Fun In The DR!

This month, we were given the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic for a time of meeting and refreshment with all the missionaries to all of the Americas!  We stayed at a beautiful resort with a convention center where we met each day for praise and worship (in English!), a message, prayer, and strategy.  A team from FBC Oveido came to lead the music and VBS for the kids, David Platt brought a message from the word each day, and our IMB leaders led us in times of planning and growth.  And it was great to see friends from seminary, FPO, and language school - some we haven't seen for years!

Now, I'm not going to lie...it was a LONG trip with a 3 year old and a 2 month old -10 days of all-day meetings plus four days of travel, but they had a blast!  Carter loved his little VBS class and swimming in the pool and Oliver was spoiled rotten by all his missionary aunts loving on him :)  We stuffed ourselves with some delicious food at every meal and I'm pretty bummed to have to be cooking and cleaning again now that we're home, haha.

It was so encouraging to see all that the Lord is doing through other M's in all parts of the world.  Some of the work looks similar to ours, and other looks so different.  But we heard beautiful stories of how our brothers and sisters are working to reach the lost.  We also were told heartbreaking stories of those who are lost and so far secluded from the rest of the world.  So many die every day without ever hearing the Gospel because no one was able to go share it with them.  During our meeting, we received news that three people groups had been discovered in the Amazon Basin that no one ever knew existed.  Now it is necessary to strategize how we can reach these people both logistically and spiritually.

Your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering help get people to the mission field to reach these unknown people groups.   Let me borrow this description of our giving to the LMCO at our meeting from a friend:
"Our affinity leader had challenged us to give $100,000 as a group to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. We went over that goal and gave $146,000 and then that gift was matched by another $100,000, making the total over $246,000! That came from approximately 250 units of folks (a unit means a family, a couple or a single missionary). One of the hotel workers heard about the offering we were doing and also gave to it!! SO here’s the challenge I am going to put out from now until Christmas:  If you are in a church with at least 250 units, challenge your church to give the minimum of $100,000 to this offering. Knowing what our missionary salaries are, I AM SURE that each of your churches will go WAY beyond that amount. They only need someone to challenge them to do it – YOU CAN BE THAT PERSON!!!  I will love to hear and share your success stories!"
This sacrificial giving gets the truth of the Gospel to people who are in serious danger of dying without ever having heard of the love of Jesus.  

Now for some pictures :)

brother love at the pool

 

 watching cartoons in bed - carter LOVED having a TV in his room

 beach bums

 Oliver takes after his mama when he's at the pool

 getting a family pic is not easy when you have two little ones!

 first time in the ocean...he loved it!

 beautiful beach in front of the resort

 handsome guys

 Carter loved the pirate ship at the kiddie pool

baby dedication