Back to the DR

An update! Can you believe it? I'm returning to the Dominican Republic for a short time next week, to work with the organization Priceless International, which I have been on the board of for about 1 year.

This is going to be an interesting trip. Priceless International is the result of God's conviction in the life of our director, Glenn Harden, about the massive amount of prostitution in the Dominican Republic. Our goal is to minister to the lives of those who are forced - by poverty or otherwise - to perform sexual acts for money. We want to create a place women and children can go that is safe, that will show them the love of Christ, and that will enable them to move on to a better life. It's not been easy; how can anyone swallow the idea of 7-year-old girls and boys forced to solicit aging tourists with sex....just to survive? But it does not matter what my emotional reaction is to such a reality. The important thing is that I do something about it, because knowledge of evil must be a catalyst to change things for good. I have lived a privileged life; I want the same grace, safety, love, and peace for others. God desires justice in an unjust world, and he is asking me to be part of delivering that justice. What a wonderful opportunity!

This trip will primarily focus on rescuing children off the streets of Santo Domingo, the capitol of the Dominican Republic. I will be there from September 5th - 14th, and Grant will be joining me on September 9th. While there, we will find children willing to leave the streets (shouldn't be hard), as a nurse I will give them what medical attention I can, and we will place them in a safehouse when we can find one. If you want to be involved, we are in need of children's clothes and toothbrushes, children's vitamins, and medical supplies. At the end of the trip, we will be privileged to return to Jarabacoa, where I used to live, and introduce Grant to many of my long-lost friends that live there :) God has blessed us greatly, and I pray that we can be as great a blessing to these lost lambs!

Love you all, and I will certainly update the blog with more when I come home, and possibly during the trip.

Priceless

Hello again from the wintry world of Iowa! I haven't been as good about blogging as I used to be...but of course, there has been a lot going on in my life!

I am now only a semester away from (finally!) graduating from nursing school. But even more exciting than that, and the real premise of this post, is to share about the work God is STILL doing in the Dominican Republic, and the way He is STILL allowing me to be a part of it!

During my last months in the DR, my friends Glenn and Elizabeth Harden expressed their belief that God was pushing them towards ministering to the many prostitutes on the island. Of course, this was a difficult idea to grapple with. How does one approach these women? What are their needs? Who are they? So many unanswered questions were flying every direction in my head. So Glenn went to work, researching, learning...

There are a lot of hard truths out there when dealing with something as ugly as prostitution. And of course, no one can live in the Dominican Republic without encountering it from time to time. It is truly a heartbreaking; not only the desperate acts of women who need the income, but the children that are also forced into it. Prostitution is slavery, horrid and unjust. Our God is a God of justice. So Lord, what is your will? What is it that we can do?

After much praying and learning, Glenn has started a nonprofit organization called Priceless, Inc., and I am privileged to be a member of the board. We are still in the baby steps of fund raising, building websites, and making connections, but the vision is solid. Someday, we want to offer a safe house, medical attention, food, recovery care, and an opportunity to learn a real trade that will support these women and their children. Sounds like a big task, right?

But the reality is that there is virtually nothing being done for these women at the moment. There is poverty, desperation, and there hasn't been much of an answer. But God wants JUSTICE for these women too. He wants to love them and care for them, and He has asked us to do it. There are so many ways in which we can serve these women, and bring God's love to them. So let's be the hands and feet of Christ to desperate and dying souls.

We've built a website, and it's still largely under construction, but if you want to learn more, check out www.pricelessinternational.org

I am so excited to be part of a ministry, even from far-away Iowa. I am excited because I know many of you read up on my adventures in the DR long ago, and I felt your prayers so strongly then; I know you will be part of this ministry with me again! Thanks for reading!

Love

Unexpected adventures.....does not always have to mean what I think it might. What about falling in love? What did I know of that before I ever met him? How am I being changed every day, while still living in the familiarity of the country of my birth? By what magic do I continually discover the intimate wonders of his person?

Somehow, my life is still full of adventures, unforseen exploits that take away my breath and open my eyes to new and wonderful worlds I did not know existed. I have always loved the faraway countries and new cultures that God has taken me to see; perhaps there will be more of those, and perhaps not. But I did not expect God to show me equal excitement when he brought me here, to Iowa. A chance meeting, an unavoidable relationship, the irrationality of love at first sight, thrown into ministry together, those everyday 'adventures' that he makes for us....

....and very soon I will be led down the aisle in a white dress. How wonderfully unexpected this adventure has been. I cannot wait to see what more will happen in a life so wholly unplanned as mine.

Zambia - Week 3

The last week was probably my favorite of all, because we got to spend an entire three days just being with the same group of children. The half of our group that stayed on traveled to Serenje, the site where our church is partnering with the local congregation to build an orphan home. There are so many children that have been orphaned by AIDS, the results are devastating; but God continues to be gracious, and through the church has provided temporary homes for all the children in the area. We worked with about 60 children, watching over them and doing a Bible club during the days while their parents took classes from our Cornerstone church leaders that met us there. I can hardly express the way their little faces tugged on my heart, the way their stories tore at my compassion, and how their little hands would slide into mine each day with a smile and a joy that could only come from the Lord in their lives. They have faced horrific trials, and yet they continue to be thankful for their food, and their clothes, and teh love they receive from us and from their foster parents. I think one of the greatest privileges I've ever experienced, in the Dominican as well as Africa, is being the one that is permitted to love these children, and show them the love fo God - although at times, it seemed that they were doing a better job of showing His love to me. Despite the fact that we could not speak the same language, there is a mutual affection and familiarity between Christians all over the world, and that blessing has never been clearer to me than it was in Africa. Praise God for all the work He is doing there, I only hope that my experience can be a small window for their labor for you as well!

Thank you all again for your support through finances and prayer, your generosity nearly brought me to tears several times leading up to the trip. God used your help mightily in what He's done, and He will continue to use our prayers. Please keep praying with me for the churches that have been started in Zambia, for the pastors and their families, and for the many sweet children who still need to be reached with the gospel and the love of Christ. May the Lord bless you all as you move forward in His will!

Allison

Zambia - Week 2

The second week was spent on the beautiful Mount Kazemba, where the mission agency Gospelink is building a Bible college for the many new pastors in Zambia. So many men there are excited about the word of God, but they have no reseources, no teachers, some of them do not even have Bibles to study and learn from - so the mission of the college is to bring that infomration to them. What a blessing! Next year will be the first year that they begin teaching, and so it was our job to finish up building some of the classrooms, cabins, and bathroom facilities that will be used by future students. It was hard work, mostly just laying cement block from sunup to sundowm, but working alongside the Zambian pastors themselves brought such an eagerness and enjoyment to the job, I could have gone on working with them forever! I also had a chance to spend one day working with the women, cooking over fires and doing laundry in buckets of water - a fun reminder of my time in the Dominican! They are such a beautiful people, so willing and ready to serve, this was yet another challenge to me: that I examine myself to see if service is truly my goal. Though we spent only a week with these poeple, they showed us a genuine love that came through their service to us. Now God challenges me to do the same, to prove my love for Him and others through service, in both the big things and the small ones.

Zambia - Week 1

Wow, it's hard to believe I'm already home from my trip to Zambia, and the summer is progressing onwards! Being in Zambia was such a sweet time for fellowship with brothers and sisters in Chrits from a different county. There is something so incredible about realizing that God is doing His great work all over the world, and I am so privileged to be even a small part of it!

First and foremost, I mostly just want to say a HUGE thank you to all of you for supporting me with your finances and prayers - it was such an amazing encouragement to know that I was bein gbacked by prayer from brothers and sisters here in the U.X. - especially as we made the tedious ourney over there! God was gracious to our team in so many ways, by keepin gus safe from any dangerous diseases, from being robbed, from motor accidents...obviously there are many things that can go wrong overseas, but one of the biggest truths I was faced with was the fact that being in the midst

of God's will is the safest place one can ever be, no matter what sit uations one may come up against. So thank you for your prayers, you all were just as big a part of this trip as I was!

Ok, a recap. The first week, we stayed in the capital city, Lusaka, and traveled around to two different schools each day, where we were assigned a class of ch ildren and we taught the gospel. We teamed up with a group of about twenty Zambian pastors, each of us getting a partner for translation and who would help us communicate the gospel clearly. My pastor's name was Bitwell Njovu, and what an incredible man of God! I was deeply impressed by the way he lived his life, fully devoting himself, his time, his family, and all his love to the spreading of the gospel message. I truly felt it was a privilege to spend so much time each day in his presence, and learn from his example of true devotion to Christ. The children, too, were so eager to learn of Jesus, and asked such deep and probing questions that I never would have expected out of anyone so young. It was a true test of my own knowledge about what I believe! Then in the evenings we went into a village not far outside the city and showed the Jesus Film in three parts, giving the gospel message, and at the end of the week, one of the pastors had started a church in that area. It is such a beautiful thing, to see a people that are not calloused to the gospel of Christ, but instead genuinely understanding their need for a Savior, grateful even that someone would come to tell them the good news! God is doing great things in the Zambian nation, and beginning to bless them for their obedience to Him.

The Team

Just thought I'd put up a picture of our team - I'm in there too, haha. Sort of a 'where's waldo' right? ; )

Everything's almost packed, and I"ll be at the airport tomorrow morning at 6:30! We depart from DesMoines at 8:30, and we have connecting flights in Washington D.C. and Ethiopia. I"d appreciate your prayers for the LONG flight!

AFRICA

Wow, I'm going to AFRICA. Zambia, to be exact. I can hardly believe the long road God has lead me down, bringing me to this new adventure - one that I may not understand, may not always be willing to follow, but in the end I know that what He will teach me here is going to be worth every hardship and uncertainty. God knows what He is doing.

Oh yes, so welcome back to the blog. I decided to start using it again, just to update you all on my most recent activities in missions, i guess you could say. Although, I don't really consider this year in school as a break from missions by any means - believe me, there are just as many lost people in Ames, Iowa as there are in the Dominican Republic. That being said, I don't have any cute pictures of kids for you all to enjoy, so I decided not to continue blogging till I had something really monumental to put up. ; )I am leaving for Zambia, Africa this Saturday, the 17th, and I will be returning three weeks from now on June 6th. I'll be going with my new and wonderful church, Cornerstone in Ames, and will certainly be challenged in incredible ways that I don't yet know of. PRAYER IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!!! I'm sorry, but I cannot stress this enough. My heart is truthfully, still in love with the Dominican, and so it can be difficult sometimes to understand why God would further break my heart for a different place and people - why does He think I am that strong? I'm not, but it is with His strength, and the gathered prayers of His miraculous people, that I take on this new adventure. There are buildings to build, children to teach, hospitals to visit, and at this point it all seems a blur. But it will all come to pass in the exact moments that God wants, and I promise I'll give a nice, full update at the end : ) You know, God pours His love into us for a reason - we can't be reservoirs, just storing it all up for ourselves. No, no matter the cost, we must strive to be CHANNELS, so that His love flows straight through, and passes on to those who thirst so badly for it. I am privileged enough to know His love; now I must pass it to those who do not have it. Thank you so much to those of you who are partnering with me with your finances and prayer through this; I am excited to move forward in His will, whatever that ends up meaning. Channels only, Blessed Master!!

Allison