Friday - February 23, 2007

Once again, I can hardly believe so much time has passed since I last updated! Last week, I completed my fifth week of teaching English in Hoya de Bartola and Hoya del Caimito, and both classes continue to go well! I am seeing definite progress in both classes, and as my students learn more English, I continue to learn more Spanish, which is encouraging! Also, since I live less than a block from the church in Caimito, when my students here miss a class, they seek me out to find out what they missed. This leads to one-on-one mini-lessons, which I believe are the best way to reinforce what they are learning in class. I also regularly meet my students when I am out and about in the neighborhood, and they are always ready to practice their English with me! The picture to the left is of the Saturday morning class for adults in Caimito.

Last week we also had a team here from Kansas City Baptist Temple in Kansas City, MO, to do a baseball clinic for the boys in our neighborhood, and it was a great experience! While I will still teach my classes when teams are here, I will not be working at the school during that time so that I can support the G.O. staff who are leading the team. This also continues to teach me more about the ministry as a whole, and I love meeting and getting to know the team members!

Essentially, I spent my days with this team taking pictures for some of the team members along with one of the two women who were here with them (she's actually the one taking the picture to the right of Jen and I posing with a few of the cameras!), doing my best to encourage the boys and the team members, and cheering at the games. Each day started with chapel where we prayed as a group, and one of the team members would share his testimony. As a result of the chapel meetings and the witness this team was to the boys, almost all of them expressed a desire to know more about Christ and many accepted Christ as their Savior at various times through the week! It was exciting to see a group of people so passionate about sharing their faith and see the effects of that on a group of adolescents searching for truth their lives!

After chapel, everyone went to the field for drills and practice in the morning and a tournament in the afternoon. All the men on this team are also part of their church’s sports ministry, playing in softball leagues in the fall and summer, so in the evenings, they played in a tournament with softball teams from Santiago. Many Dominicans are very talented ballplayers, having played since they were very young and being able to play essentially year-round, so it made things a little rough for the American team, but they handled it very well. Their last game in the tournament was very exciting though, as they began to come together as a team and they won the game by a good margin – it was very exciting to watch!

Perhaps one of the best experiences of the week was on Sunday after church when we separated into groups of four to five Americans and four to five boys, and we visited the homes of the boys to share the Truth about God and His love for us, which is the reason we are all here. Throughout the week, we had been at a well-kept field in a nice area of the city that is actually pretty close to Caimito, but visiting the homes of the boys was a different story. Caimito is a lower-class area that is relatively safe compared to some of the poorer areas of the city, such as the Hole and La Mosca, but the majority of the people who live here are still struggling to survive on a daily basis, and their homes show that. We were in sparsely furnished homes of less than 800 square feet with unfinished concrete block walls and tin roofs, and these homes clearly housed more people than we would think could live there comfortably. However, we were always welcomed with the gracious hospitality and warmth that are so much a part of the Dominican people, and the families were open to talking to us. At one house, three of the boys with us and the two sisters of one of them accepted Christ! We prayed with them and took their names and addresses so that our pastor could follow-up with them, and one of the boys with us, who is an active member of our church, made sure to invite them to activities for their age group. To read more about the clinic, the week with KCBT, and our on-going Sports Ministry, check out Will and Audrey's blog at http://www.dominican-updates.blogspot.com/. Will is the Director of Sports Ministry and Audrey coordinates our GOKids program while also working with the Sports Ministry.

Wednesday of this week, I began my formal observations of the teachers at the G.O. school to continue working with them on classroom management and lesson planning. So far, I have observed in both first grade classes and one second grade class, and I witnessed the implementation of some of the ideas I presented in the teacher training last January! One teacher used the “Give Me 5” signal to quiet her students, and another rearranged the desks in her room following my suggestion, which allows her to move more freely around the room and thus have more control and easier access to her students. My students at Sacred Heart would recognize the set-up, as it is the same I used in my classroom the last year I taught there. These two things may seem small, but I am encouraged that the teachers are open to the ideas I am sharing with them, and I am positive we can work together to create a more effective learning environment!

This Monday I will begin the Drama Ministry at the church in Caimito, and I am very excited to get this started! An announcement was sent home through the school to the children in third through fifth grade about the class, and several of the students have stopped me to ask about the class and let me know they would be there. The plan is to put together a small presentation for Easter Sunday, so please pray that everything comes together for this ministry! Initially, the classes will focus on voice and movement, getting the children comfortable working with one another and being in front of an audience.

One last push for volunteers for Derby! We still need volunteers, and it would be a wonderful blessing to me to see some of you there! There is a link to the right to the blog page for Derby that has all the details – check it out and let me know if you will be able to be there! You also may want to check out the link I just added called “Kingdom of Oneness” – it is a short video by Cross Point Community Church from Nashville,TN, about the work we are doing in Haiti.

As always, I am so grateful for you prayers, encouragement, and support!

Con amor de Jesucristo,
Catherine