humility that brings freedom

I think about my students a lot when I'm not with them, when we don't have school. Especially my little guys - my first graders. I worry about them - will they eat enough during these three weeks? Will they wash their hands and brush their teeth (I can tell you the answer to that one - NO!)? Will anyone read them stories? Who will tell them they are important, make them feel loved? Will their parents have work these three weeks? What if their only pair of shoes breaks and we're not in school for them to get another pair? Will they remember anything they've learned in my class or in Bible class? What if they get sick - who will give them cough medicine and tylenol and bandaids?

Then I remember: I don't actually take care of these kids. I can't take care of them. God is the only one capable of caring for them. And honestly, I'm pretty sure he does a much better job of it than I ever could. So as I live in Pennsylvania for three weeks, in a warm, dry house with more than enough food and a loving family, I am humbled by the thought that the only work I can do is that which God does through me. I am blessed and thankful that he lets me help him do something he could easily do on his own, and I am humbled as I remember that he could do the very same work without me - I am not irreplaceable, I am not the one saving or even loving these kids. I am simply putting myself in a place where there is a lot of need and asking God to use me as a channel for his love and work. And while I am not there, before I was there, and after I leave, God will take care of the children of Caraballo and Villa Asencion. When I remember this, it frees me to love and serve as well as I can without measuring myself by the world's standards of successful ministry. It frees me from expectations and results-oriented thinking. If I leave no visible mark on the Dominican Republic, it doesn't matter, because it's not my work. I will ask God for opportunities, for humility, for freedom, and most importantly, for him to continue using me, and I will wait in expectation for God to do marvelous things!

cualquier cosa...

I'm living in the apartment alone right now, since Lauren's already back in the States. I thought I would be more, I don't know, anxious, afraid, lonely. But I have realized this week that I am by no means alone here. I live in a community of incredible people who take good care of me. This morning I went to worship team practice with good friends from my church community who picked me up and dropped me off so I would only have to pay for one public transportation ride. Then I paid my rent, and my landlord sent me home with gifts for Lauren's parents and my parents. (Car air fresheners with the scent "Black Ice," but it's the thought that counts, right?!) Then I sat for a while in the fish store that our old neighbors, Aladino and Jhoca, own. I chatted with Jhoca, ate some of the banana bread I had just given her as a Christmas gift but that she insisted I eat, and tickled their son David. Aladino reminded me to turn the gas off in our apartment before I leave for Christmas and made sure he would see me again before I left for Christmas. Then I went out to Caraballo to deliver some sponsorship things for kids. My moto driver drove me all the way up the hill in Villa Asencion, and when I offered to pay him extra he said ok but that if I didn't have any money that that would be ok, too. I spent an extra half hour in the village because so many of the kids from my school were outside playing (the first not-rainy day all week) and shouted my name. A group of kids took me to all the houses I needed to visit. Then I went to the copy shop before paying my electricity bill. On my way to pay my bill, the man who drove me out to Caraballo pulled up and offered me a ride. I said I was going just down the street to pay my bill, but he insisted he would take me - a "bola" - which means free ride. Walking home, I ran into More, our "do-it-all" friend. He said he had stopped by my apartment in the morning to check in on me, but I wasn't there. I asked him to get me some drinking water when he finished running his errand, which he did. He made sure I didn't need anything else and told me he would stop by Monday morning to say goodbye. Then he said some of my favorite words, as Aladino, Jhoca, and my moto driver had:

Ya tu sabes, cualquier cosa, me llama. - You already know, whatever thing (comes up), call me.

These words mean that any time, day or night, if anything goes wrong in the apartment, if I need help with anything, if I get stuck somewhere and need a ride, or if I wake up in the middle of the night and feel like something's not right, all I have to do is pick up my phone and call. Yes, I first trust God to take care of me, but I am incredibly grateful for the people he has placed in my life here. I'm not anxious about living alone for a week because I know that "cualquier cosa," someone (or a few people!) will rush to help me. A beautiful, tangible picture of community.

Tis the Season

I love Christmas, so there might be a lot of Christmas blogs this year... this one is legit, though. Another exciting feature of the first grade Christmas party was the Santa hat I found at the grocery store down the street. It turned into a pretty cute photo shoot with my kids - gotta love their adorable smiles! (Don't forget to click on the picture to make it bigger!)

Technology

To set the stage:  I don't exactly consider myself to be a "techie" person. When I was in Milwaukee in October, more than one high schooler asked me why I still have a flip phone. My laptop is a hand-me-down Dell. (though I dream of the day when I, too, can own a macbook!) My digital camera is 5 1/2 years old - ancient by today's standards. And my ipod. My ipod is 3 1/2 years old, 30 gig, has a giant line across the screen, some scratches - it's nothing fancy, but it lets me take my music with me.

So last week, I threw my first graders a Christmas party. No party is complete without music, so I brought my ipod and my speakers, which I bought at 5Below (aka they're cheap), to school. The following pictures and videos chronicle my kids' discovery of the ipod - a magical device that plays music that you can't hear without two other magical devices known as speakers.

Wander discovers the music comes from the speakers, not the ipod!

My FAVORITE!!  He used the speakers as headphones for a solid 10 minutes.

Monica and Nairoby take a turn - where IS the music coming from?

Monica and Wander share nicely.  Wander looks like an ipod pro.

And now, to top it all off, TWO videos (because I love you so much and am feeling patient with the internet)!

Alicia, then Nairoby, and finally even Wander, who has a speaker in his other ear, take turns discovering that you can't physically "listen" to the ipod.

Wander and Monica sing along to "Dame tus Ojos" by Marcela Gandara. They obviously don't know very many of the words... Wander discovers that pressing a button makes the ipod screen light up. He says to me, "Mira! Es yo que lo pone! ... Yo sabe!" And then returns to singing. He has no idea how many grammatical errors he has just made - none of my kids do.  This is a pretty good example of what I do all day:  a child tells me "Yo sabe!" and I reply, "Yo SE."  Wander should have said, "Mira! Soy yo que lo puse! Yo se!" But he didn't. So as I teach my kids to read, I am teaching them Spanish along the way... now that's a scary thought!

I hope you enjoyed my kids - they crack me up all the time!

O Christmas Tree

Back in August, Lauren and I won a promotion at La Sirena, the local super-Walmart.  A few weeks ago, we decided to use the Sirena points we won to buy ourselves a Christmas tree!  So we are now the proud owners of a 160-branch, 4-foot Christmas tree!  We also bought lights - flashing ones by accident - and ornaments - mostly red and gold, with matching reindeer ornaments with our names on them and an orange ornament that says "War Eagle" for Auburn.  I thought we should also write on it "Summon the Thunder," but Lauren didn't go for that... It's amazing how much a Christmas tree can put you in the Christmas mood. Even though it's still around 80 during the day, it cools off at night.  So sometimes in the morning (or before we go to bed) we'll plug in the tree and sit in our pj's and sweatshirts, drinking coffee, watching the lights flash and listening to Christmas music.

We've been teaching our students the Christmas story over the past few weeks, and it never ceases to amaze me.  The Logos - the supposedly unknowable force that holds the universe together - became human and intimately knowable.  The Word that created the universe chose to bear the pain and debt of my sin in a physical body.  The Incarnation really is a great mystery.  I hope that I show that to my kids this week.  Jesus was born as a baby so that we might believe in him and have the right to be children of God.  Amen.

why I listen to Corelli

Lately I have been listening to a lot of early, Baroque, and early Classical music. Mozart, Corelli, Byrd, Bach... I have avoided Brahms and his Romantic contemporaries. So I thought I would share with you all (whoever that is that reads my blog!) a quote by Madeleine L'Engle from her book Walking on Water:

"Wagner is fine if the world around one is stable. But when the world is, indeed, in chaos, then an affirmation of cosmos becomes essential."

I find that often in this country, in this life, the world is in chaos. So I listen to music that seems to put the pieces back together. I know (pardon my music-nerdness) that at the end of every four bars, Mozart will give me a nice cadence. I can predict where a Bach piece will go next. There are few surprises; there is a lot of stability and familiarity. There's something comfortable and soothing about listening to a Corelli trio concerto after a long day of feeling incompetent in this culture and language. I know the language of the music. So maybe, in a way, this "affirmation of cosmos" music has become a safe place from which I adventure out into the Wagnerian, Brahmsian, and sometimes even Glass-ian world in which I live.

Food for thought.

Teaching First Grade

(Warning: this is a long post. But read it - it's worth it! And there's a picture if you can make it to the end...)

This year I became a first grade teacher. Funny, right? That's what I thought, too, when my boss first told me. I have 8 six-year-olds; they are the students the normal first grade teacher labeled as stupid or badly behaved, so they gave them to me! Also funny, right? These kids are at a kindergarten level, but they are NOT stupid. Most of them learn quickly and LOVE school - they're just the kids that couldn't learn by the Dominican system, which is copying words off the blackboard into your notebook all day. I'm pretty sure my kids got the better end of the deal: in my class, we have circle time, read-alouds, centers, crafts, and LOTS of fun! Thanks to wonderful friends and family members with years of experience and lots of resources, I have an amazing "classroom" in a corner of the cafeteria. We play with magnetic letters, tangrams, lacing cards, puzzles, pocket charts, sorting games, watercolors, playdough, and LOTS of books! We are learning phonemic awareness, letter recognition, handwriting, about the calendar and the weather, and counting.

Has it been easy? Absolutely not. Has it been a source of joy? Absolutely. I'm pretty sure I learn more than my students every day. I got a lot of supplies, books, and advice in Chicago in October, and jumped in with both feet when I got back to the DR. It has been a crazy fall, but I am so grateful for the chance to teach these kids and show them that learning is fun and that they can be successful in school. I love that every morning I get greeted with hugs and "Buenos dias, profe!" I love that my students are friends! Here are some great successes, things my students have learned in the past 6 weeks:

• to recognize their names and their classmates' names
• to read a book by looking at the pictures
• to read, write, and hear the five vowels
• to track words (put a finger on each word as they read it) as they read repetitive sentences
  
• Green Eggs and Ham. They have literally learned it - memorized most of it!
• what rhyming words are (they also learned this one through Green Eggs and Ham!)
  
• to think creatively and logically (still working on this one) with puzzles and tangrams
  
• to work quietly in pairs during center time, and clean up after themselves

I am beyond proud of my students, and I will be the first to say that what they have learned, they have learned by God's grace. I am learning every minute of every day, and I am amazed at how God has provided wisdom, creativity, energy, and patience for me.

Ok, time for "funny, right?" moment #3:

The first day I taught first grade, I had no resources, no schedule/structure, and no idea what I was doing. After class, I sat in the office with my journal, and God said, "Hey Emily, I think you're supposed to teach elementary school." To which I promptly replied, "Hey God, actually, I'm going to be a high school choir teacher, but thanks." End of conversation. The next day, God said, "Emily, seriously, you're going to be an elementary school teacher," and I said, "Um, no. Remember how I was a music major and love choir and am going to be a high school choir teacher? Yep, me too. Still what I'm going to do with my life." After about two weeks of this, I said to myself, "Maybe I really AM supposed to be an elementary school teacher... that's terrifying!" And I'm pretty sure God laughed a little.

So now I find myself in this position of being called to teach elementary school. I have discovered that I have a passion for making sure kids learn the essential skills they are supposed to learn in the first few years of school - basic literacy skills, math skills, behavioral and relational skills. I actually enjoy lesson planning, and I love reading books on teaching literacy - weird, right? And here's the kicker: I know without a doubt that there are kids in the United States who are missing out on these skills. It's not just kids in the 3rd world who don't learn to read. It's kids in North Philly, kids in DC, kids in inner cities across America. And it's kids whose parents can't read them stories before they go to bed, kids who use all their energy to survive, kids who fall asleep hungry. These kids live in the United States, not just the Dominican Republic, and they need teachers who will fight for them, teachers who will teach them to love learning.

Please be in prayer for me as I continue teaching these little guys. Pray for wisdom, creativity, patience, joy, love, and more wisdom! Also pray as I continue trying to figure out what God has for me and what my calling looks like.

So that's my story. If you've made it this far, you're a trooper! I wanted to tell it all at once so that from now on I can just talk about my class without having to give the backstory. To reward you for reading this far, here is the promised photo, plus some bonus! We did a class photo shoot the other day - have you ever tried to control 8 6-year-olds on top of a jungle gym?

In the "lineup" photo, L-R: Nairoby, Alicia, Monica, Wander, Keila, Ambiorix, Alidia, Cristina

Here's my "classroom": in the corner of the cafeteria (hence the plates of food on the table) with a tape square for them to sit on during circle time. That windowsill is my storage place during class where I keep all the stuff the kids aren't allowed to touch. The kids drew those self-portraits when we were learning our names - I think they're pretty cute.

Welcome, Brianna!

Since we found out that Jessi, the school nurse, was going to return to the US mid-September, I have been asking the Kids Alive directors to try to find a new missionary to come work at the Care Center. And they found someone! This is Brianna:

She has jumped right in and worked hard this week! We have been prepping our Christmas sponsorship project (that's what she's doing here - shaving crayons), and she weighed, measured, and de-wormed all the kids this week! She is wonderful. So much fun to be around, sweet, and a great coworker - I have really enjoyed showing her around and talking with her and watching her love the kids. She will be here until just before Christmas. Please pray that God will bless her time here. Pray that our friendship will continue to be encouraging and a blessing. Praise him for providing perfectly, as he always does, a new friend and coworker for me. God is good!

America

I went to America. Shocking, I know... it was hard to explain to my coworkers that I was going to America but not to my house! I managed to get lost 3 times in the Miami airport, stare at skyscrapers like I had never seen anything that tall, sleep on 5 different couches, FREEZE on a Chicago architecture boat tour, step on lots of crunchy fall leaves, go to Concert Choir rehearsals, and spend wonderful time with my family, Aubrey & Jeff, Erica, summer interns, and Wheaton friends and professors. It was definitely refreshing and relaxing, and it was also confirming that I am where I am supposed to be. As I walked around campus, I didn't wish I were still a student, and I didn't feel nearly as nostalgic as I anticipated. Yes, I have wonderful memories from my time at Wheaton, but I don't belong there anymore. The thing that struck me most about America is how easy it seems to live there. I can't describe it, and I know that some Americans live incredibly hard lives, but my life in America seems really easy and comfortable compared to my life in the DR. I am still sorting through that observation and praying that God would reveal ways for me to live in America with the consciousness and faith that I live with here. Another incredible part of my trip was being blessed with teaching manuals/idea books/resources and lots of games, supplies, etc for my new first grade class! See the next blog for more on that... I came back to the DR feeling equipped and excited about teaching and using all my fun new things. I geeked out in the teacher store - it was pretty hilarious - and Molly said it was like I had been shopping for new clothes, showing her everything I got! It was so good to see my family and spend time relaxing together. I also got to spend four days in Milwaukee with Erica, going to school with her and seeing what her city life is like.

America is nice, but I was ready to come home. Maybe not ready to return to the heat, but ready to return to Lauren, my apartment, my students, and this culture that in so many ways feels more normal to me than American culture. What a blessing it is to have "home" in two places! My next trip to the States will be for Christmas, and I will be in Quakertown on that trip.

what DO we do on the weekends?

I often am asked what I do on the weekends here. Well, this weekend was a three day weekend thanks to Saint Mercedes (whoever that is!). On Friday we slept in and then went grocery shopping. We were going to watch a movie, but our friend Joe called wondering if he could shower at our house since he had no water at his house. We said yes, so he came over, showered, ate dinner with us, and then we ended up hanging out and talking until 11 or so - no movie. Today we slept in again (seeing a theme here?), had our traditional Saturday Morning Pancakes - this week they were banana - and I did some work on child sponsorship. We skyped with some people, called some people, went for a long walk, played a game with some friends, and worked on our homework from our Beth Moore Bible study on Daniel. Tonight we will go to the Makarios team house to watch Glee on the big projector! On Sundays we go to church; I arrive an hour early to practice with the worship band; church is at 11. After church we sometimes go out for lunch; tomorrow we will pack veggies and hummus and tortillas and head to the beach after church (yesterday and today were cloudy/rainy). Part of tomorrow will probably be devoted to lesson plans and prep for the upcoming week of teaching. Sunday nights I skype with Erica, my best friend from Wheaton, to finish my weekend off well!

So there you have it - my weekend in a nutshell!

Back to School!

The most important part of a 1st grader's school day is, of course, breakfast! On the first day of school, we started them off with nutritious hot oatmeal drink called Avena. They proceeded to make milk mustaches with it and make me smile!

One Year with Lauren

On August 3rd, Lauren and I went out to lunch to celebrate one year of knowing each other! Our missionary training program started on August 3rd, 2009; we met that night and have been roommates, close friends, and traveling buddies on this road called missionary life ever since. We celebrated a year of paradoxes, tears of joy and tears of sadness, hope and anger, loving life here but longing for the comforts and family of the States, experiencing the pain of broken relationships and the healing of grace and reconciliation. We have created a physical home here, intentionally living in community and sharing everything we have, making our apartment an emotionally and spiritually safe place. We have pushed each other to grow, held each other up through times of crisis, learned to navigate Dominican culture together, worshipped together, thrown the rubber "yuck" duck against the wall together, and done a LOT of laughing together! I am so thankful for Lauren, for the wisdom and joy she brings to my life. I so clearly see God's providence and work in putting us together and binding us together - it's amazing and mind-boggling how He knew we would need each other and provided for us. He is faithful. He is good. He has done great things for us, and we are glad.

A story that illustrates the hilarity of our lives here: after our celebratory lunch, we went to La Sirena (the grocery store) for frozen yogurt. We have a club card for Sirena, and we had earned two plays of their giveaway computer game. I think for buying the right brand of lunch meat? So we scanned our club card to "play" the game, and we won! We won $1000 pesos, which is about $30 US, to spend at Sirena! The man in charge turned on a loud flashing buzzer and stuck a microphone in Lauren's face and said, "How do you feel?" It was crazy and surreal, but we were very excited! Perfect end to our roommate celebration!

Construction Update

As usual, it's been awhile! I wanted to share this link to Brian's blog, a Kids Alive missionary who spent the summer with us leading work teams. He gives a great overview of all the construction and other work the teams did this summer!

If you would like to receive my email updates (or think that you do receive them but didn't get one this week), you can email me at emily.jamison@my.wheaton.edu and I will add you to my list!

Check my facebook page for lots of pictures of our new playground!

Slip-n-slide!

We set up a slip-n-slide for the kids with a team one day - it was hilarious to watch and the kids LOVED it! They still ask me when we're going to do it again!

Erica!

I was blessed incredibly by visitors this spring. To top it off, Erica, my best friend from Wheaton, came to visit for 2 weeks! Since she's a teacher, she has the summer off. We had a blast going to school, hanging out with the summer interns, relaxing on the beach, talking about music and life. We even did some sight singing (yep, we're music nerds)! It was so much fun to have her here and to show her my life - we talked a lot this year, so she had heard all about the people, places, and things in my life and now got to experience them firsthand!

The pictures, clockwise from top left: relaxing. eating frozen yogurt at La Sirena. erica documenting the tarantula hunt that Lauren and I went on one night. beautiful beach. "water games" day with the kids! world cup excitement...? and erica spending the day with lauren and meeting some of the kids she works with.

Katy's Visit

After a wonderful birthday celebration with my North Coast family (and Molly, who surprised me by coming up a day early!), Katy came to visit! She got to stay for two weeks, which was incredible. We had a lot of fun, a lot of beach time, and a lot of sister craziness time! The three of us hadn’t been together since January, so the sister time was definitely needed!

Katy and I went out to Playa Grande, walked around Montellano, and spent a few days at school. We forded the river and sat in the team house drinking coffee with Junior and Francina when the guagua broke down one morning. She helped me write almost 100 of the kids’ progress reports, and she came to the Mother’s Day extravaganza (See Facebook for pictures). The three of us got to go to New Life, my church, together, have lunch at La Sirena with Sariel and Holly (and eat some delicious frozen yogurt, of course), and relax around the apartment. We also spent a CRAZY afternoon re-writing “Welcome to the 60’s” from Hairspray, choreographing, and recording a video of us singing and dancing as a Mother’s Day gift!

We went to Jarabacoa for the weekend, but it rained a lot and then the elections sent us home a day early (we didn’t want to be traveling on the day they announced the results). So (thanks to Mom and Dad’s generosity) we went to the resort a day early and got to spend 3 lovely days there together. Wave pool, water slides, delicious food, weird shows (have you ever heard someone sing The Stars and Stripes Forever on the words “Here we go”???!), dressing up, ocean, beach, the usual… right!

It was sad to see Katy go. Spending time all together was so refreshing and wonderful. At one point in our lives, if you had put the three of us in a room together for even two days, we would have killed each other! So it’s sort of amazing that we spent two weeks together and loved every minute of it! (At least I did… haha!) I have been so fortunate to get to share my life here with my entire family – a rare blessing for someone on the mission field.



We tried to take jumping pictures... Molly's a frog! Keep scrolling to see the best jump.

Adios, Holly

On May 23^rd, after a joyful celebration at the Mak House and tearful goodbyes in the apartment and at the bus station, Holly moved back to Texas. It was a really hard goodbye, after sharing a room for the past four months and living life together here. Holly is one of the sweetest, gentlest people I know, and I learned a lot about humility and serving others from her. We miss her soooo much!

These are some pics from Holly’s goodbye dinner. Check previous posts for more pictures of our adventures together!

Worship Team

Not having a musical outlet in my life has been the most frustrating part of living here for me. Well, that is no longer the case! I recently joined the worship team at New Life Church, an English-speaking church in Sosua. I sort of joined on a whim – Dustin, who leads worship, said, “So when are you going to sing with us?” And I said, “Um, how’s next week?” So now I am playing keyboard and singing with four guys. Yes, for those of you who have analyzed the gender distribution of chapel bands, I am the token girl. But I play keyboard, so it’s a little better… Let me tell you, this band has been a stream in the desert for me, and the guys I play with are great! I leave rehearsals and church feeling refreshed and fulfilled. Music is POWERFUL! Because of how much I am encouraged by being in the worship band (and because we have met some wonderful people there), Lauren has agreed with me that we should call New Life our church home – she’s such a good, loving, supportive roommate!

The Bible is full of commands to "sing a new song" to the Lord, to sing joyfully, to sing God's praises, to declare his love and goodness in song, to proclaim - when you sing, other people hear you! May God always fill my heart and mouth with new songs of praise. May he truly be my song.

The LORD is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. Exodus 15:2 (Also Isaiah 12:2)

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Psalm 40:3a (read the whole chapter - it's one of my favorites!)

Blenders

I have never really appreciated blenders as much as I do now. We bought a blender in the fall, and it has become a staple appliance in our kitchen! This week I used it every day, some days twice! The thing is, it's so hot here, anything you can make with ice in it is wonderful! My favorite thing about the blender, however: you can run a blender off two car batteries (our inverter). Also, the blender uses more power than the washing machine. Food for thought, or a picture of the ridiculousness that is Dominican washers!

So, for your reading pleasure, here are our favorite things to make in our blender:

FRAPPUCCINOS! These trump everything else. I could have a frappuccino every day (maybe I will this summer, hmm...). Frozen coffee (it takes some forethought), milk, hot chocolate powder, and a dash of hazelnut creamer.

Smoothies. A close second to the frappuccino. Frozen fruit - usually strawberries - and yogurt. Plain and simple. Sometimes we add a little vanilla whey protein powder.

Hummus! Yep, that's right. We eat hummus in the DR! At least once every two weeks we have hummus wraps with fresh veggies. Mmm! Our hummus recipe: 1 can of chickpeas/garbanzos, 1 clove of garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lime juice (they don't have lemons here). We also make black bean hummus.

"Frostys" Milk, ice, and hot chocolate powder. It ends up a little thinner than a real Frosty, but still delicious! A good option for when we didn't plan and don't have any frozen coffee.

Lately, thanks to Katy, frozen Chai tea lattes! (Think Caribou style.) This is like a frappe, but with chai mix, milk, and ice. Mmm good.

Please send me any delicious recipes or food ideas that you like to make in your blender!

Vacation!!!!

One Tuesday evening, Lauren, Holly, and I were sitting around talking about how we would like to go to the southeast coast - Punta Cana, La Romana, etc. One of us got the brilliant idea to go there for a vacation before Holly left, so we decided that we would go on Friday (three days later)! We made reservations for the resort, for the rental car, for taking off work, for a different resort when the first one didn't work out... anyway, every 5 minutes or so that week someone would say, "Guess what? We're going on vacation in ___ days!!!"

We did just what the sign told us to - "Conoce tu pais" means "Know your country." We also drove through the national park Los Haitises, which is gorgeous and looks like Jurassic Park! (Don't worry, I drove to the resort while they drank their Presidentes!)

Friday afternoon we got in our not-so-trusty little Fiat rental car and headed south. It took about 6 hours to get to our resort in Bayahibe. And from that point on, all we did was relax! We layed on the beach, layed by the pool, ate a lot of delicious food, drank some delicious drinks, read magazines to catch up on about 6 months of American pop culture (we didn't miss much!), took hot showers and got dressed up, went to a hilarious Michael Jackson show, and loved on each other. Sunday morning we drove a little farther to Punta Cana and layed on the beach there for a few hours before returning to our resort. Our bosses graciously gave us Monday off last-minute, Robin offered to cover Lauren's class (thank you!), and we got to stay an extra day!

The beautiful resort we stayed at. Don't you wish you were there?

We loooove the beach! Especially a new beach we've never been to!

The best part of the weekend was getting to make beautiful memories together just a few weeks before Holly left. I am so glad we went - I love Lauren and Holly dearly!

We also loooove each other and having fun together!

Reminder: You can click on the photo collages to make them bigger.

Mom and Dad visit! (aka Catching Up, Part 1)

I am going to do my best to catch you all up on what has happened in the past, umm, 2 months, has it been? To start with, on April 1, Mom and Dad came for a wonderful 10 day visit! We spent a day in my apartment and Montellano before we became real tourists. Then we went to Santo Domingo, the capital, which is full of colonial history - Christopher Columbus's sons' forts and houses, the oldest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere, botanical gardens, and (drumroll please!) the Dominican Republic's first IKEA! It opened a few weeks before we were there, and I pursuaded Mom and Dad to take me. It was like a little taste of America. Or Sweden.

Colonial Santo Domingo! It's fun to be a tourist sometimes! Old catheral, Columbus's fort, and me with some gargoyles. Also me sitting in the chair where the king/general/lord/whoever was in power would sit to hear audiences. There wasn't anything saying not to touch it...!

The orchids at the National Botanical Gardens were beautiful! Mom especially enjoyed them. We also saw the Japanese garden (Dad and me on the bridge).

On Easter morning, we went to Resurrection mass at the old cathedral. They had a choir! Not only did they have a choir, but they had a GOOD choir! And they sang the Hallelujah Chorus! I almost cried. Really, I did - that was the first time I heard classical music not coming from my ipod in this country. A surprise blessing from God on Easter morning.

Molly joined us in the capital for a day, then we went up to Jarabacoa to stay at the YWAM base and do the kinds of things Molly does in Jarabacoa. Waterfalls, relaxing, playing games, eating good Dominican food...

Jarabacoa! Waterfall hike complete with suspension bridges, and Mom and Molly trying to look secretive while we play Clue.

Finally, to top it all off, we went to a lovely resort in Cabarete for a few days. Air conditioning, hot water, beach, drinks of all kinds, activities, and just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. It was really great - thanks Mom and Dad! I took Mom and Dad out to school for part of a day so they could see where I work, what I do, meet Jessi, and meet the boy that they sponsor. It was fun to show them my life here. We also hit up La Tienda, the art co-op across from my school, for some souveniers and floating coconut candles (if you live in Quakertown, look for them in the pool this summer...).

A visit to school - Mom and Dad met Brayan, the boy they sponsor; we visited with Jessi; we walked through the village; and we went to La Tienda.

What we did all day: lay on the beach! I also got some early birthday presents (Glee dvds!) and we watched some kitesurfers do crazy tricks.

And what we did at night. We clean up pretty well, huh?

So that's the short version. I'm sure if you ask my parents, they would love to share stories with you about their time here! It was such a blessing to see them and for them to see the beautiful people and places that fill my life here.

A Whoopi Goldberg lookalike!

Part of what has kept me busy the past two months has been taking a good, smiling picture of every child at the school. This is a much harder task than you would imagine. Out of 215 students, on any given day there are probably about 180 in attendance, so you never know if the kid you need to take a picture of is going to show up that day! Then, once you get them to school, you have to get them to smile! But I am proud to say that I have an official Spring 2010 Update Photo for all but one student at the school!

When I saw this little girl for the first time, I thought to myself, "She looks a lot like Whoopi Goldberg!" That suspicion was confirmed by Jessi, Lauren, Holly, Katy, Molly... what do you think?

Long time no blog...

Sorry about the lack of updates over the past month! It has been a little crazy around here, with Holy Week, my parents visiting, my roommates' family members visiting, a women's retreat this past weekend... and now only 3 more weeks of school! I will gather some thoughts soon, but for now, just some prayer requests:

• for energy and perseverence these last 3 weeks of school, that I would find purpose and passion in my teaching and be filled with love for my students
• for summer - we are already well in the midst of planning and preparing for interns, teams, summer school... pray for logistics and pray for hearts
• for the school - thanks to a generous donation, we were able to start working on the cafeteria expansion again - pray that the money would continue to come and that the cafeteria would be done soon. Also, looking forward to the summer, pray for the construction that will happen then, as we hope to build four new classrooms!
• for my community as summer is a time of major transition, staff leaving, staff coming, programs changing, students changing...
• for wisdom as I look at some "next step" options for grad school
• that God will send another Kids Alive missionary to the Care Center this summer or fall

Jehovah Jireh

Jehovah Jireh is one of my favorite names for God: God Provides. It reminds me not only of God's love and care for me, but of my total dependence on him and inability, as a fallen human, to provide for myself. This week I have been reminded in an enormous way of Jehovah Jireh. I sent out an email to my supporters this weekend explaining that my computer is very nearly dead and asking if anyone would be willing to donate an old laptop to me. God provided me with not one, but nine, offers of laptops and two financial donations! Jehovah Jireh! Praise God! I am overwhelmed by the generosity and support of my family and friends in the US, and I am overwhelmed by our great and mighty God. Thank you!

My Jesus, I Love Thee

I couldn't resist putting both of these up tonight. Lauren and I have each gotten some new hymns and other wonderful music from friends, so we've been listening to a lot of hymns lately. Man, I love them! So now, for your pondering, the hymn "My Jesus, I Love Thee." You can hear Avalon's version of it here. It's sort of a Lenten hymn but mostly just a really good one.

My Jesus, I love thee - I know thou art mine. For thee all the follies of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I love thee because thou has first loved me and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree. I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow. If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death; and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath, and say when the death dew lies cold on my brow: if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight I'll ever adore thee in Heaven so bright. I'll sing with a glittering crown on my brow: If ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

Depth of mercy!

Lenten hymn number two.

Depth of mercy! Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear, me the chief of sinners spare?

I have long withstood his face, long provoked him to his face, would not harken to his calls, grieved him by a thousand falls.

I my Master have denied. I afresh have crucified, oft profaned his hallowed name, put him to an open shame.

There for me the Savior stands, shows his wounds, and spreads his hands. God is love! I know, I feel - Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sins lament, now my foul revolt deplore, weep, believe, and sin no more.

Lent

We are in the church season of Lent right now. I grew up in the Methodist church, where the church year dictates to an extent the hymns we sang, the scriptures we read, the sermons that were preached, and how the church was decorated. So you can imagine my surprise/shock/confusion when we sang "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" in church last week! I mean, Christ is risen - every day - but this is supposed to be the time of year when we are solemn, contemplative, and preparing for the death of Jesus.

So I have decided to share some of my favorite Lenten hymns with you all. First one up: And Can It Be (Amazing Love). I love the words to this hymn, its descriptions of both Jesus' sacrifice and its results for me and for you. You can listen to the traditional hymn tune setting by clicking here. BUT, I have recently discovered Indelible Grace Music, a group that is creating new settings for traditional hymn texts, and they have a really great setting of this hymn featuring Sandra McCracken. You can listen to that by clicking here. (Sidenote. I like to read hymn texts as sentences or thoughts, so this might look different than the normal layout of a hymn text.)

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me, who caused his pain - for me, who him to death pursued? Amazing love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

'Tis mystery all: the Immortal dies! Who can explain his strange design? In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine. 'Tis mercy all! Let earth adore; let angel minds inquire no more.

He left his Father's throne above (so free, so infinite his grace!), emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race. 'Tis mercy all, immense and free, for, O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused in quickening ray; I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in him, is mine. Alive in him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine, bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.

Smiles

This week I have been working on another part of sponsorship: photography. I am not really a photographer, but I have to take a picture of every student at the Care Center at least twice a year. One photo is their yearly update photo that goes to their sponsors, and the other photo is at the bi-monthly birthday party of them with their cake, soda, and gifts. Also, when a student first enters the Care Center, I take their picture to send with their history to new sponsors. That is my task this week: to take a picture of every child who entered the Care Center in the fall of 2009. Today Jessi and I photographed the kindergarteners, and I couldn't resist putting these pictures up! Jose Emilio is just PRECIOUS, but like most of the kindergarteners, has a little trouble smiling on demand... enjoy!

Easter!

It's that time of year again... time for a sponsorship project! This one is for Easter, so I decided to go with the simple yet classic "Tissue papered Easter egg" craft. The kids actually loved making them, and we got through almost all 250 of them in 3 days, which is great and meant that I only had to miss one day of teaching! Yep, that's right. Reading specialist by morning, English teacher by afternoon, and sponsorship coordinator in the in-between... you do the math! Needless to say, I have been a little busy lately, but I LOVE it!

So here's a little glimpse of the sponsorship coordinator part of my job. If you will be the lucky recipient of one of these eggs, know that the kids love you and love crafts!

(Disclaimer: I know it's Lent, but I have deadlines. Plus they don't do Lent here except for the carnival part... they don't really do Easter Sunday either, but Holy Week is a really big deal. I'll tell you all about it after I've experienced it for the first time!)

Clockwise from top left: Brayan working, eggs, Jonas - pro egg maker, the finished product!, me overseeing some hardworking students, little ones working on fine motor skills... crumpling tissue paper is harder than it looks when you're 6!

A Rainy Day Adventure

Today the road to the village was ESPECIALLY muddy. And in a valiant effort to dodge the world's biggest pothole, Junior drove the Care Center guagua (12 passenger van) full of all the teachers off the road into a ditch. This ditch was full of soppy mud - not just the kind you can get through, but really deep, wet, goopy, mud. After some attempts to get the guagua to go forward or backward, the guagua was tipped at about a 30 degree angle into the sugar cane field. All 15 of us climbed out through the driver's door and onto the road. Now it's about 8:05 in the morning and we are only halfway through our 3 mile drive to school. And it's drizzling. But we have to get to school - we're the teachers! So after a little debating over how long it would take the director to come get us in his truck, we started walking. In the cold mist, in the mud, with our bags and purses and notebooks. I walked most of it barefoot because I realized my flip-flops were going to get stuck in the mud on every step. You can imagine, by the time we got to school, what we looked like: feet covered in mud, wet, crazy hair, a little frustrated and tired but excited that we had had a good adventure! The school day continued as normal, with a few "we're walking, right?" jokes as we boarded the rescued guagua to come home.

Here are some pictures from our rainy day adventure for you! They don't quite do it justice, but you get the idea! Clockwise from the top left: my incredibly muddy feet and flip-flops!; the guagua stuck in the mud; Francina and me; a distant view of the guagua; Janeli, Jessi, and Francina; the rest of the teachers: Jury, Chichi, Sara, Dudu, Junior, Junior, and Paleta.

Sami suma sapos... teaching 11 year olds to read

Today I taught reading. I have always taken being able to read for granted. If I don’t know a word the first time I see it, I can still sound it out, think about its roots, context, pictures, and figure out what the word means. But today I sat with two 11 year old boys (among others) who don’t know what sounds the vowels make. They also don’t know any consonants, and they don’t know how to put the letters together to make syllabic sounds or words. I was stunned. I was expecting kids who couldn’t read, but this? This makes me angry. Kids at the care center have to be in whatever grade the public school places them in for scheduling reasons, so these boys are in 4^th grade but completely illiterate. It took fifteen minutes for me to help them sound out a basic sentence: “Sami suma sapos.” (Sammy adds toads.) In the DR, kids first learn the vowels, then two-letter syllables starting with m, s, and p – ma, me, mi, mo, mu; sa, se, si, so, su… So these boys should have been able to read this book (Sami Suma) since first grade. But because of a failed academic system that pushes them through school whether they have learned anything or not, these boys can’t read. I feel sad, angry, bewildered. But…

But I am excited to work with these kids. I am excited to see more smiles on their faces as things “click.” Today that happened when I showed them how to use the pictures to help them figure out what the words are – if Sami is adding toads he drew on a chalkboard, then “Sami suma sapos.” It also happened when they realized that every page of the “Es un Elefante?” (Is it an elephant?) book said the EXACT same thing – it took them five pages to realize that, but they eventually did! I will keep looking for small joys, keep praising them for sounding out “no, no es” for the fifth time, and keep praying for wisdom in how to teach something that has always come easily to me.

Food for thought: THIS HAPPENS in American school systems! I know that there are people living in the United States who at the least finished elementary school but can hardly read… what do we do about this?

"But aren't you my friend?"

At MTI we talked about how foreign customs or habits that seem strange to us almost always have logic behind them. I experienced an example of this this week!

Monday I became an English teacher - grades 5-8 - at the Care Center. Each class gets two 20 minute lessons a week, which is NOT very much time, especially when a third of the time is spent waiting for them to stop talking so I can teach!

When speaking to gringos (white people) here, the kids in Villa Asencion (and I think in the DR in general) either start or finish every sentence with "my friend." Examples: "Give me five pesos, my friend." "My friend, give me a drink of water." "My friend, what's your name?" Or even, "My friend, hello, my friend!" Also funny is that they don't finish their words here, so it sounds like "my frien..."

I tried to teach my classes this week that people who really speak English don't use "my friend" very much. I have always hated being called "my friend" because it means the kid saying it hasn't distinguished me from the myriad of tourists, missionaries, and visitors as someone who is staying with them for a while and is here to give them education and sponsors, not money or candy. As MTI taught me, though, there apparently is logic behind this dreaded gringo greeting. As I was teaching 8th grade, one of my students actually raised his hand (!) and said, "But aren't you my friend?" I had to stop and think for a minute. I responded, "Yes, I am your friend. But in the United States we don't talk about people being our friends very much." It was an interesting cultural moment - one of those instances that makes you think about your home culture in a way you have never before thought about it.

Here are some specific prayer requests for this coming week:

• PRAISE God that I enjoyed and was energized by my time in the classroom this week
  
• wisdom in lesson planning and ESPECIALLY classroom management - that I would be able to come up with and implement an effective and positive reward/discipline system
• wisdom as I begin reading tutoring - they are essentially going to put me in a room with five illiterate 9 year olds and say go...
• that God will continue to energize me through teaching and that he will put more love in my heart for my students every day
• Holly, a Makarios staff member who went to MTI with us and has been living in Santiago, is moving in with us on Sunday - pray for healthy transitions for her, Lauren, and me
• that in the midst of teaching, I will find a good Easter sponsorship craft and have the time to get it completed in time
  

Better late than never...

So I finally am getting around to posting my Christmas newsletter! (If you support me financially, it's the same as the hard copy you received.) I hope it gives you some more insight into/overview of my life here! As with all (I think) the pictures I post, click on it to view it larger.

No kids yet...

Unfortunately and due to circumstances outside our control, Kids Alive did not receive any Haitian children this weekend. We are currently looking for non-governmental channels through which to find and care for orphans. As always, you can read all about it at www.kidsalive.org/haiti-relief. Please continue praying for Kids Alive's ministries on the island as well as for all those who are caring for children in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic.

An update and an opportunity.

I apologize for my silence about life since I returned to the island... it's just that so much has happened this past week, and it has been an emotionally difficult week for me.

I arrived in the DR on Monday afternoon to a week of rain. All day, every day, inescapable rain that dampens everyone's spirits. Because of the rain, the river on the way into Caraballo flooded. Normally to get to school we drive a truck or van through the river, but when it is flooded we can't have school. So Tuesday we didn't have our teacher work day, and I thought, "Ok, but I'll get to see the kids tomorrow if the river's down."

Tuesday evening the earthquake hit. It was a scary experience, not necessarily because our apartment building swayed for almost two minutes, but because there was a tsunami watch for the next few hours and we live less than 3 miles from the ocean. There was not a tsunami, we are fine, but everyone's nerves were rattled and hearts were broken for the devastation in Haiti. We work with a largely Haitian population, so I personally know people who have yet to hear from their families in Port-au-Prince or have confirmed that their families died. The situation in Haiti is terrible.

I have felt a little trapped here. Because of the earthquake, we didn't have school the rest of the week. (We did finally go in for a teacher work day yesterday.) When it rains here, there isn't much you can do. There aren't coffee shops, libraries, museums, or movie theaters. So I sat at home for 3 days, feeling a little homesick and bored. I have also felt trapped (as have my fellow missionaries here) in that I live only 6 hours or so from Port-au-Prince, but it is too dangerous and too unorganized for us to go and do anything there. For now, what we can do is pray and send supplies with our Haitian friends who go to search for their families. We're letting governments and large relief organizations work right now, and wait for the day when it is safe and we can be of use in Haiti.

Kids Alive, however, has received permission from the government to bring 50 Haitian orphans to our sites in the DR! We think we will receive 10-15 of the kids in Caraballo sometime this week. I am so excited for this opportunity to more physically help some of the most vulnerable survivors of the earthquake by providing for their immediate needs and giving them a lot of love! (The Kids Alive site in Haiti will also be receiving children.)

Please be praying for wisdom for Kids Alive leadership as we bring the children across the border, find them homes, and continue to raise the money needed to care for them. Pray for strength and encouragement for the relief workers in Haiti. Pray for those who are mourning around the world, as this earthquake has affected many nations.

Thank you for your support and prayers. If you would like to donate to Kids Alive's efforts in Haiti and now in the DR, please go to www.kidsalive.org/haiti-relief.

O Christmas Tree

The rest of us getting and decorating the tree. We got the tree the day after Molly and I got home, and we were FREEZING! In our defense, the wind was whipping across the field, and it was really cold...

Clockwise from the top: Mom, Molly, and me picking a tree; sister love; Katy decorating; Dad and Molly after chopping down the tree; Dad, umm, what is he doing? Striking a pose, I guess!; Mom and Dad hanging their "Our First Christmas 1980" ornament (an annual tradition); next year's Christmas card?; Molly and I; and the family picture.

Zeke the gangster?

Every year, we go to Wata Wata Farms, part of Bob White Acres, to tromp through the field and chop down a Christmas tree! Zeke usually goes too, and this year he went gangster style, sporting my Grandma-knit hat: