First Family Visit! & GoMad Ministries :) Feb 2014 - Month 32 in the D.R.

I was super excited this month (February 2014) to have my parents, my aunt Fern and Uncle Rich, my aunt Sue and my Uncle Marlin all come from the U.S. to visit me!  I was so excited to have them come to learn about and experience my life here!  Thanks guys for letting me drag you all over the North Coast!

Here's a little video and a couple of my favorite photos from their 7 days here on our little Island of Hispanola! :)

 

 

 

 

 

We visited GoMad Ministries and

learned more about the work of my friends from church -- Missionaries Chantz and Renee Cutts. Here we are in one of the rooms of their medical clinic.  They'll soon be starting an after-school tutoring program in this same building as well.  Chantz and Renee's ministry began (and continues) with and outreach to women involved in the prostitution and sex-trafficking ring in Sosua Dominican Republic -- where my church is located. They are empowering local churches to reach out to these women, and they offer a safe-house and help with job training for women who want to get out of the trapped life of prostitution here, where older, rich, white men mostly from the U.S., Canada, and Europe come. The foreign men are the primary source of income generated to keep the sex trafficking industry going strong here in Sosua.  Since Chantz and Renee are friends of mine from church, I took my family to visit them to learn about their lives in ministry here in the Dominican Republic.

  

Here's their website it you'd like to learn more about their ministry.

http://www.gomadministries.org/about-us/

 

 

 We got caught in the rain at the Fortaleza (Fortress)!   

 

 

                                     I got a hug from my friend Wilmeri in Pancho Mateo

  
                   We visited My Friend and Co-worker Willy and neighbors in Pancho Mateo,
                                     and my family got a lesson in hair extensions. :)

             We watched Estela's elementary school aged daughters Hoola Hooping in Negro Melo

                                     
                                     Everyone got hugged by EVERYONE in Pancho Mateo! :)

                                              
                                                          ... And in Negro Melo  too :).

 

We took a walk down by the River in Pancho Mateo and chomped on sugar cane in Negro Melo :)

 

                  It was a real joy to me to have my Parents and Aunts and Uncles here to visit! 

                       A true HIGHLIGHT of the 2 3/4 years that I have been here so far! :)