Family Visit

well, well, what can i say? i just had a wonderful week with my mother and cousin/pseudo-sister audrey staying here with me in the Dominican Republic!! what a special time, it was amazing to share this experience with people that i love so dearly : ) thank God for His gifts like this to us!

we spent a busy week visiting barrios, helping at ANIJA, homeschooling the trautweins, and mostly getting ready for the big sponsorship project which i am now working on. mom and audrey really enjoyed being here, and i think this was a wonderful eye-opening time for both of them - there's something about actually being in a place that does so much more than pictures can ever do. a picture may be worth a thousand words, but a real-life experience can make you speechless! i'm very thankful too that my mom began sponsoring a little boy at the school, daniel, who's in preschool. he is such a sweetheart, and her help is very timely, as our preschool class is still very under-sponsored. i would definitely encourage all of you to go to a different country on a missions trip sometime in your life; it's so good to make oneself aware of what's really going on the world, and to realize that even those of us who live in wheaton or whatever are still part of that world. God has called all of us to be missionaries in the places that we are, but sometimes it's hard to know what exactly God wants us to do; but going on a missions trip can make God's calling in your life much clearer, as it opens your eyes to the needs in this world, and gives you a heart for loving all the different people in it. course, that doesn't mean full-time overseas missions for everyone - but it's good to see. anyhow, thats a little sermon for ya'll : )

other than that, please pray for me a few things: the trautweins are leaving on thursday for a month of travel in the states. please pray for a much-needed relaxing and renewing time for their family while there, and also pray for the safety of my friend katie and i, as we'll be staying in their house by ourselves. pray also that i would be able to get this project done and in the mail on time! thanks so much for your prayers, and for keeping up with me.

God bless, allison

Hello Diego!!

goodmorrow to you all.....well!! i guess i should apologize to you all for not being quite consistent with my entries.....things sure can get crazy around here!! but i want you to know how much i appreciate ya'll keeping up with me.

so! well, this has been a great week, firstly because it was the first week at school for a new child at the ark, Diego!! what a sweetheart, he is the most darling little boy, and so excited to be living at the ark. before he arrived, he was counting down the days till he got to go live at the ark. we were told he said everyday when he woke up "is today the day i get to go the ark?" we took him in from his father, who was a chronic alcoholic, and was forcing diego to drink along with him, getting this 7-year-old drunk on many occasions. but now he's at the ark, another wonderful example of God protecting those little children who are his! just this weekend, three more children entered the ark, two brothers - justin and steven - and a girl named linberlin. i dont' have any pictures of them yet, but will hopefully have some to post soon. i am so thankful to God for the people who were willing to sponsor kids like Diego, and the other three; they are all going to be part of a brand new house at the ark, how exciting! of course, as always there is still room for 11 or so more, room to grow, more children's lives to change. we all pray everyday that the Lord would be bringing more and more people to have a desire to help fund this project for the children of this island. hope is sometimes a rare thing down here, but God has enabled us americans to bring it!!

ok, another thing we have here is the addition of a helper for a few months, who's name is also alison! she's been living in constanza for the past 2 years, and will be traveling to the states to get married in march, but until then she is taking over the ark sponsorship for jonathan - a great praise! for the first time in kids alive history we have a person in every place on the island doing sponsorship for each specific site. it's wonderful, because it means that everything will get done much better! one thing that can be prayed for: alison and i will not be here come summer, and we have a replacement intern coming down at the end of april.....please pray for him as we'll be training him for both the ark and anija (that's right). another exciting event, my mother and cousin audrey will be coming in tomorrow night to stay here for a week, i am so very excited for that!! pray that their stay will be good, and that we'll be able ot accomplish what we can while they're here! although they don't speak spanish, i'm in the middle of one of the big quarterly projects at the school, so i'll need lots of help with that. oh, p.s., i thought i'd put a picture of what i ate for lunch up the other day, just as a point of interest - this is called locrima, and it's rice with some kind of meat in it, and then we always have salad with vinegar on it. usually, it's this everyday, or it's white rice with beans. "arroz y habichuelas" haha, domincan's can't live without it!! ok, well, that's all for now, and i'll be writing again hopefully soon : )

God bless! allison