May 28, 2009

As I reflected on what to write about for this update, I realized just how long it has been since I did one of these! So much has happened in the last two months, that I did not realize how much time had passed until I sat down to think over it all and process all that God has been doing in our lives and our ministry! One of the greatest blessings of the last two months was that on May 24, we celebrated our first anniversary! The picture to the left is from our anniversary dinner - at a beachfront restaurant in Juan Dolio on the southern coast - it was a beautiful place to celebrate!

Before we were able to get away for some rest and relaxation, though, there were many exciting events in our ministry! April started off with a Spiritual Retreat held on April 3 for the teachers at the school that was planned and organized by our school counselor, and in which she had asked me to participate by leading some team building activities. Then on April 4 and 5, we held the Drama Camp in Hato del Yaque, and it went very well! On April 9, I left for the states and was wonderfully blessed by my time with family and friends – travelling from GA to VA, then from VA to KY, then back to VA and to GA once again, flying out of Atlanta, GA, to return to the DR on May 7.

A few days after I arrived in Santiago, we had staff meetings and began gearing up for our Celebration of Partnerships, held in Puerta Plata from May 13-16, which was an incredible time of celebrating where we have come as a ministry as well as where God is leading us! Returning from the conference, we began preparing for the summer, and Amaury and I were also able to take a few days to get away together for some rest and to celebrate our anniversary!

There are so many stories I could tell about each of these events that I honestly do not know where to start! So, to do something a bit different this time around, below is more of a “photo update” with a short commentary for each set of pictures to give each of you a brief glimpse into the last two months.

Below are some pictures from the teacher retreat, which included a time to share prayer requests and praises, a message given by Eduard Gabriel, who in May became the new Carribean President of G.O. Ministries, as well as the team building activities, lunch, time for fellowship, and watching The Emperors Club together. The first picture is of the teachers trying to solve a "human knot" to ecourage cooperation, the second is of two of our teachers taking the free on-line Enneagram evaluation (in Spanish!) that I then used to do a brief session with them about the different personality types outlined by the Enneagram. The is a great tool for encouraging understanding of ourselves and one another! The teachers felt so encouraged and blessed by all they experienced that they asked if this could be something we do more than just once a year!






The next set of pictures is from the Drama Camp. The students had classes in Voice and Movement, Stage Direction and Blocking, and Costume Design, and then presented the parable of the two debtors to a crowd that was nearly double the size of normal attendance at a church service! It was an amazing weekend, with 18 students involved in the camp, the majority of whom do not come to church on a regular basis!

While I was in Louisville, I was able to meet with Jerry from St. John United Methodist who has arranged for 50 computers to be donated to the school from his company!!! He is in the process of evaluating them and getting them set up to be brought down this summer! Thanks to Jerry's work and donations from several individuals and another Louisville business, the lab will become a reality this summer - an amazing blessing!!!

As the pictures below show, the Partnership of Celebration was a great success! The first picture is of one of the several teaching/conference sessions that we attended - the green shirts are from the conference - nearly 180 Americans, Dominicans, Haitians, and Columbians attended the event - including the missionary G.O. supports in Mongolia! The second picture is of the G.O. Board praying over Gabriel and Tata and Eduard and Kendy as the change in leadership became "official." Gabriel will still be actively involved in the ministry, but Eduard is the new Carribean President of G.O. - it was a bittersweet moment.



The next two pictures are also from the conference - the first is of Luis Vargas and his wife, one of our pastors who works in a very poor area known as Padre de las Casas, and a representative from his partnering church - Nate from Reunion Christian in Boston, MA. One of our Board Members - Mike Shyrock - is also in the picture. Mike is part of the church planting organization that planted Reunion. I translated for Nate, Mike, and Luis throughout the conference, and we all had some great conversations! Once I told Luis about how Mike and Nate know each other and about how quickly Reunion has grown (the church is only a few years old and has more than 300 who reguarly attend!), he was very curious to hear their ideas on church growth and reaching out to the community! The second picture is of Romano translating for me as I interviewed our Haitian pastors for some upcoming G.O. projects.




We are getting ready for another Drama Camp, which will be held in Los Guandules with a team from Northeast Christian in Louisville, as well as for a busy summer, and we appreciate your prayers!

As always, thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support! We are so blessed by each of you!

With love in Christ,
Catherine and Amaury

March 19, 2009

Saludos! (Greetings!)

This is what you say every time you enter a store, an office, or a home in the DR (really any place where people are), and it is one of my favorite things about living here – to start off every encounter in such a friendly and open way is a great lesson to learn for every part of our lives!

For Amaury and I, this last month has been full of lessons taught and learned, as our “Teaching Ministry” began in earnest, and we are excited to see how this ministry will grow! So far, we have had three Drama Team meetings, and the team is bonding and learning and growing together as we prepare for our first Drama Camp, which will be held in Hato del Yaque on April 4-5. Also, Amaury began teaching his Protocol and Etiquette classes in Los Perez, and we set up a teacher training at the school that Amaury led to show the teachers how to use the new projector and laptop that were recently donated by a team member from Michigan who had come down last summer! Pictures of all of this are included at the end of the blog! Also, in addition to continuing to supervise Jose Luis in his English class, I began teaching a class specifically for people who are interested in leading English classes at their home churches – at this point the students involved are from three different churches!

One of the students in my English class is also a member of the Drama Team, and his desire to learn and his perseverance despite many obstacles are an inspiration! Marcos lives in Hato del Yaque – a community about 30 minutes outside of Santiago that has very few paved streets, no running water, and intermittent electricity that is usually only on for a few hours each day. He is a 19 year old young man who works for a company that sells fruits and vegetables, such as plantains, which are a staple in the Dominican diet.

His day usually starts at 2 am when he wakes up and then heads off to report to work, which will involve first going to a local farmer’s market to help select produce and then get his assignment for the day, which could include spending the day selling by driving around various “barrios” or neighborhoods in Santiago, announcing what he has for sale over a speaker system that is attached to the truck, or travelling to Puerto Plata to help sell vegetables there. His day ends when he has sold everything he can and then make the trip back to Hato de Yaque, which could be as late as 10 pm if he has been to Puerto Plata that day. He does this 6 days a week – only taking Sunday off to go to church and rest.

Now, however, he has added to that grueling schedule, English classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings (the picture to the left is of Marcos during a recent English class - he has not missed one!), and Drama Team meetings every other Saturday afternoon as well as Drama Camps, which will be held five times throughout the year and will last all day Saturday and Sunday (which means he will not work on those Saturdays). Additionally, he has started a baseball sports ministry to reach out to the young men of the community, offering them a positive alternative to the drugs and gangs which so easily ensnare too many, and to be a witness for Christ in their lives. Why is he doing this? When asked, he is quick to smile and then explain that he wants to help the church grow by reaching out to his community. This answer and his determination to do whatever he has to do to achieve that goal are what inspire me about Marcos. He is one who will show the love, light, and hope of Christ in a place in desperate need of them.

Hato del Yaque is a community that was created by the Dominican government nearly 30 years ago after a massive hurricane devastated the island. The first residents were relocated there from other areas on the island where the destruction was the most severe. They were promised schools, running water, electricity, paved roads – a model community – but those promises were not fulfilled. The community is now held in the grips of poverty, with limited access to education and social services, and drugs, gangs, and alcohol are rampant. It also has the highest concentration of AIDS cases in the Santiago region. These are grim facts that can lead people to live without hope.

But there is hope – Marcos found it, and he wants to share it with as many people as he can. A little more than three years ago, he found hope through his belief in Jesus and his experiences at the church in Hato del Yaque that GO supports. That church started in a cramped 150 square foot room, and is now located in a beautiful new ministry center that will soon have a feeding center, and each day grows as a brighter light in this very dark community.

This is why we decided to hold our first Drama Camp in Hato del Yaque – to support the work of the church there, and offer a program that will hopefully attract not only the young people involved in the camp, but also their parents to the church to see the results of the camp, which will be presented through a short drama during the service.

Marcos and another young man from Hato del Yaque, Christian, who is also a part of the Drama Team and is also attending the English class, are currently recruiting young people (ages 13 – 18) to be a part of the camp. Please keep them and our team in your prayers during this time. Pictured to the left are Marcos, Wendy, and Lisbeth - three of the ten team members - participating in our most recent team meeting. The Drama Team is made up of young people from five different churches who have expressed a desire to reach out to their communities through drama ministry - please pray for them as they take this step of faith, that they will continue to be committed to the ministry and that they will be encouraged and inspired by being a part of this team.

Our “theme verse” for the Drama Team and the camps is 1 Timothy 4:12, “Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” We pray that this will be just one of the many lessons learned for our Drama Team members and the young people that come to the camps throughout the year.
As always, thank you for your prayers, encouragement, and support!

With love in Christ,
Catherine and Amaury

Amaury leads an activity at the Drama Team meeting we held in Hato del Yaque on Feb 21.

In the second Protocol and Etiquette class, the students learned how to arrange a formal place setting and for what purpose the different glasses and silverware are used. In this picture, Amaury watches as his brother, Nico (who is also the pastor in Los Perez), attempts to arrange the place setting.





The teachers listened attentively while Amaury explained how to hook up the computer and projector - they have both been an amazing blessing for the school and are being used almost daily by the teachers!

February 3, 2009

Bendiciones! (Blessings!)

It seems hard to believe that it is already February! I hope and pray this finds all of you doing well, and for those who are in dealing with snow and ice, staying warm! While things may get a little “cool” here in the DR during January and February (usually only if it rains and then the temperature “drops” to the 50s), it is of course nothing like what the mid-west and northeast have been dealing with, and my thoughts and prayers have been with all of you!

January seemed to fly by – we successfully completed our move to our new home (thank you for your prayers!), we visited the church in Palo Alto where my father-in-law is the pastor, I resumed singing with the worship team at the church in Hoya del Caimito, we helped with a team that came from Real Life church in California, and Jose Luis began teaching his English class!

One of my favorite places to visit is Palo Alto (literally translated as “tall stick”). It is in the mountains outside of Santiago, full of tall pine trees, and amazingly beautiful – you can see Puerta Plata from one side of the mountain and Santiago from the other! The picture to the right is the view from my in-law’s house – if you look carefully, you can see Santiago in the distance. However, the trip can be a bit of a grueling one, and we are not able to go very often – it takes about an hour and a half to traverse the mountain, which is mostly because the roads are in such bad shape. You have to have a four-wheel drive vehicle, or you will get stuck!

We went on this trip with the Schwulst family – Dave and Cherry are part of the GO Ministries team, providing mentoring and pastor support, and they invited us along on this church visit knowing how much we would enjoy it! While we were there, we helped with the church service (I sang a “special” and Amaury led the children’s worship/teaching time). The service began with a series of prayers, directed by “Amado” (Amaury’s father – it is a nickname that means “loving” – which is exactly what he is!), and a devotional time shared by Amaury’s mother, Ramona, reading from the devotional she received at the Women’s Conference GO hosted in September. This was followed by a praise and worship time (during which the offering and communion were taken), and then Dave preached (with Cherry translating). It was a wonderful service! One of the blessings I always take away from my visits to Palo Alto is being wrapped in the peace, joy, and love of Christ, which is so clearly exuded by Amado and Ramona, and evident in the church!

Life in Palo Alto is not easy – there is no running water and no electricity, it rains often – a cold rain that seems to seep into your bones – and most of the people who live there are very poor. For all its natural beauty, it is not a place many people would want to go to start a church, but Amado and Ramona have been there for nearly four years now, building the church and a retreat center, reaching out to the people of the community, and pouring out love and acceptance on all those with whom they come in contact. The church is small, but as Amado says, it is not his church, it is God’s, and he trusts that God will complete the work He has started. Please pray for this church and the work being done in the community of Palo Alto as they continue to shine the light of God from atop this tall mountain in an area that is in great need of the hope, joy, and love that are available to us all through a living, growing relationship with Jesus, regardless of our personal circumstances.

“Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. … And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:11-13 and 4:19

Con amor en Jesucristo (With love in Christ),

Catherine

PS – below are a few pictures from the last month of the things I mentioned in the opening paragraph …











The team from Real Life took the kids from the "hole" - Hoyo de Bartola - to get ice cream - it was a real treat for everyone involved!











These are pictures from Jose Luis' first class - he spoke more English while teaching the class than I did! I certainly learned from him!

January 7, 2009

Happy New Year from the Dominican Republic!!

I returned to the DR on December 9, after what felt like a whirlwind tour of the US, travelling from GA to KY to VA and back to GA – all within the four weeks I was states! During this time, I was blessed to be able to spend time with family and friends, and I am so grateful for the time I had with each person, and I am sorry that I was not able to see everyone!

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year – mostly because it is a time we so easily dedicate to family and friends. However, since Amaury was not granted his tourist visa, I returned to the DR to spend Christmas here, and this was the first time in nearly 15 years that I was not with my immediate family for Christmas. While there were moments when I was saddened by this, I clearly felt God giving me His peace, knowing that this was only a temporary separation. More than this, though, I felt God’s love surrounding me, through the time Amaury and I were able to spend together during the holidays and the time we were able to spend with his family. So, while I missed by parents, my sister and her family, and my brother and his family, I felt blessed to be with my husband and his family, celebrating Christ’s birth and the New Year He has given to us!

As this New Year begins, please be praying for us and our ministry goals. In 2009, Amaury and I will be working together in ministry, focusing on two main areas – Teaching Ministry and Team Support.

For the Teaching Ministry …

* Together, we will create a Drama Ministry team of young adults who have a desire to evangelize through Drama Ministry from at least five churches in the Santiago area. We will then work to refine and support a Drama program in those churches through Drama Camps hosted by teams or by our Drama Ministry team – our plan is to hold two camps in the spring, two in the summer, and one in the fall.
* Amaury will begin teaching classes in Business and in Etiquette and Protocol in area churches whose pastors have requested these classes.
* I will continue offering English classes in churches supported by G.O. in Santiago and will train and support nationals who are beginning an English ministry in their churches.
* I will continue advising the administration of Colegio Evangélico Isaías Emmanuel and facilitating teacher training in order to assist in creating an effective learning environment for students and supportive working environment for teachers. As well, I will continue to work to help facilitate funding for the remaining 202 children at Colegio Evangélico Isaías Emmanuel who need sponsors.

For Team Support …

* Together, we will work with G.O. Ministries team facilitators to support the work of short-term missions teams to the Dominican Republic and Haiti doing construction, offering medical and dental clinics, children’s ministry, sports ministry, as well as any other ministry focus a team may have. We will do this through, translating for groups, driving for groups, and assisting in facilitating teams in whatever ways we are needed.
* Together, we will continue working to recruit groups to come to the Dominican for short-term mission experiences!

May God bless you in this New Year, and may you feel His love surrounding you and your family!

Thank you for your continued prayers for and support of our ministry!

With love in Christ,
Catherine

On November 11, I returned to the states after a September and October full of wonderful blessings and some challenges as well! One of the wonderful blessings that has also at times been a bit of a challenge over the last two months has been continuing to work with my English students in Hoya del Caimito and Los Guandules. The pictures to the left are of the students in Caimito (top) and Guandules (bottom) with their certificates for completing the classed offered.

These classes started in January, and as of the end of October, we completed 12 of the 16 lessons in the curriculum we have been using called Spoken English Learned Quickly, and my students are speaking and reading English! In fact, they have become so comfortable with the material, which is very well designed, that they are continuing to study on their own to finish the material while I am in the states (they are using CDs and photocopies of the lessons I gave them before I left), and I will be “testing” them when I return to the DR in December!

Each week, my students continued to surprise me with their desire to learn and continued attendance in class, despite dropping class numbers. However, what surprised me the most was the request of one of my students to begin to study more intensively in order to begin teaching English classes himself! This is one of the goals of the English classes, to have a student of the class become a teacher who can then start teaching and reaching out to many more people than I can if I were to continue teaching by myself, and the material we are using is perfectly set up for that!

Jose Luis has been working with G.O. for several years heading up our baseball ministry, reaching out to young men in Santiago for Christ through helping them improve their baseball skills and teaching them about teamwork, and through being an example of Christ’s love in their lives, and now he wants to add teaching English to that in order to reach out to even more people! He has been diligently studying for classes and practicing (he is pictured here to the right with his certificate for the class), and he also began taking classes at an institute (along with his wife) to learn as much as possible about the English language! His dedication to the young men who are a part of the baseball ministry has inspired many, and now his desire to teach English in order to reach out to the people of his community is also an inspiration and an encouragement to me.

Over the last two years, as I have been teaching my English classes, I have at times been discouraged and a bit overwhelmed as class sizes tend to fall from 20 or more at the beginning to 5 or less by the end of the classes. As well, teaching Spoken English is very different from teaching high school English, which I loved and came very naturally to me, and I have honestly missed it and my students at Sacred Heart Academy in Louisville, KY. There have also been times when I have questioned and prayed about whether or not I am to continue offering English classes here in the DR, but God has continued to lead me to offer them, regardless of the class size, showing me that He has a plan that is much bigger than what I can see and more important than how useful I might be feeling at the moment.

Seeing Jose Luis’ enthusiasm, initially for learning and now for teaching English, and more importantly for sharing the love of Christ through whatever avenue is available, has been a source of joy and encouragement to me. Now, I can honestly say that it was a blessing that the class I taught for the young men in the baseball ministry dwindled to Jose Luis and one other student, because the smaller class allowed me to focus more on these two individuals, one of whom will now begin teaching as a result! In the picture to the left, I am showing him how to access the class material on-line and using a CD of the entire curriculum that I left with him - as you can see, he is very focused and attentive!

Additionally, my last class with my English students in Los Guandules was also a very special time. After receiving their certificates, these students proceeded to thank me for the class and express what it meant to them – all in English! After the first session, which ended in April, the group had a party for the class during which they presented prepared skits, prayers, and songs, all in English as well. However, this time was even more special to me because it was unscripted – we were conversing in English – one of the main objectives of the class, and since the material used Acts chapters 1 through 9 for the lesson texts, they learned to do this through studying God’s word!!

Even more exciting, Griselda, one of the students from this class and the wife of the pastor in Los Guandules, will be leading the others through the last four lessons as a “trial run” for teaching her own class! Griselda was a student in my very first English class in January 2007, and it has been a blessing to see her skills develop and now be able to encourage her to teach her own class!

Please be praying for Jose Luis and Griselda as they continue to study and prepare to teach classes. Please also pray for all of the students in the classes as they also continue learning English and also learning about Jesus and the truth of who He is and what He wants for us.

It is only through your continual prayers, support, and encouragement that I am able to bring God’s word to the DR through my English classes, and I am eternally grateful for this! Thank you for all you do to support my ministry!

With love in Christ,
Catherine

Usually when I start an update of my blog, I do it in a pretty typical style of describing all the things I have done since my last update, and I could do that this time too. My English classes are continuing, there have been meetings with teachers and parents at the school, school started on August 18, and there have also been teams for which I gave school tours and translated. I have included pictures from some of these events below. However, I want to do something different with my blog this time around – I want to tell the story of one of the events that occurred over the last month that significantly affected my life and the way I view my ministry.

The story starts in August 2007, when a team came down from Hikes Point Christian Church in Louisville, KY, and I met Sarah Longest. Sarah was one of the team members, and she was like a bright light, full of energy and a desire to reach out and help and share the love of Christ. At the time, I was actually pretty low and in the midst of a dark time. That summer had been physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually exhausting for me for many different reasons, and when this team came, I was not looking forward to another week of construction, and I was feeling the pressure of completing the planning for the upcoming week’s Drama Camp.

So, I remember Sarah for the light that she was for me during that week, when we began talking about the possibility of her coming down to do a teacher training at the school. Sarah is a teacher – she has taught all levels from pre-school to high school – and after I gave her team a tour of the school, she sought me out to talk about doing a teacher training. Her excitement was contagious, and as we talked, I could see that any training she came down to offer would be beneficial to our teachers.

I next saw Sarah in December when I was in Louisville and I went to church with her, when she gave me 50 books to take down to the school – in the form of two classroom sets of novels – Charlotte’s Web and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – which she had because she had asked her family to donate money to buy these books for the children at the school in lieu of giving her Christmas presents (just one small example of her kindness and generosity that continues to humble me). We also met and had lunch to catch up and talk some more about the possibility of that teacher training, which we hoped might take place in February or March. I remember being surprised at how tired she looked, and she said she had been having some health problems, but with her usual smile and bright outlook, shared that a routine procedure would likely take care of everything and that she and her husband were hoping this would also then allow them to get pregnant! I left that lunch feeling blessed by Sarah’s friendship and praying that she would be healed.

But healing would be elusive – that routine procedure ended up showing that at 28 years old, Sarah had a rare cancer that would require a full hysterectomy and months of chemotherapy. Even thinking about that now brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. I could hardly believe what she was going through, and my heart and prayers went out to her. Needless to say, her possible trip to the DR was cancelled, and any thoughts or conversations about a teacher training came to a full stop. There were much bigger things at stake, particularly getting Sarah well – which from the DR end meant praying for and encouraging her as best as I could, and trusting in God to take care of her.

The next five months were incredibly difficult for Sarah – she kept a blog of her experiences, which kept everyone who loved her up to date and current on specific prayer requests, but more than anything else, it showed her love for and trust in God. The grace, confidence, strength, and peace she had throughout this experience inspired and challenged me in my faith, and the one thing that always seemed to remain was her beautiful smile. The results of her chemo show her cancer free – an amazing blessing!

And as a blessing on top of that blessing – on August 13, Sarah returned to the DR and on August 14 she gave that teacher training!! There is professional jargon I could use to describe what she shared with the teachers – including student motivation, teaching to the Multiple Intelligences, using learning centers, and including learning styles in lesson planning – and all of it is important and was information that was welcomed by the teachers – but mostly what she shared was her love of teaching and reaching out to help others, and her bright smile communicated more clearly than any words the excitement and joy she felt in being there to share of herself with the teachers. Below are some pictures from the training!

While Sarah was here, we also visited several ministry sites that she had either been to or heard of before – Hoyo de Bartola, Villa Cafeteria (where the church is with which Hikes Point Christian partners), Hato del Yaque, and La Mosca – and her love for the people of the DR and ministry being done here was evident everywhere we went. The picture to the right is of Sarah and a boy from La Mosca whom we met while he was taking a break from helping his father find metal scraps to sell by picking through the garbage dump that overshadows this community. At each place we visited, one of the things I saw in Sarah is also one of the things God has been working on me to do in my ministry – to see everything with fresh eyes, noticing how God is working, praising Him for what He is doing, and joining with Him in His work. This is what we are each called to do, wherever we are called to serve Him, and this is how Sarah’s visit has affected the way I view my ministry. Over the last two years, I have grown accustomed to life here, and the places and situations of the people in those places where GO is doing ministry had begun to appear “normal” – and though those situations may be “normal” for the people in them, they are not what God wants for His children because too often those situations are ones which lack hope, light, and the life Jesus came to give us. This has also prompted me to reevaluate my ministry focus, looking at what I have been doing with fresh eyes from a more eternal perspective. Please pray that I will see, hear, know, and respond to God’s leading and direction so that I can more effectively join Him in the work He is doing so that all His children will come to know Him and His saving love, grace, and mercy! Thank you for your constant love, support, and prayers! With love in Christ, Catherine PS - See more pics below ... These pictures are from parent meetings we held to review changes to the GO Kids program - all the children in the school are now being treated as though they have sponsors, being given books and school supplies, which means we desperately need more sponsors!!! Please check out the GO Ministries website for more information on sponsoring a child if you are interested! These pictures are from the first day of school - presenting the faculty and staff to the students, and students working in their classrooms - it was a great day!

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