Practicing pure and faultless religion in Jaibon, Dominican Republic

Well, I sit here writing to you for the last time from the Dominican Republic, my next update will be from Oregon! I cannot believe that the time here is coming to a close. I have had good times and bad times, but God has been there using me and teaching me through it all. As I sit here, the thunder is booming and the raining is pittering on the tin roof top. I'm hoping the rain stays and cools it off for the evening. The time here is starting to wind down as the boys start school on Tuesday and people are dwindling away. However, there is still time to love on the people here, so here's to the last week! This last week has been full of many adventures. Here's what went down:


*We had a church group here from Los Angeles and a family group from Pennsylvania. Both were awesome and all three teams (those two plus the interns) worked together well and became family quickly. There was a total of about 40 here this week.

*We had several groups this week and traded off what we did. More about that later. All the groups did a camp in Esperanza in the afternoon. We did one there my first week here, and we had over 300 kids. This time around, we ended with only about 150(which is still a lot). The camp went well, but the last day ended abruptly because a fight broke out on the street between some teen girls and guys. Some of the older boys at the camp were being rude and sexual towards some of our volunteers, so the men kicked them out. We think they might have been angry about that anyways, and the fight was the last straw. We skipped the closing and all left to the bus together. The kids grabbed on to the back of the bus and wouldn't let go. Thank God for safety!

*In the morning, two of the days we went back to La Caya to do a camp again. The little boys were crazy, the older boys would not participate, but other than that the camp went well. One of the girls (Jasmin) that was there before recognized me and we talked for awhile. It was awesome.

*The other days we stayed here to do work projects and activities with the boys in the morning. The boys are getting crazier and grumpier because it is the end of the summer (among other things, I'm sure). None of the games worked out. Remy spilled bubbles on my shoes and I went barefoot for awhile (ouch), about 5 of the boys got mad at me because I wouldn't give them marbles. But through it all, we had a great time just hanging out and being together. I still love them.

*Monday afternoon we went back to the Batey. I loved it, again. As soon as I got there a little boy grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go. Little boys and girls longed to be held by me and dragged me all around to color, or just be together. It is one of my favorite things to do here.

*Another new boy came in this week. His name is Martin. He is a little crazy, but has already acclimated to being here.



You know you are in the DR if...
swimming, jet skiing and/or jumping into the local canal is a day;s worth of entertainment.

chickens and roosters (with occasional goats, horses and cows) roam around freely.

you see a 15 yr old driving a big suburban, even though the legal age is 18 and he doesn't have a license...

(for those that know Spanish)...pescado and pecado are the same thing because the s gets dropped...



Well, that's it for now! Please pray for me during my last week. Thinking about leaving is hard for more than one reason. One, having to leave this country and my brothers behind, and also being afraid of the reverse culture shock and reacclimation to life at home. I want this week to be rich with blessings for me and for the boys.

Signing off for the last time from Jaibon,

See you soon and thanks for everything!!