This weeks marks the halfway point of our committed time in the Dominican Republic. We haven’t quite processed what this means, or what our next steps are. As a halfway mark, we’ve come “home” for Christmas! We have been greeted with icy cold and cold ice. We haven’t differentiated between the two yet.

We have felt surprisingly overwhelmed in last few days, but are so happy to be here after a year and a half away. Many parts feel like coming home. But many parts feel alien and uncomfortable. We are processing what it means to celebrate Christmas here this year. In these moments, we live between two worlds: both which we refer to as “home.” Compared to our origin country, we have a poor sewer system, a tiny Christmas tree, and way too many creepy crawlies. Compared to our host country, we have beautiful tiled floors, a glowing Christmas tree, and screened windows. We live between two sets of standards, both extreme, and both in which we do not seem to “fit.” “Fit” is just relative, though, and we are learning that meeting the physical standards of those around us (or across the world from us) is really just a poor measuring stick to put any focus on. I have grown in my ability to allow my children to wear pants that they wore a year ago, shirts that are covered in bleach stains, and patterned clothes that don’t match. It is strange to be a part of two worlds, two sets of very different social standards, and two entirely different cultures. The purpose of us moving overseas though, is so very evident in our boys and in our joys. They have changed. They have grown. They have survived life changing events with grace and resilience. They have learned a new language, a new culture, a new way of life. In all the transitions and all the adjustments over the past year and a half, we have empowered our boys to use their voices to advocate for themselves. Their small faces and long lashes are magnets to all the hands of all the people, and when someone so small experiences so much change, those hands are quickly overwhelming and alarming. The more hands that reach for their faces, for forced hugs, for unwanted tickles, the more they retreat. Our boys are loved so well. While everyone knows THEM, but THEY know very few. The loving hugs are so well intended, but to the boys, their ears ring with our stranger danger plan, kidnaping conversations, and listening-to-safe-people talks. They’ve exercised their voices. They’ve said ‘no thank you.’ And they’ve politely declined when offered hugs from people they do not know. While I look forward to the day they feel comfortable with the ones I love the most, I so respect them for using their words to advocate for their own safety.

Boundaries are taboo, and all of us believe in them but none of us master them. All of us need them, but none of us have the same, which makes things hard because one person’s boundaries will clash with another’s. We have said no to sleepovers over the holidays, and we have stuck to day dates and dinner dates, for the protection of our family alone time, rest, and the feeling of safety for our boys. I say this only to emphasize the living between worlds, the chasm that we sit in, as we practice old traditions but adopt new ones, too. We are so lucky to have two homes. We are so grateful to have two communities waiting to celebrate Christmas with us.

We will continue to fill the next two weeks with friend visits, family dinners, snow fort building, and breakfast dates, while simultaneously looking forward to church with our Columbian family, Saturday brunch with our neighbours in shorts, and taking our crazy dog for walks around the palm tree- filled neighbourhood. This Christmas season, we celebrate two homes, two communities, two cultures that have become who we are.

Collectively, as a family, our batteries were nearing empty by June. We felt the weight of a year of online education, the loneliness of missing family, and the chaos of our own heightened emotions mixed with those of our boys.

Daily life here is a much longer process than in Canada. There are many variables that play into our daily routines. By June we had vehicle parts that needed repair, plumbing we needed looked at, grass cut, oil changed, and cockroaches terminated. In our North American world, we could have easily taken care of all of these in one week, maybe less, and many of them we could have done ourselves. However, we don’t own a lawn mower here, we can’t fumigate the house on our own. Getting the oil changed means Matt needs to be present to say what he wants with the vehicle while I translate, which also means both boys come with and restlessly bounce around, roll in oil puddles, find stray hammers, make friends with the mechanics, or scream strapped into their carseats. Sometimes the oil gets changed right away. Sometimes the oil is gone, the mechanics are on lunch break, the tools went missing, or they simply don’t have time that day. Plumbing is no different. We need Matt’s brain to tell them what is wrong, my Spanish to translate, and both boys are obviously tangled between our legs whining or fighting or licking things at the same time. Usually one of them has pooped, and the other is hungry.

Other weekly tasks that contribute to our “always-on mindset,” are getting water, groceries, or filling in gas. They will get easier, and they HAVE gotten easier. A yellowish water comes from our taps and stains our toilet bowls and sinks. We bleach all our dishes after we wash them, and we bleach our toilets often. This means we need to buy drinkable water, and a lot of bleach. The average temperature these days is about 35 degrees, so we drink excess amounts water. There is no air conditioning in our town, so to cool off we (you guessed it) just keep drinking water. Water can be bought in giant bottle jugs that we flip upside down into our water cooler. We own 6 of them, and load up the empty jugs and bring them to a local water-refill store when they are empty. Each corner store, fruit stand, or water-filling spot has their own brand of water jugs, and we have to refill the jugs with the same brand we already have- which ensures consistency in their customers. This is great for them, more work for us.

For example—- we loaded up all 6 of our water jugs into the back of our Prado this week. We loaded up the kids who were tired, hungry, and overheated. We made Sawyer put a diaper on for the drive, just in case– he was mad because he wanted his underwear. Hayden didn’t want underwear at all because he is in the middle of a growth spurt and “they are too tight ALWAYS.” Both boys were strapped in and crying. We were dripping with sweat. We wear pants up town to be respectful to the more conservative culture in our town, which means my jeans were stuck to all areas of my legs and getting wetter by the second. We arrived at the store. The last time we were here they were short on bottle brand Peña, and had given us 4 Peña and 2 of a different brand. I went in to explain we wanted to refill 6 water jugs, 4 of the water brand Peña, 2 of the other. They were out of water altogether because it was a holiday weekend and everyone from the capital was in town, so most water suppliers were out.

We went home.

The next day we replayed this same scene, but this time they only had Rangel brand, and wouldn’t exchange our Peña for the other brand. It’s complicated. This is all to say, regular daily routines are a lot of work for us, and they are exceedingly de-energizing when we need Matt to explain the knowledge piece and me to translate, and both kids are along for the ride, and we are all so hot we feel we will die. 😛

The last week of June, as we hoped and prayed and planned for Mom to come at the beginning of July, we happened to be direct contacts with an entire family who tested positive for covid. We quarantined, got tested, and prayed extra hard that Mom would still come. I was at the end of my happy-go-lucky-self. The majority of our friends had left for the states for a summer of refreshing friends and family. We were hot. Worn out. Tired.

Mom came. And a mother, I have learned, is much more than a friend and a mentor and a cheerleader and a listener. A mother is a home. I cannot tell you the shrieks I shrieked and the tears I shed when she crouched down in the middle of the outdoor airport runway with open arms to hug my sons, and instead I shoved them aside and tackled her onto the ground like a grown woman child. I felt like I was 5, and I cannot tell you the home I felt in her arms. This month of July has been no different. We have brought her to our favourite waterfall, restaurants, beach, smoothie shops, grocery stores and greenhouses. And after that, we have just played. She has dug in the dirt with my boys, blown more bubbles than she ever has in her life, played 100 games of Uno, and built countless towers. She has ran in the rain with them, played board games with Matt and I late into the night, and sat on the deck in the hot sun with out. I have asked her all of the questions I’ve wanted to ask her in the last 362 days without her, and I have asked her for all the advice of cross cultural parenting.

Mom leaves tomorrow. 😦 We are so sad to have her leave, but have soaked in these holy moments with a summer of Nana.

Matt and I will leave the boys at home with a sitter while we head across the island to Punta Cana (the farthest airport on the island). We will drop mom off at 1, and board the exact plane that will bring Kelsey here from Toronto. We will wait for Kelsey to finish customs and find luggage, and then we will say goodbye to mom and hello to Kels. We will arrive back in Jarabacoa around dinner time, leave Kelsey at her apartment with her new roommates (one of them is my cousin Taya), and head home to the boys. Sunday we will pick Kelsey up mid morning, show her around town, get her groceries, and have her over to re-familiarize with the boys a bit. We will wash bedding, clean the house, and grab groceries for a few other American families returning to the island this week.

Monday we are back on campus for full days!!!!

Please pray for us as we begin on Monday! Teaching Kindergarten in Spanish through Project Based Learning is my happy place, but it is definitely in the zone of most discomfort for Matt. We plan to begin FULLY in person!!! This is exciting for me, but again, most nerve wracking for Matt as this is his first experience in the school system as an educator. Please pray for Kelsey and Mom as they travel! Please pray for our boys as we head into a new transition full force, and for our hearts as we begin another school year. Kelsey is coming without a salary, on her own dime to volunteer for a year. We will share your generous monthly donations with her to help cover her living costs, but if you feel led or know someone who would like to get involved, I know it would be tremendous to bless her with financial help as well.

Thank you for your prayers and for furthering the kingdom of God with us!!!

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We have completed our first year in the Dominican Republic as teachers!!!!!!! Doulos’ mission is to educate and equip servant leaders, through Expeditionary Learning and Christian discipleship, to impact the Dominican Republic. This year we have tried our best to uphold this mission through online learning. We have had small glimpses of in-person Doulos, as small groups of students have been allowed on campus. We have fallen in love with our students, their families, and this town.

Yesterday we had a staff retreat, dedicated to debriefing and celebrating the past year. We sent off staff that are moving to the States, and prayed over them. We enjoyed each others’ company and cheered together. This year has been hard. Worldwide. We have ALL adapted to a world we never could have imagined. We have become adaptable. Flexible. Innovative. We have welcomed new tools and strategies that we never thought we would need or use. And we have grown. Oh, how we have grown.

As a couple, we have felt like we were drowning for much of the year: trying to balance full time teaching, new culture, parenting in a new culture, language immersion, heat, bugs, little to no electricity and water, and then parenting WELL. We are letting go of the mistakes, the failures, the challenges, and we are embracing the growth we have experienced. We have been naming these growth areas: we have helped our children through SO MUCH CHANGE. We have helped them adapt to nanny after nanny. We have held them on the tile floors for weeks through tears, as they missed their grandparents, their “Kinsley,” their Tia’s and friends. We have watched our Hayden learn conversational Spanish without a single Spanish class. We watched him start school, on campus, every day from 7:15 until noon. And we watched him learn to trust an entire group of Dominican adults who made his education possible. We watched Sawyer trust new caregivers, again and again. We watched him start to talk- slowly, hesitantly, but clearly. We watched him learn his numbers, his colours, his manners. And as a couple, we learned to lean on each other. This has never been a bigger blessing. In the absence of “our people,” we have become each others’ people. We have shared this new life and these experiences together- every step of the way. We have shared Staff prayer time, staff meetings, lunch hours, prep time, and debrief. We have never before worked so closely and while we were nervous, we are SO GRATEFUL. We have come out stronger and better together.

We have learned to continue to maintain an open door policy, while carefully setting boundaries to keep our mental health intact and our family life a priority. We have learned to be CHILL. We cannot predict when we will have electricity, but we can predict that when it rains, our sewer will back up through the floor drains. We cannot predict if our garbage bins will be emptied during the week by the garbage collectors or by the stray horses and bulls, but we can predict that the garbage will be out of the garbage BINS each week. We cannot predict the curfew time, the covid rules at the local grocery stores, or the effect it has on our school system, but we can predict that our children will learn from our attitudes and our dispositions constantly. We cannot predict the wifi, the ants in the house, or the cockroach count for the night, but we can predict the roof over our heads and the Lord’s provision EVERY SINGLE MOMENT.

Today we close our classrooms up. We hand in our keys. We hand in our complete Year At a Glance for next year, lesson plans for the first week of school, 2021 goals, and curriculum/expedition overviews. We say goodbye to staff moving to the United States. And we celebrate the work God has done this year.

We are still unsure of what summer will look like for us. We have plans, hopes, and desires, but we know that we cannot predict anything. We are praying we may be refreshed, whatever that looks like. We will keep you posted as to what happens over summer. We look forward to playing with the boys and exploring the island.

XOXO. Lisa.

Hello again, from the DR! Our weather is getting hotter and hotter, as summer months are approaching. We usually reach 30 degrees by mid morning. We are still online, and will continue teaching online till the end of the year. It was relieving for us to get this new, as we can now plan accordingly without flipping back and forth.

We do have the exception and permission to have students on campus (up to 15) who are failing and need additional support. I have been able to have one student on campus everyday for an hour, where I get to spend one-on-one time with him. I have learned so much about his family and have loved time with him.

We only have 3 weeks left of school, as we finish the first week of June. We are finishing up our planning and yearly mapping for next year (in preparation), and working on packing up classrooms. We have no indication from our government whether we will be back online or in person for next school year.

May has been a CRAZY month for us! We are finishing up school. We are packing up our physical classrooms. We are planning for Kindergarten Graduation, which is culturally a giant celebration here. We are planning for end-of-the-year, learning celebrations. We are getting our documents and yearly plans ready for next school year, in preparation. I (Lisa) am taking my second last course towards my Post Bad degree, which fills evenings. The business has been good for us, though, and we have felt value and purpose in our weeks.

Mentally, we have been struggling these past months. We have felt tired, unsure, and insecure. We have almost reached a year here, and are hitting the stage where the honeymoon adventure has ended. We are saying goodbye to yet another nanny, and preparing for our dear friend Kelsey, who’s flights keep getting cancelled in hopes to arrive here in July. Matt and I are trying to do our best at school, as well as parenting tired children in the heat. We would love so much to invest more in our neighbourhood, our churches, our community, but find ourselves collapsing after full days of school and children. The Lord is teaching us that Doulos and our children ARE our ministry- that is enough.

We have really grown this month in our learning with fellow colleagues. We have learned so much from the staff around us, Dominican and American. We have learned more about the culture of this town, this school, and this county. It has been an honour to learn alongside many others here in Jarabacoa.

Hayden is wrapping up PreK, and Sawyer is still home with a Nanny for full days. We LOVE our time with our boys when we get home!!! We drive our nanny home when we get home eat 4:30, and Taya, so we are usually only home and transitioning by 5, then making dinner and spending time with the boys. We love biking outside, sitting in water pails to cool off, playing with seeds and beans :P, and playing on the gravel road. The boys particularly like taking toys out to the road to collect gravel and sticks. They adore biking, and thanks to the grandparents, both boys got their very own bikes (that work) last month!!! Sawyer now has a strider and Hayden has a rust-free, safe bike.

We are finding more mini cockroaches inside our house, and increasingly more spiders. It will be time to call the Fumigator soon! 😛

Matt and I are spending time reflecting on our year in review- what went well, what we enjoyed, what was hard, and what we hope for in the coming year. It’s been neat to set some family goals for the next year in the DR.

Thank you for staying in touch with us! Email us, text us, stay in contact. 🙂 We love you and are grateful for you. XOXO. Lisa.

This week at Doulos we have been working hard at taking as much training and as many courses as we can, supplied by the Ministry of Education, to allow us to teach in person! Last week all of our Spanish speaking staff participated in a 20 hours, online course, named “Todos Abordo” (All Aboard). The course included information regarding disease control, Covid-19, social emotional needs/gaps, and reentry protocols for schools across the country.

All classroom teachers and assistance is also participating in a training to prepare for the first 2 weeks back. This training includes a specific social emotional program that includes emotionally supportive activities and resources for all teachers to implement for the first 10 full days of re-entering. We are grateful the government/ministry of Ed is aware of the gaps we will need to fill for our students, and grateful they are providing resources and training. This gives us so much hope!

Aside from training and meetings, we are still teaching full online classes. In Kindergarten, my classes run from 8:30 until 9:10, and another group class from 9:20 until 10. It is a long time for 5 year olds to stay on a screen, and learn effectively. Our live calls are supplemented by take home packets and pre recorded videos. The packets are filled with family games that enhance the Expedition/unit we are teaching, worksheet practice, books to read, and activities to do. Pre recorded videos include Read Alouds, physical movement, daily practice, and simple modelling.

In Highschool, students participate in 50 minute live calls, as well as receive online assignments, and prerecorded videos. Matt then meets with students for additional time online to answer questions, mentor, disciple, and provide feedback.

Below are a few videos of what’s going on at Doulos this week. We have permission to have up to 15 students on campus, who have met certain criteria and need to be here, so you will see videos with some kids in them. As well, our Resource specialists are incredibly innovative and have brought our Motor Lab TO students’ houses to help with “Learning Body Ready Minds” outside their homes. They also focus on social emotional growth and connecting with students.

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Our ministry campus is beautiful. We fell in love with Doulos right away. It has felt very disappointing to move overseas to sit online, but it has also been INCREDIBLE. We’ve met SO MANY incredible people, and we’ve learned so much about Dominican culture. I’m trying desperately never to close my fists, to always have this posture of open armed learning, the way we originally came. I’m trying to raise my children the same, open handed and arms raised high asking

What can we learn from you

Always. 

Matt and I were talking, and sometimes we believe this foggy lie we’ve invented that if our ministry isn’t directly related to getting kids off the streets, or poverty relief, then will we be supported both faithfully and financially? And one of our dear mentors has the most beautiful explanation of Doulos and it’s place in the world of ministry organizations. 

There are handfuls of ministries across the country that aid in poverty relief, street life, recovery from drug abuse, and escaping prostitution. From there, there are several ministries that aid in providing safe and stable homes, programs, and resources for these specific children and families. Next, comes Doulos. This is where we come in. Doulos is that next step- that final push before professionalism and career and travel and impact. Doulos accepts 45% of its student body from families who pay full tuition. These are families who mostly come from professional settings and can easily afford to pay for quality education. The other 55% of the student body of Doulos comes from families who participate in our sponsorship program. These might be the students who have been a) taken off the streets, and b) been supported in systems and programs and family settings so that c) they can successfully participate in the education Doulos provides. This almost-half-and-half mix of sponsorship vs. tuition students creates for a wide variety of socio economic backgrounds. And this is what makes Doulos so beautiful.

Then, Doulos sends them flying. Doulos aims to a) prep for college, and b) prep for “calling.” I love this. This opens our doors wide open and allows us to use our skills and abilities and faith to disciple students AND educate students. 

Our students take a class called CREW: the focus is that we are crew, not passengers. We all have responsibilities, jobs, and roles of servant leadership, as opposed to rights and entitlements. From PreK 3 to Grade 12, students learn, apply, analyze and demonstrate the Codes of Character and Skills of a Scholar, two sets of expectations here at Doulos. Students graduate only once they prove, with a final project after 12+ years at Doulos, and in front of a panel of educators, that they exhibit specific Codes of Character (Servant Leadership, Courage, Relations, Revolutionary, ++) and Skills of a Scholar (Diligent Problem Solver, Seeker of Christ, ++). 

These Codes of Character and Skills of a Scholar are integrated through Expeditionary Learning beginning in PreK3. Students learn all curricular outcomes in themes called Expeditions. Each expedition includes Essential/Guiding Questions, Field Work, Analysis, Biblical Integrations, Final Products, Expeditions (field trips) and Expeditionary Night. Each unit, or Expedition, is community based and solution based. This means that a problem within the community is presented. From there, students (guided by the Teacher), develop essential/guiding questions. All subject areas and curricular outcomes are integrated into the unit/theme/expedition. Throughout the Expedition, students learn practical Servant Leadership as they seek to find real life solutions to community problems. They work together to learn Mathematical skills, Literacy adequacy, Social Justice, and Faith. For example, students in Grade 1 last year had a curricular unit on Light (Science). The community problem was presented: none of the traffic lights are respected, looked at, or even working in this town. Essential questions were formed as a class, guided by the teacher: How does light help our community stay safe? 

Students did field work. As a class, they traveled to different traffic light locations, sat in a row on the side walk, and graphed results. How many drivers stopped at a red light? How many didn’t? Were the lights working? 

This took place over the course of a few weeks. Studenst first learned the basic skills of graphing. They learned the basic skills of walking in a line on the sidewalk, staying close to your partner, not running onto the road. Students practice filling graphs. Students looked at pictures of traphic lights, learned colors in Enligsh as well as Spanish, discussed locations of traffic lights in our town. Students studied maps, and learned ways to draw locations to show where to go. Students learned directions. Once students completed their Field Work, they compiled results. They discussed solutions. Students learned about the Creation Story, in depth, and the way God created Light. Students investigated Bible stories that inlcuded light, asked the importance of light, and played with shadows. This is just the surface of Expeditionary Learning. By the end of the unit/expeiditon, students had these projects to display their learning on Expeiditonary Night: traffic lights made of recycled materials, a clothes hanger model displaying the 7 days of creation, highlighting the day God created light, their graph of traffic light observations, and their project proposal of how to create awareness and educate the public about the importance of respecting traffic lights. 

These Expeditions run all year round, in every grade.

During COVID, we have gone completely virtual, with the exception of 3 weeks of in-person learning, on a trial basis. We have continued with Expeditions as best we can. We have prioritized Biblical teachings. We have fought to have small groups of students on campus, whenever possible. We have been granted permission to have students who need extra help, students who have internet/electricity problems, and a few other specific cases, on campus.

Our goal, is to disciple children to impact the DR. Our primary means? Education. This year, online, Matt has led a Small Group of high school boys in different Bible studies, conversations, and chapel debriefs. Some of these Small Group times happen virtually. Others happen distanced, outdoors, or on weekends. I have been able to co-start a Creators Club, an after school virtual group established to pour into a large age range of students. Our focus is on creating. How we create, how others create, how God creates. We have focused heavily on the creative process, accepting vs. denying unwanted/wanted feedback, and creating to grow instead of to prove. I have loved this chance to get to know some of Matt’s high school students as well. Matt has Spanish classes in the amphitheater 3 times a week, and he is cruising through verb tenses and conjugations.

Here are a few glimpses of what Doulos has looked like this year.

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Tell your mountain about your God.

I read this, thought about it, and scrolled on.

It stuck.

Tell your mountain about your God. I read it again and again, wondering if maybe it meant tell your God about your mountain. I do that. Daily. I tell my God about my mountain(s). I have hundreds of them. The child care situation, the kids-on-campus-anxieties, my insecurities, raising kids in another culture, missing my mama, my sister, my besties… the mountains that I tell my God about never end.

Tell your MOUNTAIN about your God. I read it again.

I close my eyes, sitting on my couch after bedtime, and the dark is comforting. I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, and I envision the mountain of the childcare situation (email me if you would like private details)… I envision my childcare situation as a mountain itself, and I walk right up to the base of this mountain.

I don’t know what to do next. I’ve never told my mountain about my God, but I try. I sit so still, breathe deep.

Mountain of childcare grief, my God is …. I think …. why is this so awkward? It would be so much easier to just tell my God about my mountain. I start again.

Mountain of childcare grief, my God is powerful. Do I believe it? I say it louder to my brain. My God is POWERFUL. He can solve this mess. My disbelief is a mountain on its own and I need to deal with that deeply, but I continue.

Mountain of childcare mess, I shout in my brain. My God is powerful! He can fix this. He can use this. Mountain of uncertainties and sadness, my God will bring me his chosen one to help me raise my children. He will! Watch Him!

I open my eyes, stunned. Did I say that? Do I believe it?

I repeat myself again and again, bringing this mountain of who will co-parent our children to the Lord, and telling this mountain about my God. My God who loves my children more than I ever could.

And then, I go to bed. Tomorrow I try it again, telling my mountains about my God, and suddenly my eyes are seeing different. Instead of telling my God about my mountains, dragging my sadness and my grief and my emotions with me into each day, I am standing at the base of these mountains shouting

WATCH MY GOD MOVE YOU. WATCH HIM!

This was two weeks ago, Saturday. We had just finished our week with Nanny number 2, who gently let us know she wouldn’t continue working with us. That night, my sweet friend + neighbour, Tammy, called me. God brought someone to her mind, she said. Someone who could help us with childcare until the end of the year. I called her, listened to her calm voice, and invited her over ASAP. She agreed to come over Sunday afternoon, just hours before we desperately needed someone to stay home with our boys.

We toured her around the house, introduced her to the boys, and sat down on the porch for some get-to-know-you time. I start tomorrow, right? She asked sweetly. And I knew. She is Columbian. She studied in the Netherlands for 2 years, speaks fluent English, and taught at Doulos for a year. She had this year off to prepare for college next year, but was looking for a short time job to help pay for the year ahead. She asked if I was ok if she would research developmentally appropriate activities for the boys, follow my daily schedule, and bring additional resources to teach the boys about Dominican culture. I cried. There was no catch. No buts. No ifs.

And I closed my eyes and laughed at the base of my mountain about my God.

Part 2.

In addition to telling my mountain about my God… sometimes God knows about our mountains before we do. Our very intentional, very observant, very interactive nanny leaves for college this summer, which leaves us with next year. I have not yet told the mountain of next year to my God, but He knew. One of my dear friends, co-workers, and childhood classmates, has been praying and mulling over taking a year off of teaching for a long time. She has wanted to travel, to explore, but to just breathe deep without a classroom setting. Due to covid, she assumed these plans would be put on hold… that is, until, we offered her a full time nanny position. 🙂

After months of prayer, discussing, logistical planning, and researching, we both agreed that THIS IS AWESOME!!!! 😀 Kelsey Dyck will be moving here in July (hopefully travelling back with us after we visit Canada for June/July)!!! Kelsey has agreed to provide full-time childcare for our family while we work at Doulos!!!! We are OVERJOYED. Kelsey is ambitious, adventurous, intentional, and so very compassionate.

I ended my data-draining FaceTime call with her, squeezed my eyes shut, and laughed at the mountain about my God.

Friends! As we begin to think about next year, we are praying, hoping, and assuming we will be in person! Because we follow the American school schedule, we only have until the end of May left of this year. I am working hard to sort through classroom supplies, take inventory, and prepare for next year.

I need help! Kindergarten is in need of a few more specific resources to be able to provide quality instruction and education. I will purchase as many of them on my own as I can. But if you are interested in helping, please click the link below! These are the specific tools we are looking for. The address is already in the list, and if you choose to order these items they will be shipped to Doulos! Thank you for investing in Doulos in this way!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2BBRNAB3ASFYF?ref_=wl_share

Highlights: This month we downsized houses and moved just outside of town! This was SUCH AN AMAZING decision for us. God has tremendously looked out for us. We have friends who live just outside of town in an area surrounded by mountains and fields. We have spent lots of time with them, and in their neighbourhood. Each time we were in their neighbourhood, we dreamed of living in the small yellow house across the way from them, which seemed to just sit empty. We asked the neighbours if it was for rent, and each time we visited we would ask again, which became an ongoing joke. The neighbours of this cute yellow house in the mountains called us the week before Christmas to say he had communicated with the owners who lived in the States, and they were willing to rent it to us!!!

Long story short, our landlord at the time had no problem with us leaving early and moving the following week. We went to our local supermarket, dug out all the recycled cardboard boxes we could find, and took them home. We went to each room, dumped our few belongings into the boxes, and called our friends Manuel and Leo. Both friends are faithful believers, hard workers, and loyal friends. Manuel helped Matt move the furniture onto a giant truck taxi we flagged down, and Leo came to screen in all our windows while his wife, niece, and children helped us clean the cockroaches, spiders, grasshoppers, and beetles out of the house. Within a few hours, everything we owned was in our new, clean house!!! (Pictures posted under the Photos tab)

We spent all of December settling in, re-cleaning, unpacking, killing bugs, and enjoying running water. Our house has a small cistern in the back, which means we have our own water stored and pumped into our house. This means that we have running water, EVEN WHEN IT RAINS!!! We have enjoyed our first weeks of hot showers. The nights have gotten down to about 16 degrees, and houses here don’t have heat or insulation, so the tile floors and cement walls have made for cold nights! We have enjoyed doing laundry on a regular basis (due to the fancy running water :P), and still rely on the few hours of sun each day to dry it!

We have bulls, cows, and horses that roam free around our house, and the boys LOVE having open space to bike and run and play. Our neighbourhood is quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. We have absolutely LOVED the peace we feel about moving and the freedom and safety to explore and play outside. Our house is wrapped with a small yard which is an added bonus.

This month we celebrated Hayden’s 4th birthday at his favourite outdoor restaurant with our Dominican friends. We also welcomed my cousin Taya Wiebe to the DR!!! She is 23, and will be completing a 6 month internship here at Doulos as a Physical Education Assistant. Many have asked her, “Aren’t you crazy to do this in the middle of covid?? How will you get experience or contribute if it’s all online anyway?” And we are so proud to say that YES!!!! She is crazy! Crazy loyal, crazy fierce, and crazy obedient to the Lord who has called her here. It is in THIS pandemic, more than ever, that the world needs volunteers, fresh eyes, fresh love, and people like her to serve serve serve. She came willingly, knowing her experience would be nothing like she originally planned.

Taya will be spending the first few days learning about Doulos culture and Dominican culture. She will be living with us until Monday, when she will move in with a Dominican host family. From there she will be helping with online physical education, gross motor development for the students who are able to come on campus with restrictions, and sharing her expertise with us. We are SO excited to have her here and serve alongside her.

January has begun, and we are back at school!! We are focusing, this semester, on pushing in and working HARD. We have survived, but now we THRIVE. We are working on gathering innovative ideas to reach out, be different, and disciple in new ways. We have finished half of our school year already, and count every moment valuable with these students. We see growth in our students, and we are overjoyed. While we pray we can teach in person next year, we are making the most of the online world.

One specific story from Lisa regarding ministry:

* It is Evaluation Day, and I whisper a silent prayer to thank my Maker for these beautiful students I finally get to see IN PERSON. I have seen their faces in person only once, and today… today I sit across from them to watch their growth and progress. I am captivated by their tiny cheeks peeking over their masks, they so willingly wear. I can’t wait to be rid of the masks, but it is such small price to pay in a time such as this. I smile at them, pull my mask down from 6 feet away so they can see my smile and I greet them in English and in Spanish. I want to squish them. I meet with student after student, one at a time, evaluating, talking, smiling. I mostly just breathe their presence in and silently pray a blessing over their curly dark hair. Oh how little they know how much I love them. I escort a tiny girl back to the campus entrance to find her Mama, and I see her. I see Mama sitting against a wooden post nursing a child that looks just like my Sawyer. We lock eyes. Her eyebrows are bent, her eyes watery. The Sawyer-sized baby squirms, cries, fusses. She pulls him off and switches sides. She has another daughter sitting next to her and our eyes are still locked. I see myself in her. The seconds feel like hours and
I feel like I am her and she is me.
I flash back to the mall, at Polo Park, just weeks after our salty Sawyer arrived. We thought he’d be a chill baby after our Firecracker Hayden was born, but Sawyer was anything BUT chill. When he is happy, he’s happy, but when he is mad….. he is MAD. His temper was evident hours after he was born, turning blue in the face with his hot tears.
Polo Park, with my sweet sister and my own Mama on a day escape to find clothes and spend time together. Sawyer screamed most of the way to the city, and we stopped several times to try a bottle, nursing, and any such thing one might try to calm a screaming baby. My face, sweating, and my palms clammy, I throw the bottle to my mom in the driver’s seat, shut the car door HARD and walk into Polo Park with my sister’s arm in mine, leaving Sawyer and Mom in the car. I feel everything. Anger, overwhelming anger. Why won’t he eat, sleep, lay still, calm down. I feel sad. I feel exhausted. I cannot think. Fog covers my brain. My sister holds my arm tight and I let silent tears fall. Mom brings Sawyer in a while later, and I try to nurse again, in the middle of the mall, and he fusses, cries, squirms. Milk everywhere. People staring, and I am living inside my brain where nothing makes sense and it’s always hot and fuzzy.

My eyes are still locked with this tiny girl’s Mama, and I know her soul in that moment. I do understand all covid rules thoroughly, I promise. But I understand the love of the Lord more. I walk right straight towards her, let go of the tiny girl’s hand and I reach out to hug Mama who has stopped nursing her squirming Sawyer-sized baby. She collapses into me. I ask her how she is, beam with pride gushing over her tiny daughter’s progress, and I affirm her in how much her daughter has learned. I ask if she sleeps at night, and that when her tears come.
She says no. Baby doesn’t sleep, doesn’t eat, what could she possibly be doing wrong. She says her husband helps, but .. he’s not a mom .. he hasn’t birthed them and doesn’t deal with hormones and can’t nurse a child and I am looking straight into her soul because
I know this life and this fog and this deep deep darkness.
And my tears fall next to hers and I whisper in Spanish, “I know. I know. I know.” And it never helps a brokenhearted Mama for another mama to just take over the conversation so I don’t share stories and I don’t tell her I’m in the same boat because she knows that I know. I hug her harder and in Spanish I tell her, straight in the eyes, “This. This is God’s work. Look at your daughters. Look at them. They are clean and dressed and healthy. They have learned and progressed. They are kind. They are loving. That’s because of your heart, Mama. That’s because of God’s grace and your heart. This is God’s work.” She cries harder and I say to her, “La vida de la mama es lo mas dificil” (The life of a Mama is the hardest life you’ll live).. The hardest role we will ever adopt is the role of Mama and this, this is holy ground. This is God’s work.”
And in this moment, with her tears next to mine, I forget about all of the ways we’ve been pushed farther away from human contact this year because while I strive to follow every precaution possible, I remember in this moment the way Jesus walked TOWARDS the sickness, TOWARDS the lepers, TOWARDS the Mamas who live in a fog of deep deep darkness.
This. This is why I’m here. This is why God has asked me here. I let this Mama out of my arms and I hold both her shoulders and look her straight in the eyes and I tell her, “When I am up, rocking my screaming baby who doesn’t eat and doesn’t sleep, I will pray over you- I will pray the Lord to remind you that this is God’s work. This is holy ground. My nights will be dedicated to lifting you up in prayer. I promise.”
Mama shifts her Sawyer-sized baby to the right who is finally asleep, picks up her second toddler, wipes her tears on her hand and gently takes the hand of her tiny daughter who I have the privilege of teaching, and she turns to leave.
I stand there, in this cloud of reflection as Mama and kids walk off campus, and I wonder, at what moment was I released from the deep deep darkness that was an entire year of postpartum fog. I can’t quite put a pin on when that ended, but I’m so glad I am breathing again and I am so grateful for the experience I went through that was next to postpartum depression, for this moment alone. This. This is the Lord’s love and calling.

Matt continues to love teaching High School Science, and is looking into beginning his Science/Education degree online. We are finding our footing here, finding ourselves getting attached to friends and neighbours. We LOVE our new home, and we have LOVED hosting the visitors we have received here. Hayden and Sawyer are growing FAST, and we love hearing Sawyer talk more and more. Although, as previously mentioned, we continue to pray for patience and wisdom as we parent him, as he is in a stage of severe tantrums and anger. Much of this is because of the language barrier, and the switch between full day Spanish and evening English, so we understand his frustration in not being able to communicate properly.. however… we still pray for grace and patience constantly.

Ways you can help:

-Our school has a VERY sad library. I have looked through it several times for good quality literature to teach inclusion, racism, discipleship, critical thinking, community, and life skills. There are few books to choose from, and they are ALL tattered, worn, and FULL of dust and bugs. Feel free to order books on Amazon and ship them to

Lisa Wiebe
3170 Airmans Dr
DDSDR #3017
Fort Pierce, Florida
34946 USA

OR e-transfer money to myself, and I can do the ordering/shipping.

-Pray for Matt and I to invest and disciple in new ways; that our discipleships wouldn’t end at school.

-Thank you for sponsoring us financially, and for your generous gifts this Christmas!!! We are so grateful. This month we have been able to help others financially as well, thanks to your generosity.

-Many of our students need full or half sponsorships to continue to attend Doulos. If you would like to see the faces and list of students who need sponsorships, as well as find out how to do so, click the link below:

https://doulosministries.us/sponsor-student/

Thank you for keeping in touch and for supporting our family in furthering God’s kingdom here in the DR! Much Love, Lisa.

November has come and gone, and it is still so warm here! We can hardly believe we’ve been here for nearly half a year. November was filled with the theme of Relational. We spent our month integrating the Biblical concept of being Relational into our curriculum, online classes, and events. We hosted a week of Relational activities. Many classes hand delivered gifts and cards to students. Some classes hosted drive-through parades with interactive stations. Other classes hosted social-distanced activities as possible.

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We had SO MUCH rain during the month of November, and went MANY days without running water. We buy jugs of water for drinking, and used rain water for showering. This was fine for a while, but by the 5th day we were pretty tired of bucket showers. 😛 We are VERY grateful for running water.

During the month of November we enjoyed a 5 day weekend, due to American Thanksgiving! We spent time as a family, played at the beach, and found some sun. 🙂

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Our kids are doing well! We have found a bit of a rhythm here. Sawyer is growing like a weed, and is wearing all of Hayden’s clothes from last year. He is starting to piece together words to make sentences, which makes everyone happier when we can communicate! Hayden is continuing to practice his Spanish, and can converse easily. He loves Preschool! Hayden and Sawyer love “helping” Alondra and Ale with their online classes from our house.

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We are looking forward to the rest of December and our month off! We are ready for family time, and some rest! We finish school this Friday (tomorrow), and return on January 7.

We have stayed healthy thus far and continue to ask for prayer as we work to “make our own” restrictions. We still have curfew (9pm) which eliminates the cultural night life here. The weather is beautiful (despite some rainy weeks) all year round here, which means communal gathering happen at all hours and all months. Other than curfew, we are encouraged to wear masks. The government has not made many requirements outside of this. At school, we work in separate classrooms and offices, wear masks, and eat lunch 6 feet + away from each other. If we develop symptoms of Covid, we quarantine and work from home until we have TWO negative Covid test results. We try to keep our “contacts” limited, but we are fortunate to be able to participate in social distanced events outdoors all year round!

Thank you for staying connected with us! We love hearing from you all, and appreciate your love and support. Thank you so much! We update generally on our blog, but if you would like to receive more personalized, detailed updates of our ministry projects and personal lives in the DR, feel free to send me your email address at mattlisawiebe@gmail.com

Xoxo. Lisa.