October

Happy Thanksgiving!!! 
We celebrated Thanksgiving with a fellow Canadian family on Monday, and thoroughly enjoyed mashed potatoes, turkey, and all the fixings! This was a great break from rice and beans! 😛 The rest of our staff here at Doulos celebrates American Thanksgiving at the end of November. 

We are still working hard to meet academic excellence online. More importantly, we are still striving to disciple and equip our students to become godly leaders. This looks different every week. As a school, we have met for online chapels every week which include a message from our Chaplain, collective worship, and small group discussions. Thanks to technology, we are able to do all of this online. In each of our grades/classes specifically, our curriculum and academic content is based on biblical teachings. In Kindergarten, this last week, we focused on the story Jesus feeding 5000. This wove into our Social Emotional teachings of communal eating, breaking bread, building relationships, trusting each other, sharing, and gathering together. We read many stories together (I record myself reading stories and talking as though my students are in front of me, and send them the videos) about ways food brings us together. We then focused on our culture, cultural differences, and value in culture and language. This influenced our Literacy (which I teach live online), as we wrote responses to these topics, drew pictures of ourselves eating food with our families, made grocery lists, and learned how to read pictures/books about community and eating together. This translated into Math, as we read about the fish and the bread. We used fish and bread to enhance number sense as we practiced counting, and understanding that numbers are made of many parts. Students engaged in art at home (with instructional videos by me), creating their own fish and bread that focused on developing their fine motor skills and English vocabulary. — (This is just the beginning of the happenings of our learning!) 
Matt is still enjoying High School Science! He will have to write an update soon to fill you in, from his perspective!! 
Hayden is adoring Pre Kinder, and is excelling at his work provided by his teachers. He loves his online classes, and participates in Spanish! He is also learning many biblical principals that interweave his academic curriculum. I have LOVED watching him learn! Sawyer understands SO MUCH Spanish, and LOVES his nanny. Angi is a beautiful woman with two kids of her own. Because school is online, her children come to our house with her. This has provided our boys with “adopted siblings,” and has been challenging, but so healthy for them. 
We are still unable to attend church, due to COVID. We have joined a Bible study, though, which we attend as a family on Wednesday nights. We have loved this chance to build community, grow deep roots, and learn together with others. 

We have been reaching out by inviting someone (family, couple, person) over once a week to invest in our community and make friends. We took a break these last two weeks, though, as my sister and her husband have been here!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot add enough exclamation points. 🙂 Mitch and Kristina have been the most relaxed, comfortable, and encouraging visitors. Our boys have opened up again. They have relaxed. They have felt at HOME. We all have felt an overwhelming sense of belonging and community and HOME with them here, and we are dreading their departure on Saturday. I am so incredibly grateful for their two weeks here (I will post pictures on our Blog), and feel refreshed and capable of continuing our journey here. We were able to go paragliding with them, show them our favourite river spot, take them to the ocean, take them to our favourite street restaurants, give them a tour of Doulos, and visit our favourite local greenhouses and mountainside views. We haven’t had any rain while they’ve been here, so they haven’t gotten to experience bucket showers or our water turned off for days at a time :P, but they have experienced the intense heat, bugs and power outages! 

Thank you for you continuous support and investment in our journey. We look forward to investing in more relationships throughout the month of November, and seeking out ways to make traditions as a family as Christmas approaches.
In regards to Doulos, we are seeking many people to fill many positions for the following year. If you are interested, or know anyone who is interested, send them my way! Doulos is the most amazing school. We are honoured to be a part of this ministry, and are in awe of the work God is doing here in Jarabacoa, through Doulos. Doulos is always seeking educators, and financial supporters. Over half of our students here are sponsored to attend Doulos, and we always need more sponsors for our students from low socio economic backgrounds. We are also always in need of quality literature for all grades, including our tiny dusty library!
We love you and appreciate you all, and are grateful for you in so many ways. Thank you thank you thank you. Love in Christ, Lisa.