blessed to have had a Sabbath on Monday because we've been working pretty much most of the waking hours since. Ina, if you are reading this, I promise it's been great :) Tuesday we had a work day at the house preparing for for next week's Vacation Bible School. We have a group coming in from Massachusetts next week that is going to be helping run the program. It should be tons of fun, but there is an endless list of things yet to be done! I worked on preparing large posters with song lyrics so we could get the laminated in time for VBS. Virtually everything that can be used more than once needs to be laminated before it goes out to Cercadillo because of the potential for dirty, sticky mango and chinola hands. Abbey and our Dominican Friend, Rafelina, worked on airing out and counting the T-shirts we are giving to all of the kids who sign up for VBS and cutting strips of fabric for some necklaces the women of Cercadillo are making. Ina spent most of the day emailing and calling a gazillion people to get things arranged. Wednesday morning we headed out to Cercadillo bright and early (it's usually about 8:45 before we can get the car loaded and on the road) to register kids for the VBS. It was fun to see so many familiar faces come out to register, and we ended up getting about 50 kids
from ages 5 to 12 registered. Ina filled out the registration forms, I measured the kids for their T-shirt size, and Abbey took photos of every child. The little girl in the picture on the right got dressed up to register. Isn't she the cutest? Wednesday afternoon Ina picked up a couple of guys (Rick and Stuart) from the bus station because they were just returning from doing a water pump installation, repair, and training in Haiti. It was a lot of fun to get to know them and hear about all of their adventures on that other side of the island. They said it's a very different world. Rick told us a story about one of their meal times. They were sitting around eating some sort of rice dish when one of the other guys, Bowen, noticed the little kids sitting around watching them eat and felt very guilty about eating in front of the kids and not being able to feed them. He mentioned his feelings to Rick who replied, "What would Jesus do?" It sounds so cliche, but Bowen decided to share his meal with the kids. He handed the bowl to a Haitian man, and watched with amazement as the man gave out spoonful of food to the kids, way more than was possibly in the bowl to begin with. Jesus provided enough food for all the kids! How awesome to see God perform a miracle because of one man's obedience! (As a side-note, Stuart is one of my "shook-his-hand-in-the-flesh" heros because living at the Ocho Bay is even better this year because this fixit man of sorts lived here while Ina was away and made multiple improvements. I keep asking Ina, "But don't we need to...?" and she replies, "Oh, not anymore. That's another thing that Stuart fixed.")
On Thursday, Abbey and I spent most of the day amazing Rick with our sewing skills! Rick is actually an aircraft mechanic for UPS which enables him to fly almost anywhere around the world on his days off. The only thing he couldn't figure out was how I could stitch forwards and backwards, because he couldn't see the little switch I was pressing :) Abbey and I sewed roughly 130 strips of cloth so the women could make a certain kind of necklace that we affectionately call "marble necklaces". That's because they are necklaces made with marbles. The women usually do the sewing part out in the village, but Ina's generator is currently not working well, so the sewing machines can't run well on it. That would be something to pray about! She is hoping to find one here, but has had no success as of yet. We are praying for one soon so that I (who am I kidding, we) can teach the women how to make some bags that I shipped the materials for. We also want to do one or two movie nights in the village where we show a movie on a screen/sheet and bring popcorn for everyone.
Today is Friday! I often forget what day it is here :) We started our day out in the village with Bible study for the women and then time for the women who are in business with Ina, making and selling jewelry. It is so awesome to hear the Word of God spoken in Cercadillo and to see women responding to it and discussing how it applies to their lives. The women worked on making the marble necklaces today, and also brought bracelets and necklaces that they had made during the week. They turn them in so Ina can approve their workmanship, and if they are quality, they get paid for their items. Ina
in turn, sells the items on their behalf to church groups that come down and churches in the states. I believe some of you may already know what you're getting for Christmas :) The women are so proud of what they have made and are able to purchase necessities for their families including food and clothing. They are also working to purchase new water filtration systems for their homes. The Cercadillo Project is paying for part, but each family is responsible to pay a good portion of the cost. I'll be learning a lot about these next week during the training for Cercadillo so I'll write more about that then. After leaving Cercadillo we headed home for a much anticipated lunch of leftovers and a shower. We try to take these at least weekly just to wash off the multiple layers of Off! JK...we try to take at least one a day (I even took two in one day once...sh...). After that, we headed into the city to pick up Ina's mail, meet up with an awesome missionary family to exchange VBS ideas (on another side-note, this couple has done a lot of work in Cuba in the past and still has a real heart for that country, awesome!), and end our day at PriceSmart, a Dominican version of Costco. Just a few notes: Health is still good for all of us! We are somewhat lagging on energy, but easily make up for it with good humor and jokes about how tired we are :) The most current bug bite count is (drum roll, please)...21! So far none of them appear to be malarious or positive for Dengue fever (that's the one that knocked Ina out for about three months this past winter)! God is providing for all our needs and showing up in our weakness! I leave with you a picture of one of the newest Cercadillans!
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