concho? Have you ever wandered what happened to all the Toyota Corollas from the 90's? Answer: they're used as public transportation (conchos) in the DR.

I waited about 2 hours for the next bus to Jarabacoa, where I arrived and then walked about 15 minutes to my house.

MiBanco 2.0

The first quarter of 2011 had a "catch our breath" feel to it in the MF Site. Instead of being quick to keep adding groups, we stayed with 5 for 6 months and spent time reevaluating the program. We've come up with some interesting changes:

1. Individual loans start with loan #3 and allow us to be more discerning with who we lend to and gives borrowers a lot more flexibility
2. Lower Interest. We're dropping our interest rate for individual loans from 2%/month to 1%/month.
3. Collateral: We continue to only use "social collateral" with the first 2 group loans, but starting with loan #3 associates will be signing loan contracts that include something as collateral

I've also developed a curriculum for the first 30 meetings we have with any new group. It's a personal finance course that teaches everything from giving, to saving, to budgeting, to how to teach your kids about money.

Kim Streeter

As many of you have now heard, our plan is to leave Jarabacoa and head back to the States some time in early 2012. Ever since Ryan and I first started to think about leaving about a year ago, we both started to pray that God would bring leaders to replace us at our sites. If you've read our most recent newsletter, you know that God has answered our prayers. So I'm going to share with our about my replacement...Kim Streeter.

Kim came down to the DR in the summer of 2008, shortly before Ryan and I got here, and worked with Daisy at the Social Work site. She did a good job of keeping up with the site once she left, and I would hear lots of good things about her from Daisy. And I found out she was from Harrisonburg, so I knew she had to be cool :). So when I heard she was coming down in August 2010 for an outreach...I got excited. Now I don't remember the exact details of how everything happened, but at some point I remember thinking before she even got here, "Kim should take my place at the site when I leave." That idea never really left my mind. Around the same time I also found out I was pregnant, and knew that we would need someone else to work at the site. I think it was her second day here and I casually mentioned to her "Hey Kim, you should come down here and take my place at the site." One of her team members was there as well and she said she had been telling Kim the same thing. To my surprise, Kim said she had been thinking and praying about it for a while! But I tried not to get my hopes up, and we had a great time working together the rest of the 2 weeks. She left the DR still uncertain of her calling. Then a couple months later she came back down to interview. By the end of her stay, she was certain she was coming back! Since then she has been finishing up her job in the States, raising support, and doing all the other preparations she needs to come to the DR. Her plan is to get here in October.

God had blown me away by His provision. Kim is an amazing woman of God. Her life experiences will help her to relate to women of El Callejon on a deep level. Her understanding of and belief in the Word will tranform the women and girls. Her joy and love are contageous. As I am already sad when I think about leaving this place, I have a peace knowing that God has provided the best person for the job.

Kim has an awesome blog if you're interested...http://kimheartselcallejon.blogspot.com