Just in case

For those of you who read my blog, but may not know the story behind it, I thought it would be a good idea to give a brief summary of who I am and what we do.  So, here it is:

My name is Carrie Hoekstra, I grew up in Lansing, IL and graduated from Illiana Christian High School. I am now serving as one of a four-person missionary team in Santiago, Dominican Republic. I, along with my fiancé Eddy, am serving at a church and school, started by missionaries Guille and Shelley Hernandez. They started a church in a local neighborhood about eleven years ago, and eight years ago, they started the church’s largest ministry, a school.


The school’s name is Colegio Caminito de Jesus. In English, Pathway to Jesus School. It started as a small preschool. The first year, there were only 18 students. Several of these children are still in our school and are now finishing fourth grade. Since the beginning God has blessed the school and its growth. The school is growing quickly. We have added a grade and several students each year. This year we had about 230 students from preschool to fifth grade. The addition of so many children has forced the expansion of our school building as well. Two years ago, they students could no longer fit in the church classrooms, so we started giving class an abandoned partially-built house. During that time, construction started on our new school building. I was actually a member of one of the first work teams almost two years ago. We built the foundation for the first three classrooms. The school has come a long way since then. At the beginning of this school year we had three classrooms. Unfortunately we had six grades that needed to use those classrooms, so for the first three months we had two grades per classroom. In January, a work team came and built us three new classrooms upstairs. All of the classrooms are unfinished. There are no doors or windows and upstairs there is exposed rebar everywhere, but we are thankful for the blessing of six new classrooms. The last two work teams started the work on bathrooms and an office. We have been operating in the new school building for a full school year without electricity or running water. Over the next year we hope to finish building the bathrooms and office as well as finish the existing classrooms complete with doors, windows, and electricity.

The addition of so many students each year has also created a need for more people to get involved and to help. While I was in the DR on my construction mission trip in August of 2009, I saw how fast this school was growing and the great need there was for help. Shelley came to me about half-way through my trip and we talked about the possibility of me moving down to help as an English teacher. I put it in God’s hands, because it seemed impossible. I needed to be accepted to the mission organization and raise all of my own support. By that January, I was back and had dedicated myself to 18 months. Over the last year and a half, I have been the English teacher, I have taken on administrative responsibilities and I have had the opportunity to help at the church with the praise team and with a community Bible study.

Eddy, my fiancé, has actually been involved in the ministry longer than I have. He has been serving with Guille and Shelley in various ministries for several years. He is the leader of the praise team, he works full time as head of maintenance and assisting Shelley at the school, he is the treasurer at the church, and he leads a community Bible study. A few months ago, through prayer and seeking God’s will, Eddy and I decided to get married, and we decided to stay in the Dominican Republic permanently working as a team with Guille and Shelley to help achieve what God has planned for this school and church. The school has grown so big that it is too much for two people to manage alone. We strongly believe that God is calling us to this work and we can see how He was preparing us for this calling over the last several years. We believe whole-heartedly that God has huge plans for the school and the church and we are excited to see what the future holds for us in this ministry.

Just as God touched mine and Eddy’s hearts and led us to get involved in helping this ministry, God has touched the hearts of several other people to help as well. There are several people, here in the United States, who have become involved. They pray for us, encourage us, help us raise support, organized work teams, and help get the word out about what God is doing in the Dominican Republic. We are so excited about all the new partnerships that we are forming with people, churches, and schools in the United States. There are many ways for people to get involved in the work that God is doing in our ministry as well from coming down on a work team to sponsoring a child, to supporting us personally, to helping spread the word about the needs. We are even hoping to bring down one or two more American teachers in the years to come. God has definitely done great things in our ministry here and we are excited to see what He has planned for the future.

Now that you are all caught up, please send me an email at carrie.bea1982@yahoo.com if you would like to be added to our ministry's email mailing list.  We will be sending monthly updates on what's happening at the school and the church with pictures, stories, and prayer requests.  Blessings!