kermes

The church had a kermes, a fund-raiser, last Saturday. They enclosed the basketball court with palm branches and tarps, and charged $RD30 entrance. They had a flee market, local entertainment, and a concert with singers from the capital and Jarabacoa. They made about $RD15,000 (about $US425).

Some girls from the club did a worship dance

They raffled off a 25-pound bag of rice.

Duary lipsank to Marcos Witt song (check out the kids that are pretending to play the instruments in the back).

They sold a lot of used clothing.

A politician loaned his truck with huge speakers for the concert. You could hear the music everywhere in Los Higos. These are the trucks they use during campaign season to blast political jingles.

charla con los adolescentes

Guelo has been leading a couple English classes/ Bible studies with young teenagers and recently asked Dr. Fernando (a gynecologist on staff with Students International) to give a talk the young people. Last Friday the kids met in the Los Higos community center to hear Fernando talk about relationships and the health issues of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. It's just so clear that what medicine says and what the Bible says about relationships and sexuality are totally in agreement and Fernando made that clear in his talk.

In other news, tomorrow the church is hosting a concert at the Los Higos basketball court to raise money for the mercy ministry. (The mercy committee focuses on helping widows, orphans, and other people who have need). It will cost $RD30 to enter (a little less than a dollar) and they will be selling food and having a yard sale.

mas de la Lorena

So, the Lorena stove that Dulce built on her own and was so proud of apparently didn't function. So, she took it apart.

I have realized that anyone can make a Lorena stove, but you need to know a bit about how to make it. Her stove was pretty, but apparently the holes were dug out too big, so the stove heated slowly. In addition, the method we have been using uses really wet clay, so it takes several weeks for the stove to dry out, which also makes it cook slowly in the begining. So, the big holes combined with wet clay made her stove cook so slowly that she got angry, tore it apart and went back to cooking on a 'fogon' (tradition open fire place).

I'd met a lady who knows a different method for making the stove with clay that is practically dry and that isn't so sandy (meaning we can use almost any clay and don't have to go all the way to the river to get it). And her process only takes a day! So, I asked her to come and teach us her method and we rebuilt Dulce's stove.

We made the stove using a mixture of the red clay we'd previously gotten from the river and some clay found nearby.

We dug the holes the same day using garden trowels, a kitchen knife, and a machete.

We smoothed the outside all out using a wetter mix of clay.

And we were cooking on the stove that same afternoon. Can you see the smoke coming out of the chimney?

La Iglesia de Andre

I don't think I've blogged about this, yet, but those who get my newsletters would know that Andre left SI in September to pastor the church that he is planting in Los Higos full time. He had felt for quite a while that the Lord was leading him to focus more and more on the church, and SI tried to put him in contact with some people and churches that might support him so that he coud make that transition.

Andre continues to work with the kids' club, but it is now considered to be a ministry of the church. The above picture shows Andre meeting with the club. The club now only meets twice a week, Thursdays and Sundays, which gives Andre more time to focus on other parts of his ministry as pastor. When SI has teams in the summer, they will continue to partner with Andre by sending students to work with the club. The students will be able to hold club every day and give classes, such as English or music classes, as they have done in the past through SI.

The church continues to grow in numbers and maturity. Last Saturday three more people were baptized, including Hector Luis (who is in the picture below in the red shirt) and Negro/ Peña/ Jose Antonio Delgado (he has a lot of names). Robin wasn't able to go on Saturday, but was planning to be baptized on Monday. The church continues to meet on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Thursday nights is a 'meeting', not a church service, and is ran totally by church members (i.e. Andre doesn't lead anything that night), and it's always fun to hear different church members take turns preaching (which is what Hector Luis and Guelo are doing in the picture below). Saturday and Sunday services are considered to be official church services, and often features different members preaching.

megafono

A couple months ago I got a megaphone! It was donated by a guy who came down on a two week mission trip this summer.

Here in the DR, it's really common for truck buying or selling something to drive around with a small megaphone attached to the roof, announcing whatever their business happens to be. For example, "plantains, bananas, yucaaaaaaaa... all types of root crops, all for three pesos, only threeeeiiii pesooooos." It's pretty funny to hear some of the things they'll announce, but I've found that it's quite effective. When the truck that buys scrap metal drives through town, people run to collect their scraps and out to the road to catch the truck and make a few pesos.

So, as silly as it feels to walk around town talking into a megaphone, it seems to work. I've mostly been using it to announce when the trash truck is going to come (SI brings up the dump truck about once a month to help with trash collection and removal). The picture above show a couple of our semester students announcing that the truck is coming. We always announce it a day ahead of time and pass out trash bags, and people literally come running out of their houses to meet us on the road and receive bags.

The youth group in Andre's church have also used the megaphone to announce meetings and events and I imagine that as word gets around that I have a megaphone we'll find many other uses for it.

bultos

Our sewing class continues to happen, although it's not as organized as I would like and we only have two faithful attenders (Sara and Vianelli, pictured above). We got some wild, blue cheetah-print cordoroy fabric in the mail last week. I expected to just stick it in the drawer, but when the girls saw it, they wanted to make book bags.

What has been neat about this project is seeing how motivated the girls have been. I think that their drive comes from the fact that the bags are for them and they really do need them. We've done other sewing projects, but those were with the intent of selling things. It seems, though, that the girls aren't as interesting in making money as they are in just making things for themselves.

I have really come to appreciate Sara and Vianelli as I've seen their presistence in coming to the classes. They really push to keep the class going. I'm praying that Jesus might use this simple class to open doors to bigger opportunities for these girls and that the girls would be ministered to in deep ways as we interact with one another around fabric, needles, and threads.

brazo roto

Chipo ("Cheap-O) broke his arm on Monday. He fell out of a cereza tree and broke it right above the elbow. I know that most people who have visited Los Higos will remember Chipo, and probably share my opinion that I'm surprised this didn't happen earlier.