If you are new to my blog

Over the last couple of months, I have noticed that several new people have started to follow and read my blog.  I thought that it might be a good idea to give those of you, who are new to my blog, some ideas of which of my old posts you may want to read, based on theme.

If you are interested in knowing more about the ministry that Eddy and I are a part of and the progress the school has made and seeing pictures of the school and kids, check out the posts :
"Just in Case" from July 2011
"Preschool" from October 2011
"School Pictures" and "A few pictures of the kids" from December 2011
"February" from March 2012

If you are interested in getting to know who Eddy and I are personally, about our relationship with each other and our relationship with our God, I recommend reading the posts:
"A time of Change" from March 2011
"Cafe con Leche" from April 2011
"Ten Years" from June 2011

If you want to hear about our Wedding and see pictures,
"Our Wedding" from August 2011 was written before the wedding and
 "The Wedding" from September 2011 was written after the wedding.
 I also posted several pictures in August and September 2011 as well.

If you want to hear about my first Christmas in the DR, check out from December 2011
"A Very Dominican Christmas Part 1"
"A Very Dominican Christmas Part 2"
"Christmas Joy"

I also added labels to most of my posts and put the tabs at the top of the page, so feel free to explore the blog and learn more about me and the work that God is doing in my life!

February

During the month of February our ministry was greatly blessed with two groups.  The first group was a work team from First Christian Reformed Church of Crown Point.  This was the church’s second work team.  Of the sixteen volunteers, four of them were returning for the second time.  We had an amazing week with this team.  They worked very hard and worked very well as a team and accomplished even more than we hoped they would in their week here.  They built us a security wall along the southwest side of our property, they poured all the columns, and they built us a new large cabinet in Shelley’s office.  When there was some downtime, they moved the dirt off the road and played with the kids.  By the end of the week, we also had six new students sponsored by members of the group.  We also were very encouraged by the interaction that they were able to have with our staff members and members of our church.  On Monday, some of our staff members had fun helping fill holes with cement and laying block and on Tuesday night our church hosted a Valentine’s Day dinner with all of the church members and the group.  Our ministry was blessed by the work that they did and by the relationships that were formed. 

the work team in front of the wall

The other group that came down was a little bit different.  It consisted of only two woman; Ruth Boss (a member of the PTJ support committee) and Karen Hoekstra (my mom).  Otherwise known as Grannies on a Mission.  They came down for a little over a week to help us organize.  They organized Shelley’s office (the new cabinet was a great help) my office, all of our files and supplies, the preschool closets, etc.  They even went as far as to clean the toys.  They stayed at our houses and were able to see what life down here in the Dominican Republic is like day to day.  They also were able to form some new relationships with a few of our church members, school staff, and our families.  We loved having them down here and they were both a huge blessing to us.  It’s always good to have a couple moms around.  If you want to read more about their adventures, you can read their blog at granniesonamission.blogspot.com.  

the grannies with the preschool staff