Life in the DR

RAIN...

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:8-11

Young Life Camp!

Doulos high school girls at breakfast

As the rain comes down from heaven…. OH, and how it came down! Our weekend at Pico Escondido last month was filled with rain. The hardest, longest rain I’ve ever experienced. However, one of the Program guys shared these verses with us during a leader’s meeting on the first morning and it struck a chord deep within my heart. Just as rain does not return to the skies without serving its’ purpose, the words of our Lord do not return to Him empty. And isn’t that what Young Life camp is all about? Teenagers hearing the word of our Lord. And so I rejoiced in the rain – knowing that as it drenched us, the Lord was speaking in many ways that weekend and His words were drenching the hearts of teenagers. Thank you to all who made it possible for kids from Jarabacoa to go to camp! We took over 30 high school students from our area!!

Following Camp, we met with the high schoolers for Bigger/Better Club - starting with a small item and visiting houses to trade for bigger or better items... Here are some things we received. The winning team came back with a mattress!

We traded a straw for some sweet Math textbooks...

And then a beautiful plant...

Expedition Night

Continuing with the rain theme … “When it rains, it pours”, right? All good things fell close together this year. Following our YL camp weekend, we had Expedition Night at Doulos. This night is a celebration of learning. The focused areas of study for my classes were: third grade Ancient Egypt, fourth grade Incan culture, fifth grade Immigration.

Immigrants getting seasick

Incan weaving


Ancient Egypt - Check out Leah's shirt....Thanks, Dad!

As for the rest of the school year, we have just three short weeks until graduation! Our year will end with a week of Math Madness Olympics 2012…complete with teams of one lower grade and one higher grade, uniforms, and an Opening Ceremony with a torch and some fire. :) I’ll keep you posted…

Keith, Kerrie, Lexie, Lorraine, Me, and Krista

Recently I had the privilege of attending the National Expeditionary Learning Conference in Denver, CO. I attended with 5 other Doulos teachers. Our week in Denver proved to be a valuable one. Our days were full of classes and conversations with other EL teachers from around the States. We left absolutely exhausted, but with awesome ideas and larger picture of EL learning. We are excited to process everything and implement new strategies in the coming Fall. We also made some amazing contacts and are looking forward to new partnerships.

On my way to Denver, I was able to stop in VA and attend a friend’s wedding. What a special blessing to be there (thanks Abi and Jorge!) and see a few a friends and family along the way.