All work and no play make Jack a dull boy…so Cory and Laura Beth rewarded the children with a “Job well done” end of the school year party.

The group from Red Bank was here and participated in playing table games with the kids, and all feasted on candy, cupcakes and juice.

Yarisa and Jean Carlos, two of our oldest children in the homes, have taken on the responsibility of teaching the younger children’s Sunday Bible class.  They are doing a good job as they themselves learn the importance of preparing lessons and maintaining order in the classroom.  Yarisa turned 15 this quarter and in many Latino cultures “el quinces años” is a big deal.  We celebrated after church and had the traditional changing of shoes, opening presents, cake, party favors, and singing “Feliz Cumpleaños”.  Having the status of the oldest in the homes, Yarisa was the first to participate with the group going up the mountain.  We wanted her to experience the act of service for others, and to just have some peer time with the kids in the group.  She did well and had a good time.

The Lambs will be spending the rest of the summer at a language school in Guatemala improving their Spanish to better communicate with the children.  Rebecca will be a big help during their absence.  She has already begun a Bible class for the older girls, and has other activities planned for all the children to learn about thinking of others; such as making cards that the groups can hand out on their visits to the hospital, visiting a neighbor who’s not well, and being helpful one to another.

The drilling program is still a desire of the MannaDR works.  Continued research has been done to find the best mode of replacing the damaged rig.  It seems that all methods will require a great deal of money.  But we know that if this is God’s desire then he will provide.  We are in the investigating the possibility of having someone come and rebuild the rig if it has enough salvageable parts and then have it placed on another truck. UPDATE: a rig has been sighted in CA, and we have a friend; Curt King, who knows all about rigs, going to check it out.  We’ll keep you posted!

 

What a great visit we had this past May with our sponsoring church Highland View.  Brian presented an update of the work during the Sunday morning Bible class, and then shared a lesson during the worship part of the service.  More friendships were made as we got to know more of the people there.  We look forward to more visits.

We are doing well.  The Lord has blessed us with extra help in the form of Sean Boehrig and Rebecca Schad.  Both of these young people had been summer interns the previous year and have returned to do the next level of internship, by assisting us in our ministries.  For a while it has been placed upon our hearts to be involved in starting a training program for young people interested in mission work.  Little by little we see how the Lord is using the summer program towards that goal, and raising up interest to put action into the calling.  Please pray for this work and it’s affect that it has on others to “go out and share the good news”.

Well, I have another first to add to my list of occurrences here in the DR.  What began as a little pinpoint blister on my thigh grew and spread until it took over my whole upper thigh.  We thought perhaps it was a boil, but it didn’t start as a boil.  Perhaps it was a bite, but the locals assured us that nothing here would do that.  After a week of intense swelling and pain, the center (the size of a muffin) began to pour out a variety of liquid, and several days later the whole center came out exposing flesh and bone!!  Now I ask you…does that sound like a boil!!!?  While we were in the States visiting Highland View, I went to the doctor’s, who was astounded by it, and had no answer but put me on another type of antibiotic, which began to reverse the growth of it.  Ten weeks later there is just a small scarring and discoloration.  BUT to my dismay another little “blister” appeared in the same area and is doing the exact same thing!  Please pray that we can snip this one in the bud.

Because of Him,

Brian and Tammie