As many of you may already know, we have arrived safely and
have begun the process of learning the culture and Dominican Spanish. We flew into Santiago DR Sunday night and
were picked up around 7:00pm. We were
taken to the mission house where we are living until we find permanent
housing. They were holding discipleship
classes. We received a very warm welcome
and were welcomed into the family. An hour
later we went to another party where we met a few other Americans who run a
school near by. Needless to say it was a
long day, but a good one!
Monday we spent three hours getting our phones activated and
it was nearly impossible without our Dominican family. Tuesday we were finally able to look at
housing and furnishings. I believe we
will have to settle for an apartment due to the fact that there are no houses
available at this time. And it will be
much safer as well. We are excited
because we need our own space, (this is a very busy mission house. Ministry
happenings every day.)
As I write this newsletter I am staring out the window in front
of me. I want to point out a few things
to you so you can experience, with us, the culture here and the similarities
with Uganda. First off, notice the iron
bars on the window. This does not mean
that Bruce has opened his big mouth and gotten into trouble. But, similar to Uganda, they have bars on all
the windows for safety purposes.
The second thing I would like to point out is just beyond
the iron bars. Look closely and you will
see the six-foot high cement wall with broken pieces of glass mortared into the
top of the wall. This too is for
protection from intruders, as they will cut themselves as they climb over to
break into neighboring homes. The cement
wall is another similarity to the homes in Uganda.
The third and final thing I want to point out is that the
building is three feet away from the cement wall. This is the neighbor to the mission house
where we are staying. The houses seem to
be stacked on top of each other. The
closeness might be common to the housing in the city of Jinga where we lived in
Uganda, but our home in Uganda had a large yard and room between homes. This will be new to us and it is something we
will have to get used to.
Wednesday night we met with the staff at the Multi-cultural
Community Church and we discussed a quote from Hudson Taylor, Missionary to
China in the late 1800’s. To sum up the
quote Hudson is saying no matter where God places us or sends us, He goes
before us to prepare the way, He goes with us as we journey the way, and gives
all the provisions needed throughout the whole process.
I would like to point out one thing about our meeting last
night. The staff, like the Church
attendees, is made up of a diverse culture group. Attending the meeting were Haitians,
Dominicans, Americans and a man from Equatorial Guinea, Africa. The church we are partnering with is not only
worshiping with a multi-cultural group they are reaching out to draw these
groups together. (Red and Yellow, Black
and White they are precious in His sight)
We realize that God has placed us here and we are not
totally sure what His plan will look like as He unfolds it. But, we will be faithful to trust in Him as
things unfold, for He knows the beginning to the end. A wise man once told me that there are times
in our lives where we can look into the rear view mirror and then see what God
has done.
As for now and always we will hold to Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust
in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways acknowledge him, and will make your paths straight. (NIV)
We
have only been here 1 week today and found an apartment! We are excited to have a place we can call
home!
We don’t have a car yet, so we have been relying on Amarfry
to transport us to the power co., contact office, stores etc. She has been our little Dominican Angel!
Until next month God Bless!
Prayer Requests
*Pray for comfort and peace for our family as we are
away
*Acclimation to this new culture, that all the details will
fall into place.
*Pray we grasp their language quickly. To be effective and to communicate we need to learn Espanol
* Praises! We found an apartment! Pray for God to lead us in
finding the household items needed to set up a home.
*Continued Prayers for our Ugandan Ministries and the
families we love and miss.
