Daniel and a pudding pie.

Teresa and Maria.

Daniel's Cabin Group (The Real Men)

Camp

Last weekend, JCS had a camp/retreat weekend for the 6-10^th graders. I (Daniel) was a counselor and Teresa hung out and helped out where she could. We went to a YoungLife camp in Jarabacoa up on a mountainside with beautiful scenery and a great cabin/lodge for retreat-ish stuff. Stan Long, the director of Camp Eagle in Virginia (where some of our students went for a week this past summer) came down and was our speaker. Friday after school we loaded up in taxis and headed off to camp. As camp always goes, it was full of crazy games and good spiritual time. For those of you who are cold right now, I was sweating like crazy running around in the hot sun ;-). My cabin had 3 JCS boys and a brother of a JCS girl. Overall I think there were 8 boys and 15 girls along with the counselors and other helpers. To make the weekend more fun for the kids, we counselors even got water, pudding, ketchup, and/or mustard dumped or smeared on us for various games (which none of us knew to expect).

A lot of the kids were surprised how crazy I got at camp, since most of them only see professional, teacher Mr. Peterson and don’t get to see the more laidback, louder side many of you have. In some ways, I think being crazy actually gained me more respect from many of my students.

The theme for the weekend was commitment, spending the entire weekend looking at Mark 12:28-34, the Greatest Commandment. Each chapel session, Stan outlined one area of loving the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and finished with loving our neighbor as ourselves. After the big group times, we had some time with our cabins, but over such a short weekend, the boys didn’t open up much to each other. Saturday night, one of my cabin boys was strongly convicted and committed to, as he put it, love Jesus in all parts of his life, not just the easy ones. Please pray for him that the Holy Spirit would continue to work and that we at JCS would be able to disciple him well.

Many of our students come from Catholic families, and I think it was good for me to be there and be able to share some of my Catholic background as well as credibility having studied theology at Notre Dame. It was encouraging to me that, despite the many problems with the Catholic doctrine here in the DR, they still confessed that loving Jesus is really what matters. Please also pray for these guys because they are in a tough spot being pulled between cultural Catholicism and a real, living faith in Jesus Christ that transcends denomination.

Teresa came to camp on Saturday morning to spend the day, and she joined us for some games, meals, and worship/chapel times. She was a great defender in “Flicker,” a fast-paced, close-range version of Capture the Flag; did some wall-climbing during our cabin devotional time; helped us with our skits for the talent show; and there was no doubt the kids were glad to have her around. She had planned on leaving camp Saturday night to be able to go to sleep and go to church on Sunday, but the person she was riding back with had a motorcycle breakdown. As a result, she stayed overnight at camp and a few of us had to push the motorcycle back up the mountain to camp (A couple hundred feet elevation climb over about ½ mile). Thankfully I only made it in time for the last quarter of it. While I know she wanted to be at home, it was nice for me to have her around a little longer J.

Needless to say, we were both exhausted Sunday afternoon, and I still don’t think I’ve fully recovered. This weekend will include preliminary motorcycle shopping and catching up around the house, since we are planning on being gone next weekend, too (hiking/climbing Pico Duarte, the tallest mountain in the Caribbean at 10,000 ft).

Email Update

Here is the email we recently sent out as an update:

Dear Family and Friends,
We are writing to not only send our belated newletter, but to ask for your prayers.
Recently we discovered that Teresa is not insured, although we have been paying for her insurance. The insurance company somehow forgot to put her on the plan, and instead put Daniel on twice. When they caught the error, they deleted the extra, but still did not add her. To make matters worse, we found out that the school canceled our insurance over the summer, though we were not aware of this at the time, and did not start it again until September 4. As a result, our pregnancy would not be insured even if Teresa had been added in September, because she got pregnant within the three month beginning period. (We were about 1.5 weeks too soon)

In addition to this, our motorbike was just stolen from our carport tonight. We've contacted the police and will be filing a report in the morning.

Please pray that we would be trusting God in all that is occuring, that, if possible, our bike would be recovered, and that God would continue to supply our needs, as He has so faithfully in the past and present.
Thank you.

God bless,
Daniel and Teresa

P.S. If you want a copy of our newletter and did not receive it, let us know and we will email it to you (it's in PDF, so it's not a big file).

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 2 Year Anniversary to Daniel!
For our anniversary, we decided to go on a bike ride. Daniel spent hours fixing up the bikes we bought from the Chases (we knew we would have to do this when we bought them). Then, about 5-10 minutes from home, on of my tires blew. So, we walked for about 40 minutes, had a wonderful picnic lunch by the river, and walked back with the bikes. It wasn't what we had planned, but it turned out nicely anyway. Later today we intend to watch some clips from our wedding video, go over our vows again, go out to dinner, and eat angel food cake for dessert. :) yay! What a blessing it is to have a Dominican holiday today!



I also want to say congratulations to Ashley and Paul Borrego who celebrate their 1/2 year anniversary today! :)

Weekend 1/19-1/21

Last weekend (a week ago), I "ditched" Daniel (with his permission, of course) to go camping with 3 other JCS girls. WE hiked up to our favorite camping spot- Spider Point, arrived at dark, set up camp, and cooked calzones over the campfire. We had a great time talking and hanging out; it was good to have girl time. I love waking up at Spider Point- the almost 365 degree view of mountains is gorgeous. The morning started out with low fog, so when I looked in one directions, it looked as though there was a huge lake between the mountains. I tried to capture this on camera, but doubt it turned out as spectacular as it looked. The low silver area is the fog.

On Saturday, I came back home and rested for a bit. Then Daniel and I went to play Ultimate. We had a large group of people, so we split into 3 teams, each game going to 3 points and rotating. It worked out really well. We met many people from other ministries that we did not previously know. I was exhausted by the end of it, but had a good time. Afterward we ran to Pico Pollo, ate, went home, changed, and went to a ballet. The ballet was put together by a ballet teacher that teaches here in Jarabacoa. While it can not be compared to watching Nutcracker performed in the United States, it was very enjoyable and we were impressed by how well some of the students performed. It was a mix of modern and classical dance. I must admit, I liked the classical better. Some advanced dancers did point, others danced barefoot.
I put other pics on a web album: ballet. I did this especially for Devon. :)

BABY- Official Announcement

Well, many of you may have heard that Daniel and I are going to have a baby!
We're very excited and praise the Lord for this blessing. The baby is due in mid August, and we will be having the baby in the Dominican Republic. Please pray for us during this exciting, but challenging time. I've been tired, and it has been especially hard on Daniel, who is juggling teaching 7 classes, doing grad school, and now doing more share of the housework. However, God is good and He is in control! We look forward to sharing baby updates on our blog. I have an old sonogram picture I'll include, but we forgot the camera the last time we went to the doctor, so an updated picture will have to wait.

Long Time no Blog

Last weekend, we went with some JCS and church people for a motorcycle trip up to Monabao, the next town above Jarabacoa (different direction than Constanza for those of you who faithfully follow our blog and are trying to pick up Dominican geography). Anyhoo, we had a group of 4 motorcycles with 7 people and we headed up not really knowing what was there. The ride up was beautiful, though taxing on the bikes (about 15km and over 2000ft elevation increase). After we got to the town, we kept going up to the trailhead for Pico Duarte, the tallest peak in the Caribbean. That “road” was very bumpy and crossed a few streams where I was worried the bike might take in water. We didn’t pay to go into the park, but did set up a backpacking trip for the end of February for a group of teachers and others. We had a fun mix of English and some Spanish and lots of craziness. You need to hire a guide to take the trip, so we set one up and sat in his house talking and drinking coffee for a bit. Then we headed to another place along a river for lunch when it started to rain and some people who lived right by where we were eating invited us in and let us sit around, served us coffee with nutmeg (it was really good), and talked with us until the rain let up. Teresa even got to hold a 3 day old goat that was really cute. Then we headed back down to Jarabacoa and it rained on and off all the way down, leaving us wet and cold, but it was absolutely beautiful. I can tell my motorcycle driving skills improved greatly over the trip, but the bike definitely needs new oil and possibly a brake job. In all we drove about 2.5 hours or so. It was a great, fun trip with the group, and good time of Teresa snuggling behind me on the motorcycle.

Christmas Program Pics

4th Graders in PJ's

"Santa" under the mistletoe

4th Graders Singing

Christmas in the D.R.

So, it's been a while since we've blogged. Not only have we been busy with finals, Christmas activities, etc., but our personal lives have been pretty hectic too. The Chases left a few weeks ago to return to the States, after Steve's dad died of cancer. 3 other staff member are leaving JCS as well. (We still need a French and Social Studies teacher!) One of our cats was sick, the other we just got fixed. (you wanted to know that, didn't you?) We had our new invertor hooked up, and Daniel hooked up the Tanaco. Leah moved to the Chases house, so we are currently without a next-door neighbor, until January. :(
Anyway, that was a very brief update. But, I thought people would be interested in what Christmas is like in the D.R.
Christmas here consists of:
-Lots of music (Christmas carols at 4:45 in the morning)
-Lots of fireworks (at any time of the night)
-Ginger tea (although we have not had any this year)
-Gummy candies
-Warm weather and palm trees
-Alegria en Las Montanas (a popular Christmas Carol)

We also had a fun Christmas program, in which my students sang "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause." I was mommy, and Daniel was Santa, of course. :)
In less than one day we'll be in the States!!! Hopefully we'll update more later.

Belated Thanksgiving (and lots more)

Written November 26 – posted December 2

Starting a week ago Sunday, after church we went for a hike/picnic by a river with some JCS’ers and people from church. We had fun swimming around and shooting a “movie” on somebody’s normal digital camera. Tuesday, the jr/sr high students went on a field trip to the Mirabal Sister’s museum. If you’ve heard of the book/movie “In the Time of the Butterflies,” it’s about them. The museum is in their family home and is full of historical items and pictures. We even got to meet the one surviving sister (Dede) who was the main source for the book/movie. That night for our Tuesday night dinner we made a 3-course crepe meal and it was sooooo good. Dylan (Leah’s 6-year-old) even helped make some of the crepes.

Wednesday, Teresa’s class took their field trip to a bottled water place and saw the filtration/bottling/testing process (I’m sad I missed out), toured a plant/nature reserve, and went hiking/swimming at the same place we were at on Sunday. They had a blast and from all I heard the trip went great.

Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving starting at Leah’s house for cinnamon rolls and watching the Macy’s Parade. Then we used the Chases’ house for Thanksgiving dinner (even though they were in the States) from about 12:30 to 3:30 with JCS staff. After that, we went to the school and met up with some other folks and played some American football and ultimate frisbee. It felt so good to run around and do sports. Even though Teresa and I run now, we don’t do nearly as much game/team sports as we’d like and it felt so good! After that we gorged ourselves some more on dessert.

Friday morning we headed off to the beach with Leah, Dylan, and Regan. We went to Cabarete and all stayed in a condo-type room. The beach was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun in the sun and ocean. We ate dinner at a restaurant on the beach and it was beautiful. In the morning we ate at a bakery and had a couple hours at the beach before we had to get ready to leave. On the drive back, we had a major delay from some people setting up a roadblock and burning a tire in the road. Nobody would tell us what was going on as traffic was stopped and people were walking back. We kept hearing “Esta muy malo.” As we saw the tire and boulders by the road, the police came running by our car (with weapons at the ready) and then we were able to get through. We didn’t see anything more on the road or in the news later. We were going to ride an air-tram over Puerta Plata, but it was closed to replace the cables, so we just continued on to Santiago for shopping and dinner.

Today we had planned on going to a baseball game in Santiago with some Dominicans we know, but we were just too tired this morning. It has truly been a day of rest including 2 naps for me and multiple hours of us just bumming around. It was much needed and we’re both much more energetically ready for school tomorrow than if we’d gone.

Homemade Bagels

They may not be worth it if you can buy bagels. However, in a country where bagels do not exist (at least not as far as we've seen), it is definitely worth it to make them! Mmmmm... 

Kitties!

Friends
Playing
Sleeping...
...And still sleeping...

 

Fall Festival

Daniel in a pie eating contest

Making Scarecrows

Wheelbarrow races

 

Noche de Otoño (Autumn Night)

Last night (Saturday) was a very enjoyable evening. After a birthday party of one of my 4^th grade students- I helped with pin the tail on the donkey, and her family has satellite TV so we watched Notre Dame score a touchdown- we went to a violin and piano recital. There is a violin teacher and a piano teacher here in Jarabacoa, and this was the first recital that they put on with their students. It was so good to hear live classical music. It ranged from beginners (young students and even adults) to very advanced players. There was even a violin quintet made up of 4 students (1 from our school) and the violin teacher. The theme was Autumn and the concert went well. It opened with the Phantom of the Opera song, played by the teachers, who are both outstanding musicians. It made me realize how much I took classical concerts at Taylor for granted, and how much I miss playing bells. All-in-all, it was fun to experience a “cultural event” here in Jarabacoa.

A Weekend of Change

Sunday night at Bible study we got some quite shocking news… Steve Chase’s father has terminal lung/liver cancer, and so they’re planning on not finishing the year here so they can be with him. They were going to move back to the States after this summer, but now they’ll be going back at Christmas and staying. All this came out in a span of 3 days, so it’s been an emotional roller coaster for them and all of us. They were planning on moving to Marion and working at New Horizons there, but now they’ll be going to Ohio to be with Steve’s mom. Even further complicating travel is that Erin is pregnant with their 2^nd child and will be due late next Spring. All this is even harder on Steve because his dad does not know Jesus. Please be praying both for his dad and the Chase family.

Aside from missing our friends when they leave and grieving with them, the Chases’ early departure has some major influences on us. Since we were planning on staying for the summer, we will now be helping to host the teams that will come down from the States to help us build a new building for the school. That means we’ll be arranging their lodging, meals, transportation on the island, etc. It will certainly be new ground for us and will be testing the limits of our Spanish, but we both feel peace and excitement (along with some anxiety) about it. Since we’ll be here helping and may not have jobs, our financial needs will be greater in the upcoming months. Please pray that God will provide. On a similar note, we will be buying some things from the Chases when they leave because it’s the cheapest way we’ll get them. The big things will be their inverter and batteries (for when the power goes out) and their mountain bikes, along with a few items planning for the not too near future of us having a baby here (REPEAT, NOT TOO NEAR FUTURE). We were planning on buying an inverter this Spring and their used one will be much cheaper and more powerful than buying a new one. Similarly, the cheapest new mountain bikes we’ve seen here are 3x as much as they’re selling their better ones for (and they're selling theirs for very inexpensive).

With the Chases leaving, there are also a myriad of other possible changes involving where certain friends will live and uncertainty in that. So, yeah, please be praying for us as well that we would be supportive of our friends and open to God’s voice and guidance.

P.S. We are in dire need of a 5th grade teacher for next semester. If you are interested or know anyone who may be interested, PLEASE let us know!

A Weekend of Fun

This past weekend was one of the most enjoyable we’ve had in a long while. It was full of time with friends and each other, and we were able to get done what we needed. Thursday night was a potluck barbecue for any missionaries in Jarabacoa. I would guess there were about 100 people there from various ministries all gathering just to hang out and get to know each other. It put names with faces we’ve seen in town and answered the nagging question when we see a white person, “Is he/she American or Dominican?”

Friday night we had some fellow JCS staff (some American and some Dominican) over for a game night. It was a lot of fun trying to explain games in Spanish and hoping we were getting the point across. We went from Uno (crazy Czech style) to Set and finished with some euchre. Saturday morning Teresa supervised Saturday School while I did shopping and ran errands. We went for a run at 2:00 on a sunny day and ran about 3 miles to the river, cooled off in the water, and then ran back. It was definitely hot, but a lot of fun. Saturday night we stayed in and watched Emma (A&E version) and just relaxed. Sunday after church we had a Dominican teacher and her husband over for Italian food. They’d never had a real red sauce and meatballs before. They know some English and we know some Spanish, so we have fun trying to communicate. We have a lot of fun with them and enjoy hanging out together.

New Cat!

We did it. We got another cat. We wanted a bunny, but none were available. However, our friends had a cat they no longer wanted, so we took him home. Chai’s initial response was not very encouraging (not that we expected it to be). She pretty much spent all last week hissing. By the end of the week, though, the two cats were acting playful, even if Chai still did hiss some. Throughout the weekend they took turns following each other around. Last night and today we let them stay together in the house (not one locked in the bathroom) and they seemed to do fine. They’re actually getting along faster than I thought they would.

Anyway, about the new cat.

Mishu (pronounced Meeshew) is a 1 year- 1 ½ year old male cat (about Chai’s age). He’s is very sweet and likes to snuggle. He also likes to eat. We don’t know how to keep him away from Chais’ food (but we’re trying!). Most of the time when Chai hissed at him, he ignore it and looked at her as if she was strange. We named him Mishu, because that is how the children of our friend called him. They said it was a typical way to call a cat here. Anyway, we like it better than his name, Fluffy, so we’re sticking with Mishu.

We think he’s adjusting very well to life here in our home.

Cat Pics!

Isn't he cute?
Getting Closer

 

Constanza

A week ago some teachers from JCS set out on a mini missions trip to Constanza. We visited last Spring (posted April 12) to visit some family friends working on an orphanage. We returned to help paint the second house (the first house already has kids!) We left after school on Friday, taking 3 vehicles, and set off on a very bumpy ride. Once we arrived, we went to the team house (where we stayed) and had a wonderful Dominican meal. We also met some kids sitting outside the convenience store across the street. In the evening we had a great praise and sharing time. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and set out to paint the house. The children from the 1^st house joined it (I’m not sure whether they hindered or helped more) and we had a great time getting covered in paint. We broke for lunch and returned later to do the second coat. (Another teacher and I, however, went with Nancy Lewis to buy some groceries before returning to help finish the second coat.) We reluctantly said goodbye to the children that lived in the orphanage and went back to the team house to clean up and eat another wonderful dinner. That evening we talked more with the kids across the street, ate snacks, and went to bed (and slept very well!). Sunday morning we had a pancake breakfast and another praise and sharing time. Someone brought up the analogy of comparing us to the children painting with us. We tend to think that God “needs” us- that we are doing something so great and wonderful and that we’re necessary. I wonder how many times God looks at our job and wonders if we’re helping or hindering more. However, He loves to use us and wants us to help Him, even if he could do it better on His own. It’s humbling to think about that- and encouraging to know that it’s ok if we mess up- God expects that we will and is ready to handle it.

After the sharing time we set out on a hike. The Constanza valley is beautiful and more open than ours. Afterward, we had lunch and set out for home.

It was a great refreshing weekend to hang out with the teachers, serving God in a different way that we normally do. :)

The first house (where orphans already live) 

The house we painted 

The team 

Green noses! 

Pencil Sharpener

If anyone would be willing to send a good classroom, crank- mechanical pencil sharpener, I would greatly appreciate it. I only have mini hand sharpeners that keep breaking and it creates quite a disturbance when students want to sharpen their pencils. Mechanical pencils would be great too, they're expensive here.
Thanks much!

Note of Irony

At this moment, we currently have:
no power
no water (since Thursday)
no gas (in the city)
BUT, we DO have internet! :) hehe
Oh wait, Daniel just told me our water just came back. yay! Time to do dishes...

More pics of the Beach

Katie and Me

 

Pics

Laguna Gri-Gri



Coral
Lunch Time!

 

Pics from Rio San Juan

The beach at Rio San Juan
Rock Formation
The natural "pool"

 

Report Card Week and the Beach

Life has felt very fast paced lately. The week after being sick, Daniel and I spent most of the time catching up, since we were way behind. On top of that, we had to have our grades done for report cards, so that meant lots of grading. Luckily, we’re borrowing some season DVDs of Remington Steele and MacGyver that we watch while we grade to keep ourselves sane. :) Daniel then had to work Friday night on a grad paper, and then another one on Sunday night.

The day after report card day (Saturday), Daniel and I took a day trip to the beach with our church. We had a wonderful time. We met more people from our church and spent the day relaxing and “playing.” Katie, her parents, and Regan came as well, since they also go to our church.

After we arrived, the first thing we did was take a boat to the Laguna Gri-Gri, for about $3 per person. On the way, they showed us a natural pool, cool rock formations, and beautiful coral. The Laguna itself was made from a freshwater spring. It was full of Mangroves, white birds, and vultures. It was very beautiful.

When we got back, we ate lunch. Afterward, Katie and I spent most of the time swimming around or burying ourselves in the sand. There is another little beach from the one where we started to which we could swim. Later, Daniel joined us and we used snorkels and masks to look at all the coral around us. It was a much-needed day to rejuvenate and enjoy life. :)

On Sunday, after church, we went to the home of a Dominican couple that we know through JCS. We enjoyed wonderful food and company!

This week also flew by and we are looking to a weekend of getting work done around the house and relaxing.

As for other news, we bought our tickets to return home over Christmas! We thank God for a wonderful, and unexpected blessing of help in that area. :) Thank you (you know who you are)!