Back Home Again in Indiana

Well we made it home safe and sound yesterday at around 9pm. We had a hectic day of travel, 8 of us almost didn't make it out of Miami, but thanks to God's help we all got home and didn't even lose one piece of luggage!

Since the internet connection was a bit unreliable and time was limited to access the internet I'm going to put on a few more posts over the next few days of some of the things I didn't get to blog about but the team wanted to share with you. So stay tuned for more pictures and experiences! And please be diligent in your prayers for all of those precious children we now love dearly and those in the trenches of ministry trying to meet numerous needs day in and day out! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the prayers and support while we were gone!

ANIJA and Palo Blanco

Sorry there was no post yesterday. It was pouring down rain and the internet connection was awful. I tried for about an hour and half to upload pictures without much success and then just created a post without pictures that apparantly didn't go through. So I will try to make up for it tonight by posting a few extra pictures.

We started out our morning at ANIJA - one of the Kid's Alive schools that we have several sponsored children from. We put on our puppet show for them, played games and handed out our gifts. You can see the campus in the picture below (with Ashley Riley in the corner). :) The kids that we sponsor from the Ark orphanage attend school here so we got recognized as soon as we entered campus and got lots of hugs!



The picture below is Chris and Rachel with two of their sponsored kiddos Angelica and Dahiyana. During the puppet show Dahiyana, who was a little timid at first, inched her way closer and closer to Rachel until she was leaning against her. At the end of our time at ANIJA one of the staff members called Rachel and Chris over to share a bit of Dahiyana's story with them. Dahiyana's brother had attended ANIJA before she started and already had a sponsor. Dahiyana started attending the school and her mother was paying her full tuition which was a great hardship on the family. Shortly after she started attending school her father left the family leaving them in an even harder position. Each day Dahiyana would go to school and ask the staff if she had a sponsor yet and day after day they had to tell her no until CCW got involved. Dahiyana asked the staff member to translate to the Russell's that this sponsorship was the most important thing in her life right now. I think it is so easy for us at home to overlook the importance of our relationship with these precious children. We don't realize that they think about us, by name, day in and day out and that we are truely changing their future!

The children at ANIJA made us a sign to thank us for our sponsorship and each of the team members got an ANIJA school pin. Every single one of us on this team would easily agree that we have gotten far more out of this relationship already than our monthly payment reflects!

After ANIJA we went to Palo Blanco where the majority of our sponsored kids attend school and live nearby. This area is the poorest of the poor and the school at Palo Blanco is doing amazing work to change the future of this little community! Nearly 70 children from this small area apply to be a part of the new 3 and 4 year old group at the beginning of each school year and the staff has the difficult decision of selecting 30 of those children. We were told that this is the hardest part of the job. How could you decide which child gets a spot and which one gets left out of this life changing program?? The get more than education at these schools - they get healthcare, meals, stability, safety and love!

The picture below is a picture of Danae with Shayne and Matt Crain's sponsored child. She took an immediate liking to Danae and was by her side during the majority of our visit.

We got to eat lunch with some of the children in the school. In the picture below you can see Ashlee eating with two of the girls. We had the typical Dominican meal of beans and rice and cabbage salad. This meal is often the only meal the child will get for the day.

Chris Bennett was sitting beside the little cutie in the picture below. He noticed she had a heaping plate of food but didn't even know how to hold her spoon. She was more than happy to eat once she had a little help!

We got to go to the homes of some of our sponsored children which was the most eye opening, heartbreaking reality check. The picture below is Tina with her sponsored boy, Raul, and his father and cousin. Raul had a very nice home for the area as it was all made of concrete block and not just wood and actually even had a very small upstairs area.

However the picture below shows a much more accurate depiction of the majority of the living conditions in the area. This is the cooking area of the home Jerry and Donna Riley's sponsored boy lives in. There aren't even words that can do justice to describe the neighborhoods. Today was also a rainy day and the mud on the paths leading up to the houses was so thick it sucked our shoes off. The amazing thing was that every home we visited we were welcomed into warmly with no protests of "my house is too small for so many people" or "but I haven't had a chance to clean." We were able to pray protection, love and security over the homes with most of the families that we visited. I think we all left feeling incredibly humbled, heartbroken and inadequate in our ability to help.

There were so many tears shed today but our hearts are so full. We all agree that we want to find a way to not forget what we have seen, heard and felt when we get back to all of our creature comforts! We want our hearts to stay broken!

El Arca (The Ark)

What can you say after spending the day at the Ark? It is an amazing place and it is obvious that the children are loved and cared for and shown God's love in very practical ways on a daily basis. The Ark is the orphanage in Jarabacoa. Not all children cared for at the Ark are orphans - some still have living parents but were unable to be properly cared for at home.

As soon as we got to the Ark we were welcomed warmly by the kids and staff. Some of the sponsored children were eager and latched on to their sponsors immediately while others were a little bit timid to start with. We got a tour of the campus and the brightly colored houses, put on a puppet show that taught a Bible story, played basketball, and played on the playground.


This little girl in the picture below loved being pushed by Derek (Brett and Norine Troeger's nephew). He was a hit with the little kids.....especially since he can speak Spanish!




Willy, sponsored by Ashley & Kevin and Chris W & Chris B was definitely one of the more timid kiddos. He was the quiet one in the midst of all of the kids running around yelling and playing.

We were excited to get to go to Jeff Vandermolen's (the regional director of the Ark) house for dinner with all of the sponsored kids from CCW. We played volleyball, soccer and jumped on the trampoline before the darkness forced us inside for dinner. We had a great meal of haystacks with chocolate cake for dessert.

I think Jerry and Chris were in over their heads playing basketball with the teenage boys at the Ark. They had to take multiple breaks to catch their breath and Chris even wiped out once. Jerry looks like he still has decent form for an old guy though!

And Karen was in her element when she found this little boy that wanted to cuddle. She could have stayed there all day holding him!!

Little Genesis (sponsored by Nancy and Todd Clouse) had everyone wrapped around her finger. She was dressed in her finest to meet us and had a smile that charmed everyone.

We learned that the sponsors are called Madrina and Padrino (Godmother and Godfather). Some of the children that had sponsors at the Ark proudly drug them around to their friends introducing their Madrina and Padrino. I think we all agree that the work the Ark does is truely a blessing in these kid's lives and our partnership with them is something to be very proud of!

Pictures!!

I just wanted to share a few more pictures with everyone so you can get more of an idea of what it is like here!



This group of girls were watching us work from the other side of the creek bed.





Rachel and an adorable little girl named Onlady. She seemed to tag along wherever we were and loved the attention. She LOVED having her picture taken and then seeing herself on our camera screens.

Chris Bennett became the neighborhood bike repairman. Before he came along this little boy was using 2 massive butcher knives (about 12 inch knives) to try to pry the tire off the rim.

Roberto was such a big helper for such a little guy. He filled so many buckets with sand and helped us carry them back across the bridge.

Tina, Samantha, Danae and Ashlee were practicing for the puppet show we are going to put on at the Ark tonight and ANIJA and Palo Blanco on Monday. (Here is your picture of your wife, Ben!)

This was our transportation to the work sites each day. The people in the back that were right up against the cab actually stood during the ride and held on for dear life! :)

Just Another Day in the Dominican Republic

Today's schedule was much the same as yesterday. The morning started too early with breakfast and devotions (although it is much easier to get up when you get summoned by a band of wild roosters and guinea fowl). We started out our work with painting and varnishing around the campus. After lunch part of the crew stayed to finish the painting while the other half went back to the little community we were working in yesterday. Today we hauled buckets and buckets and wheelbarrows and more buckets full of sand from one side of a rickety bridge to the other. We thought the wheelbarrow might end up through the bridge a few times but thankfully it held. After we finished hauling the sand we got to spend time playing with the kids. We had an impromptu game of kickball, frisbee, baseball (played with wooden sticks and tennis balls) and as you can see below the kids enjoyed giving eachother wheelbarrow rides.

Some of the little girls had fun teaching us hand clapping games. It took awhile but I think Karen finally got the pattern down and was almost able to keep up!

We got to have a fancy night out on the town for dinner at Gilberto's Pica Pollo. Okay....so maybe not so fancy but the food was good. We had chicken strips with a choice of french fries or tostones (fried plantains). We had a crowd of watchful, hungry little eyes while we ate. A group of 4 young boys hung back from our table watching us eat. When we were finished Matt Yoder (US missionary) told us to put our leftovers in to go boxes to give to the boys. The boys accepted the food and sat down on the sidewalk to scarf it down. A few other boys on bikes stopped and ate some of the food too. It puts our everyday waste at home into perspective!!

And today was a special day for another reason......Queen Norine's birthday! We celebrated with white cake and cheesecake and several rounds of Happy Birthday throughout the day! Happy Birthday Norine!!


Tomorrow is a day we are all excited for! We get our first visit with our sponsored kids at the Ark! Look for more pictures tomorrow!!

1st day of work- we aren't in Indiana anymore!

Well this certainly looked a bit different than waking up in Indiana! The view from the Goshen Mission House is incredible! God's handiwork is so evident here!!

We spent the morning working on some projects around the campus where the Goshen Mission House is located. We did some painting and varnishing as well as getting to "play Santa" by handing out the goodies we collected. The house parents were so greatful for even the smallest things. Who knew brown sugar, hot pads, chocolate chips and peanut butter were such amazing gifts!

After lunch part of the team went to a small community about ten minutes away from campus. It was an incredibly eye opening experience. The houses are lined up within arms length of each other and are simple concrete block or wooden structures. There is trash and stray animals all over the place as well as more than 50 children - many barefoot - running around. We helped build the simple structure of a home for a family by mixing concrete on the ground to get the house ready for a roof. We had to collect buckets of water from a little creek to mix the cement. The children in the area were such hard workers! They hauled bucket after bucket of water with us and helped us shovel sand for hours. They didn't speak English and we didn't speak Spanish but we managed to communicate and work together anyhow.

The children were craving attention and loved to have their picture taken. They got so excited and had huge grins on their faces when you would show them their picture. Several of the kids brought their broken bicycles to Chris Bennett after they saw him help one little boy get his bike back in riding condition.

The little boy you see below in the picture was attached to Chris Wert for a good portion of the afternoon. He sat on her lap and cuddled until he literally had to be drug away so we could leave. His mother communicated with us that he had some mental problems and didn't speak.





It was amazing to see, that even in the midst of their poverty, they were excited to join in and help us with the work and were able to find simple joy in throwing an old football around or turning an old tin can into a drum. While the poverty was hard to see I think we could all learn a lesson from their ability to be joyous in difficult circumstances.

We Made It

After a long day of travel we arrived safely to the Goshen Mission House around 11pm last night. We had an interesting bus ride up the mountain - I'm not sure we were all convinced the bus was going to make it. A few of us didn't have actual seat in the bus - unless a sitting on a suitcase counts - and a few of us had a few suitcases land on our head. But all in all we made it in one piece.

A few brave souls ventured out for a late night hike. We learned that there is no such thing as a casual walk here. Everything is up, up, up!

We started this morning with breakfast and devotions and as I type the team is sorting the massive amounts of supplies we hauled down here and starting a painting project on the campus. We are looking forward to what God has in store for us and the new relationships we will form.