hello everyone! well, sorry this entry's been so long in coming, i wrote on on sunday, believe it or not, and then it got erased with a loss of internet, so i didn't have time to re-do it. anyways............well, this weekend was a lovely time, we had monday off, and also the women's retreat, which was basically for any woman in the dominican republic who loves God and speaks english. : ) most of us kids alive women went, and it was such a blessed time, really great to grow together with eachother, and personally get refreshed in time with God. so here's a picture of us all at the end.

other than that, things continue on as usual, it's been a good week in school, and we're getting fired up for the next huge sponsorship project - Easter!! my mom will be coming down here with my cousin audrey for a visit in a couple of weeks, which is very exciting, and will be a great timely help in bringing down supplies and helping me for this upcoming project. alright speaking of sponsorship: there is a really exciting opportunity that you all have to join in with me on this unending goal of reaching all the children here in the dominican, and that is sponsoring a child. i don't mean for this to be a commercial or soemthing, but we just had an all-island sponsorship meeting, and it was so wonderful adn encouraging to hear about he great good being done here, in lives like edward's, and joel's, and all the children you have heard about first-hand from me.........but at the same time, we were all made very aware of the lack of funding, and the fact that more funding means more children are helped. ANIJA right now is constantly running in the red, but it of course continues to serve the community with what God has given us. i do want to ask, however, that those of you who have shared all the different experiences of these children's lives with me would think and pray about sponsoring a child. you can email me if you're interested; (spanglishgirl87@gmail.com) more than that, i would really appreciate taht you all pray that more people would be moved to support what's being done here. jonathan, my co-worker here, has this philosophy about life here: 1 John 3:16-18 "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. " Once we as Christians have seen the need of others, of our brothers and sisters in these other countries, we are bound to do our part, to show them the love of Christ, just as we have all be shown it. so my challenge is this: what will you do for the need which you now know? your prayers and action are vital to the ministry here, and i thank you so much to those of you who are involved in helping, anywhere. thanks also for listening to my little sermon, hahaha...........

one more prayer request, our ministry is under a little bit of an attack right now, as the principal Miriam is sick in the hospital, and the director Sonia's grandmother just died this morning. so the hard things do indeed come, but we would appreciate your prayers as to the Lord's peace in it all. thanks again for reading this week, may God bless you in your lives and hearts!!

~allison

Lice Week and Lovely Weekend

Hello everyone! well, what a wonderful week it's been! it was lice cleaning week at ANIJA, so for a couple days we went through all the classes checking for lice, and then washed the ones that had it. we set up a little station outside of the team house on campus, and jessi, josie, leslie and i got going with the washing. seriously, sometimes i felt like a monkey, picking through their hair looking for little moving things. hahaha. but we were actually pleasantly surprised by the amount of kids we had to do, probably only about 20-so had it, out of like 200 kids, so that was really good!

let's see, what else? a lot happened this week......we celebrated Dia de los Reyes, or King's Day, so we gave the kids presents and candy. they absolutely loved it, here's a lot of pictures of them and their gifts. these are, by the way, the gifts that i spent like a month wrapping, there were about 150 or so, and now they're finally out of the sponsorship office! : ) thanks to the people who sent those for the kids. other than that, i'm afraid i don't have a ton else to say, except that God continues to be good, and work in the lives of the children and missionaries here. this weekend jessi and i got to go to santiago for a little shopping, and there have a been a few teams here this week, so it's nice to relax after the busyness. i will continue to pray that God is doing his work in all your lives, and thank him for the work he's doing in mine. have a beautiful week of praising and serving Him in everything you do, and God bless!!

~allison

Just thinking.....

Hola mi familia, ?como estan? well, i had a really neat story to share with you all that happened to me today, and i realized there was no reason to wait! just a neat way that God shows himself to me daily.

i took two girls home from school today, madelyn and luisa maria, who are both my neighbors. well, on the way from madelyn's house to luisa maria's, we ran into a huge mud patch, where the bike got a little stuck, and we had to squash through the mud (barefoot cause we were wearing flipflops) and push the bike out. quite a mess, but kind of fun too. finally we made it to luisa maria's house, were her mother invited me in, to see the place and visit. but as my feet were muddy, i didn't want to get her house dirty. before i could even start to wipe them on the ground outside, luisa's mother bade me sit and began to wash my feet with a jug of water........what an unexpected act of love! here this woman who did not even know me was washing my feet, she who is the poverty-stricken one, she who i had come to help! God surely shows himself in mysterious ways, i have no doubt of that any longer. and what a timely blessing it was, as my burned foot has been in some pain lately; what a beautiful reminder that God loves and will take care of me, as he does his children here in the dominican as well as all around the world. our God is amazing! (picture of luisa maria above)

things have been going well this week. today was leslie trautwein's birthday, and so we celebrated with all the missionaries as well as the ark moms. school is still great, i can't tell you all how much i love being with these kids, i wish you all could know them too! they are certainly wonderful. : ) this country is so beautiful, the people, the place, being here is such a wonderful blessing, i am overflowing with gratitude - thanks to all of you who helped me to get here!! your prayers mean everything to everyone here. i would ask for prayer for my burn, it is quite painful right now, as the dead skin is beginning come off.........and then today while playing with the kids, one of them accidently scraped the burn with their foot, and took off a lot of the remaining skin. haha, that would happen : ) please pray that it will heal quickly, and that i will be protected from infection. i put an update pic below for those who want to see it, but i'm warning you, it's worse than the last one (which actually means it's getting better). i'm also putting these pictures of the dominican up, so you can enjoy a little of the beauty with me!! God bless, and may you continue to dwell in the eternal blessing that is God's presence in our lives!

~allison

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Back in the Dominican Republic!

Hello everyone!!! well, i hope you all had marvelous christmases, i must say, mine was splendid. had a wonderful and refreshing two-and-a-half weeks at home, seeing friends and family again, and getting to eat some delicious american foods, (which i will admit, i missed a lot -oh, the food and family, haha) then it was board a plane for the five hour flight back to DR, and here I am again, safe and sound after my first week! it was also very fun to see many of you over christmas, i must thank you again for all your prayers, they have meant and will mean so much to me in this next semester. i'm glad to say the transition has been super-smooth, almost natural now that i know and understand the ins and outs of daily life here, much better than when i first arrived. i'm completely swamped with sponsorship work - translating, record, and giving out christmas kid's christmas letters, filling out arrival/departure forms, updating new sponsors - it's mass chaos in the sponsorship office, but that's the way i love it! though of course, jonathan and i don't neglect to have cleaning parties once in awhile. : ) alright, then i have a sweet story for you, and an eventful, somewhat gruesome one. bad news first. you may be wondering why i'm modeling a bandage in the above picture, well! i had someone working on my motorcycle over christmas, and i came back with it working quite a lot better than when i left. wonderful thing, but i guess a well working vehicle is something one needs to get used to. not expecting the accelerator to react as quickly as it does now, i lost control off my bike for a few seconds, and while regaining control, pressed my right ankle against the overheated muffler, for how long i'm not quite sure. long enough, though, for me to sustain a 2nd degree burn there. however, God has blessed me enough to be living with a wonderful doctor, leslie trautwein, so she bandaged me up quite well and it's healing up good. i won't lie, it hurt like the dickens on the first night, but wonder of wonders, it hasn't really hurt since! as long as no one touches it, i don't feel a thing. definitely a work of God, as it sure would be a bummer to be lame for awhile.

alright, so much for the bad news. here's a little back-at-school with these wonderful childrn stories. i was sitting on a bench the other morning before school started, reading my new bible, and one of the little boys from came up and sat by me. now you must know, it was one of those devilish 5th graders, terror of the teachers, but today he was unusually tranquil, and asked me to read to him from the soft, white pages. i opened it up to God's own destination, the story of paul in the jailers' cell, set free and witnessing to the jailer, who became a christian along with his family. now, of course i read it in english, which joel (pictured in the orange hat) enjoyed, but he asked me what it meant when i was done. i translated the story, and at the end added how amazing it was the God would do such changing things in people's lives. he looked at me wide-eyed and said, 'wait, you mean this really happened??' it was so sweet, to be able to tell him yes, the bible is history, and God does in lives today what he did in their lives then. joel was truly dazzled, and i hope that God will use this in a small way to change his life, and his desire to hear God's word.

ok, last but not least, i have posted a picture of my wound, but i put it far below for the faint of heart. if you want to see it, go ahead and scroll down. it's actuaally not that bad...........anyways, thanks again for keeping up with the adventures of allison this year, i truly appreciate your prayers, especially for kids like joel - have a great week!

~allison

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phew, look at that! those were two big blisters, but they haven't gotten infected, so that's good news