Things Behind and Things Ahead

We have a limited budget so our meals are largely rice and beans, sometimes with chicken, and a lot of sandwiches and oatmeal.  Sometimes the local people will cook for us, but we’re usually on our own.  We don’t have a kitchen in our backpacks (big as they are, there’s not quite room!) so we have to depend on whatever is available.  I’m pretty sure at some point that’s going to be a firepit and a single leaky pot, but so far we’ve been blessed with better conditions.  In Arroyo Cano we had a small open gas stove and several varieties of pots.

Transportation in the Dominican is largely on motorcycles (‘motos’) which just about everyone seems to own.  Usually there are two people on them, but I’ve seen up to 4!  Burros and horses are more common in the mountains, and in the cities there are many cars.  The most common mass transit option is the guaguas.  They’re about the size of a 15-passenger van, but they have additional seats that fold down into the aisle for more people – I’ve been on some that had 25 or more people!  The trip from Arroyo Cano to San Juan is one we made several times, and it’s about an hour long.  Sitting in these buses with anything from children throwing up to entire families stuffed in three seats has been quite an adventure.  The government regulates the prices so individuals don’t overcharge, but each guagua is independently owned.  Some of them are very nice, and some of them it’s a wonder they move at all.

Our daily schedule at Arroyo Cano has been fairly… flexible.  Some days we’re up at 6 AM to walk about, and pray over, the community.  Some days we get to sleep in until 8.  Breakfast is oatmeal, and by then the kids have started to wander in.  We usually don’t have anything specific we do after that, it depends entirely on what Noki wants.  Some days we would just play with the kids for a while, some days we were out shopping or working with the Compassion school next door.  We had lunch sometime in the afternoon, usually sandwiches (our team really loves crunchy peanut butter!) or if we were fortunate we’ve be eating at someone’s house.  In the afternoon we might be playing with the kids or traveling with some of the people from the church to the nearby river, or hiking up a hill to enjoy the afternoon.  They love to play basketball in the mountains (there’s little room for a baseball diamond!) and most afternoons several of us went up to show the young men who gather a few fundamentals, and of course to play some ball!  Evenings on occasion we would get to partake in English classes for some of the children, and nearly every night there was a church service of some sort at 7:30.  Bedtime was anywhere from 10 to midnight depending on how soon the church emptied out and we could get our sleeping mats down (sleeping in the sanctuary was a great opportunity to be involved with the community, but there were some allowances we had to make.)

After finishing our (too short) time in Arroyo Cano, we’ve now traveled to Ecuador for month two.  We’ve had a few days to stay in some excellent accommodations (hot showers!) thanks to the people of Inca Link – an incredible ministry that aims to reach all of the 300 million youth in South America for Christ.  The people are simply wonderful, and we’ve all loved exploring Quito.  Today we are leaving to our ministry sites, and our team is headed for the jungle!  Our location is a community known as ‘Kilometer 17’ because of its location on a highway mile marker – not exactly civilization!  We’re told we’ll be involved in some construction, some relationship ministry, and very likely quite a bit of preaching.  Accommodations are spartan, so please pray for health and safety as we go bathing in the river and navigate the exciting new challenges of the jungle.  We’re unlikely to have Internet access all month, so look for a whole slew of blogs at the end of the month.

Thank you to all of you who are reading my blogs and commenting, and to those of you who are supporting me through prayer and financially.  You are all part of the mission even if you’re not physically here, and I owe you all a deep debt of gratitude.  

Financially I have raised just over $6100 – praise God! – but I still need to have $10,000 in my support account by the end of next month (April 1 to be precise).  Please continue to spread the news of my trip to people who might be willing to support me, and consider supporting me yourself.  No amount of money is too small for God to use – the support of people like you has already allowed me to see God at work in and through my life in the Dominican Republic, and I am extremely eager to see what He does for the next 10 months, but I can’t do it alone!  Won’t you be a part of God’s ministry?

God bless you all, and I’ll see you in a month!