Lord,

Open up all doors so that Jason can use his talents. Let us not be blinded by worldly things so his talents can be used for your glory.

Give Jason a generous spirit controlled by You.

Show & reveal to us the opportunities we could give to the poor. Help us see the blessing. Help us slow down and listen to you.

Help us stop spinning in a circle. Allow us the financial freedom to follow your will and not chase worldly items. Satan- stop interfering!

These all sound like beautiful prayers to lift up today and every day, right? I would answer yes to that question. But that’s not actually why I wrote them. I discovered these old prayers written in my copy of The Power of a Praying Wife Prayer and Study Guide that I would have written approximately 10 years ago! When I read them again and realized how faithful God was to answer those prayers, the retrospect and emotion felt surreal.  Over the past decade, our family made BIG decisions that gave us financial freedom, letting go of worldly things, to be called into international ministry where we use our talents and work with others to serve the poor of this region. God DOES answer prayer. God DOES provide the way. God can USE you in big ways if you listen. I have begun to use my prayer and study guide again and am writing new prayers in it. I hope that in another decade, God grants me the same type of retrospect and reminder as he did a few days ago when I read the old prayers written above.

Our busy ministry season has begun! We are into our second week of teams and “life” is full and bustling once again. Last week, Jason worked all week with a construction team. They were building storage shelves for the new clinic and repairing some things around the guesthouse. Unfortunately, it seemed like things were breaking faster than the team could repair them. It all started with a blown van tire on Sunday in route from Santo Domingo to San Juan with several team members on board. Thankfully, God protected us from any major damage, and we had a spare tire with us. After minor delay, we arrived safely to San Juan. There were several toilet and waterline problems that occurred throughout the week. This week, Jason has been diligently making repairs and preparing for another construction team next week. Next week’s team will be divided into 3 different construction projects: Lucille Rupp school, Revolution clinic, and the guesthouse. This week, we have a barrio team and a surgical team. I was able to help with surgical consultations on Monday and be supportive for afternoon and evening team activities.

 Ethan and Miriam have fully resumed their academy/homeschool schedule with ballet (Miriam) and music classes (both). School keeps us very busy during the daytime hours. Ethan’s most recent history project was a model of the Battle of Thermopylae that happened in Greece in 480 BCE. My job was to help him “blend” the paper mache so that he could make the mountains appear more natural. Miriam is currently studying the cardiovascular system in science, and I am enjoying the review that it gives me!

This weekend, I will have a milestone birthday. You will have to guess which one because I am not going to tell you. We are on weekend team duty, so we hope to be able to catch a nice dinner out tomorrow evening at the restaurant of my choice.  The kids are each trying to persuade me by dropping hints about their favorite places.

For Christmas, we pretended to be tourists and drove to the East coast of the island for some time at the beach. We enjoyed our family time together and spent most of our time playing volleyball in the pool and on the beach, and spending time at the water slide park. We also went on a ziplining adventure for the first time ever. Unfortunately, Ethan started to feel sick on Tuesday. He had a cough/fever. He even had a feverish night terror one night where he ran out of our room in the middle of the night and we had to chase him down! He felt better by the end of the week, but by then Jason, Miriam, and I all felt sick as well. We drove back to San Juan feeling pretty under the weather and spent most of Christmas day resting. We fully recovered after a few days.

We thank you for supporting us and praying for us here in the Dominican Republic.

I will leave you with our current prayer requests:

1. Stamina and strength for the busy season.
2. Teamwork. I love our team. We all have servant hearts and we each bring our unique gifts to the table. Pray that we will continue to work together in unity.
3. Surgical patients. Pray that those that need our help will be referred to our clinic so that we are able to consult with them.
4. Barrio clinics. Pray that those that need our help will be referred to our mobile clinics so that we are able to consult with them.
5. Revolution Clinic: Pray for containers to be released from customs and for our upcoming dedication ceremony in March. Pray that the clinic will be able to make a great impact on the healthcare needs of this region.

Thank you for your prayers!