Hello friends and family!

Let me take this opportunity to say how THANKFUL I am for all of you. Your prayers, encouragement, financial support, email responses, and facebook “likes” mean more to me than you could know. I know I am surrounded by an incredible support team and that makes the hard days here more bearable. Let me also say that the “hard days” have been fewer and farther between lately. I am truly settling into a rhythm of life here and the things that used to seem overwhelming aren’t anymore.

To my dear friends and family,

¡Buenos dias! Good morning! As I write to you this morning, I am sitting in my living room, watching through the window as some boys from our school play baseball with a stick and some bottle caps in the street in front of my house. Today is an election day in the Dominican Republic, so we have the day off from school. They seem to be enjoying their day off just as much as I am, although I’m choosing to spend my relaxing day off with some reading, laundry, an iced coffee, and a letter to you all! I hope this letter finds you and your family well, living in the intense joy and freedom that comes from a life lived in the center of Christ’s will.

Hello everyone!

I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend! My weekend here was great, very relaxing and restful. Due to some sort of random allergic reaction, I was a bit under-the-weather last week. But thankfully the reaction finally went away and I am happy and healthy once again. Praise God! We also enjoyed some cooler weather last week and this weekend due to some large rainstorms passing through, but today we’re back to normal. As I write this, it is 9:00 PM and only 84 degrees, but when you add the 79% humidity, that makes for a toasty (sweaty) evening.

Hello everyone!

Thank you for your continued prayers and emails of encouragement! I am continuing to settle into my life here and am finding a routine and a rhythm for each week. I finally know how to actually “live” here – for example, I know how to get clean water to my house, I know how to clean the fruits and veggies I buy at roadside fruit stands, I know where to buy the best chicken, I know how to do my laundry and hang it to dry before the rain comes each afternoon, I know that I can stop by Luz and Lucy’s house anytime I want for a cup of coffee, and I know who to talk to at school if I need paper, some pencils, or a bottle of glue. It feels great to have these things figured out!

Hello everyone!

Today I taught math to 1st graders, 2nd graders, 4th graders, and 7th graders – in Spanish. Can you believe that?! I’m telling you, the power of God to work through us is just incredible. My lessons were…interesting. Some went well, some were a bit hectic. I had 1st graders trying to eat our plastic manipulatives and 7th graders who were throwing them across the room. But today was day 1 and I know it’s going to be an uphill climb! Please continue to pray for my students!

Hi everyone!

I just finished my second week here at the Eva M. Russell School and am so excited about what God is doing! I already have 15 girls signed up to begin Bible study classes on Wednesday and have 5 volunteers to help. What a great answer to prayer! We will begin our Bible study by talking about the widow who gave her only two coins as an offering at the temple. The Bible talks about her in Mark 12 and Luke 21. Please be praying for God to be glorified through our study on Wednesday!

Hello everyone!

Hanging out after school

How thankful I am to have the opportunity to write to you tonight from my new home in Monte Plata! I have only lived here for a little over a week but I can tell that God was preparing a place here for me for months and years before my arrival. I am completely moved into my new home, which is a house at the back of the school property. I have a Dominican roommate who is a product of the ministry and now works here at the school in the kitchen. She is wonderful and is a huge answer to prayer.

Hello everyone!

It is with a mixture of sadness and excitement (OK – mostly excitement!!) that I write to update you all today. Today is my last full day in the United States for quite some time! I will be leaving for Cremona, Canada (northwest of Calgary) tomorrow morning. When I arrive I will head to River’s Edge Camp for two weeks of Cultural Orientation for Personal Effectiveness training (COPE). This training is run by Wycliffe Bible Translators so most of the missionaries will be associated with their organization. However, there are 4 of us Kids Alive International missionaries who will be training with them, along with some other missionaries from other organizations. I am so excited to meet all these incredible people and hear their stories. Please pray that we are able to form encouraging and edifying relationships in such a short amount of time. I spoke with another missionary named Alex yesterday who will be joining me at training and then will be serving in Monte Plata with me with Kids Alive. He left for Canada today and I know he would also appreciate your prayers.

Dear Family and Friends,

It is with great rejoicing and excitement that I write this letter to you today! I hope that as you are reading this, you are also able to reflect on the wonderful things God is doing in your life and can see Him at work as I can. I would love to hear about the things God is teaching you and showing you this summer! Please feel free to write, call, or email anytime!

Dear Family and Friends,

I pray that this letter finds you and your family well and deeply satisfied by the love of our Savior. It is with great excitement that I write to you to tell you of an amazing way that God is working in my life and in the lives of His children around the world. Most of you know that I have been a part of four short-term mission trips to the Dominican Republic since I was a high school student (2005, 2006, 2011, and 2012). Each time that I’ve visited the Dominican Republic, God has used my experiences there to direct me and call me into a deeper relationship with Him. It was there in 2005 that I solidified my decision to become a teacher. And it was there in 2011 that God began to work on my heart in a new, exciting way by calling me into full-time missionary work. Each time that I’ve left the Dominican Republic to return home, it has become harder and harder to leave that incredible country and the people there behind. I am excited to say that the next time I travel to the Dominican Republic, I won’t have to leave for a while!