It’s hard to believe that it is already January 19^th! The time just keeps on flying by. It has been a busy start to the New Year for us, but we wanted to share with you our plans for this next year and take a look back at 2010.

As you can image the earthquake that struck Haiti in January of last year had a profound impact on our lives and ministry. We have spent the last two years splitting our time between working in the home office and the Dominican Republic. When the earthquake struck we were here in Louisville working on various projects for the ministry. That all quickly changed. Eric took over the lead role in shipping and receiving relief aid at a warehouse here in Louisville. Within three days of the earthquake he was already set up and sorting through the supplies that were coming in and prioritizing them for the urgent needs in Haiti. The first supplies from the warehouse in Louisville reached Haiti within one week and from there over 450,000lbs of aid sent from Kentucky to Haiti. Sunshine put her medical background to work in calling doctors, hospitals and medical groups seeking specific aid necessary for immediately to help those hurt in the quake. Thousands of medicines, casting supplies, rods for bone stabilizations were of such urgent need and in short supply. Sunshine also assisted in helping coordinate our office during this overwhelming time. All told, we were able to get 1.2 million pounds of relief aid into the hands of pastors and leaders all over Haiti. They in turn got the supplies out to their community all the while being an example of Christ!

Eric also coordinated this year’s annual Kentucky Derby Fundraiser for G.O. He also helped with both golf outings and between the three events they raised nearly $100,000 for G.O. Ministries. The funds raised go to help the overall ministry budget and fill in some of the gaps or allow us to start new churches and feeding centers.

After the Kentucky Derby we returned to the Dominican in preparation of our busy summer schedule. Sunshine continued to be the team and staff nurse, which can be a 24 hour a day job. Often times she is up in the wee hours of the morning helping out someone who ate or drank something they shouldn’t have. She also continued to work with Dr. Vlady and his medical clinic, but mostly she helped set up and coordinate the short term trip medical weeks. This last year we were able to facilitate seven medical and dental clinics all over the island. Eric resumed his role in helping to facilitate the short term team trips. He really enjoys the constant pace and getting to meet new people every week. He also assumed a new role in heading up G.O. Ministries internship program last year. We had eleven interns come down for as little as one month up to three months. It is great to have help over the summer, but to also invest in young people’s lives and see them change and grow.

We had several medical trips, one planned and one not, this summer. In June, Eric ended up in the Dominican ER with gall stones. After some prayer and guidance we returned home as he needed to have emergency surgery to have his gallbladder removed. We were back in Louisville for two weeks and fortunately everything went smooth and we were able to return quickly. The hardest part was Eric wasn’t supposed to do manual labor for a month and he was ready to get back helping teams with construction projects. In late July Sunshine returned to Louisville to prepare for the birth of our son. Eric returned in mid-August and then on September 9^th Colton Blaze Leach was welcomed into the world. We have enjoyed stepping into the world of parenthood and pray that we raise him in the ways of the Lord.

2011

To start the year we are continuing to work in the home office. Sunshine of course is preparing for all the medical trips for the upcoming year. She spends a great deal of time helping teams to make sure all the proper medicines are ordered, in preparing them in what to expect and setting things up on our end in the Dominican. Of course, she is also making a wonderful transition into motherhood and like most mom’s she is juggling duties. Eric is currently recruiting and interviewing interns, starting the work on this year’s Kentucky Derby and golf tournaments, and working on the construction/partnership financial reports.

In May we will be returning to the Dominican Republic and after much thought and prayers we have decided to return there year round. We feel like that is what God’s plan for us and we are excited about what lies ahead. We will continue to do what we have done before while down there, but in addition Eric will be working more with the construction projects. He will be putting together cost analysis and projects as well as tracking current expenditures and time tables. Currently G.O. Ministries has nine different construction projects going on and many more waiting to get started.

We are so appreciative of all of your love and prayers and can’t wait to share with you what God will do this year in the Dominican Republic and Haiti!

Well our summer rush of teams of has just about come to an end! Since our last update, we have hosted 29 teams! These teams were a combination of medical, dental, sports and construction. It was an awesome summer of ministry.

My first medical team of the summer was with Windsor Rd. Christian church from Champaign, IL. We visited an area in the mountains that I had not been to in some time. A town called Guayavillo. The mountains in the Dominican Republic are just gorgeous! The temperatures are always so much cooler than down in the city and it is so wild looking! Love it! It has probably been about 3 years since I had participated with a medical clinic there. We hosted the clinic in Pastor Fabio and Antionia's little church that sits on the side of the mountain. We had two doctors on this team, a few nurses, and three EMT's that came to serve. It was a great time together and we always learn so much about each other and the people who live in the community. They are all so sweet! Because I was pregnant, I received a lot of extra attention! They always made sure that I was sitting down, didn't bend over, and had plenty of water...and fresh fruit to eat. The people that we were able to serve in Guayavillo had your typical illnesses that you would see in the States with the exception of parasites!

The incident that I remember the most from that clinic was one day there was a Haitian woman who showed up for clinic. It's always hard to guess how old they are because life it so tough for them, and to me they always appear much older than they really are. She looked really ill, blood pressure was high, couldn't hardly walk by herself. She came alone we thought at first and she didn't speak any Spanish. This can be really difficult for the doctors to communicate with her and form a plan of treatment when you can't even communicate? After some asking around, we found out that her husband had come with her and he was waiting outside. Not only was he there but he could speak some Spanish. We brought him back and found out that she was pregnant (about 3 or 4 months) and that she thought she was going to lose her baby. On top of all the other medical issues we had also found out that she had drunk some liquid poison to abort the baby. It was difficult to find out exactly why she did this, but the reality is that often times it is because they can’t afford to raise the child. The doctors and I talked with her and formed a plan of treatment and provided her with some medicine for her blood pressure. We urged her to go to the hospital for additional treatment, but she didn't want to go. The group of us prayed with her and for her child. We also made arrangements for her to see us again so we could further evaluate her the next day, but she never showed up. We were able to get a report from Pastor Fabio and did hear that she was better...as for whether she was still pregnant, nobody seemed to know. In two days of clinic, the team was able to give treatment to about 750 people.

This year we had 7 medical/dental clinics. We were able to hold the clinic in several churches in the Santiago area, in the mountains and also had a couple of clinics down in the batey's. When I wasn't working in a medical clinic, I was helping future medical/dental teams prepare for their trips this fall and next spring. I answer their specific questions about how the medical/dental teams operate, how to collect their medicines and what's the area like that they will be going to and how to prepare spiritually/emotionally for what they are going to experience. I love answering their questions, especially when it's a new team. I love to hear their excitement and hearing how their trip impacted them personally as they return to the States!

I just started maternity leave this week. We have the nursery all set, we just need a baby! My official due date is September 11th, although my doctor’s have been telling me the past 2 weeks any time now. Every morning when I go for a walk, I tell God…”OK…today is a good day!”. We will see what happens, but for sure if Colton doesn’t come by September 9^th they will induce me. My family is convinced that the baby will come on the most important day in September…which would be the fourth….. The big Kentucky vs. Louisville football game day!

Eric has been really busy as well. Over the summer he has worked with the teams daily, facilitating their experience. He has spent numerous days out in the hot sun working on constructions sites, playing football with the teams, organizing children’s ministry, and helping to supervise service projects for our pastor’s churches and homes.

One of Eric’s highlights of the summer has been realizing that while we work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti we are also reaching the Americans. A great deal of people who come down to serve with us are in a place that they themselves are searching or crying out to God. It is awesome to see how a week of serving others breaks them down and they open up to God. The opportunity to feed hungry children, sweat in the sun building a church or just the giving of themselves in some way either restores their passion in God or we gain a brother/sister in Christ. This summer we had a team of 100 young adults that were in their 20’s come down on a trip. Towards the end of the week we had the whole team out by a river eating lunch and a couple of people got baptized. It was awesome was to see the spirit of God working right there at the river . We had 25 Americans who came forward to accept Christ and be baptized!

It is our constant prayer that while we share the gospel with the Dominican’s & Haitians that we also share with each other. This year we will have over 1,000 people come on short-term trips to the island and those are a 1,000 people that can have a major impact where they live.

Eric is busy working in the office right now. He is assisting Brook on the annual Golf scramble fundraisers in both Chicago and Louisville. He continues to work on our internship programs, partnership projects, building cost analysis and conferences.

We also wanted to let you know about an event that is taking place here in Louisville, KY on October 16th, 2010. Eric and I are hosting a "dinner & movie night" called "Impact 2010" This is not only a fundraisor for our us, but a night for us to connect with people who are not only interested in mission, and they would also love to be a part of our ministry as well. Eric and I would be happy to send you fliers to hand out. So invite your small groups and your Sunday school classes!

As always, We covet your prayers!

I had an amazing three weeks Dominican Republic...my home away from home! It was an awesome time of fellowship, spending time with my Dominican family, and facilitating an incredible week of teaching and men's ministry in Batey Nueve.

I arrived in the DR March 16th, home to humidity and to the sounds of dogs barking all night along with the roosters(I actually hard a hard time sleeping with all the quiet when I returned back to the states!) My first two weeks in the Dominican I spent checking in on the community medical clinic, visiting with my neighbors, and clearing out the family of mice that had moved into our apartment! I didn't realize mice had a fondness for Italian spices, but Eric and I left some in a bag up in the cabinet, and the little guys made quite a mess! One night I finally caught and disposed of my friend. I felt really bad about it, my niece and nephew have a pet mouse named Mr. Nibbles. (We actually had a small earthquake that same night which woke me up. My bed was shaking and in my sleep I remember thinking that the mouse had come back for revenge and was crawling up my blanket to get me!!) Next time, Eric gets to kill the mouse the subconscious remorse was not worth it!!

While I was there I also visited most of our staff and gave them all tetanus shots. With all the construction we work with, and all the not so clean places we visit, it's important that we take care of ourselves.

March 27th, First Capital Christian Church came to Batey Nueve for teaching and men's ministry. What an awesome week!! We had never taught health classes before, and we really did not know what to expect. The ladies from FCCC taught on germs, the importance of hand washing, importance of clean drinking water, parasites, importance of breastfeeding, and the prevention, symptoms and treatment of dehydration. With each lesson that was taught, they used stories and examples from the Bible. It is one thing to have medical clinics to treat people, but is is equally if not more important to educate them as well.



On Tuesday, we talked about the importance of drinking clean water. The ladies had made up three bottles of water. Each bottle contained a different ingredient. One bottle had salt water, the other sugar water and the last bottle had watered down coffee in it. The idea was to show them that although some of the bottles looked clear, there were "germs" hidden that you could not see. In the afternoon session we talked about the spreading of germs, and the importance of washing your hands several times a day(after you go to the bathroom, and before preparing meals.) The ladies proceeded how to show them how to make a "tippy tap". It's a hand washing station made from a 2 liter bottle, a piece of soap, a nylon stocking, and a coat hanger. The idea was to show the ladies the importance of keeping their water clean, and to make it easy and accessible. A lot of the families have to walk a good distance to get to a community well for their water. By hanging the "tippy tap" on a tree branch in the sun, it keeps the water clean and purified by the heat of the sun. On that first day, we had 68 women for the class!

Wednesdays we spent the morning talking about parasites, and how you become infected. This is a huge problem, and a leading cause of dehydration among infants and children. Many of the children there don't wear shoes, and as a result contract hook worms. You see children and infants without underwear and diapers, and next thing you know they have pin worms and spread them to their brothers and sisters. We also talked about the importance of covering their food to keep fly's and other egg laying insects at bay. It was amazing to see how how the ladies responded to the topics of conversations and how smart they are. This was the first time I had ever been in classes with them. They just soaked it all up! We also talked about the power of mothers in the home. That it's the mom's who have the power to improve the quality of the physical and emotional health of their children and spouses. Mother's can change the world!! It was awesome to encourage them and to help them really realize how important their role really is to their families! At the end of the session, we handed out hygiene bags to the ladies, vitamins, and parasite pills.


Wednesday afternoon, we had a special treat! We traveled to Barahona and witnessed about 20 or so youth get baptized! It was a beautiful day as we watched from the beach as Pastor William and Richard baptized them. We sang some songs and listened to their confessions of faith. We also had the privilege of witnessing on of the Americans from the visiting team be baptized as well! SO exciting!!!

Thursday was another full day. We spent the day talking about diarrhea, dehydration, how to make Oral Re hydration Solution drinks, how to take a temperature, the importance of breastfeeding and passed out 5 gallon jugs for clean drinking water. Diarrhea and dehydration are BIG issues with children and infants. They stop urinating, have fevers, tummy's swell, and can actually kill small children. The ladies taught the mom's the recipe for the ORS drinks, provided them with thermometers, and with liquid Tylenol for the children. They even had a dummy called "Diarrhea Annie" that demonstrated how diarrhea works, what is looks like, and how it looks when a child gets hydrated. The country as a whole has been promoting breastfeeding since last year. In the DR, it seems like that there is this stigma about breastfeeding...only the poor breast feed. We explained to them the importance of breastfeeding their babies, and the benefits. A lot of the women said that they thought formula would be better since a lot of the women's diet was not very good.We explained to them that the "breast" is always best, and told them that even in the states we encourage our women as well to breast feed if they can. The women loved it...before too long they were laughing and asking questions. They were even making jokes about the superiority of women and all the things women can do that men can't! It was a great time!

For three nights, after the education classes were closed for the day, the men of FCCC had a night of men's ministry. The men hosted domino's night, showed the movie Braveheart, and on the last night the men had a foot washing clinic for the men who worked in the sugar cane fields. In total they had about 100 men from the community that participated in the men's events. The men of the visiting team made sure that every night the love of Jesus was shared with them. They live a hard life, and even a desperate existence at times. How do you survive that without the love and hope Jesus has to offer?

Eric has been continuing to work with receiving and shipping goods to the earthquake victims in Haiti. He is also coordinating G.O. Ministries largest fundraiser with the Kentucky Derby.

Eric and I are in need of your help. As of right now, we are operating at a deficit of $800 a month. The cost of living in the states for half the year is a lot more expensive than living in the DR full time. We are in the process of support raising right now. What we need from our current supporters is to introduce us to your small groups and bible studies. Are there people that you know who would be interested in supporting a missions family? Are any of you all gifted in support raising and have some great idea's for us, or even better would you be willing to spear head a support event on our behalf?

We hope that you all are having a wonderful spring so far. We had beautiful weather in Kentucky. We just finished up with our major fund raiser of the year with the "Kentucky Derby." Our staff meetings pumped us up for teams. It's always so good to get together with all our staff family! We miss them when we aren't in the DR with them.

Eric and I were able to get most of the baby's room finished before we left for the Dominican May 12th. We are looking forward to meeting our baby boy!

Please send us a email and let us know how you all are doing. We love to hear from you all and let us know how we can pray for you!!

Dios Te Bendiga!!

Eric and I have had a busy few months. We can't believe that we are already in a new year! Where has the time gone?

We arrived stateside October 2nd and immediately began house hunting. As we began to look around at rental properties, we realized we might be able to purchase a fixer upper and have a cheaper payment. So, we began to look at foreclosures. All summer long as we knew our ministry was going to be changing, we began to pray for our "home" here. WE prayed that God would put us in a neighborhood where we could be a blessing to our neighbors and we also prayed that God would put us in a location where we could serve my family. I have lived in the Dominican for 4 years. I have missed birthdays and special events. It has been such a joy to around my family for the last three months. Eric and I were able to purchase a foreclosed home within 15 minutes or less of my sister's and grandparents( they are in their 80's and my mom was their baby). My mom passed away a year and a half ago. Being the oldest of four children, it has been hard to be away from my family during their time of mourning. God has been so good and gracious to me. He always knows what you need...exactly when you need it.

October 10th, Eric and I were able to get away for a little vacation. We went to one of our favorite places Breckenridge, Colorado. This was our second visit to this beautiful state. We had such a relaxing week. I was able to reconnect with my child hood best friend that I had not seen in 20 years. It was such a joy to meet her and her beautiful family. We had an amazing time together! Eric and I had a wonderful time.

November 12-14th, Eric and I represented G.O. at the Global Health Conference at South East Christian church. We had a great time making new friends, meeting old friends, and visiting all the other booths of missionaries from all over the world. It's a great opportunity to learn about other mission's organizations, to get new ideas, and make new contacts. We had a great time!

November 18 we headed to Peoria, Illinois! Eric and I headed there to represent G.O. at the National Missionary Convention for 4 days. This was the biggest convention we had ever been to. It was amazing. We were able to hang out with so many friends from the Illinois area who come to the D.R. every year for mission trips. We made a lot of new friends, and saw some pretty amazing booths. This convention had over 500 booths representing different mission organizations from all over the world. I was also able to reconnect with a old friend of mine. Stephen Fierbaugh is a missionary with Pioneer Bible Translators. Stephen asked Eric and I to be on a panel for a singleness discussion he was hosting. I was single when I joined the mission field. People asked questions about my struggles as a single person and how different it is now that I am married. After the discussion, several of us went out to dinner. It was a great time of fellowship!

After the conference, we headed up to Omaha, Nebraska to spend Thanksgiving with Eric's family,spend time with our supporter's and supporting church, Grace Fellowship. We had a great time relaxing with Eric's family. We were also able to spend time with friends, and attended a mission's open house to visit with most of our supporter's.

Eric and I returned to Louisville December 7th. We have been working in the home office here, working on our house, and support raising as well. We have joined a couple's bible study, and getting to know our neighbors where we will be living soon. The house is getting close to completion! We should be in our house by mid February. Eric and I will be really excited. We are looking forward to going home at the end of the day, and just relaxing with each other!

The whole world has been following the news of the earthquake that rocked Haiti Tuesday, January 12th. Haiti is a country that was already in a desperate situation. A lot of people are saying that the situation in Haiti is hopeless, but WE know that we serve a big God. The outpouring of love and resources for the people in Haiti has been amazing! Eric and I have been working in the office helping to co ordinate volunteers and donations. Eric has been manning our warehouse space in Louisville at 7325 New LaGrange Road that was donated to the ministry so that we could have a place where churches and businesses could drop off medicine, medical supplies, surgical supplies, food and water. The warehouse is open Monday thru Saturday, from 10am to 8pm. The supplies that are being collected are being flown into Santiago, D.R. and driven to the coast, loaded onto a boat and then unloaded in Jacmel, Haiti. God has opened a the doors for us to get these life sustaining supplies into the city. Jacmel is 20 miles south of Port-Au-Prince and was leveled by the 7.0 earthquake just as badly as the capital was. G.O. has been a presence in Santiago for more than 18 years, and God has blessed our relationships with our Haitian brothers and sisters. We have continued to fly in supplies to Haiti. Because other aid agencies have now arrived in Jacmel, we have directed all flights to the town of Leogane. Leogane is located closer to the epicenter of the quake and lost the three-story hospital located in that town. We continue to provide needed supplies to Leogane. We learned that the planes were landing on a road in a valley between two mountains. There have been so many planes landing there that air traffic control has now given it an airport designation.

Our relief flights continue from Santiago into Haiti. We have responded to Jacmel, Leogane, and Carrefour among others. Friends at Haitian Christian Outreach contacted us. The work they support in Port-Au-Prince did not lose their building because they were built with a greater amount of reinforcement. Around 1,700 people were sheltering there. Ten days had passed and no one had provided them with any relief supplies. On Saturday, January 23rd, we were able to send them 1,800 pounds of supplies. They also received a shipment from another group that day as well. Praise God as people were starving.

You can watch this amazing video our team on the field put together of the emergency aid efforts going on in Haiti. Grab some tissues. GO HELP HAITI. You can follow up on everything that our organization is doing for Haiti Relief at www.gohelphaiti.org .

Eric and I are excited about all the changes that are coming our way. I know that a lot of you already know, but we are expecting our first child September 11th. We are excited but also a little bummed as it will cut our time short this year with our Dominican family. We will return to the states August 1st to prepare for the stork. :)


Thank you all for your prayers and support. We look forward to hearing from you all!!

New Roles With G.O. Ministries

This past May as we were just starting our summer here Brook, the President of G.O. Ministries, approached Sunshine and I about serving in a new capacity within the Ministry. Brook asked us to consider splitting our time between the home office in Louisville, KY and Santiago, Dominican Republic. At first though we weren’t really too sure about it, we had just sold or given away pretty much everything that we owned in order to move the Dominican, we were just starting to get settled and we weren’t sure that we wanted to start another new transition process! So, we decided to seek council of friends and most importantly God.

As some time went by, we felt like God was telling us that either way we chose, we would be serving him. I then ran across some text in the Bible:
“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers-not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve.” 1 Peter 5:2

What struck me about this verse is that we are to be willing to serve, not out of duty but because our heart with God is right. Our prayer about the possible change became more of how best can we serve you Lord because we know you will provide. It was after this, that both Sunshine and I had peace about our decision. The more we thought about it, it became clear: G.O. Ministries has grown very fast the last five years and currently has hundreds of Nationals in five Countries, one major school with eight satellite schools in churches, approximately seventy churches, eight full time feeding centers serving over 4,000 meals a month, eleven construction projects and countless other undertakings. I tell you this not to brag or boast, but simply to show you the scope of what G.O. does and why we have decided to go back and help out. All of these things are going on at this time with only four people working in the home office! What a huge undertaking. We have since brought on one more person to help, plus added some responsibility on to another so that when we arrive in Louisville there will be eight of us in the office.

What does this mean for Sunshine and I? We will be heading back to Kentucky on October 2nd and start working in the office right away. Our schedule will be flexible in that if there are medical teams or teams that we recruit to go on short term trips we will travel back to the Dominican. Ideally we would group them all together to spend a month there all at one time in the spring. After our big annual fundraiser at Churchill Downs with the Kentucky Derby, we will head back to the D.R. and remain for the entire summer through September each year. So it will look like 7 months in the States and 5 months in the Dominican. The time in Kentucky will allow Sunshine to make more contacts within the Medical field, recruit more medical teams, and work on a steady pipeline of medicine for our clinics. I will be working with Brook on the administrative business side, working on budgets, timelines, fundraising and coordinating various other projects.

We are excited about serving God in this new role. We will continue to fill you in as things progress, but one big praise; is that we have a temporary place to live in Louisville until the end of the year as we search for a permanent home. It is possible that we will be reaching out to you in the future for help in getting donations to set up our home. We want to thank you for all your love and support this last year and give God all the glory for the things accomplishes thus far.

Summer comes to an end
We have crossed the finish line...the summer finish line that is! For the last eleven weeks straight we have had some great people from churches all over the US come down to the Dominican Republic to serve. It has been our joy to work with these teams and share all that God is doing here through their dedication to serving. As we reflect on the highs and lessons that we learned, we are grateful to have experienced it all. We wanted to share with you some of the memorable things from this summer and some of things that God showed us during our struggles. Here is our final video of the summer.

Eric’s Highlights:
• Having both American’s, Dominican’s and Haitian’s accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
• Witnessing American’s, Dominican’s, and Haitians being baptized in rivers & oceans.
• The starting of a new feeding center in Batey Cuchilla. The building is a year or two away from completion, but thanks to start-up funding, 50 new children six days a week will get a hot meal.
• Starting of several new construction projects.
• Learning the true power of prayer!

Eric’s learned lessons:
• God has showed me how to have patience this summer. Patience when things don’t always go according to plan, patience that things don’t operate here like in the States and patience that people are not all the same personality and that is a good thing.
• That it truly is all about Him and not about us. Often times it is difficult to check our own pride at the door and that in all that we do it should bring glory to God.

Sunshine’s Highlights:
• This summer in our traveling medical clinics, we were able to bring medicine to 3,726 people.
• We hosted a dental clinic this spring that was able visit our school, and clean about 400 students’ teeth.
• Our community medical clinic is doing well. Dr. Canela is treating on average 45 patients every afternoon. People are traveling as far as 2 hours away for medical assistance.

Sunshine’s learned lessons:
• God has really showed me the power of prayer this summer. He has shown me time and time again that He is faithful to do what He promises.
• To not be intimidated to strive to be the kind of woman that God has called me to be.

We hope to visit with some of you all when we return to the states this Fall. Please send us a note and let us know how you all are doing.

Below is the last video of the Summer of a medical clinic in Batey Cuchilla.

Mathew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Last week we had the opportunity to work with Great Expectations from Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, Sunshine's home church. She had a great time catching up with friends from her Adult Bible Fellowship class. It's always an awesome experience to get to know new people, and to have a week of ministry and fellowship. This team was 12 people strong from the ages of 30 all the way up to 72 years young! It seems like every week I learn something new or God reminds me of something old.This week was no exception.


We arrived in Hoyo de Bartola, "The Hole" for our construction assignment. Construction is very difficult in the hole because everything is carried down to the church/feeding center by hand. It is about a 50-70 foot drop in elevation down uneven stairs and approximately 250 yards from the street down to the Church. We were at the point in the construction project that the roofing materials of the church needed to be carried down. This included metal tubing and steel "I" beams. The guys knocked out the tubing with no problem, but then came the "I" beams! There were four 7 ft. beams and four 9-10 ft. beams. We estimated that they weighted about 700lbs and 900lbs respectively. Talk about manual labor! There were three of us that carried down the first four beams. We had to stop about half way down each time to rest and re-grip the beams. By the time we finished with the smaller of the beams, we were dead tired! We still had the four larger and much heavier beams to go.

It finally dawned on us to stop and pray for God’s help and Chad led us in prayer. It went something like this…"Dear Lord, you know what we have to accomplish here and why we are doing it. It is for the church and the kids. Please send us some Angels to help carry this load or just send them to fly these beams down here for us. Amen." We all kind of laughed about the "angels flying them down there part." There were now four of us to carry the big ones down so we started. Saying that they were heavy and awkward is an understatement! Our team of four lifted the first beam and about half way down the stairs I was thinking that we would never make it. At that moment a Dominican man came up and grabbed the beam to help, about another 50 yards another man came to help.A few of the team members from Great Expectations were done with their project came over to help. By the time we brought the final beam down I was thinking, "Man, these are light as a feather."

We then took all eight beams and raised them by hand up two stories and onto the Church floor. We had to maneuver them through the school fence, down a small corridor, up onto a platform and then finally through the open Church windows. What a task!!

It wasn’t until we got done that it finally hit me and the Great Expectations team. We prayed and God answered our prayer! No, there weren’t literal angels but he sent two Dominican brothers to help us! We didn’t even get their names and never saw them again the rest of the week, but it was an experience that I will never forget. It is a reminder to us that no matter where we are or what we are doing, we have a heavenly Father that listens to our needs and will provide for us. I often have my own agenda and think I know how things should go. What I need to do is slow down and listen for God more. Sometimes it just takes an "I" beam and a daunting task to remind me.

Sunshine's Entry

I am having a great summer so far! Eric and I had a great time at our Partnership Conference. It was the first time Eric met a lot of our partners from Haiti. It was a great learning experience for us both. The topic of our break out sessions was "bearing fruit" in ministry. We had beach Olympics, and some major fun in the sun. It was a great time of fun and fellowship.

Right after conference, we jumped into our busy summer season. My first team of the summer was a dental team from Lakeland Dental College in Mattoon, Illinois. Let me share with you about how God provides...it always amazes me. So, about a month before this team was to arrive, I realized that we did not have the necessary tools for our visiting Dominican dentists to use (they were from a dental group here in Santiago called "Sonriesa"). I was able to contact a company in the states for replacements, but ended up with duplicate tools, not the missing pieces that I needed. I had one week before the team arrived. I talked with Lakelands team leader and she put me in contact with her dental representative that she works with. I placed one phone call, and ended up with close to $10,000.00 dollars worth of free dentaltools, hand pieces and things needed for our clinic like anesthesia, gloves, cotton swabs, cleaning solvent...It was amazing! Go God! The dental clinic cleaned 197 people's teeth, pulled 40 people's teeth, and educated about 400 students in our private christian school about dental care. We had too much fun!

June 2, Eric and I headed to Batey Ocho for a medical clinic. We worked with Eastview church from Rockford, Illinois. We had so much fun with them, and made some great friends. Our ministry is all about building relationships with church's from the states and national pastor's here in the D.R. and Haiti. It was awesome to watch Eastview build a relationship with Pastor Richard from Batey Ocho, whom they support. This was a full on medical clinic. The Batey's are communities built around sugar cane fields. We see a lot of machete wounds, mal nutrition, teen pregnancies, diabetes, high blood pressure, aids, and tuberculosis. We saw about 797 people in our medical clinic that week. We also gave out tons of hygiene packs and tooth brushes to the families. Everyone gets vitamins. More important, we hope that they all see God's love. That is why we are there.

Life is really desperate in many places in this country. When I see the children with their bellies bloated from starvation, or I see the little Haitian girl begging in the streets on a hot, sunny afternoon, it's still so hard for me to understand. I wonder to myself sometimes, "God, are you up there? I mean, I know you are but....why?" I think about all that I have and about what I think this child is missing. Sometimes all we see is what they don't have, we fail to see the Hope that God has provided. The medical relief teams, the food drives, the pesos given to the little hand reaching out, and the loving mother who is still trying to breast feed her toddler because it's all she has to give. We have Hope. God is always around us.