a miracle
Cute as a button, Raymie two years old. Home at last
Well we got home last night about 11:00. No problems, we are really tired but all well. We will have an update on Raymie on Wednesday.I am going to add pictures but we are excited to share with you all the wonderful things God has done. God is Good
Boy do we have a lot to tell you. Raymie, had his operation last night. We got the news that everything had gone great when we were leaving church. Raymie´s father called with the update. The grandmother said that she had been praying for help for him everyday, and we were the answer. When God wants to get something done, he moves quickly, even in the Dominican Republic. They were able to fix both his feet. He will be in the hospital for a while in a cast. We will try to get an update tomorrow before we leave. We left the hospital to deliver the rest of our supplies to another school in Higuey. We have given away all three hundred pounds that we brought.
At church, there was a special youth service. The theme was the 80´s. Everyone was in costume. We didn´t know, but Sue´s jumper was from the 80´s, so she fit right in. They were so kind to us. We saw old friends. The music was loud and joyous.
When we got back to the hotel, the internet cafe was closed so we had to wait till today to write you. We were so exhausted we slept for 12 hours. The weather was beautiful today, but we are ready to come home.
A Leap of Faith
Today started out like any other day in the Dominican sunny and nice. We left at nine o{clock to go to Higuey. We found the perfect blackboard for the school. Traffic was crazy; we almost got a ticket. We went to the school, the teacher was thrilled with the blackboard. We went to the homes of the children without any fathers and gave them school supplies, backpacks, uniforms, and shoes. Whenever we stopped the taxi, we were mobbed by children. Then, we went to Wilson{s(our taxi-drivers) house for lunch. We had spaghetti, pasta, and bread and coca-cola. It was interesting to see how he is building on to his home. We went to bring the baby to the specialist. He has two club feet. We were confused when they were talking to a gynecologist, but realized they were asking her opinion as the best specialist to go to. The specialist said the operation would cost 125,000 pesos. The mother has another baby and lives in poor income housing. The operation would be impossible. Without the operation, he would have no opportunities. He can only drag himself around. After a lot of prayer, and a huge leap of faith, we said we would be responsible for the hospital bill. We meaning our church family. The total cost is 4,296.00 american dollars. This includes everything he will need. We paid today for x-rays and blood work and the medicine he will need. We think God has blessed us with this child. The operation will take place on Sunday morning. Please pray for him at church. Then, we went to another school. On the way there, we saw kids with the shoes we gave them yesterday. They waved to us and pointed to their shoes. Tomorrow, we will deliver the rest of our supplies, go and see the baby, and go to church. Please pray for us. Special Visitors
Today we had special visitors from the local church. It was so nice to see them again. Joel, Elizabeth, Christopher, and David. They spent the day here at the hotel with us. It was nice to hear all the things that they are doing at their church. They have started many small groups that worship at each others houses. They were thrilled with the little scripture books that we got them, and with the book of gospel books, too. They filled us in on everything that is going on in their church. It is growing bigger. We are going to a special service for youth on friday, and go to there house for dinner before. Sue{s spanish is getting better. When Joel asked her what the address was, she tried to tell them how to dress.
Tomorrow, we are going back to Higeuy to bring the baby to a specialist, and to buy a blackboard for a small school. We will go back to the preschool, and they are going to draw thank-you pictures for us to bring home. We will write again tomorrow.
Delivered Medicine
Last night it rained really hard. No need to build an ark. This morning was sunny, we went to Higuey. We can know give guided tours to all six pharmacies in the city. We found all the medicine we needed, and we´re happy that the amoxicllin, and pencillin were inexpensive. It took awhile to find the medicine for the small baby. We bought diapers, not for us, but for the babies. We went to our taxi drivers house, and visited the school-church in his neighborhood. It was very poor and very unorgainzed. We met a mother whose husband had died with six small children. They were happy to get shoes. We had to smile as we were leaving seeing the three year old with shiny blue boots. Then, we met a mother who had a baby with two club feet, who could not stand up. We are going back tomorrow to bring her to a specialist. Maybe God will answer prayers. The other school that we went to was very happy to get the books and school supplies. They need a blackboard. We will get that when we go back tomorrow.
We did a messy art project at the preschool. The first time they had ever painted. We learned how to say, ¨not on your clothes, on the butterfly¨in spanish. They all seemed happy with the results.
Shoes pose an interesting problem. We have to try each pair on each child. Everybody wants shoes; quite a job.
The doctor at the clinic was really happy with all the medicine. She was really nice and we will definately go back there next year.
We´re off to karaoke. We will wrilte again tomorrow.
To the Village
We went to a clinic this morning called ¨Clinica Rasal el Penñuo de los R.¨ We met Dr. Zorres and gave her some medicine. She needs more prescription medicine, so we will go to Higuey tomorrow and buy anti-biotics and diabetes medicine. We don´t need a prescription here. We went to a small village and were greeted by lots of children. They loved us(or maybe the candy canes). We will go back tomorrow with some smaller clothes that were donated and shoes.
A woman approached us and asked for help. She has a 6 mth old child that is very sick. She had a prescription for medicine but no money to pick it up. When we go to Higuey we will pick up this medicine, too. Tomorrow we will drop of the medicine on the way back, and check on the baby at the end of the week.
We went to a preschool and the children listened to the tapes and were very excited about the books. The teacher was happy that we are coming back each day. We have lots supplies to still deliver and shoes.
The food is good, we tried passion fruit. The room is good, too. We had a surprise visitor in our room today. Shannon was very brave and captured him in a cup. We decided to set the tiny lizard free. We are going to put a towel in front of our door so no more come in.
We´re here!
Had a great trip, no problems. All 300lbs of supplies arrived safely. The weather is 80 and sunny. We´re making arrangements to go tomorrow to the clinic and school. Thank you for all your prayers. We will update you tomorrow after we go and see the children.
photos of readers
I just wanted to share some photos of some of our volunteers that read Spanish books onto tape. A special thanks to Mitch and Sandra Charkiewicz for putting together the wonderful international group of readers. Sandra-Venezuela, Ashley--USA, Elizabeth-Spain, Jeanette-USA, Kyrie-USA, Paola-Italy, Ben-USA, Dennis-USA 
Getting Ready
We have been packing our bags. We are quite a sight with six fifty pound army bags. Say a prayer that we don't actually have to carry them ourselves. We have met our goal of 100 uniforms to bring down in all sizes. We want to thank all of you and Sacret Heart Church for helping us meet that goal. We have over 100 ponds of medicine and about 50 pounds of shoes . These bags are stuffed full. We even squeezed in candy in the little nooks and crannies. We have all of our personal stuff packed in our carry-ons so we are ready to go. We leave Sunday morning at 6:00 so we need to be at the airport at 4:30am. We ask that you pray for us and ask God to grant us travelling merciesand that we are able to touch many lives and show them that we care. We will write often and update you. Thank you for all the support and love that you have given to us. Sue, Shannon & Lauren