Welcome Parents

Caitlin's Parents came to visit! They arrived while Cape Bible, also their home church, was in town. They helped out with a VBS we did in the village and were able to see us "in action" as we lead our team. When the team left they invited us to stay at the bed and breakfast in near by Sosua with them for the week. 24hrs of power, hot water, we were in! The neat thing about the Roark's is they are explorers, with Mike being a Geogropher the adventures were a blast and unforgettable.

Our first adventure wasn't too far from home. We took a nice Sunday drive up to the mountain 'campo' or country. It was beautiful. We were able to show Caitlin's parents a little bit of the mountian culture, as well as our favorite little mountain cottage.


We also stopped by Ruben and Juvi's house to introduce them to the Roarks. The Roarks bought a very nice pueter baking plater and presented it to them as a house warming gift. We hung out and talked and were entertained with Mike's carefree unafraid attempt at spanish conversation. He actually did quite well!

On a different day Caitlin took them out to the 'campo' (country) to meet one of our teachers, Dorka, who was wanting to meet them. Dorka is into gardening and flowers and Caitlin told her all about her dad's passion for his flowers. She told her how he hybridizes his own flowers and how beautiful his extensive collection is in the MO spring time. Mike brought pictures of his garden, upon Dorkas request, and he presented them to her. It was neat to show the Roarks the "true" Dominican Republic.

A taste of home

Our home church 'Cape Bible Chapel', returned for a 2nd year of work at the Park Care Center. We had a really great week. Last year when they came they were our first full week work team. The site has changed dramatically in just one year, and it was neat seeing their faces light up as we drove to the school that first day. We mixed concrete by hand, tied rebar, and poured A LOT of concrete. We poured close to 300ft of sidewalks, bleecher seats and goals for our basket ball court. The other really cool thing we did was organize, stuff, and hand out almost 250 gift bags that all our kids recieved at the mothers day party we had. It's always nice when your job includes your friends.

America

Ok so this blog is really really late from the actual time it occured. We are behind at bit. At the end of April we went home to the states for a Kids Alive global 'Soul Care Conference'. Missionaries from around the world came for 3 days of relaxing, learning, and fellowship. And just where do you host a Global conference? Well Wisconsin of course. Home of the in-door water parks. It was really neat to share time with people serving everywhere from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South America. Every country did a presentation where they shared about their site and the children they are rescueing. We left feeling loved and cared for by our organization.

We also spent an extra week with some friends in Seattle. My best friend Jeremy and his wife Mehgan, and soon to be little Jeremy jr. I have known Jeremy for about 10 years. We were in our first band together (even though we couldn't initially play intruments). Jeremy has been a good friend over the years and has always been there to talk to. We sometimes spend hours talking on the phone, or now 'Skype', about the trials we face, or talking through thick theological issues. Our time with them was great but also way too short.

The last part of our trip included a stop in NYC. Originally when I bought the plane ticketts we had an 11 hr lay over and planned to go out and see the city. The flights changed and we only had 5hrs of lay over making it a little harder. Especially because we had to switch airports inbetween as well. By the time we got to JFK and put our bags in storage we had only 3hrs left. Caitlin had never been so we decided to try. We took the subway downtown at around 3am. We literally got off the subway and started running like crazy people in the almost empty Times Square so we could see as much of the downtown as possible. 30min later we hopped in a cab, as the subway was too slow, and paid a rediculous amount of money to get back to the airport in time to check in. It was an adventure. Really stupid, really crazy, really expensive, but fun! After being up for around over 50 hrs strait our bed was the best welcoming home present you could ask for.

A place to put dishes

The perfect house can't be complete without a place to store your pots and pans. Thats why I decided to make my 'first ever' cabinets to complete Rubens house. I have been blessed with some pretty nice tools that make things a lot easier. There are always frustrations of doing things for the first time. Especially when you want them to be perfect. Well I would say all those issues of " Fine Wood Working" paid off. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. The most important thing is Juvi has a complete kitchen now. Well almost, I still have a few more doors to make. But I am well equipped now to take on the next cabinet project (which is a little bigger) with our school kitchen. Wood working is kind of fun!

A Dedication

Our church, Templo Biblico, and the Park Care Center teamed up to do a dedication of Ruben and Juvi's house. All the school teachers were invited and the whole church was invited. We had a packed house. They even brought over the band! The night was a celebration of what God had done in Ruben and Juvi's life. Several people prepared solo's, they even made me get up and sing "Trading my Sorrows". After, a few men from the church spoke, and then Alberto, our school director (and Rubens boss) spoke very emotionally about the family. He retold, with tears in his eyes, the story of how it all came about. It was the first time for many people to hear the extent of the story. After he was done several men insisted I get up and say something. Alot of people didn't really know me very well or know that Caitlin and I were apart the story at all. They wanted to hear from me personally. I had never spoke publically to a large group of people in spanish before, and I was really really scared. But I made it through and just talked about how much of a blessing it was to be apart of the way God was working, and how I was blessed to be apart of such a specail family here. It was a good night

Vicinos

We live in a Dominican nieghborhood. If your door is open that means anyone is free to come inside your house. If someone comes to your house around dinner time that means they are hungry and you should share your dinner with them. They don't exactly treat us the same as the other Dominicans. I think they know Americans are a little more independent and we like our space sometimes. But we do like to take part in the very relational, unselfish parts of this culture. We do have people over for dinner from time to time, of course its a very planned-in-advance "American" thing. Our friends, Leandro, and Joel (pronounced, Ho-el), came over one night and made Donplinas, (which is how they pronounce dumplings), fried salami, and sweet plantane, or platano maduro. It was a wonderful meal, that we shared with about 10 other nieghbors. Afterwards, I brought my laptop outside under the carport next to our house, where everyone hangs out, and we all pulled up a chair and watched a Dominican comedy classic "Sanky Panky" No it's not a porno get you mind out of the gutter. A sanky panky is when a Dominican man meets a older maybe not so attractive wealthy American woman in hopes of marrying her and fulfilling his biggest dreams of being able to sit around all day and do nothing. Ok maybe they do that anyway, but the catch is that they would have money, and ultimately someday be able to go to the US, specifically NYC. It's actually really funny, even if you can't understand what they are saying.

A special dinner

Ruben and Juvi invited Caitlin and I over for dinner in their new house. It was a special night. We played the game "Apples to Apples" (in spanish) it was a lot of fun. They have such a beautiful home. We had a traditional Dominican meal, with fried plantane, potato and egg salad, and fried salami, (healthy I know), oh and home-made lemon juice. The only thing their house lacked was kitchen cabinets.