chuggin through october

Hello everyone!

well, another week has gone by, and can you believe it? it's nearly november! wow......time sure does fly here, with so much to do.
things are going well here, today was mail day so we finally sent out our latest quarterly sponsorship project - the fruit of many months labor. and now, without delay, i'm beginning the christmas project! ideally, we've gotta get it out within the next mail day, so i've got about 2 weeks! definitely getting that rolling, haha. also started sorting through all the clothing donations, getting them out of the bags and onto the shelves, and sorted into sizes. so that's my monday project. there's been a lot of rain here lately, according to the fall weather, so it's been cooler......by which i mean, still 75 degrees. : ) but it's cooler, still. still in the upper 80's when the sun's out in the morning, though.
well, a few of you were asking to see the trautwein family, who i'm staying with, so here's a picture for you! vic and leslie are the parents, and their kids are sam, micah, luke, and chase. (boy-girl-boy-girl) they've been a fun family to get to know, definitely very different from anyone i've ever known, but there's always so much to learn from others! so they've been great to get to know.

one thing i would like to ask prayer for is the dominican children here. they are so precious, and i have really come to love them so much, but it can be devastating to see the backgrounds that they come from, and the situations in which some of them still live. this past week, i was over in palo blanco, helping out and learning about the nursing program over there. of course, most of the time is spent just talking with and loving on the children, who usually hang out there even when they don't have school, because of the loving environment. this 4-year-old little girl, fabiola, (pictured with dustin, who does construction and is married to anna the nurse) was especially precious to get to know, and we enjoyed her most of the afternoon. that is, until her mother came into the yard with a huge cane stick, furious with her for not knowing where she was. the problem with this is, the dominican parents don't ever keep track of their children, and so it certainly was not this little girl's fault that she had come to be at the school. nevertheless, the mother angrily chased fabiola out the yard and down the road, and we watched helplessly, knowing that there was nothing we could do to stop her from getting a beating. thankfully, when fabiola returned for school a few hours later with only a few small bruises, and she did not seem too beat up, and we think that one of her older siblings helped with that. but the reality is definitely there for these children; it seems no matter how many times i've heard about these situations, the gravity of it never really touched me until i came here and was virtually slapped in the face with it. i've also seen situations like this at ANIJA, with some of the non-ark kids from the community, and it is very sad. on the better side though, there is a huge difference being made in the lives of these children, and it's so wonderful to be a part of loving them the way they need so badly to be loved. the head of the school out at palo is also working with the parents, little by little, to try and quell some of this abuse, and teach the parents how wrong it really is. afterall, the parents grew up in just this same manner, they only need someone to show them the love of God as well. so good things are happening here; i would just ask prayer for the protection of those children we still are not able to reach.

well, it is getting pretty late, if you can't tell by my muddled speech in this entry. haha, sorry it's a little throw-together. but i hope that you all have a wonderful week, strong in the Lord, and that He continues to grow and teach every one of us about His great grace in our lives. thinking of and missing you all....
~allison

another school week.....

greetings from the still-75 degree dominican republic!!

actually, to be perfectly honest, i've really been enjoying the warm weather here, and the mountains, i think the dominican may be one of the most beautiful places in the world. : ) this past week has been a busy one, as we had mail day tuesday, the monthly North American Missionaries(NAM) meeting wednesday, and the director's retreat thursday-saturday. aside from that, i am taking on more and more responsibility in the sponsorship department at ANIJA, and eventually jonathan would like me to be head of the whole ANIJA sponsorship program, so this month i'll be working myself into that position. it's a fun job, it basically involves recieving, recording, and distributing letters the kids recieve from their sponsors, and then getting the kids into my office to write responses. aside from that, we do large projects quarterly, where every child sends an update to their sponsor, usually involving something about what they've been learning in school and so on. right now we've begun the christmas project, in hopes of having it finished in time for the holidays. great projects, it really helps me get involved with the kids and stuff. going to start filing the history records of the kids - which includes their backgrounds, stories, and why they're at ANIJA - i'll spend mondays typing those up and getting them out of the stacks of notebooks that are sitting in the office right now. what else? i've decided to take part of my wednesday afternoons to go out to palo blanco with anna, to help her with the nursing duties there......more de-licing and bandaging of children, doing what i love! i figured the experience would be good for me, as i've definitely decided i would like to be a nurse. please pray for me, once again, in doing my applications, they are feeling a little bit like an extra weight, and doing things from a different country isn't always easy. but overall, it's going quite well. after i go to palo on wednesdays, i'm gonna hop over to tracy and leona's house to help them with their evening english lessons that they're giving for free to the neighborhood. so, my weeks have really been filling up! it feels good though, to be making a difference. another prayer request: i'm having a little trouble with one of the english teachers i work with. becuase his own english isn't very good, he many times (almost every day) comes into the classroom with this book he has, opens it to the next page, hands it to me, and expects me to teach a lesson from whatever is there. even though i'm glad to help in the class, the truth is, i'm not teacher, and i'm far too busy to be planning his lesson plans. it's quite frustrating at times, especially because ultimately the kid's education is going to suffer from my inability to know where to go with the lessons. thankfully, God answered part of this prayer through my aunt mary, who sent me a set of workbooks and curriculum for ESL, something the school does not have; but, nevertheless, i don't have time to be planning this curriculum, because i have a lot of other responsibilities aside from teaching. please pray taht i will have a patient, willing heart, the time to work with this teacher and help him along, and that i would have a gracious attitude in it. patience has never been my special gift, but i'm hoping to be understanding in this no matter what. well, that's about what's going on with me.....sorry this entry was so hodge-podge! i am actually awaiting the pictures from the director's retreat that i babysat for, so when they come i will post again with details on this weekend. God bless all of you, and know that i am thankful every morning when i wake to know that my brothers and sisters in Christ are praying for me; God is really working through you all, more than i can tell you. thanks for all your encouragement! have a great week!
in Him, allison


<-- here's a picture of some of my seventh graders, and a picture they drew of me. yes, it's very flattering. you can tell they just love me. : ) hahaha

P.S.

Hi again, I just had a quick prayer request: I've started my college application process.....please pray for diligence, adequate time, and all the little details that come with trying to apply to college from outside the country! : ) but mostly, please pray that I will get in wherever God wants me, that He would lead me in all this. Thanks so much, I really appreciate it, God bless you all!!

~Allison

Monte Plata

hello once again, from the land of eternal summer!
hard to believe another week has gone by, and that we're already in the month of october. last tuesday was my 1-month anniversary of being here! and it has been an amazing month.......a month of growing, learning, being greatly blessed by all of your prayers.........i don't think it gets much better than this.

of course, while the calendar tells me it's october, the weather and my body clock keep telling me it feels like june or something. i won't lie, i miss that first refreshing cool of autumn, the feeling, the smell, the leaves changing, being in a different environment is harder than i thought. the past few weeks have actually a bit difficult, as i was dealing with quite a bit of homesickness. but then, in the midst of wondering how i would make it through till christmas - much less the end of the year - God gave me His own refreshment, His encouragement, and most of all, His joy. there wasn't really any huge movement, just a few encouraging emails, and some good alone times with God. His peace that passes understanding is so real, so true. God is truly showing me what it means to have nothing but Himself, and what i realized was, i would rather have only Him, than to have everything i want and just a so-so relationship. i know that God will give me the people and relationships i need, but right now, for the first time in my life, He's asking me to trust Him, hasn't given me anyone else to lean on.......and what a blessing! God is everything to me, and I couldn't be happier with that. not that i won't continue to have struggles, but now i know that He's enough and always will be; i've been given the ability to go through anything that life may hand out. so thank you all for letting God use you in this continual process in my heart; your prayers are certainly being heard and answered! : )

ok, i thought i would put in some pictures of the monte plata site, where i was visited a little while ago. what another totally amazing work God is doing down there.......i got to meet the director of all the kids alive international sites, and it was so cool to see through him what God is doing all over the world!! sometimes it's hard to believe i've been blessed enough to be a part of that. : ) oh, and, for the very first time, i'm posting a video for you!! just a little clip of us hanging out at the school 'campsite' in monte plata, but it gives you a kind of cool cultural feeling for the place. enjoy!!



Here's the Monte Plata school -->










here's some of the girls i met there. the blonde ones are from england, and the other two live in monte plata, and work at the school. the girl in black, carys, is probably the best friend i've made here yet, she's at monte plata until christmas, and we're enjoying keeping in touch via email.




this is alba, works at the school, and so fun to talk with. behind us is juan pablo......definitely another hilarious friendship! : )
(he's the one you see drumming in the video)








swimming in the nearby river.....so beautiful, it's amazing to think people pay tons of money to go on vacations here, and something like this is so normal for the people who live here!








driving home........a beautiful ending to a great day.

palo blanco

hello everyone! wow, another whole week has gone by since i've posted, i meant to have a new one up much sooner! time sure does fly.......

ok, well this entry will be really fun for those of you who were on the first dominican trip with me......2 or 3 years ago? i finally got to go out and visit palo blanco, and wow, is it looking great!! for those of you who weren't with me, this was our project when i first experienced DR, and last time i saw it, it was basically a pile of concrete bricks! : ) anyways, i thought it would be fun for you all to see how it's looking today.

things are going well at the school, i just gave a test in the 5-8 english grades, and they did alright.....i'm hoping they do even better next time, but for never listening, i think they did swell. please pray that the kids would try a little harder, telling them to be quiet all the time in class gets very wearing. also, if you could pray for the curriculum/other teacher in grades 1-4, it's very difficult to work with him, as he actually speaks hardly any english himself, and there really isn't any curriculum that we're working from at all.....basically just throwing lessons together each day at a time. yikes....i'm praying about whether this would be a good project for me, but it's hard, because i don't really want to take writing an english curriculum into my own hands.....i'm not really a teacher! but if God wants me to, i'm sure He'll give me the means. anyways, thanks for praying, here are the pictures!!

ok, here it is! all finished and beautiful......and now they're getting that top story done! (remember hearing about it, and it seemed so far away?)










here's kids actually eating in that cafeteria we painted......and where us girls made our own little choir group : )







anna and i, de-licing some of the girl's hair. it's actually not as bad as it sounds....










remember putting in all those electrical wires and sockets? they work!!!










and of course, that wonderful, beautiful, unforgettable ride to palo blanco; the best view of the dominican countryside from the back of a motorcycle.......and also jonathan's head