Hello everyone! It's another beautiful day here in Santo Domingo. In only a few days, we will finish a whole month here. So hard to believe! We are learning much and have much more to learn. Again, we are so very thankful for our friends here who continue to be such a help and a blessing to us!
Today, we are again working on the house, and today we have a young man from church helping us. He's a blessing and a big help to Joshua in the hardware stores, since he speaks a little English, as well as helping us learn more Spanish. We've been trying to get screens put in windows so that we can leave the windows open to the breeze. Without that breeze it gets really hot in the house, and without screens I get eaten alive. The mosquitoes love me too much unfortunately. We have also been putting up curtain rods and curtains to block the sun from shining in and heating things up, putting in ceiling fans, fixing plumbing leaks, and many other things.
As far as our immigration stuff goes, we are in another waiting period. Last Wednesday we got our paperwork submitted, got our immigration insurance done, got to the immigration office, and were told it would be 12-15 more days before we can get an interview. Which means at least that long, probably longer, before we can get our van and household goods from our container. So...we wait. Please pray that things go smoothly and quickly!
God has blessed our boys with lots of neighborhood kids to play with and get to know. The boys have talked to them about church and none of them go. What an opportunity! Pray that the Lord gives them open doors to share Jesus with them. Also, we're so thankful for the youth at church! Our boys have had many chances to spend time with them and are enjoying getting to know them...this is a blessing to them and to us!
Our family has been invited to attend camp this next week and we are all excited to go! There are several churches from here that will be there, as well as a couple groups from the states as I understand. We'll have preaching, singing, games, and fellowship both in English and Spanish. Please pray for this camp and that God will prepare all of our hearts.
I will end this post with the Scripture I've been trying to memorize in Spanish.
Juan 3:16
Porque de tal manera amo Dios al mundo, que ha dado a su Hijo unigenito, para que todo aquel que en el cree, no se pierda, mas tenga vida eterna.
PREACH~TEACH~REACH
Monday, June 24, 2019
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
First week in the DR!
We are here! We arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Thursday, May 30th. We are so happy to be here! As I type, I am sitting at our borrowed table looking into our backyard. The doors and windows are all open so that a small breeze can come in and I'm drenched. I'm just getting used to living in that state. Haha! It is sooooo beautiful here! And I'm getting very spoiled with all of this sunshine that I love so much.
We have been running (and sweating) since we have been here, and have many more things to do to get settled in. Everything moves a good bit slower here, and since neither Joshua nor I speak much Spanish yet, we have to have help with everything.
First, we want to praise the Lord for all of the people that have partnered with us in so many ways! We are so thankful for all of our supporters that have made it possible to move and live here! Our friends and family who are faithful to pray for us, contact us often, and encourage us are much appreciated! Our last few weeks we spent in Miami, FL, and we met many people in a couple different churches who were a huge blessing to us! They gave us a mission home to stay in, provided meals for us, let us do laundry in their home, and many things I am forgetting. But just the fellowship and friendship were amazing! We also have missionary friends, Dominican friends, and new friends here in this country who have been such a help! They've provided much needed information to know how to live here, how to drive here, what to bring with us and what to buy here...all of the things that we need to know.
When we arrived here, we were picked up from the airport by a missionary friend and another friend from his church in a big van. We had 12 big pieces of luggage as well as 12 more smaller pieces, so that was a real blessing. They took us to our house, where they had dinner ready for us (we hadn't had anything much to eat all day due to much running around to get to our flight), some food supplies, and a beautiful welcome sign and balloons. They also loaned us mattresses, linens, a small fridge and cooler, a table and chairs, some fans (Wonderful!), and a coffee maker.
Our house has been very much empty besides borrowed things, as Joshua has been busy with things being fixed up in and out of the house and needing to be here for that. And I do not drive here yet. Our friends have been so sweet to drive me around to different stores, and then to spend an entire day with us yesterday as we got to purchase furniture and appliances for our home. All that we bought will be delivered tomorrow! It will be an exciting day! I have also had the awesome opportunity to buy some things used from an American family moving back to the states. It is a great blessing to be able to purchase things for a fraction of the cost that they are new here...and it's very rare to find used things to buy. These people are Christians and were here for several years due to business. We had a good time talking with them the other night and this morning I was able to go with a friend to pick up some of the things we are buying from them. We will pick up the rest over the next few weeks.
Our shipping container with our van and some household goods shipped from Miami, FL yesterday! We should hear from them on Saturday or Monday. Joshua will have to then schedule an interview at the port and then we'll see how long it will be before they let us have our things. Those things vary, and there are many things up in the air that we've been working on for weeks now. Both with the officials, as well as our shipping company. Our neighbor across the street from us works at the port with containers that come in, and he wants to go with Joshua when he goes to the port. God is providing every step of the way!
We have been so blessed to have wonderful neighbors! We've met 2 families, so far, in a neighborhood of 12 homes. The couple across the street from us have brought over a couple of meals for us, and coffee and hot chocolate several times! They have also had us over to their home. They do not speak or understand English, other than a very few words, and as we do not speak Spanish, yet, we do a lot of hand motions and our Google Translate is getting a workout. We laugh a lot! But we are so happy to have their friendship and help.
I have many other things to write about, but I will end this here and post more soon. Thank you again for your prayers and support! We love you all!
We have been running (and sweating) since we have been here, and have many more things to do to get settled in. Everything moves a good bit slower here, and since neither Joshua nor I speak much Spanish yet, we have to have help with everything.
First, we want to praise the Lord for all of the people that have partnered with us in so many ways! We are so thankful for all of our supporters that have made it possible to move and live here! Our friends and family who are faithful to pray for us, contact us often, and encourage us are much appreciated! Our last few weeks we spent in Miami, FL, and we met many people in a couple different churches who were a huge blessing to us! They gave us a mission home to stay in, provided meals for us, let us do laundry in their home, and many things I am forgetting. But just the fellowship and friendship were amazing! We also have missionary friends, Dominican friends, and new friends here in this country who have been such a help! They've provided much needed information to know how to live here, how to drive here, what to bring with us and what to buy here...all of the things that we need to know.
When we arrived here, we were picked up from the airport by a missionary friend and another friend from his church in a big van. We had 12 big pieces of luggage as well as 12 more smaller pieces, so that was a real blessing. They took us to our house, where they had dinner ready for us (we hadn't had anything much to eat all day due to much running around to get to our flight), some food supplies, and a beautiful welcome sign and balloons. They also loaned us mattresses, linens, a small fridge and cooler, a table and chairs, some fans (Wonderful!), and a coffee maker.
Our house has been very much empty besides borrowed things, as Joshua has been busy with things being fixed up in and out of the house and needing to be here for that. And I do not drive here yet. Our friends have been so sweet to drive me around to different stores, and then to spend an entire day with us yesterday as we got to purchase furniture and appliances for our home. All that we bought will be delivered tomorrow! It will be an exciting day! I have also had the awesome opportunity to buy some things used from an American family moving back to the states. It is a great blessing to be able to purchase things for a fraction of the cost that they are new here...and it's very rare to find used things to buy. These people are Christians and were here for several years due to business. We had a good time talking with them the other night and this morning I was able to go with a friend to pick up some of the things we are buying from them. We will pick up the rest over the next few weeks.
Our shipping container with our van and some household goods shipped from Miami, FL yesterday! We should hear from them on Saturday or Monday. Joshua will have to then schedule an interview at the port and then we'll see how long it will be before they let us have our things. Those things vary, and there are many things up in the air that we've been working on for weeks now. Both with the officials, as well as our shipping company. Our neighbor across the street from us works at the port with containers that come in, and he wants to go with Joshua when he goes to the port. God is providing every step of the way!
We have been so blessed to have wonderful neighbors! We've met 2 families, so far, in a neighborhood of 12 homes. The couple across the street from us have brought over a couple of meals for us, and coffee and hot chocolate several times! They have also had us over to their home. They do not speak or understand English, other than a very few words, and as we do not speak Spanish, yet, we do a lot of hand motions and our Google Translate is getting a workout. We laugh a lot! But we are so happy to have their friendship and help.
I have many other things to write about, but I will end this here and post more soon. Thank you again for your prayers and support! We love you all!
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