The Bridge

We decided to watch some people walk across to see how deep it actually was.

This is one of the side rails. I think the other one was just as covered.

We made it across safely. No worries :)

Just another week...

Lately, it feels like the weeks have been running together. We are now in the 3rd week of homeschooling & 8th week of teaching, & things are moving along smoothly. I think we now have a rhythm. Everyone appears to have adjusted to doing school in the morning (8-9:30), going to the bateys in the afternoon (9:30-1:30), & finishing school in the evening (2:00-5:00).

We missed several days of teaching last week thanks to hurricane Irene, but we're back on track. As you might have guessed, we came out of the storm in good shape. We only experienced rain (and lots of it) along with some high winds one evening. The roads also flooded, but once the sun came out, the water dried up quickly. We had trouble getting to the bateys because the bridge we have to cross was under water. There were a couple of days following that it was still covered, but we crossed anyway :) I'll put up some pictures so you can get a better idea.

Anyway, not much else has happened. We appreciate all of your prayers (and I can't say that enough). Hope everyone is doing well & feel free to call or email. We love getting updates from all of you!

Hugs to all,
Katie

Estamos aprendiendo

From our apartment roof

       This week was the last week for having American groups here for the summer. We enjoyed getting to know a lot of new people & spending time sharing life with them here in the Dominican. It was wonderful to have extra hands helping out in the bateys! We are going to miss everyone & count it a blessing that we were able to have them here :)

Moving forward... we have 5 more weeks of VBS ministry in Lima & Pinones. These next 5 weeks are an area where we're going to need your prayers. The kids in the bateys have spent the last 4 weeks being able to play with lots of people, enjoy new toys, & make a craft everyday. Now that the groups are gone, it will be Pam, the Hilgeman boys, the Simos' kids, & us (the Clines). We will not be doing a craft, & we have made it a point not to make our relationship built around giving them things. So... it will be a drastic change in what they've become used to. Please pray that the kids will respond positively to the change,  and that we continue to make progress in our relationships.

We love you all and we encourage everyone to consider when you might think it would be a good time to come and visit ;)

PS.  If you haven't been following "Around Freedom in 60 Seconds" you should check it out on http://itisforfreedom.com  (top right hand corner of homepage) We just posted week 5's video about 10 minutes ago.  It is a great way to quickly stay involved.

Kurt and Katie

Each day, all the kids in Piñones gather in this small building for the lesson.

One thing you will see the kids eat all the time are limoncillos. They have several 

limoncillos trees in the bateys, so it's a very accessible fruit. One day, play time 

was spent trying to get the limoncillos out of the nearest tree. All the kids wanted 

to give Katie one... let's just say that she's had her fair share!

Second Day of VBS

As most of you have heard, Kurt & I got a cold/flu last week on Wednesday. It was a tough several days, & we tried to take it easy (which isn't easy). Thankfully, we are on the tail end of it all. We both still cough a lot, but I was told that coughs can take a while to get rid of.

Today was the second day of our 10 week VBS.

Let me give you an idea of what it looks like...

• 9:00 am - We leave San Pedro & drive approximately 1 hour to our first village - Lima (It's the larger of the 2 villages we are working in). 
• 10:00 am - We gather all the children that want to play & take them out to this large open area to start some "organized" games. (So far, we've played lots of soccer, kickball, jump rope, duck-duck-goose, etc... I think the kids are having fun!)
• 10:00 am - [same time] Jason gathers the adults & starts his lesson in a small building near the edge of the batey, a.k.a sugarcane village. (This process takes about 1 hour. The lessons only last maybe 30 minutes. It just takes a while to gather everyone.)
• 11:00/11:15 am - We take all the children to the lesson, & Jason gives them a shortened version. (The children aren't always the best at listening in this batey (Lima), but they answered the questions well today.) 
• 11:45 am - We leave the first batey.
• 12:00 pm - We stop along the side of the road for lunch before we reach batey #2 - Pinones. (We take this time to talk about how things are going & to see if there is anything we want to do differently in the next batey.)
• 12:45 pm - We gather all the children in Pinones that want to play games & hang out. (This village is much smaller, & they aren't as rowdy as the kids in Lima.)
• 12:45 pm - [same time] Jason gathers the adults in this village to give the same lesson. (This process doesn't take as long because there aren't as many people. I think today they had 2 people show up.)
• 1:45 pm - We take all the children to the lesson & Jason gives them a shortened version. (This village listens better. They are actually are kind of shy.)
• 2:30 pm - We head back for San Pedro.

(Kurt)  Overall, it's hard to say what has really happened as far as ministry.  I think it will take at least a week to see who consistently shows up and to see if we have some good possibilities for discipleship.  In Lima we do have one young man named Wander, who is 20, and has been helping us at both villages.  He is a Christian and he seems interested at being involved with our ministry.  We told him that we have nothing to offer as far as payment, and he continues to come back so this is a good sign.  Please pray for Wander and for our team, as we are looking for Dominican leadership (he also speaks Creole fluently which is a plus).  Well,  I hope everyone is doing well back at home.  We miss you all and appreciate your prayers.

Prayer Items:

Ministry team vehicles (they have numerous problems at times)

Dominican leadership

Energy and health for the group

Spanish learning

One Week Down

We survived our first week in the Dominican Republic. I knew we would be fine in the end, but I figured there would be several road bumps along the way. And, of course, there were (still are).

Kurt & I are not in our apartment yet. We do have most of our things inside, but there is no electricity or water. So... we wait :) As a side note, you will see that everything requires a lot of waiting here. We are done with appliances & most of our furniture, which is a blessing. The dryer made it Monday, but we are still waiting on the gas hose to set up our stove that was supposed to be done yesterday.

Along with setting up the house, Jason and Josh have been helping Katie and I to find a vehicle to further our independence.  We have narrowed it down to 3 vehicles but have been having a hard time finding something within our price range that will also be able to make it out to the bateys and not fall apart within the first mile off the lot.  We will probably end up spending more and go for a higher resale value.  If all things work out, we will loose about the same amount of money each way and have less maintenance with the nicer car.

Welp, Its 9:30 and Jason and I are off to the electric company to see what's going on with our power.  We miss you all and thank you all for your prayers.

Kurt and Katie