Moved In With The Folks

I turned in the keys to our apartment earlier today, and we have officially moved in with my parents. There was a HUGE pile of junk in their garage for a couple days, but I’ve mostly got it trimmed down to our luggage, the stuff I put up in the attic, and the junk I pawned off on our friends (thanks friends!). So far it’s cool living with family, but they’re already starting to get nostalgic of our childhood. Just this evening they’ve listed at least 9 of the cute things we did as kids. We were VERY cool kids, apparently.

I didn’t know how much moving in with the folks would put our upcoming adventure in time perspective. Getting everything packed as if we are leaving has reminded me how close we are to leaving. We have 40 days left! I feel almost ready… does anyone ever feel fully ready for this sort of thing? Since I’ve never done anything like this I don’t even know how to know if I’m ready or not. It’s exciting and overwhelming at the same time. I’ve managed to short circuit a few times, which never really feels great, and usually requires a few hours recovering equilibrium on my brother’s Xbox 360. But other than that I’m doing pretty well. I’m close to finishing my final class for continuing education, and that should leave me plenty of time to read Pop’s new book and the required readings for new teachers at Santiago Christian School.

We are grateful that God has provided us a place to live this month. Most of us have heard that God will provide, and we say it to each other with some frequency. It is one thing to hear it, and another to actually see the places that God is already providing. It feels good to know that God has been providing, and helps us remember that God will continue to take care of us. Kisha only needs a few more people to sign up for the monthly contributions, which is really good. We could still use some help with the one-time giving, so it’s not too late to join the action.

But now I must retire.

7 More Weeks

We’ve made it to the seven week mark. I like talking about it in days, because 50-something sounds so much less intimidating than 7. Yep, it’s coming fast!

It seems like most of life revolves around tying up loose ends that are the inevitable by-product of living life. We’ll be moving into Mom & Pop’s next weekend, and as usual we have more junk than I thought we had. Where did we get all this junk? Didn’t I throw or give away almost everything 6 months ago when we first felt like God was leading us to something outside the US? I’m confident I gave almost everything away… well… I meant to, anyways.

I have sent away my final assignments for the Spanish class that I was taking online. I’m 1.5 assignments away from wrapping up the ELL class, and that just leaves the writing class, which I hope to get done in the next two weeks. That would be plenty of time to submit my paperwork to the State of Oregon for renewal of my teaching license. I caught myself daydreaming about how great it would feel to have all the class work behind me… Good motivator to finish!

I’ve been thinking a lot about life, more specifically about my own culture. In the US we have a tendency to think that we don’t have much culture… “I’m Heinz 57” is a relatively common phrase. There is nothing like preparation (and I assume actually going) to live in the context of a different culture to help remind you about yourself, your upbringing, and the kind of lifestyle you’re used to. I have culture, and although it’s a culture that seems fused with lots of different input, it remains quite American. I have a relatively large “personal bubble” that I’ve been trying to shrink in preparation for the DR. I’m VERY used to popping into the local Safeway and paying reasonable prices for easy-to-prepare food. I walk around in total safety, without worry about people really trying to take advantage of me on my 5 min walk to the MAX, or without worrying if the police are going to ask me to empty my wallet. I don't have to negotiate the price of most of the things I buy.

These are cultural axioms that will be changing in about 7 weeks. Pray for Kisha and I as we attempt to avoid being lost in translation, that we will be able to identify things that are cultural misunderstandings, and that we may navigate them in a way that helps us love the people we find ourselves surrounded by.

Prayers & Answers

We’ve been praying a lot since Kisha’s last post. There is nothing like logistics to get God’s people on their knees with the quickness! It’s been good, and I hope to be reflecting more and more on what great stuff God has been doing in our lives lately.

We had a partial answer to our prayers for provision last night. One of our friends got a hold of us because he found a really nice apartment near his place. The photos below are what he sent us. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2nd floor apartment that has a place to park a car and hot water (not all Dominican houses in the area we are moving to have hot water). Basically, it’s perfect. The best part was that it’s about half of what we had budgeted! Thank God for answered prayers!



This will obviously help us in our month-to-month expenses, but we’re still looking for supporters in both our one-time gifts for move-in costs, and on a month-to-month basis.

I’m plugging away at my studies. I’ve pretty much wrapped up the Spanish class I was taking, and I’m over ½ done with ELL class. So I’m hoping to wrap up these last two classes before my birthday, and it looks like I’m on track. Please pray that I can be focused and diligent.

Also, we’re moving in a couple weeks. Our lease is up, and we’ll be staying with my parents until we take off in July. Pray that the moving goes without a hitch, and that it will be a good time of closeness with the family before we leave.

Recalculations

So Eric and I have taken a look at our budgeting and found some items that needed updating, and the results were sobering! Unfortunately that means I have to raise my fundraising goals. I wish I could say that I was full of faith, but at the moment I am a little worried. I know that God is in control and that we have been called to this mission, so I am confident in the end result and scared of the process. It has been hard to put much energy into fund raising because I am also finishing my last term at PCC. So I really need to trust that God is speaking to people and directing funding my way.

Let me tell you about one of those girls… I have watched this girl grow up and she is an amazing person who wants to work hard and earn money to help her whole family. She is now 17 and is painfully aware of the poverty that she lives in. She has two years before she can finish her high school degree, only public school there means that she goes 2 or 3 days a week for a few hours. That is not much and outside of school there is nowhere for her to put her energy. When she began school she was attending the TEARS school in the barrio. The TEARS school is of a much higher quality than the public schools, only it stopped at 3^rd grade. Eric and I have been planning on putting her into La Vega Christian school for her last two years so that she can finish strong and be prepared for college. She wants to be a teacher!

So if you hold one of my fundraising boxes please get the word out about these wonderful Dominican girls that need a chance to thrive in this world! Or if you haven’t given yet please do. If you cannot commit to giving monthly that is fine a one-time gift is wonderful and much appreciated.

One-Way Ticket?

We are plugging along in our preparations for the DR. I’m working on the schooling stuff like a madman, trying to get things finished by May 31st so I can get all the paperwork in on time. I am pretty much done with my class on Spanish in the classroom, and working on a class for writing and a class for English Language Learners. All three will be really good for my upcoming teaching assignment.

As far as logistics are concerned, there hasn’t been much going on. I’m waiting for Uncle Sam to renew my passport so it doesn’t expire while I’m over there, but other than that it’s pretty quiet. We did buy our plane tickets, which was kind of weird. I’ve never purchased one-way tickets to a foreign country! I’m sure I’ll get used to the idea soon enough, though. It does make the whole thing more of a faith walk somehow… we are trusting God is gonna take care of us!