Thanksgiving in the DR

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Well, today in english class i taught the kids a short lesson about the american holiday of thanksgiving......everyone was very interested, and of course wanted to have the day off. after i got home, it was time to bake!! we actually have the day off as americans, although i went to school anyways, cause i didn't want to get behind on my latest sponsorship project. and we actually also managed to have quite an american holiday!
a normal turkey dinner, with pumpkin pie and everything......most of the ingredients we needed were brought down by vic, who was just in the states for a kids alive meeting. and of course we had a football game, with the teachers from the Jarabacoa Christian School over at their school field. it was different to be away from family for the first time during thanksgiving, and i did miss everyone a lot. however, i'm certainly not the only one here without family, and so we all come together and have our own little family here. : )
other than that, this week has gone on fairly normally. at the moment, i'm working on the 'treat fund' in the sponsorship program, distributing money that the sponsors send their kids for birthdays, surprises, or just randomly. so, i got to measure some feet for shoes, and go shopping for rice and candy - something for the kids, and something to help the family out as well. i've been doing child histories lately as well, which means that i am finding out the story behind every one of these children. wow, it is unbelieveable.......very eye-opening, to see what these kids go through, the ones that i am with every day. it makes me so glad to see kids' alive and every one here to support and love these kids - and i also thank God for your prayers for these children!! believe me, they mean a lot!!
well, so now you have a summary of a dominican thanksgiving. now i'm spending the weekend babysitting our neighbors house and, oh yes - i did get my motorcycle on tuesday! here's a little picture for you, it definitely reminds me of the great escape or something......but it rides well, doesn't take up too much gas, and i haven't had a crash yet (haha), so things are looking pretty good! i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving, i feel like i certainly have much to be thankful for!! have a great week.

~allison

Vaccination Week and Christmas Project

well, sorry that these posts are coming so fast, but i had a lot going on this week, and the weekend is when i have time to share it with you all!! after this there probably won't be one till next weekend. : )

well, like i said, we had vaccinations for ANIJA, the ark, constanza, and a few different barrios around. it was fun to have my office turned into a nurse station for a day! i was there for the ark and ANIJA vaccinations on tuesday, and then the piedra blanca barrio on friday. in between i was working on the christmas sponsorship project, which i sent out this saturday. for the vaccinations, we had two wonderful nurses - kristy and kristen - who flew in from the states for the week. i was quite excited by it all, since i am planning on getting my BSN in nursing now, i learned a ton about vaccines, and how to give them. yes, i gave vaccinations!! haha, it was such a cool experience, especially cause i know i'd never be able to do something like that in the states, without training. i also gave oral polio drops at the ark, until we ran out. the funniest thing about doing vaccinations here is the conditions. everything about nursing in the states is about sanitation and stuff, i think the health board would be horrified if the saw the way things are done here. : ) when doing the barrios, we basically walked up to people and asked them if they'd been vaccinated, and then gave them the shot right there, if they hadn't. people would just be sitting on their motorcycles, or on the dirt road, and we'd just whip out a needle right there and stick it in. we did have the yellow box to put the contaminated needles in, so that was good. when we needed more, jessi just reconstituted them right on the road.....there's a picture of her sitting there doing it out of our handheld cooler. so anyways, what an experience, one i'm sure i'll never have in nursing school!

then we had the christmas project. it went well, though crazy sometimes, i had about 100-some kids to do it with, and each of them have 1-3 sponsors to make the project for. needless to say, i think it was a miracle that we ended up getting a project out to every single sponsor! but God is good, and even though it's a mad house trying to get these kids to do a craft together, it is also probably one of the most fun things to do. so it's out and done, and soon i'll be thinking about the easter project! but i've got a couple of weeks to catch up on everything else, so that's good. i guess that's about all i have to tell......i'm posting another video of everyone doing the project at the ark......this one was MUCH calmer than the anija one, we had a lot of helpers for that one, and the kids weren't quite so young, hahaha. well, i hope you all have a good week, thanks so much for your emails and prayers, i am praying for all of you that God would use you each in another's life this week. God bless!!
~allison

forgot to put up the little video of my friends and i.....for those of you who don't understand spanish, Alma Mia's reading from the Bible, then i joke around with Veronica, and at the end Veronica is doing her impression of a chinese man speaking spanihs she saw on tv. quite hilarious, totally adorable. : ) enjoy!

Prayer Request - I love the Ark!!

Alright, well, things are crazy busy right now with vaccination week and having my christmas project due to be sent out on saturday......but i certainly don't mind being busy! i'll probably update you all on how that went this weekend, but for now, i thought i'd just put up some fun pictures of my favorite place here, the ark!! i spent some time over there recently with the kids, helping john with his christmas project, and they're wonderful, i just can't get enough! : ) so enjoy!

oh, but first: the ANIJA school was robbed yesterday, and it was a really heavy disappointment for everyone. we lost our two inverters, which we use to power the office and computer lab when the power goes out, and they broke into the safe and took all the school's money, as well as one of the secretary's savings, which she was keeping there. really a sad, discouraging thing, but we know that everything happens for a purpose, so pray that God would help us sort this all out, and provide for replacement of the inverters. thanks!

ok, now for the photos......hope they brighten your day like these kids do mine. : )

hilarious little carlos

















veronica and i, she's in my fourth grade class, and probably one of the sweetest girls i've ever met in my life








jonathan and one of the new babies in the yellow house









yohanny getting attacked by her beanie-baby










alma mia and i








no, the paint is for the christmas cards!!! : )

A Miracle

today at palo blanco, i ate lunch with a miracle. he is 9-year-old edward, and i thought i'd share his story with you.

at palo blanco, most of the children come from difficult homes where they are regularly starved and abused. edward was no different, infact, his situation was one of the worst ones, and the effects certainly manifested themselves in him at school. he began as a fairly well-behaved boy, but this year when he came back, he was different, and not in a good way. suddenly he was angry, malicious, disobedient, and always intent on hurting his fellow students and teachers. jan burkey was doing a great deal to work on him, and trying to get to the bottom of the situation. we knew he was abused, but so are most of the other kids, and their behavior didn't compare. just last week, in the wake of the dominican halloween, the cause of edward's problems surfaced: he had been involved in witchcraft. near his home, a group of haitian witchdoctors had moved in, and in rebellion against his parents, he had gone over to their house and began helping in their rituals - chanting, burning candles upside down, cursing people around him, and listening to the devil, things i had only heard about before they became so real. after a few of these encounters, edward's father found out what he had been doing, and as punishment, edward was tied to a tree and left without food for 2 days. (this was over the weekend, so we weren't aware of his absence) but this little boy's experience of being tied to a tree was much more than physical. he told us later that while he was sitting there, the devil spoke to him, in his head. at first, edward called him 'pajaro malo', which means evil bird, and said that this pajaro malo had come to live in him and tell him what to do. the bird told him that his name was lucifer, and edward said that it told him to stay away from the christian school, that it and the people there were evil, and it also prompted edward to kill his sister, jericha. edward did infact almost strangle her on the school grounds, until one of the teachers found them, and took him to speak with jan, at which point we found all of this out. even as she spoke with him, we could see past the malice in his bloodshot eyes, and all i saw was fear in a little boy. he didn't like the evil bird anymore, he said, but he had to do what it told him. so much horrible power over his young life, but we knew of a greater power that could save him, and that day in the office, he accepted Jesus, and told the devil that he no longer had power in his life. what an incredible struggle that day, and what a miracle! for the rest of the day, he looked so tired, but at the same time, he was happy, happier than we had seen him in ages. he is such a different little boy now, and loves to tell people the way that Jesu Cristo beat the pajaro malo in his heart. he is free, and his life is now a testimony to the Lord's power. please pray for edward as he continues on in what will certainly be a long hard journey, as he still is in the same living situation. pray also for his sister, and his family, that God would work in their lives as well. lastly, pray that this house of witchdoctor's would be removed from the midst of the palo barrios, so that no more evil can come there. Praise God for what He's done!!

well, other than that, teaching and sponsorship are going well. i actually got to spend a relaxing weekend at the beach with some of my fellow missionaries, which was a wonderful break. (that's me on a palm tree) that got me charged for the christmas project, which i'm now knee-deep in and loving it! it's taken a lot of planning, but it's fun to spend afternoons making it with the kids at ANIJA. if any of you are sponsoring a child at ANIJA through Kids Alive, look for one coming in your mail, it should arrive around the beginning of december. and by the way, for those of you who aren't sponsoring a child, it's a wonderful, wonderful way to get involved with what we're doing down here.......i'll be hopefully giving a presentation all about it when i come home for christmas, at college church, so please talk to me if you're interested. i took the pictures of these kids todya, they're so precious!! haha, ok, well, i didn't mean that to be a sales-pitch, but being here with the kids just makes the coolness of sponsoring much more real! : ) anyways, thanks for your prayers, God certainly encourages me and works in the lives of the children through them. God bless you all, and have a great week!!

~Allison