July 24, 2008


One of the things I love about being a part of G.O. Ministries here in the Dominican is that no two days are ever the same! So far this summer I have been involved in translating for our basketball clinic, facilitating and sometimes translating for children’s ministry, as well as being a part of our school’s graduation ceremony and continuing to teach my English classes!

Basketball week is one of my favorite times, as I have been a huge basketball fan ever since attending UK (GO CATS!!). This year was special because the week was actually a “Sports Week” that included basketball, volleyball, baseball, and aerobics – reaching over 300 Dominican children, adolescents, teens, and adults! Each morning there were clinics for each sport, which include “huddle times” where the coaches share with their players about Christ and challenge them to accept Christ or to deepen their faith, and in the afternoon the teams in each level play each other in a tournament.

In the evening there are basketball games between the Americans and Dominicans, so between working with the basketball camp and the evening games, there was a lot of basketball to watch! This year I translated for the coaches working with the 11 to 13 year old level, and it was a great experience to help the children and coaches build relationships. Sports is an amazing vehicle to reach people for Christ, regardless of cultural or language differences, and many of the lessons learned by Americans and Dominicans alike were not only about sports, but also about God, His love for us, and the life He wants to give us!

Another way teams come to share God’s love here in the DR is through children’s ministry, and these times are always fun and a wonderful way to bring light into the lives of children, many of whom live in desperate circumstances and may not experience unconditional love in any other way in their lives. During June and the first part of July I have facilitated children’s ministry with teams in Los Guandules, Hoyo de Bartola, Palo Alto, Los Perez, Hoya del Caimito, Hato del Yaque and Villa Cafeteria, and it has been an amazing blessing to be a part of this ministry.

These are all very poor areas, where families may earn the equivalent of $3000 to $4000 (US) per year and many children appear to be neglected and left to their own devices – one child in Hato del Yaque was playing with a “toy car” made from a used juice drink box with stones for wheels held in place with sticks and string. However, when the teams come, they spend a morning or afternoon with the children singing songs, sharing a Bible story, and working on a craft to help them remember the story, while also sharing hugs and laughter, and the light and joy in the children’s eyes when the team arrives, as well as during and after their time together shows how important these times are in their lives!

June 26 was an important time in the lives of our students at Colegio Evangélico Isaías Emmanuel – it was graduation day! Students in our pre-primary program graduated into first grade, students in fourth grade graduated into fifth grade (equivalent to going from elementary to middle school in the states), and our eighth graders graduated, ready to go on to high school! It was an exciting day for the students and their families that included a parade through the neighborhood of Hoya del Caimito, where the school is located, and a ceremony at the Centro de Cultural (Cultural Center) in downtown Santiago! Around eighty percent of our students will go on to high school – most to a public school setting, which is very different than our school, with an average of 50 students per classroom and classes that meet in the evenings from 5:30 to 9:30. It is difficult for students to learn in situations such as these, which is why we would love to expand to offer high school – one of the long term goals for the school!

One of the exciting events in the English ministry was having a “student teacher” work with me during the month of June. Melissa was one of our interns for the summer, and during her time here she also completed an internship for her education degree. Working with Melissa as she prepared to teach the English classes and then watching her teach was a blessing! She did a great job and had the students up and moving in the class to demonstrate concepts – they played a competitive “game” to learn the difference between “to, two, and too” and the students were very engaged and excited to participate (especially in the class for the Baseball Ministry! Her energy and enthusiasm were evident in the class and in how the students responded to her!

July has continued to be full of teams as well as working with the school to prepare for the next school year. Some very exciting things are happening at the school, and I will include more about that in my next blog!

Thank you for all that you do to support my ministry!

Con el amor de Jesucristo,

Catherine

June 12, 2008

This last month has certainly been a whirlwind! While in the states I was able to visit with several supporters as well as meet with the missions committee of Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, and with potential team leaders from Woodland Hills Church of Christ in Abingdon, VA, and hopefully each church will be sending a team down this fall! As well, using gifts from supporters and ministry money I had in reserve, once I returned to the DR on May 13, we were able to purchase a 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser!! This is a huge blessing and a great vehicle for ministry opportunities we will have! The most exciting news to share, however, is that, on May 24, Amaury and I were married in a beautiful ceremony at a resort here in the DR!!!

The wedding ceremony took place at Casa Marina Beach in the town of Sosua here in the DR, and it was a beautiful wedding and a wonderful time with family and friends!!! My parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew all were able to come, as well as Amaury's parents, uncle and aunt, and brother and sister-in-law and most of the G.O. staff. Along with our invited guests, one of the interesting items about getting married at a resort is that vacationers are also present, so we had many more people witness our wedding than we expected! God did use this though, as our ceremony, which was done in both English and Spanish, was clearly representative of our beliefs as Christians, and several vacationers commented to our friends and family in attendance on the impact it had on them. After our vows, the first three things we did were repeat the confession of faith, take communion, and have a foot-washing ceremony to show our desire to love and serve God and each other. Everything about the ceremony was perfect, and God could not have given us a better gift to bless our wedding than the sunset He painted that night!

In addition, we had a reception in Santiago on May 25 for family, friends, and co-workers, and it was also a wonderful celebration! It was held in the house where we will be living for the next year or so, and I cannot think of a better way to bless the beginning of our life together than to celebrate our marriage in this way!

One of the things that has been a bit overwhelming since coming back from our honeymoon (which was also beautiful!) is trying to figure out how I will get everything organized at the house and be a good wife while also managing my ministry and working with teams. Amaury has been patient, supportive and helpful, but I have still felt the pressure to do everything “perfectly.” God spoke to this directly through a recent devotion that was based on Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” This was an excellent reminder that I will not be able to do any of those things on my own, but if I allow myself to be led by God’s “righteous right hand,” He will give me all I need and lead me through this time. I know that if I depend only on Him, He will lead me to be a better Christian, wife, and missionary two months from now that I am right now.

One of the ways God has clearly shown us that He is providing for and taking care of us was through the process for purchasing the vehicle, which was surprisingly smooth! I fully expected problems and challenges to arise as very little happens here without some issue or another arising, and it seems that things always take longer than expected, but the opposite happened with this purchase. There were no problems with the money or the paperwork (other than a misspelled name – his, not mine – that was easily changed), and this was all definitely a blessing! Around $4000 in gifts were given as of mid-May, and I sincerely want to say “Thank You!!!” to all who gave toward the purchase!

With what was given, it was a step of faith to use money from my reserve (about half was used) to make up the difference, but doors were clearly opened, and we truly felt God leading us in this, considering the ministry and personal needs it would meet. Gifts toward the purchase can still be made – just go to the G.O. website at http://www.go-ministries.org/, and make an on-line donation using PayPal, or print the donation form that can either be mailed or faxed in to the office. Gifts should be marked "Catherine Sipperley ministry gift" in the space provided (both the on-line and print formats have a space for this). My new name is officially Catherine Sipperley de Gracesqui here in the DR, but I will be changing it to Catherine Gracesqui for my US paperwork as soon as I am able to do that through the US Embassy here.

Last week began our busy summer schedule, during which we had three teams – one team provided a medical clinic in Los Guandules, one of the poorest areas of the city, and the other two teams did construction on two different churches. I translated for the medical clinic, and it was a great experience! Most of the time I was in the pharmacy, but I did spend a short time translating for the doctor on the team, and I translated when we visited homes in the community after the clinic ended to invite the community members to church. Visiting in the community after a clinic is one of my favorite things to do! We share with everyone we talk to that even though we were there to meet the physical needs of the people, we offer that because of our desire to share the love of Christ with them who is the only One who can truly meet all of their needs. Our group met with several people who expressed interest in coming to the church and all were grateful for the clinic!

One of my English classes is held in the church at Guandules, and during the clinic several of my students were asking when class would begin again! I am excited to start teaching, and the classes will all begin next Monday, June 16! The class in Guandules will be on Monday and Wednesday afternoons from 3 to 4 pm, and I will have two classes in Hoya del Caimito on the same days – one from 5:30 to 6:30 pm for the young men in the baseball ministry – and the other from 7 to 8 pm for people from the community in Hoya del Caimito and from Hoyo de Bartola. The rest of the summer I will be translating for medical clinics (we have another one this week!) and doing children’s ministry. It will be a busy schedule, but it will also be filled with many opportunities to share the love of Christ and be His hands and feet here in the DR!

Please continue to pray for Amaury and I as we begin our new life together while also managing our schedules – which will be very different at times. Thank you for all that you do to support our ministry!

Con el amor de Jesucristo,

Catherine

May 9, 2008

The first two weeks of April were full of exciting events for both the English and Drama ministries! During the first week of April my English classes wrapped up with “despididas,” which are “leavings,” during which the students received completion certificates for the material we covered. Almost all of the students plan on continuing with the classes when we begin again in June! Then, on April 12, the Drama classes successfully presented their parables and scenes from Romeo & Juliet! Pictured here is the cast of Romeo & Juliet with the masks they made for the masquerade ball in Act I, scene 5 of the play!

One of the most exciting despididas happened at Los Guandules. Griselda, the pastor’s wife, who was a student in my first class and is now my assistant in this class, planned the event with presentations in English by each of the students, cake, her special homemade juice (which was delicious!), and gifts for me from the class! I had no idea any of this was planned, and I enjoyed every minute of it! Two students sang a children’s song, two others had a conversation, two prayed, two gave short speeches, and one read Bible verses! Pictured here are the two who gave speeches, and the class with me and the pictures they gave me as wedding presents!









While my English classes were finishing up, my Drama classes were working toward their production, which took place on April 12! We had two full-cast Saturday rehearsals prior to the 12th, which was complicated by the fact that only half the cast came to the first one, but they were all there for the second one and for the dress rehearsal the day of the production! It was also only at the second full-cast rehearsal when I realized that there were nearly 50 students involved in the four classes together – separate, they were great, but having them all together at one time was a new challenge I had not anticipated! To say the dress rehearsal was a bit rough would be putting it mildly, but amazingly, and only by the grace of God, it all came together beautifully! Pictured here are the casts of the parables and of Romeo & Juliet just after our final rehearsals.










Thankfully, I was not alone in this! Karen George, another American staff member, and Amaury were both there with me during the classes and rehearsals in April, and only with their help, and God’s blessing were we able to pull everything together in time for the presentation! Along with helping in the classes and backstage, Karen also organized the youth group from the church to come and help during the production with crowd control backstage and refreshments for the parents afterward! Amaury helped the students design their costumes, made wood swords for Romeo & Juliet, helped backstage preparing for the show, and ran the sound and took pictures during the production! It was a great night, and several students have asked when the next class will be! Most of these students live in our neighborhood, and hopefully they will also be involved in the Drama Camp this June with the group that is coming from Woodland Hills!









I returned to the states on April 22, and as usual, have been traveling ever since! Over the last two and a half weeks, I have traveled to or through six different states, spending time with friends and family. I also worked at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY, for a fundraiser for the ministry selling KY Derby souvenirs in the week before and during the Derby. It was a great fundraiser for the ministry, and I love a reason to return to Louisville!

While I was in Louisville, I was blessed by two wedding showers – one hosted by four of my closest friends and one hosted by the women with G.O. – and by an Open House hosted by the English Department at SHA! These times were filled with love and laughter, and they were wonderful times to share the excitement and joy of my marriage with my friends!

This month I have clearly felt God pouring out His love on me, and I have been overwhelmed by my thankfulness for all He has done! From the blessings of my English and Drama classes, to my time with my family and friends who have “showered” me with their love and gifts for my wedding, God has let me feel His love through the people in my life.

Also, through my relationship with Amaury, God is continuing to draw me close to Him and show me that He is involved in every aspect of my life, and He will take care of all the details, if I just let Him. Please be in prayer for us this month as we prepare for the wedding on May 24 – we are looking forward to our new life together and to the opportunity to do ministry together!

You are each a blessing in my life, and each time I think of you I thank God for you!

“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

Con el Amor de Jesucristo,Catherine

April 6, 2008

March started off with my trip to La Romana to work with the team from Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, and it was a great trip! This month, I have also been continuing to work with my drama classes to prepare for our “obra del colegio” – or “school play” – which is scheduled for Saturday, April 12!

Our first night in La Romana, we had the opportunity to have dinner in the homes of some of the church members, and I was the translator for my group! We were able to share a wonderful meal and get to know the family and all about their lives - the pastor actually had to call our host to tell him it was time to bring us back to the church, as we had stayed longer than was planned! The picture to the left is of our group and the family we visited.

While in La Romana, I worked with the dental team translating and organizing the list of patients. We worked in four different locations – screening patients at the rehabilitation clinic we were at last year, as well as at a school for the physically and mentally challenged, and those patients came to see our dentist at a state of the art dental clinic at Hogar del Niños that we were able to use, which was an incredible blessing! We also screened and saw patients at the dental clinic in Centro Mutualista, the center where the church Northeast partners with is located. Through it all, in four days, our dentist screened over 200 patients for treatment, and with the dentists from the clinics at Hogar del Niños and Centro Mutualista treated over 100 patients!

Priscilla is the same dentist I worked with last year, and I shared with the team this year, that the patience and love she shows - her specialty is working with physically and mentally challenged children - remind me of how God is with us. Many of these children cannot understand what is happening to them, and all they can see is their fear - not knowing what Priscilla is doing and that it is for their best, which is much like us when we are in a challenging situation and all we can see is our fear - not knowing what God is doing, but it is always for our best.

Hogar del Niños is an incredible organization, which first began as a school, but has become much more! There are over 1500 students at the school, which educates students from pre-primary through 11th grade (next year they will include 12th grade), but the services they offer do not stop there. There is also the dental clinic with three full-time dentists, a school for the deaf, a computer lab with 50 computers, a library that could be compared to any school library in the states (these pictures show what I hope and pray will become a reality at our school!), a day-care/nursery with over 200 beds, a full-time pediatrician, two full-time psychologists, a pharmacy, a large cafeteria that feeds the students three times a day, and a beautiful playground area that includes a full-size basketball/volleyball court!

Beyond the services they offer, our time at Hogar del Niños was inspiring to me for many reasons. We were able to work with a staff of dentists and assistants who truly wanted to help as many children as possible – they even scheduled follow-up visits with several of our patients and gave them medicine from the school’s pharmacy! On a regular basis, this clinic treats students from the school, from the surrounding community, and from the Bateys – the sugar cane fields that surround La Romana, which are some of the poorest areas in the country. We were also able to spend time with the Administrator, who shared the history of the school and their intention to do more than just educate. She was also very interested in my work in Santiago with our school, and she gave me some ideas to help find support!

The one thing our team noticed, however, was that even though Hogar del Niños does wonderful things and addresses the intellectual, emotional, and physical needs of their students, the one thing that was missing was addressing their spiritual needs. After discussing this as a team, we decided to be more open about why we were there, and on our second day at the clinic, we brought the director a copy of the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn (in Spanish), and crosses for everyone we worked with that one of the small groups at Northeast had made. We prayed with the patients before the day started, and we also prayed at our mealtimes with the staff, during which we ate the same meal as the students, which was better than any cafeteria food I have ever had! It was difficult to leave at the end of the second day, as we all felt we had shared a truly special time at this special place.

Once I returned to Santiago, I began working to prepare my drama class students for our “obra”! We learned to work together as a team – the picture to the left is of the Thursday afternoon class doing an activity called the “Human Knot,” which is a great lesson in communication and cooperation! We also began blocking the scenes – the picture to the right is of the Tuesday morning class preparing to present the parable of the “Lost Sheep.” The students in third and fourth grade will present the parables of the “Lost Coin,” the “Lost Sheep,” and the “Prodigal Son” – and the students in fifth through eighth grade will present three scenes from Romeo and Juliet! These will all be presented the evening of April 12 at 7 pm – please be praying for us! This week we will be putting the final pieces together – including costumes and props, and having our final dress rehearsal the morning of the 12th!

While putting these scenes together has been fun, it has also been challenging, and one of the things I realized through all of this is that God is continuing to teach me that only He is in control. This month, my devotions, which come from a devotional a dear friend sent me called Sisterhood of Faith, have all been guiding me to put my trust in God, be sure to spend time with Him, and let Him lead me. This book is full of stories of women, past and present, who have responded to God’s call in their lives, and their stories are inspiring and humbling. A verse that I have been encouraged by from one of these devotions is Ephesians 3:16, “From His glorious, unlimited resources God will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit.” I know that if I depend on my own strength to do what God is leading me to do, I am not truly doing what He wants – He wants us to do what He is leading us to do and to depend on His strength to get it done – in this way the glory is His, which is one of our purposes in this life – to glorify and honor Him. Please join me in my prayer that the dramas we present will do just that – glorify and honor God.

On April 22, I will be leaving the DR to come to the states for a short three-week visit – first in Atlanta, then in Louisville, and finally in Virginia before traveling back to Atlanta to fly back to the DR on May 13. Please pray for safe travel and for God’s blessings on my time!

Your love, encouragement, and support are blessings from God!

Con el Amor de Jesucristo,
Catherine

March 3, 2008

This last month has been an exciting time in the DR! We have hosted teams from Kansas City, Kentucky, Michigan, and Illinois, and while I was not with them much due to my teaching schedule and work in the school, the service they have done has been a blessing to the people of the Dominican! I was able to attend some Women’s Ministry seminars that the women from Kansas City Baptist Temple held in a few of the churches we work with, and I was blessed by their teaching and sharing of themselves. The picture to the left is of the seminar in Hoyo de Bartola that took place shortly after one of my classes there, so I was able to stay and participate. These women came and shared their personal stories and what they have learned about God, and one of the best lessons for everyone was that we all share similar struggles in our personal lives, regardless of the country or culture in which we live. They also brought with them a “Love Letter from God” that they shared with the women, and it brought many to tears to be reminded just how and how much God loves us!

This month, we were also able to purchase 163 new books for the library, thanks to generous donations from Hikes Point Christian Church in Louisville, KY, and First Church of the Nazarene in Dalton, GA! These books were for the fiction section of the library, which the students use for the Reading Program we implemented at the beginning of the school year. The picture to the right is of our morning librarian, Aurelis, with the books as she prepares to organize and process them so that students can begin checking them out. Also, the team from Northeast Christian Church in Rockford, IL, brought additional books in fiction and another set of elementary level encyclopedias in Spanish! Some of the books they sent are from series that can be hard to find here, but the students truly enjoy them, and the afternoon librarian, Alexandra, commented on how excited the students will be because of how much they like those series!

My English classes are going well, and my students are learning from the new curriculum I have been using. I found it through an on-line Christian newsletter – Brigada.com – that is published by Doug Lucas, the president of Team Expansion. Thanks Doug! The classes are focused on spoken English and are beneficial to both beginning and advanced students, and the lessons are each based on a set of verses from the first chapter of Acts. So, I am able to teach English while teaching about Jesus! The picture to the left is from my class in Hoya del Caimito, which is one of my most diverse classes, including people from the community who do not attend church as well as some new church members. It is a fun class, as they are very interested in learning, and they continually help and encourage one another.

One of the most exciting things that will be coming up is the school play my Drama classes are working on putting together. With students in third and fourth grade, we will be presenting the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son together as an introduction to the fifth through sixth graders abbreviated production of Romeo & Juliet! While buying books for the library, I found a shortened version of the play in Spanish, and two weeks ago, we began practicing to present it! It was fun to once again be directing students through Act I, scene 1, which I basically know by heart from my time at SHA working with actors from the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival who would come each year to introduce the play to our students! My students here are excited to be part of a production, and I am excited to see what God will do through all of this! Thankfully, another full-time staff person – Karen George – who is here with her husband for just a few months, has offered to help with the Drama classes and the presentation, and while we are just in the beginning stages of putting everything together, it looks like it should be a great experience for everyone! The presentation will be on April 12, so please be praying for us through the next six weeks!

While I am enjoying teaching, my schedule has proven to be a challenge. Please continue to pray that I will have strength and wisdom while teaching, and that I will not get too focused on “working” and lose sight of my ministry. It seems that I am constantly on the go, and I am regularly reminded of my need to find time to rest, pray, and study God’s word, so that He will continue to be at the center of my life.

Next week, March 8 – 14, I will be going to La Romana to work as a translator with a team from Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, my home church, and I am looking forward to the trip! Please pray for safety as I travel across the country on my own and for the team as they travel here, and please pray for the medical clinic they will be providing. It should be an exciting week!

Thank you for all you do to support my ministry!

Con el Amor de Jesucristo,
Catherine

January 16, 2008

I arrived in the DR on December 31 (without any travel problems this trip – praise God!), and I have enjoyed being back “home”! It was a wonderful experience to ring in the New Year here with fire works being set off all over the city that the G.O. staff and nationals all watched from the balcony of our pastor’s home and a Christian concert I went to with a group from our church that lasted until 6 am (the picture to the left is from the concert)! After recovering from my trip here (and from being awake for more than 24 hours), I spent the first two weeks cleaning and reorganizing my apartment – it’s amazing how dirty a place can even get when no one is living there – and preparing to start teaching English and Drama again while balancing my time at the school, where classes started on January 7!

On Monday, January 14, I also started teaching English classes again in Hoyo de Bartola, where I will be every Monday and Wednesday afternoon. The picture to the right is from the first class, which had 19 students! Three other English classes will also start this week – two here in Hoya del Caimito, and one in our church in Los Guandules. One of the classes in Caimito will be for the church, and one of my former students will be my assistant, learning to lead the ministry herself! The other class is for young men who are a part of our Sports Outreach Ministry, specifically for our Baseball Ministry. The picture to the left is from the first class, which met Tuesday; some of these young men may have the opportunity to go to the States to play ball, but they will need to be able to speak English, so they are motivated to learn, and it should be a great class! The class in Los Guandules came about because the pastor’s wife was one of the students in my first class in Caimito, and she did very well in the class. She will be my assistant for this class, and I will be training her to take over the ministry in her church throughout the class!

My role at the school has changed a bit for this semester, and I will now be at the school on Tuesdays and Thursdays to continue to work with the teachers and administrators on utilizing the discipline plan and strengthening classroom management skills, but instead of doing the observations myself, I will be working with our school counselor to train her to do the observations and facilitate the discipline plan. I will also be teaching Drama classes through April that will culminate in a school play in April – the first classes were Tuesday, January 15, and they were exciting! There were 16 students in the morning class and 40 students in the afternoon class! As a result, I split the afternoon class into two sessions, and if more sign up for the morning, I will split that class as well!

As of now, my schedule looks like this:

Monday - 9-10:30 am English class at Guandules
3-4:30 pm English class at Hoyo de Bartola
7-8:30 pm English class at Hoya del Caimito

Tuesday - 8-5 Colegio – Drama classes in the morning and afternoone
6-7:30 pm English class for Sports Ministry participants

Wednesday will be the same as Monday, except no evening class.

Thursday will be the same as Tuesday

Friday – I will work with teams that come down on an as needed basis

Saturday - am free to work with teams as needed
2-3:30 pm English class at Hoya del Caimito

Sunday - am - school tours when groups are here/church/rest :)

My time will be very full, so please pray that I will have the energy and enthusiasm to keep up with everything!

As I have been planning and beginning to work my schedule and continuing to adjust to life in the DR, God continues to teach me that He is truly the only One for whom I am here to work and to please. It is in my nature to please people, especially those in authority over me, and too often I allow what someone else thinks of me to have influence in my life. So, I am learning how to balance Godly counsel with people’s personal opinions, all in light of what God is showing me through my personal quiet time and study of His word. Please also pray that I will be able to do this, as I am sure this year will have its share of challenges and exciting opportunities!

Thank you for your continued love and support of me and my ministry, these mean more to me than I could ever truly express.

Con el Amor de Jesucristo,
Catherine

November 30, 2007

On November 8, I returned to the states from the DR, and since then I have spent time in four states and traveled through four others as I have attended G.O. staff meetings in Louisville, KY, and the National Missionary Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, and visited family and friends in Virginia and Alabama! The time has been fun and exciting, though I have to admit to being a bit tired from all the traveling. Now, I am in Louisville, enjoying staying in one place for a while, until December 12, when I return to Virginia (via a two day visit in Georgia) to spend Christmas with my family and then return to the DR on December 31 to celebrate the New Year there!

During my last month in the Dominican we hosted three teams (one that was there when Tropical Storm Noel hit!) and celebrated the school’s 24th anniversary, and I also finished up my formal observations and meetings with the teachers, hosted a teacher appreciation meeting for all the staff at the school, and wrapped up my English classes in Hoyo de Bartola and Hoya del Caimito, so my days were pretty full!

Celebrating the school’s 24th anniversary on October 26 with the students and teachers at the school was a great experience! The first picture to the left is of the Administration and a few teachers on the day of the celebration. Our pastor, Gabriel, who started the school in 1983, is at the center of the group. As part of the celebration, the students each drew pictures of the school, and the Administration asked me to select winners from each of the sessions, which was a challenge! It was amazing to see how far the school has progressed from the small house that Gabriel first used to provide around 30 children in the neighborhood a Christian education to the three story building that now provides 420 students a Christian education! Some of the artwork was very impressive, and one of the students who won had taken part in Jen’s art classes earlier this year! She is the student pictured to the right.

Because of my work with the school, I had limited contact with the teams, one of which went to Batey Nueve to do construction and children’s ministry, and another that was from Crestwood, KY, and offered a soccer clinic and a medical clinic in La Mosca, one of the poorest areas of Santiago. However, I was able to spend more time with the third team, which was from California and was in the DR from October 27 to November 3, because when Noel hit, all schools were closed in the DR for three days. It was an interesting experience to be with a team that had traveled so far to work in the DR with their partner church in Hato del Yaque and had left a state where wildfires were raging, that then had to wait out a Tropical Storm and was not able to “do” anything for the first part of their trip.

This experience became one that several team members said was quite a learning lesson for them, and it was one for me as well. The first day of the storm, we were all optimistic that the rain would pass over quickly and we would be able to “get to work” – it is very easy in the Dominican to not pay attention to weather reports, as just about every day is beautiful, so even I did not know that a tropical storm had hit the island until toward the end of the first day. At points the rain would break or slow a bit, and we were able to get out and visit the school for a tour and do a short tour of the neighborhood.

The second day was a different story, however, as the worst of the storm hit that day and we all realized what was happening, and that we would be staying put for a while, unable to do the work that had been planned for the week. Thus, on top of feeling a bit confined and “stir crazy” was the feeling of frustration that we all face when our plans are clearly not going to be followed, mingled with the desire to get out and help the people who were dealing with the effects of the storm. The picture above is of one area of Santiago that flooded during the storm.

That morning, though, we were challenged by the G.O. staff member in charge of facilitating the team, John Martinez, to take some time away from the group and in prayer to ask God what He was leading us to do with this time that seemed to be “wasted.” What came out of that time was an obvious calling to prayer, for the people of the DR, for people back home, and for each other. As a result, this group of 13 people, most of whom did not know each other prior to their trip, came together in a way that I have not seen a group come together since I first moved to the DR and started working with teams. Throughout the next two days, they spent time worshipping God, praying, and being open to where God was leading them to go in a way that would not have happened had they done what they were “supposed” to do according to the plans they had made for their trip.

When, after three days, the rain finally broke and it was safe to travel, instead of being frustrated or irritated about the time they spent waiting, the team members were renewed and refreshed by their time with the Lord and focused on doing His will and listening to His Spirit guide their every step, which led to some truly Spirit-led experiences while ministering to and with the pastor their church supports - he and his family are pictured to the right. It was truly a remarkable week.

Following the storm, during the first week of November, I wrapped up my English classes, having conversations in English with the students to put into practice all they had learned. It seems hard to believe that these classes, which first began in January, have ended, and it was exciting to hear my students speaking in English, some more confidently than others, but all of them having grasped the basics of the language! The picture to the left is of my students in Hoyo de Bartola after I gave them their certificates for completing the class. I will begin new classes in January, and some of the students in this class have expressed the desire to repeat the class to continue practicing their English and improve their skills.

While it was clear that they learned and have gained confidence through this experience, what has encouraged me the most is how God has moved in their lives and in mine through the course of the class. One member of this group was baptized over the summer, and God has used all of them to teach me about what is most important in life. Hoyo de Bartola is one of the poorest areas I have seen, and yet my students there have a positive outlook on life and a joy and contentment in the daily experiences of life and opportunities God provides them that I have not had in my own privileged life in the states. I have never truly wanted for anything materially, and yet I have not had the peace and joy I see in my students here in the Dominican who have so very little materially. This has challenged me in my own faith, and when I begin to feel frustrated by an experience or overwhelmed by the events of my life, the witness of their lives in spite of the challenges they face on a daily basis humbles me and reminds me to look to God, remembering that He loves me, He is in control, He knows more than I do, and He is good.

When I am back in the states, it can be easy to get caught up in the rush of “getting things done” according to plan and being overwhelmed by all that has to be done; however, I pray that throughout this time I will remember these lessons God has taught me over the last few months. I pray that He will also guide each of you to take some time away from the “busyness” of the holidays to take some time to spend with Him in prayer and to find joy and contentment in the daily experiences of your own lives, regardless of whether or not your plans work out according to schedule.

May God bless and keep you all!

Con el Amor de Jesucristo,
Catherine

October 8, 2007

I can hardly believe almost two months have gone by since the last time I updated! On August 22, school started and my schedule became very full very quickly! The week before school started, I did my first teacher training for the year, and then after classes started, I began informal observations that led to formal observations and written reports for the teachers. Additionally, we took the teachers to the beach for the day on September 1, and from September 11 to 18, we had a team come down to do construction and children’s ministry and a Women’s Conference! On top of all of that, the school administration threw a surprise birthday party for me on September 6, and in mid-September I moved to a new apartment!

The teacher training was held on August 14, and in it I presented some of the same ideas from the training I had done in April to remind the teachers about the importance of strong classroom management, including setting class rules and using a seating arrangement that allows the teacher to move easily around the classroom. Many of the teachers have embraced both of these concepts, and the improvement in the behavior of their students is clear from last year to this year! The picture to the left is from the training as I presented a "sample" first day of school with some of the teachers as my "students." We also reviewed the school-wide discipline plan that we put into place last January to remind teachers of the importance of using the demerit/detention and award system, as well as to address any concerns or unclear aspects of the plan. Using a plan such as this one is a new concept here, so it will take some time for the teachers to truly adopt it, but they have been utilizing it. As well, at our “Welcome Back” meeting for the parents we explained the plan and afterward several parents commented that they liked the plan and were supportive of it!

The other main focus of the training was to introduce the teachers to the Reading Program we started for the third through eighth graders. Over the summer a group of students who went to the Church of Christ Youth Camp in Grundy, VA, raised money for the school here to buy books for the library, and with that money, 140 books were purchased. These were primarily books of fiction in Spanish, including C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series as well as several other well-known works of children’s literature. The picture to the left is of one of our librarians next to the books for the Reading Program. The teachers were excited about the concept, though books are such a commodity here that even the librarian expressed concern over letting the students take the books home! Despite their initial excitement, only a few of the teachers have begun using the program, but according to the librarian, the sixth grade students have been avidly reading the books, and this is encouraging.

One of the things that I have to continually remind myself of is that change comes slowly – “poco a poco” as we like to say here – and that all that happens at the school and in my ministry is under God’s control, not mine. God has continually been showing me that my focus needs to be on Him and what He has called me here to do, and that He will accomplish His purposes in my life. Through various situations, I have seen God working and this has strengthened and encouraged me. I have the tendency to want to control everything and think that things are not good unless they are exactly as I want them to be (essentially perfect), but God continues to show me that I am not in control, and that He does a much better job of orchestrating situations and circumstances than I ever could. As a recent devotion taught me, I am trying to focus on working toward excellence over perfection and focusing on the positives in a situation instead of seeing only the challenges.

One clear positive was the day at the beach with the teachers! One of the pastors we are connected with here lives and works in Puerta Plata and each year, he opens up his home to allow the teachers a day of fun and fellowship at the beach. This was great time of building relationships with the teachers, and I was incredibly blessed by the day which included swimming, gathering shells, and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation!

For normal days, however, my schedule at the school has me there on Monday mornings and all day on Wednesday and Friday, and during the month of September, I used my time to informally visit all the classrooms to get an idea of where to start with my formal observations, which began on October 1. I was also involved in the planning and implementation of the two parent meetings we held at the start of the year as well as an event we had for the parents to celebrate the “Dia de la Biblia” (Day of the Bible), which is a national holiday here on September 27. For this event, the students, directed by the teachers, gave short presentations about the Bible and performed dramatizations of stories from the Bible. To the left is a picture of students in first through eighth grade presenting the books of the Bible. I was excited when the sixth grade class decided to present a parable, as a few of the students in that class had been part of the Drama Camp, and they presented the parable of The Good Samaritan in a very similar manner to how we had presented the parable for the Drama Camp!

Aside from my work at the school, I am continuing to teach English classes on Monday afternoons and Saturday mornings, and I also had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Women’s Conference that a group of women from Illinois came to do for the women here. This was the second year for the conference, which grew from 90 women last year to well over 150 women this year! While in the states we have many opportunities for conferences, prior to last year, the women we work with here had never had such an opportunity, and it was life-changing for many of them! This year, we started off hearing testimonies from a few of the women who had come the previous year, and I was inspired and encouraged by their stories! We then had a great time of fellowship, worship, and sharing – all centered around being an “Embajadora para Cristo” (Ambassador for Christ). Personally, I was challenged by the lessons I learned and renewed by my time with the women from the DR and from Illinois!

On a personal note, I was blessed and overwhelmed by the love, encouragement, and support I felt from the teachers and administrators as they helped me celebrate my birthday! The party itself was a gift and a blessing, as I was feeling a bit alone, and to top it all off, there was a wonderful cake and some very thoughtful and special presents! Through the night, God reminded me that I am not alone, and while I miss my family and friends in the states, he has provided me with a Dominican “family” here, many of whom are here in the picture!

Finally, in the middle of the month I moved to my own apartment – another gift from God! While living in the ministry apartment with my roommates was a great experience and one that I am very grateful for, I had not realized how much I missed having my own space until I had it again! My new apartment is one street over from the ministry center and right next door to Jen’s – one of my old roommates. We took the apartments because we liked the idea of still being able to share resources but have our own space at the same time. Both apartments are pretty small – mine is the bigger one with about 250 square feet! – but they are new, and our landlady is taking very good care of us! We also know several of our neighbors, and while there was some stress involved in moving, it has been a blessing overall!

I am looking forward to returning to the states in November and December, and I hope to have a chance to see as many of you as possible! One of my focuses for my time home will be fund raising for my ministry as well as for the school, so as always, if you know of any churches, individuals, or organizations I could talk to, I would love to hear from you! Also, we are currently putting our schedule together for teams for 2008, so if you would like more information about putting a team together, please let me know!

As always, thank you for your love, prayers, and support!

Con amor de Jesucristo,
Catherine

August 17, 2007

The month of July was an incredible and incredibly busy one here in the DR, and the first two weeks of August kept up that pace as well! In July, we hosted eight teams, which did everything from basketball camp to construction to medical clinics, and so far in August, we have hosted an additional five more! Also, in the first week of August, we had our very first Drama Camp!

Additionally, we had a total of five interns here this summer who all did excellent work, which also meant that the three female interns were living with Jen, Jackie, and I (we each shared our room with one of them), so there were six females in our apartment! The down side to being so busy and having limited internet time (since we only have three DSL cords, and one of them randomly chooses not to work) is that I have not had a chance to update my blog in much too long!

July started off with a team of 62 people from Eastview Christian Church in Illinois, most of whom were teenagers, that split into two groups doing construction on the churches in Hato del Yaque and Hoyo de Bartola, and one group traveling to Haiti to visit the school and orphanage there. They were a great team, and each group did more work than we expected them to do! We then had two teams here at the same time, one from Oldham County in Kentucky doing a basketball clinic, and the other from Lincoln Christian Church in Illinois doing construction on a new home for the national partner they support, Marisol who works in our kitchen and has seven children and 14 grandchildren and is in desperate need of a new home!

The third week of July brought three teams, one from Morgantown Community Church in Kentucky that continued to work on Marisol’s home, another from Cross Point Community Church in Nashville, TN, that worked on construction of a church for the Haitian pastor, Moises, whom they support (the picture to the left is of the team praying for him on their last day at the site), and the third from Warrenville Bible Chapel that held a medical clinic in Batey Nueve (a community in the sugar cane fields where there is desperate poverty). July wrapped up with two more teams, one from Hikes Point Christian in Louisville, KY, that also continued to work on Marisol’s house, and the other from Northeast Christian Church in Rockford, IL, that worked on constructing the church in Hoyo de Bartola and providing children’s ministry in Los Guandules, the church they partner with here in the DR.

I worked with the teams from Eastview in Hoyo de Bartola, Lincoln Christian and Hikes Point on Marisol’s house, and Cross Point on Moises’ church, so I have been doing a lot of construction! As a result, I have lost a little bit of weight, which the ladies in the kitchen and some in our neighborhood have expressed concern over, but I have to say I’m not complaining, and I kind of like how my arms are now showing some definition! I have also discovered that shoveling is a great workout, and I enjoy it! However, more important things certainly happened as a result of the construction we did, and it was inspiring to be a part of constructing two churches and building Marisol’s home, all of which will be places where God’s love will be shared with the people of the DR! At the site of Moises’ church, I was even able to witness some cultural barriers and prejudice give way, as I introduced Moises to two Dominican women and their children from the community the church will serve who were at first hesitant about meeting a Haitian, but warmed up to him and stated they would come to the church when it was finished!

The first week of August brought a team from Hope Springs Community Church in Lexington and two people from Woodland Hills Church of Christ, my family’s church in VA! The group from Hope Springs did children’s ministry in eight of the churches we support, a medical clinic in another, and on-going training for our pastors to learn about the Celebrate Recovery program! For the first two days of the week, Neal and Andrew, from Woodland Hills, and I helped with the children’s ministry and then we did a two-day Drama Camp that prepared the children involved to present the “Parable of the Unmerciful Servant” to our church here in Hoya del Caimito!

The Drama Camp was a great success! Since school is currently on break, we were able to use three empty classrooms in the school for our camp, which provided excellent space for our classes. There were 13 children involved, ranging in age from 8 to 12, each of whom received a Bible and a beanie baby for participating in the camp, as well as two GO staff members and one Dominican young woman from our church.

During each of the days, we had classes on Voice and Movement, Stage Direction and Blocking, and Costume Creation, and we also assigned roles and practiced, and practiced, and practiced, the drama! The children seemed to truly enjoy each class and were very excited before, during, and after the presentation in church! All of the children were from the neighborhood, but only about half of them attend church, and what was perhaps the most exciting thing for me was knowing that while they clearly enjoyed the camp, they also essentially memorized a parable, and my hope is that the lessons they learned from Jesus’ story will have a longer lasting impact on their lives than the lessons they learned about acting.

It was also wonderful to have two people I know from “home” here to experience this with me! They were patient and loving with the children and more than ready to jump in and help whenever needed, and overall their week here ranks as my favorite of the summer!

The day of the presentation in church was also an exciting day for me, as my Goddaughter was dedicated at church during the same service! Godparents are a tradition here in the DR in the Christian churches, and I was honored when Kathy, our school principal, asked me to be the “madrina” for her daughter, Shanie! The picture to the left is of Kathy, me, Shanie, Kathy's mother, and Samir, Shanie's Godfather.

Throughout the summer, I have also continued to teach my classes, and they are continuing to go well! We are close to wrapping up the advanced classes, and the students have expressed a desire to continue studying, so in September and October, I will be having “conversation” classes with them to reinforce the lessons they have learned and give them more practice speaking English. An exciting new development with the English ministry is that a group of young men in our sports ministry may have the opportunity to go to the states to play baseball but need to learn English to do so, and so, beginning in September, I will be teaching this group three days a week to help them take advantage of the opportunity if it arises!

Just as I know the school year is starting in the states, it will also be beginning here. The teachers come back to school on August 21, and the students come on August 28, and this year, my role with Administration will be more clearly defined, and I will be at the school three days a week to continue working with the teachers on classroom management, school wide discipline, and lesson planning while also continuing the English and Drama ministries, so it should be a busy fall!

There is much more I could write about the school, but I will save that for my next update, which will be within the next few weeks!

Thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support!

Con el amor de Jesucristo,
Catherine