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.

First Experience's

Please take a look at the video that Eric created for Crossroads Church. It has some great pictures of what Batey Cuchillo looks like. Enjoy!


It has been exciting to see Eric have so many new experiences. Being a missionary is hard work. You get to travel, see new places, and meet new and interesting people. BUT nobody can really prepare you for the spiritual overhaul God begins in your life, the emotional struggles your heart goes through when you witness hungry children, and you have nothing to give them. On top of all that, your a newlywed, and you are adjusting to being married as well. Thank goodness God has BIG shoulders!

Eric was able to go to the Batey's for the first time in March. Eric's number one "job" right now has been learning how to facilitate teams. Eric's previous job experience as Assistant General Manager for Minor League Baseball has prepared him well. He has the drive, determination, and the personality to be a good servant and leader that the teams need. So, Eric along with John (whom most of you know) was able to spend a week in Batey Nueve for a week with Crossroad's Church from Morgantown, West Virginia. The mission that week was to start construction on a church and feeding center for the community of Batey Cuchillo (which means knife in Spanish). Crossroad's Church partners with Pastor Fransico and his wife Yolanda. The community there is about 1,500 people. Life in the Batey's is hard. I can't even put it accurately into words. There is very little electricity, very little running water, hungry families, sickness, and it's so dusty all the time. Batey's are little communities that formed out in the middle of no where sugar cane is grown. Families would settle out near the sugar cane fields where there was work, and that is how these communities came into existence. So the opportunity for ministry and meeting the needs of the people are endless. You are also able to witness first hand the spiritual battle that goes on in the communities. In Batey Cuchillo alone there are three witch doctors living and practicing. Pastor Fransisco has recently started to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with one of the men. It's awesome to be able to work with these pastors and their families to help share the love of Christ where life can be so desperate.

While Crossroads was there, they are were able to witness 7 Haitian men and women be baptzed. Eric said that is was soo exciting to see them make a public commitment to serve Christ. Strong Christan men and women in these communities are so hard to come by. Life is so hard. A friend of mine who lives there, his name is Alejandro, said that "Strong Christian Husbands and Fathers" would change the batey's. That the children need "Christian" role models, so that they can grow up and be good husbands and fathers too! How much we take for granted! Two of the "Americans" on the team were so touched, that they also decided to be baptized with their Haitian brothers & sisters.

One other neat worship experience for Eric was that at church he was able to hear God praised in 5 different languages. The team from Crossroads sang some songs in English, there was one lady on the team named Marium who sang a song in German, and Pastor Francisco lead songs in Spanish, French, and Creole.

As for me, I have been busy with team activities as well. During the day, I have been cleaning and organizing in the medical clinic, getting our apartment settled, building relationships with women and kids in the community, and helping medical teams collect their medicines for the summer. It's been awesome to talk with medical team members and hear their stories of how God is working miracles. With the economy getting hit the way it has, it's awesome to hear stories of how generous people are being. It seems like every time some one calls me in a panic....a few prayers and phone calls later....it's all good!

Eric & I will be flying to the states April 14th! We are so excited. Our first stop is Omaha, NE...or as Eric says the "Land of Milk and Honey." I use to think so until I barely lived through a -30 winter with 55 mile and hour winds!! We will be in Omaha visiting Church's and spending some time with Eric's family. April 23rd we will be off to Louisville, KY...that's what I call the "Promised Land." We will be visiting my family and working the Kentucky Derby. SO, if you have not signed up to volunteer yet, there is plenty of time to. We still need about 20 more volunteers. You can go to GO Derby to sign up! We fly back to the D.R. May 10th and begin to prepare for our "Celebration of Partnership Conference, 2009. You can still sign up if you want to come to the conference, just go to our ministry website to find all the information that you need.

Please take a look at the video that Eric created for Crossroads Church. It has some great pictures of what Batey Cuchillo looks like. Enjoy!

Cannonball!

Someone once told me that there are two types of people in this world, those who stick their big toe in the water to see if it is hot or cold, and those who run and do a cannonball! While I am sure that a person’s entire make-up can’t be defined by how they approach the water, I have found this to be an accurate description of the start to my new life in the Dominican Republic…Cannonball!

We ended up getting into Santiago a day late on January 1st, due to plane difficulties in Chicago, and the first team arrived on the 2nd.


The first team coming down was a small group of four from North
Carolina for a soccer clinic. It was lead by Caleb Narks, a professional soccer player who played at University of North Carolina. He also played professionally in Germany, Chile, Puerto Rico, and the in U.S. It was a huge blessing that Caleb, Danielle, Alexis and Casto all spoke fluent Spanish as it makes the clinic run much smoother.

On the first day of clinic, we really didn’t know how many kids to expect since soccer isn’t very popular amongst the Dominicans. It is however very popular in the Haitian community, so we knew that some of the kids would come from there. We had 40 kids on the first day of clinic, which was awesome! On the second day, our numbers grew by another 10 kids. Caleb was able to teach the kids basic soccer skills, and have them go thru drills during the sessions. At the end of each session the kids would play games against each other.

The whole team that came was very gracious and nice. They had brought enough cleats for us to pass out a pair for each kid at the clinic. You should have seen the faces on the kids when we fitted them for shoes! For all most everyone, it was their first pair of cleats. As the week continued on, Caleb and Casto would share with the kids that the reason that they were here wasn’t just for the clinic, but to share the love of Christ with them as well. The last day the players shared their testimony with the kids and had a great time of prayer and fellowship. Caleb and Casto played in a couple of games at night with two of the church outreach soccer teams. The purpose of the teams is to reach out to non-churched men by inviting them to play on the soccer teams. It is by this relationship with the pastors on the team that they start a relationship with the men and have opportunities to witness to them. Caleb scored the first goal of the game and it was very neat to see how he was able to gain instant credibility with the players. It gave him an awesome opportunity to share his testimony with them.

My roll for the whole week was a support one and it was a great way for me to get started. I helped build goal posts, dig holes, haul equipment, pass out water, pump up soccer balls, help get people to where they needed and many other things. I was there to take care of the detail things so that the team could maximize their time with the kids. It was a great week of service.

Sunshine was busy the first week unpacking our suitcases as we attempted to settle into our temporary house. She spent a great deal of time re-connecting with everyone here that she hadn’t seen in almost six months. It was cool to observe the ladies in the community come running up to Sunshine to greet her. It says a lot about her and how valuable her friendship is to them. Sunshine also spent time showing off the neighborhood medical clinic and talking with Vladimir, the Dominican physician on staff.

For the last week and for those weeks that there aren’t teams here, you may wonder what we are doing. For me it has consisted of working in the new ministry storage room constructing shelving out of wood. Dave Schwultz on staff has started a Men’s Fraternity group that meets every Friday. We have about 30 Dominican and American men that attend, including myself. On Saturday’s we have our sports team leadership Bible study that consists of three Americans and eight Dominicans. We have a church service every other Thursday that the Sports Ministry hosts right next to the Basketball court. Often times the guys just go right from the court to church and it has started to gain some good traction after being launched less than five months ago. Oh, Sunshine and I are also in Spanish classes twice a week for 5 ½ hours. The class is taught all in Spanish, our teacher doesn’t speak English, so it takes everything that I have to keep up! Plus there is about 5 hours of homework from each class.

Prayer requests- For the teams that are coming at the end of January and beginning of February, for our language studies, that God provides us a germinate place to live (the house we thought we were going to move into isn’t going to happen) and that our financial support would continue to grow.

Merry Christmas!

This is truly a wonderful time of the year for Sunshine and me as we close out chapters in our lives and start new ones. Sunshine and I can both get caught up in the holiday frenzy and the chaos of all the changes in our lives but we both love this time of year as we focus on Christ’s birth. We celebrate the fact that He became a man to ultimately die for everyone’s sins so that we can be restored to God. We rejoice in His birth, for He is the “Reason for the Season”. It is our prayer that as we spend time with family and friends that we never lose sight of that.

After spending the last two months in Louisville, KY we are celebrating Christmas in Nebraska. We had a great time in Kentucky visiting with supporters, friends, training with the ministry and making new contacts. It was a very busy time while we were there, but Sunshine enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with her family. While we are in Nebraska, we continue to raise support and recruit teams to go to the Dominican Republic.

Happy New Year!
Sunshine and I will ring in the New Year in a new city as we will depart for Santiago, Dominican Republic on New Year’s Eve. It is fitting that we start this new chapter in our lives in our new home. We are both so excited to go and become a small part of what God is doing there on the island of Hispainola. As we prepare to go please be in prayer for us. Prayer that we will be used by God for His glory, and prayer for Sunshine to continue to build relationships within the medical community for further outreach. Please pray for me as I learn a new language, that I may be an asset to the ministry and that I build life changing relationships with both the Dominican’s and Haitian's. It will be an adjustment on all fronts, but God provides and God gives us nothing more than we can handle.

We thank each and every one of you that we have gotten to know. We thank you for your faithful support of what God has put on our hearts for us to do in the Dominican. Know that you and your families are in our prayers weekly and it is our prayer that you have a blessed 2009.

Please enjoy a Christmas video below. It doesn't cost a thing! It's our Christmas present to you!

Merry Christmas!!