Trying to Catch Up

Recently, I received a request for updates, and it made me realize how much time has passed since I last posted on our blog. Boy am I behind! :)

I'll try to give the short version of the last couple months from both the ministry view & ours.

The Ministry

• Since the 1st of January, we have a Dominican family living out on the land. The father works for us as a guard. He's an extremely hard worker & does such a great job. His oldest daughter is in our 4-year-old class. Her name is Beba.
• We've started to break ground! Freedom is in the process of building a large garage to store the bus. In addition, we have mapped out the first building & sizes of the 4 classrooms we hope to build by the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.
• Tomorrow, February 12th, is our official ground breaking ceremony. There are several government officials, educational leaders, and more coming to celebrate the beginning of Freedom here in the Dominican Republic. Only by God's grace were we able to set this up.
• Tax free! Within the last week, Freedom was given a letter stating that we do not need to pay city taxes to build. It's obvious that God is in control!

Our Lives

•  We made the much awaited decision on what the coming years hold for us. As of January 1st, Kurt & I became full-time missionaries with Freedom International Ministries, Inc. 
• Now, we are trying to raise the support needed to live here in the Dominican Republic. Although the decision to stay was tough, we realized that we are most fulfilled when we glorify God with our lives. Living here & working with Freedom gives us that fulfillment :) 
• Visitors in January. Kurt's parents came to see us again the beginning of January. We had a blast spending time together! They encouraged us throughout the week & were able to share our vision here with Freedom.

Overall, the last couple of months have brought many new things. I'm continually amazed at the way God works in our lives in the lives of the people we work with. For us, there is so much that needs to be done if we want to continue impacting lives here. You'd think that after making that one tough decision, that the rest would be easy. However, there are still a lot of small things to figure out, so we appreciate your prayers & support for the coming months. Thanks so much for investing in us!

Love, Katie