Not a Goodbye

  

Hey there! Marcus here. Sorry for not blogging since May, we’ve been really busy with the teams. We’re off for the week, so I finally have time to write. We’ve had some pretty awesome groups and interns these past few weeks. Some from Michigan, Minnesota, two from Ohio, Washington, and other places.

We also had an awesome intern named Rachael, who just left yesterday (Saturday). Here, let me tell you more about her.  Rachael was from Hong Kong, but currently lives in California. She’s 18, and was only here for 5 weeks, but it seemed like a few short days. She was a great person, positive, motivating, and very encouraging. I rarely ever saw her upset. I’m sure all of us appreciated her, especially the rest of the interns.  

Now, back to what I was saying. The recent groups have all been really fun in different ways. There’s been plenty of people that I’ve gotten to know and love. But the hardest part is saying goodbye, especially with the team that just left. I’ve been told that it’s not really goodbye, it’s just ‘see you later,’ cause we’ll see them in heaven. But that’s a ways away, and who knows, maybe they won’t make it to heaven (only kidding!) Anyway, it’s kinda hard to believe that our summer is already half over, but it sure has been eventful, exhausting, and most of all fun.

We also work with other interns, too. Jacob, Ana, Laura, Abby, and a new one named Avalon that’s coming at the end of the month. They’re all really supportive, kind, helpful, loving, and just enjoyable to be around. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when we say goodbye… I mean see you later. That’s one of the downsides of being here in the Dominican Republic. People come for a week, get to know us, and then leave. I mean, sure, I love meeting new people every week, I really do. And I’ve met some pretty cool people here, who have amazing faith and wisdom. But when it comes to saying see you later, it’s just really hard and painful. But, I’ve been told that if it’s hard to say goodbye, then that just means that you’ve loved well. And you just have to ask yourself, would you trade the pain of leaving them for the joy of meeting them? My answer is no.

So, that’ll be it for today’s blog. I might not be able to blog until our next off week (August), but I’m glad I was able to squeeze this one in. So, I’ll see you later, and thanks so much for reading!

Kitchen

Hello everyone! Marcus here. I’d like to tell you about what happened on Tuesday night. So, we have an inverter (a machine that gives us electricity when the powers out) that came with our house when we agreed to rent it. It’s very useful, except for when the batteries are dead. They’re supposed to charge up when we have electricity, but ours seem to have gone bad. And the thing is, they’re extremely expensive, and we don’t have the money to buy new ones right now. So I’d like to tell you about the time when the power went out for 8 hours. Ready? Here we go!

So, our parents went to a dinner with the Pastor and his wife of a nearby church. Well, none of us kids wanted to go, so we just stayed here. I think they left around 5:00, and they weren’t gonna be back until like 9:00. So, we had 4 hours alone. We expected the power to come back on soon, because it had been out since 1:00. But it didn’t, so we sat and waited. And nothing happened. We talked, and waited, and talked some more. Around 7:00 it started to get dark. So we grabbed flashlights and sat on the couch. We made shadow puppets with our hands, and then Isaac stood up and acted out the story of Adam and Eve. Then Ellah acted out a story, and during her story something strange happened. We heard a big loud “Beep!” Well, we only hear beeps from the microwave and water cooler when the power comes back on. The microwave beeps once, and the water cooler, three times. Well, there was only one beep, so it was definitely the microwave. But none of the fans or lights came on, so we didn’t think much of it. Then Madelyn told a story, then me, then Alec. But during Alec’s story, we heard another “Beep!” Well, this time we decided to investigate. We walked into the kitchen, and there was three green glowing zeros coming from the microwave. The entire house was completely dark, except for the microwave. Turns out, the refrigerator, the water, and the kitchen lights all worked. So we sat in the kitchen, and Alec plugged his dead phone into an outlet. Our Mom called, and we told her what was happening. She asked my Dad, but he couldn’t seem to figure it out. So Alec grabbed Little House on the Prairie, and read it aloud for about a half hour. Well, our parents got home, and my Dad figured out the problem, and all was well.

Well, that’s gonna have to it for this blog. Thank you all so much for reading, and God bless your day!

Adventure

Hello everyone! Marcus here, and I’d like to tell you about our little adventure the other day (Sunday). So, it all started when my Mom decided to go to the beach for Mother’s Day. Well it seemed like a good idea, so we all agreed.

Recently, one of our good Dominican friends, David, suggested a beach to my Dad, which we’ve never been to. He said there was a restaurant there that had really good fish, so we decided to go and eat lunch there. Well, we kinda had a bit of a hard time getting there, we actually ended up at a different beach, which was almost deserted, besides one “interesting” dude. And there was definitely no restaurant. So we left that beach to go and find the one that David was talking about. So my Dad asked for directions from a Dominican, and he tried to explain how to get there, but my Dad just didn’t understand. So he hopped on his motorcycle and drove us there. Well, the beach was decent, but the restaurant was more of a shack type thing, and the only thing they had was octopus fish. Most of our family doesn’t exactly care for fish, so we decided to go to a beach that we’ve been to and that has good food. At the beach near the parking lot, there’s a small area where there’s a bunch of little shops, and the restaurant. But near those shops is a walk in cage, with birds and an iguana in an even smaller cage inside that cage. Well, the owner of the iguana must’ve seen us looking at it, and proceeded to take the iguana out and plop it in my hands. It. Was. Terrifying! So after that we went to the beach, and ran in to the Nutter’s there. So we spent the rest of the day with them, and ended up eating lunch at 3:45.

So, that was truly an adventure. Thank you all for reading this, and happy late Mother’s Day!

Good Times

Hey guys! Marcus speaking… I mean writing. Ok so first off I’d like to apologies for not blogging in like 2 months. We’ve all been really busy with school, visiting people, and other stuff that I’ll talk about later. I’ve got a lot to cover t’day, so we should probably get started ASAP. Ready? Let’s go!

I think I’m gonna start off when Uncle Chris and his three kids, Aaron, Kiara, and Kelsey came down to visit us over Christmas. What did we do you ask? Well, they arrived on Dec. 24, and we hung out at our house until the day after Christmas. Then headed out to a Villa for four days and three nights. Within those four days we went to a monkey jungle, where monkeys jump on top of you and eat the bananas and sunflower seeds off the plates which we were holding. Next we went on seven different zip lines and a freefall into a small bat cave, where batman wasn’t found (it’s a long story). Finally we went snorkeling at two different coral reefs with TONS of fish. So yeah, having Chris and the kids down was a total blast.

Not much has happened until this past week, which is when we’ve been hanging out with some fellow missionaries. They’re the Dominguez’s, a family of 10. We’ve only met 3 of their kids, Josiah (aka Jo-Jo) who’s 13, Star (10), and Soley (7). Ellah and Madelyn like to play with Star and Soley (who are both girls btw) and Alec and I hang out with Jo-Jo. What do we do with Jo-Jo? Well, videogames, airsoft wars, swim in their pool, and some other things. Why, just yesterday (Saturday) we went to the beach and got pummeled by the rough waves.

Alrighty then, I do believe I’ve written about pretty much everything that we’ve done in the past month. It’s not as long as I thought it’d be, though. Oh well. I guess this is the end of my blog. I think I might try to write a blog every weekend, but I’m not making any promises!

Two Funny Stories (with Alec)

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while, here’s something to chew on:

A while ago, Marcus and I were babysitting the “little three.” After the little ones were settled watching TV Marcus and I went into our room to talk (like all normal missionary teens do). Then we heard someone behind us, and we saw that it was Ellah. She giggled a bit, then slammed the door. *Click*. The door was locked (we have our door handle on backwards so the lock is on the outside, not inside). And so after begging the girls (and Isaac) to let us out, we were finally set free. The End

Time for number two (this one is a little shorter than the last):

Yesterday I was at the barber’s getting my Dominican hair on, when the barber stopped cutting, and walked to the door. After opening it he sneezed straight out then closed the door and resumed cutting my hair. The End

Thank you all for your support and prayers, they are helping a lot. I’ll try to blog more often.

God bless,         

Alec

A Short Summary Thing

Ok hey guys, Marcus here. So I was asked by a couple people to blog, and I really didn’t have anything interesting to right about… So I decided to write a summary thing. Alright, here we go.

So when we first got here in April it was extremely hard. We were all homesick and missing the comforts of our own home back in Nebraska. Well we slowly but surely got used to the Dominican Republic. There’s still a lot of things we miss, like friends, family, air-conditioning, carpet, a backyard, and much more. But those are some things that we’ll probably never get over. In May, the teams started coming down, and that was kinda fun. After like two or three teams came down, we met the interns. They were all sort of like family, and if any of you interns are reading this, I’ll never forget you guys. So more teams came down, and I made a lot of friends. Some were from Christ Community Church (Hi Pam!) and others were from Minnesota (Hey Charles and Casey!) So over all the teams were really fun. And then came August. And with August came school. And no more interns, and no more teams. And stuff started to get really boring. Math, Grammar, Science, History, Spelling and chores were always on our daily schedule.

And then we started to get invitations to meet with pastors and their families of the Christian & Missionary Alliance Churches. It was fun and all, but having the language barrier can sometimes make it really hard to make friends with the kids that we meet. Like one Tuesday night a few weeks ago, we were invited to a pastor’s house just to hang out. At first it was kinda hard, and slightly boring. But then some of their neighbors came by and asked if my brother and I wanted to play volleyball. Well, we went with them, and they led us right to the middle of the street, where they drew a line across the street, signifying the net. I honestly didn’t even want to play, but I gave it a try, and it turned out really fun. 

So over all it’s been really hard being down here, but it’s also been extremely fun too. It’s almost like by sending us down here, God has closed a lot of doors, but He’s also opened a bunch more. And until He opens the next door, I guess we’ll just have to praise him in the hallway. Well, that’ll have to be it for this blog.

Thanks so much for reading, and God bless.

DR Update

What’s happening in the DR?

Our schedule is changing compared to the busy summer.  We have taken the last couple weeks to begin homeschooling and see how that will work as we continue the café ministry.  Matt and Teri also began Spanish lessons three days/week for two hours.  Eventually we will add Spanish to the kid’s curriculum as well.  We continue to work with our regular students and a 14 year old boy who started coming in about a month ago at the café, three days a week (see the pictures).  Alec and Marcus have been helping with this young man and they are having a lot of fun.  Recently, we have also added two more guys and our cook from the café to the mix.   We have begun to attend the local church in Santiago on Sundays as well as the older three kids attending the Saturday night youth group.

Our upcoming schedule

·         Homeschooling

·         English three days a week with our “regulars”

·         Spanish lessons three days a week

·         Dinner with the manager of the Café and her husband

·         Church in Los Arroyos and connect with some of the families there

·         Visit an after school program with Compassion

·         Team building day with the café employees

Please pray with us…

Lord, please help us to adjust to the different pace of our new schedule and take time for our family.  Help us to continue to connect with our community both in the church, the cafe as well as the relationships we have already established.   Help the children to meet and connect with friends in youth group and church to help their time here.  Please help us all as we continue to learn and study our Spanish, help it to strengthen and build our relationships with those around us.  And lastly, continue to help us share your Word and do your work here in the Dominican Republic.  In Jesus’ name Amen.

Thank You for your partnership in prayer,

Matt, Teri, Alec, Marcus, Ellah, Madelyn and Isaac