Terrill 'Mario' Kucera

This summer, I spoke with many of you about specific prayer requests for this upcoming year. They may have varied slightly from person to person, but I am confident that practically everyone heard about our desire to have some men come alongside us in ministry. I definitely didn't know what that would look like or who it would be, but I knew for sure it was a necessity.

Enter Terrill Kucera, a.k.a. Mario here in the D.R.

(Having a treat at a little bakery we found)

Over the past while, God has been doing some CrAzY-awesome things in Terrill's life and has led him to a deeper understanding of what it means to 'deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow.' Just what does that look like for him? 

Oh...ya know...just...forsaking everything he's known in his 24 years, moving down to the DR indefinitely, and raising 4 Dominican teenage boys...no biggie :o)

You can click here or here to read more of his new perspective on life, but to give you a quick summary... he worked for the same organization that I first came down here to volunteer for, developed a life-wrecking love for the kids at the orphanage, finished his time with said organization, found out some of the boys needed to leave the orphange but didn't have family who could properly care for them, felt the Lord urging him to become their guardian, and moved his whole life down here to take care of them.

(Leading the boys in devotional)

They live in San Pedro de Marcoris, the birthplace of homerun legend, Sammy Sosa. This unfortunately means they live on the completely opposite side of the island, but thanks to technology and fairly direct bus routes, we're able to stay in frequent contact. Here's a little map to give you an idea of their location vs. ours.

I share this with you first of all to let you know how the Lord is continuing His good work here in the Dominican by using one of His children to love those whom some have incorrectly deemed 'unloveable.'

I share this with you second of all to let you know that, after receiving the 'thumbs-up' from my Financial Manager (a.k.a. my ridiculously awesome Mama) , half of the monthly budget we have set aside for Ministry ($50) will be going to help off-set the costs of feeding/clothing/raising the boys. 

I share this with you third of all to ask you to pray about how you can be involved in both Terrill's and the boys' lives. He needs people to walk beside him, encourage him, offer advice, and even support him financially. His monthly requirements come to $650, so if you'd like to give, you can go to his blog by clicking here and donate through Paypal. If you'd like more information, you can either email him at tkucera.mario@gmail.com or me at ckitts3@gmail.com.

(Hanging out in our living room)

Terrill, having you in the picture this year has been an absolute answer to prayer and we are continuously blessed and encouraged by your friendship. Thank you for challenging us to think deeper and love harder and for keeping it real with a touch of sarcasm. :o)

October/November

Hello Hello! It's time for the monthly update...hope you enjoy!

On a professional, work related level, this past month in the classroom has been very satisfying. School is going really well as we’ve taken last month’s pronouns lessons to the next level and are teaching them to talk about location, i.e. “Where is she?” “She is in the bedroom.” While our younger students (1st-3rd graders) act like crazy hooligans, the older ones (4th-7th graders) put their thinking caps on come time for English, and their hard work and efforts are really starting to show. Many of them have excellent recall of the material and can formulate complete sentences with little or no prompting from us.

A funny language-learning phenomenon has also begun to take place as many of the kids are starting to speak Spanglish (using both Spanish and English in the same sentence)! This signifies that they are becoming more comfortable and familiar with the foreign language and also makes for a good laugh every now and then!

On a personal level, most of the past month has been an absolute whirlwind a violent, thrashing tornado. Allow me to first tell you about the calm before the storm.

The girls and I got a chance to step away and take a breather this month as we retreated to the beautiful mountainous city of Jarabacoa. We rested, walked around, ate some yummy cheesecake, and attended a genuine, Spirit-filled church service under a tent by the river. Upon arriving back to Monte Cristi, our hearts were full and our energy was restored.

I have no doubt that weekend was a gift from the Lord, not only because He knew we needed it in the moment, but even more so because He knew we’d need it when we got back and discovered that someone had broken into our home. :(  They took various valuables and left the house in disarray, but the physical damage paled in comparison to the vulnerable emotional state the situation put me in. Knowing that someone had been in our home and sanctuary going through my things without permission made me feel out of control and quite violated. 

I gave myself a little time to process through the break-in, and just as I was starting to come to terms with it, our neighborhood flooded…two nights in a row! The first night, the water in the house only rose to our ankles (only), and that was enough to keep us sweeping out the “muddy” water until 5 a.m. (due to the odor that accompanied the water, we speculate that not all of the brown stuff that came in was mud, if you catch my drift). The second night, the water rose knee-high, and the ensuing three days were dedicated to putting the house back in order. Thankfully, nothing of major importance was ruined and, although it took a lot of sweat, bleach, and tears, the house is now clean and sanitized.

It’s funny to look back over my ‘growing-up’ experiences and see how the Lord was preparing me for the future. Since living here, I’ve had countless thoughts like, “Hey! I remember doing this on our mission trip to Kentucky, Michigan, Alabama, etc.” and more recently, “Hmm…this is all too reminiscent of the time I went to help with the Hurricane Katrina clean-up…” Never in a million years would 13, 16, or 20-year-old Christine have thought that she was being prepared for 27-year-old Christine's daily life experiences!

It was odd to be in the middle of the craziness instead of being the one to offer a hand from the outside. We were right in the thing along with everyone else just working and fighting to restore order back to life. We live in a place where there’s practically nothing we can do to keep from being identified solely by our nationality or the color of our skin, but the natural disaster made us a little bit less like foreigners and a little more like members of this community. In a way, it was humbling to have nothing more than a listening ear to offer and a story to share.

Thank you for all the prayers, messages, and words of encouragement as we’ve trudged and tromped through this past month. We’ve been shaken and rattled, but many of you have reminded us that our Foundation is sure. We’ve had to fight for joy like never before but are choosing to believe that the Lord is the Wall around us and the Glory within us (Zechariah 2:5).