Birthday, Storms, and Zoo Visit!

We had the privilege of celebrating Joshua's 45th birthday (yes, those candles say '85' 😂) this past week! I am so thankful for the husband God has given me and all that he does for me and for our boys. I couldn't ask for a husband that desires to love and serve God more.




The night we celebrated with our friends was the night of our midweek service on Thursday. There was a storm right to the south of us that brought in a lot of rain, flooding, and wonderful cooler air. We had to make some detours to get around the deep water and crazy traffic, but we made it to church. There have been so many storms already this hurricane season! I've been dealing with some storms in my personal life as well...but...God is so faithful! He has reminded me through His Word, as well as through sweet friends and even the Scriptures that others have been posting on Facebook lately, that He will never leave nor forsake us. He is using these storms to change me and make me stronger for His glory and for His purpose!


Our weekends are usually full and we enjoy every minute! Saturday, we were able to have some youth from our church over to our home for fellowship after visitation, and before a Christian film at the church that night. We ate lunch and they played some games, but the highlight for me was them playing the piano and guitar, and singing to the Lord! What a blessing!

Joshua and I were able to begin our Spanish classes online. I think we've both had 3 classes with our instructor so far. We are really enjoying the classes and learning in a way that we feel is much better than what we've done here so far. And we are excited to have more time at home, and also more time to homeschool and get other things done.

Yesterday, we were invited to go to the zoo here in Santo Domingo. It was our family's first time there and it was so much fun! The day was perfect for it too, with sunshine and a great breeze!

Joshua has been busy preparing to take Seth, our oldest, to the states next month. Seth is registered to take his ACT in Ft. Lauderdale, in hopes of getting accepted at Pensacola Christian College for the next fall. The two of them will only be there for a few days, but will be trying to accomplish some errands while there too. 
Please pray for us as we continue to learn Spanish. Pray for us as we reach people with the gospel. Also, please pray for Seth with his test coming up, as well as he and Joshua as they travel. 

Bendiciones! Blessings!

                                               Hola from the Corner family!

  Most of you already know, but on August 1, we got our van from customs! Then on August 6, our shipping container with our household goods was delivered to our home! What a feeling of relief to have our things in our possession and Joshua didn't have to spend hours and days on it anymore. We were also blessed with a crew from church to help unload and get the heavy things up the stairs. I can't imagine not having their help! We are praising the Lord that we have our things now!

We have been settling into our home, working hard in language school, going to visitation on Saturdays, attending 2 churches up until the beginning of this month, and participating in all kinds of other activities.

The boys are still learning sign language at church, and are also now in the youth choir. 
 Joshua had the opportunity to teach a soul winning class for a month at one of the churches, and it was awesome to see people excited about wanting to tell others about Jesus!


We are so thankful to be in DR, and so humbled that God would use us in this place. This country is beautiful! I'm always thrilled to see the blue-green water and the palm trees and bright flowers. But even more special are the people. The believers here have welcomed us in and want to be a help and a blessing. The lost here are in need of a Saviour, and we are so privileged to be able to point them to Jesus!  

Our family had a day after our midterms in Spanish classes, where we got to leave early after we finished our exams. We decided to celebrate a little and spend some time as a family. We went to lunch and finally got to walk by the water near the colonial zone in Santo Domingo. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed getting out in the sunshine and relaxing a little. 

 Just this week, Joshua, Seth, Nathan, and I finished 3 months of Spanish classes at the university.! Elijah and Jared's tutor will be coming to the house one day a week, for the next month or so, to finish their class. At least Joshua and I, hope to start online classes from home now. We have learned so much, but still have so much more to go. It is a relief to not have to leave the house and fight traffic to get to the university 3 days a week, but we don't want to stop learning Spanish.

Thank you to those who pray for us, support us, and encourage us with notes! You are a blessing to us! To those that have sent love gifts to help us with the extra costs in our move, thank you!!! It is so very much appreciated!

We love ya'll!

2 Months!

  Hola family and friends! This past month has flown by so fast. 

At the beginning of July, we had the privilege to go to camp and get to know the people in our church better, as well as many other churches that joined us for the week. It was an amazing time of good preaching and teaching, singing, games, and much other fun! God saved many that week, as well as worked in many hearts about surrendering their everything to Him. All glory to God! 

We also enjoyed meeting and spending time with 2 different groups from the US this past month! What a joy they were, and we and the boys were able to join in many activities with them and others from our church all month long. It was very hectic, but all had a great time! One group was able to be a part of camp with us, and the next helped us with Vacation Bible School. 

We have great news as of yesterday...we have our van!!! It took us 2 months to get it out of port, with much time and effort (on Joshua's part), and more costs than what we were planning. But we are praising God that we have it now, nothing is wrong with the vehicle, and God provided our transportation the entire time we were waiting!

Spanish classes are going well, and we are learning much! But oh how I fall short when trying to communicate. Like I keep getting told...little by little. I am really enjoying the language!

God is doing so much for our boys. We just praise Him for how He is working! They are loving living here, have found many friends, and are learning Spanish as well. We all go to the university together for now. The Lord has also allowed them to learn sign language, and they are so excited! There is a wonderful deaf ministry here, and they have jumped in with both feet. I am just in awe of these things, and many more, that only God could orchestrate!

Please continue to pray that we get our container with our household goods soon! There are many essentials, including my youngest two sons' schoolwork, that we are needing. We are so thankful to have been blessed with many borrowed things while we wait! And please pray that we can get our container with a discounted cost. Every day that it has sat in the port storage 

(nothing we could do to get it out), it has accrued fees. These are all extra costs that we had not planned, but God knew this already and we are trusting that He will provide. 

We love you all and we're so thankful for you! Thank you for your encouragement, your prayers, and your support! God is using you mightily in our lives!

May-June 2019 Newsletter

Our first month is coming to an end already!

  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.

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!

March-April 2019 Newsletter