A Fun Week!!

I met twice this week with people who are eager to learn more English.  Some know quite a bit already, and others are just beginning.  Working with them helps me learn a little more Spanish, too. 

On Wednesday, our Bible Study group met for the second time at Dr. Walden's house in Boca Chica.  There were 10 of us altogether.  I could kick myslf for not taking a picture!!  It was a great time...all of us sitting in the living room studying the Bible with Dr. Chappy as our prof!  We are reading the book of Nehemiah.  This week we talked specifically about Faith and what it means to pray in Faith.  We picked apart Hebrews 11:1 a bit - "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." 

Today, we had a meeting with some new and old interpreters.  These are people who are interested in being a part of our interpreter/leadership team.  We talked about our expectations for the team - the type of people we are looking for and the purpose of the team.  I love these guys, and I am really excited to see what God has planned for this team. 

We have a team training coming up the end of April.  The theme for the week will be based from this quote from David Livermore's book, "Serving With Eyes Wide Open."  He writes, "Missions is about giving people a living picture of who God is, what God cares about and how God acts."  We will talk about how we as Christians give others a picture of God with our lives, our words and our actions.  It is a responsibility we have to take very seriously and constantly be asking God for help.  We can call ourselves Christians, but is it evident by the way we live our lives?  It reminds me of the song, "Do they see Jesus in me?"

Praise Report!!  The ImpactLives food was finally released from the port!!  Yaye!!  This is a picture of the guys from church who unloaded the truck.

Iglesia CC Shalom is now stacked with food.  Pastor Carlos distributed some already this week.  Many people have been waiting for this.  People are in need!  Thanks to the South Dakota Team who packed all these meals!!  I know Pastor Carlos already took some to the prison, to Kilo 16 and several other places. 

Kids being Kids...

While we were at the construction site, these two found some pieces of scrap wood and started playing "blocks."  She is 13 and came with the Pennsylvania team.  He is one of the kids from the neighborhood.



Pretty Cool.....



The boy is making a truck!  I asked him where he is going to go in his truck.  He said "Here, inside!"  Then I asked him if he is going to go to the supermarket, to school, to the beach...  Cute kid!





Lots of singing and clapping and smiles!  It's fun to learn new songs with new friends!

The kids LOVE to have their picture taken!

I love spending time with the kids.  Every time I go to church, I am surrounded by the children in the Shalom church.  It's so fun to smile and tease and tickle, laugh and play with them - such a treat.  There's so much we can learn from them.  Jesus had a lot to say about children, too.  Here are a few of my favorite passages about children.

Matthew 11: 25-26 "At that time Jesus said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.  Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.'"

Matthew 18:1-3  "At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. '"

Matthew 19:13-14  "Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.

Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"


My dad has said more than once, "We don't stop playing when we grow old; we grow old when we stop playing."  I don't know if he got this from someone else or not, but I like it!  I always want to be "child-like!"

God Bless!

Building Houses

This week I had the priviledge of working with a construction team from Pennsylvania. Pastor Carlos and his church call them "the crazy ones" because they work so hard while they are here. They've set the record, building a house in a day.

While they were here this year, they built five homes in five days.

They ARE crazy! They are crazy about doing absolutely everything they can to help people who need it and about sharing the love of the Lord with their words AND their actions.

They got up early and worked late, and had very short lunch breaks. They lived Colossians 3:23 this week - "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if serving the Lord, not men."

It was an honor to get to know them and to be a part of their team for a few days.

This is a before picture. The woman who lives in this house has diabetes and had to have both of her legs amputated.

There are three generations represented in the picture below: Grandpa Richard Knox, his two sons, daughter in law and three grandchildren.

Grandpa Richard will be 80 years old in April. He has been coming to the DR for 5 years. He's had a few health problems, but he doesn't let that slow him down one bit! He's determined to give it everything he's got, and he's not going to let anybody tell him he can't. It's also very special to be able to build houses with your kids and grandkids.

This is the woman who received the new house. Her name is Angelina. She has four grown children. There are several people from the neighborhood who come to help her and check on her regularly.

Here is Angelina in her new house. The team built this house - handicap accessible - wider doors and lower windows. 

It takes a lot of people working together to make something like this happen. Not only the people pictured here, but all the people back home who are praying and who donated money to buy the materials and send this team down here.   There are also a lot of people working and praying from the Dominican Republic to make sure things go smoothly for them while they are here.

We can build a new house like this for $1500.

I would like to continue building homes like this for others in the community. Pastor Carlos has a long list of people who are waiting for a new home.

If you'd like to "donate a house" or give towards the construction of a new house, you can send a check to Woodridge Church Att: Jenny Koehnen 1500 Cty Rd 24 Medina, MN 55356.

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Love, Kristin

Back to work!

I flew out of Minneapolis on Thursday, spent one night with Dr. Walden and Sandee in Boca Chica, and am now back in Hato Mayor. It's good to be back!

I've "moved in" to a room in Miguelina's house not far from Pastor Carlos' place.

I went to church this morning and got to see many dear friends from CC Shalom.


I will go back to church tonight. There is a team here from Pennsylvania doing contstruction projects and VBS. I hope to spend some time with them and help with some of their projects while they are here.

Tomorrow I will go to Guerra to visit with two key leaders from the team of interpreters.


This is a picture of my new room.

I'm praying for clear direction, for courage and boldness. I'm praying that we (Christians of any age, culture, background or denomination) would work together to point people to Jesus.

May we become less and Jesus become greater.