This month marks seven years since we left Bloomington, Illinois to study Spanish at a language institute in San Jose, Costa Rica...after eight months of study we ventured on to our destination, our new home in Santiago, Dominican Republic...we lived, learned and ministered there for almost exactly two years and then we moved to a little mountain community north of Santiago and we are now in our fifth year living, learning and ministering here!! It is really AMAZING to think about all that as we start 2014---we have experienced so much "new", learned so much about ourselves, our God and his heart, his ways and his people...
And... what we sense His call is for us for such a time as this---to "deep discipleship" to "incarnational ministry"...to live well amongst our neighbors, to love our God with everything we have and to learn to how to love one another well!!!
So...we wanted to share a few of those "moments" of living and loving each other that we experienced over the past month during the holiday season---as a little backdrop, here in Lajas the month of December can be for many a time of great "partying" which unfortunately can result in some very negative and sad outcomes--last year we were very aware of this and really prayed to be able to do things differently this year---and God really honored that prayer by providing many beautiful opportunities to "do life together" in ways that were rich, fulfilling and FUN and that honored God!!!
At the beginning of the month our leadership team had the huge blessing of seeing Jesus Adriane Romero live in concert at the arena in Santiago---a first for everyone!!! He is an outstanding musician who left us "full" of God's wisdom and joy---and everyone brought that back home to Lajas which was a beautiful way to start the Christmas season!!
We spent a lot of time together around the holidays--enjoying special activities that the season offers...
like baking Christmas cookies---we have some very good bakers here now who are praying about starting a business to help provide income for them and their families
Got to "get all dressed up" and attend the Santiago Christian school staff Christmas party--one of the perks of Dave being on the board of directors---a beautiful group of people and a beautiful God-honoring evening for all!!
We had a traditional Christmas dinner at our home for all of our leadership and their families with many contributing food to share
Our leadership went out three Sunday mornings in a row and gave out "free hugs" to each home in the neighborhood--they covered the whole neighborhood in three Sundays, were so very well received and now they are going back and making longer visits with some of the neighbors as God leads them
We have started a special service on Wednesday evenings at the local basketball court...a way to be "light" out in the community---our young people put on some special dramas over the holidays that were very well done
(Forgive us for no photos of the above but often these are intimate times that we just want to experience rather than document... but we are mindful that pictures help you experience it too so we try to balance this!!)
In the Bible, Jesus so often referred to God's church as a "rebano" which in English would translate as "flock" with God's people being the sheep--this resonates very well with our rural people and our focus this year is to be very good "shepherds" of our flock--to care for one another very well and to look for other sheep that may be lost or in trouble---please pray for us along these lines
FAMILY TIMES...
Something we did not really consider when we came to the mission field was that fact that we would probably have to "miss" some very special family events back home...but God has been so good to us to allow us to get back for many of these special times...in November Cherry and Beka got to attend Cherry's niece's wedding in Wisconsin and our daughter Blythe flew in from California---so we very very very blessed with that time!!!
And we ended our holidays with a visit from our son Shane!!! Had beautiful Carribean weather for him...spent time at the beach and here in the mountains...a beautiful finish to a beautiful holiday season!!
We thank you for the MANY Christmas cards we received---they are waiting to go up on the refrigerator to remind us of God's love and provision for us and to pray for you all!!
Please take a look at the right-hand column--it has an update from our daughter Rachael who is now ministering in Thailand---we would appreciate your prayers for her as well as the new prayer requests we have in the right-hand column
By God's Grace and for His Glory,
The Dave Schwulst family