New Role With G.O. Ministries

This past May as we were just starting our summer down 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 thought privately 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 weren’t thinking 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 that 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 all 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 with at the time 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.

I am sure you are asking what does it mean for Sunshine and I? We will be heading back to Kentucky on October 2^nd 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 thru 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 place. We will also be reaching out to you possibly in the future for help in getting donations to set up our home in place. We want to thank you for all your love and support this last year and give God all the glory for the things accomplished thus far.

Summer comes to an end

We have crossed the finish line, just 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 down here thru 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.

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 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 showed me patience this summer. Patience in that 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.

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!