216 down, 4 to go

That's right. We arrived in the Dominican Republic 216 days ago, and our good friends, Blake & Moriah Farmer, will arrive in 4 days. I don't think they'll end up staying for 2 years like us, but we'll love every minute of their week here.


"But in Friendship... we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting – any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say 'You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.' The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others."

- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

My New Favorite Treat

Frozen York Peppermint Patties on a hot Caribbean day.
Thanks, Mama, for sending that treat with Lynn & Linda!

If I were my blogging buddy, Carrie, I would probably write about loving edimame or some other such health food.
Alas, I am not. I like the junk food. It's comforting and it reminds me of the States. I do feel like I actually get healthier just by reading Carrie's blog. Is that possible?

Also, McKenzie, the guy that owns our local grocery store, ordered a case of Dr. Pepper all the way from Puerto Rico as a surprise for us.

Now we have to drink it, right?

Ode to Dave Shultz & Mitch Wilburn

We want to begin this post by saying:

THANK YOU!!!

Dave Shultz & Mitch Wilburn, thank you for the many retreats, camps & outings you planned for the Cedars (Holly) and Park Plaza (TJ) youth groups. They changed our lives. You changed our lives.

Now, here we are, putting together a retreat for street kids in the wilds of the Dominican Republic. We could not have done it without the foundations you guys laid for us.

But what we really want to know is ... how did you make it look so easy?!

We could write a ten page blog about everything that happened, but we know what you really want...

Here are some pics from our fabulous weekend - the beginnings of our youth group in RioSanJuan.

Los Pescadores: Jordan, Rudi, Johan, Kevin, Ramoncito, Hansel and Ariel.

O Dear Christian College

I tried to take a nap on Sunday afternoon. Always a bad idea, as the disco blares full-force during traditional nap hours. But my Uncle Rick, an engineer for the railroad, had given me some new earplugs, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Strike two against the nap was that we didn't have any sheets - they were all dirty from the retreat. So I laid a blanket on the mattress, then pulled a blanket over me.

At which point I realized, I was an ACU sandwich. I was laying between two ACU sweatshirt blankets, wearing my ACU sweatpants and an ACU sweatshirt. Ha!

What would we have done without Linda?

We took seven of our "Pescadores" from RioSanJuan on a retreat this weekend. We stayed at the Manna camp in Bobita. We hiked in the mountains, played in the river, ate fruit off trees, played soccer, and fished for gummy worms in whipped cream.

That's where we've been lately - getting ready for this retreat. We're home now, preparing for the coffeeshop tonight, and all I have time to say is: "What would we have done without Linda?"

Those of you who know Linda Benthall have probably asked yourself the same question. Amazing doesn't begin to cover it. She spent four years in China, and has encouraged us greatly with stories of her time there.

We knew each other at Otter Creek, and she came to visit us for a few days - to see our life here, and help out where she could. Truthfully, I don't think we could have made it without her. God provided many things for this weekend, but most of all, he provided Linda's capable hands to work along side us.

The boys also loved getting to know Jake, our friend from Santiago. He took time off from teaching to minister to our boys, and they're sure he's the coolest! What with the Tae Kwon Do, soccer skills & rad motorcycle, he actually is pretty cool...

We'll write more about the retreat later, but I think we'll go to the beach tomorrow!

What's going on in my kitchen?

What's going on in my kitchen? Is it cuh-cuh... Cooking?

Thanks, Oswaldo, for a fabulous Dominican feast. Arroz, habichuelas, pollo guisado, platanos fritos, ensalada y ice cold Coca-Cola Classic. (Holly's sole contribution to the meal.)


Thanks, Jordan & William, for sharing it with us.

Kayla, we missed you - Oswaldo saved you a seat in the window.

We don't live here...

These pictures happened to be on our camera, right next to the pictures of our lovely house. We live betwixt and between here - between two cultures, and two radically different standards of living. Rarely am I struck so hard by that as I was when I downloaded these pictures onto our computer.

I am thankful we don't live in the Puerto Plata dump. The people that live in the Puerto Plata dump are thankful they don't live in Haiti.

The below picture is one of my all-time favorites. It's a beautiful moment that sometimes happens when we go to the dump. Barriers fall away, and people become people. This Dallas Christian student jumped in the middle of the clapping, singing Haitians and showed off his moves. They LOVED it.

We live here...

TJ's always saying we should post pictures of our apartment, so everyone can see where we live. So, this is it. This is home.

A 2 bedroom, 1 bath, never-hot-water, sometimes-electricity, upstairs apartment. It's surrounded by a lovely garden, and we enjoy sitting on our porch, listening to the sweet sounds of motos driving by...


Our living room, often full of kiddos.


Our bedroom, often full of Dominican disco music.


Our porch, often full of towels drying in the sun.


Our kitchen, incidentally, the biggest one we've ever had.



Our bathroom, often full of foul smells from the sewer. (Sorry, but there's something wrong with the septic tank & we can't figure out how to get rid of the smells! We welcome any suggestions.)


Our courtyard, often full of kids, cherries, or leaves from the almond tree.

Higher than ours

Can we be brutally honest in the blogging world?

Truthfully, we have no idea who reads this thing, so we figure: "Why the heck not?"

When we first got here, we would catch ourselves, all-the-time, thinking: "If we got pregnant, we would HAVE to go home, right?." (Hold your horses, Gary&Janey, Tom&RayeLynn. There are no grandkids headed your way anytime soon. Hopefully.)

But that's how sad and homesick we were. We actually thought about creating a new life only as our ticket OUT of this place. Okay, we didn't actually think about doing that. But we thought about it.

Were we that sad all the time? No way. But sometimes.

And 6 months later, where are we?

Well, we'll only speak for today, but today, we find ourselves amazed.

Amazed that the more of ourselves we pour into this ministry, the more we love it. The more we invest, the more abundantly God blesses us with joy. Overflowing, really. Our victories are small, right now. But we hope they are steps toward even more amazing successes in the Lord.

How does God work? We confess, we do not understand. But we are thankful that his ways and his dreams are higher, deeper and more amazing than ours.

(Seriously, why would we need kids - we've got about 100 of 'em as it is! But, if we ever do get around to having kids, I imagine they'll be pretty cute!)

Seashells and the Seashore

An afternoon with our favorite neighbors, José Gabriel & Polfirio.

They shout our names, jump up and down, run over & give us hugs every time we leave our house. Often they yell greetings from their 2nd floor balcony while we're sitting on our couch. Yes, sometimes it's annoying, but mostly we just laugh that our across-the-street neighbors can see straight into our house & talk to us like it's no big deal.

I meant to post a quick comment about the pictures, but I keep thinking of funny things to share about our little vecinos.

When we take our car to the mechanic, they ask where it is. We tell them it's playing hide-and-seek, and they always run around the block, looking for it. ¡Ay, Tomás! ¡Tú jeepeta está jugando las escondidas!

One day, José Gabriel came into the coffeeshop with huge bald patches on his head. When we asked him what happened - ¡Un monstruo! Un monstruo se me afeitó. A monster! A monster shaved my head. According to his grandma, the monster is named José Gabriel.

Anyway, we love these little guys, and we wanted them to have a special outing during Semana Santa. We went to the beach, climbed all over the rocks, traipsed through a mangrove swamp, looked for shells to give to their grandmothers, caught hermit crabs, and topped it off with a trip to the ice cream shop, where they for sure spent at least 10 minutes trying to decide which flavor they wanted. Apparently, popsicles trump ice cream cones in the Dominican.

I don't think TJ and I stopped laughing the whole time, listening to these little munchkins jabber at each other in Spanish. They were just tripping over themselves with the excitement of exploring and discovering, and a captive adult audience to show their treasures to.

Of course, now every time we leave our house, they shout our names, jump up and down, run over to us, give us hugs AND ask when we're going to the beach again!

Holly on Ambien

I woke up the other morning and my pants looked like this:



What happened? I don't know. They were fine when I went to bed.

Did a rat eat them? A cat?

The thing is, I can't sleep here. Between the disco, motorcycles sans mufflers & confused roosters, there's a constant cacophony.

I've never been a good sleeper - probably some form of insomnia. Living here has exacerbated the problem. Earplugs irritated my ear canals. So, I turned to drugs. Generic Ambien, more specifically, which is cheap & available over-the-counter at any neighborhood pharmacy.

I sleep great. I wake up happy. I didn't know life could be like this.

But I have absolutely no idea what's going on after it knocks me out. TJ always looks forward to telling me what I said the night before. Usually something about how much I love our waterbed (which we don't have), and how nice it is for all of these people to help me fall asleep (there are no people).

As for what happened to my pants, we'll probably never know. Maybe Gus needed a midnight snack? Maybe I did? Our best guess is that the fabric was worn out & I somehow tore them in my sleep. Too bad - they were my favorite pants - I'd had them since 10th grade.

And these kids think we're cool?!

Holly and I had a great week last week. Here's some pics.

Here is Holly with her new friends; Marlin, Dionelsy, and Dionela , a group of 14 year old girls who she invited to eat pizza last Thursday. Since then, they have come by every day to talk to Holly, invited her to come to the beach, the only (costume) jewelry store in town, and generally think she is not only the prettiest gringa in RSJ (I concur), but also the coolest. They are definitely in a different social strata than our little street urchins, and we are really excited to see where these relationships go.


Here's me with our shoeshine guys, Jordan, Rudy, Hansel, and Kevin, who all came over on Tuesday to dominate the real-estate market once again in Monopoly. We had a great time arguing over who passed "Go" and making ice cream. These, plus a few, are also the guys we are planning a "Shoeshine Retreat" for in April. (More about that soon.)


These two days of our week, even with the frustration of a broken generator, car, and television, make for a real feeling of victory, no matter how small. Our prayer- and the prayer we ask of you, is that we continue to be put in a place to be mentors for these kids- helping them to be practicing believers and strong young men and women. (And that we can keep them convinced that we're cool.)

Can you believe it?!

Yes, it is true. Unbelievable, but true.

The beautiful girl in the middle of all the almost-as-beautiful girls... Yes, the one in the cream shirt with the sparkling blue eyes...

She's related to me. She's my sister. Apparently, we share genes. (Actually, mine are a little long on her.)

Just wanted to brag a bit. Love you, Mick.

- TJ