His Hands & Feet

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ~ 1 Peter 4:10

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. ~ 1 Peter 4:10 Several weeks ago I was walking around the campus and really took notice of the team that we were currently hosting. At that time, the team was painting the front of the school, while others on the team were working in the classroom with our preschoolers. It struck me then how many people have in some way or form played a role in this ministry. In the first two months of 2018, we have already had 170 people here from various parts of the US helping further the Kingdom of God in the Dominican Republic. I can't even begin to count how many people have come down over the past 7 years and either laid a block, wired or plumbed a building, dug a footer, painted a wall, sat with a child in class, held a crying 3 year old on their first day of school or helped us prep notebooks for various classes. And that's only a small fraction of the people who have impacted Freedom. We have people who have never set foot on our  campus that have made the decision to  sponsor one of our 240 kids, we have churches, individuals and families supporting our missionaries, we have people volunteering their time to help load containers or donate items that we desperately need. We have people that are daily lifting us and the kids in our school up in prayer!  How great is our God?! I love that He chooses to use us in so many ways! He doesn't need us to accomplish His will, but yet out of His goodness and grace, He invites us to be a part of it. How amazing it is to see and think of all the people that have played a role in making disciples of Jesus in the Dominican Republic. God has given us all different gifts, talents and abilities yet He has called us to one common goal: to glorify Him with our lives...to love God, love people and live out our design! What an amazing picture Freedom is of so many lives that are living for the glory of God!

Gabe continues to keep busy with construction. The shell on the second 8-unit apartment building is complete and classrooms are being added to the second and third stories of the school. The construction team also held their first "Construction Class" recently. We see this as an amazing opportunity not only for growth but also for building stronger relationships!

Cooking for groups has kept me hoppin' this year. In the first two months of 2018 we've already hosted 170 people. In one week, we will host our biggest team yet.....74 people! That's a lot of mouths to feed! (Prayers would be appreciated!) In the school, we are serving lunch to 150 kids each day. We also started serving breakfast at the beginning of this year for all our kiddos. What a blessing that has been for all involved!

The girls have been staying busy with school! Their Spanish continues to improve and is already a lot better than mine. I'll often hear them speaking Spanish amongst themselves. With teams here these past few months, they've also had the opportunity to participate in camp. Camp gives us an awesome opportunity to pull kids out of their normal routine and share the love of Christ with each and every one of them! Pray that our girls would be shining lights for each of the kids in their classrooms and that the love of Christ would shine through them!