New York! New York!

We all made it safely to New York, grabbed a bite to eat and will be boarding our flight to the DR in about half an hour. We learned right before we left Chicago that JFK airport had just reopened and we were very blessed to be able to take off at all....let alone on time! God is good! The next time you hear from us it will be from Dominican soil!!! We can't wait!!

So far, so good!

Well our whole team made it safely to Chicago, got checked in and through security without a hitch! Despite some anxiety over the record making blizzard our flight from Chicago to New York is still scheduled to take off on time. We are praising God for travel mercies and believe He has His hand in this.....3500 flights in the east were cancelled and ours isn't one of them! Please continue to pray as we are about 45 minutes from boarding our first flight! We thank you in advance and will keep you all updated as often as we can!

Heading back to the Dominican Republic. Meet our February 2013 team!



The beautiful Dominican Republic

It is hard to believe that we are only one week away from traveling to the Dominican Republic. Five members of our team of twelve are making returning to the D.R. for the second time while the other seven members are getting ready to experience the beauty of the landscape and the Dominican people for the first time. We are all so excited for what God has in store for us and covet your prayers as we prepare our hearts for this journey.  Take a few moments to get to know each of the team members a little bit.

Chris Russell – Chris is the senior pastor of our church and is making his second trip to the D.R. He would like for everyone to believe that he is a rock, but he shed more than a few tears on the trip last year. Some little known facts about Chris include that he doesn’t know how to spell his middle name, he doesn’t chew his peas so he doesn’t have to taste them, and he is in love with the Dominican princesses that he and his wife Rachel, sponsor.

Rachel Russell – Rachel is a psychiatric nurse by profession and has had a heart for missions and people for as long as she can remember. Rachel is also returning to the Dominican Republic for the second time and can’t wait to hug her sponsored girls again. Rachel makes the world’s best cheesecake, gets violent when tickled and could win any belching contest you put her in.

Chris Wert – Chris is the organizational mastermind behind this trip and has spent many hours making sure all of the many details are taken care of. Chris is also a second time traveler to the DR and will be one of the team members that we have to force to come home at the end of the week. Those beautiful kiddos have her wrapped around their finger! Chris is slightly afraid of some of the mystery meat we may encounter so she will be mainly vegetarian on this trip. And you will never catch her eating a hot dog… no matter what country she is in!

Chris Bennett – Chris has been anticipating his return to the Dominican Republic since before he left the first time he was there. Chris was the local bicycle repairman on our last trip so we look forward to seeing what he can fix for the kiddos this time!

Joan Troyer – While Joan wasn’t with us on our trip last year this isn’t her first trip to the Dominican Republic. Several years ago (we won’t say how many) Joan was a part of the first service team out of Goshen College to serve in the DR. Joan is looking forward to meeting the kids enjoying some of the local cuisine.  In her free time Joan enjoys bike riding and participated in something called the Donut ride last year!

Lara van de Wal – Lara is the Dutch high school exchange student living with Chris and Rachel Russell this year. Lara has never been to the Dominican Republic but has been all over Europe. We plan to make Lara put her Spanish class skills to use to help us talk to the kiddos. Lara secretly loves the group One Direction (oops, did I let that one slip?) and has turned into a runner this year in hopes of being the first exchange student to ever come to America and not gain weight!

Bianca Golm – Bianca is the German high school exchange student living with Chris and Rachel Russell this year. Bianca (nicknamed “Angry German” even though she is anything but angry) is a first time DR traveler but obviously isn’t a stranger to being in a foreign country!  Bianca loves to have a good time and will sometimes have something we call “Bianca’s five minutes” where she can’t stop laughing.

Leona Martin – Leona has been looking forward to meeting her sponsored child on her first trip to the DR. We were afraid a knee injury would keep her from traveling but with God’s help and clearance from her doctor she is able to come!  In her free time Leona enjoys hanging out with the Wild Women of Waterford and being a grandma.

Rose Yoder – Rose has never been to the Dominican Republic before and is unsure she will survive the flight over the Bermuda Triangle. Rose has a big heart for mission work and also hopes to serve on a team to Ethiopia next year. Rose is also part of the Wild Women of Waterford. She spends her free time with her husband Merv, daughter Riley, and dogs (aka furry children) Sadie, PJ, and Laker.

Karen Green – Last year when Karen traveled to the DR she left little pieces of her heart there with every child she encountered. I think it is safe to say that she fell in love with the people and the country and can’t wait to return. Karen is the proud mother to ten children and has more grandchildren than we can count these days!

Neil Boston – Neil is a first time DR traveler, musician, and artist. Neil will be put to good work in the DR painting murals for the school and doing art projects with the kids. We are also looking forward to having him lead us and the kids in some singing and guitar playing. Neil is ecstatic that he will becoming a first time grandpa in just a few short months and can't wait to spoil his new granddaughter. Neil has been known to wear his wife’s jeans on occasion so ladies keep an eye on your pants.

Bobbie Miller – Bobbie contemplated going to the DR last year but wasn’t able to so we are looking forward to having her on our team this year. Bobbie is a little apprehensive about the flight so we will have to be careful letting her sit next to Rose on the plane! Bobbie is always good for fun and laughter and there is never a dull moment with her around.

Back Home Again in Indiana

Well we made it home safe and sound yesterday at around 9pm. We had a hectic day of travel, 8 of us almost didn't make it out of Miami, but thanks to God's help we all got home and didn't even lose one piece of luggage!

Since the internet connection was a bit unreliable and time was limited to access the internet I'm going to put on a few more posts over the next few days of some of the things I didn't get to blog about but the team wanted to share with you. So stay tuned for more pictures and experiences! And please be diligent in your prayers for all of those precious children we now love dearly and those in the trenches of ministry trying to meet numerous needs day in and day out! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the prayers and support while we were gone!

ANIJA and Palo Blanco

Sorry there was no post yesterday. It was pouring down rain and the internet connection was awful. I tried for about an hour and half to upload pictures without much success and then just created a post without pictures that apparantly didn't go through. So I will try to make up for it tonight by posting a few extra pictures.

We started out our morning at ANIJA - one of the Kid's Alive schools that we have several sponsored children from. We put on our puppet show for them, played games and handed out our gifts. You can see the campus in the picture below (with Ashley Riley in the corner). :) The kids that we sponsor from the Ark orphanage attend school here so we got recognized as soon as we entered campus and got lots of hugs!



The picture below is Chris and Rachel with two of their sponsored kiddos Angelica and Dahiyana. During the puppet show Dahiyana, who was a little timid at first, inched her way closer and closer to Rachel until she was leaning against her. At the end of our time at ANIJA one of the staff members called Rachel and Chris over to share a bit of Dahiyana's story with them. Dahiyana's brother had attended ANIJA before she started and already had a sponsor. Dahiyana started attending the school and her mother was paying her full tuition which was a great hardship on the family. Shortly after she started attending school her father left the family leaving them in an even harder position. Each day Dahiyana would go to school and ask the staff if she had a sponsor yet and day after day they had to tell her no until CCW got involved. Dahiyana asked the staff member to translate to the Russell's that this sponsorship was the most important thing in her life right now. I think it is so easy for us at home to overlook the importance of our relationship with these precious children. We don't realize that they think about us, by name, day in and day out and that we are truely changing their future!

The children at ANIJA made us a sign to thank us for our sponsorship and each of the team members got an ANIJA school pin. Every single one of us on this team would easily agree that we have gotten far more out of this relationship already than our monthly payment reflects!

After ANIJA we went to Palo Blanco where the majority of our sponsored kids attend school and live nearby. This area is the poorest of the poor and the school at Palo Blanco is doing amazing work to change the future of this little community! Nearly 70 children from this small area apply to be a part of the new 3 and 4 year old group at the beginning of each school year and the staff has the difficult decision of selecting 30 of those children. We were told that this is the hardest part of the job. How could you decide which child gets a spot and which one gets left out of this life changing program?? The get more than education at these schools - they get healthcare, meals, stability, safety and love!

The picture below is a picture of Danae with Shayne and Matt Crain's sponsored child. She took an immediate liking to Danae and was by her side during the majority of our visit.

We got to eat lunch with some of the children in the school. In the picture below you can see Ashlee eating with two of the girls. We had the typical Dominican meal of beans and rice and cabbage salad. This meal is often the only meal the child will get for the day.

Chris Bennett was sitting beside the little cutie in the picture below. He noticed she had a heaping plate of food but didn't even know how to hold her spoon. She was more than happy to eat once she had a little help!

We got to go to the homes of some of our sponsored children which was the most eye opening, heartbreaking reality check. The picture below is Tina with her sponsored boy, Raul, and his father and cousin. Raul had a very nice home for the area as it was all made of concrete block and not just wood and actually even had a very small upstairs area.

However the picture below shows a much more accurate depiction of the majority of the living conditions in the area. This is the cooking area of the home Jerry and Donna Riley's sponsored boy lives in. There aren't even words that can do justice to describe the neighborhoods. Today was also a rainy day and the mud on the paths leading up to the houses was so thick it sucked our shoes off. The amazing thing was that every home we visited we were welcomed into warmly with no protests of "my house is too small for so many people" or "but I haven't had a chance to clean." We were able to pray protection, love and security over the homes with most of the families that we visited. I think we all left feeling incredibly humbled, heartbroken and inadequate in our ability to help.

There were so many tears shed today but our hearts are so full. We all agree that we want to find a way to not forget what we have seen, heard and felt when we get back to all of our creature comforts! We want our hearts to stay broken!

El Arca (The Ark)

What can you say after spending the day at the Ark? It is an amazing place and it is obvious that the children are loved and cared for and shown God's love in very practical ways on a daily basis. The Ark is the orphanage in Jarabacoa. Not all children cared for at the Ark are orphans - some still have living parents but were unable to be properly cared for at home.

As soon as we got to the Ark we were welcomed warmly by the kids and staff. Some of the sponsored children were eager and latched on to their sponsors immediately while others were a little bit timid to start with. We got a tour of the campus and the brightly colored houses, put on a puppet show that taught a Bible story, played basketball, and played on the playground.


This little girl in the picture below loved being pushed by Derek (Brett and Norine Troeger's nephew). He was a hit with the little kids.....especially since he can speak Spanish!




Willy, sponsored by Ashley & Kevin and Chris W & Chris B was definitely one of the more timid kiddos. He was the quiet one in the midst of all of the kids running around yelling and playing.

We were excited to get to go to Jeff Vandermolen's (the regional director of the Ark) house for dinner with all of the sponsored kids from CCW. We played volleyball, soccer and jumped on the trampoline before the darkness forced us inside for dinner. We had a great meal of haystacks with chocolate cake for dessert.

I think Jerry and Chris were in over their heads playing basketball with the teenage boys at the Ark. They had to take multiple breaks to catch their breath and Chris even wiped out once. Jerry looks like he still has decent form for an old guy though!

And Karen was in her element when she found this little boy that wanted to cuddle. She could have stayed there all day holding him!!

Little Genesis (sponsored by Nancy and Todd Clouse) had everyone wrapped around her finger. She was dressed in her finest to meet us and had a smile that charmed everyone.

We learned that the sponsors are called Madrina and Padrino (Godmother and Godfather). Some of the children that had sponsors at the Ark proudly drug them around to their friends introducing their Madrina and Padrino. I think we all agree that the work the Ark does is truely a blessing in these kid's lives and our partnership with them is something to be very proud of!

Pictures!!

I just wanted to share a few more pictures with everyone so you can get more of an idea of what it is like here!



This group of girls were watching us work from the other side of the creek bed.





Rachel and an adorable little girl named Onlady. She seemed to tag along wherever we were and loved the attention. She LOVED having her picture taken and then seeing herself on our camera screens.

Chris Bennett became the neighborhood bike repairman. Before he came along this little boy was using 2 massive butcher knives (about 12 inch knives) to try to pry the tire off the rim.

Roberto was such a big helper for such a little guy. He filled so many buckets with sand and helped us carry them back across the bridge.

Tina, Samantha, Danae and Ashlee were practicing for the puppet show we are going to put on at the Ark tonight and ANIJA and Palo Blanco on Monday. (Here is your picture of your wife, Ben!)

This was our transportation to the work sites each day. The people in the back that were right up against the cab actually stood during the ride and held on for dear life! :)