Summer Craziness has Begun!

I've heard people say, "If only there were more hours in a day".
I think that those people are crazy.

Days here are never-ending! It might have something to do with waking up to the crow of a rooster at the crack of dawn, but days at the guesthouse are so filled! There comes a moment in the day when you stop and realize that you've faced and conquered 3 days worth of tasks, averted several major crisis, dealt with a half dozen schedule changes... and it's only noon.

So you can imagine what a blessing it has been to us to have Jeff and Kamanda Bucher down here with us for the summer! They are an awesome couple from Peoria, IL who have volunteered to spend 9 weeks down here with us during the busiest part of our summer groups, just to help us out and live life with us! It has only been a few days, but I can already tell that it's gonna be a great summer :)

The group down here with us now is a youth team from Northwoods church in Peoria, IL. They are a fantastic group and have been working so hard. It is exciting to see their passion for Jesus and the people of the DR. They have made me smile everyday. A member of their team, Kirk Moser, has been leading worship seminars at Central Mennonite Church in the evenings and the response has been incredible. Each night he has had well over 200 people coming to the seminars. They are young people who are asking questions and really getting excited about worshiping God. How cool is that? To close out the week we have rented a large stadium outside of town where we will be hosting a worship concert that will be open for the public on Thursday evening. Worship bands from several churches in San Juan, as well as the youth worship band from Northwoods will be playing together and leading us in worship. I can't wait, it is going to be fabulous :)

Updates 2

An update that I forgot to give in the last post- here's the progression of the front room to final(ish) product:

Our attempt to "clean out" was mostly disasterous

Eventually we managed to get through everything and find homes for it all- Whew!



ANDDDDD.... (drum roll please).....

 Here's it is now!

Yay! We are so happy with it- feels like home!

Updates

Last entry I mentioned the Cholera outbreak and I wanted to leave you with an update. First of all, a HUGE thanks to any and all of you who have ever bought coffee or vanilla from the Guest House Store! We save that money to use for community needs and there is no one is more need right now than the people of Cercado. With the money from that fund we were able to send 180 IV bags, 400 diapers, 80 yards of fabric and plastic for covering hospital beds, and over a thousand bags of bleach for water purification- as well as gowns, uniforms for the nurses, hand sanitizers, and other various supplies.

I accompanied Dr. Perdomo on Tuesday morning to drop the supplies off at the hospital and it was a hard sight. Even without entering the building you could hear the babies inside crying, watching people being carried back and forth to the bathroom and just feel the exhaustion of the staff. They have been working day and night in some pretty terrible conditions (they were all wearing knee-high rain boots and large yellow cleaning gloves because of the un-imaginable conditions that this disease causes). The doctor told me that the director of the hospital had tears in her eyes when she saw the supplies that had been given. She thanks you all for your generosity and prayers! There is a lot of suffering, but praise God that because of their efforts and because people are now aware of the disease and recognizing its symptoms, they are getting to the hospital and they are getting healed.

Dr. Perdomo unloading the supplies at El Cercado Hospital 

Numbers continue to fluctuate, last week there were 60 some new patients a day, then only about 25, yesterday it went back up to 43, but today was back down to 28. Overall the trend seems to be going down. Praise God and keep praying!

Other, much less important updates are that we are finally tying up the loose ends of the many projects that we began here at the Guesthouse over the last month or so. Margo has been cleaning like crazy, Dan has been working hard fixing broken pipes and tearing up old floors... and then there is me adding the girly touches. haha, I talked a couple of our dear friends (Andres the painter and Herman the tailor) into helping me with making some curtains and putting some paintings in the rooms to make them a bit cozier. Here's how they look now:

Fantastic, right?? And this is just one room! But I'm not gonna spoil the rest- you'll just have to come and see for yourself ;)

Projects

This week is a week of projects. During those weeks of break (that somehow just FLEW by), we might have bitten off more than we were ready to chew in projects and now we are in a mad scramble to finish them all before the onslaught of this summer's groups.
Dan's off painting 2 rooms that we are in the process of tearing out and laying completely new flooring in, we've got 4 bathrooms with toilet problems, 1 blue truck that needs 4 new tires, 16 rooms with brand new curtains installed, 3 screens that need to be patched and about 8 loads of laundry I've been putting off because of the rain. And that's just day one! :) But we really are so excited to get back into the swing of things and get to know the groups that we have coming down this summer.

On a little more somber note, I'm heading out with Dr. Perdomo tomorrow to pick up some more supplies for the hospital in El Cercado. If you hadn't heard, El Cercado has been hit pretty hard with Cholera over the last couple of weeks. The clinic and hospital staff have been working around the clock. As of today the report was better than it's been in awhile and we are going to do all we can to ensure that things continue to improve. Be praying for energy and love for the doctors as I am sure they are exhausted. Also, pray for us as we continue to work to educate and equip people to purify their water and sanitize their foods. It is so sad to see people suffering and dying from such a preventable disease. Pray pray pray!

I'll keep you updated on it all...

Barrio Clinics

Last week we hosted a small group from a couple universities in Utah. They were a fantastic group all around and we had a great week together! As an extra bonus, since there were only six people to cook for and take care of here at the guesthouse, I was able to escape and go with them out to the barrio clinics for a couple of days! It was so great to go along and see them work first-hand with the Dominican people. Here's some pictures from the week:

Setting up Pharmacy

Seeing the first patients of the day

Such a beautiful country!

Dr. Victor with his patients

Teaching the kids to play 500

Gorgeous!

Site #2

Spent a lot of time weighing in malnourished children to begin a new branch of our child nutrition program

What a great week!

What Do I Know of Holy?

"I think I made you too small, I never feared you at all, no...

But then I caught a glimpse of who you might be, 

the slightest hint of You, brought me down to my knees"

Here's a song that's been running through my head for the past few weeks. The video is kinda lame and kooky, but the words make it one of those, "this is kinda where I'm at right now" songs.
I guess I've been realizing lately how I've never really understood the concept of "fearing" God. Why fear him when I could call him "dad" and "best friend"??
To my frustration though, I have felt that God has been distancing himself from me. Even though all my prayers were to know him more, I have found myself continually confused and feel like I know/understand him less than ever.
It wasn't until this song popped on the other day that I started to realize that that in itself was my answer. In order to know God more, I must learn to fear him as God- it is a side of him that I have never explored. To truly see him as an unknowable, all mighty, and uncontrollable force- God the lion instead of only God the lamb. It is the kind of God that I cannot control or predict. It makes me feel pretty small, like I really am just standing at the shore of his ocean.
So, as usual, I continue to underwhelm myself by my progress and understanding as a Christian, but continue to be completely OVERWHELMED by God. How incredible is it that he is able to find ways to speak to me and teach me and answer me even in his silence?

Vacaciones!

 Yep, it is May already and we are spending the day prepping for our group that will be arriving on Saturday. It's hard to believe that 5 weeks of break flew by so fast, but it's been absolutely fantastic. We worked hard, we played hard, we visited with friends and had friends come to visit us. We discovered new places and got more settled in the old ones. It's been a time of rest and of growth and enjoying the simple everyday joys of hard work, good conversations with friends and searching for seashells on the shore.

Here's a few images we captured along the way:

Our friend Kristi Came for a visit and worked hard to organize our  medical room!

Out for a night of baseball with friends :)

Dan putting his new scuba gear to good use to unclog the cistern

A small hotel we found in paradise

Having homemade bread and fresh mango jelly , overlooking the ocean on the morning of Dan's 27th Birthday!

Our new favorite beach! 

Had a coral reef for us to try out our new snorkel gear on- it was SO beautiful!

We love living here!

Parents come to visit!

Lunch and card playing on the ocean

Our hotel in Santo Domingo

Touring the Colonial Zone

So, as you can imagine, we feel incredibly blessed! Blessed by family and friends who love and support what we are doing here, and blessed by this beautiful country and people! 

The break was everything that we hoped it would be and more. Now we are actually very anxious to get back to doing our job. Our next group is a small one of only 6 students. I think it is going to be a ton of fun to get to know them and hopefully I will even be able to go out with them to the barrios this week! It should be a good easy start to what is sure to be a packed and busy summer. 

If you think of it, keep praying that Dan and I would have better servants hearts- toward the community and each other. Funny thing, but becoming a missionary doesn't automatically make it easy to serve and give all the time. haha, I was kinda hoping it would come with the package, but turns out I'm the same old sinful me, struggling to remember to spend time with God and with the same selfishness and desire for control.

Thank you always friends, for your love and support. We need you and your prayers SO much. 

Much love, 

Dan and Kari