Caitlin and I also celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Dec. 23. Here are a few pics of us.
Also i've posted pictures of Kings Day at The Ark.

I'M PREGNANT!!

A lot has happened since our last update. The most important of course being we bought a new camera for Christmas. Well, that’s not entirely true, although we did buy one. Neither is the statement of the heading “I’m pregnant” exactly correct. However, it would be correct to say that Caitlin is pregnant!! Much has happened in the last few months. We have settled into our home at the orphanage, made friends, started accomplishing things with work, we’ve been home for Christmas, and yes, bought a new camera. But the most exciting news is that we will be expecting a child sometime in the middle of July.
About 3 months ago is when we discovered the wonderful news. We are extremely grateful that God has blessed us with this privilege. While in the states over Christmas, Caitlin and I went to see the doctor and heard the heartbeat of our little child not yet 3 months in the womb. Seemingly so far from being born, but already bearing our traits. Our child grows and awaits the glorious day, much like the two proud parents. It was a blessed time to spend with our family and offer this news as a very unique Christmas present. We will be bringing in a series of firsts with our first child. Both sides will produce first time grandparents. We also have first time great grandparents. And believe it or not we even have first time great-great grandparents! Needless to say, there’s nothing but smiles all across the board!
This of course means many things and many decisions to be made. In May Caitlin will fly back to the states in order to have the baby, who is due around July 18th. Our original two year commitment with Kids Alive will complete in May. We had both made the decision to stay in the DR for an extra few summer months. Summer is the busiest time for us, as is when most of our work teams come for service projects. I will be going back to Caraballo and leading 3 teams in June and early July, among whom our home church “Cape Bible Chapel” will join me to start off our short summer of teams on the north coast. Immediately following, I will fly back to Missouri to be with my wife and to share in the birth of our first child. As of now, our plans are to stay in Missouri for at least a couple of months with the new baby, and our immediate family. Beyond that, we are unsure at this time where God will bring us. We are excited and also a bit nervous as God continues to develop our lives through these changes; and we are confident it is for the furthering of His kingdom. But, we are not finished in the DR just yet; and we know God has many more challenges and blessings in-store.
The month of December in the DR was a short one for us. We flew back to Missouri on the 12th of December. Awaiting us were our families, friends, and numerous supporters; many of whom hadn’t seen us since the last Christmas. We had 25 days to catch up with old friends, spend time with family, fellowship with our home church, and eat. This year I took home the title of “most weight gained in the States”; with 15 pounds being added to my overall weight. Surprisingly enough, Caitlin was not a sore loser, although I might add also that I gained more weight than my pregnant wife.
We returned to the DR just in time for the Kings Day celebration at “The Ark”. Kings Day is January 6th, and it is when the big gift giving festivities take place. Every year “The Ark” has a grand celebration with a pancake and fried salami breakfast, and a gift giving time. Every kid gets 3 or 4 gifts, and all the missionaries get to watch as eyes light up, and faces fill with joy when presents begin to be passed out. It is very much an emotional event as these former “dead”, unwanted and abandoned kids partake, some for the very first time, in receiving these few gifts. Material as they may be, it is love they are truly receiving. Although, these gifts of plastic toys will pass away, this ceremony of receiving these free gifts allows a model for the ultimate free gift to be received. The rules are the same no strings attached, no obligations, no requirements, no prior gift receiving experience needed; nothing except pure innocent child-like faith and excitement. We look forward in this year in placing Christ as the center; to bring every child under our care into their full potential in Him. Thank you for your continued prayer and support. We are indebted to each and everyone one of you who are sacrificing your time or finances to help us show the love of Christ to the beautiful people of this country. Please continue to pray for our ministry as well as the changes that will occur in our lives in the near future.
In Christ,
Layne and Caitlin Beller

The Ark

Hello again. It has been a couple of months since the last blog update, and for that I feel very badly. Our camera has been, and still is, broken , a lame excuse but who likes reading a blog entry without pictures? Well your stuck with good ‘ol fashion reading for now, because there isn’t anywhere here we can get our camera fixed. Much has been going on since our move to Jarabacoa. We are living in an apartment at the orphanage outside of town. There are about 45 kids divided up into 6 different houses. Each house is run and managed by a Dominican married couple who have children of their own as well. We have had the privilege of spending time with almost every family unit. The love these kids receive has been very encouraging. The children come from the worst of the worst situations, but to see them interacting within their homes you would never know they had a “past”. There is discipline, structure, organization, spirituality, and fun that flows from every home, and house parent. Although “The Ark” is quite a ways out of town, especially for only having a motorcycle, it has proved to be a very unique culture experience, as well as a refreshing mountain living experience.
What we do
Caitlin immediately started teaching as the school year began when we arrived in August. Jarabacoa is home to a few different Kids Alive sites. “The Ark” is one, and another major project is “Anija” The school we run in town. Anija is where all the “Ark” kids go for school, as well as a majority of other kids in the Jarabacoa community that are sponsored through our program, and also a few kids from wealthier families whom are paying tuition. It is a school that goes from age 4 up to 8th grade. Caitlin is teaching English to the 2nd through 8th grade students. It is proving to be a good test of patients with her, as the cultural norm for classroom behavior is quite opposite from that of the US. She is also working with the sponsorship program at The Ark. That means all those letters you receive, and send go through her first. She gets to spend a good amount of time with the kids doing the different projects and translating the letters. The kids love to brag about their sponsors and show you their pictures. The smiles on their faces are a sure tell that are loved. It has been a very rewarding experience for Caitlin to be involved with this work, as well as the both of us in living at The Ark.
My work is not so easily defined. On any given day I might be at 3 different ministry sites. We have another Kids Alive site further up in the mountains in a town called Constanza. We have come to know the missionaries there that host teams fairly well. I was able to spend some weeks on and off with them during a period when they were hosting teams early this fall. I have also been helping out with various projects at our care center in Palo Blanco. Palo Blanco is a small community outside of Jarabacoa. The care center in Caraballo is much like the one in Palo Blanco. My first project was doing the electrical work for an entire upstairs addition. The only thing I knew about electrical work before I started was what color wires hot, neutral and ground were, which does no good here because they haven’t really figured out the color coding thing yet. It was actually a lot fun, I learned quite a bit. With my “How-to” book and some guidance from a couple a guys who actually know what they’re doing , I finished the project un-electrocuted, and with all the lights and outlets in working order. A regular electrician now, I am. The project I am currently working on is at The Ark. With about ten buildings and about a hundred people, we are basically a small community. No community is complete without lots of broken things and ongoing maintenance projects. I could just jump in and fix everything, but in the long run that doesn’t accomplish much. The solution therefore is training the house dads, whom all work in different capacities at The Ark. My plan is to demonstrate a level of professional work and problem solving that helps in maintaining routine fixes and everyday tasks. We are starting by moving all 5 locations where tools, parts, and junk are stored, into one central organized shop. After that I will develop a work schedule and problem solving organizational solution to accomplish work.

In summary, we are busy but rested, happy but challenged, both learning brand new things but receiving the upmost respect. I would say we are truly happy. God is growing us in our relationship with Him, as well as each other. We are constantly seeing and seeking his grace, and peace and comfort, but also not missing his sovereign nudges of growth through uncomfort.

Big big change

Many of you know of the big big change the island has in-store for Caitlin and I. Our last year was spent on the North coast of the Dominican Republic. An area made up a many Haitians and Dominicans, as well as a fair amount of ex-patriots. The north Coast has been a popular vacation spot for the last 15 years or so. During our time living in Monte llano, and working in the sugar cane batey, (village) of Caraballo, we have seen and been apart of many great advances and changes in the lives of kids, visitors, and the school. With the work teams coming to an end for 2008 in Caraballo, our directors purposed a few openings at a different Kids Alive site in Jarabacoa, about 2 hours away. Since our main job had been hosting work teams it made since for us to consider and take the offer to move. In Jarabacoa we will be surrounded by the majority of the Kids Alive DR staff. Caitlin will assume the English teaching role at the school, Anija, as well as cover some much needed sponsorship responsibilities there. I will working with teams that come to Jarabacoa, as well as provide some much needed help with teams in Constanza, another Kids Alive site. When there are no teams my role will be one of maintaining the buildings and doing small construction and maintenance. This is a very bittersweet move for us, as we will be leaving behind over a year’s worth of friendships, success, trials, progress and change. Even though we will only be 2 hours away it feels as if we were saying goodbye forever. We will greatly miss our Kids Alive staff of Jessi, Candace, and Alberto. We will also be leaving behind other friends that we hope to always stay in touch. Nationals, and fellow North Americans alike, it’s never easy saying goodbye to people you love.

Teams

With only three teams left on the year and numerous projects to finish, we had our work cut out for us. The first two teams came during the last few weeks of our summer program that Caitlin was heading up. Trinity Fellowship from Texas, and Lisbon Falls from Maine, proved to be some of our best groups ever! Both had work ethics that rivaled even some of our adult groups. We moved about 3 metric tons of rock to make a parking lot, poured about 300ft of side walks, and poured the floor and started laying block for our new cistern. They were two very successful weeks for construction, but even more than that, we were able to see the lives of these teens change right before our eyes. For the first time ever we had a group where every single person made a decision to sponsor a child! There were teens as well as adult leaders who acknowledged the call in their lives to missions. I saw an unwilling selfish attitude on Monday, change to a willing servant heart by Friday. Even more exciting, we witnessed a life changing decision for Christ immediately followed by an ocean baptism!
Our third and final group of the year in Caraballo, was a returning group from Connecticut. Valley Baptist is the most mission minded church I’ve ever known, with trips all over the world, all year long. That’s why it was a great honor to have them back. They could have chosen many places, but we are honored they chose us. There were many that returned from the previous year. Nineteen people in all, we split the group into 3 parts. Ten of the guys did construction, six did medical with Jessi, our nurse, and three did VBS with Caitlin. The medical and education team really ministered to Caitlin and Jessi, they had only good things to say about their week. On the construction end, our national workers told me all week long that this group was the hardest working group we’ve had yet! They played a key role the preparation for the wood shop being built. We also built a wall, and laid quite a few blocks. The guys were a great encouragement to our national workers. In the end, children were sponsored, relationships were built, and even a few people with expressed interest in career missions!

random rant

Ok so today in church we took communion, just like every Sunday, but this week was a bit different. Why you ask? Because this Sunday the cup was juice. Probably normal for most who are reading, but not here. Here they use wine, and they always have in our church, now its really really cheap wine, but that's not the point. The interesting part about it was after we took communion an elder of the church randomly got up and noted the difference and asked the congregation their opinion. It's never really a good idea to ask a group of Dominicans their opinion in a public gathering. They are very passionate and feed off each other and everything gets louder and louder, and the people more emotional and more passionate. Finally Ruben stood up and interrupted and said that it wasn't the appropriate time or place to be having this discussion and they should have a meeting at another time. The whole thing was humorous to me, at one point someone suggested we have half juice and half wine so as to please everyone. Will everyone ever be pleased? If you want to be literal, and choose to agree with me, the last supper consisted of bread and WINE, not juice, and no it wasn't because the wine wasn't fermented, or that the water of the day was dirty. I feel like if Jesus wanted to have juice or water he would have done it. BUT I'm not going to fight to the death over something this silly. What does it matter really if you use wine or juice, sure I prefer wine because I choose to model my life after my Saviour (that was meant to be funny) but its the point of partaking in the covenant meal. We are to remember, and often (as in not just once a month) the obligation that Christ took on for us and our descendants and how it should bring us to reverence before him because when we come into reverence, it brings forth submission. Submission is the only appropriate response that comes out of reverence, and it is submission to God that we should be seeking.
Now, you might be thinking, how immature it is for them to argue over wine or juice, obviously it doesn't matter. But wait a second, are not the things we fight about in worship (church) just as dumb. Take music for example. The day I say I'm leaving a church because I don't like their music being contemporary or not, please slap me in the face. The fact that your music is contemporary or traditional is not the point. The problem is the individuals lack of understanding of what worship (church) is about and is supposed to accomplish, and what their position is in that. And since when does "worship" mean the music part of the service. If I were to explain our church culture in this situation to a Dominican Christian, they would laugh and say "silly Americans". The reality is all of us are silly, myself included, at some point when it comes to our interpretations of the Christian life. I hope I never leave a church because their music is too slow, or not contemporary enough, or too upbeat and loud. That doesn't mean music isn't important. Music is crucial to a worship service, its not the "point", it only brings us to the point. Our music should prepare our hearts for the worship service, which means it should be reverent and lead us to a point of humility and a state of fearfulness, because the ultimate point is submission. My personal opinion is that most, not all, of the modern "contemporary" music that I have heard, is neither reverent, nor fearful resulting not in my submission, but rather in my feelings at the present time. I'm also not pushing for solely traditional music. The point is not what form is better, but rather what will lead the congregation to a state where they are ready for the "rest" of the worship, the point of it all, which is submission.

Many of you know of the back problems that have plagued me. 10 years of Doctors, Chiropractors, Therapists, and still the problems continue. I’ve been misdiagnosed, mistreated, and overlooked. At the very height of pain that I have yet experienced, when Cape Bible Chapel was here, I had decided that I had enough. I started doing some internet research on my problems. I also talked to the Chapel team leader, also good friend and supporter Jay Meystedt, who had similar problems. He told me a specialist he went to in CO springs that had completely fixed him with just a few treatments. So I figured it was worth the time and money to give it a shot. Have you ever cried from pain? Not the frustration of the pain, just the pain. Well that’s about where I was, so I said goodbye to Caitlin for a week and boarded a plane back to the states. Upon arrival, I was met by high school friend and also supporter Andy Young. Andy and his wife Kristie visited us in the DR earlier in the year and we were able to show them the lives and work that they are sacrificing for. I stayed with them for several nights as they treated me with home cooked meals, delightful dishes of, grilled pork tenderloin, steak, homemade hamburgers and pizza! Andy also lent me his truck for week as my appointments were in the Springs and they live in Denver. (which literally saved me a couple hundred dollars) After a few nights at the Young’s, I headed south to CO Springs. I spent too short of a time with Chris, Caitlin's brother. We had lunch and walked around downtown and talked of the struggles of missions and solved the universes poverty problems all in a couple of hours. It was good to see him. I also visited and stayed with some of our other favorite friends, the Gaonas. I was greeted at the Gaona’s with welcome notes, drawings and a chocolate from their four children. I was also referred to as ‘Mr. Beller’ by all four of them the entire time I was there. The Gaona’s are also supporters and it was good to be able to share with them the things God has been doing. They are expecting their 5th child and are in the process of selling their house and buying another with an extra room. I went with them one day to look at houses. It was kind of weird. For half a day I was completely taken in to American thought. Oh yeah, buying a house is a mostly normal thing that Caitlin and I might have to do again some day. It was rather enjoyable being back in that mindset. Looking at houses, critiquing the cheap cabinets, carpeted bathrooms, peel and stick linoleum, and seeing peoples houses for sale by the bank because they couldn’t pay their mortgage, but had a big screen in every room, and two new SUV’s in the garage. Ok maybe that last part wasn’t fun, more, sad, but we did see several places like that. I’m not saying that I shall never be exempt from finding myself in circumstances like that, but I do pray that I shall never allow sin into my life so deep that it takes over everything in such a way where responsibility holds no meaning but rather lusts of life come before the well being my family, and my duty of stewardship before the Lord. I consider it a blessing the experience we have had thus far living life closer to the way the rest of the world lives. For this, I hope and pray, will always be a reminder to us of Gods intended purpose for our family and future generations. I have only to think of the barefooted man handling the cart. The lowly peasant with the 100 lbs perfectly balanced on his head running for his life, sweat and desperation in his eyes, Lord, make me like lowly peasant, the cart handler, may I always work with no shoes.

The doctors in CO Springs were very helpful actually. One of them that saw me for 2 of my visits was actually a believer! Dr. Matthews was able to tell me about my problem, and perfectly explain the treatment he was doing and why it would eventually fix the problem. After each visit I could feel and tell a difference. He recommended that I continue with very specific Chiropractic treatment upon return to the DR. I have since been twice more and am hoping and praying that this will soon be brought to a close. Yes I am ready to move on, back problems are a pill.