missionaryMAC

Halfway through our time together, the MOST team & I shifted clinic locations, and thus hotels to save hours in traffic.  Dana and I realized a) whoever decorated the Hodelpa Caribe Colonial shops at IKEA; but also b) it's adorable!  Bus devotions AGAIN on the way to our first "culture day" stop. MOST's MO is to save teams' last day in-country for a cultural excursion, but as has worked well in the past during similar trips, I opted to use sightseeing as a midweek transition. I'd toured the Cortés Hnos. chocolate factory museum before, but never the factory  factory. 100% would do again. Lunch was delicious as always but cemented the fact that the "Choco Lounge" is going to become an order ahead kind of place.  From there, we swung by the Columbus Lighthouse, which I'd warned the team wasn't what they were imagining. I've been there many times, so I found a breezy spot to catch up on some messages while they wandered the exhibits. T...

I loved my most recent team's faithfulness to starting and ending each day in the Word and as you'll see in this post and the next, couldn't stop taking pictures of different team members leading the meditations they'd prepared. The title phrase, an ever so brief prayer, comes from a hymn we sang one morning during devotions on the bus to somewhere; it hit differently given our task for the week: visiting two sites in Santo Domingo, DR, to test vision; distribute glasses free of charge, and most importantly, preach the Good News.  It seems like we, 12 individuals representing six states, one Canadian province, and 10 distinct home congregations, fought Satan at every turn. He clearly did not want us doing what we did, so when heat, travelers' diarrhea (most of the team but not me) and power outages threatened, the only thing to do was keep our gazes firmly fixed on the reason we were there.  My associate-in-training Dana was by my side all week. The best way for her...

September FORO planning...felt like a well-oiled machine.  I was ticking off boxes one-by-one: reports from each ministry area; hotel reservations; airport transfers; travel tips for US guests; a new-to-everyone-but-me Friday excursion (vetted by a team of high schoolers in June)... (Spoiler alert: it's a dance lesson.) The peanut gallery started with 2 of us...and grew steadily.  The kids, on the other hand, were into it.  Merengue en pareja.  ...lunch reservations afterward; translators, snacks, and lunch for Saturday's meeting. The works.  Short-term volunteers and their strategic impact were highlighted in multiple presentations.  The kicker came when a death in the Krey family meant a sudden trip to the US for Regional Director Ted, but if I've learned anything in six years, it's that problems are opportunities for innovation. We talked shop in the Krey backyard over pizza Saturday night.  As has become somewhat of a tradition, [Northern Hemisphe...

I love traditions. A couple weeks ago, the Davis family (expat friends from church) and I fought hard to keep one we began in 2019 alive: Chopped. You know, the Food Network show in which chef contestants are asked to create three composed dishes by using pantry staples to transform mystery basket ingredients? Between factors related to health, work, and school, we found a workable date and plunged ahead, with family friend Gabby replacing oldest son Micah, away at college :(  Doing it on a school night may not have been the wisest choice, so we breezed through it without dallying because #homework. These couple photos are some of the only ones anyone took: Abigail, my all-time teammate, and I won the dessert round with our brownie-like double chocolate banana bread featuring bananas (no surprise there) as well as passion fruit butter and Twizzlers. Lest 2024 go the way of 2020 (ZERO evidence, photographic or otherwise, that we did Chopped, even though we all know we haven't skippe...

It's a quiet afternoon in the office as I put the finishing touches on plans for OIM's first foray into partnering with MOST Ministries on a short-term mission team. There's so much to tell before you'll get to hear about that, though.  The week before classes begin at the DR seminary is always set aside for "orientation." It's a chance for new and returning students to (re-)acclimate to student life, get to know each other and any new staff, and, oftentimes, benefit from some kind of practical skills enrichment. Pastor Fritzler opened last Monday's First Aid/Basic Life Support Training to the entire school, group home, and missionary community. I went because as someone who's regularly responsible for groups of extranjeros , I wanted to brush up on what to do if, God forbid, the unthinkable were to happen. It's been several years since my last CPH certification, and the recommendations are always changing with the times. I was also hoping we...