My Dad's visit.

Around the end of October my Dad came down to see me. Since he is a doctor, we thought we might be able to use that as a way to reach out to students at UTESA (a medical school). He was going to take a look at the medical side of Jesus's crucifixion. We thought that it would be a great way to not only promote Vida, but to also build relationships with the administration. But the Administration thought that dad's talk was to 'religious'. So instead dad talked about Weight-Loss surgery, something that actually a lot of medical students here study. Though we were very disappointed not to have our original talk, it was actually quite a success. The Dean REQUIRED all the senor med students to attend. We had over 155 students come out and now have a good relationship with the administration.

Dad speaking at UTESA
(Omar is translating)

Over 155 students

Lots of Stuff continued

Being tourist at Los Tres Ojos.

I felt like I was in Gollums Cave

My First impression was the Forbidden Pool from Lord of the Rings

Then it reminded me of How to Train Your Dragon

Vacation!!!

Classes let out here for the winter. So we decided to take a vacation to a resort. The DR is big on its touristy resorts and fine beaches. So we decided to go to one.

Ah, this is the life.

This is an all-inclusive resort that we got for a very good price for four nights. It was good to get out of the city and relax a bit, you know, recharge the ol' batteries. One of my favourite things was when we went to the Brazilian restaurant. Its all you can eat meat. They bring it out on bayonets. And when your finally done, they bring out grilled pineapple. So good.

ALL YOU CAN EAT!!!

I also got to go horseback riding in the mountains. That was a ton of fun. I haven't gone horseback riding in years and it was nice to know that I still could. I took a short video, but my batteries died its not very long and at the moment I can't uploaded it because its still dead. Well, thats enough for now. I've got a few more picts and such that I'll try to add this week.

Adios!

Lots of stuff

I just got a ton of pictures from Shannon's phone (600 in fact) so I'm going to share some of them with you.

A few general photos.

 Sunday Team Dinner                                                                                  Sunset from our Balcony

    On the roof of our church here. See the mountains in the background. Reminds me of home.

This is from Adrian Tropical, one of our favorite resterants to go to when we have compeny. Its right on the ocean.


Our Trip to Santiago
I've mentioned this trip in my last news letter.

On the road to Santiago.

Our merry band of STINTers and Vida students

The meeting we had on the campus in Santiago



A famous monument, forgot what it's called.



  

Me, Star and Roberto

Our Team


 It seems as if I've reached the limet of how many photos I can put on a single post. I'll continue this in a moment.

Not very good at this

I'm not very good at this whole blog thing. But I am going to make more of an effort to update it. I've got three stories for this one and will hopefully add more very soon to fill you in on what has been going on over the last 2 months.

Eye Infection

Yeah, about 2 months ago I woke up with terrible eye pain in my right eye. Karly told me it looked like pink eye (she had pink eye back in August). God was looking out for me because Layla, one of the national staff here in the DR used to work in a eye clinic. She took me there to get my eye checked out. The doctor said it was pink eye and gave me some drops for it.

Then about two weeks later, after me eye was almost completely better, I woke up and couldn't see out of it. It was all blurry, like trying to see out of a foggy windshield. I went back to the eye doctor and he was very surprised to see how worse my eye looked. Well he asked me if I had had chickenpox as a kid (yes) and conferred with another doctor. Then he said that he believed that I had shingles. He explained that shingles can sometimes occur later in life for people who have had chicken pox and that it can sometimes affect the eye exactly the way my eye was infected. He gave me some different drops to take and some other meds and for the month I've been putting drops in my eyes, taking pills and seeing him at least once a week (sometimes 3 times a week when it got worse).

Well, about 2 weeks ago my eye was almost completely healed. The doctor told me to cut back on the drops two just twice a day and I could start wearing my contacts again. That has been the worst part about this whole ordeal, I've had to wear my glasses. I hate my glasses, I don't see as well through them, and when I'm outside I can't wear them and my sunglasses. So I was very happy to be able to put my contacts back in. Then I wake up the next morning and my eye is so blurry that I almost can't see through it at all. I went back the following Monday (It was Saturday when it suddenly got worse) and he was again surprised at how fast it had become inflamed again. He told me that this is unusual for it to come back this aggressively, but that he has seen it before. He upped my drops again and my eye has again gotten clearer and again he has decreased how much I'm taking but this time he's still having me put them in pretty regularly as kind of a safety net so that it doesn't flair up again. I go back on the 26th so hopefully my eye will be completely healed by then.

One kind of cool thing about here in the DR is that you don't need a prescription to get medicine. The doctor has written me prescriptions, but I don't have to show them to anyone. In fact, I can just call (or get my good Dominican friend Ruth to call for me) the pharmacy and they deliver to my door. How about that?

MARSHALL

A couple weeks ago we had some coaches come from the Midsouth Cru come here to give us some training and see how we were doing here in the DR. They brought me Christmas presents from my family so mom didn't have to spend a lot mailing them to me. Anyway we went out to dinner at this really nice restaurant that is right on the ocean called Adrian Tropical. We were sitting down, enjoying the view and talking. I always like looking around especially at "touristy" places like this for tourists. I saw three gentlemen come and sit down at the table next to us and I did a double take. He was wearing a Marshall Polo. I said to myself, "No way." I was so excited that I got up and asked him if he went to Marshall. He told me his name was Greg Kappas and that he graduated from Marshall like 40 years ago. He asked me about when I graduated and when was the last time I had been there and what was I doing in the DR. I told him that I was STINTing with CRU here and he laughed. He laughed because he was (and still is though I'm not real sure how exactly) involved with CRU. He is part of a group called The Timothy Initiative that helps plant churches in other countries. Apparently its part a branch of CRU. As we were talking, I looked up and there was the National Director of CRU here in the DR (who is also the pastor of the church we go to). He was meeting these guys that night at Adrian Tropical. What was also wild was that one of the coaches who had come down to see us had actually played on like a CRU softball team with this guy 20 years ago. Small world hu?

El Hobbit

Anyone who knows me knows what a huge Lord of the Rings fan I am. I wish I could have studied school as much as I’ve studied Tolkien. So the Hobbit was coming out in December and I have been very anxious about it because from the one preview I saw I was afraid that they were going to add too much to the movie and not do the book justice. I should have had more faith in Peter Jackson. Anyway it was going to be playing here at a movie theater close by (movie theaters here are cheap, for about $5 bucks (US) you can get a movie ticket and a huge popcorn and drink). A lot of movies are shown in English with Spanish subtitles. So we go to the movies, get our tickets and then suddenly realize before we walk in that it is in 3D. Personally I don’t like 3D movies, the last 3D movie I saw was Spy Kids 3D. But Shannon can’t watch 3D movies because it makes her really, really sick. There was a non-3D movie playing at 8 (the 3D was at 6) so we traded our tickets for the later showing. We even asked to make sure that it was going to be in English.

Well, 8 comes we sit down, the show some movie previews (some in Spanish some in English). Then the movie starts. The title comes up “El Hobbit”. My heart stopped. “No. no. no. no. no.” Yes, it was in Spanish. We decided that since we already paid for it and were there we might as well watch it. Now I knew everything that happened in that movie. From my extensive knowledge of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit I knew what was from the books and what was added and wasn’t surprised at anything. I even answered questions to my teammates as to what was going on. But I didn’t understand a single word. Well, that’s not true, I could pick out words here and there, but as to figure out a whole line, no I didn’t understand. But it was a very fun experience.

Well, I think that should do for now. I’ll be putting up a bunch of pictures in the next few days of our trip to Los Tres Ojos, Christmas in the DR, and some others cool stuff.

Adios

Welcome to my Home

I have been meaning to make this video since I got here but haven't had time. But here is where I'm living.

First Post

Ok everyone, this is my first time blogging and I'm not really sure what to put. Later as I get use to this thing will be a lot more interesting but for now I'm just going to put a couple of pictures and a video.

First a video. This is worship at the church I go to here in the DR. Can you guess what song their singing?

Second, here are a couple of pictures. This first one is the view of the ocean from the girl’s apartment. (The view from mine is slightly better because I'm higher up but I'll show that later)

This next pict is from one of our Vida meetings. This one is the Tuesday meeting on the Art Faculty. The girl in the middle is Starliner and the girl beside her is Ruth. They are both student leaders with Vida and speak English really well.

Well, that’s all I've got for now, but a lot more will be coming later.