Note from Kenny, Pictures coming soon!

Hope everyone enjoyed the summer.  Sounds like it has been the driest summer in a long time!  We have definitely adjusted well to the weather here!

We have a few things for everyone to be praying for us for at this time.

1)  This week, the week of 9/24/12, Karen and I  begin shadowing Josh and Vicki to learn our new jobs.  This will be awesome, but we are still in the middle of learning Spanish.  So, we will be pulling double duty for the next month or so.  Please pray for strength, energy and vision to see God shape us in this time

2)  We are so blessed that God has provided us a motorcycle, and now a house!  We move into our new home in the next week or so!  We are excited but  we need to paint the house before we move in, plus purchase all the appliances along with getting the internet hooked up (which can take 6 weeks with many, many visits to the Claro office in the next town over)! These are all great things to be doing and we are so thankful for God’s provision. But for us to do them while learning Spanish seems impossible. So we are trusting God, who takes delight in impossibilities!  Please pray for patience for Karen (she is ready for a home) and that our minds would stay clear and retain all we are learning.

3)  We are still searching for a car.  We have had a few potential cars but none has worked out.  We are looking for a diesel vehicle (way cheaper fuel than $6/gallon gasoline) that seats 7.   Please pray that God will open up a door for just the right car, and that we will be patient in the search for a car and the waiting. The other day we were on our moto carrying a mop,  2 brooms, bleach, laundry soap and two cans of paint! Very common here in Jarabacoa but new for us!

4) Please pray for energy! We are tired! We are eating and sleeping well- thank you Lord! But apparently when you are intensely learning a language along with relocating to a foreign country/culture it is normal to be tired!

Thank you all for your prayers and continued support!

Love you all!

Karen and I continue to pray for each of you! 

Kenny

Pictures coming soon!

Reflexiones de Karen

Orientation for our semester students! Kenny and I attended this but God is holding the reins back, clearly causing us to focus on Spanish! But the students are awesome and I'd really love to be serving right now! :-)

I found an older book in the house we are staying at and of course, as Kenny says, I am all about "more input" so I've been reading it! I found these paragraphs that really express what God has been doing in me these past few months - okay truthfully this is something He has been working on with me for my entire life! It is so hard for me to just be, to not be working and to not be tangibly serving but yet because I am abiding in Him daily, moment by moment, He says it is "all good"!

Much love to all of you,
Karen

From the book "Grace Walk"

Any effort to do something for God which comes from our own resources, ability, knowledge, etc. is flesh. Flesh can only counterfeit the real thing. The way to enjoy and express Christ is to allow Him to live His life through us. As we rest in Him, He will express His character and His ministry though us. When we struggle to live the Christian life, we stop the flow of Christ's Life and begin to live after the resources of our own flesh. As we abide in Him, we rest and work at the same time! We rest inwardly while He works outwardly through us. This is God's designed method of Christian service. Anything else is empty religious ritual, regardless of how successful or spiritual it may appear.

Living in grace means that we express his life as a natural and normal part of our daily experience. We live trusting in Him to express Himself through us every day. Life isn't a test it's a rest. The test has already been given and we received a perfect score because Jesus took the test for us. It's time now to celebrate! We don't need to live under a list of things we believe we ought to do. As we abide in Him, His desire will be our desire.

We took a break from studying and attended a surprise gathering to celebrate 

Rachel's birthday with some of our new SI family!

At the house we are blessed to stay in until the end of October.  Only one
 condition, love these dogs as our own!

Our only means of transportation right now.  Pray for no rain.

I had to go into this building to take care of some business.  Needless to say
I didn't get out of the car until the coast was clear

Well, it has been a little over a couple of weeks since our last blog.  We arrived in the DR and have locked ourselves in a room and taken an oath not come out until we can speak Espanol.    Ok, now for reality.  We have been working so hard learning Spanish.  31/2 hours of class time a day, then 3-4 hours of study each night.  One thing I know for sure, my wife can out study anyone.  She is amazing.  We have been blessed with a great teacher and each day our heads are filled to overflowing.
We have lots of prayer requests right now for all who would love to pray for us.  I  think for tonight I will call this:  KAREN AND KENNY'S TOP 10 PRAYER REQUESTS

1.  Language!  Obviously, that God would bless us with the ability to learn this beautiful language to be as effective as possible in loving both the staff, and our new friends and neighbors.
2.  We miss our family.  We have no doubt God has called us here.  And we have obediently answered His call, but we do miss our children and grandchildren so much.  Please pray that God would be The Great Comforter at this time.
3.  Our own home.  We have been blessed to stay in a the home of a missionary family that is on furlough in the States, but it is not our home so we feel a bit unsettled.  We have been living out of our suitcases since the end of June so we are ready to settle.
4.  Patience. That God would give us what we need in His time and not ours.  We serve an amazing God and we are trusting that His will be done.
5.  Vehicles. We have been looking for the right vehicles and have not had any success.  We eagerly await the Lord's blessing for vehicles.
6.  Our transition into our new roles here in the DR sometime around October, November, December.  We are praying that we can bless our dear friends Josh and Vikki as they transition out of their positions with SI and we move in.  
7.That we can love, serve, and develop close relationships with both the Dominican and American staff in a way that brings glory to God.
8.  Entry into a new culture.  Please pray that God would give us the wisdom and gentleness needed to be His ambassadors to the people of the Dominican Republic.  Our hope is that each person we come in contact with will walk away feeling like they are authentically loved.
9.   Spanish
AND FINALLY #10. You guessed it.  Spanish!

We love you all and please know how grateful we are that you have chosen to help us in this kingdom work.  To God be the glory forever.

Kenny

Our wonderful friend  Rachel who is establishing a medical site on the left and
 our amazing friend and language  teacher Catalina who is from Columbia.

It's just not everyday you see cattle walking down the road.  I think they're on strike.

Talk about great timing!  We arrived to the DR on Thursday and on Saturday the leadership team took
the Dominican Kitchen Staff on their annual beach retreat.  We we blessed to be a part of that time.
It's almost a 3 hour drive but a wonderful way to express gratitude to a great staff who pour
their hearts into serving God.

Some of the staff of SI

Yikes

Kim works at the Social Work site in El Callejon.  Here enjoying her birthday.  Guess who got her the hat?