Serving In The Dominican Republic & Haiti

2011-11-18T12:41:00.000-05:00

As I press pause on the last six months and take a moment to reflect on all God has done over the last six months it has been such an incredible time. I also realize that it has been entirely too long since our last update. It always amazes me on how life and ministry can take off and before we even aware so much time has passed. The last short-term trip of the year has left to head back to the States and I wanted to take a moment to recap for you all that went on this summer and fall.

We had 36 teams come down on short term trips, now that is a lot of ministry! God blessed us the last six months and construction wise we have been able to accomplish great things. We built four rock cages to help protect the Church in Hoyo de Bartola from the ever changing and flooding river. Continued construction on three homes and they are now set to be finished and moved into by the end of November. We started building a new Church/nutrition center and dorm in Phaeton Haiti. Continued the construction of Church’s and feeding centers in Batey Nueve & Batey Cuchilla, also worked on the parsonage in Halto del Yaque. There were also a lot of little projects like painting homes as part of community outreach in Panta Suenta, building basketball courts, starting the process of building a baseball field for children to have a safe place to play. G.O. also started the demolition of our old central church in order to build the new three story medical facility.

That was just the construction part! We also had many, many children’s ministry, three dental clinics, four medical clinics, sports outreach, family counselors, Pastoral training, music training, sports outreach and so much more. G.O. has been so blessed to be able to start another nutrition center for needy children, and we now have 11 centers on the island. Under the direction of Will Partin, our sports ministry has started a daily basketball clinic four days a week. It is great to see so many kids learning discipline, basketball and the love of God via devotions by the coaches.

This past year we have also seen our main central church move from our old building to our new temporary sanctuary. We have also watched as God has moved the hearts of so many as we have gone from 75 people of well over 150+ and are already out of space! What a great problem to have as we get ready to start the second floor of the building and future main sanctuary. The youth of the Church are on fire for God and are representing a huge portion of the congregation. We have had countless new people joining the Church and the impact hasn’t just been with the Dominican and Haitians. As many of you know the Americans who come down on the short term trips are often searching for God as well. Just with the teams that I knew if we had eleven people accept Christ and be baptized while on their trip. Can I get an AMEN on that!

It has been a great time of ministry! We are looking forward to a short break and having teams start up again in the New Year. This past year G.O. Ministries also spent some time laying out a new vision statement and over the next month I will be updating the blog and breaking down the 5 key components of it. It is extremely important to know why we do what we do and how it plays into moving God’s Kingdom forward. So stay tuned for more…….

We will be heading to the states in the next few weeks. Sunshine and Colton will fly back to the states 11/28, and I will follow them in about a week on 12/5. We are looking forward to a time of relaxation, spending time with family, seeing friends, and celebrating the holidays with family.

We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! We are all so blessed!

2011-07-08T19:12:00.014-04:00

My summer of Medical clinics kicked off with Woodlawn Christian Church. I spent two afternoons with Nancy the Occupational Therapist and her assistants. This was our first OT clinic and I wasn't real sure what to expect. Let me just say that I was wowed. Those two afternoons we saw children with Cerebal Palsy(minor to really bad), club feet, and one little girl that was so crippled, neglected, and malnourished that it just broke your heart. Each child was assessed and dianosed. Most of the patients had been recieving therapy and good care. You could tell that they were loved and well cared for. After the assessment and diagnosis, Nancy would go through her toy bag, and would begin working with each child to see if they were age appropriate in thier coordination, checking thier reflexes, loving on them, and praising the parents for a job well done. One little girl was brought in by her grandmother. She was about one year old, about 28 pounds, had a mop of curly black hair and went by the name "princessa". She lived with her grandmother, as the little girl's father was dead. Princessa had been born with a blood cot in her brain, she didn't have very good muscle movement, couldn't hold her head up very well, and she had a lazy eye. But boy was she loved! Her grandmother would clap her hands and start singing the song " La Cucaracha" and this little girl was laugh and giggle and make this hissing noise. It was adorable. The grandmother was so good with her. Nancy showed her how to do exercises with her, and by just talking to her on the opposite side of her lazy eye would force "Princessa" to to use her lazy eye muscles more and strengthen her neck muscles as well.

The following two weeks I had medical/dental clinics with Harris Praire Church and the Dr. Veal dental team. Harris Praire's first stop was to Pastor Nico's church where we saw about 250 patients for medical/dental. On the second day we visited a rural community called "Cinco" and treated about 90 patients. On our third day of clinic we visited a Haitian church plant in the downtown Santiago area. We saw about 180 patients that day. It really was a great day there. We were introduced to the Pastor of the church (about 50 people)and learned that by having a medical/dental clinic we were really putting the church on the map. Every person who walked through the door of that church left knowing about service times, and had a chance to meet the Pastor of the church. The church was located in the business district, and was extremely busy all the time. It's hard to say how many people in the church, or who visited the clinic were there as refugees. It was a good feeling to know that we were a small of what God is doing for the Haitian commiunity in downtown Santiago.

Dr. Veal's dental team was a part of our basketball camp week. In 2 1/2 days of dental clinic we saw about 150 patients. The dentists were there to pull teeth, and they also did some cleanings as well. There really are few of us who enjoy going to the dentist...I am one of them. As I was watching our dentists pull teeth, I was thinking about the amount of faith it takes for those people to get into that chair. In the states you have xrays, they speak your language, and it's a great comfort to know that you know exactly whats going on all the time. That's not true here in one of these clinics. Sure we have Spanish and Creole translators...but it takes a lot of gumption and pain to blindly put your trust in a strangers hands. Know what I mean? Some of these patients teeth were so bad that they spent hours getting them out. The other day Eric and I were walking to a friends house to have dinner. One of our Haitian construction workers named Fran stopped me and smiled. He said "Thanks again for helping me get rid of this tooth. I feel like I have a new life without the pain I was in." The picture above...that's Felix in the chair, and that's me holding his tooth. Of course I had nothing to do with it! I mean I hear the sounds of those tendons breaking and I feel faint! Literally. One of the dentists that was working asked me to say a prayer for a young guy who was in the chair getting his tooth pulled, he was shaking like a leaf. So I am standing there at the head of the dental chair trying to pray and all I can hear is the sound of tendons breaking. I had to quickly walk before I vomited on the patient!

It's been great to walk around our community here and recognize the people that I saw in the OT and dental clinic. I see the moms and ask how their kiddos are doing. They smile and say that they are well and so grateful for the advice they recieved. I see the folks from the dental clinic and ask them if they are having any pain...big grins light up their faces! I love it that I had even a small part in that!!

Faith, Future and putting it into Practice

2011-02-23T13:18:00.006-05:00

I wanted to share with you some things that have been on my heart and let you know where we are at as a family working in ministry.

2 Corinthians 5:7 “We live by faith, not by sight”

Faith is a word that at its core is the very fabric of belief in God. Looking at the words FaithFaithful it is used over 300 times in New Testament. and People put their Faith in Jesus, their Faith healed them, Faith guides them and the Lord is Faithful to all his promises. With the basis of our religion and all the references to Faith in the New Testament why then is Faith so hard? I believe that if you ask the majority of all people, Christian and non-Christian, that they would say that they have Faith in something. Conversely all Christians have Faith in the fact that Jesus was the son of God, he died for our sins and rose on the third day. The verse above 2 Corinthians 5:7 provides great insight to the fact that we can’t see Christ here with us, but we have Faith that his presence with us is a reality and that is how we are to live.

So why do I say living in Faith is so hard? Most people, and at times even I, think it is very easy. As I look back it was easy to put my complete trust and Faith in Christ when I accepted Him. It wasn’t until later that it became hard because He wants us to relinquish areas of our life that we simply don’t want to put our full Faith into believing that He will take care of us. At the root it is because we are control freaks! It is easy to be in Church and say that I trust the Lord and have Faith that He will provide. It is another thing completely when you have $5 left in your checking account and $400 medical co-pay due. We rack our brains on trying to figure out how WE are going to fix it and often times forget about the most basic thing of including God into the picture. I know that I do this a lot and people think that because you are a missionary that we are sort of super Christian, but in reality we have struggles just like everyone else. Jesus tells us many times in the New Testament that if we ask in His name that He will do it, John 14:14 “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Pretty cut and dry right! We ask, then after period of time we doubt and don’t have Faith in the very thing that He said that He would do. This is where I find a great challenge, to have complete Faith in his provisions.

A great question is, that if Faith is a cornerstone of our way of life, what areas are you actively living out in it?

Future

As we mentioned in the previous blog it is our hearts desire to move back to the Dominican
Republic on a full-time basis. When we started to split our years by spending part of it in the Dominican and part in Louisville we agreed to a two year commitment. While it has been wonderful to serve in the home office it has also been made clear that our hearts are with those whom we work with and serve in the Dominican. Sunshine and I have been talking a lot about the Future and what we feel that God has in store for us. It has been much more challenging than I expected as we always expect a clear cut answer. Often times I feel that it would be so much easier if the answer was clear, but alas that is part of where Faith comes back into play.

What we do know is that the work that we do in the Dominican is a vital part of who we have become. We both want to continue to invest in the lives of the Dominican’s and Haitians that we have gotten to know over the years. Spend time at the feeding centers playing and teaching the kids, work with the children in the sports ministry, helping build homes, churches, feeding centers, reaching thousands via medical clinics and reaching the lost for Christ. As much as we love the people of Hispaniola we equally love working with the teams of Americans that come down to serve. We have a deep rooted passion to serve and to continue to serve in this capacity.

In Practice

Here is where Faith and our Future come together. We are putting our Faith in God that He will provide the resources for us to realize the Future.

Matthew 7: 7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

We are fervently in prayer, and ask that you pray as well, that God will help open doors so that we financially can continue to do ministry without going into debt. We were blessed before joining the ministry to start fund raising for about 10 months and built up a reserve. Our first year of ministry we were very close to our minimum budget needed and we were able to offset the small difference from the reserve. After that first year is when the economy in the US took a big step back and unfortunately we had several supporters whom could no longer continue on with us. Simultaneously we have had a large increase in expenses to our budget. All that being said we had a monthly shortfall of $1000 per month in support. We were able to add some supporters over the last couple of months and that allowed us to get that total down to $700 per month. In addition, our reserve was set to run out in July of 2010, but it was amazing to see that as each month that passed God has provided one time gift for us to where we have not run out of funds for the last seven months. We recently received our last ministry statement and we are down to $100 left in our reserve. This is a very difficult position to find ourselves in, but we have Faith that God will continue to provide for us. The most difficult part is checking our own ego, the nervousness of asking for financial support, and know that we can ask you as brothers and sister in Christ to help us meet our need.

Here is what we are asking:

First: Prayer that is always first and foremost. Pray that God will allow doors to be opened and hearts softened so that we will receive what is needed financially. Pray that the 115 letters we sent out last month would be fruitful. Also, since you are praying already, pray for those lives that we will come in contact with this year.

Secondly: For those of you that already support us we want you to know how appreciative we are of that. We would like to ask you if possible to make an increase to your giving. Also, and perhaps more importantly if you know of anyone else who might be interested in supporting missionaries that you share our passion with them. We need advocates on our behalf to take our work and share it with small groups, churches and individuals.

Thirdly: We ask those of you who are not supporters of ours to consider becoming a partner with us TODAY! As mentioned above we need to raise $700 a month in donations or $8,400 per year. I know for some it is easy to budget in a monthly amount, but for others it is easier to send in a one-time gift per year. Either way is awesome!

You can send in your gifts to the address below, Please make all checks out to G.O. Ministries but remember to put Eric & Sunshine Leach in the memo line. You can also click on the “Give” tab on the top of the blog page and follow the steps there. As always you can contact us and we would be happy to send you a copy of our ministry budget, as we always want to have transparency in our ministry.

Peace & Blessings

G.O. Ministries

11501 Plantside Dr. Suite #14

Louisville, KY 40299

New Role With G.O. Ministries

2011-02-23T12:49:00.000-05:00

This past May as we were just starting our summer down here Brook, the President of G.O. Ministries, approached Sunshine and I about serving in a new capacity within the Ministry. Brook asked us to consider splitting our time between the home office in Louisville, KY and Santiago, Dominican Republic. At first thought privately we weren’t really too sure about it, we had just sold or given away pretty much everything that we owned in order to move the Dominican, we were just starting to get settled and weren’t thinking we wanted to start another new transition process! So, we decided to seek council of friends and most importantly God.

As some time went by we felt like God was telling us that either way we chose, we would be serving him. I then ran across some text in the Bible:

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve.”

1 Peter 5:2

What struck me about this verse is that we are to be willing to serve, not out of duty but because our heart with God is right. Our prayer about the possible change became more of how best can we serve you Lord because we know you will provide. It was after that that both Sunshine and I had peace about our decision. The more we thought about it, it became clear: G.O. Ministries has grown very fast the last five years and currently has hundreds of Nationals in five Countries, one major school with eight satellite schools in churches, approximately seventy churches, eight full time feeding centers serving over 4,000 meals a month, eleven construction projects and countless other undertakings. I tell you all this not to brag or boast, but simply to show you the scope of what G.O. does and why we have decided to go back and help out. All of these things are going on with at the time four people working in the home office! What a huge undertaking. We have since brought on one more person to help, plus added some responsibility on to another so that when we arrive in Louisville there will be eight of us in the office.

I am sure you are asking what does it mean for Sunshine and I? We will be heading back to Kentucky on October 2^nd and start working in the office right away. Our schedule will be flexible in that if there are medical teams or teams that we recruit to go on short term trips we will travel back to the Dominican. Ideally we would group them all together to spend a month there all at one time in the spring. After our big annual fundraiser at Churchill Downs with the Kentucky Derby we will head back to the D.R. and remain for the entire summer thru September each year. So it will look like 7 months in the States and 5 months in the Dominican. The time in Kentucky will allow Sunshine to make more contacts within the Medical field, recruit more medical teams and work on a steady pipeline of medicine for our clinics. I will be working with Brook on the administrative business side, working on budgets, timelines, fundraising and coordinating various other projects.

We are excited about serving God in this new role. We will continue to fill you in as things progress, but one big praise; is that we have a temporary place to live in Louisville until the end of the year as we search for a place. We will also be reaching out to you possibly in the future for help in getting donations to set up our home in place. We want to thank you for all your love and support this last year and give God all the glory for the things accomplished thus far.

Summer comes to an end

We have crossed the finish line, just the summer finish line that is! For the last eleven weeks straight we have had some great people from churches all over the US come down to the Dominican Republic to serve. It has been our joy to work with these teams and share all that God is doing down here thru their dedication to serving. As we reflect on the highs and lessons that we learned we are grateful to have experienced it all. We wanted to share with you some of the memorable things from this summer and some of things that God showed us during our struggles.

Eric’s Highlights:

· Having both American’s, Dominican’s and Haitian’s accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.

· Witnessing American’s, Dominican’s and Haitians being baptized in rivers & oceans.

· The starting of a new feeding center in Batey Cuchilla. The building is a year or two away from completion, but thanks start-up funding 50 new children six days a week will get a hot meal.

· Starting of several new construction projects.

· Learning the true power of prayer!

Eric’s learned lessons:

· God showed me patience this summer. Patience in that things don’t always go according to plan, patience that things don’t operate here like in the States and patience that people are not all the same personality and that is a good thing.

· That it truly is all about Him and not about us. Often times it is difficult to check our own pride at the door and that in all that we do it should bring glory to God.

Sunshine’s Highlights:

• This summer in our traveling medical clinics, we were able to bring medicine to 3,726 people.

• We hosted a dental clinic this spring that was able visit our school, and clean about 400 students’ teeth.

• Our community medical clinic is doing well. Dr. Canela is treating on average 45 patients every afternoon. People are traveling as far as 2 hours away for medical assistance.

Sunshine’s learned lessons:

• God has really showed me the power of prayer this summer. He has shown me time and time again that He is faithful to do what He promises.

• To not be intimidated to strive to be the kind of woman that God has called me to be.

2011-01-19T11:21:00.007-05:00

It’s hard to believe that it is already January 19^th! The time just keeps on flying by. It has been a busy start to the New Year for us, but we wanted to share with you our plans for this next year and take a look back at 2010.

As you can image the earthquake that struck Haiti in January of last year had a profound impact on our lives and ministry. We have spent the last two years splitting our time between working in the home office and the Dominican Republic. When the earthquake struck we were here in Louisville working on various projects for the ministry. That all quickly changed. Eric took over the lead role in shipping and receiving relief aid at a warehouse here in Louisville. Within three days of the earthquake he was already set up and sorting through the supplies that were coming in and prioritizing them for the urgent needs in Haiti. The first supplies from the warehouse in Louisville reached Haiti within one week and from there over 450,000lbs of aid sent from Kentucky to Haiti. Sunshine put her medical background to work in calling doctors, hospitals and medical groups seeking specific aid necessary for immediately to help those hurt in the quake. Thousands of medicines, casting supplies, rods for bone stabilizations were of such urgent need and in short supply. Sunshine also assisted in helping coordinate our office during this overwhelming time. All told, we were able to get 1.2 million pounds of relief aid into the hands of pastors and leaders all over Haiti. They in turn got the supplies out to their community all the while being an example of Christ!

Eric also coordinated this year’s annual Kentucky Derby Fundraiser for G.O. He also helped with both golf outings and between the three events they raised nearly $100,000 for G.O. Ministries. The funds raised go to help the overall ministry budget and fill in some of the gaps or allow us to start new churches and feeding centers.

After the Kentucky Derby we returned to the Dominican in preparation of our busy summer schedule. Sunshine continued to be the team and staff nurse, which can be a 24 hour a day job. Often times she is up in the wee hours of the morning helping out someone who ate or drank something they shouldn’t have. She also continued to work with Dr. Vlady and his medical clinic, but mostly she helped set up and coordinate the short term trip medical weeks. This last year we were able to facilitate seven medical and dental clinics all over the island. Eric resumed his role in helping to facilitate the short term team trips. He really enjoys the constant pace and getting to meet new people every week. He also assumed a new role in heading up G.O. Ministries internship program last year. We had eleven interns come down for as little as one month up to three months. It is great to have help over the summer, but to also invest in young people’s lives and see them change and grow.

We had several medical trips, one planned and one not, this summer. In June, Eric ended up in the Dominican ER with gall stones. After some prayer and guidance we returned home as he needed to have emergency surgery to have his gallbladder removed. We were back in Louisville for two weeks and fortunately everything went smooth and we were able to return quickly. The hardest part was Eric wasn’t supposed to do manual labor for a month and he was ready to get back helping teams with construction projects. In late July Sunshine returned to Louisville to prepare for the birth of our son. Eric returned in mid-August and then on September 9^th Colton Blaze Leach was welcomed into the world. We have enjoyed stepping into the world of parenthood and pray that we raise him in the ways of the Lord.

2011

To start the year we are continuing to work in the home office. Sunshine of course is preparing for all the medical trips for the upcoming year. She spends a great deal of time helping teams to make sure all the proper medicines are ordered, in preparing them in what to expect and setting things up on our end in the Dominican. Of course, she is also making a wonderful transition into motherhood and like most mom’s she is juggling duties. Eric is currently recruiting and interviewing interns, starting the work on this year’s Kentucky Derby and golf tournaments, and working on the construction/partnership financial reports.

In May we will be returning to the Dominican Republic and after much thought and prayers we have decided to return there year round. We feel like that is what God’s plan for us and we are excited about what lies ahead. We will continue to do what we have done before while down there, but in addition Eric will be working more with the construction projects. He will be putting together cost analysis and projects as well as tracking current expenditures and time tables. Currently G.O. Ministries has nine different construction projects going on and many more waiting to get started.

We are so appreciative of all of your love and prayers and can’t wait to share with you what God will do this year in the Dominican Republic and Haiti!

2010-09-01T14:35:00.010-04:00

Well our summer rush of teams of has just about come to an end! Since our last update, we have hosted 29 teams! These teams were a combination of medical, dental, sports and construction. It was an awesome summer of ministry.

My first medical team of the summer was with Windsor Rd. Christian church from Champaign, IL. We visited an area in the mountains that I had not been to in some time. A town called Guayavillo. The mountains in the Dominican Republic are just gorgeous! The temperatures are always so much cooler than down in the city and it is so wild looking! Love it! It has probably been about 3 years since I had participated with a medical clinic there. We hosted the clinic in Pastor Fabio and Antionia's little church that sits on the side of the mountain. We had two doctors on this team, a few nurses, and three EMT's that came to serve. It was a great time together and we always learn so much about each other and the people who live in the community. They are all so sweet! Because I was pregnant, I received a lot of extra attention! They always made sure that I was sitting down, didn't bend over, and had plenty of water...and fresh fruit to eat. The people that we were able to serve in Guayavillo had your typical illnesses that you would see in the States with the exception of parasites!

The incident that I remember the most from that clinic was one day there was a Haitian woman who showed up for clinic. It's always hard to guess how old they are because life it so tough for them, and to me they always appear much older than they really are. She looked really ill, blood pressure was high, couldn't hardly walk by herself. She came alone we thought at first and she didn't speak any Spanish. This can be really difficult for the doctors to communicate with her and form a plan of treatment when you can't even communicate? After some asking around, we found out that her husband had come with her and he was waiting outside. Not only was he there but he could speak some Spanish. We brought him back and found out that she was pregnant (about 3 or 4 months) and that she thought she was going to lose her baby. On top of all the other medical issues we had also found out that she had drunk some liquid poison to abort the baby. It was difficult to find out exactly why she did this, but the reality is that often times it is because they can’t afford to raise the child. The doctors and I talked with her and formed a plan of treatment and provided her with some medicine for her blood pressure. We urged her to go to the hospital for additional treatment, but she didn't want to go. The group of us prayed with her and for her child. We also made arrangements for her to see us again so we could further evaluate her the next day, but she never showed up. We were able to get a report from Pastor Fabio and did hear that she was better...as for whether she was still pregnant, nobody seemed to know. In two days of clinic, the team was able to give treatment to about 750 people.

This year we had 7 medical/dental clinics. We were able to hold the clinic in several churches in the Santiago area, in the mountains and also had a couple of clinics down in the batey's. When I wasn't working in a medical clinic, I was helping future medical/dental teams prepare for their trips this fall and next spring. I answer their specific questions about how the medical/dental teams operate, how to collect their medicines and what's the area like that they will be going to and how to prepare spiritually/emotionally for what they are going to experience. I love answering their questions, especially when it's a new team. I love to hear their excitement and hearing how their trip impacted them personally as they return to the States!

I just started maternity leave this week. We have the nursery all set, we just need a baby! My official due date is September 11th, although my doctor’s have been telling me the past 2 weeks any time now. Every morning when I go for a walk, I tell God…”OK…today is a good day!”. We will see what happens, but for sure if Colton doesn’t come by September 9^th they will induce me. My family is convinced that the baby will come on the most important day in September…which would be the fourth….. The big Kentucky vs. Louisville football game day!

Eric has been really busy as well. Over the summer he has worked with the teams daily, facilitating their experience. He has spent numerous days out in the hot sun working on constructions sites, playing football with the teams, organizing children’s ministry, and helping to supervise service projects for our pastor’s churches and homes.

One of Eric’s highlights of the summer has been realizing that while we work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti we are also reaching the Americans. A great deal of people who come down to serve with us are in a place that they themselves are searching or crying out to God. It is awesome to see how a week of serving others breaks them down and they open up to God. The opportunity to feed hungry children, sweat in the sun building a church or just the giving of themselves in some way either restores their passion in God or we gain a brother/sister in Christ. This summer we had a team of 100 young adults that were in their 20’s come down on a trip. Towards the end of the week we had the whole team out by a river eating lunch and a couple of people got baptized. It was awesome was to see the spirit of God working right there at the river . We had 25 Americans who came forward to accept Christ and be baptized!

It is our constant prayer that while we share the gospel with the Dominican’s & Haitians that we also share with each other. This year we will have over 1,000 people come on short-term trips to the island and those are a 1,000 people that can have a major impact where they live.

Eric is busy working in the office right now. He is assisting Brook on the annual Golf scramble fundraisers in both Chicago and Louisville. He continues to work on our internship programs, partnership projects, building cost analysis and conferences.

We also wanted to let you know about an event that is taking place here in Louisville, KY on October 16th, 2010. Eric and I are hosting a "dinner & movie night" called "Impact 2010" This is not only a fundraisor for our us, but a night for us to connect with people who are not only interested in mission, and they would also love to be a part of our ministry as well. Eric and I would be happy to send you fliers to hand out. So invite your small groups and your Sunday school classes!

As always, We covet your prayers!

2010-05-24T11:37:00.002-04:00

I had an amazing three weeks Dominican Republic...my home away from home! It was an awesome time of fellowship, spending time with my Dominican family, and facilitating an incredible week of teaching and men's ministry in Batey Nueve.

I arrived in the DR March 16th, home to humidity and to the sounds of dogs barking all night along with the roosters(I actually hard a hard time sleeping with all the quiet when I returned back to the states!) My first two weeks in the Dominican I spent checking in on the community medical clinic, visiting with my neighbors, and clearing out the family of mice that had moved into our apartment! I didn't realize mice had a fondness for Italian spices, but Eric and I left some in a bag up in the cabinet, and the little guys made quite a mess! One night I finally caught and disposed of my friend. I felt really bad about it, my niece and nephew have a pet mouse named Mr. Nibbles. (We actually had a small earthquake that same night which woke me up. My bed was shaking and in my sleep I remember thinking that the mouse had come back for revenge and was crawling up my blanket to get me!!) Next time, Eric gets to kill the mouse the subconscious remorse was not worth it!!

While I was there I also visited most of our staff and gave them all tetanus shots. With all the construction we work with, and all the not so clean places we visit, it's important that we take care of ourselves.

March 27th, First Capital Christian Church came to Batey Nueve for teaching and men's ministry. What an awesome week!! We had never taught health classes before, and we really did not know what to expect. The ladies from FCCC taught on germs, the importance of hand washing, importance of clean drinking water, parasites, importance of breastfeeding, and the prevention, symptoms and treatment of dehydration. With each lesson that was taught, they used stories and examples from the Bible. It is one thing to have medical clinics to treat people, but is is equally if not more important to educate them as well.

On Tuesday, we talked about the importance of drinking clean water. The ladies had made up three bottles of water. Each bottle contained a different ingredient. One bottle had salt water, the other sugar water and the last bottle had watered down coffee in it. The idea was to show them that although some of the bottles looked clear, there were "germs" hidden that you could not see. In the afternoon session we talked about the spreading of germs, and the importance of washing your hands several times a day(after you go to the bathroom, and before preparing meals.) The ladies proceeded how to show them how to make a "tippy tap". It's a hand washing station made from a 2 liter bottle, a piece of soap, a nylon stocking, and a coat hanger. The idea was to show the ladies the importance of keeping their water clean, and to make it easy and accessible. A lot of the families have to walk a good distance to get to a community well for their water. By hanging the "tippy tap" on a tree branch in the sun, it keeps the water clean and purified by the heat of the sun. On that first day, we had 68 women for the class!

Wednesdays we spent the morning talking about parasites, and how you become infected. This is a huge problem, and a leading cause of dehydration among infants and children. Many of the children there don't wear shoes, and as a result contract hook worms. You see children and infants without underwear and diapers, and next thing you know they have pin worms and spread them to their brothers and sisters. We also talked about the importance of covering their food to keep fly's and other egg laying insects at bay. It was amazing to see how how the ladies responded to the topics of conversations and how smart they are. This was the first time I had ever been in classes with them. They just soaked it all up! We also talked about the power of mothers in the home. That it's the mom's who have the power to improve the quality of the physical and emotional health of their children and spouses. Mother's can change the world!! It was awesome to encourage them and to help them really realize how important their role really is to their families! At the end of the session, we handed out hygiene bags to the ladies, vitamins, and parasite pills.

Wednesday afternoon, we had a special treat! We traveled to Barahona and witnessed about 20 or so youth get baptized! It was a beautiful day as we watched from the beach as Pastor William and Richard baptized them. We sang some songs and listened to their confessions of faith. We also had the privilege of witnessing on of the Americans from the visiting team be baptized as well! SO exciting!!!

Thursday was another full day. We spent the day talking about diarrhea, dehydration, how to make Oral Re hydration Solution drinks, how to take a temperature, the importance of breastfeeding and passed out 5 gallon jugs for clean drinking water. Diarrhea and dehydration are BIG issues with children and infants. They stop urinating, have fevers, tummy's swell, and can actually kill small children. The ladies taught the mom's the recipe for the ORS drinks, provided them with thermometers, and with liquid Tylenol for the children. They even had a dummy called "Diarrhea Annie" that demonstrated how diarrhea works, what is looks like, and how it looks when a child gets hydrated. The country as a whole has been promoting breastfeeding since last year. In the DR, it seems like that there is this stigma about breastfeeding...only the poor breast feed. We explained to them the importance of breastfeeding their babies, and the benefits. A lot of the women said that they thought formula would be better since a lot of the women's diet was not very good.We explained to them that the "breast" is always best, and told them that even in the states we encourage our women as well to breast feed if they can. The women loved it...before too long they were laughing and asking questions. They were even making jokes about the superiority of women and all the things women can do that men can't! It was a great time!

For three nights, after the education classes were closed for the day, the men of FCCC had a night of men's ministry. The men hosted domino's night, showed the movie Braveheart, and on the last night the men had a foot washing clinic for the men who worked in the sugar cane fields. In total they had about 100 men from the community that participated in the men's events. The men of the visiting team made sure that every night the love of Jesus was shared with them. They live a hard life, and even a desperate existence at times. How do you survive that without the love and hope Jesus has to offer?

Eric has been continuing to work with receiving and shipping goods to the earthquake victims in Haiti. He is also coordinating G.O. Ministries largest fundraiser with the Kentucky Derby.

Eric and I are in need of your help. As of right now, we are operating at a deficit of $800 a month. The cost of living in the states for half the year is a lot more expensive than living in the DR full time. We are in the process of support raising right now. What we need from our current supporters is to introduce us to your small groups and bible studies. Are there people that you know who would be interested in supporting a missions family? Are any of you all gifted in support raising and have some great idea's for us, or even better would you be willing to spear head a support event on our behalf?

We hope that you all are having a wonderful spring so far. We had beautiful weather in Kentucky. We just finished up with our major fund raiser of the year with the "Kentucky Derby." Our staff meetings pumped us up for teams. It's always so good to get together with all our staff family! We miss them when we aren't in the DR with them.

Eric and I were able to get most of the baby's room finished before we left for the Dominican May 12th. We are looking forward to meeting our baby boy!

Please send us a email and let us know how you all are doing. We love to hear from you all and let us know how we can pray for you!!

Dios Te Bendiga!!

2010-01-13T14:35:00.000-05:00

Eric and I have had a busy few months. We can't believe that we are already in a new year! Where has the time gone?

We arrived stateside October 2nd and immediately began house hunting. As we began to look around at rental properties, we realized we might be able to purchase a fixer upper and have a cheaper payment. So, we began to look at foreclosures. All summer long as we knew our ministry was going to be changing, we began to pray for our "home" here. WE prayed that God would put us in a neighborhood where we could be a blessing to our neighbors and we also prayed that God would put us in a location where we could serve my family. I have lived in the Dominican for 4 years. I have missed birthdays and special events. It has been such a joy to around my family for the last three months. Eric and I were able to purchase a foreclosed home within 15 minutes or less of my sister's and grandparents( they are in their 80's and my mom was their baby). My mom passed away a year and a half ago. Being the oldest of four children, it has been hard to be away from my family during their time of mourning. God has been so good and gracious to me. He always knows what you need...exactly when you need it.

October 10th, Eric and I were able to get away for a little vacation. We went to one of our favorite places Breckenridge, Colorado. This was our second visit to this beautiful state. We had such a relaxing week. I was able to reconnect with my child hood best friend that I had not seen in 20 years. It was such a joy to meet her and her beautiful family. We had an amazing time together! Eric and I had a wonderful time.

November 12-14th, Eric and I represented G.O. at the Global Health Conference at South East Christian church. We had a great time making new friends, meeting old friends, and visiting all the other booths of missionaries from all over the world. It's a great opportunity to learn about other mission's organizations, to get new ideas, and make new contacts. We had a great time!

November 18 we headed to Peoria, Illinois! Eric and I headed there to represent G.O. at the National Missionary Convention for 4 days. This was the biggest convention we had ever been to. It was amazing. We were able to hang out with so many friends from the Illinois area who come to the D.R. every year for mission trips. We made a lot of new friends, and saw some pretty amazing booths. This convention had over 500 booths representing different mission organizations from all over the world. I was also able to reconnect with a old friend of mine. Stephen Fierbaugh is a missionary with Pioneer Bible Translators. Stephen asked Eric and I to be on a panel for a singleness discussion he was hosting. I was single when I joined the mission field. People asked questions about my struggles as a single person and how different it is now that I am married. After the discussion, several of us went out to dinner. It was a great time of fellowship!

After the conference, we headed up to Omaha, Nebraska to spend Thanksgiving with Eric's family,spend time with our supporter's and supporting church, Grace Fellowship. We had a great time relaxing with Eric's family. We were also able to spend time with friends, and attended a mission's open house to visit with most of our supporter's.

Eric and I returned to Louisville December 7th. We have been working in the home office here, working on our house, and support raising as well. We have joined a couple's bible study, and getting to know our neighbors where we will be living soon. The house is getting close to completion! We should be in our house by mid February. Eric and I will be really excited. We are looking forward to going home at the end of the day, and just relaxing with each other!

The whole world has been following the news of the earthquake that rocked Haiti Tuesday, January 12th. Haiti is a country that was already in a desperate situation. A lot of people are saying that the situation in Haiti is hopeless, but WE know that we serve a big God. The outpouring of love and resources for the people in Haiti has been amazing! Eric and I have been working in the office helping to co ordinate volunteers and donations. Eric has been manning our warehouse space in Louisville at 7325 New LaGrange Road that was donated to the ministry so that we could have a place where churches and businesses could drop off medicine, medical supplies, surgical supplies, food and water. The warehouse is open Monday thru Saturday, from 10am to 8pm. The supplies that are being collected are being flown into Santiago, D.R. and driven to the coast, loaded onto a boat and then unloaded in Jacmel, Haiti. God has opened a the doors for us to get these life sustaining supplies into the city. Jacmel is 20 miles south of Port-Au-Prince and was leveled by the 7.0 earthquake just as badly as the capital was. G.O. has been a presence in Santiago for more than 18 years, and God has blessed our relationships with our Haitian brothers and sisters. We have continued to fly in supplies to Haiti. Because other aid agencies have now arrived in Jacmel, we have directed all flights to the town of Leogane. Leogane is located closer to the epicenter of the quake and lost the three-story hospital located in that town. We continue to provide needed supplies to Leogane. We learned that the planes were landing on a road in a valley between two mountains. There have been so many planes landing there that air traffic control has now given it an airport designation.

Our relief flights continue from Santiago into Haiti. We have responded to Jacmel, Leogane, and Carrefour among others. Friends at Haitian Christian Outreach contacted us. The work they support in Port-Au-Prince did not lose their building because they were built with a greater amount of reinforcement. Around 1,700 people were sheltering there. Ten days had passed and no one had provided them with any relief supplies. On Saturday, January 23rd, we were able to send them 1,800 pounds of supplies. They also received a shipment from another group that day as well. Praise God as people were starving.

You can watch this amazing video our team on the field put together of the emergency aid efforts going on in Haiti. Grab some tissues. GO HELP HAITI. You can follow up on everything that our organization is doing for Haiti Relief at www.gohelphaiti.org .

Eric and I are excited about all the changes that are coming our way. I know that a lot of you already know, but we are expecting our first child September 11th. We are excited but also a little bummed as it will cut our time short this year with our Dominican family. We will return to the states August 1st to prepare for the stork. :)

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We look forward to hearing from you all!!

2009-09-02T14:47:00.000-04:00

New Roles With G.O. Ministries

This past May as we were just starting our summer here Brook, the President of G.O. Ministries, approached Sunshine and I about serving in a new capacity within the Ministry. Brook asked us to consider splitting our time between the home office in Louisville, KY and Santiago, Dominican Republic. At first though we weren’t really too sure about it, we had just sold or given away pretty much everything that we owned in order to move the Dominican, we were just starting to get settled and we weren’t sure that we wanted to start another new transition process! So, we decided to seek council of friends and most importantly God.

As some time went by, we felt like God was telling us that either way we chose, we would be serving him. I then ran across some text in the Bible:
“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve.” 1 Peter 5:2

What struck me about this verse is that we are to be willing to serve, not out of duty but because our heart with God is right. Our prayer about the possible change became more of how best can we serve you Lord because we know you will provide. It was after this, that both Sunshine and I had peace about our decision. The more we thought about it, it became clear: G.O. Ministries has grown very fast the last five years and currently has hundreds of Nationals in five Countries, one major school with eight satellite schools in churches, approximately seventy churches, eight full time feeding centers serving over 4,000 meals a month, eleven construction projects and countless other undertakings. I tell you this not to brag or boast, but simply to show you the scope of what G.O. does and why we have decided to go back and help out. All of these things are going on at this time with only four people working in the home office! What a huge undertaking. We have since brought on one more person to help, plus added some responsibility on to another so that when we arrive in Louisville there will be eight of us in the office.

What does this mean for Sunshine and I? We will be heading back to Kentucky on October 2nd and start working in the office right away. Our schedule will be flexible in that if there are medical teams or teams that we recruit to go on short term trips we will travel back to the Dominican. Ideally we would group them all together to spend a month there all at one time in the spring. After our big annual fundraiser at Churchill Downs with the Kentucky Derby, we will head back to the D.R. and remain for the entire summer through September each year. So it will look like 7 months in the States and 5 months in the Dominican. The time in Kentucky will allow Sunshine to make more contacts within the Medical field, recruit more medical teams, and work on a steady pipeline of medicine for our clinics. I will be working with Brook on the administrative business side, working on budgets, timelines, fundraising and coordinating various other projects.

We are excited about serving God in this new role. We will continue to fill you in as things progress, but one big praise; is that we have a temporary place to live in Louisville until the end of the year as we search for a permanent home. It is possible that we will be reaching out to you in the future for help in getting donations to set up our home. We want to thank you for all your love and support this last year and give God all the glory for the things accomplishes thus far.

Summer comes to an end
We have crossed the finish line...the summer finish line that is! For the last eleven weeks straight we have had some great people from churches all over the US come down to the Dominican Republic to serve. It has been our joy to work with these teams and share all that God is doing here through their dedication to serving. As we reflect on the highs and lessons that we learned, we are grateful to have experienced it all. We wanted to share with you some of the memorable things from this summer and some of things that God showed us during our struggles. Here is our final video of the summer.

Eric’s Highlights:
• Having both American’s, Dominican’s and Haitian’s accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
• Witnessing American’s, Dominican’s, and Haitians being baptized in rivers & oceans.
• The starting of a new feeding center in Batey Cuchilla. The building is a year or two away from completion, but thanks to start-up funding, 50 new children six days a week will get a hot meal.
• Starting of several new construction projects.
• Learning the true power of prayer!

Eric’s learned lessons:
• God has showed me how to have patience this summer. Patience when things don’t always go according to plan, patience that things don’t operate here like in the States and patience that people are not all the same personality and that is a good thing.
• That it truly is all about Him and not about us. Often times it is difficult to check our own pride at the door and that in all that we do it should bring glory to God.

Sunshine’s Highlights:
• This summer in our traveling medical clinics, we were able to bring medicine to 3,726 people.
• We hosted a dental clinic this spring that was able visit our school, and clean about 400 students’ teeth.
• Our community medical clinic is doing well. Dr. Canela is treating on average 45 patients every afternoon. People are traveling as far as 2 hours away for medical assistance.

Sunshine’s learned lessons:
• God has really showed me the power of prayer this summer. He has shown me time and time again that He is faithful to do what He promises.
• To not be intimidated to strive to be the kind of woman that God has called me to be.

We hope to visit with some of you all when we return to the states this Fall. Please send us a note and let us know how you all are doing.

Below is the last video of the Summer of a medical clinic in Batey Cuchilla.

2009-07-07T13:31:00.000-04:00

Mathew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Last week we had the opportunity to work with Great Expectations from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, Sunshine's home church. She had a great time catching up with friends from her Adult Bible Fellowship class. It's always an awesome experience to get to know new people, and to have a week of ministry and fellowship. This team was 12 people strong from the ages of 30 all the way up to 72 years young! It seems like every week I learn something new or God reminds me of something old.This week was no exception.

We arrived in Hoyo de Bartola, "The Hole" for our construction assignment. Construction is very difficult in the hole because everything is carried down to the church/feeding center by hand. It is about a 50-70 foot drop in elevation down uneven stairs and approximately 250 yards from the street down to the Church. We were at the point in the construction project that the roofing materials of the church needed to be carried down. This included metal tubing and steel "I" beams. The guys knocked out the tubing with no problem, but then came the "I" beams! There were four 7 ft. beams and four 9-10 ft. beams. We estimated that they weighted about 700lbs and 900lbs respectively. Talk about manual labor! There were three of us that carried down the first four beams. We had to stop about half way down each time to rest and re-grip the beams. By the time we finished with the smaller of the beams, we were dead tired! We still had the four larger and much heavier beams to go.

It finally dawned on us to stop and pray for God’s help and Chad led us in prayer. It went something like this…"Dear Lord, you know what we have to accomplish here and why we are doing it. It is for the church and the kids. Please send us some Angels to help carry this load or just send them to fly these beams down here for us. Amen." We all kind of laughed about the "angels flying them down there part." There were now four of us to carry the big ones down so we started. Saying that they were heavy and awkward is an understatement! Our team of four lifted the first beam and about half way down the stairs I was thinking that we would never make it. At that moment a Dominican man came up and grabbed the beam to help, about another 50 yards another man came to help.A few of the team members from Great Expectations were done with their project came over to help. By the time we brought the final beam down I was thinking, "Man, these are light as a feather."

We then took all eight beams and raised them by hand up two stories and onto the Church floor. We had to maneuver them through the school fence, down a small corridor, up onto a platform and then finally through the open Church windows. What a task!!

It wasn’t until we got done that it finally hit me and the Great Expectations team. We prayed and God answered our prayer! No, there weren’t literal angels but he sent two Dominican brothers to help us! We didn’t even get their names and never saw them again the rest of the week, but it was an experience that I will never forget. It is a reminder to us that no matter where we are or what we are doing, we have a heavenly Father that listens to our needs and will provide for us. I often have my own agenda and think I know how things should go. What I need to do is slow down and listen for God more. Sometimes it just takes an "I" beam and a daunting task to remind me.

Sunshine's Entry

I am having a great summer so far! Eric and I had a great time at our Partnership Conference. It was the first time Eric met a lot of our partners from Haiti. It was a great learning experience for us both. The topic of our break out sessions was "bearing fruit" in ministry. We had beach Olympics, and some major fun in the sun. It was a great time of fun and fellowship.

Right after conference, we jumped into our busy summer season. My first team of the summer was a dental team from Lakeland Dental College in Mattoon, Illinois. Let me share with you about how God provides...it always amazes me. So, about a month before this team was to arrive, I realized that we did not have the necessary tools for our visiting Dominican dentists to use (they were from a dental group here in Santiago called "Sonriesa"). I was able to contact a company in the states for replacements, but ended up with duplicate tools, not the missing pieces that I needed. I had one week before the team arrived. I talked with Lakelands team leader and she put me in contact with her dental representative that she works with. I placed one phone call, and ended up with close to $10,000.00 dollars worth of free dentaltools, hand pieces and things needed for our clinic like anesthesia, gloves, cotton swabs, cleaning solvent...It was amazing! Go God! The dental clinic cleaned 197 people's teeth, pulled 40 people's teeth, and educated about 400 students in our private christian school about dental care. We had too much fun!

June 2, Eric and I headed to Batey Ocho for a medical clinic. We worked with Eastview church from Rockford, Illinois. We had so much fun with them, and made some great friends. Our ministry is all about building relationships with church's from the states and national pastor's here in the D.R. and Haiti. It was awesome to watch Eastview build a relationship with Pastor Richard from Batey Ocho, whom they support. This was a full on medical clinic. The Batey's are communities built around sugar cane fields. We see a lot of machete wounds, mal nutrition, teen pregnancies, diabetes, high blood pressure, aids, and tuberculosis. We saw about 797 people in our medical clinic that week. We also gave out tons of hygiene packs and tooth brushes to the families. Everyone gets vitamins. More important, we hope that they all see God's love. That is why we are there.

Life is really desperate in many places in this country. When I see the children with their bellies bloated from starvation, or I see the little Haitian girl begging in the streets on a hot, sunny afternoon, it's still so hard for me to understand. I wonder to myself sometimes, "God, are you up there? I mean, I know you are but....why?" I think about all that I have and about what I think this child is missing. Sometimes all we see is what they don't have, we fail to see the Hope that God has provided. The medical relief teams, the food drives, the pesos given to the little hand reaching out, and the loving mother who is still trying to breast feed her toddler because it's all she has to give. We have Hope. God is always around us.

First Experience's

2009-04-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

Please take a look at the video that Eric created for Crossroads Church. It has some great pictures of what Batey Cuchillo looks like. Enjoy!

It has been exciting to see Eric have so many new experiences. Being a missionary is hard work. You get to travel, see new places, and meet new and interesting people. BUT nobody can really prepare you for the spiritual overhaul God begins in your life, the emotional struggles your heart goes through when you witness hungry children, and you have nothing to give them. On top of all that, your a newlywed, and you are adjusting to being married as well. Thank goodness God has BIG shoulders!

Eric was able to go to the Batey's for the first time in March. Eric's number one "job" right now has been learning how to facilitate teams. Eric's previous job experience as Assistant General Manager for Minor League Baseball has prepared him well. He has the drive, determination, and the personality to be a good servant and leader that the teams need. So, Eric along with John (whom most of you know) was able to spend a week in Batey Nueve for a week with Crossroad's Church from Morgantown, West Virginia. The mission that week was to start construction on a church and feeding center for the community of Batey Cuchillo (which means knife in Spanish). Crossroad's Church partners with Pastor Fransico and his wife Yolanda. The community there is about 1,500 people. Life in the Batey's is hard. I can't even put it accurately into words. There is very little electricity, very little running water, hungry families, sickness, and it's so dusty all the time. Batey's are little communities that formed out in the middle of no where sugar cane is grown. Families would settle out near the sugar cane fields where there was work, and that is how these communities came into existence. So the opportunity for ministry and meeting the needs of the people are endless. You are also able to witness first hand the spiritual battle that goes on in the communities. In Batey Cuchillo alone there are three witch doctors living and practicing. Pastor Fransisco has recently started to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with one of the men. It's awesome to be able to work with these pastors and their families to help share the love of Christ where life can be so desperate.

While Crossroads was there, they are were able to witness 7 Haitian men and women be baptzed. Eric said that is was soo exciting to see them make a public commitment to serve Christ. Strong Christan men and women in these communities are so hard to come by. Life is so hard. A friend of mine who lives there, his name is Alejandro, said that "Strong Christian Husbands and Fathers" would change the batey's. That the children need "Christian" role models, so that they can grow up and be good husbands and fathers too! How much we take for granted! Two of the "Americans" on the team were so touched, that they also decided to be baptized with their Haitian brothers & sisters.

One other neat worship experience for Eric was that at church he was able to hear God praised in 5 different languages. The team from Crossroads sang some songs in English, there was one lady on the team named Marium who sang a song in German, and Pastor Francisco lead songs in Spanish, French, and Creole.

As for me, I have been busy with team activities as well. During the day, I have been cleaning and organizing in the medical clinic, getting our apartment settled, building relationships with women and kids in the community, and helping medical teams collect their medicines for the summer. It's been awesome to talk with medical team members and hear their stories of how God is working miracles. With the economy getting hit the way it has, it's awesome to hear stories of how generous people are being. It seems like every time some one calls me in a panic....a few prayers and phone calls later....it's all good!

Eric & I will be flying to the states April 14th! We are so excited. Our first stop is Omaha, NE...or as Eric says the "Land of Milk and Honey." I use to think so until I barely lived through a -30 winter with 55 mile and hour winds!! We will be in Omaha visiting Church's and spending some time with Eric's family. April 23rd we will be off to Louisville, KY...that's what I call the "Promised Land." We will be visiting my family and working the Kentucky Derby. SO, if you have not signed up to volunteer yet, there is plenty of time to. We still need about 20 more volunteers. You can go to GO Derby to sign up! We fly back to the D.R. May 10th and begin to prepare for our "Celebration of Partnership Conference, 2009. You can still sign up if you want to come to the conference, just go to our ministry website to find all the information that you need.

Please take a look at the video that Eric created for Crossroads Church. It has some great pictures of what Batey Cuchillo looks like. Enjoy!

2009-02-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

Cannonball!

Someone once told me that there are two types of people in this world, those who stick their big toe in the water to see if it is hot or cold, and those who run and do a cannonball! While I am sure that a person’s entire make-up can’t be defined by how they approach the water, I have found this to be an accurate description of the start to my new life in the Dominican Republic…Cannonball!

We ended up getting into Santiago a day late on January 1st, due to plane difficulties in Chicago, and the first team arrived on the 2nd.

The first team coming down was a small group of four from North
Carolina for a soccer clinic. It was lead by Caleb Narks, a professional soccer player who played at University of North Carolina. He also played professionally in Germany, Chile, Puerto Rico, and the in U.S. It was a huge blessing that Caleb, Danielle, Alexis and Casto all spoke fluent Spanish as it makes the clinic run much smoother.

On the first day of clinic, we really didn’t know how many kids to expect since soccer isn’t very popular amongst the Dominicans. It is however very popular in the Haitian community, so we knew that some of the kids would come from there. We had 40 kids on the first day of clinic, which was awesome! On the second day, our numbers grew by another 10 kids. Caleb was able to teach the kids basic soccer skills, and have them go thru drills during the sessions. At the end of each session the kids would play games against each other.

The whole team that came was very gracious and nice. They had brought enough cleats for us to pass out a pair for each kid at the clinic. You should have seen the faces on the kids when we fitted them for shoes! For all most everyone, it was their first pair of cleats. As the week continued on, Caleb and Casto would share with the kids that the reason that they were here wasn’t just for the clinic, but to share the love of Christ with them as well. The last day the players shared their testimony with the kids and had a great time of prayer and fellowship. Caleb and Casto played in a couple of games at night with two of the church outreach soccer teams. The purpose of the teams is to reach out to non-churched men by inviting them to play on the soccer teams. It is by this relationship with the pastors on the team that they start a relationship with the men and have opportunities to witness to them. Caleb scored the first goal of the game and it was very neat to see how he was able to gain instant credibility with the players. It gave him an awesome opportunity to share his testimony with them.

My roll for the whole week was a support one and it was a great way for me to get started. I helped build goal posts, dig holes, haul equipment, pass out water, pump up soccer balls, help get people to where they needed and many other things. I was there to take care of the detail things so that the team could maximize their time with the kids. It was a great week of service.

Sunshine was busy the first week unpacking our suitcases as we attempted to settle into our temporary house. She spent a great deal of time re-connecting with everyone here that she hadn’t seen in almost six months. It was cool to observe the ladies in the community come running up to Sunshine to greet her. It says a lot about her and how valuable her friendship is to them. Sunshine also spent time showing off the neighborhood medical clinic and talking with Vladimir, the Dominican physician on staff.

For the last week and for those weeks that there aren’t teams here, you may wonder what we are doing. For me it has consisted of working in the new ministry storage room constructing shelving out of wood. Dave Schwultz on staff has started a Men’s Fraternity group that meets every Friday. We have about 30 Dominican and American men that attend, including myself. On Saturday’s we have our sports team leadership Bible study that consists of three Americans and eight Dominicans. We have a church service every other Thursday that the Sports Ministry hosts right next to the Basketball court. Often times the guys just go right from the court to church and it has started to gain some good traction after being launched less than five months ago. Oh, Sunshine and I are also in Spanish classes twice a week for 5 ½ hours. The class is taught all in Spanish, our teacher doesn’t speak English, so it takes everything that I have to keep up! Plus there is about 5 hours of homework from each class.

Prayer requests- For the teams that are coming at the end of January and beginning of February, for our language studies, that God provides us a germinate place to live (the house we thought we were going to move into isn’t going to happen) and that our financial support would continue to grow.

2008-12-22T15:58:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

This is truly a wonderful time of the year for Sunshine and me as we close out chapters in our lives and start new ones. Sunshine and I can both get caught up in the holiday frenzy and the chaos of all the changes in our lives but we both love this time of year as we focus on Christ’s birth. We celebrate the fact that He became a man to ultimately die for everyone’s sins so that we can be restored to God. We rejoice in His birth, for He is the “Reason for the Season”. It is our prayer that as we spend time with family and friends that we never lose sight of that.

After spending the last two months in Louisville, KY we are celebrating Christmas in Nebraska. We had a great time in Kentucky visiting with supporters, friends, training with the ministry and making new contacts. It was a very busy time while we were there, but Sunshine enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with her family. While we are in Nebraska, we continue to raise support and recruit teams to go to the Dominican Republic.

Happy New Year!
Sunshine and I will ring in the New Year in a new city as we will depart for Santiago, Dominican Republic on New Year’s Eve. It is fitting that we start this new chapter in our lives in our new home. We are both so excited to go and become a small part of what God is doing there on the island of Hispainola. As we prepare to go please be in prayer for us. Prayer that we will be used by God for His glory, and prayer for Sunshine to continue to build relationships within the medical community for further outreach. Please pray for me as I learn a new language, that I may be an asset to the ministry and that I build life changing relationships with both the Dominican’s and Haitian's. It will be an adjustment on all fronts, but God provides and God gives us nothing more than we can handle.

We thank each and every one of you that we have gotten to know. We thank you for your faithful support of what God has put on our hearts for us to do in the Dominican. Know that you and your families are in our prayers weekly and it is our prayer that you have a blessed 2009.

Please enjoy a Christmas video below. It doesn't cost a thing! It's our Christmas present to you!

Merry Christmas!!

2008-11-03T13:09:00.000-05:00

What a crazy and great time it has been for Sunshine and I the last two months. We have spent the last month in Louisville KY so that I can train and get to know G.O. Ministries better. We are also spending the time fundraising so that we can be full time missionaries in the field. We will be here in Kentucky until the first week in December and then head back to Omaha for several weeks and then off to the Dominican Republic on December 31^st.

At the end of August I resigned from my job with the Omaha Royals (AAA Baseball) team to start my transition into full time ministry. It was a difficult decision to make, I loved what I did in baseball and enjoyed my career but I could no longer ignore the call to make an eternal impact on the world. Many people have asked me about how I came to this decision, so I thought I would share it with you.

Restoration:

It was the first Thursday of September 2003 and I found myself in a place that I never thought I would be…the ICU. A short nine months earlier I had be diagnosed with a schwanoma tumor. While the tumor was benign it was in a difficult spot, in my right ear drum to the base of the brain. This was my second surgery for the tumor, it was supposed to be one and done but they ran into some problems on the first surgery. Turned out the silly thing was bigger than they thought, so I was back for round two.

I remember three things about that night in the ICU. First it was opening night of the NFL so of course I asked the nurse to turn on the game. I remember the Redskins were playing somebody, but I don’t even know the score of the game. It was on for the principal of the fact that if a game was on TV, I needed to have it on no matter what state of condition I was in. I remember asking to see my parents; they had gone out to eat! I forgave them after realizing that it was very late and the surgery had lasted about 10+ hours. The last thing I remember was having a conversation with God.

My parents raised me in a Christian home and my mom led me to the Lord when I was eight. Now in my adult years my faith was still with me, but it was on the back burner. I had my moral compass, but wasn’t involved in church or much of anything outside of my sports career. Well the tumor was my wake up call to say the least. After my first surgery I was angry, mad and just depressed. I was supposed to be fine! How could this be happening! That was my daily thoughts and process as a quickly head into a tailspin. That was until Carl Goodman stepped in to a networking group that I was a member of. Carl was a guest of another member and he was also the Associate Pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church. He didn’t invite me to come, but something about him being at our meeting was internally telling me to get off my backside and go to church. Carl was a good enough guy, that later became a good friend, so I went to visit Lakeside Baptist Church. I slowly got back involved in church, but was just sticking my toes into the water. Then it came time for the second surgery.

The conversation with God was more like the tipping point in my life. I remember crying out to God on that night “Ok, ok, ok, you have my attention. Whatever you want me to do, I will do it. I can’t carry this load anymore. I am yours.” That was it and I can honestly say that it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders.

Life did change for me after that. I became more and more involved at church, started volunteering and made some life changes. I also tried to utilize my role at work for Christ by helping organize and promote Faith & Family nights. I eventually got back on my feet health wise and I was a new person. Still human with struggles just like everyone else, but I had a renewed purpose to live for Christ. I turned over areas of my life one by one to Christ and made improvements until he challenged me for another area. It is never an easy thing to do, but once you put aside our human emotion it is amazing how blessed you can be.

I would NEVER do that!

I am sure that I have said I would never do something a million different times, but I only remember two of those times. In part, because I was so dogmatic in my proclamation about each one of the things I would never do! The first was when I was told a friend of mine was going to Grace University. I was like good for him, but I would NEVER go to school there! Only to end up going there just a short 16 months later. The second was a good friend of mine from Jr. High, Eric Gibson, was fulfilling a lifelong dream to become a missionary. I uttered the same thing…..That is great for him, I know that is what he wanted to do, but I would NEVER be a missionary. God must have a sense of humor, because he had to be laughing at me during those two times.

Eric Gibson would send me updates about his work as a school teacher in Africa. It was on one of these newsletters that had information about a new sports ministry that was starting up. I was like that would be cool, if I ever did something like actually become a missionary I could see myself doing that. I even went as far as to look at the website and then put it out of my mind. I was far too busy with my career in sport s to worry about that.

Several years went by between looking at the website and meeting Sunshine. I never gave much thought to the missionary thing until I met her. We decided early on in our relationship that we would both be open to each other’s career path, her working with missions in the Dominican Republic and me with sports in the US. She was back in the US for a break, so there wasn’t much of a sacrifice on my part, until I fell in love and she left to go back to the Dominican Republic. She asked me to come and visit, so in February of 2007 I went to help with at Baseball Clinic. After spending a week working and helping out I knew that this was something that I could do for the rest of my life.

The biggest hurdle to get over was my own ego. I had many conversations with God about why I couldn’t become a missionary. My career was going great, I don’t know the language, I am not good outside my comfort zone, I can be the guy that gives to missionaries . The big one was look God I am don’t see good out of one eye now, I am pretty much deaf in one ear and my face doesn’t work right how can I help. The really boiled down to excuses. God had blessed me with my health and everything that I had, the job, possessions and even Sunshine so it became clear that he was asking me to give it all up for him.

I don’t have a clue, but I have a purpose.

Together Sunshine and I decided to go for it which is where we are at today. People ask me all the time what I will be doing in the Dominican. I have an idea based on my experience and what other missionaries of told me, but let’s be honest….I don’t have a clue. That hit home to me about the first week into this journey as I sat trying to learn Spanish. The last ten years everyday that I walked into the office I knew what I was doing. Sure, each day can be different and curves thrown at you but for the most part I knew what I was doing and I knew how to get there. Now there are times that I feel like I don’t know my right from my left, up from down or 1, 2, 3, from uno, dos, tres. The thing that I do have in life is a purpose! A purpose to share the love of God by reaching out to others, it isn’t about me but about what he has in store for my life and the lives that we all can reach. God says,” Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

This is part of the process that has led me to this point. Sunshine and I are so excited about what the future holds for us over the next weeks, months and years. Sunshine will post an update next month about a great story from her trip this past summer. As we head into November it isn’t too early to start remembering all the things you are thankful for. I challenge you to not just think about them, but if they are about someone let them know, if they are for something then share it with others, but also be forever thankful of God’s love for us.

2008-08-22T15:50:00.000-04:00

June was an exciting month for me for a few reasons. We had basketball camp on June 25th, and my husband's brother Charles came over to help coach basketball camp(Charles is the tall guy on the right). At this point, I had not seen my husband for 3 weeks, and so hugging Charles was the next best thing! Charles was the first member of my husband's family to see the ministry, and I had a lot of fun watching him have an amazing time.

I really enjoy sports camp. I am not much of an athlete myself...as a matter of fact, I want to share a little story with you. When I came down to 2005 on a construction trip, we played softball. Now I know that I am not an athlete, but I was cajoled into playing, and so since I didn't want to be a party pooper...I played. It was a hot day, and it was the American's verses the Dominican's. The Dominican's are a lot of fun, but anything involving a ball and bat is serious business. So the bases are loaded, we really needed a run, I hit the ball and took off for first base! SO, did I mention that I am not a graceful runner either? I was so entertaining playing this game that the Dominican's gave me their team ball and everyone signed it. I tried to find the picture of me running in this game that my Jen took (my co worker with GO) but
I must have lost it along the years!
On a more serious note..we really had a great week. This was the first time we had a All Sports camp week. There was volleyball, baseball, aerobics, and basketball all going on at the same time! We'd meet every morning at the same court for chapel, break up into teams for training sessions, have memory verse sessions, and then in the afternoon they play games against each other. I was involved in the memory verse sessions, and it was a lot of fun. It was interesting to see how many of the campers were Christians. I had fun sharing with them funny stories from my child hood in church and I encouraged them to share with me as well. My role foremost is first aid nurse. There is always lots of scrapes, but this is the first year that we had to give stitches. Those kids were tough. I remember holding their hands, and telling them not to look, and helping them take nice deep breathes! I really enjoyed cuddling and loving on these kids! Since my job is facilitating the teams, the team members are usually the ones who get to do all the loving on them...but as we all know..there is nothing better that snuggling with a child on your lap. Especially these little kids. They look forward to seeing the "Americanos" coming because they know for a little while they are going to get somebodies undivided attention. It's not that their parents don't love them. Most of these communities are single moms who have 3 or more kids to take care of. If they are lucky, the dads are away working and sending money home. More often than not though, the dads are either strung out on drugs, alcoholics, or have just abandoned them.

We hosted another medical clinic July 8th, they were a brand new church(Pathways) from Fort Wayne, Indiana. That week was a pretty special week for us. Not only did we have a medical clinic, but we also had a special clinic for the hearing impaired. As a lot of you know, we have a couple who works with GO that their twin girls were born profoundly deaf. Jeff and Vickie were flying in for a visit anyway, so they came early to be a part of this clinic. We had two audiologists there with us. They spent the week having hearing screenings and fitting children and adults who were either hearing impaired or completely deaf. People brought their children from all over Santiago to have their hearing tested. There are really no words to describe the look on a childs face when he hears sounds for the first time! Most of these kids were around the age of 8 years old...and hearing sound for the first time....I just can't imagine it. We saw about 650 people in the medical clinic that week, about 65 were screened for hearing issues, and 20 recieved hearing aides.
I am amazed at how huge God is. How He pays attention to all the details, just how faithful He always is. My prayer is that as we are working to build relationships to spread the gospel of Christ, that the people we are ministering to...see His reflection in our lives. It is the sole reason that we do what we do. As I look back over the summer, I hope that I did a good job. I hope that as I played with the kids, cleaned wounds, and worked with the teams...in everything I did....I did for the Glory of God. It's a hard task to accomplish everyday. There are days when I am really proud of myself. Then there are days when you just want it to be all about yourself, and I wonder when I am going to get it right! On those days I think of the scripture in Malachi 3:3, "He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify sunshine, refining her like gold and silver, so that she may once again be a acceptable sacrifice to the Lord."

2008-06-22T15:58:00.000-04:00

Well, the summer has finally kicked off! I arrived here May 27th, and I have had an exciting time of ministry so far. We have had three medical clinics, and every one of them have been so incredible!

June 3rd, was the arrival of my first medical clinic of the summer. We had this clinic at a church in a area of Santiago called Los Guandules (means "the peas") I'd like to tell you why this place is called "the peas" but nobody knows. What I can tell you is this church is a beautiful place. The property where the church is located, use to be a gambling house and disco. The ministry purchased the property and began building a church in 2004. Not only does the church host Dominican and Haitian church services, we have a feeding center and the church is used for Pastor training as well. We had two days of medical clinic there where we treated about 1,000 people! It was awesome! While these clinics are going on, we encourage the team members to talk with their patients, and to also pray with them. We can give them free medicine, but nothing beats the power of prayer! There was a lady that apparently came on the first day of medical clinic. She had a protruding growth in her throat. As the team members gathered around her, they began to pray. The next day of clinic, the lady came back. She said that she went to the hospital and had xrays done (we had told her that was what she needed to do) and when the doctors ran the tests, THEY COULDN'T FIND THE GROWTH!!
On June 10th, I had my second medical clinic. This team had a pretty unique story. The team started out with 10 people(they were a family) who wanted to go on a missions trip. A member of this family, she was the mother, well her husband died. The mom decided to sell some of the property her husband left her, and helped to fund this mission trip which ended up numbering about 50 people. Half of this team worked on construction, while the other half of this team was stuck with me! They were such a big group, we broke them down into two medical teams. One team went to Los Perez, and the other half worked here in my community of Hoya del Ciamito. In all, we saw about 850 people that week. About 150 of those people were treated by two dentists that came. So, in two weeks time we were able to show the love of Christ to 1,850! Although we have not heard of any conversions yet, thats a lot of seeds planted.

There are so many things that impress me about life here. I suppose that the thing that really touches my heart is how that in so much poverty, you see the beauty of God. That He has not forsaken this place. I call these my "beautiful moments." One day last week, we took the medical team down to "the Hole". The Hole is a land fill where about 650 families live. Raw sewage runs through the streets, live animals relieve them selves where ever they want, it smells, and it is a area where drugs, alcohol, and prostitution is a way of life. As I was leading a team down to the church and feeding center that we are building there, I stopped so that the team could go ahead of me. I stopped to talk with this cute very elderly woman. As we were talking, I heard this little, bitty chirping noise. I looked down and I noticed this stream of sewage running down the path, and in the middle of it was this cute, little, fuzzy baby chick. It was trying to walk upstream, and was getting caught in the current. This sweet, little old lady bends over and fishes the little chick out of the nastiness, and with such gentleness, puts the chick into her house. It was so touching...that in the middle of all this poverty, that this little old lady had any compassion left. I can't imagine growing up in a place like that. Had she been there most of her life? Probably. Was she a Christian? I don't really know. But to me in that moment, she represented the face of God. She was the picture of wisdom and tenderness. And I think about all the times my life gets mucked up, and I get myself in a swirling mass, and God plucks me right out again.

I love going to church here. I love that God understands every language, and that every Sunday, He hears millions of people worship in so many different languages. A few Sundays ago, I was sitting in a Haitian church. Haitian people are so beautiful, and I love to watch their expressive worship. Haitians are really mistreated in this country. They flee to this country, because they see it as a chance for a better life. In Haiti, over two thousand people inhabit each square mile of tillable soil, and what farmers manage to grow, is taxed heavily to and from market. Here in the Dominican Republic, they are considered the inferior race, and they do the labor in this country that no Dominican would ever do. They are refugees here. Their history has been a long one of oppression, deprivation, and suffering. Where we live, it's pretty peaceful, but every now and then we hear stories of the horrible treatment of Haitians, and of the injustice that they have to endure. That's the reason I love to visit their churches. The church that I visit here in Santiago, is a cement building with a HOT tin roof, very little breeze, and the building is packed. You have a people that are strangers in a strange land just so that they can survive. As they begin to sing in Creole, you can feel Gods love and His presence.... I am always awed. I ask my self if I could rise above my circumstances if I were in their shoes. Could you?

2008-05-14T14:29:00.000-04:00

As most of you know, on April 21st, my mom passed away. Thank you all so much for the cards and flowers...and for those of you who stopped by the funeral home to see Eric and I. It meant so much to us, and to my family. All things considered, my family is doing well. I do not know how people go through the loss of a loved one without the love and comfort of Christ.

In the beginning of April, I had the opportunity is participate in a inner city missions health fair. Several of the local churches met at the Omaha Baptist Center to have a place for the homeless and refugee populations of the inner city to come and take free items. We had formula and diapers, games and books for the kids, a clothing drive, and of course a health booth and doctors to see them if they had serious health issues. At the health booth they could get their weight, blood sugar checked, blood pressure checked, and just talk with them about what was going on in their lives. Most of our patients were women, so we talked about our weights and what we could do about it, kids, and just visited. We also provided sack lunches for everyone( bologna sandwiches, cookies, chips, and chocolate milk). I am from KY and we love bologna! I really enjoyed working there that morning. It was a great opportunity for me to meet other nurses and to educate myself on the Sudanese refugee peoples of Omaha, and that there are about 3,300 homeless people in the city. The Sudanese are beautiful people. I wish I had taken a picture of a lady named Niarobi, she was about 6'4 inches. She had beautiful blue-black skin, and this amazing head dress on her head that I just don't know how she kept it up there! She was majestic and gracious. She talked about how much she missed her home land but loved the Americas. She had her son with her that was about 18 years old. I could tell that when I met him, something seemed a little off. It was quickly explained to me that many of the older children suffer from Post Traumatic Syndrome. Her son had been in the United States for a couple of years, but he still suffered from seizures and nightmares from all the war that he had seen. He was in and out of jail. Not for bad behavior, but he would be found wandering the streets, and because he sometimes couldn't talk because of the seizures, police would hold him until a family member or a member of the church would show up to take him home.

In the beginning of May was Derby. It was so great to see all my missionary family, but to see all my friends who volunteered those long hours so that we could raise money for missions is always the highlight! For me, that is what makes Derby so special. Last year we raised around $23,000.00 for missions in the Dominican Republic and this year we raised even more! We raised $33,000.00 for missions! Isn't that awesome!?

After Derby and spending some time with my family, I returned back to Omaha May 8th. Eric came down for my mom's funeral, but had to return after about 4 days for work. Now, I am getting ready for my summer in the D.R. ! I am so excited about what God has in store for me this summer. How He will continue to shape and mold me. I will miss my husband though and wish he was going to be there with me. Eric will be here working in Omaha. This is going to be a long summer for him. Not only will the love of his life be gone for 9 weeks, his family is all going on vacation! So there will be a lot of time on his hands going solo!

Our fund raising is going well. We have made a lot of new contacts and working on recruiting some teams. We still have another $2000.00 a month to raise before we reach our first budget goal. I have no doubt that we will raise what we need. God is always so faithful. He is rarely on our time schedule, but He always provides!

Would you like to support us financially and become of a part of a ministry that will not only change your world view, but you will also feed families, support the work of a Pastor, and bring the love of Christ to thousands of Dominicans and Haitians that need His love and forgiveness? Under our links section, you can go to a page that gives you all the information that you need to become a part of our financial team.

2008-03-11T15:30:00.000-04:00

I am so excited! I believe that spring it just around the corner...even here in Omaha, NE where I have just about froze to death! Living in the Caribbean for two years has adjusted my internal body temperature I do believe.

Eric and I have been keeping pretty busy this month. We are on a major fund raising campaign right now. We are so excited about the plans that God has in store for us!

Here is what we are up to right now. I am keeping busy right now preparing for the summer. We have several medical teams that will be providing free clinics this year in the D.R. and the Bateys. I am soo excited! We have some pretty good sized teams coming, and that means that thousands of families will not only get medical treatment, but they will get treatment for their souls as well!! I have been helping the teams with their paperwork, advising them on where to get medications, and just answering any general questions they may have. We are also preparing the team leaders guides for next year, and so I have been busy working on updating the medical part of that as well. I really enjoy it, it gives me the opportunity to learn more about the ministry and ask our other missionaries questions that have been with GO a lot longer than I have been. Eric & I have also been working on our Spanish. SO of course I am not fluent ( I will be one day) but after not speaking Spanish for about 6 months, I am surprised as to how much I remember. I have been teaching Eric the Spanish alphabet and other Spanish vocabulary. Our apartment and it's furniture is covered in post it notes. On these pieces of paper are in Spanish whatever they are sticking to. It really works and I get a kick out of peoples response when they realize what they are looking at! We also just ordered the Rosetta Stone program to help us along with the language. Eric & I just had some great support cards printed, so if we have contacted you about support and you have not committed yet, you will probably be seeing those in the mail soon! :) Eric is staying really busy at his job with the Omaha Royals. Please keep him in your prayers, he has quite a bit of responsibility, and if you live here in Omaha, you know that there is a lot of controversy over what is going to happen with Rosenblatt stadium. So, in addition to his day job, he is also networking for support, and trying to recruit more teams for the ministry. Plus we are working on presentations, and setting up meetings with family and friends for support. Eric has a men's breakfast scheduled in April for a missions presentation, and Eric's mom and I are working on putting together a luncheon for some women that she knows who would be interested in supporting us as well. If you all know someone who is interested in supporting a missionary or who loves missions, let us know! We would love to get them personally involved with GO Ministries!

God has been so good and gracious. Since our wedding we have 4 brand new supporters! Eric and I are trying to raise $3000.00 in monthly support so that in September, Eric can resign from his job, and together we can just focus completely on raising the rest of our support that we need. We are over half way there!! If all goes according to plan, we will move back to KY around September/October. Eric and I will get to spend a lot of time at the GO office, with our friends, family and then January we will be off to the Dominican Republic full time together! We can hardly wait!!