A Week

What happens at the Social Work site?  It’s a question we get asked a lot, and sometimes it’s hard to answer.  Every week is a bit different.  We try to have a schedule, but it’s really just a guideline. 

It can be frustrating to plan things and then have them changed at the last minute, but sometimes (a lot of times!) it's those unplanned moments where the Spirit does the most amazing things. 

This week was no different.  Here are just a few of our adventures:

Praising God together

Praise & Worship with the Women.  Using our new projector and speakers we invited our Adult and Young Women’s groups to an afternoon of prayer, Bible readings and singing praise to God.  As we get closer to the end of the year, we want to remember all the ways God has been with us.

Bible Lesson & Craft with the Chiquitas.  The age range was from 4 all the way up to 10, and so it was a bit crazy, but fun to share the story of Elijah and the priest of Baal, and then to make a cute foam frame.

Conversation and Crafts with some of our teens

Dominican Spanish Lessons.  Our Adolescents and Treces (13 year olds) taught the ladies some words unique to the DR.  It helped them see how frustrating it can be when we want to share the truth of God with someone who just cannot understand.  But, if we ask God for His Spirit, He is patient with us and helps us understand.

Sewing quilt squares with the Treces and Pre-teens.  When we started this project, we weren’t sure if the girls would finish it, but with the help last week and this week from outreach participants, they are getting close!

Visiting Annie and enjoying her twin baby boys

Home Visits.  We visited Francia and Annie to learn more about their lives and struggles.  It gives the outreach participants and opportunity to see a bit more of how the women here live... and more importantly, an opportunity to lift them up in prayer. 

Francia shared problems she is having with her youngest son (age 14).  Annie has 4-month old twin boys.  She is not with their father, and lives with her grandparents.  We prayed for all of them, particularly for work for Annie, as jobs are very hard to find and there are plenty of costs.  She is a loving mom, and her boys are adorable.

Taking a look (and a sniff!)
at Annie delicious cooking

Amelie enjoying a new friend

Dominican Cooking Lesson.  Another Annie invited us into her small but clean and pretty home to show us how to cook Moro (rice with beans) and Pollo Guisado (stewed chicken).  We also spent time on her front porch enjoying conversation and playing with her adorable daughter, Amelie.

Dinner in the Community.  Alicia had us over for a wonderful dinner of rice, beans, chicken and tostones.  We were able to pray for her and her family, which includes two sons, one with special needs (age 8) and one who is 13 months.

Bible Lesson with the Young Women.  A lesson focused on our separation from God through our sin, and the hope we have in Jesus.  They were reminded that without Him we can never reach God, but that through His free grace we have eternal life.

Our work truly is a partnership.  The projector and speakers were brought down by friends from Virginia, and made possible by a donation from VBS kids in a church in Florida.  The materials we used came from even more donations.  The four ladies who served with us this week were from California, Nebraska and Virginia. 

And, of course, our perfect Partner is the God we serve together.  We love seeing how He brings people from various places, with a variety of experiences, passions, education, to share His love in El Callejon. 

This week has been another great one.  We've got plans for next week, but we know that God does, too.  We pray we'll always be open to His leading, confident that He is at work.