Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Newsletter

Each year around this time, Eddy and I write a newsletter to give an overview of the past year.  It was sent out last month.  In case you didn't see it, I have pasted below a copy of that newsletter.  If you did not receive a newsletter from us and would like to be on our mailing list, please email me at carrie.bea1982@yahoo.com and I can add you to our list.  Thank you all for you interest in God's ministry here in the Dominican Republic and for your support and prayers. Dios te bendiga!


Update – September 2013
Eddy and Carrie Ramos

Missionaries

Pathway to Jesus School



PATHWAY TO JESUS SCHOOL

Greetings from the Dominican Republic!  Blessing to you and your families!  Another year has passed here at Colegio Caminito de Jesus (Pathway to Jesus School), and I am excited to tell you all about it.  First, I would like to take the time to thank you for your support of our ministry here in the Dominican Republic.  Each year around this time, we look over our funding and support for the past year and plan for the next year.  As I look over our statements and see the list of our supporters and their generosity, I am overwhelmed and humbled.  We are truly blessed.  Thank you so much for continued financial support as well as for your prayers.  We thank God for blessing us with such an amazing group of supporters and we continue to pray for you and for your families, that God may continue to bless you as He has blessed us.

Over the past year, God has continued to bless the school and helped it grow in a variety of ways.  In the 2012-2013 school year, we added yet another grade and we had about 260 students from two years old to seventh grade and over 30 staff members. Our preschool (children ages 2 to 4) still meets in the church building, where the school first began several years ago.  Kindergarten through seventh grade meet at the new school building, which is still under construction.
 
OUR ROLES
 
This past year, I (Carrie) continued in the role of Preschool Principal for the second year.  This is a role that I believe God prepared me for in a variety of ways over the last several years.  My degree and background are in Early Childhood Education.  I love working with small children and I have a passion for helping children who come from homes where they are not receiving the foundation that they need to be successful in school.  Apart from the administrative work that I do, my focus is to mentor and help the preschool teachers grow and become confident as teachers.  I am a teacher of teachers. 

In our preschool we have 80 students, 4 teachers, 4 teacher’s assistants, and one secretary.  I am so proud of and thankful for the preschool team.  They truly are a group of amazing Christian women, who love God,  love kids, and want to serve God in this ministry.  Apart from the work that we do with the students, we have also formed close friendships as sisters in Christ.  We have devotions daily and we help support each other.  I am so thankful that God has helped me and guided me in my work in the preschool and for the progress that has been made.

This past year, Eddy took on several additional responsibilities at the school as well.  At the beginning of the last school year, Eddy was asked to take on the lead administrative role at the school, which he accepted.  I had the privilege of watching Eddy follow God’s leading and grow as an administrator.  Although Eddy does not have background or education in school administration, he has several years of experience at the school and as someone who grew up here, has an understanding and knowledge of the culture that has helped him work with the staff and the parents.  Eddy was able to accomplish so much over the past year in the area of administration and organization of the school.  He also has a true gift for counseling and working with students, parents, and staff members.


CONSTRUCTION/WORK TEAMS

Over the last school year, the new school building has continued to grow and improve.  Additionally, the preschool building received an overhaul as well.  The majority of this work was done by the two work teams that we received.  In February, we received our third work team from First Christian Reformed Church of Crown Point.  The team spent four days in the blazing sun and built almost the complete second story over the office and bathrooms.  They worked very hard and accomplished so much.  They also took the time to play with the kids and build relationships with some of the staff and church members.
 

In April, we received our fourth work team from Illiana Christian High School.  This year the team consisted of all seniors.  Half of this work team worked at the elementary building doing a variety of work painting, pouring sidewalks, building dividers in the bathrooms, etc.  The other half of the team worked at the preschool building.  This was very exciting for us at the preschool because the physical space had not been improved or updated since the school started almost 10 years ago.  They put in ceilings (such a blessing for the heat and the noise.)  They painted beautiful murals in the classrooms.  They repainted our tables and benches and they put in new doors and cabinets. 


We are so thankful for both of these works teams, and it is so encouraging and such a blessing to us that First CRC of Crown Point and Illiana both have chosen to come with a team year after year to bless God’s ministry here.






VISITORS/PARTNERSHIPS

Apart from the two work teams received other visitors this year as well.  In February, Edith Hulcoop, from our mission organization (Global Outreach Mission) came down to visit and help for a few weeks.  She had the opportunity to help us with some organizational work and she also blessed us with her gift for photography.  She took pictures of our student and our staff.  Most of the pictures in this newsletter were taken by her.  Even more than that, we were blessed by getting to know her and to build a relationship with someone inside of our mission organization. 

The “Grannies on a Mission” (Ruth Boss and my mom, Karen Hoekstra) came down for their second annual trip this year as well.  This time, in addition to helping us clean and organize, they helped plan and run a “garage sale” fundraiser.  They brought down a couple suitcases full of donated clothes and we also asked our students’ families to seek out clothes to donate as well.  This “garage sale” was a blessing in several ways.  First, it allowed the families represented at our school an opportunity to buy clothes very cheaply.  Second, the money raised at the sale helped the school financially.  Third, we were able to donate the leftover clothes to several of our neighborhood churches to donate to their church members that had a need for the clothes.
 

This summer, Tonilee Meter, came down for six weeks to help with our summer school.  Tonilee had come down twice with the Illiana work teams in the past and is now in college.  She stayed with a Dominican family from our school and helped with the Bible class and crafts at our summer school.  We loved having her here and she was not only a blessing to the ministry in the work that she did, but she was also a blessing to me and Eddy personally as well.  We had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with her and her host family and built a wonderful friendship with her.

Orland Park Christian Reformed church is a supporting church of ours.  Last year, the director of their preschool contacted me and was interested in building a relationship between our two preschools.  Since then, they had a “trike-a-thon” fundraiser and donated the money raised to our preschool to buy educational toys and books.  I also had the opportunity to visit the preschool this past May to get to know the staff and students there as well.  We are very excited about this partnership with a preschool that although it is in a different country, has very similar goals and ministry as our own.

THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR

I can’t believe it is already September!  That means that we have already started our new school year.  This year, Eddy and I will both continue in our administrative roles at the school.  I have now started my third year as preschool principal and Eddy has started his second year as lead administrator.  Additionally we are both a part of the leadership team of the ministry as a whole.  This year the school will continue with the same grade levels and almost every class is completely full.  Also, every staff member from last year stayed and we did not have to hire anyone new this year. 


This year we also have another American teacher that has come down to serve at the school as well.  Joy Gort will be here this year as a mentor to our Kindergarten through fourth grade teachers.  She will be helping them to learn and grow as teachers.  She has already been such a blessing to the ministry and to us personally and we are so excited to see how God will continue to use her in the ministry over the course of this school year. 

THANK YOU
We would like to thank you again for your interest in God’s ministry here at Pathway to Jesus School.  God has richly blessed us and we are so thankful for your partnership in His ministry here.  Your prayers, your thoughts, and your financial support are such a blessing to us and help us to focus completely on what God calls us to do. 
                                                                                                                       
 Blessings,
Eddy and Carrie Ramos