some thoughts

I have been reflecting as of late on the grace of God that has allowed me to be in this place, doing the work that I am doing. I have often felt unworthy to bear the title of “missionary.” People talk about the sacrifice of serving God in another country and how hard it must be to give up certain conveniences in order to do Christian work abroad, but for me, this life I’ve chosen isn’t a sacrifice. This type of work is what I’m wired for, it’s what I love, I can think of nothing I’d rather be doing than helping to bring children out of desperate situations and allowing them to experience the love of our Father. I count myself blessed beyond comprehension to be able to do this work that is so rewarding, to have these new adventures and learn to understand a new culture, to have 49 mosquito bites on each ankle, etc. Am I worthy of this work? Certainly not. The struggles that I had before are still active here, despite my title as “missionary.” I am still a dirty sinner attempting to keep my head above water and make a difference for the Kingdom, I imagine many of you feel the same way.

I am involved missions work because it’s what I love to do, what I was made to do. Praise be to God for giving me opportunity.

I hope my ramblings make some sense.

ANIJA Picture

This is a picture of the school (ANIJA) where I spend most my days. I have a room that serves as my office and that's where I do my spanish studying and my sponsorship work.

lice

On Friday I had the great priviledge of helping to wash the hair of some of the kids in Kindergarten who had lice. Now, it was a little gross, and my head was itching for the rest of the day just thinking about the lice, but all in all, I had a good time. Lice epidemics are pretty
common, so whenever they find any kids with those lovely little bugs, they take care of it asap. Luckily only 5 or 6 of the kids in the class had it before they caught it, so it wasn't too bad.
For most of the next month I will be house/dog sitting for a family that is in the states for the holidays. It's nice to have a little company when I get home, the dog, Jesse, is always happy to see me. It's also nice to have a whole house to myself, complete with furniture, an oven, a full sized fridge and freezer, and a few other conveniences that I don't have in my cozy little room at The Ark (the orphanage). Although, I will be making frequent trips out to the Ark because the kids there are my main source of entertainment.

I threw in a few more pictures of some kids, these are the kids that attend the school, but live with their families at home. I am in charge of the sponsorship for these kids, as well as the Ark kids, and also a new school a few hours away. For those who are from Cape Bible Chapel, it's interesting to note that the new facility was funded by Kee and Susan Park. I didn't know about this until a week before I left, and I'm not sure if the Park's know that I'll be working with the facility even now, I havn't had a chance to talk with them, but it's a coincidence for sure...it's a small world indeed.

I'm happy to entertain visitors, so if anyone wants to see the work that's going on down here and would like some perfectly pleasant weather, c'mon down, it will be fun.

Marriage...

So everyone has been harassing me about going to the Dominican Republic so that I can find a wife. Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that I am well on my way. These two hotties are my girlfriends, Micari and Gloriluz. Why do I need 2 girlfriends? Because they were both after me and I just couldn't turn one of them away.

Moving on...Life here has been good so far. I'm working hard on Spanish, but I still can't communicate so well. Most of the missionaries here are going home for the holidays, so I might be lonely this Christmas, but that will give me lots of time to study, so it's ok. I'll be travelling around the country a bit as well, so I'm excited about that.

That's all for today.