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!