It's official.

I (Holly) am totally lame.

My dad has a Facebook page before I do.

Races and Rollercoasters

It is with great pleasure that we present these pictures of the 1st Annual Pescadores' Pinewood Derby.


It was a huge victory for the ministry, and a whole lot of fun! The boys took their time, worked hard, followed directions, crafted creatively, had great fun, took pride in their finished cars, and by the end of the day, were minor RSJ celebrities.


My (Holly's) dad, Gary, taught the boys how to make the cars, worked with them all day to craft fine automobiles AND my Mom, Janey, helped them build a rockin' track. TJ encouraged them to "run the race" of life well with words from Hebrews 12. They donned their Pescadores shirts, shouldered the track and paraded down the block to the park, legions of adoring fans (Club Chiquito) in tow.


As soon as we set up the track in the park, the whole town crowded around, cheering for their favorite car. It was an incredible high for the boys and the way they handled it highlighted the work that God is doing in their lives.


As ministries will, we had a major "crash" after the week of the race, ending with our boys forming a street gang, rioting outside the Center and beating up our precious (yet scrappy) girls. In one evening, our boys absolutely turned and literally started to work against us, saying horrible things and threatening anyone who came to Bible study.

It was an inexplicable change and an incredible low, one that we can truly say felt supernatural in its severity. It was painful for us to look at these pictures of this super fun day, thinking that things might never be the same with those boys again. But...with patience, consistency, advice from youth experts Kyle and Vicki Graham, and a much anticipated visit from Linda Benthall and Brandon Wood... things are not only back to normal, but better than they were.

We realized that we weren't calling them to enough, so we took the last few weeks to reboot the ministry. We asked them to sign a pledge (based on Romans 12's Rules for Christian living) that we say at every meeting, and only allow kids who have turned it in to participate. So far, so good... no more black eyes or bloody noses. The Princesas are, of course, still so sweet and patient, even to the same boys who beat them up a few weeks ago.

These are the kids we know and love. We wish sometimes the ups and downs weren't so severe, but that's what their lives are like. We can't forget that what they need even more than our fun and games and attention is to be molded into the image of Jesus. We will continue to call them to grow in Christ, confident and thankful that God will never give up the fight for their hearts and lives. We are blessed to be a part of that, and so are you!

Would ya believe...

the Easter bunny visited the Dominican Republic, too?

Well, neither would our Club Chiquito kids, seeing as they'd never heard of the Easter bunny, Easter eggs, or hunting for said eggs. Actually, they'd pretty much never heard of Easter...

But the funny thing is, you turn kids loose in a garden full of brightly colored eggs stuffed with candy, and they pretty much get the picture.

It was a delightful morning, and the kids can't stop recounting the stories of just how and where they found each of their eggs. Many thanks to Linda Benthall and Brandon Wood for their help.

Shane Ruiz

On Wednesday afternoon, Shane Ruiz, a 19 year old Freed-Hardeman student, drowned at a beach near us. He was here on a Spring Break campaign with fellow Sigma Rho club members. Our teammates, Cory and Laura Beth Lamb, are former Sigma Rho members, and were so excited to have their friends experience their ministry at the Children's Home.

Although we spent little time with Shane, and had left the beach before the accident, we grieve for his family, friends; and also for Cory and Laura Beth, Brian and Tammie. This is the first time in over a decade of hosting mission groups that anything like this has happened, and it weighs heavily on all of us. The circumstances of his death are so strange and rare, it is still difficult to believe that it occurred.

The search and recovery is ongoing. The US Embassy, US Coast Guard, Dominican Red Cross, Civil Defense, and local community have been kind and helpful.

Holly and I are mainly trying to help with the search effort and support our teammates at this point, as they deal with shock and grief. The Ruiz family is also here, staying with the Wallaces.

Tomorrow, we will go back out with the local fishermen who are graciously helping search. Hopefully the waters will be calm enough for a dive team.

Please pray continually for the Ruiz family, the Freed Hardeman community, our team, and, possibly most of all, the successful recovery of Shane's body.

For more information on Shane and his life, read this article from today's Jackson Sun.

Jordan

Jordan is officially back.

For those of you who might have tuned in late, Jordan is the boy from our group who broke in and robbed our house in August. We got almost everything back, and told him that we wanted him to still participate in the group, but let him know there would be consequences. He couldn't handle confronting his guilt in that way, so he hid from us for seven months.

About a month ago, he showed up at our gate. He's taller, leaner, and has a much deeper voice than the Jordan who we knew in August.

He apologized and let us know that he wanted to try and repair our relationship (well, maybe not so eloquently...). We let him know that we always hoped he would come back, and that we would talk about consequences the next day.

Here's what we decided: He has to pay to replace the items we couldn't retrieve from him, and he can't have any involvement with the American groups coming in all summer. Instead of working off a debt, we prepared readings, mostly from the Bible, that he had to read, copy, and write a page of his thoughts. Each was worth 5 dollars. We knew it would stretch him, since he is not a good reader or writer, but that's what we wanted, for this to be formative rather than empty labor.

We didn't really imagine that he would follow through, but lo and behold, he showed up the next day with the papers ready for us. We checked the handwriting, and sure enough it was him. He did well, and we are proud of him and excited that he is taking the initiative and showing us that he cares. So far he has done four readings.

We are thankful to God for the time Jordan spent away. It was a time of changing for him, and us, too. We are thankful that the robbery was not the end of our story with Jordan, and that now, we begin anew.

The Snoozer

Bill Bryson is one of our absolute favorite authors. We've read almost everything he's written.

Which is why it's surprising that he's become a point of contention in our marriage... We fight over one of his books. Every night. "The Mother Tongue: English and how it got that way"

Or as we have affectionately dubbed it: "The Snoozer."

We honestly love the book - we've read it several times. We're fascinated by linguistics. (Nerds??? Yes.) But well-written and interesting as it is, it puts us to sleep. Better than Ambien or Benadryl.

I think we're going to have to invest in two copies.

sweet rocks

The other day, Alfredo found half of an ancient, rock-hard, dirty-nasty gumball in our yard. He inspects it, brushes off some dirt, and pops it in his mouth. His eyes immediately light up.

"It's a sweet rock! I found a sweet rock!"

His buddy and cousin, Niño, gets interested.

"Let me taste this sweet rock," Niño says.

Alfredo hands it over.

"Where did you find it?" asks Niño.

"Here, on the ground, with the other rocks."

"Mmmmm!!!" says Niño, "it IS sweet!"

"You can suck on it for one minute, then I want it back."

"I'm going to find some more." Niño declares, and proceeds to lick every rock in my flower bed.

I expect a full excavation/mining team will be here in no time.

There are days when we want to scream:

"WE ARE HERE FOR YOU!!! To help you!!! Why are you behaving in a way uglier than we could have ever imagined? Forget you. We're going home."

Then we want to physically beat some sense into them.

Tonight was one of those nights.

It will pass, and it will come again.

Thank God we're not God.

My Worst Nightmare

We were driving along the coastal highway yesterday, bouncing and singing along to Eminem's Lose Yourself. I (Holly) love Eminem - the "clean" versions, of course.

One of our friends had seen footage of Eminem in a live rap battle - apparently (obviously) he is crazy talented, and just destroys everybody.

It was then that I realized my actual worst nightmare:
to be placed in a rap battle and have to win or die. Seriously. I can think of nothing worse.

Love it. Buy it.

Remember the love songs TJ was writing on the beach a few months ago?

You can buy them now
on iTunes.