Transition!

Ok friends, it's time.

Almost 2 months ago now Solid Rock (the organization Dan and I work for) launched a brand new AWESOME website. As a part of the update we all have new blog sites and e-mails. I've been using both for awhile now, but I feel like it's finally time make the official switch!

So, from here on out you can find our thoughts, pics, and snapshots of our life here in the DR by going to www.solidrockinternational.org and clicking on the "Blogs" section OR you can add the link http://straley.solidrockinternational.org into your google reader.

Our combined e-mail is pretty simple too, it's kstraley@solidrockinternational.org

Thanks to all of you who love us and check up on our lives from time to time- we LOVE hearing from you and we hope that you'll make this transition together with us!

As an added bonus there are videos of us on the site too if you poke around a bit ;) They're pretty ridiculous.

Sister Visit!!!!!!

Last week I had my first family visit from home! I was so beyond excited to have my sister, Christy, come to spend the week with me. Driving to the airport Saturday afternoon I had trouble keeping myself from shaking. For months now I'd been daydreaming of having my first family visitor and all of the things that I would want to pack into their visit so that they could fall in love with this place like I have.
Having Christy here was incredible. Since we had our Spartanburg team here last week she dove right into the regular week routine with us- Waking up early to help Dan on breakfast duty, running out to the market, butcher shop and bakery with me on afternoon errands, and even assisting the dental team out in their barrio medical clinic for a day. But in-between all the work we made sure to sneak away for some fun too. She came along to visit friends, learned to play some dominoes, climbed the cathedral tower and played lots of games with me and Dan.
I really can't imagine a more perfect week. We had so many wonderful adventures and now I'm just trying not to miss her too much and to make plans for all the great things we'll do NEXT time...

I LOVE her! What a great week!

$33 Food Challenge: CONCLUSION

      I have a few days to report since I have been M.I.A. from blogging for a couple days. My apologies. Day 4 consisted of more oatmeal and sugar for breakfast and later went back to the bakery for more of those “Dominican corndogs” ($1) and several chinolas ($.45) which left me, as usual, wanting more food and ultimately hungry and only $3 left to me name.  Day 5 I broke done and bought salt for about $.50 to add to my eggs which I had for a late breakfast and then had french toast for dinner and a banana ($.10) in between.  I was at $2.40 left, beginning to run low on bread and oatmeal and completely out of eggs. There were only 2 days left, but it must be said that I was considerably crankier then normal. I might have lashed out at Kari once or twice. On the plus side everyone noticed me getting skinnier. Day 6 is were it all came undone. I foolishly skipped breakfast and went to Barahona with my Dominican friend Olvis to look at some larimar stones.  By the time we got done it was well passed lunch time and I was starving. He and his friend were also quite hungry and had decided to go out to lunch.... I went along. I could say that I was forced to go because I needed to be polite and they wouldn’t understand, but that’s not really true at all.  It was my idea to eat lunch and they would have understood, at least a little.  We had fried fish and rice and I was the happiest I have ever been in my entire life- wedding day coming in a close 2nd.  The food tasted so good and when I was done I was completely full.  I was like a weight got lifted of my entire existence.  Sounds dramatic but I am being serious.  The done side is the meal was about $5 which put me over by almost $3.  I tried to live on a modest Budget and I failed.  I only had 5 and a half days.  However I did learn more then I thought I would. 

I am more convinced then ever that even though Jesus promised us the poor would always be among us, that this is not what God wanted for his children.  I have never been so hungry for so long and I could have stopped whenever I wanted (in fact I did). The entire time I felt weak, unhappy, unfocused and sick.  There is a saying I’ve heard that says giving medicine to a sick person with nothing to eat is like washing your hands and drying them in dirt. I have a much deeper respect for any group that organizes food drives or soup kitchens. Jesus says that God gives us good gifts and when we ask we shall receive. I believe that these people are God’s good gifts to anyone that is hungry.  They are bringing the Kingdom in very real ways.  

Viv Grigg, a missionary in the slums of the Philippians wrote (if i remember correctly) “the poor need not only the Bread of Life, but bread for life.”  I have always believed that it was important for the church to find a balance between evangelistic ministry and the ministry of meeting real physical needs. And while I still believe that nothing could be greater then the message of salvation through Christ, I have a new appreciation for the fact that our love and words are empty as long as their stomachs remain so. I feel more convicted than ever that we should always give food to those who are hungry, no matter what. My guess is that anyone who says that food programs are social programs that enable the poor to stay poor has never gone hungry. How is someone supposed to study or work when they haven’t eaten in 2 days?? Even though I was no where near starvation, the lack of fulfilling meals and proper nutrition was physically and mentally crippling. I could barely focus on anything but my stomach by the end. 

Anyone who tried to do this with their families of small kids probably faced challenges with the moral idea of letting their kids go hungry, maybe even wondering if social services might find out and take them away.  If parents would not want their kids to go hungry why would God want his children to?  In the end I am taking this experience back to where it started.  The man who accused us of not understanding what it is really like to be Dominican... well I am still not Dominican but I understand a little better. Since Saturday I have been bringing dinner every night to him and the other guards here at the Guesthouse. It’s not much, but I imagine it is what Jesus might do if he was here in San Juan.

Dan's $33 Food Challenge: The first 3 days..

After a conversation and challenge given by a friend of ours here last week, Dan has decided to go a week on only $33 dollars worth of food. That is the average minimum wage that many of our friends and neighbors here in the Dominican Republic live off of every week and use to not only by food, but also gas for their stoves/motos, clothes, school supplies and any other daily needs. We know that even living among the poor, there are many layers of poverty that can never be understood until they are lived...

DAY ONE

So day one of eating on $33 a day was less than fun. For starters Kari is not going to try it this week (her sister is in town) so I cut the amount if half rounding down to $16. I skipped breakfast which was easy. I had oatmeal for lunch which was less then fun seeing as I am not an oatmeal fan at all so dumped brown sugar on it to make it tolerable. That resulted in a sugar rush and later crash. The worst part was after eating oatmeal until I couldn’t stand it, I was still hungry. For dinner I watch everyone eat pasta with cheese, sausage and mushrooms, brownies, fresh green beans and fruit while I had two pieces of white toast without butter and two eggs. I even ate the heal of the loaf which I would normally discard. I guess eating on so little money makes you never throw food away. I was very pleased with the eggs though. Even though I did not grease the pan I was able to have them over easy with out the yokes breaking. Seems small I know, but trust me today was a challenge. I would be lying if I said at no point did I think about quitting.

DAY TWO

I made some poor choices today regarding my food finances. I started out pretty good, more oatmeal and sugar for breakfast and a banana. The banana is about 15 cents while the oatmeal, bread, sugar, and eggs I bought at the beginning of the week only cost $5 and I have plenty of those left. So I WAS feeling pretty on top of this, then lunch happened. Margo served mashed I’m-not-not sure-what-it-is that looks a lot like sweet potatoes and salami (very dominican) and I couldn’t sit there and not eat it. I had to, the salt goodness was calling to me and so I did what normally do, i ate. It’s a pretty simple dish that cost 100 pesos or about $2.50 in the market. Not a great choice but it wasn’t going to break me. After that I had a chinola to wash it down, another 15 cents. Later that evening I went to the bakery and picked up bread. In the display case there they had a hot dog wrapped in an empanada shell, a sort of Dominican corn dog, and it only cost 50 cents. I had to try one… plus one. Another dollar, bringing my daily total to $3.80. Crap. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but that is just shy of 25% of my $16 allowance in just one day. Not to worry though, I can still do this. I will just have to not eat much tomorrow. That sounds horrible though because even though I “binged” today at not point was I really full and now at 7 o’clock I am hungry again. Thinking about being hungry right now and knowing that tomorrow I will have little to no relief from that really bites.

DAY THREE

Day 3 did not go as expected. I thought I was going to be miserable and hungry most of the day, instead I was miserable and sick. Started the day off with 3 pieces of french toast and 3 fried eggs, without butter or syrup. I did have to buy milk for $2.00 but it was worth it, kid of…. I never thought I would miss condiments as much as I do. Don’t get me wrong, this breakfast was better then oatmeal but french toast without butter or syrup is not right. At least for lunch the chinola I had was sweet (another 15 cents) and that is when my cold sucked away my appetite. I went the rest of the day without any thoughts of food. I did have 2 fria frias which are kind of like snow cones only $1 total just to put something into my body. I never thought I would see the silver lining to being sick, (other then missing school) I can’t help but wonder though if my lack of nutrition may have helped cause this. Well in any event I have spent only 11.50 and still have plenty of bread, eggs milk and oatmeal.

$33 Food challenge: Day One

So day one of eating on $33 a day was less than fun. 


For starters Kari is not going to try it this week (her sister is in town) so I cut the amount if half rounding down to $16. I skipped breakfast which was easy. I had oatmeal for lunch which was less then fun seeing as I am not an oatmeal fan at all so dumped brown sugar on it to make it tolerable. That resulted in a sugar rush and later crash. The worst part was after eating oatmeal until I couldn’t stand it, I was still hungry. For dinner I watch everyone eat pasta with cheese, sausage and mushrooms, brownies, fresh green beans and fruit while I had two pieces of white toast without butter and two eggs. I even ate the heal of the loaf which I would normally discard. I guess eating on so little money makes you never throw food away. I was very pleased with the eggs though. Even though I did not grease the pan I was able to have them over easy with out the yokes breaking. Seems small I know, but trust me today was a challenge. I would be lying if I said at no point did I think about quitting.

Are You Ready For This???

Recently Kari and I were challenged by someone here in the Dominican Republic we have known for almost year. He did not accuse us based on what we were or what we did, but what we weren’t and what wewould never do.He told us that we were not Dominican because we have never known what is was like to not have enough food to give your family or wonder where our next meal would come from or how we would fill up the one gallon gas tank on a scooter. He was right.

While most of my youth was filled with thrift stores and used cars and not very many nights going out to restaurants, there was always gas in the tanks of both cars and the fridge was stocked with food. I have used the phrase starving college student to describe myself but that is a total lie. There is nothing remotely sensing of starvation when the college forces you to buy a meal plan that you would have to go to glutinous extremes to get your moneys worth. And what about now? While we don’t exactly earn a salary and I won’t be buying a new car anytime soon, our basic living costs are already covered (at least while there are groups- which is most of the time and when there is not there are plenty of leftovers). Even if things went downward as fast and hard as possible Kari and I still have a savings account and family who would put us up and fund us until we could put our college education back to work. Clearly our friend was right. I would never know his life first hand.

In this Man’s case he earns 5,000 pesos a month or about $33 a week and he has 6 kids to raise by himself. How is someone suppose to survive off that? I won’t go into things like food, clothes, transportation, school cost, medical bills, etc for now, how about just food. I was proud of myself for eating off $35 a week after college and I went out to eat on a separate budget often and I was alone. But, $33 for seven people?!?!?! Could you do that? (keep in mind it is actually less because he has to buy other things with that $33 per week). You would have to eat only rice or go hungry or perhaps both. What would your life be like? Would your kids (if you have them) have enough to eat? Would you ever eat steak again? I wonder what i would be like. In fact this would be a good experiment for those willing to try. Between my starting this blog and finishing it i have had a long time to think about this, talked to a friend to see what they thought and decided to throw it out there:

It is Challenge time. Regardless of how big your family is, try to go one week with only $33 for any from of food for your whole family. Bluntly this means don’t touch anything already in the pantry or fridge, no eating out, no soup kitchens, no meal plans at school, no meals at friends houses, no condiments you didn’t buy with that $33. What would you do to make that work? Coupons probably won’t get you even close unless you are single. Can you make it off of only rice and oatmeal for a week? Ultimately, I don’t blame anyone who is not up to the challenge. It’s hard to go hungry when you don’t have to. I do believe there is something to gain from this though. So please join me going from this Sunday to Saturday (Feb 5th-11th) only $33 for food for the whole family. No free meals, no leftovers, none perishables, spices or condiments from previous weeks, empty start (I’m going to have to convince Kari now). For those of you with larger families and young children you have my sympathy but please still try.

I don't do this naively thinking that in a week I could possibly understand what it is like to survive a life of poverty, but I do it because I want to understand MORE. I want to sacrifice MORE. I want to love MORE. I hope that you feel the same. I am most interested to see about your what your week is like. Please let me know in a comment if you are up for the challenge of doing this with me. I will keep you updated on my week’s progress through the blog...

- Dan

No Mind Has Imagined

Do you see that? 

That is stick figure version of me falling of the face of the earth.

Not good.  

Needless to say, the year has started with off with a bang... sometimes it has been the bang of glorious fireworks of awesome teams and ministry and sometimes just the steady bang of me beating my head against the desk. God's trying to teach me something... I'm pretty convinced of it. I think it has something to do with the epic battle between my control issues and my faith. 

It would seem that my control issues have been winning out the last couple of weeks. I don't know what it is, but I've suddenly taken on these huge amounts of anxiety. Like everything that does not go as planned is somehow my fault and I've convinced myself that I'm falling apart and no one likes me and on and on and on... 

However, the cool part of the story (as usual) is the God part. 

I'm going to admit now that I haven't actually set aside time for God basically since this new year began. I get impatient waiting for him to show up and say something to me. But I was driving the group to back from dinner the other night and I had this God moment. 

Maybe it sounds goofy, but there were two things that popped into my head that I can't attribute to anything other than the Holy Spirit. The first was God simply telling me, "You were MADE for THIS". Like him telling me, "Why are you running around and trying to prove yourself and convince yourself that you can do this? I CREATED you to be HERE. I planned and shaped you for such a time and a place as THIS. 

And this next part will definitely sound goofy but bear with me: at the same time he reminded me (I can't describe it any other way because I hadn't thought about this in years) that when I was younger (middle school years) I was actually quite disturbed by the fact that I couldn't imagine my life beyond the (very specific) age of 25. Part of it was just not being able to wrap my mind about what the idea of being a "grown up" would be like, but I remember actually thinking long and hard about what I thought would make me happy in life, where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. There was a giant BLANK. I honestly thought for awhile, in my insane middle school mind, that maybe that meant that God only had plans for me for that 25 years on this earth and then I'd be done. But there I was, driving a truck full of people down the road and God (as if he were sitting in the front seat with me and we talk back and forth like this on a regular basis) was like, "You couldn't imagine your life beyond 25 because your old life is gone and I've started something new in you. I called you here to recreate you and to give you a new name." Of course then it hit me that I had left the states and moved to San Juan at age 25. Silly, but pretty cool. He also told me this verse...

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)  WOW.

...And then we pulled into the guesthouse and piled out of the truck and I went to squish some avocados into guacamole and life continued as normal. 

But I guess I wanted to type this up because I know I going to continue to doubt and to wrestle with anxiety and control issues and to feel like I'm not adequate and to bang my head against the desk because I've forgotten who I am and I've taken my eyes off Jesus... but yesterday he spoke to me, so I'm writing a blog building an altar to remind myself. 

Remind myself that I'm not worthy, but I'm called. That I'm nothing, but he LOVES me. That I'm a heap of gloriously and seriously BEAUTIFUL ASHES and yo quiero ser portador de su gloria-  I want to be a bearer of his glory. 

Un Año Nuevo

Happy New Year!

This past Saturday Dan and I boarded a plane from Minneapolis to Santo Domingo. After a wonderful Christmas visit with my family, we were heading back home to our dear San Juan. The plane touching down amongst palm trees and sparkling blue water was a sight for sore eyes. We had only been gone two weeks, but we'd missed home. We were prepared for it to be tough to get back into the swing of things, especially since we have hit the ground running (landing an hour AFTER our first team of the year arrived!), but the transition went smoother than we planned in many ways. We just love what we do!

We have 2 teams this week (Volunteers in Medical Missions and Danville, PA). Both teams are doing barrio clinics and have been so much fun to be around. I don't think I will ever stop being blown away by the amazing people and teams that God brings here. There is just so much talent, love and generosity!

But before I get too far ahead of myself, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on 2011 and all the amazing things that happened. Here's a little photo collage of our past year:

Diego got to spend the first (and probably ONLY winter of his life) in Bristol, CT where we stayed with Dan's family during our fundraising and transition into our new life in San Juan (JAN 2011)

Visited Family in Minnesota on our way out of the country- enjoyed the last bit of cold
with a good night of boot hockey! (FEB 2011)

My sister announced during a family photo that she was engaged! Yay! (Feb 2011)

Boarding the plane for our flight to Santo Domingo! (FEB 2011)

After a couple of weeks of training, we said goodbye to Shannon and Joe and sent them back to the states for their new role as Executive Directors (Mar 2011)

We met Nicole Eby and were SO happy to have her become a long-term part of our Solid Rock staff (Abril 2011)

Took our first trip to the beach (Abril 2011)

Experienced a first ever city-wide concert of worship with the Northwoods Team (June 2011)

Celebrated my 26th birthday with awesome friends and food! (July 2011)

Discovered a new love for snorkeling (Aug 2011)

Diego and Genny (a street dog) fell in love and she became part of our family (Sept 2011)

Attended my sister's wedding in Minneapolis- Yay! (Oct 2011)

Had our first Dominican Thanksgiving Feast to share with our wonderful friends and family (Nov 2011)

Blessed by a visit from Dan's parents for the holiday :) (Nov 2011)

Went to an awesome Medical Conference in Cabarete with 2 of my favorite people- got hats! (Dec 2011)

Enjoyed our first Christmas season in San Juan (Dec 2011)

Spent Christmas in Minneapolis with the family (Dec 2011)

So excited to see what new adventures 2012 has in store!!