My Nephews

My newest nephew, baby Levi. Isn't he precious?!

Being in Arizona for Levi's birth was such a blessing!

I loved spending time with Jack. He's 3 years old now and goes to preschool twice a week! And he absolutely LOVES Thomas the train.

Baby Levi

Baby Levi Joseph Bailey

October 20, 2010 6:46pm

7 lbs. 13 oz 20 1/2 in.

Great Aunt Ruth

While in Michigan, my mom and I got to visit with my Great Aunt Ruth :)

Rachel & Richard's Wedding

It was so special to be a part of my good friend Rachel's wedding. Rachel and Emily were my roommates at Summit Ministries in Colorado for two weeks about 6 years ago. Although they live in Michigan and we have only seen each other 4 times in the last 6 years, we have become great friends.

Emily, Rachel, and I.

Michigan

Enjoying the fall.

Playing in the leaves.

Rehearsal dinner.

and look! I'm even wearing a scarf :)

The Sweetest Smile

As I have said many times before, being able to communicate between our kids and their sponsors is my favorite part of my job. This week we have a dentistry work team here. Last year one of the ladies who came on this team decided to sponsor Carmen. Although the sponsor wasn't able to come back this year, she sent a gift with one of the work team members to be passed on to Carmen and just look at that smile. More than words can explain, her smile shows how much a sponsor can touch a child's life.

"Dia de la Raza"

"Dia de la Raza" is a day to celebrate being Dominicans although each Dominican comes from a different background. Even though Anija didn't do much to celebrate "Dia de la Raza," the seventh graders did a small presentation about the history of the Dominician Republic and had a table set up with various items that are unique to the DR.

Home Visit Video # 2

She did such a great job!

(Ps- she still needs sponsors) :)

Getting Baptized in the DR

What you might see at a baptism in the DR...

Two rivers merging...

Horses taking a dip in the river to cool off...

Shoeshine boys taking their daily river time...

An amazing view...

Jake getting baptized!

My Testimony (in Spanish)

For those of you who have been following my blog, you would have read that one of my goals for this year is to share my testimony in Spanish. Well I've completed step one. I wrote out my testimony in Spanish for class last week. It's not perfect but for those of you who love or speak the Spanish language, here it is!

Siempre me crié con una familia cristiana y siempre asistíamos a la iglesia. Acepté a Jesús en mi corazón cuando tenía tres años. Recuerdo que estuve en mi habitación y mis padres vinieron y yo oré que Dios entrara en mi corazón y en mi vida. Empecé a asistir un estudio bíblico cuando estuvo en séptimo grado y empecé a pasar tiempo leyendo la Palabra de Dios, orando, y compartiendo con otros cristianos.

Desde entonces he encontrado el motivo vivir cada día en el Señor. Él es mi esperanza. Yo sé que Dios quiere usarme por Su gloria y que Él quiere lo mejor para mí. Dios me usaba en las vidas de mis compañeras de equipo en el secundario y en la universidad. Podía compartir mi testimonio muchas veces, oraba con mis amigas, y les animaba a vivir por Dios y hacer buenas decisiones.

Ahora Él está usándome en Republica Dominicana. Estoy aprendiendo confiar en Dios con todo mi ser y seguiré sirviéndolo porque Él es la razón que tengo la salvación y vida eterna.

I Survived Spanish Class!!!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support during these past 5 weeks of Spanish class. Each day was very, very long but worth it. People have been asking me if I learned a whole lot, if I speak more now, etc and I tell them that I did learn some more vocabulary words and practiced conversation, but mainly I now understand a lot more grammatically. And although I haven't begun to speak what I've learned, I know what I need to continue practicing and studying.

A picture of my class and our teacher at the banquet after our last day of class.

Melissa is the other student who worked during the day before coming to class like I did. We always gave each other this "I'm so tired" look and then a "you can do it" look before class began.

The girls in my class were so supportive of me, not only with learning Spanish but with being here in general, doing ministry, and working through challenges. As they shared in my anticipation of going to the States to be in two weddings and "searching" (more like wishing) for dates to the weddings, we decided I should just wear an "S" so guys would know I'm single and available to dance. :)

PS- note my, "I've graduated" pendant.

What a Run!

Jessica and I were doing an extra long run this morning and the funniest thing happened (I will be running a half marathon when I'm in Arizona). We were running our usual route along the river through the woods, and got to a part where there is a Y in the dirt road. We were heading down the way we usually go when all of a sudden there was this old man with no teeth yelling, "MUEVETE" (MOVE!!!), so we stopped and looked around and out of nowhere comes a BULL running toward us with a big rope dragging behind it. One man was running after it screaming, another chasing it on a motorcycle, and others were fleeing over the fence and of course the bull went down the road that we wanted to go on. So, we stopped and watched them attempt to round up the bull and we were just about to join in with jumping over the fence when the bull came back and ran down the opposite way so, we just started running again. IT WAS HILARIOUS! After that, we saw the usual pig being skinned, a few horses trotting along the road, and of course there were the usual dogs chasing after us... let's just say runs in the DR are never boring :)

When I Am Weak

You Are My All In All
Songwriters: Dennis Jernigan

You are my strength when I am weak
You are the treasure that I seek
You are my all in all
I'm seeking You like a precious jewel
Lord, to give up I'd be a fool
You are my all in all

Jesus, Lamb of God
Holy is Your name
Jesus, Lamb of God
Holy is Your name

Taking my cross my sin my shame
Raising again I praise Your name
You are my all in all
When I fall down You pick me up
When I run dry You fill my cup
You are my all in all

Jesus, Lamb of God
Holy is Your name
Jesus, Lamb of God
Holy is Your name

I Love These Kids

Winifer wrote this on my hand during church,

"God loves you. You are a good teacher."

Winifer lives at the Ark and is in fourth grade at Anija. Recently I've been feeling like I just want to spend more time hanging out with these kids, whether that's out at the Ark or with our kids that live in the community. Sometimes I find myself looking at one of our kids and thinking about what their life was like before living at the Ark or what their current living situation is if they live in the community. I wonder how often the kids at the Ark think about their biological parents, even if they were abusive, unloving, neglectful, alcoholics, have died, etc. I'm so grateful I get to love them even if that's through being the librarian, helping teach English, and not quite understanding what they are saying. I've realized that these kids have made their way into my heart. I'm hoping I'll have more time to hangout once my Spanish class is done after this week.

Please be praying for these kids hearts and for healing. I also ask for prayer for new sponsors so we can continue funding our programs and giving these kids opportunities to know Jesus and His love.

Sponsorship Birthday Party

One part of our sponsorship program is celebrating every kids birthday. Our goal is to celebrate every or every other month but that didn't quite happen last year. We recently celebrated every birthday between the months of February and August of this year within 3 or 4 days. Every Birthday kid receives a present (we use donations as presents or buy them will the 'treat fund' money) and then we celebrate with all the kids with some sort of brownie, ice cream, or cupcakes. The 'treat fund' is made up of extra donations from sponsors or whomever that would like to help with the expenses of celebrating birthdays. But even if a child's sponsor doesn't donate something extra for their birthday, every kid will get a present. And now that we are up to date, I'm hoping to stay on schedule with birthday parties as we will be celebrating September and October birthdays in the next week or so.

(These pictures were taken during the 6th-8th grade birthday celebration)

Our Styles...

I can't decide if I like my sweet rain gear look or my roommate's hair better...

Katie and I

Home Visit Video

Here's a video of one of our Anija students. We are hoping to video all of our kids who have sponsors and send the video as our Easter project 2011! He says his name, thanks for being my sponsor, and have a good Easter from the Dominican Republic!

Weekend at the Beach

Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to the beach with a new group of friends. I have to say that I was pretty anxious about the trip as another group of friends had gone to the beach a couple weekends before and had quite the experience. (On their way up to the beach they got lost in the dark on a dirt road full of pot holes. And amongst several other things, the worst was when seven of the girls were walking to dinner on the beach and a Dominican guy ran up and tried stealing one of the girls purses. The purse got caught on her arm and the guy started hitting her arm with an empty beer bottle. In the end, no one was seriously injured but the girls were pretty upset and the guy got away with the purse.)

But back to my weekend, like I said, I was a little anxious about going but I prayed a lot about the trip and for peace and rest and I had a great time! I took a few naps, went to bed around 9pm every night and relaxed on the beach. I enjoyed running, swimming, boogie boarding, and even watching a little tv! And my favorite part about the trip spending time praying, journaling, and reading God's Word (in air conditioning!).

I loved spending time with Jessica!

and getting to know some of the JCS teachers. :)

And of course we enjoyed beautiful sunsets on the beach. :)