Update on Gus

Well, you know you're not in America when the vet teaches you how to put in an IV and sends you home with your dog. So TJ and I have been sticking Gus with a needle, giving him his IV fluids, and he's doing much better. He might even eat dinner tonight!

Mama knows best...

Our dog, Gus, is sick again. Sick, sick. You know - stomach problems. Bad.

It all started two weeks ago, after he'd been sick for a few days. We were worried about dehydration - actually worried he wasn't going to make it through the night. So we took him to the vet about an hour and a half away. (He's an American, by the way.)

Dr. Bob said he was going to be fine, he just needed a few days of IV fluids, antibiotics & observation. He couldn't tell if it was amoebas or samonilla, but was sure Gus had just gotten into some trash.

Which, frankly, I didn't really buy, as we keep a pretty close eye on him and there isn't any trash in our little courtyard-yard. But we left him at the vet's over the weekend, and sure enough, he was back to his normal self on Monday. As soon as we brought him home, he hopped out of the car and bounded over to a patch of grass near our patio. And proceeded to eat old chicken bones.

I guess our neighbor had thrown them out in the yard. I guess that's where the samonilla came from.

We fished the old chicken bones out of his mouth, and proceeded to play with our favorite Gus-buster, newly restored to health. I fixed him a special meal of rice, boiled eggs and yogurt for a week, doctor's orders. We gave him two types of medecine, twice a day. We continued to help him get better.

And yesterday, we turned a corner - ready to eat normal dog food, no sign of tummy problems. He ate his first regular meal, all is going well. Then he proceeded to get sick again & poop out a huge nasty chunk of old chicken skin. He's even sicker today. Samonilla is back, in fine form. We're going to have to take him to the vet again. He can't even keep water down.

And the thing is - he did this to himself. Again. He had just gotten over a bad sickness caused by the nasty chicken, and SOMEHOW he gets into it again. TJ & I have no idea how. We have not let him out of our sight. We wish we could sit him down and tell him to stop eating the nasty chicken because it is making him sick. (Actually, we have done that, but we're pretty sure he didn't understand.)

It must be so much harder to be a real parent. To watch your children fall, and pick them up again. Or even harder to NOT be able to make everything better, as sometimes that is how lessons are learned. So here's to our favorite parents - Brown's, Blankinship's, Essner's, Norman's, Laytons', Troup's, Miller's, Belville's, Mankin's, Carter's, Milom's, Green's, Thomas', Wallace's, McCloud's & Lewis'. We love you all, and we do pray for you and your children.

And please pray for Gus. He's just a dog, but he's our dog, and we love him. And we hate seeing him so sick.

Refuge

We found a new way to attract kids to us.

Rain.

Drenching, soaking, unstoppable downpours that signal the beginning of the rainy season have been herding children into the reach of our influence today. They run in, looking for a place to be dry. A port in the storm.

Between the games, the guitar lessons, the Bible stories and the good old fashioned conversation, we know that God is offering a much better refuge to his children. In a world that will soak you with rain until you drown, our call - all of us - is to be one of the safe places - a part of the cleft in the Rock. These kids have lots of things to run from. We just hope they run to the right place.

We are all looking for a refuge - even those of us who know the shelter of the Lord feel soaked and sodden at times. Today, watching the streets turn to rivers of rain, I found myself grateful to have somewhere - and someone - to run to.

Expectations

5 things we DIDN'T expect to have
(but we do)
in the Dominican.

1. Grey's Anatomy - current episodes, on American cable.
2. Great neigbors.
3. A disco in our bedroom. (Okay, it's actually 50 feet away...)
4. Dr. Pepper
5. A house-trained dog. That's right, the Dominican seems to have miraculously cured Gus's drinking (and subsequent peeing) problem.

5 things we DID expect to have
(but we don't)
in the Dominican.

1. Running water.
2. Electricity.
3. Bug bites.
4. Intestinal parasites.
5. Free time to go the beach.

A Joyful Noise

The Dominican Republic is the loudest country in the world. No one has mufflers that work, everyone blares music - probably trying to compensate for their lack of muffler. The discos are all open-air, and play music so loud that Eddie Van Halen would have to wear ear-plugs. Dominicans interact with each other on a "I can talk with more decibels than you" basis, and at sunset, along with the beauty of the sun slipping into the sea, comes the sweet music of generators being fired up all over town. Everyone says that we will get used to this, that it will become background noise. I say that might happen, but only because my hearing will have been damaged.

A group of Pentecostals about ten minutes into the mountains have asked our ministry to teach bible classes every Wednesday night, so I went with Brian and Wacky (Joaquin) to visit and lead a few songs. We get there and these sweet, humble people start up the generator and proceed to blast my eyebrows off with the loudest worship I have ever heard. A woman stands up front and begins to sing an untelligible song with an unintelligible beat, acapella, clapping her hands and spinning every few minutes. I figured - well, what she lacks in talent, she makes up for in style. Then, the preacher gets behind the drumset and accompanies her with a strong merengue beat. Voice, drums and tambourines all combine for an ear shattering crecendo. When the "music" was over, the preacher started to scream, I mean, SCREAM into the microphone all the different ways to say hallelujah and praise the Lord. The congregation, in turn, would then scream "Amain" back at him.

Then he asks me to lead some songs. At this point I wondered if I could even find a pitch, my ears hurt so badly. Feeling quite out of my element, I stood up and led "In Momenentos Asi", and "Amazing Grace" in the loudest voice I could muster.

About an hour into the teaching (it was a four hour bible study), I realized that I was sitting on the most uncomfortable pew on earth. It was hand made, and was about six inches wide. I looked around and realized it was the only one like it in the building. All the others were wide and comfy. I sat there, perched with my tingling backside, and thought about moving to the pew in front of me. But I just knew that these people would think it hilarious that the big white American needed more room for his big, fat, white butt. I stayed where I was.

All the noise and pews aside... I'm ashamed to have thought at one point, "How can all this horrible racket be pleasing to God?" But I wonder that my own faith, as teetering, tottering, creaky and untested as it is, must make that kind of racket to the ears of God. Is also an offering unworthy, yet gladly accepted by our Father.

Las Pistolas

Our boys are obsessed with guns. Pistolas, they call them. They make guns out of Legos, out of sticks, whatever they can get their hands on. Or they just use their hands. They are always shooting each other.

Boys will be boys, I know... It's not just because they're semi-surrounded by gang culture that they like guns. This is pretty normal behavior for 5-12 year old boys.

But what do we do about it? We don't know. Guns are definitely a part of what we're hoping to pull them away from. But instead of saying "no guns," we want them to know Jesus, to know how He loves them, and find a relationship with Him. Be changed by His love. And then live differently.

We don't want to be about "do this, don't do that," but this gun thing is out of control! Any words of wisdom?

Slice of life:
Most people outside of the main cities of the DR do not have running water. Many times, they will have a large 50 gallon barrel that they keep fresh water in. We are fortunate to have running water. It works like this: We have a large underground cistern where water is pumped up to our rooftop tank, and then gravity delivers it to our showerhead, etc. The only problem with this kind of system, is that when there is no power, there is no way to get the water up to the roof. Our neighbor has a 5550W generator that struggles to power the pump. Our inverter batteries, the electric from the street, nor our little 650W generator can handle it. So when our neighbor left town for a week, and our tank ran out, we were without water. We did what most dominicans do- we hauled buckets of water up the stairs and used it to wash dishes, flush toilets, and take sponge baths. (Sponged clean on your anniversary... romantic.) Our neighbor is back and we have running water again, and the problem should be solved this week when our power is "fixed" (We only get 50 watts or so from a 110 outlet.)
In other news, the ministry is up and running. We are starting to make some fast friends with our strategy of "If you sit there, they will come." Names like Yonso, Jordan, Yeffri, Chico and Nannanina will soon become familiar, when we can get our pictures up and running to post little bios of the kids and introduce them to you. We are learning the rhythm of the days -afternoon and evening, there's more "people traffic" than mornings. We also have lots of interest in English classes, and have already had a first meeting with two Haitian men, one Dominican man, and several older Dominican teens. Are we ready for this?!
We are going tonight to a town not far from here called Las Terrenas to celebrate our anniversary. Thanks again for the continued blessings through email and on this site! We love you- Tj and Holly

And so it begins

Well, we have two days of experience in our work here. We spent the last two weeks getting set up and prepared, and now, we have a ministry to these young boys and girls in Rio San Juan. We were a little unsure of how to begin- do we send out flyers or put an ad in the paper to get kids interested in hanging out with us? It turns out, all we had to do is sit on the porch for a while. In ten minutes, we had kids coming by and wanting to play guitar, play Uno, talk about schol... it really was amazing. So far, we have met about twenty children in the last two days who we think will be regulars. God is good. Pray that we continue to build a relationship with these kids and find ways to expose them to the Gospel.
Thanks, also for all the anniversary wishes! We love you guys. TJ and Holly

three years ago...

Through every smile,
and every tear,
every moment
blurred or clear-
Through every night
and every dawn
every laugh and
every yawn-
Life, in its weeks
and days and hours-
Life, with its sun
and thundershowers-
All of the pain
and the joy and the bore
couldnt have touched me
as deeply or more
without you-
You and all of your love
every drop of your patient love.
Love that makes me better and real
Love that builds and makes me feel
like the me who you know- who Im starting to be.
And today, I remember three years ago
When I thought our love was as deep as it goes.
And I was wrong- so glad to be be wrong today
because in every experience, joy or in pain
grows my love for you, day after day.

Happy 3rd Anniversary, Holly.
Love, TJ
(you can kill me for this tomorrow.)

Ready or not...

And so tomorrow begins the ministry we came here to do... We definitely don't have all our ducks in a row, we may be wishing for an extra day or two to get settled, but it's just time. So we'll be on the porch of the coffeshop tomorrow, getting to know whoever stops by. We're excited. This is why we're here.

The Gusbuster

Glimpse of life:
We wake up each morning without an alarm for several reasons:
1) Every person in the Dominican owns at least several chickens, some of whom happen to be roosters, some of whom like to crow from about 5 until 7 every morning.
2) By seven o´clock, its too hot to sleep.
3) When you live in a place as beautiful as this, you dont want to waste a minute of it. (im not sure Holly agrees with this one)

We have looked for over a week, in several cities, for a bookshelf. The problem is not that we cant find one we like... its that there is no such thing as a bookshelf here. We will have to build one. This does not speak well for the country´s educational system, I dont think.

Tomorrow morning we will go to the capital, Santiago, to drop off our group from Otter Creek. They had a great trip and did some great work, and today we helped them cap it off with an afternoon at the beach. It rained just enough to cool it off a little, but it was, overall, a beautiful day. Brian found miracle gas in Puerto Plata that gets us to the capital and back, so i guess we cant use gas as an excuse to keep Otter Creek in the Dominican. Holly and I will also purchase a futon that we hope many of you will have the chance to sleep on when you visit.
Wish us luck and pray that I remember to drop into low gear coming down the mountain in the GMC truck so that the brakes dont catch on fire. That almost happened last time. We dont have hills in Oklahoma.

This just in...

There's no gasoline on the island. That's right. No gas for the cars, no gas for the generators, we're not even sure the Otter Creek group will make it back to the airport... (Not to worry, one way or another, Brian will make sure they make it.)

Somebody please tell Bush & Chavez to play nice so we can have enough gas to drive to Santiago this weekend and buy a couch. We're tired of sitting on the floor! I'm sure whatever Chavez is doing to cause the gas shortage is a much bigger problem than our lack of furniture, but we've been without electricty for weeks and now we can't drive. I'm losing perspective, here!

Whatever. We're going to the beach.

blast from the past...or abilene...or haiti

We got a visit yesterday from Blake Burchfield and his wife, Katie. We knew Blake at ACU and Holly worked with him in the Domincan. Blake then worked with the Gautneys in Haiti. He met his wife, an American working for the orphanage next door to the Manna property in Lagossette. They now work for the orphanage, Children of the Promise. It was so good to see them, as they are on a vacation/anniversary trip around the island. It was also a reality check, after being frustrated because our nice apartment doesn't have electricity and our nice car didn't work like we thought it would for a day or so. Blake and Katie have been caring for desperate, starving, sometimes dying children, and are often the only ones there to witness their growth, their pain, and even their deaths. Our electricity means nothing. Thank you Lord for the refreshment of old friends and the reminder of what really matters.

A plethora of problems to solve

Woe, woe to the mosquito that dares to buzz in Holly's general vicinity. She shall smite thee with furious clapping.

After a week without power (we hear it will come back any time now...), we are getting a feel for the rhythm of life in the Dominican Republic. We bought a car on Friday night - a 2000 Honda CRV in great condition and highly recommended. Our landlord, the money changer with automatic weapons under his desk, told us he had a friend who was a mechanic/car seller. He shows up with gold bracelets and an almost Italian lilt to his Spanish - straight out of the Sopranos. When we told him we couldn't afford the car, our landlord told him to sell it to us for the price we could afford. OK.... that's not how it works in the US, but... Arismendy, our landlord, has been "bery, bery goood" to us- to quote Sammy Sosa.

On Saturday our car stopped working. We were, as you might guess, more than a little frustrated. We call our mechanic/seller/possible mafioso? - Henry, and tell him. He screams over the phone in his best, strained, Godfather voice... Where are you? I'm coming to pick you up right now! We were five minutes from home, but he wouldn't hear it - he picked us up, took our car, and fixed it on Sunday morning. Water in the enginge... we don't understand exactly, but it works great now and we have a three month guarantee. We think.

We are now on our way to buy groceries, even though our fridge doesn't work and probably never will. We have sweated through seven gallons of water so far. Steamy Dominican nights - no, seriously no power for the fan means sweaty pillows. BUT - we do think it will all turn out fine in the end.

SO - don't be afraid to visit... but also... don't be afraid to sweat. We love you guys and thank you for your prayers.

More soon - TJ and Holly