ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Friends, I just wanted to write a quick email to let you know that today we passed the line of living here in the Dominican Republic for one year. Yup, March 23.

In all seriousness, I feel like someone could have taped an MTV "Real World" or "Newlyweds"or even "Boiling Point" series about us and and our first year living here. Today alone would have been a great episode. Everyday is different and emotional and full of learnings and God-moments... we hit the pillow each night wiped out and yet full of wonder of what God is up to in our world.

Today's schedule would be a great way for you to understand what we're generally up to here in the Dominican Republic, in case you haven't been tuning in for the last 97 blog entries... :) Keep praying for us and our ministry here... we can use encouragement and love everyday!

• 7:00am - Get up, take a cold shower and grab breakfast. It's another 80-degree morning. Unlock the four doors to get out of the house and pull the Ford Escape out. Try not to hit middle school kids in blue uniforms or old men selling fruit with little wooden carts while pulling out. Drive six blocks to church parking lot and greet Haitian guard Yackie at the gate.
  
• 8:00am - Attend a "Kids at Risk" ministry leaders meeting where we discussed soccer practice for this Sunday. The church van is broken, and few church members have vehicles, so we need to find the money to pay for all 80 kids to take public transportation to the soccer field where we're practicing. Thankfully, someone from the church had just donated US $500 yesterday, so we'll be able to provide transportation and lunch for the kids. We prayed together for the ministry and that God would continue to stir the kids' hearts.
  
• 9:15am - Drive to Willow Creek's Global Connections office in Santo Domingo where we work out of on a "sort of" daily basis. Hold on to your purse tight and triple check that the doors are locked before crossing the busy one-way street that the cars continuously run two-way. Say hi to the "watchyman" Rafael who guards the entrance door with a gun. Mark calls our cable company and bank to pay our bills over the phone since you cannot pay over the Internet. Stephanie quickly sends off a couple of urgent emails to Willow Creek and prints off a few things.
  
• 9:45am - Leave the office and fight traffic to drop Mark off at Panaderia SUM, a restaurant/conference center where he is meeting to discuss water treatment facilities with eight Dominican pastors and our boss Tom. Many of the churches who Willow Creek works with are interested in providing low-cost water to their communities and want to install purification systems. Mark has been working with a team of Dominican plumbers to figure out the best way to do this and is presenting it to the pastors.
  
• 10:00am - While Mark is in his meeting, Steph drives to Docucenter, a store that resembles a Kinkos in the services they provide, but definitely not in appearance. A high-school employee (who Stephanie later finds out is not in school because he needs to work to provide for his family and takes classes all-day Sundays instead) helps her make little laminated yellow cards for her cultural adaptation training class she is going to teach this Saturday night to a group of Student Impact (WCCC's high school ministry) students who will be here for a week. The high-schooler asks if Stephanie is an elementary school teacher, to which she starts explaining why she/Mark live in the DR and what God is doing in the various churches they are working with.
  
• 11:45am - Stephanie leaves Docucenter and tips the high-schooler 33 pesos (US $1.25) for his help. This is a huge tip, but Steph realizes that this kid did a whole lot to help her out and well, she's feeling generous today. :) Hop in the car, hope not to get stopped by the govenment traffic cops in green who are pulling people over today randomly, and head back to Panaderia SUM.
  
• 12:30pm - When Steph pokes her head in Mark's meeting, she finds out they are not going to be done for another 30 minutes (it was supposed to end by noon). Thankfully, the conference center has a buffet, so she buys herself a plate of white rice and chicken with red peppers (and a Coca-cola, of course) and sits down for lunch. Random people stare and random men wink, but Stephanie keeps on eating and enjoying her time to herself.
  
• 1:15pm - Mark exits meeting with plumbers and informs Steph that he does not need to eat lunch, someone from the meeting brought him two pork chops and mashed potatoes from home to eat for breakfast. He's full, happy and doesn't need anything else. We hop in the car and head to our house.
  
• 2:00pm - Stephanie runs in the house to get the digital camera and a handful of chocolate chips (gift from Stacey Kastens!) to eat for dessert. Hops back in the car and Mark/Stephanie start the 75 minute drive to the town of Consuelo, just north of San Pedro de Macoris. While in the car, Mark realizes that he never communicated to Stephanie that something is urgently due to Willow. A little fight takes place including silent treatment for about 15 minutes in the car, and then Stephanie pulls out her laptop to work on the assignment while Mark drives.
  
• 3:15pm - Arrival in Consuelo. After passing three baseball fields packed with kids with caps and long socks, a meat vendor with a goat head hanging from a string and two naked pre-schoolers on the side of the road, we edge our way towards the church. Stephanie mentions how seeing someone naked will probably always seem a little strangs, but that she's used to seeing such fancy cuts of meats by now. Upon arrival to the church building, we're immediately greeted by Arturo and Leo, the two 30-something lead Dominican pastors of the church. Hugs and kisses are exchanged, and Leo hops into his red mini-van to drive as the rest of his and Arturo's families pack into the rest of the vehicle.
  
• 3:30pm - The two vehicles arrive at the inauguration of the church's bio-laboratory. All church members who are going to work at the bio-lab are dressed in the same grey polo shirt with the newly designed logo on the breast, and this is a big day as the lab will open it's doors tomorrow. A year ago one of the church members who worked at a bio-lab decided that it was really sad that when her neighbors got sick they were unable to afford the tests to find out what they had, so her dream was to open a low-cost laboratory to give tests and health consultations. Her dream was about to come true.
  
• 3:35pm - Inauguration begins and at one point, Arturo asks Mark/Stephanie to please come to the front and give a "word" to those gathered... around 20 people. Mark lets them know how excited we are to see this lab open and how blessed we are to be a part of the work going on in Consuelo. (Willow Creek donated the money for the church to rent the space in which the lab will be functioning.) Mark gives a seamless talk in Spanish and Steph smiles proudly, hoping for the soon-to-come day when she feels comfortable to address such a formal group in Spanish without feeling scared.
  
• 4:00pm - Snacks are passed around in small styrofoam Big-Mac-looking containers... empanadas con queso, pollitos, galleticas... it's soon time to go because we need to give a ride to three church members who have a radio show at 5pm everyday.
  
• 4:45pm - Drop the three ladies off at the small Christian radio station called "Senda AM1680" and adjust the dial to their station. Just 15 minutes later while we're at the gas station waiting to fill up, we hear (in Spanish) one of the ladies say, "Thanks to Mark and Stephanie for the ride here to the radio station and we hope you have a safe ride back to Santo Domingo. God bless you both, your ministry and this song is for you." Stephanie dies laughing and yells out the window to Mark that we just got a "shout out!"
  
• 6:20pm - Arrive back at our house and Stephanie calls her Wheaton friend Nancy who lives here in the beautiful mountains of Constanza. During the conversation, the idea comes up for Mark/Steph to bring some friends to Constanza and stay at their house over holy week since no one will be there. It sounds like a great plan. Stephanie hangs up the phone and starts crying because she doesn't know any girls she would want to take... she feels drained and unsure of who to invite friendship-wise.
  
• 7:00pm - Mark leaves for his men's Small Group at the church and Stephanie decides to skip her small group because she has a cold and realizes she is going to need to be "on" starting tomorrow for all of next week for the 20 high school students coming from Chicago.
  
• 8:15pm - Stephanie's small group leader, Consuelo, calls and wants to know where Steph is and why she is not at group. It's obvious from Stephanie's voice why she is not there and Consuelo says the group will pray that for her.
  
• 8:30pm - Stephanie starts writing this blog entry and Mark calls to let her know he's going to some weird science-fiction movie with his chicken-salesman-friend David. Steph is 100% cool with that and is happy to make pancakes for dinner tonight and write really long blog entries and go to bed before 11pm.
  
• 9:40pm - Lindsay, Stephanie's sister calls to let her know the Miss USA pageant is on. Looks like this blog entry is coming to a close and that the audience is probably ready to stop reading and go back to whatever they were doing before online (which was probably work-related!)...