Many of you know by now that we have been sponsoring a little boy – Natanael – in the Dominican Republic for three years. He is 5 years old.  Well, Bruce and I decided about two months ago that we wanted to go to the Dominican to meet him and his family and visit his community.  Soooo … with much red tape now behind us, we are leaving on Thursday and taking Ian, age 6, Amy & John’s eldest, with us.  What an adventure this will no doubt be!!  World Vision, the ministry organization, will send a driver and interpreter (They speak Spanish.) on Monday morning to drive us to the ADP (not sure what that means yet), where he lives.  We don’t fly home until Wednesday so we’re hoping there may be reason to return for a second day on Tuesday.  We are taking all kinds of gifts — clothes, school supplies, toys — to Natanael and his younger brother, age 2, and his older sister, age 7, and his parents.

Please keep us in your prayers, as this is something we have never done before, and we are not going with a group, so we will have to troubleshoot any situations on our own that may occur .  The contact at World Vision, Carmen de Leon, seemed very nice, tho, and has given us her personal mobile phone number.  We have taken shots and are taking an oral anti-malarial medication.  Quite honestly, it has already been an adventure. 

Ian is so excited to be flying in an airplane, as his lament has been that he doesn’t remember flying “because I was only two years old.”  But once the plans were in place, he began to get nervous, asking whether it was cold up in the airplane and telling us he was “just a little bit scared.”  This will be something he will never forget, we are sure.  Please pray that it will be a formative spiritual experience in his young life. 

And pray that Natanael and his family will be deeply impacted that God sees and cares enough about each one of them, that He would send His blessings to them through us.  What a privilege and honor it is to be His vessels on this mission.

Thank you!!