Wash Me

Yesterday, one of our favorite/most challenging little munchkins came in wearing an interesting addition to her dress. Chica's father is a Haitian worker who has no time to raise his children. The kids' names are actually Chico & Chica - "boy" and "girl." Last year, he tried to give them to us. The neighborhood basically keeps an eye out for them, feeds them, waters them & tries to keep them somewhat in line.

It seems someone in the community decided Chica needed a bath, so instead of bathing her, they wrote "Please Bathe Chica" (which Chica cannot read, thankfully) on a peice of tape and stuck it on Chica's dress as a message to whoever might be at the receiving end of Chica's day. It's funny and sad at the same time, but it reminds me of how much we, too, need the caring, cleansing hands of Christ.



"If I don't wash you," Jesus told Peter, "you don't really belong to me."
Peter said, "Lord, don't wash just my feet. Wash my hands and my head." John 13:9

I dare you to jump...

Our little town is bristling with excitement. This weekend is "Carnaverengue"(The Merengue Carnival), a three day, non-stop celebration of cultural heritage and, well... Rum. There are stages being set up in the water over the laguna near our apartment, and some of our kids took the opportunity to strip down to their skivvies and use the stages as diving platforms. We will update with more pictures of the craziness this weekend- it will be in our backyard, so we couldn't escape it if we wanted to. Here's to earplugs and sleeping pills!

Come out of the closet, Gus!

The most asked question while we were home:

"So... How's Gus?"

Not "How's the ministry going?" or "How's life without electricity & running water?". No, no. Everybody wanted to know how our dog was doing!

Gus is doing very well, thank you for asking. No more salmonilla sickness. He still doesn't like all the noise, and he barks every time someone even thinks about walking through our gate. Quite the watchdog, actually.

Below are Gus' friends. He actually considers them friends, we're sure of it. I thought TJ was always getting the same toys out for him, but no. Every morning he gets them out of his toy basket & puts them on his rug. He doesn't really play, just hangs out with them. But if I put them away, Gus quickly rescues his friends from the toy basket.




This is what we wake up to every morning. Gus sleeping in my closet. Every night I close the doors so he can't get in. (But of course this is the Dominican and everything is a little broken and warped so the doors don't actually close.) Every night he goes to sleep on his dog bed, then hops in the closet after we're asleep.

Gus! Come out of the closet! Actually, we've thought for a long time that Gus liked boy dogs better than girl dogs. He sort of had a boyfriend in Nashville - a dachsund named Henry. And here he LOVES our friend Jordan. Just Jordan. We can't figure out why... But anyway, we think it's funny that our dog with homosexual tendencies sleeps in the closet.

My Humps...

Every January to March, thousands and thousands of Humpback whales migrate from the coldest Atlantic waters north of New England to the warm, relaxing, Carribbean Atlantic, just off the coast of a peninsula near us called Samana. It is here that they mate, calf, and teach their young, complete with songs, tail flapping, and acrobatic jumps out of the water!

We went to Samana this weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day- and got the chance to see some whales up close and personal. Our boat followed a mother and a baby Humpback for about an hour, watching as the baby rode "piggyback" on the mother and even took a few tentative jumps out of the water to check us out. It was an amazing experience- such huge animals moving so gracefully- playful, even.




Through His creation, time and time again, God shows us that He is good, good, good.

More fun than a movie

Last night, we had Alesandra, Nananina, and Kevin Nuñez over for dinner. Kevin and Nananina have been coming around for the last few months, and we have gotten to know their mom, Alesandra, as a result.

She comes on Sunday evenings to our worship service, is open to talking and praying with us, and seems to have a real heart for our ministry. She has been really sweet and brought us great Dominican dinners several times (she's also one of the only Dominican parents we have met so far), so we wanted to return the favor.

We had lots of food and fun, making cookies and taking funny pictures with our computer all night. Kevin, especially, showed a new side of himself...




Pray for the Nuñez family, would you? - That our friendship can grow and that God continue to draw them closer to Him!

Low-tech problem solving

When Holly and I were home for the holidays, one of the things that we enjoyed most (except all of you, of course) was taking a hot shower at the end or beginning of our day.

There is something about hot water that makes you feel cleaner, fresher, and generally, more human. While it is true that sometimes a cold shower is nice in the Dominican heat, we have been searching for an economical way to have the hot water option.

While we were home, our "outdoorsy" friend Blake Farmer mentioned that he once took a hot shower on a camping trip with a bag they put in the sun for a few hours. This sounded too simple, but interesting, so we headed to our local REI and found, for the low price of $20, this:



You only need a 70 degree day and sunshine to make the water hotter than is comfortable. It stays warm for hours, and holds 4 gallons, enough so we can both have showers.

After looking at solar-heated water tanks, dangerous, electricity-hogging Euro style heaters, and gas heaters that make your bathroom smell like eggs, this is by far the best solution for us - and it's really not much more than a bag with a nozzle that you lay out in the sun.

I wish I had been the one to think of the "bag full of water in the sun" water heater, but even still - I'm thankful for the man who did.

The Most Wonderful Day of His Life

So I (Holly) went to the grocery store today. There's this Dominican businessman there - one of the suppliers for the store.

And he says to me, "¡Ay, que linda! Eres la virgen mas hermosa que he visto in mi vida. ¿Eres una virgen, no?"

Now, if you're like me, Spanish is not your first language, and you probably didn't catch every word. But the tone was obviously intended to be complimentary/come-hither. So I smile, "Mm-hmm", and continue looking for paper towels, sort of wondering, "Did this guy just ask me if I'm a virgin?!"

We cross paths again - there are only 4 aisles in McKenzie's - and he says in Spanish, "Oh, this is the most wonderful day of my life. I have seen the most beautiful virgin in the world."

I politely respond with my default, "Thank you. I'll tell my husband you said so."

Then he says, "You have two children."

"No, we don't have any kids."

"Well, tell you husband to give you some kids so people won't think you're a virgin!"


Just another day here in the Dominican, folks...

The Gospel and Milton Bradley

Wednesday evening, we had some of the guys over. A fun filled night of popcorn, cokes, and a lesson in economics- That's right- we played Monopoly!


We were worried at first that the game might be difficult to catch on to, but our guys, Jordan and Rudy, who have probably never held more than five dollars at a time, absolutely loved it. They immediately fell into Donald Trump mode and were wheelin'-dealin' real-estate masters. This week we will continue our game (after three hours, we packed it up) and it is quite possible that Jordan will win, having never played before (Hotels on Atlantic? Who can pay that kind of rent?!).


We had a blast just hanging out in a smaller group and really felt like we went a long way in getting to know these guys better. Jordan buys up property and spends money as fast as he gets it- Rudy got worried and wanted to sell property as soon as he had less than $3000 in cash!
We plan on doing something like this with different kids every week, and eventually forming a group of guys, kind of like a Young Life group, who can do leadership activities and service projects together. They are mostly great kids with big hearts- as long as you don't ask for free rent when you land on Boardwalk.