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