Adventures of Karina y Jorge

Mission Trip to Graham County

2010-05-23T14:11:00.003-04:00

Wednesday about 1 pm, I got a call from the Eddie Caldwell, Executive Director of the North Carolina Sheriff's Association, informing me of the headlines above. The Sherrif's Office there was operating outside from under a tarp on the sidewalk. My mind went back to the scenes etched in my memory from being in Haiti following the earthquake. When told me that they "don't have any computers or printers", I immediately contacted my technicians and asked for help collecting equipment to deliver on Thursday so that we could get them up and running, protecting the citizens of Graham County. EVERY client we contacted offered what they had. They are listed at the end of this posting. I called the Sheriff to ask about the quantity needed, and immediately knew I was helping a brother in Christ. The music that played during the ringing was from Sidewalk Prophets 2009 hit "The Words I would Say". The phrase that played was...

"Be strong in the Lord and,

Never give up hope,

You're going to do great things,

I already know,

God's got His hand on you so,

Don't live life in fear,

(It was also his ringtone that I later heard frequently while working in Robbinsville.) Hal Overman came over at 10:30 pm and we started assessing what we had. We swapped hard drives, added hard drives, video cards, CD Rom drives and cleaned up about a dozen PCs. Still awake and working at 6:30 a.m., we were ready to load Eddie Caldwell's Tahoe for the nearly 6 hour trip to Robbinsville.

Sheriff Moody had already secured an abandoned Wachovia Bank building from it's owner, so we arrived about 12:30 to unload what we brought. Inmates from the county jail were there to help with lifting, moving and cleaning. We identified work areas, still without furniture, and I began to setup PCs. By 5:00, we had several key workstations up and running on the internet, but continued to work until about 10:00 pm. After a good night's sleep, Eddie and I headed back for the new Sheriff's office. We worked late into the afternoon, finding out late in the day that the County Commissioners, several of whom were lame ducks after losing their primary elections, were refusing to allow the County I.T. Director to help us. We were on our own. Buncombe County asked what they could do for us and we now were in need of a server. The NC Highway Patrol ferried a new server from Asheville down to us that arrived about 1:00 a.m Saturday morning. I spent the night installing software and configuring printers. Without leaving the office overnight, (they left me a Glock 9mm because the suspected arsonist was still on the loose) I finished the server. Saturday was spent configuring and testing printers, scanners and fax machines. The overnight deputy on his way out said, "Well, I'm heading on back to the reservation." This was a true statement. He's a Cherokee Indian and that's where he lives. All my life, I'd heard that phrase spoken figuratively, but never literally until now.

Random pictures below are self explanatory. Let me say how encouraged I was to see Sheriffs from neighboring counties come to the aid of Graham County, population about 12,000. Supplies and people showed up from as far away as Brunswick (Wilmington), Tyrrell, Gates, Rockingham and Johnston Counties. Nearby counties, Cherokee, Swain, Buncombe, Jackson, Clay and others showed up as well. It was a great story about Sheriffs helping Sheriffs, neighbors helping neighbors.

In the perspective of life that I have from having served as a missionary in the Domincan Republic and Haiti, it reminded me of the phrase, "Charity begins at home". I couldn't help but respond and know that God put the right people in place to allow me to be a small part of helping this little county with a total population equal to about the number of High School Students that live in Cary.

Thanks to all of those businesses that donated technology items. What didn't get used here, will be prepared for another trip to help another Sheriff's Office. (Next time we won't wait for a disaster. Our plan is to identify disadavantaged offices that need upgrades and install equipment sometime this summer.)

MOST EQUIPMENT ORIGINATING FROM: (in alpha order)

CRANFILL, SUMNER AND HARTZOG - DARA BIOSCIENCES - DUNN PHYSICAL THERAPY - ELLIS AND WINTERS - EXPOSURE CONTROL TECHNOLOGIES - MARSHALL RESOURCES - MARTIN AND JONES - MYERS BIGEL PATENT LAWYERS - NEW HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH - NORTH CAROLINA SHERIFFS' ASSOCIATION

Some equipment was accumulated from clients who just give us equipment to prevent it from being thrown away.

The only surving computer below was across the hall from the main fire. It was full of soot and ash.

If you see this tag, say hi to Sheriff Moody for me!

My overnight protection!

How we got to the Dominican Republic....

2009-11-15T19:03:00.004-04:00

OUR FIRST FAMILY MISSION TRIP (posting from Karen):

When Ken and I were married 31 years ago, we thought we would be missionaries, however, much earlier in our lives. Back then, Ken was in college and I was working. God’s idea, not ours (although we quickly and happily adjusted), was to start a family early in our marriage. We liked that idea and continued in the next nine years to have six wonderful kids. Now that we have raised our family, much later than we had thought (God’s timing is perfect), we are thrilled to have the opportunity to be missionaries.

In September of 2005, the week after Hurricane Katrina, Ken went to Mississippi with a bunch of church men to help with immediate cleanup endeavors. In November of the same year, we decided to go to Biloxi, MI, to help with the Katrina Relief. Seven of the eight of us piled in our Excursion pulling our trailer and drove through the night and got to Biloxi at 3 am the morning of Thanksgiving.

Above: Andrew, Luke & Silas thawing turkeys

Below: Karen & Aaron working in the kitchen trailer

Above: Karen, Melinda & Aaron cutting up the thawed birds

Below: Aaron & Luke grilling turkey wings

Above, Karen preparing the dressing

Below, Luke, Silas, Aaron, Andrew and Melinda all outside with the grills. Volunteer college students there on the right

Below, Luke puts on more wings until they are golden brown!

Alongside other Christians from a variety of churches, we cooked turkeys in every way you can imagine. We used donated grills, deep fryers, roasters, huge crock-pots, boiled in pots, and baked in ovens in a huge kitchen trailer a relief organization had brought to Biloxi. One of the interesting parts of this trip is we did not know where we would work or who we would work with when we got there. We were told they may need help at this specific site. The people organizing this effort thought they were receiving cooked turkeys and would only have to cook the fixins’, however, when the semi had rolled in several hours earlier, the turkeys were whole and frozen…yikes! They didn’t know how they were going to accomplish the task and when we rolled in with 7 workers, we all knew it was a “God thing”. We prepared Thanksgiving dinner for 1,400 people for 14 straight hours!

They all ate under this tent, from lunch until 8 pm.

Our church had given us $1000 to buy food. Several of the kids went to a Kroger at 1am the night we left and bought whatever nonperishable food they could for the money. We left it at a site where they had given out of most of what they needed before Thanksgiving. Late Friday afternoon, we rolled into a community hit hard, and replenished the pantry before the Saturday morning rush. We worked with the NC Baptist Men’s Association, which dispatched us to 3 different locations to work on flooded houses.

Karen above with the mom of the house.

Aaron removing moldy sheetrock.

Above: Late Friday night, delivering food to tent in the hard hit town of
"Pass Christian".

Below: Hometowns of workers there. It was a tent city of volunteers.

OUR SECOND FAMILY MISSION TRIP:

We wanted to take a family trip with our family as it had always been and before we started having additional members of the family…we had 3 weddings in less than 5 months in 2007 and are delighted to have three more female Georges in the family! We started looking into taking a trip, somewhere warm and tropical. It is not cheap to send eight people south and Ken said “What about if we combine it with a mission trip?” The kids were all in favor of it so we started our search. We tried to go to Guatemala where groups from our church have gone. We tried going several other places where people we know have previously gone, all to no avail. Remembering a book he read about a 20,000 member church in Louisville, KY, Southeastern Christian Church, Ken googled them, thinking surely they have a strong missions program. He found the site of G.O. Ministries and emailed the president, Brook Brotzman, in July of 2006. He got a phone call from Brook in September as Brook had been traveling for the organization. Keep in mind we did not know where we were going in 3 months but had faith something would pull through. After one phone call with Brook, we got a call back the next day saying that our tickets were purchased, we were to leave Christmas day 2006 for a 2 week trip to the Dominican Republic. They planned one week of mission work and a week of vacation for us.

RDU Christmas Morning Above,

Below: 8 am Dec. 26 with our guide, Isaias Gabriel.

The eight of us excitedly left Christmas Day for the Dominican Republic. We were greeted at the airport with one of the G.O. buses and trailer for our luggage with smiles and wonderful hospitality.

Above: Feeding kids at Los Guandules

Below: Hato del Yaque construction.

Our first week was spent moving sand and dirt, mixing cement, carrying block, and forming a bucket brigade for pouring concrete wall pillars in Hato del Yaque, a severely impoverished community about 8 km outside of Santiago. We helped in feeding centers that feed hundreds of children in very low income areas 6 meals a week. We worked out in the sun most of each day, taking breaks to throw baseball with the kids hanging out near the construction site. We attended a Haitian church where the service was conducted in Creole, Spanish, English and French! (partly because we were there)

Above & Below: The Monton house.

Ken peers in from the window.

We had the chance to meet folks in the neighborhoods near the churches, even attending a “Secret Santa” gift exchange in a home of one of the members. (Pictured above) A family with 9 children lived in the small wooden structure with a tin roof, open all around the top. One of the main things that stood out to us was the hearts of these people, their love for their country and their happiness in spite of their poverty. They are truly a people who may be poor in material things but not poor in spirit. As we discussed the trip with our children later, they agreed that the mission part of the week was unforgettable and life changing, while the resort week was simply “fun”.

Returning to the states, we as a couple had decisions to make. Was now the time for that mission work? Was this the place? None of the American missionaries spoke Creole or French, yet Ken could speak with many of the Haitians in French and understood much of the Creole. Maybe God was drawing us to this place. We came home and made plans to explore a longer trip for later in the year.

THE NEXT STEP:
After much thought, prayer and discussion, we made plans to combine an October trip that Ken had planned to France with the Sister Cities Association of Cary to help plan a student exchange with Wake Tech. We spent 5 days in Le Touquet making plans and spending time with our French hosts. Jeff Hadley, Head of the Culinary Arts Program, along with his lovely wife Donna attended meetings and made contact with all of the right people to make the exchange happen in March 2008. Below are pictured Jeff and Donna outside a famous cheese shop in Boulogna.

We used our frequent flyer miles to get there and decided to combine the voyage with a trip to Spain to learn Spanish in an intensive immersion class. Following our 5 days in Le Touquet, France, we flew from Paris to Malaga, Spain for 3 weeks of intensive Spanish classes, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day. We were hosted by a Spanish family that lived one block from the school. We immersed ourselves in Spanish culture and language. Below are some shots from Malaga…

This is a view from our school roof where we had several afternoon classes. 180 degrees around and we could see the Mediterranean Sea…

Below is a castle in downtown Malaga…

While we were there, they had an outdoor Rodan exhibit.
Us with "The Thinker"..the orignial one!

Karen with a Kurt, a German guy who used to have a micro-brewery in VA Beach. He came to Malaga on his Harley-Davidson from Germany to learn Spanish. He spent most of 2008 touring around South America, so he was preparing to communicate.

Here’s the city-scape skyline near sunset and the harbor from atop the castle.

Harbor by night

We even signed up for a weekend student excursion to Morocco, visiting Tangiers, Tétouan and some of the countryside. (Our blog picture of us was taken as we left Spain on the ferry to Africa, passing by The Rock of Gibraltar, which is in this photo.) Ken’s French came in handy, as most of the signs were in French. In the shops, French was the second language.

Below is the former Portuguese Fort in Ceuta, Spain. We didn’t know until this trip that part of Spain is on the continent of Africa.

What a culture shock to walk through a Medina (market) in an Arabic country! In one city, we had a plain-clothes (western dress with a bulge under his sport coat) police escort walking around with the group, constantly counting, to make sure nothing happened to a tourist! After an amazing 2 day trip to Morocco we were back on the shuttle across the mouth of the Mediterranean leaving the African continent headed to Europe again. Here are some of the shots from Morocco:

Olives, Olives, Olives!

This town of Chefchowan was painted all blue. We were told it was to keep mosquitoes out of their homes. (Sorta like sky blue porch ceilings in the states are painted blue to keep spiders from spinning webs there.) The concrete was smoothed like icing on a cake and it felt like a winter wonderland in Disneyworld.

We headed home to the States a few weeks later, after a short holiday weekend checking out the “original” Sierra Nevadas near Granada, Spain. Alhambra, the former palace of the Moors in Spain is in Grananda. Interesting historical note: Columbus’ voyage in 1492 was financed by Ferdinand and Isabela ONLY because they had conquered the Moors and taken Alhambra earlier that year. It freed up the money needed for such a voyage because they weren’t financing a war against the Moors. We didn’t know that fact while we were at Alhambra, but here we were, preparing for mission work on the Island where Columbus established the town of Isabela, touring the conquered fort that led to the discovery of Hispañola.

Above: Alhambra moments after the outdoor lights came on.

Below: Here’s a town in the Sierra Nevadas of Spain. (Your house can be any color, as long as it is white!)

We came home with 5 weeks to prepare to leave the U.S. for 4 months. The most difficult part of preparation, was packing 4 checked bags and 2 carry-ons with what we needed. We arrived to our little home in Santiago at night, so our neighbors, Dave and Cherry had us spend the night in their house, in our gated little 2 home community. It was great having them here to teach us “the ropes” and to have instant friends as neighbors. This is our history...and the rest until the day you are reading this…is history!!! We hope this will inspire you to make your own history!!!

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OUR BLOG CONTINUES FROM THIS POINT IN TIME:

Is it really November? November means Christmas is coming, right??? We must be time travelers, how did it get to be November? Can’t believe our last post was March…so much has happened since then. A very brief synopsis: I, Karen went home the end of February to have shoulder surgery as a result of the accident in Louisville last September. It was good to spend some time w/ mom, my main caretaker.
In late March, after our last posting, Ken left the DR for Barcelona to meet me, and we traveled to Montpellier where Melinda studied abroad for the school year and was about to have her Spring Break . Here are some of the pictures from that trip:
The 3 of us in the Gaudy Park in Barcelona:

The park full of people on a Friday.

The Gaudy Designed house in Barcelona was incredible. Here’s a shot of just the roofline. Seeing is believing...a must see if you ever go to Barcelona.

Below: This is in Montpellier, a statue in the main plaza in town, The Three Graces. (Melinda’s blog has photos of her and her friends climbing on the statue late one night...don't tell!)

Below: Ken’s intensive French Class picture. He spent several weeks in class in the mornings, working on his French and keeping his mind sharp with a group of young gals.

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G.O. CELEBRATION OF PARTNERSHIPS

When we came back to the DR, we had a delightful 4 days at Playa Dorada in Sosua and it was such a wonderful experience to see different nationalities and cultures worship together during the G.O. Celebration of Partnerships. Americans met with the nationals they sponsor from the DR and Haiti. Melinda came back to the DR w/ us and was a great asset as she is fluent in French and Spanish. Many of the Haitian preachers couldn’t speak Spanish, only Creole and French. Melinda was able to sit at their table and translate for their American Partners. Below, we are singing together in 3 languages: Creole, English and Spanish.

Here’s the whole group (minus Ken, who was behind the camera).

In an earlier blog post you can see Ken and Dave baptizing 4 Dominicans. This is the wife of one of those baptized back in March, being baptized in a nearby church late in May. They have 2 children together, Junior and Yudelka.

The 3 of us jumped in to working with the teams that came from the states. Here I am helping out at a dental clinic and then Melinda is doing the same thing. This was a group of dental hygienists from the states who cleaned teeth for several days. The dentists from a local domican clinic did all the teeth extractions.

Below: Melinda has a big prop of a mouth and is teaching dental hygiene.

Luke came down to see us between his spring semester and his time to leave for Army Basic Training. He is in ROTC at UNCC and enlisted in the National Guard. He had basic training until August, then left for AIT training in his automotive specialty immediately after. He graduated from AIT with an Army Achievement Medal and was named a Distinguished Honor Grad as he was number one in his graduating class! Here we are in front of our house...very early in the morning before leaving to take hiim to the airport.

Melinda and Karen went home the end of June and a little later, Ken was home for 10 days in July. The whole family (except for Luke who was still in Basic Training) got together at the beach over the 4th weekend and we had a Christmas in July, since we weren’t all together at Christmas… it was a fun time together!

Aaron, Silas and Nathan playing Bacchi Ball.

Everyone at the table except the photographer.

Bill Cosby here "carving the bird"!

I (Karen) had back surgery in August and then 3 weeks later, Ken and I flew together to CA to see Nathan and Angela and their new house they just built. We had a fun time just hanging w/ them, meeting some of their friends and driving to Napa Valley for one day. Bay Bridge below, then our Spanish came in handy speaking with Manuel who works at the vineyard.

JULY POST FROM KEN:
I returned to the DR to work with 2 teams in the Bateyes, which are small communities built in Sugar Cane growing areas. They are self-sustaining communities built in modern times to replace the camps of African Slaves brought over from 1502 thru the 1800’s to work the sugar cane fields. The modern Batey communities each have a water tower and homes clustered together near fields so that workers can walk to work. It would be equivalent to migrant worker camps in the states, except without any of the protections we have. Haitians predominantly work in these camps. In 1916, when the U.S. invaded the Dominican Republic, (yes, we invaded, occupied and set up a government. It doesn’t make the U.S. History Textbooks, but they certainly know about it down here.) many Haitians were brought (from a U.S. controlled and occupied Haiti) into the D.R. to work in the sugar industry, both fields and factories. The modern day Bateyes are both a result of that as well as Trujillo’s use of Haitians as slave labor in the Bateyes from 1930-1961 when he was assassinated. Children born in the Bateyes have no rights as Dominicans if they are born to Haitian parents. They have no birth certificates from the D.R. government.
Spending 2 weeks working both in medical clinics and with children in VBS type settings was eye-opening. Progress has been made in the last 10 years. Back then I’ve been told, 90% of the young children wore no clothes because they didn’t have any. Today, that number is only about 10%. I witnessed children playing in the dirt streets and when needing to, they squatted in the street to use the bathroom. There is no sewage or water system. Only the water towers and out-houses.
Here are some shots from the medical clinic, street shots and VBS kids’ pictures, including some from the church building in Batey 5. (Most of the Bateyes are only numbered in this area.)

Med students above seeing patients.

Below a street scene outside a colmado at dusk.

Above, laundry day - Below, singing in Batey 5's Church.

Parachutes are always a hit!

Below, I shot these Sugar Cane workers taking a break late one afternoon.

In the neighborhood we live in, we mingle and participate in local activities. We are invited into homes to share a meal and fellowship quite frequently. Here are some shots from there…

Juan Luis doing dishes, a new thing for him.

Below: This is printed on the back of the power bill. Notice that they want you to know where you can get 24 hours of power. That doesn't mean ALL 24 hours. We're off about 2-3 hours a day. Other areas only get 8-12 hours a day. There is not enough generating capacity on the island to allow 24x7 power. Residential rates are on a graduated scale, from $0.11 to $0.35 US per KwHr.

POST FROM KAREN:

Quite a few Dominicans in the poorer neighborhoods steal their electricity. They make a hook on the end of a wire and with a stick, lift it up to hook it over the exposed wires from the power company in the street. Since the voltage is 110 as it travels down the wires overhead, they either hook on a single wire and then use a ground for the other, or they use 2 wires in the street. After becoming Christians, Juan Luis and Juana had their wires cut by the power company that they were connecting that way. (Sometimes a look-out on the street warns folks and they un-hook their wires before the power company truck comes by.) They wanted to get some wire from us so that they could “steal” electricity again. Ken talked with them from Ephesians 4:28 about stealing, which led to the installation of this light meter. Have you ever seen one with all ZEROS?

I was fortunate to be able to travel so soon after my trip. I conidered a blessing to have had a surgon that speaks

Spanish and wasn’t freaked out by my coming back down here so soon. I just had to get an X-ray at 6 weeks on a CD and send it back to him. That in itself was an experience…actually almost everything down here is an experience! However, I was back hre in time to go to the Conferencia de Mujeres aka Women’s Conference. What a blast!!! …to see 250+ Dominican women in one room laughing and singing and just enjoying being together was a boost for me!!! I had so much fun watching them have fun. I think the highlight of the weekend (other than learning from their enthusiasm for praising and worship our Lord), was when they turned the lights off on Saturday night—no it wasn’t the power going off—and started the movie Fireproof in Spanish. Those ladies were oohing and ahhing over every little thing. When she was not nice to him, they ooohed and when he did something nice for her, they ahhhhed…don’t think I’ll ever forget it 

SURPRISE!!! When I got back home, Ken had bought and installed a new automatic washing machine for us!!! (Automatic means it has cycles like “American Style” machines, but it is half the size of our machine in the states.) I think that was the highlight of my summer…sadly it has to do w/ comfort and convenience rather that something spiritual, but it does make doing the spiritual things more enjoyable! We had been having Dominicans wash our clothes and they would come back folded and wet (sometimes smelly) and we never felt like they were really clean. Many Dominicans wash their clothes in a wash pail w/ a hose and then dry them on barbed wire fences (I actually have little holes in most of my tops and our sheets) or trees, whatever they can find. The ones that do have a washing machine, it is a two sided one and you have to move the clothes over to rinse/spin. We are trying to not be too Americanized and live as Dominican as possible and to live amongst them but having clean laundry was one area I really wanted to keep my culture. We have a clothes line in our bedroom, actually several strands back and forth where we hang things to dry. With the inside temperature between 80-90 year round, it doesn’t take long to dry our washer spun clothes.

One thing I (Karen) have done that’s kind of my own little ministry here is to bring back sheets and towels donated by ladies in my neighborhood and my Bible study group. The sheets and towels here cost as much as they do at home and they really aren’t as good of quality. Having these to be distributed by the Christians in the neighborhood helps them reach out to their neighbors.

Silas and Joni, our 4th son and his wife, came down for a week to see what we do here in the DR. They spent 4 days here in Santiago with us, seeing one of the work sites we worked on when first here with the famly in Christmas 2006. It is in Hato del Yaque and the first floor is complete, serving as a dormitory and church building. As soon as funds are available, a nutrition center will be opened there, feeding the local children a noon meal 6 times a week. This is a picture from March 2009. The first floor is completed now teamsfrom the states have stayed and worked there for past 2 summers.

Ater our first family trip and Isaias was our host, we began partnering w/ him. He is the youth minister at our home church in Santiago and we consider him to be our Dominican son. When we are there, we try to host an activity at our house once a month. While Silas and Joni were there, we had a chili and domino night.

Silas spoke to the Youth group in front of our house and Isaias translated.

Silas and Joni played with the kids during VBS at Hato del Yaque. Joni speaks Spanish really well. If she lived down here a year, she'd be fluent!

Then we spent a couple of days with them in a resort in Juan Dolio, near Santo Domingo. They flew home from Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo, of course, is the oldest European City in this hemisphere. (We feel like we’ve followed Christopher Columbus’ life in reverse. We’ve visited Santo Domingo, he founded in 1498, his house in the abandoned town of Isabela, he founded in 1493, Barcelona, he sailed from in 1492, and Genoa, Italy, where he was born in 1451.)

Like our lives, trying to keep our heads above water!

NOVEMBER:
Ken is currently taking a course at the local university to improve his Spanish. It’s called “La Historia del Caribe”, or the History of the Caribbean. It’s a history / anthropology class, but being 100% in Spanish and having lots of reading and writing to do, it is really helping him to stretch his brain! The professor is from Honduras and he is closely following the events back in his home country as they unfold. Ken is planning to take a few from the class with the professor on a field trip to the Bateyes on November 28-29, since they are studying modern day slavery and the development of the sugar cane industry in modern times. They will staying in the Dorms that G.O. has built in Batey Nine. Hopefully these future college graduates will gain insight into the conditions that exist in this poor region of the country and will one day be influential in helping improve the plight of these people.
He is also working with the private school here, sponored by G.O. Ministries to set up and maintain the computer lab. We have received 45 donated laptops and enough money for the networking part. It is now fully functional, air conditioned and used every day.
Ken will blog from the DR in November and December. I’m back home in Cary and Atlantic Beach where I’ll be until the first of the year. We won’t all be together for Christmas because Aaron and Shauna will be in Wales visiting her sister who is about to have a baby. Maybe we're destined to have Christmases in July!

It has been a unusual year as wel as an unusually busy year thus the reason our BLOG is so far behind. STAY TUNED AND AS ALWAYS, WE ARE SO VERY GRATEUL FOR YOU AND YOUR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT!

New Video...

2009-03-09T16:12:00.004-04:00

I learned how to use my movie editor and clipped this movie together. It goes with the last blog...

The Fields are Ripe, Harvest Time is HERE!

2009-02-28T21:35:00.017-04:00

The last 3 weeks have been really amazing. Karina spent her last week here, just about non-stop every day with Dominican friends. I was busy doing estimating work in the daytime, but we spent time every night with Dominicans. Following having 4 visitors from the neighborhood at church with us, we set up a Bible Study for Monday night, Feb. 16 @ Juan Luis and Juana's house. More people showed up than we expected. We took turns reading, mostly passages from John about the character and purpose of Jesus. It went REALLY well. Karina had to leave the next day, but I continued to visit and talk each day with the family from Calle Cuatra. (4th St.) I ate rice, beans and chicken about every day at one house or another. The family is pictured below from the 1st Bible Study. It included 2 brothers, a sister, a mother, both of the brothers' spouses, a niece and a nephew. This pictures shows part of the group...

I continued to meet daily, eating in one home or another, beans, rice and chicken! They knew Karina was gone and so they adopted and fed me! Our conversation often covered topics from the Bible. We also just had great fellowship. Our Monday night Bible study continued the next week, covering more questions that they had, and spending again, most of our time in the Book of John. Then we read through several passages in Acts, including the story in Acts 16 about Paul and Silas in jail in Philippi. The two brothers, Juan Luis and Victor (the guys that have been working in our yard), Juan Luis' spouse Juana and their sister Leonis all wanted to be baptized. We made plans for the next evening, after work, for us to all go to the river. Dave, our neighbor has been reaching out to the brothers since fall of 2007. We spent time with them last year as well, but it really has been God working in their lives over the last few weeks that moved them to this decision. Here we are on the river bank, reading from Romans 6, discussing what we're about to do...

Once in the water, the guys were baptized. Victor is with me, Juan Luis with Dave. "Yo te bautizo en el nombre del Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espirtu Santo, para perdón tus pecados y para recibir el Espiritu Santo."

Then the ladies stepped in.

I baptized Leonis... &

Dave baptized Juana.

This journey had taken these sisters in law and made them sisters in Christ. They were SOOOOOO happy! So were Dave and I!! (I forgot to mention the angels rejoicing as well.)

Then only God could have predicted this. A nearby youth came up and asked us if he could be baptized as well!! The youth minister met with him for awhile, then after more discussion with Dave and I, all in Spanish of course, Dave and I baptized him together.

With God, all things are possible. To top it off, he works 5 days a week, less than a block from the youth minister! They exchanged numbers and he's becoming part of the youth group! Here's the "visible" happy group! (Couldn't get a picture with the angels.)

That day didn't end there. Just as in Acts 16, we ate together, then took in a boxing match. (well the eating together happened in Acts) Here the Dominican lands a good left on the Cuban boxer.

Well, that was last week, this week was more food and fellowship. I had rice and chicken, or rice and rooster every day. Since they fight roosters down here, I joked that we were eating the "gallo perdido", the rooster that lost! Earlier today, I helped out at Juan Luis and Juana's house. They had some sand delivered and used some left over cement from work at my house, to pave the floor in their house. I encouraged Juan Luis to put an address out front so the sand would be delivered...

He's training a plant to provide him some shade. We didn't read about the worm in Job. I don't want him to worry about his plant.

Here's the street view this morning...

It didn't take long to attract spectators...

Inside, Juan Luis, or Topo as they call him, is working to level out the dirt, but also to dig a ditch at the top side there. That's the neighbor's block house, so because the roof doesn't meet and it rains inside, he planned for a trough for water to run out.

Here's the back yard...

Mother and daughter in law were enjoying watching the work.

Victor did the smoothing while Topo did all the mixing.

Juana was coming out of the bathroom after inspecting one of the new lights I mounted. Before today, they only had one bulb on a cord and moved it from one room to another, stretching the cord to the ONE outlet in the house. I installed a triple switch and now they have a bathroom, dining room and kitchen/bedroom light. (the plan is to move the kitchen to a front room later, but for now it's in the bedroom.) Topo and Juana have been together 14 years. Topo is 30 now.

There's more I could write. There's no end to the good that God is doing down here. Lives are changing. Stay tuned for more...

En Cristo,

Ken

Food, Fun and Fellowship with Outreach

2009-02-08T14:04:00.018-04:00

We want to share the fun time last night enjoyed by the jovenes (youth group). We partner with Isaias, the youth minister here, and enjoyed hosting a spaghetti dinner and domino night in the dorm. We were planning to have it outside of our house but have really experienced tropical rains this past week...more about that in next paragraph. So we had it in the dorm and actually, as God would know best, it was much better that way, easier to cook for 50, more room and light and the thing that was best is that all the folks in the neighborhood (and especially all the bored kids hanging out on the corner) could hear all the laughing and fun they were having! Ken spoke for a few minutes between eating and playing about how the first shall be last and last shall be first using the passage in Mark 9:33-35. Just as the disciples argued about who was the best, these kids argue in the street about who plays the best ball, dominoes, etc. In the spirit of the verse, Ken awarded the WORST 2 scores the first pick of prizes. Only half the kids there were Christians, these others were kids from the hood", who normally hang out on the street corners, watching whatever is happening. Ken and I had suggested a BUNKO version of dominoes which switched up the players after every game. It was definately a hit and everyone loved it! The food prep starts. Biggest wooden spoon I've ever seen! The serving line AFTER the rush. No time for pictures DURING the rush! Gathered up for information about Valentine's Day activity and then Ken did the Devo... Ken directed the table setup and began the games... Table number one, actually it's the table that Ken and I got the first week we were here back in December of 2007... At 11:00 pm they were still hanging around. Most walk home, so staying late wasn't really an issue. Some had already left.

It has rained everyday for a week. We had blue sky 8 days ago, but haven't seen the sun since. As the Bible says, it rains on the "just and the unjust." However, it is tougher on the poor when it rains than the rich because most of their houses leak and many of them have dirt floors, therefore, when it rains, they have mud floors and then have to wait for them to dry out. The only pieces of furniture many of them have are plastic chairs and tables. Of course their beds get wet and mildew when it rains. We are seeing more and more how we as Americans are blessed way more than we can even begin to realize. Even in our dry house here, all of our clothes feel damp until we get a sunshiny day. (We would post a picture, but just imagine gray with rain.) Another encouraging thing...the men here have been having a men's class on Authentic Manhood once a week. Last week there were 35. It's a class on DVD that's been dubbed into Spanish. http://www.mensfraternity.com/ Here's a shot from last week's class. Ken is running the computer and projector, surprise, surprise! In our last POST, the couple we were having dinner with and his brother have been coming and are really wanting to improve their lives and their marriages. That's really what it's all about, helping the nationals improve the quality of physical living which opens doors to improving areas in their spiritual walk. Both of these guys have worked in our yard last year and this year but this year we have really seen them blossom. It's a fine line to keep our Dominican relationships as friends versus employees and whether they are genuine or just wanting money, but it has been very rewarding to watch these men gain trust in us, to hear about their childhood and what has made them who they are today (could be a whole post within itself) and to start asking questions. Ken is studying with both of them. Isaias got them Bibles. Of course, it is all in Spanish, so Ken is soliciting help at times to make sure they are understanding each other. Reading the passages together is helping with the communication. Bendigos/Blessings, Karina UPDATE from earlier in January........ (we didn't talk about this in previous post, so Ken is posting it here.) Posting from KEN: Earlier this year, we hosted Caleb Norkus for a Soccer Camp in a Haitian Community here in Santiago. Dozens of kids came out and worked out with the Carolina RailHawk professional. Helping with the clinic were Casto Fernandez, himself a former college soccer player and two of his daughters, Danielle and Alexis. Alexis played soccer for years and Danielle served as a translator. On day two of the camp, shoes were distributed, many of which came from Caleb’s CASL team members. What excitement to receive soccer cleats in a country dominated by baseball. Here's a link to the article that ran in the News and Observer along with a picture I took: http://www.newsobserver.com/print/sunday/other/story/1372007.html Caleb gives testimoney about his journey back to God. Head drills... Here’s a video of their trip which sums it up better than I could with words… http://vimeo.com/2794306 About 2 weeks later, Lifepointe’s Donnie Williams and his daughter, Molly, came down on an exploratory trip. They went to feeding centers, church sites as well as touring the dorms available to prospective teams. The feeding center is next to the old building with the kitchen. Plates are passed through the window. Casto is helping... The Dominican children in the Hoya del Bartola (the HOLE) love to be held. Eight years ago when GO started working there, they ran when they saw "white people". What a difference eight years a feeding center and hundreds of Gringos coming to build a feeding center/church building has made in the lives of these people. Donnie couldn't resist giving this little boy a ride on his shoulders.

As you can see the kids just come up to see the Americans. They aren't asking for money, or things, only attention.

Karen is introducing the children to the new "gringos".

Casto was remembering his Cuban roots when he saw this pig. Well, I don't know what he was thinking, except that he did ask before he got close, "Is it safe?"

This is a view of the HOLE from the top. It is a garbage dump. It used to be official, now folks from nearby just bring trucks of trash to throw over the edge.

The initial sight of the garbage, just causes you to stop and stare.

More later.... Stay tuned.

In Him,

Ken

New Experiences...

2009-02-03T10:30:00.019-04:00

First, we did get to watch the Super Bowl as a group of gringos down here. We hosted the game due to cable trouble at the neighbors. They brought the TV over and we used the other neighbor's cable connection!

But that wasn't a new experience...post from Karen next:

WOW, tonight certainly was a new experience!!! Juan Louis is a neighbor, who does work around our house and garden, like cleaning, raking, watering, cement and brick work, tree removal, banana cutting....(I could go on and on.) . The picture below shows us at the plastic dinner table, covered with a linen table cloth (actually I think it was a sheet). With the help of his brother Victor, the three of them build the house in a day and a half about a year ago. It is only scrap wood and scrap metal, probably mostly gotten from other people's trash. The wall behind the table is the NEIGHBOR'S exterior wall. It is just part of Juan and Juana's house now. The roof doesn't go all the way to the neighbor's wall, so the dirt floor gets muddy every time it rains. They borrowed a hot plate to cook for us, rice, potato salad (Dominican style, they always put carrots in their potato salad and is very good) and chicken. It was GREAT! We provided the strawberry soda, a favorite locally and with Ken. They don't have a refrigerator, so they took leftovers to Juan Louis' mother's house to save until the next day. They were so hospitable and I wish they were smiling in the picture because they are such happy folks but the guy who took the picture (just walked in off the street to say hi) had never used a camera before and it took about five minutes just to show him how to look through the lens and push the button to take it.

After dinner, we settled in for 2 hours of Dominican Dominoes. We brought our table and dominoes over for the game. Notice that the official table has built-in cup holders! Nice!

We will have fond memories of this night forever. I took this picture and wish it showed more of the house...it really puts in perspective the luxuries we take for granted. "Everything else is worthless compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting all as garbage so that I may have Christ and become one with him." (Phil 3:8-9) Juana was so proud of her kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. She gave me a tour. The kitchen for now is in the bedroom, but they hope one day to build one in the corner of the dining area. She had her purses and shoes hanging on nails above the bed. I asked where is her mirror to put on her makeup and she took me to the bathroom and had one little mirror about 8x10 above the sink and then grabbed another one that was stuck in a crack in the wall so she could look at the back of her head and get this...it was a rear view mirror off of a car and the medal that attaches it to the car was the handle...worked great! The word gerry-rigging has taken on a whole new meaning living here. The Dominicans are quite clever and can make things work out of almost anything. (They do take what is counted as garbage and re-use it!)

Juan Louis and Juana have been visiting church and after finding out this past weekend that they don't have a Bible, we're putting it on our to-do list for this week. He has been attending a class along his brother Victor on authentic manhood. Ken is taking it with them along with quite a few Domincans.

Dios te bendiga/God bless you,

Karina

From Ken:

I took a trip down to Batey Pino and Batey Cuchilla on Ground Hog Day. (I saw my shadow, so I guess it's 6 more weeks of 80 degree weather.) I went with some guys to look at the purchase of some land for a church building in two locations. We also toured the dorm and church in the area already built by G.O. in Batey Nueve. The dry, dusty, arid, desert island like conditions were a stark contrast to just 2 hours north in our home in Santiago. We've had rain 4-5 times a week, in the south, there were cactus bushes everywhere and a completely different feel.

Below is the current construction site in Batey Nueve, a model for the other 2 sites we looked at. The first floor serves as a feeding center and church building. As the church outgrows the bottom floor, a second floor will be added for church services, while children will be downstairs for their classes during service. A commercial kitchen with refrigeration will be installed upon completion.

Here is the site at Batey Pino (pine). There currently is no church there. Driving through the area, we saw a witch doctor's house, clearly marked with carvings, symbols, etc. It reminded me of writings in the O.T. of the prophets. This is the current building at Batey Cuchilla. It is wood construction with concrete covering the walls. The new building will be BLOCK and Concrete. It is beside the old church as the other picture shows. The old building will stay up until the new building is complete.

I'll post more updates as I get them, including other photos from the Batey trip!

In Him,

Ken

Settling in, in Hoya del Caimito

2009-01-13T16:52:00.010-04:00

We're 11 days into our mission trip in 2009 and are settled back in our old pad. We signed the lease today and paid the phone bill, so it's official. The transition has been much easier this time. Our old house was furnished and waiting for us. (the neighbors had balloons on the front door) We have an additional set of bunk beds in our master bedroom, which we've not yet rearranged, but our air mattress on the floor still provides a good night's sleep. (The street noise and cats howling in heat at night have awakened us several times, but not TOO often.) Our plants are thriving out front. We had a security door installed just before we went home in April. It's a nice addition now. We have a screen in it, so we leave the white door open most of the time. We miss our church family and family group at home, but we went to 5 different churches here in 8 days, plus extra activities, so we're meeting new folks and renewing relationships with folks we met over the last 2 years. We're looking forward to finding our place here. Beginning in February, there are teams here for about 8 straight weeks, so we're preparing for the storm of activity. Speaking of storms, we've had some really hard thunderstorms at night. I hear it's cold back up in the "Old North State". It's a benefit of being on a tropical island. We had to describe to some locals how cold it was back home. They asked if there were heaters in the house! We explained about fire places (which is an alternate cooking method here we've seen and smelled) and about central heating. I'm not sure they grasped it. Here, the houses have neither heating or air conditioning. Seems odd to say, but not odd living here. It seems natural. Power bills are MUCH lower! We hope to have weekly updates once the teams start to come regularly. Thanks for reading! Sincerely, Jorge y Karina

A Quiet, Merry, Cary Christmas

2008-12-25T13:27:00.014-04:00

Last Christmas was spent with friends in the Dominican Republic. Luke and Melinda joined us on the 26th. This year, Melinda is staying in Europe, where she's been spending her Junior year at the univeristy in Montpellier, France. http://melindakays.blogspot.com So that she wouldn't be spending Christmas without family, Andrew and Luke left on the evening of the 23rd on the non-stop to London, then landed in Geneva on Christmas eve. They took a ski shuttle from the airport to Chamonix, France to stay at a youth hostel with Melinda. Their plans include a trip to Venice, Florence and they'll bring in the new year in Rome with fireworks. Luke is on Christmas break from UNCC and Andrew's company closed for 2 weeks for cost cutting reasons. God worked everything out for them to be there!

The married boys are with in-laws this Christmas, so we just spent a quiet night watching "Christmas from Saddleback with Rick Warren" on FNC last night. There were no toys to assemble, no boxes to bring in from the neighbors, and no one but us to put the luminaries out on the street. IT WAS AWESOME! The married kids will be joining us in Charlotte to be with the Miller family on Saturday. Later, the 8 of us, (married kids and their wives) will be going to the beach to bring in the New Year! It's not Rome, but Atlantic Beach is a close second.

Andrew arrives back from Italy Jan. 2nd. Nathan and Angela leave later that day from RDU as well. Luke returns Jan. 12 to start back at UNCC, only this semester, he'll be attending ROTC classes as a newly sworn in member of the North Carolina National Guard.

We're counting down the days until we leave for the Dominican Republic on January 2nd. We'll be with a Soccer Mission group from Cary, including Caleb Norkus, one of the Railhawk professional players. We've known Caleb since he was a baby. We attended church with his whole family 30 years ago. We'll be working with the Haitian Soccer teams sponsored by churches in Santiago, DR.

We promise to put small updates in more frequently this year, including a narrative of our entire 2007. If you have trouble sleeping, then after we get that posted up, you can save it for bedtime reading. It'll be like a family slide show, or home movies, only worse!

Much love from Karina y Jorge!

So much to say...

2008-03-09T00:30:00.009-04:00

So much has happened these last couple of weeks, it's hard to put it into a blog. First some GREAT news from the home front... A new location of LifePointe Church was launched 2 weeks ago in Wake Forest, NC and 595 were in attendance!!! People are seeking, whether in the US or down here. Pray for the work in Wake Forest. God is changing lives.

We had a tremendous group from Hanover College down, doing construction and medical missions. Karen and I both worked with the Medical team, translating and encouraging. I'm including some pictures from the medical clinic. We saw lots of folks with sinus infections, scabes, fungal infections and parasites. The clinic was conducted in what's referred to as "the Hole" (see previous posts for more information)

We're without teams this week, but 2 arrive in a couple of days. We'll be really busy then. In between teams we are spending time with the locals, both from church on from the "hood". Karen and I have been in several Dominican homes in the last few days.
Keep us in your prayers!
K&K

17 Baptisms in One Day!

2008-02-26T22:40:00.003-04:00

We’re two months into our four month mission trip in Santiago. Sunday the 17th was the highlight that prompted this update. We are working with and supporting an inner city mission that reaches out to alcohol and drug addicts. After the last couple of months of studies, a site was arranged for those ready for baptism. The church meets in an office building without a baptistery. The site at which we arrived today seemed not to be a normal community pool, and with good reason. It was a confiscated estate of an imprisoned drug lord! How fitting, that 14 men, formerly addicted to drugs, came to Christ in the pool of perhaps one of those that profited through supplying them the drugs! A 3 person team from Kentucky was on hand for the event, after spending a week of training the local preachers in how to reach out to those with addictions. This “Celebrate Recovery” program has reached many across the US and is now reaching those in the Dominican Republic. “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Mark 2:17 There were also 3 other baptisms today at our neighborhood church building, counting one of the members of a 35 person mission team from Louisville. This second team also included the Louisville head football coach and NFL Quarterback Chris Redmond. Never have we witnessed so many coming to Christ in the same day! Please pray for workers. The fields are ripe!

This week we both are working with a Medical Team from Hanover College in Indiana. We'll be working in Hoya Bartola, otherwise known as "the Hole", providing a clinic with free treatment for the residents. Our job will be translation and assisting the students and doctors. We expect to see a lot of fungus problems, sores and scabs, rashes, infections, etc. It's a former trash dump with "squatters" originally taking refuge there, now with 600 families. There are only open sewers and a river runs through it, sometimes flooding and backing up the sewage in the homes. The Church began about 6 years ago, the only church there, with just the preacher and his wife with a visitor or two, a couple of missionaries and a dog. (See earlier post.) Now there are about 60 there on Sunday services. The community is run by a Drug Lord, who called the preacher into his "office" for a meeting about four years ago. Felix explained he wasn't there to turn anyone in to the police, but to minister to the kids. The Drug Lord saw the good he was doing and agreed to "protect" him. Now about 80-100 kids are fed there every day. It's the only meal most of them get each day. The plates are color coded to give the right amount of food. Newcomers don't get much because they've been used to so little, their stomachs can't handle it.

We've been to "the Hole" many times, with all of our kids in 2006 and many times since arriving last December, but never for a medical clinic. Be praying for our work there.

We are praying for direction, both for us and our brothers and sisters back home. Please continue to do the same!

In Him,

Karina & Jorge

Visited Christopher Columbus's House

2008-02-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

Karina & Jorge decided to take a little excursion and see the beach. Brian and Jen, two of the other American Missionaries took off with us for the north shore and a town called Luperón. It is 90km from our home in Santiago. We stayed at a resort on the ocean. We relaxed, ate international food, and met quite a few Canadians and Brits. Ken did a SCUBA dive through the on premises SCUBA shop and school. Karina soaked up the rays and relaxed on the beach. We sat at night and talked, played crazy eights and relaxed some more. It was so quiet, much different than our city home.

The highlight was probably visiting Christopher Columbus's first house in the New World. We got a guided tour of the town of Isabela, founded in 1494, on Columbus's second voyage to our hemisphere. (Cost 100 Pesos for the 4 of us, about $3.)The site is absolutely stunningly beautiful! It's near the mouth of a river on the north shore, between Luperón and Monte Cristi. (Monte Cristi is the birthplace of Tony Peña.)

Pretty neat to step into the house that Christopher Columbus lived in over 500 years ago. We had visited many times the Lost Colony in North Carolina, settled 90 years later. In addition to the house, there was a church and graveyard. Unearthed is the grave of a Spaniard who died over 500 years ago. Hurricane Noel downed quite a few trees on the property, but it was in remarkably good shape, considering.

Now, we're back in Santiago, looking forward to a new week preparing for another mission team. Karina's mom and aunt are on a cruise this week, but will be flying down to visit us for a week, beginning next Sunday. We had a nice visit from Nancy Winfrey and hope that the work in Guatemala will grow and thrive.

Vaminos Dominoes!

2008-01-17T23:49:00.000-04:00

We're getting settled and familiar with our surroundings. Alan, our good buddy, is painting some of the house for us. This is "Azul Turqueza" going in the main living area.

We thought we had a line on a true Mexican Restaurant, but when we arrived to the location, there was a new high rise going up! One of the guys sitting on the street told us that was where it USED to be. We settled for a little bar and grill. John and Brian took our doggie boxes with them and fed some folks on their street when they got home that night. They reported that the food was much appreciated. We're still looking for REAL Mexican Cuisine!

We've started a Dominican Domino Ministry. We found out that most of the American teams that come down here, return, never learning how to play Dominican Dominoes. We've hosted quite a few games with the locals, so now we're getting ready for the next team. (See picture of our in-house tourney.) Check out more information on Dominican Dominoes @ http://www.colonialzone-dr.com/pastimes-dominoes.html.

We worked with a team from Valencia, California last week. (The suitcase nuke that went off during season 6 of 24 hasn't caused any more problems.) Real Life Church brought a group of 10 down. We went and worshiped with them Sunday Night in "The Hole", where they had been doing construction all week long. We walked down a narrow sidewalk, stepping over open sewers to arrive at a bare wall concrete church building, with 4 light bulbs running off of a generator. We were greeted with hugs and open arms. We took with us leftover food from the kitchen to help feed those in the neighborhood. Six years ago it was just the preacher, a couple of missionaries, a dog and maybe one or two folks. Last Sunday night there was a lively worship service with about 60 in attendance. The church has a feeding program and provides meals for children in the neighborhood, probably the only good meal they get each day. The sermon, in Spanish, was on the parable of the banquet. It was really neat to hear the story of the banquet while sitting in a church in a garbage dump. (Quite a few houses were washed away by Hurricane Olga, but thankfully no lives were lost there.) Hearing about the excuses people had for not attending the banquet, (the Spanish word sounds the same) seemed even more silly, sitting with people who would jump at the chance to attend such a banquet. In America, more things pull us away from attending the banquet. We are busy with work, studies, yard-work, vacations, etc., all of which can keep us from being at the "great banquet." But excuses know no international borders. Dominicans have to make the same decision: Give up this life, for everlasting life, or Go after everything you want in this life, and forfeit your soul.

After having been really sick with a bacterial intestinal illness, I'm even more appreciative of clean water and food in the US. It's easy to see how folks die from dehydration. Had the Go Ministries Dr. not come to the house and given me an IV, getting 3 bags of fluid in me, I would have had a hard time recovering. As it was, I even needed IV Antibiotics. The Dr. taught me how to give myself and IV and I gave myself the last three. You never know when this training may come in handy!) It's great to be vertical again, however the horizontal time was well spent. Fleeting thoughts of dying in the mission field, followed by fervent prayer... It was a great experience!

Karen has picked up some "tropical" plants. With our good neighbor Dave's help, they have planted them out front. We'll get a picture posted up when it's complete. It's neat to buy tropical plants and know that you can leave them outside "for the winter". (BTW, it gets up to the mid 80's in the day, and down to the upper 60's at night...sorry y'all but can't say that we miss the gray skies and cold...guess it's a trade off for good water and water pressure.)

Spanish class is going well for each of us. We're doing private lessons with separate teachers, an hour a day, with lots of homework. Communicating at the local Colmado is getting easier as each week passes.

We're following the local baseball team for the Dominican Winter League, Las Aguilas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81guilas_Cibae%C3%B1as) MLB has a site devoted to the Caribbean Winter league: http://www.mlb.com/mlb/events/winterleagues/?league=car.

Luke and Melinda are pictured here outside of Tony Pena's house. Tony Jr. is currently a Kansas City Royal SS. There's an infield with backstop installed at the residence, which helped prepare Tony for the Majors.

Taxi rides are lots of fun. Two passengers in the front and 4-5 in the back of usually a Toyota Corolla. Here we are after visiting the monument downtown in Santiago.

We're looking forward to hosting Bill and Nancy Winfrey next week! They're coming down to spend a few days with us and see how G.O. Ministries is organized and how they host teams. Bill will be looking at the sports camp opportunity. It is used as a major outreach to teens here.

For now, from down here,

Ken (for Karina & Jorge)

(Photo taken during our Language School in October, on a weekend excursion to Morocco. That's the Rock of Gibraltar in the background. We'll post some photos and comments about that trip to Europe, that helped to prepare us to speak Spanish, in a later posting.)

Hijos llegaron

2007-12-29T13:16:00.001-04:00

Luke and Melinda arrived about the 27th, after over-nighting in the airport in San Juan. Luke left that afternoon with several from the church here to deliver food to folks in the mountains, hard hit by Hurrican Olga. Since then, we've been shopping together, hanging out with some of the locals and trying out Domincan street cuisine. Melinda went to Spanish class with us. I think the accent is a bit different from her last several professors, especially the one she had from Spain! The kids are heading to the mountains for a youth camping trip. There'll be about 25 all together. They are going to need blankets. We've only been sleeping under a sheet, or uncovered. Over night lows have been in the low to mid 70's. They are planning a secret Santa gift exchange while there, and after describing the game "chubby bunny" game to the youth leader, he bought lots of marshmallows for the evening. Karen and I have a secret Santa exchange here at church. We bought our gifts at La Sirena last night. The church here meets on Sunday night on the first and last Sundays of the month. They'll be back by then. Our address, listed in the bottom post is: Ken & Karen George Calle Primera, No. 61-B Hoya del Caimito Santiago, Dominican Republic Until next time...

Our New Home

2007-12-29T13:16:00.000-04:00

We've had a warm welcome, both from the weather and the people here. We overlapped for 2 days with an American family that helped us get settled. (See http://daveschwulstfamily.blogspot.com/) Everyone on our street has been friendly. We are on "1st St." in our little community of Hoya del Caimito, Santiago. There are shops every 50 yards to buy bottled water, bananas, bread, milk, etc. Imagine an 8x10 room with floor to ceiling cans, bags, bottles, etc. That's the size of most stores on the street. We are also walking distance from several small hardware stores. (ferreterias, no, not where ferrets eat.)

We are continuing our Spanish classes for 2 hours a day. It's about a 25 minute walk to class. (It's not uphill and there is NO snow.) Being in the mid-80s, it can get a little warm. Victoria is a great "profesora de espanol". We pass a ball field and Tony Pena's house everyday. Ball players are working out at both places. It's a league with teams at the field. They look to be about American Legion ages. They take baseball seriously around here!

Karen has already gone to a ladies' Bible study and has connected with several of the ladies other times.

Before doing furniture shopping we decided it was more important to have "Aris" the electrician install a power inverter. Electricity is on about 23 hours a day. The longest outage in our neighborhood since August is 5 hours, but we've only seen about a 1.5 hour outage. There is only one water line, cool water, so we added an electric shower head. (nick-named "widow-maker") They were going to ground it to the PVC pipe, so I had them run a real ground to the outside with a 6 ft. copper rod in the ground. (There were no grounds in any of the outlets. I had them ground the ones that will have the appliances.) We then installed a 10 cubic ft. fridge, just enough for newlyweds! I brought screen with me from Cary and installed it on one of our bedroom windows. (The other one remains closed.) As bad as mosquitos are down here, hardly anyone has screens!

We've also gotten a water cooler for those 5 gallon jugs. We put it in the foyer and are planning to have Matt. 10:42 painted on the wall above the cooler, in Spanish of course: "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

We've ordered a land line and DSL. They promised an installation of 1 - 10 days. (They asked in the application, "What color is the house?" Addresses seem to be optional down here.) I guess having Time-Warner give a 4 hour window of installation seems pretty good to me now.

Our address here:

Ken & Karen George

Calle Primera No. 61-B

Hoya del Caimito

Santiago, Domincan Republic

(We're told mail service is not reliable, so if you'd like to send us something, there is a Mail Drop in Miami for the ministry. It is then flown in weekly and delivered to us through the G.O. Ministries Headquarters, two blocks from our house. Let us know via email and we'll get instructions to you.)