what happens now?

hey everyone. i've been home for almost two weeks now. what a journey i have been on. incredible, life changing, and focusing. i've been substitute teaching in local schools up here in michigan and if that hasn't done anything else, it has made me realize how much my heart felt at home working in the dominican.

i'm not sure who all is still reading this but i will try to keep updating how i am doing. i know that i'm not on the mission field anymore, but i'm planning on going back and maybe you want to know how that is going. right now i'm planning on having a meeting with brook brotzman sometime in october. if you don't remember he's the president of G.O. Ministries.

until i write again.

two sundays left

yes indeed, sunday morning. i'm about ready to head out the door. it's almost 9 in the morning and i'm playing guitar for church again. church starts at 10 i believe or 1030. or actually since we're in the dominican republic it's whenever we get around to it. lol. here i am in my new church shirt. i bought it for 90 pesos which is a little less than $3. thank you thank you. it has been a great last week here. and i say last here because like you all know, i'm heading to the batey's for 5 days next week. which is going to be even more fun. there will be lots of kids and people that have never had any type of sports activity organized for them. this is the ultimate kind of play. not playing to look good, not playing to win anything, no ulterior mortives, but these kids are going to be playing just to play. and this will also be a new place that i've never been to. how exciting.
also today, the coaches of the 5 week league that just finished are playing a game against another team from a place called pueblo nuevo. so that's right, i get to play. i am literally bouncing in my seat waiting to play. please Lord, don't let church go long. lol
last night was a blessing. it was a busy day before that. we helped paint one of the missionary's houses on the inside. and then we had the celebration for the basketball league. the kids got medals and each coach picked the player with the best attitude on the team to be the mvp and that player got a really nice jersey. people donate a lot of sports stuff to Will and these were new, extremely nice jerseys. and then everyone watched a slide show that Will put together. to music, lol, not just some slide show.
anyway, so after a long day me and some friends went out to eat pretty late. it was romano, carolina, leandro, and me. we walked to this small restaurant place, which was outdoor. we ordered and talked about all sorts of stuff. it was just a great night.
okay, i'll soon be with you all telling you about my time and how much i want to come back to live here and work here. pray for me for that, and just pray for me in general.

i love you all, thanks for reading.

the end, of the almost end

yes, that's right, this is the end of my second to the last week. i have one more week that we are going to be spending in the bateys doing sports with all ages of people. it will be quite a ministry opportunity. the pastor there, william, has told us that the entire community is very anxious for us to get there. our group is up to thirty people. the only americans are Will, his wife Audrey, another missionary Jackie, and me. there are three other women going, the kitchen women, marisol, karmin, and jessica. and the rest are dominican men. some work for G.O. others have been coaches in our 5 week league we just finished. and some are just guys that we want to use this opportunity of being together for a week to get to know them.

this past week i have spent a lot of time washing laundry. i've probably told this before, but when teams from america come down here they usually leave clothes to give to the pastors so the pastors can give them to people in the community that need them. well, someone has to wash those clothes before we give them to the pastors, usually an intern,.....me. when there were other interns here it wasn't so bad. someone to help, someone to talk to. but this week i kicked it into a higher gear and it's almost done. besides that, i've been able to spend time with some of the guys on the street. also, Will has been playing in a local tournament at the park. someone decided to have a basketball tournament between the different areas and streets. and last night Will's team lost the finals series so it's all done. it was fun to watch. to learn more about basketball terminology. to watch more dominican basketball, because it is different. and to spend time with a few of our new workers like my friend Alan. he speaks english, he's a great guy, he's about 6'3" or 6'4", and he's very very intelligent. but he's never even been to the airport.

my spanish keeps improving every day. i learn something new and i try and use it a lot.

today we are helping Jackie paint the inside of her apartment. then in the evening we have the party for the basketball league. all the kids are supposed to come and we'll hand out awards and trophies to the coaches and then there is a slide show that Will put together. the kids love. even the 18 year olds. it's gonna be a lot of fun. and i have to get ready for music tonight for youth group and tomorrow for church. so there is practice at 2 and at 4. i really love playing in church. i've learned more guitar since being down here. then i hope to go out to eat with Will and Audrey for supper. if you can just take a moment and thank God for those two, they really have been a blessing to me. then youth group at 8 if we get back in time.

i love you guys. thanks for reading. one more week left. and then i'm home. for a bit at least.

hey everyone. this is the last weekend of the basketball tournament. i'm posting some pictures of it on my flickr.com account. i'll try and get a link on my blogger here. i have been reffereeing all more and i'm going back to do two more games this afternoon.

i'll write again to tell you more about it.

two weeks left

hey everyone. i'm relaxing during siesta. there are no more teams for the summer. we have next week to prepare for a big sports week in a place called barahona or the bateys. this weekend we are finishing up the 5 week league for the dominicans. Will is at this moment preparing a slideshow of pictures taken during games. he told me that the kids love absolutely love the slide show. they go crazy when they see themselves. so good. that will be fun. it's on sunday night.

also, the coaches from this league are playing a game on sunday at one o'clock. we are playing against a team called pueblo nuevo. it's going to be so much fun, i can't wait to play. the last few weeks have been so amazing because of the relationships i have developed with some of those dominicans.

in a little bit Will and i are going to go pick up medals and other rewards for the basketball league. i have band practice at 5 and we are having dinner at the bosses house tonight. from time to time Tim will cook for us staff. it's always a fun night.

i have clothes to wash that the teams have left behind and spanish to study i guess. so another day that has a lot of stuff to do in it, but i wouldn't call it busy. not after some of the days we had when the teams were here.

don't forget to check my flickr account.

a long time ago, in a land far far away

hey everyone. how amazing has the last two weeks been. i thank you all for constant prayers and thoughts and wishes. the longer i am here in the dominican the more it changes for me. i can remember back to the first month i was here. I didn't know anyone, i didn't talk to the dominicans, i didn't know any of the places. being new to this place and to these people was quite a stretching experience.

now after being here for 3 months i have a different routine, i have a different purpose about me, i know more people and i have all of these relationships that really are beginning to drive my heart. two weeks ago a group was here that once again did construction in the hole. the entire group had never been on a missions trip. and they were amazing. everyone was so uplifting and wonderful and fun. they worked hard and enjoyed each other. it was possibly my best week here.

since then i have been helping Will with a lot of preparation for the big sports week we are going on in september. and we have been able to spend extra time with dominicans since the only team that has been here for the past week went to the bateys. the other day me and will went to the court to just hang out and play with the kids there. it was so much fun. there are times, like any kids, that these kids don't act like perfect little angels but when you get to spend some time with them and give them some attention, it's quite a nice experience.

also, the coaches of the 5 week basketball league have been having a bible study at Will's apartment. it's been a good time. we actually just hired two more dominicans, alan and simon, to be a part of G.O. They also got baptised two sundays ago. it was really really exciting. alan is like my self-appointed spanish teacher. he's helped me a lot.

i'll make sure to write a bunch these last few weeks. i have a site where i'm posting pictures now. http://flickr.com/photos/11521586@N06/ so go there and see those shots. and this is a great time to write me at brenton.bellinger@gmail.com. you can yell at me for not blogging in two weeks or let me know what's going on back home. i love you all. and gina.......you better stop that baby from growing so much before i can see him again.

a day of basketball, yes i mean a great day

exactly! a great day.

i woke up this morning and the team of americans were going to take presents to the kids at guanduleys for a birthday party of sorts but my day had a different path. after breakfast will and i headed out to the basketball court, which is called a "cancha" in spanish. i told you about the six week league that i was a coach in, well, i have practices on tuesday and all of the teams have games on saturday. having the league for six weeks is a step towards teaching these kids responsibility and dependability. hopefully. haha

so, starting at nine i reffed three games and then coached a game at 11:30. we won and i really like my team, we have some good players. and i took my camera but then i was too busy to take pictures, sorry everyone. next week i promise. then me and will came back and had lunch, i rested until two and we went back to finish reffing games.

there were only two left in the afternoon and we were done by around 4 o'clock i think.

this is a really good time for me to be bonding with those young guys.

OH OH OH OH!!!!! big news that i want you all to pray for. will has this big plan to get G.O. its own land to build courts and fields and a sports facility so that we can stop having to fix up all the courts that get destroyed because the people don't take care of them and so it becomes easier to do camps and provide space for our needs. there has been this perfect piece of land that is close by and it is amazing. large, flat, gorgeous and owned by a rich guy who doesn't need to sell it. so what was his price? thirteen million dollars U.S. outrageous! well, the praying comes in with the fact that someone just showed will a piece of land that he likes even more. i haven't seen it yet, but will likes it a lot and has even gotten the go ahead by the president of G.O., Brooke Brotzman, to go after it. the price?????? one million dollars. this is the next big step in the amazing growth that G.O. has been experiencing and right now i want you all to cover this in prayer. pray for the money, pray for the process, pray for all the kids and adults that will be reached because we will be able to expand with this land. pray hard. pleeeeeeeaaaaassssseeeee!!!!!

and keep praying for me. i love you all!!

a great day

hello friends and all. what a great day in the dominican republic. we worked in the hole today with the group. there are a couple of girls there that i hung out with for a while. like 8 year olds. i did a lot of hard work in the sun today and then i got to play basketball for a little bit. then i came back and hung out with a friend from the street. his name is raymir. we had a good time just talking. he speaks english pretty well. and then we messed around on my computer. he likes to rap and we recorded a song. he's 14 and a really great kid who doesn't have a lot of good influences to hang out with all of the time. but that's why you all have sent me down here right? lol

for the next 5 weeks i am coaching in a basketball league that will partin has set up. i like the guys on my team and our first game is saturday. we do devotions with the teams and with the coaches. it's a big out reach especially because it is teaching the kids a lot about responsibility. and we will have plenty of one on one time with them.

i am currently reading the book "Wild at Heart." and i am spending a lot of time thinking about God and my relationship to him. i guess the best place to have revelations is on a mission trip. so keep praying for me, especially right now. i have made so many great friends and have had so many opportunities to show Christ to people.

i love you all. email me sometime. brenton.bellinger@gmail.com

the boys in the hole, and the boys outside of the hole

two weeks ago from this last tuesday they arrived here. another basketball week. i was excited. the american team that was coming down was an AAU basketball team from kentucky. the guys were staying in the "chateau Gabriel" which is the name given to the new dorm connected to the church. it used to be Gabriel's house. we fixed it up right before the summer started.
the team would sleep, eat and meet there which is down the road maybe 200 ft. from the main dorm. This is a picture of the top of the chateau where the group ate. that's Isaiah just relaxin'. the team was coming to put on a basketball camp for 10 to 14 year old boys from a place called the 'Hole'. i have probably already told you what the 'Hole' is but i'll fill you in again. the Hole is the city waste dump where 600 families have taken squatter's rights and built homes. disgusting pigs walking around everywhere. crap and trash everywhere also. G.O. has a church and a pastor they partner with in the Hole that has a feeding center that feeds about 50 kids their only meal of the day 6 days a week. Felix is the pastor. and we signed up about 50 kids for the camp. not all the same kids because the church picks the worst off kids to provide the meals for, and some of them are really young. here we are in the church in the Hole signing kids up. you can see brandon towards the left and will in the middle. now, there is no court in the Hole so we decided to use one close enough for the kids to walk to. i believe it was a 5 min. walk to get to the court. which i don't have any pictures of. sorry, we worked on it too. another place that was trash when we first got there and looked like a million bucks for the camp week. the "club" manager doesn't take very good care of the courts. but it worked very well for our purposes.
so the team was going to be doing the camp and then play in a tournament we set up at night with three other teams. they were going to wear USA jerseys like all the sports teams that we bring down. this team once again was all 15 year olds.
the camp mornings went like this.

-Arrive at the club by 830 in the morning.
-Worship (maybe 3 songs)
-Get into lines and do team relays
-split up into teams and do drill stations
-do separate team competitions

and then it was break for lunch. we went and served the kids at the feeding center/church in the hole everyday before going back to eat our own food. then after the 2 hour siesta we would head back to have games at the court. most of the players on the AAU team were coaches and then the players who's teams weren't playing would referee the games. the camp would end around 4 in the afternoon. my job through all this was to help. lol, to do this here or that there. i kept score and reffed. i translated in the mornings. and i translated very very little. i was in charge of water a lot. which was actually very difficult at first. but by the end of the week i was pretty good at controlling the small riots that took place everytime someone wanted water.

then back to the dorm to get changed and a small rest. while the players were doing that though, i was in charge of loose ends and getting more water and ice for the games at night. it was a four team tournament and the americans always played the later game at 530. so i guess the game was more in the evening instead of night. which to tell you the truth, watching those games is just really hard for me. i want to play so bad. and this team was pretty good. they passed the ball exceptionally.

then at night i would sleep down at the chateau with the team so they would have a staff member there in case of an emergency. wonderfully, there are many fans and also air conditioning at the chateau. i keep calling it the coldest place in santiago. and i got lots of opportunities to talk to the kids. so it was a good week.
they ended up 2-2 after the week. they lost to a team called Sameji (Suh-may-he) once and then again in the championship game. but mostly for that team i hope that witnessing the poorness of the kids in the hole will stick with them. that they will realize more what life is actually about.

This was a trying week for me. it was hard to work with the kids in the hole because they are wild. they have never had a camp like this done for them and they haven't really learned discipline or order yet. it was hard to work with the americans because even though they were great kids they were only 15 and alot of them got distracted a lot or just didn't listen very well. the sun got so hot this week. i believe the temp got over 100 degrees a few times. and then it was hard for me to watch so much basketball and not "be" a part of it. BUT!......

It was a good week. I guess these are all things God can use to make me grow. hey thanks again everyone for reading.

you might want some mustard with this ketchup

SOOOOOOO let's go back to the big youth group that was here.

they were amazing. not only did they work like crazy but they had great attitudes and they followed directions. their leaders were on the ball and pretty much the entire week went great. like i said before i helped worked at a place called Hato del Yaque. The Yaque is a river that runs through part of Santiago. so this is a smaller part of the city near the river. it's a lot poorer than where the mission buildings are. the organization is building a church/feeding center there.

we would arrive there in the morning and spend the morning moving dirt that a big truck would leave in a big pile near the entrance. we used shovels and wheelbarrows and moved the dirt inside to raise the level of the floor. and especially the first day the group did so much work. there were also a few people working at chiseling out electric socket spaces in the concrete. and in the back corner people were bending rebar (sp).

so we would work until 12 and then take the 2 hour siesta. ahhhhh. then back to doing the same thing. and that was wednesday. thursday, will took me with him and audrey to the capital to watch audrey play in a basketball game. that was a fun trip even though audrey didn't get to play much. and brandon came that night.

then we went back to hato del yaque on friday. this time for siesta wilby took me around to talk to some people at their houses. to practice my spanish. lol, which you can't really practice when you don't know anything.

wilby by the way is a haitian translator. he speaks spanish and english along with creoul and whatever else he knows. he's a great guy. the nicest guy i know probably. and we are close friends. if you remember me talking about romano, they are actually cousins and live together here in santiago.

so my lunch time was really fun, trying to talk to some of the people. then saturday i went with will to the court and had a meeting for the 6 week league that is coming up. it was also an all star game from the big camp we just had and i got to play in it to give it more players. i had such a great time. it had been so long since i had gotten to play ball. (sigh)

then that night i played guitar for a small worship service the youth group here had with the american team. it was a lot of fun. then a sunday morning and the team was off to the beach again. it was sad to see this team go. i really like them and there was a lot of fun people, students and adults.

it was a great week for me. and there are definitely more coming i know.

another quick one

man alive, i'm gonna need to sit down here quick and fill you all in on things. but this will need to be another short one. i can't forget i need to tell you about last week and this week still.

all is going really well. i was going to go to the beach with the team today for the night but i ended up staying back. it's all good. how many times can you really go to the beach. this last week was so hot. incredibly so. we did a basketball camp for the kids in the hole. the hole is the city dump pit where 600 families have taken squatters rights. a really bad place. a team of 15 year olds on an AAU basketball team from kentucky came down. this was the first kind of thing like this ever done for these kids. yeah, they didn't know very much discipline but the week went well. i'll find time to write more about it later. thanks for reading. i love you all.

something short

i won't give you the whole week with this blog. but the huge ginormous youth group has been here all week. sixty two people. crazy. but a lot of fun. major points of the week........i helped with construction in a place called Hato del Yaque, and i'll explain more about that later. Brandon Yohn arrived this week. he'll be here for six weeks as an intern. he went to college with me. a really cool guy. i went to the capital, Santo Domingo, to watch audrey play basketball, and i'll have pictures of that later. OHHH!! and i don't have the beard anymore. that's a big deal. hahaha, okay, maybe not. alright, i'll explain a bunch of this tomorrow.

the big basketball week

Wow, a week with out blogging. i'm sorry guys. i hope you haven't gotten tired of checking the blog and there not being anything new. well, i should write your eyes off with this one.

what a week. just amazing. this was the big week that we even had a preparatory week only for it. 200 kids in the camp, a team of 26 americans coming down. basketball camp in the morning, basketball camp in the afternoon and basketball games at night. basketball basketball basketball. i now believe more than ever that God is down here.

i was orginally going to be a facilitator running around with Will to check on the five courts spread out through the city, but then at the last moment before the team came one of the guys dropped out and i was assigned to be a coach of a team for the week. there were 5 divisions with 4 teams in each division. the divisions were the NBA for 18 years and up, the dominican pro league for 15 to 17, college for 13 and 14 years, and the little man league for 12 and under and i don't think there were supposed to be kids under 10. oh, and the fifth division was the girls division. it was a hundred pesos to get into the league (which is about 3 dollars) and they get a nice bag and a good ball at the end of the week. that was all brought by the americans. i think there is a NIKE rep that donated the balls. i was a coach in the little man division. each team had a different color in their division. red, blue, yellow and green. my team was green. and they were incredible. they weren't the best players ever, even though a few of them were pretty good, but what i loved about them most was that they were good kids. i really tried to be positive in everything i did and said and i believe that they saw that and followed suit. they really worked as a team. as an example, one morning when all the little man teams got to their court for the day we sent the teams to different parts of the court and i was talking with another coach for a second, when i looked over my guys had organized lay up lines and were practicing lay ups. i was so blown away. i saw my best player encouraging my worst player when he missed a shot. i was so blessed.

every morning this week started for me with breakfast with the american team, and then to the main court, club benito juarez, at 8 to 8:30. there the entire camp would have announcements a small message and worship. then each division would walk to its court. there we would have stations to teach dribbling, defense, shooting and passing. there would also be team competitions and individual competitions. my team won every team competition in our division. at the end of the week ribbons were given to the teams and my team got all of the ribbons. and a bunch of my players won some of the individual competitions. my best player was also a big help to me. he would try and understand what i was telling the team to do and then he would tell everyone what to do. his name was jose argeni (hose-ay ar-heh-knee) but i had another jose so i just called him argeni all week. it was his idea, hahaha. what a great kid. i really love him. i also had a couple other good players. one was richard, he was a haitian and he could dribble really well and he was really quiet. the other good player was jean marcus something. that's 4 players if you count the other jose, who was a little bit of a troubled child. he had trouble learning the memory verses and sometimes with getting along but another blessing that i had and i believe also it was because i tried to keep a positive attitude was that all the other coaches said constantly all week that my team had the best attitude as a whole. so argeni, richard, marcus, jose and the other four were jeuri, a really short guy who was really passionate, edgar who was a sweet little kid that kept forgetting to play defense and always begged to not be subbed out, wilson, who wasn't the skinniest kid but had a great attitude and memorized the most verses, and lastly, cristofer who was my youngest, tallest and most bothersome child. he constantly asked if he could go in. but not every few minutes, not once in a while, but constantly every three seconds. touching my arm, can i go in, can i go in, can i go in. it was in spanish but it was easy enough to understand. and then when i would put him, he would keep asking, am i in? am i in? do you mean me? OH MY GOODNESS KID, YES!!!!!! he wasn't good either, but he taught me a few things. i kept him telling him he had to play defense and by the end of the week he really hustled. he really didn't get better, but he was trying and it reminded me i was out there to encourage the kids so i made it a point that everytime he got a rebound or did anything good i would yell and cheer for him.

so in the mornings we would do the drills and such, then we would break for lunch. at 2 everyone was supposed to be back at their courts. then we would play games. we lost our first and won our second on a buzzer beater the first day. yeah, argeni made a lay up with one second left to go up by one. that was exciting, he ran to the side line and i hugged him and spun around. it was great. the next day we went one and one again, but i could just feel that we were getting better. i can't remember how we finished with our record that last day but it was set up tournament style and we won the right one and were going to play in the championship in the afternoon.

the little man championship was the first game at the main court in the afternoon. we were tied at 24 with 30 seconds left and my team had the ball. they were passing the ball around and it finally got to jose, the guy who could be like sand paper at times. everyone on the team yelled for him not to shoot, not only was he not one of the best players but he was outside the 3-point line. he had a moment of deffness and shot the ball anyway it hit the rim and bounced in the air. it bounced on the rim two more times and went in. so with 10 seconds left the other team dribbled the ball down and missed a shot and my team won the championship also. it was so wild. i had such a great time and mostly because my kids were so incredible. richard the haitian hardly ever showed emotion so i made it a point to hug him and shake him just so he would smile. oh another thing my group won was a screaming contest. the leader of the week, chris renner has a thing where he yells "CHECK YOUR ATTITUDE" and the kids yell back "GLORIA A DIOS." the divisions had a competition one morning before worship and the loudest in each division got money to buy a soda pop. i really played it up and acted like i was going to jump out of my skin and i screamed as loud as i could, my guys responded like wise and we won. so after one day i took them to a colmado and we had pops together. that was amazing too.

so i had a great week with my team. and that was basketball in the morning and basketball in the afternoon. now, for basketball at night. the group of americans that came down here are all mostly or have been in their past jocks. at least two of them had been on Will's high school basketball team that won the state championship in kentucky a few years ago. one guy had played on wake forrest. he was 6'8". and at nights they were part of a 4 team tournament with 3 dominican teams. one team was coached by pedro. that's the dominican who is in charge of basketball for the ministry with Will. there was a select team from santiago, that's the city we're in. and another team from pueblo nuevo. which i think is a part of santiago. our first night was against pueblo nuevo. the guys had flown down the night before, they were playing on the outdoor court there at club benito juarez and they had never played together as a whole before. and also i think that they didn't play Will enough that first night. he's really good at basketball and he's a really smart point guard. well needless to say, they got beat pretty badly that first night. they couldn't score and didn't look very good.

the other nights were a different story. they just played so much better and didn't lose another game. they beat the other two teams and played in the championship against pueblo nuevo again and beat them by like 20. good, way to go guys. that last night they actually played in an indoor arena because it had rained that afternoon, a lot. the indoor arena was pueblo neuvo's home court. and the girls that had come down, two were going to be sophomores at division 1 colleges in the states and they both played basketball for the teams, played a game too. we played against a team that wasn't too good. and i coached them. we beat them pretty good. the two girls, mallory from murray state and meredith from vanderbilt, were amazing. it was a lot of fun. i really didn't have to do a lot. audrey played with them, Will's wife, and she's pretty good too. she plays great defense and had a lot of steals. she also made some outside shots. Will told me afterward that when he looked down and saw me coaching the team that he thought it was going to be weird but that i looked like i belonged down there. it was so much fun for me.

it was a good end to the week. and today we went to church at edward's church. he's the oldest son of gabriel, the co-president of G.O. ministries. the drummer there had played with us at gabriel's church and he remembered that i played guitar and so he hooked up a bass guitar and told me to come up and play with him and a guy on the keyboard and another guy on a guitar. i had no idea who they were or what they were playing, and oh yeah! i don't play bass guitar. but everyone told me to go up, so i went up and it was fun. i ended up just watching what the guitar player was playing and trying to play the notes on the bass guitar. it was crazy and the music was so loud. it was good.

then we came back after a crazy message from a dominican named socrates i guess. i didn't really understand it but he was all over and had so much energy. we had lunch and the team left for the beach with Will and Audrey. i was going to wash clothes today, which i need to do, but i think something is wrong with the water pump, so i'm going to have it looked at. i'll have to explain the clothes washing process sometime. and then i guess i was exhausted because i fell asleep for 3 hours. and now i'm up and have some time to write. but soon i'm going to go have dinner with the girls.

thank you everyone for praying for me. and thank you so much for everyone who has supported me in anyway. this week especially i feel like i have been able to be used by God. i made such a great connection with those kids. so keep praying and i'll keep writing and God will keep using me. :) i love you all.

being artistic in the DR

With a few orphans in Haiti

Dariani

another week........it starts

okay, we haven't started quite yet. the new week i mean. the team that has been doing construction was in church this morning and then left right away for the beach.
speaking of church this morning, i have been playing guitar for the church when i have been in santiago. but with the usual worship band. and i didn't really know the songs so i had to use a guitar and a microphone and the sound was messed up, and just a whole bunch of things. but this was with a different worship band that i've been practicing with, and we solved some of the sound level problems and i've practiced the songs more and it went really well this morning. really well, it's exciting. i even got to sing a little bit.

we played last night for the youth group worship time. there was a little bit more energy in that service.

these next couple days me and the other interns, which after one more comes in tonight makes hannah, rebecca, and katie, will be doing a bunch of laundry. with that and any last minute preparations for the basketball week those days shouldn't be completely busy.

have a great Sunday everyone, and keep praying for me. i'm studying spanish and this week is going to be a blast.

the big week's a comin'

first of all i have three pictures to show you. me with hair, me with a hair cut, and another hair cut.




lovely huh?

well, for all this week i have been helping Will get prepared for next week. Next week is basketball week. a group of 29 people are coming down, 21 of them are guys who play basketball. we'll have camps all week. over a hundred some kids. it's going to be busy busy busy.

today Will and Pedro had sign ups at the court. they've been telling kids for the longest time to be there on this day, other wise they couldn't come to the camps. so thankfully there was a small crowd on time when we got there. so my morning was making sure kids were standing in line and wathing basketballs while Will and Pedro took names and divided them into teams.

yesterday was looooonnnnnnnnggggg. we painted that same court. it's a gravelly asphalt type surface that is breaking down so it's textured with stones. we painted lines, and the lane. it took all day. and man was it hot. but it's all so it looks good, and it looks good for sure.

last night Will and Audrey took me out to eat. the mall they have in the city has a food court and i got pizza hut. oh man. it was so good.

tonight or for the rest of the day i'm sure we'll just do more stuff to prepare for the team that's coming. i'm off to study spanish. :)

summing up haiti

wow, i've been busy the last few days and i am can tell that i'm not going to remember every little detail about the rest of haiti so i'll try my best.

one of the mornings i was awoken by john grabbing my foot. he said, brent get up, you're going back to the dominican. i said, "when?" and he said right now. startled i stumbled out of bed as john continued to give me directions. i was going so i could call in to tim krause with john's cellphone. i was going with our security guard jose. he was picking up food to bring back for us. this was a day where da jabon became a free trade area. the border of haiti is kinda expanded to include the city so haitians can go there and buy and sell. so with john's phone and the money for the food i set out with jose and we quickly got a motorcyle taxi ride to the border. that in itself was an experience. three men on a motorcycle through crazy streets. i liked it though.

da jabon was packed, and most of the time i either had jose's arm in my hand or the other way around. he said a few times i need to hold onto you for your protection. lol. what an experience i tell you. jose speaks some spanish, i speak almost no spanish. we rented a guy with a wheel barrow and he followed us around to get ice, bread, spaghetti, and five live chickens tied together by one foot each.

i ended up not being able to call tim but it was okay because jackie was able to call back in ouanamenthe.

we played soccer against the haitians in the evenings everyday. we had a vbs at the church again, then on saturday we had vbs at another church deeper into the city. that was crazy. it was such a small building and it was so hot. and there were a bunch of teenagers that were interested in stealing some of our stuff so i had to stand guard.

we also had our soccer camps everyday after lunch. those went well. some of the kids were really good at soccer.

on sunday me, romano, and marisol were coming back early and the team was heading to a beach resort to spend some relaxing time. coming through the border was much different this time though. many guards bribe their superiors to let them work the border because they don't get paid well and they can try and force people to give them money to come through and even people who are allowed to come through they try to get money out of them. they didn't mess with me really because i'm an american and i had my passport. and they didn't say anything to marisol because she's dominican, but they gave romano the hardest time. especially the guard at the gate on the bridge. romano told me that they make you argue and waste time or pay and you can go. romano has papers and whatever that lets him live in the dominican but he says that he doesn't have to show that guy. they only people he really has to deal with is customs but there are like 4 other lines of guys that try to mess with him.

well finally we get through and go up to customs and they have to stamp my passport but it costs ten bucks. in american money. i only had pesos. so romano took my pesos and went back across into haiti to see if he could exchange for dollars. which left me with marisol and no english speakers. i finally saw romano again but the guard this time really wasn't going to let him across. he handled him quite roughly and at one point grabbed his gun. romano told me he wouldn't have shot but was just trying to be intimidating. he would have hit him with it before shooting him.

after worrying for romanos life for a few min. romano finally got through and another guy stopped him and tried to get him to pay. he finally got through him and we payed for my passport. then walking through the arch a group of guys stopped us and tried to get him to pay again. then after threatening that we would go back to haiti and get my money back they just let us through. oh man. crazy.

we then ate at the restaurant that we had chicken at before and we hopped onto the bus that came back to santiago. i spent the trip discussing language, the dominican, haiti and girls with romano. then we hopped in a taxi and made it back to hoya del camito where the mission houses are.

i spent the rest of sunday relaxing and i went to romano's soccer game. he's part of a sports outreach and since it's soccer it's almost completely haitians. dominicans are baseball people. and some like basketball. but not so much soccer.

all three of the teams were at a beach somewhere so i got to relax.

monday went by with not much to do either. then the teams came back at night. i got to meet up with the haiti team and it was good to see them. we went to bon (bone) which is the ice cream place here. then night time and they left at like 530 in the morning on tuesday.

i spent tuesday with hannah the other intern cleaning the dorms to prepare for the next team that was coming that night. then we collected all of the clothes that the team left behind and moved them over to the washingmachine which is in like a junkyard type storage area in an area that G.O. owns. we then tried to wash, rinse, and hang up as many loads as we could.

the new team arrived on tuesday night. also another intern, rebecca. this new team will be doing construction in the hole.

the "hole" is a big junk hole type place. i'm not sure how big it is across but the city just throws its junk into it. and people started building houses in it because they wouldn't be charged to live in a junk yard. G.O. has a church down there which feeds around 40 kids their only meal of the day. the girls' basketball team went there to help feed the kids one day when we were here last year in august.

i'm spending this week not with the team, but with will because the next week is a big basketball week and we have to get prepared. it's going to be a lot of work and really long days but i'm very excited for it.

the king of flies

i believe that's a book about kids that are stranded on an island and they form their own government and hierarchy. i thought of it when i was watching the kids one evening from the second floor of the G.O. building. it's all kids. the parents aren't anywhere to be seen. two of the younger girls got into a fight and there was a stand off. some of the kids their age were watching and putting in their two cents. a few older boys came and were just observing definitely just watching the show. then an older teenager or maybe even a young guy in his early twenties walked through and broke it up a bit. telling this person that and that person this. whoever was bigger made the rules. that was easy to see.

day two started at around 530 or 6. by that time it was bright as day. i stayed in bed slightly longer thinking to myself how amazing it was that it was so bright. then breakfast which was incredible. fried eggs i believe. mm mmm. the morning went easy and around 9 i think we went to set up VBS in the church, down on the first floor. there were lots and lots of kids. many just watched from the fence and we kept inviting them in. Veni timmon (teh MOAN). come children. and we filled the church. after singing we split the kids into 3 age groups, which was far from perfect. moving to the areas was wild chaos. and then a translator at each group told a bible story. then we did a craft which on this day (thursday) was a ziplock baggie filled partly with blue rocks and we put paper stars and fish in them. then we stapled a fish bowl shape around the ziplock baggie. the kids didn't do anything really besides sit there and let us give them stuff. i went around our circle stapling and they didn't know how to hold the bags or put the paper bowl around it so i was bending down and holding this and trying to communicate where i wanted their hands, but not only could i not speak the language, these were young kids and didn't really get it anyway. it was so hot i was dripping all over. finally it was time to go outside and play. thank you Jesus.

we set up a spot inside the fence where there was a place used as a soccer goal and a spot to kick from. we brought out one ball. i realized quickly that in this culture where it was whoever could slap or push their way through not all of the kids were going to get a chance so i started pushing and pulling kids away from the ball and into a line. easier said than done because even when the kids understand what you are trying to do, they are still trying to get what they want. they look at you and beg not for what is right but that you let them break the rules.

so i stood at the front of the line, holding everyone back, because even in the line they are pushing forward so no one can cut them which pushes the line constantly. when one kid, i think they were all boys, would kick once, i kind of grab the head of the next boy and pull him in front of me. quickly again, i realized that many boys were cutting. quite blantantly. i tried to get help from someone to watch the line but pretty soon i switched places so he could be at the front of the line and i would watch for cutters. they boys were so bad. they would argue. they knew what i meant, what i was doing and they would still try. just so they could kick a ball. they are so starved for fun. for playing. and one of the sad parts is that the other kids being cut really seemed to be used to it. in america i'm sure i would have heard yelling about cutting and "teacher, teacher" but here there might be a short yell and then acceptance. like it was the way things were.

all of the other kids, well, most of them anyway, were occupied by a huge, and i mean huge, beach ball that they would hit in the air and chase. there isn't a field inside of the fence, just a medium sized area and they took that ball all over it. kids from the soccer ball line would run over and hit the ball and then try and get back in line, which i put an end to quickly. but it was so hard to regulate cutting since everyone was trying to do it. if i spent a second moving one boy to the end of the line, the boy who just kicked would move into place right behind the boy who was kicking next. like trying to stop a sinking boat by plugging one hole at a time.

lunch and siesta, which if i haven't explained that before is the wonderful invention where no on does anything really between 12 and 2, then preparing to do the first soccer camp. next to the fenced in area is a field that doesn't really have grass and is kinda in the shape of a triangle. two roads that go on either side of the church area cross on the other side of the field. there is a wall about 4 to 5 feet high along most of one of the roads. between the church and the field though someone is building a house, even though the church owns the land, the guy just took it. i'm not sure who it is or how he is powerful but he doesn't own the land and i guess there has been a lawsuit for the last three years. i bring this up because we take our stuff out into the field to do the soccer camp and we learn from the workers that we can't do the camp on our field. to avoid trouble we decide to move back inside the fence around the church. there are so many kids so we try to pick an age group and then we just pick thirty from that group. there are a lot of kids that don't get to come to the camp today. those who don't stand against the fence and watch from the outside. we have 3 stations and i am in charge of the dribbling station. there was shooting and passing also. i set up cones for the kids to slalom through. the thirty kids are split into three "families" with a parent and a translator. i start my drill by explaining through the translator what the kids are going to do and then helping them. after all three teams go we break down the drill areas push the kids to the side and set up a playing field in the small area. teams of 5 are picked from the kids and they play until the first goal. then new teams. some of these kids are pretty good.

we then have supper and then i find out that some older guys want to play us in soccer. we head out to a school that might be like a 3 min. walk from the church so we can use it's field. but there is already a group of haitians there on the field, not playing, and they give us some trouble. they said they want to play against the americans but we weren't going to do that. so we walked back and used the field next to the church. which i guess it was okay because it was a soccer game and we weren't doing any camp there, so no one had a problem with it.

we split up americans and haitians and it was a great time. so much fun. getting dirty, playing soccer. the field was lined with haitians. lined, maybe even two rows all the way around. and they cheered and yelled. espeically for goals. it was an amazing time. then we went back in for supper.

we had more time for debriefing then we just hung out. another great day in haiti.

another country to mark off the list

wow, haiti has now been bellingered. (i hope j.p. reads this) what a crazy experience. it was wednesday and marisol, romano, jackie and i took a cab early in the morning to hop a ride on Caribe Tours. it is supposed to be a very nice bus and we were going to take it the two and a half hour trip to go west to the border of haiti and the dominican republic. unfortunately caribe tours wasn't leaving when we needed it to so we took linear expresso. the difference was if you were planning on staying in a four star hotel and ended up in a one star, or possibly a two star. the biggest deal i was told was the linear expresso usually just packed people in so there was little space, but our bus wasn't too bad. the problem for me was that in the morning before we left i had to do a few chores at the last minute and didn't get breakfast. whatever, i'm a big boy.

john martinez, our leader, was bringing the team in the bus later that day.

our small group arrived in da jabon, a border city in the dominican, and we walked to arsenio's house. he is the pastor of the church in ouanamenthe, the city just across the border into haiti. we waited at arsenio's house for the team to arrive.

the team was from chicago and there were fourteen in the group. one of the team members, sarah, had lived in haiti for six months at some point and knew creoul, the language of haiti. she was a big help throughout the week. the team was going to do vacation bible school in the mornings and a soccer camp in the evenings, or the afternoons actually.

finally the team showed up and romano and i walked to a really small restaurant to order food for everyone. and i mean restaurant in the dominican sense. open to the ouside. looks like a buffet where you point at something and the workers put it on your plate from the other side then hand you your plate. we ate chicken and then we set out for the border. all our bags had been brought in the van and were transfered to a truck at arsenio's house and would be brought separate.

we made it to the border and after a small wait, which praise the Lord was a blessing, we went through customs. which is basically just a big stone arch which on the otherside is a bridge over a small river. the bridge has a gate on it guarded by men with guns, men in camo. then we all hopped on a truck, our bags were moved to another truck and after another small wait for the haiti customs we were driving through ouanamenthe (WANNA MENTH).

people everywhere would wave and smile when we waved to them. kids were running along the streets yelling "blanc blanc" which means white in creoul. we got to the churhc which is a compound surrounded by a chain fence. there is a small area inside the fence, a small school under construction and a two story building that was the church. the church was actually in the bottom floor. the ceiling wasn't very high. it was always very hot. and the pews weren't the greatest. just metal legs with wooden seats and a two by four for the back rest. a lot didn't even have back rests. but it was actually pretty big inside.

the second floor was open to the outside. there were a set of stone stairs with stone railings leading up the one side and the walls were about 4 feet high all round. this is where we ate and relaxed and talked and regrouped. the back half of the floor had about 9 foot walls which made the two dormitories. the celing of the entire second floor was a sloped tin roof and the walls didn't even come close to reaching it. the rooms were separted by an area that was supposed to be a kitchen that was all the way open to the main area. both dorm rooms had many bunk beds that were stacked three high. we all had to use bug nets. in the back of both dorm rooms there was a bathroom with three toilets, three showers and a counter with three sinks. the water in haiti is really bad and even the shower water smelled like feces. our water was pumped up to a container on the roof or someplace above us and so when the generator wasn't' working we had a limited water supply. we had to chose most of the time between flushing the toilets and taking showers.

all water that we drank was bought and brought to us. marisol cooked all our food down the road at the orphanage and that was brought to us.

so we settled in that first day and took a few min. to get adjusted and go over the rules then we got the stuff for the vbs together that the team had brought from the states and went to the orphanage.

the orphanage was just down the street maybe 70 ft. it had a big metal gate that opened and we went into the compound. we never really went inside the building but they had a space about 20 ft wide with a few trees and then a space on the other side of that which was sunken into the ground maybe a foot and had a cement floor. it was covered with a tin roof and had a chalk board and desks. this is where we did the vbs. the kids were precious. the team sang songs with them, they played games with them, they did a craft with them. it was great. then after taking picture after picture after picture we finally went back to eat dinner. i don't remember what we had the first day but all the food that we ate in haiti was really good. thank you marisol. then we debriefed with the team and prepared slightly for tomorrow. i believe we had plans to do something with the church but it ended up not happening. it gets dark there at around 9 and there are no lights anywhere. we didn't run the generator long so soon it was either go to bed or sit in the dark and get eaten by bugs. the heat wasn't that bad for me the first night. all in all, a great first day in haiti.

gone going gone

wow, what a meeting. what a week. it looks like i'm going to haiti to help with the soccer stuff. it's wild. i've never been to haiti, i have to pack a bag. i need to wash enough clothes to be able to be gone for a week. oh man. i didn't see this coming. which is okay. how exciting it feels. i wish i had more experience and i could be a better asset for this week, but that comes with time. and not that i would be doing a whole lot of different stuff, but maybe i could do the things i will be doing better.

alright. i won't be blogging for a while. i'll try to journal so i can remember all that is going to happen.

it all starts today

quite ominous huh? well, it's fitting, because the crazy is about to hit the fan. this morning i've been painting since 8 to finish up before the teams get here. we have a all staff meeting at 2 and then a little after that people go to the airport to get the teams. 62 people are going to be here this week. of course probably a third of them are going to haiti along with some of our staff. but it's going to be a lot of fun......i hope.

yesterday was another good day. not that i did a lot, but i road around with will doing chores and visiting people for basketball stuff. but then, at night, or the evening i should say, me and will went and played basketball with his friend simon (sea-MOAN). it was like a real game. we had one referee and we played against professional players. there was a score keeper and a clock. it was sooo much fun. i just loved it. simon by the way is around 6'4" maybe, maybe taller and like a statue. just chizzled. will told me he actually had to stop lifting because he was getting too big. dang man. but it was really great. Will is really good and it was fun playing on his team. i made a couple of shots, but nothing from the outside.

well, it's siesta time right now and i'm waiting for my food. then there's the meeting at 2. thanks for reading again. email me sometime at brenton.bellinger@gmail.com.

week two in the books

the incredible thing about time is that it in fact does not fly. it seems to be more of an instantaneous flash. it doesn't matter if you flash for an hour or for a week. but all of a sudden you are in your present place and the past is gone forever. that's what it feels like for this last week.

i am now in mike and goody's apartment. they are missionaries down here but can't be here for the summer because they are having a baby in mid july. yay. and the apartment is wonderful. on the third floor of this building i have quite a view. it is huge for the standards here. i feel like i am in a hotel, a paradise after the apartment i had been staying in before. i really is great. Gracias Senor.

oh man, so many things have happened. we finished cleaning, painting, and restoring the new dorms that are connected to the church. it actually used to be the parsonage for gabriel the pastor and co-president of G.O. Ministries. we finished up that work on friday. then the staff that is down here had a supper meeting at tim krause's. once again he is the field director in the D.R. then Will and Audrey helped me move up here in the apartment. i didn't have a bed yet though and slept on the futon in the living room.

the next morning, saturday, will and I did a basketball "practice" type event for different ages. the young boys just did lay up drills and shooting. the girls did some dribble exercises next. and the last group of older boys were slipt into 4 teams and each team played another for maybe 10 min. and then switched. this was all done on one court for about one hour time slots. the court is a kind of asphalt with the surface being rough because of bigger stones in the mix. the rims weren't bad, but not really good at the same time. not something to write home about i guess, even though i am......nevermind.

after food, i went with will and pedro to check out the courts we are going to be using for the summer. they are spread out all over the city. we will use different ones so kids don't have to walk quite so far i believe, but i may be wrong. we checked out maybe six courts and the last one was near a softball field where our church's team was just starting to play a game. the baseball season is after i leave so i needed to see some dominican softball at least. and it was fun to watch. nothing special though. they do underhand but it's not slow pitch still. there aren't crazy wind ups like girls' softball and they weren't pitching near as fast but the ball never gets above the batter's shoulders even on its way to the plate.

our team has a player named juan jose. he almost made it to the major leagues in america but hurt his knee i believe. he's a great guy and can just clobber the ball, he was the shortstop.

we stayed for maybe two innings and then came back so we could get my bed moved into my apartment. later at 5 i think i went with will and pedro to a minor league basketball game of the team pedro coaches.

pedro is a man that is mentoring here. he's in his forties and was an amazing basketball player here in the dominican. back in the day pedro was the player of the year in THE basketball league as a rookie. i've heard stories of him scoring 83 points in a game and 61 in a playoff or something in that order. he can throw it up from this side of half court and it goes in. but an oddity in the dominican republic where basketball is concerned anyway is that he is very fundamentally sound. he's got a great basketball mind. he helps with the sports ministry with will.

pedro's team ended up losing, but it was quite an experience. the fans are so loyal, they were going crazy the whole game. the announcer did not stop talking the entire time.

after the game me and will went back and had supper with audrey. it was probably nine at night, and then we sat and talked about lots of things.

today for church i played the guitar again. then during announcements, gabriel asked what my name was, "something something americano, uh como se llama?" and i had no idea what was going on because i was already seated in a pew and will shouted out that my name was brent. and he thanked me i think for playing. of course i didn't really understand any of it. then after church we ate at a place which translated is called "the little grill." i had beef and it was amazing. this afternoon we've all been relaxing and it has been raining pretty heavy the last hour or two. it hasn't rained since those first days i was here.

another day will be a big preparation day for this next week and then we have three teams. i am pretty sure i will be doing construction with the team that is from audrey's church. there is a team going to do soccer in haiti. and i don't know what the other team is doing. but they all are coming on the same flight on tuesday. lol, we'll be carrying their bags and helping in tuesday night and then the summer is off like a flash :). craziness. i don't feel ready but i'm trusting God.

how the time flies

Hello again.

it has been quite a while since my last blog. this was unfortunately due to something needing to be reset or whatever in the office upstairs where none of us had a key.

the last bunch of days have been great though. a couple of my dominican friends that i had met when i was down here for a trip last summer are now here. the two main ones are isaiah (pronounced "ee-sigh-ee-uh) and romanos. the apartment i'm in is right next to a school, and it has a small basketball court in the ouside playground area. it's a very thin court and two on two is about the limit for teams. i think we played first on saturday and it was for about 2 hours i think. it was so much fun. the rules are a little different. you never have to take the ball back, and make it take it. one side of the court is a wall that separates the playground from a side street. there were so many times when the ball ended up on the other side of the wall and we had to wait for a kid in the street to through it back. we also played again on sunday, this time there were a few more guys and we played for more than 3 hours.

well, talking about sunday, i played guitar in church. we had practice on saturday where i met daniel a younger teen who played the drums and Auris (ow-oo-ree) who is incredible at playing the piano. we spent the first part of practice listening to songs on a computer and her figuring out how to play them on the piano, which took a lot less time than i thought possible. yeah, she's good. of course the songs are in spanish so it's hard for me to follow along by listening to the words, espcially since we didn't have them written down. all i did was watch the pinky finger of her left hand to know which chord she was playing and follow along. since i didn't bring my guitar and the one i was borrowing didn't have a strap i had to have one leg up on a chair to rest the guitar on. by the end of the worship part of the service the foot i was standing on was dying. i also didn't have a connection to the sound system so they had a mic set up right in from of the guitar. i'm not sure how i did because there was no monitor for me to hear out of. but it went well and i had a good time.

the pastor, gabriel, who is co-president of G.O. ministries, gave a sermon on not being selfish or not hurting others. it was over david and saul, and i know this because someone told me afterward.

oh, i almost forgot to tell about viviana. she used to work for G.O. but now she's not. she's dominican and engaged to an american, who i think is visiting soon. she's very great. she was a translater and the one to have me come to the worship practice. she sings in worship.

will partin, my missionary, gets here tomorrow. how exciting! we'll have so much fun, and do a lot of work i guess. there is a week that we will be doing a soccer camp in Haiti. and a big basketball one really soon i believe.

today i have just been resting. i came over to the girls' apartment to get on the internet and get stuff to eat. since i'm an intern all of my meals are provided and someone brings them over. rice, chicken, beans, and lettuce. :) it's good. i'm sure i will get quite used to it by the end of the summer.

i love you all, thanks for reading. hopefully next blog i'll have pictures and hopefully it won't take so long for me to post again.

day two, and all i am is me

it has rained her for the last week i think. i've only been here since yesterday, but it's what i've heard. in case i didn't say this before, my missionary, the one who i'm interning under isn't here yet. but he is part of the group so there are a few people here that are kind of looking after me. so far it is jen, lisa, jackie, and hannah is the other intern. i can't put up pictures right now because i can't find the cord the connects my camera to the computer. sorry, i'll try to get that fixed as soon as possible so you all can see what i see.

in the morning, hannah, jen, jackie and I went running at the park. we had to walk to it and it was a walled in area. not too big with a track about five feet wide winding around it. people would walk and run on it.

i don't have internet in the apartment i am staying in for the time being. so i'm using the internet at jen, hannah, and jackie's apartment. it's the bottom floor of the dormitory we will be using to house teams that come. the second floor has two large rooms with bunks 3 high and bathrooms. the 3rd floor is open all the way around with tables and a kitchen. i'll try to get pictures as soon as i can.

the streets here are small and the drivers are crazy. pretty much the rules of the road don't matter as long at you honk your horn. the buildings are close together.

i believe i said earlier that you can't drink the water from the tap. there are small stores on a lot of corners and streets that have big jugs of water for sale.

i have a shower in my apartment but last night and today the water wasn't running when i went to take a shower. this happens a lot i guess. there are big plastic trash cans in the showers though that collect water when you take a shower while the water is working. so i used a cup and have had to take cold cup baths the last two days. it's hot enough here that it's not that big of a deal to use cold water.

hey, thanks for reading. keep praying. it will be hardest in these next couple weeks because i feel so weak or useless not being able to speak spanish.

finally here

this is my story for the last day and a half. me and my parents left our family reunion to stay the night in a hotel near detroit, MI. we relaxed and watched the basketball game on tv. then we woke up early and went to the airport. finally, the start of my journey.

i left at 9 in the morning and finally arrived in santiago, Dominican Republic at 7 at night. my flights were great. my first from detroit to chicago lasted less than half an hour. as soon as we were up we were landing.

after an hour and half layover, which i spent checking out books in the terminal store, i was on my way to miami. i sat next to a really nice girl named katy, who slept the entire flight. luckily for me this was a 777, just newly placed to this route and each seat had its own tv screen and i watched some weird movie with edward norton who was a scientist trying to cure cholera in some chinese city. oh well, at the end of the fight katy woke up and we talked until the flight landed.

in miami i had to walk forever to get to my next plane. sitting there reading i all of a sudden heard someone say, "hey you!" lisa engle, a missionary from the dominican, was aparently on the same flight i was. thank heaven. now i didn't feel quite as lost as before. we talked and boarded the plane and talked some more. the last flight finally was taking place. i was in the air on my way to the dominican republic.

we got through the airport. waited while it downpoured until we were picked up. i dropped all of my stuff off at the apartment i will be staying at until my missionary Will comes with the keys to the apartment i will be staying at for the rest of the summer.

now jen, jackie, lisa, hannah, and i are relaxing and spending my first night watching a movie. yes we have power and water. there aren't furnishings like in the states and you can't drink the water actually. but hey, it's gonna be home. for a few months anyway. talk to you all soon.

taking time to make time

Now that the derby deed is done i have only 3 weeks until i leave for the dominican republic. i have just returned home after spending another day with my brother at asbury seminary. a great guy named blake let me ride with him up to michigan. which has made me realize that i really want a truck.

the ride up wasn't all peaches though. we got stuck in traffic during a down pour. it took me and blake all of 40 minutes to move 8 miles with our stuff in the bed of his truck.

now i'm home and i get to see friends and family for the next 3 weeks. i can't wait to see my friend scott and hold his baby before it gets too big.

so what's gonna happen next?

have you ever had one of those feelings like something was going to happen. in this case, something not so good. have you ever noticed that God builds up his people so they can face hard times. not to put a negative spin on bad times but when something bad is about to happen to us, God will prepare us often by sandwitching it between good times. today was such a good day, i am just wondering what could possibly happen next.

i woke up this morning around 9 o'clock. sweet amazingness. a wonderful woman who i learned was named beverly was cooking breakfast. the people who i had come to know as friends were sitting around a table looking very refreshed. everyone was smiling and talking, and i took a moment to talk with beverly. it has been her and her husband that have been letting us several volunteers stay in their house. they are so gracious and wonderful, and still when they return to their house with all of us still taking up space they are still so welcoming. after i talk for a little bit i quick take a shower. i come back for breakfast and we eat and talk until it's time to leave for the last, the easiest day of the derby. the derby was actually over yesterday but the merchandise people were selling everything for very cheap to whomever was still around.

it was really hectic when we got there. we jumped right in and learned that the registers weren't being used. everything was pretty much 5 dollars. we would grab what they wanted if we had it and just take the people's cash. the time went fast and easy. i found a comfort level with attempting to talk folks into buying more stuff, made easier by the low prices. after we closed down around 3 o'clock i picked a bunch of things to get for my family. i figured that they would give me a very low price and it ended up that an amazing guy named Heath gave me all that stuff for twenty dollars. what a guy.

i spent the rest of the night with jeff rogers. a great guy (in case he's reading this). we talked theology, politics, war, peace, all that stuff. i spent a lot of our conversation just trying to read his body language. experimenting in a way (hopefully he's not reading) my friend kimberly didn't have a seat on her plane so her and jennifer came back to the house. we ate at a cuban restaurant where i proceded to order what kimberly called a sonic meal. i go to a cuban restaurant and order a chicken sandwitch with fries. so international of me. oh well, it was all good and we had some great talks about many things and mostly about movies.

which led us to renting "stranger than fiction" on the drive home. we waited until jeff's wife, vicki, and his twin daughters came home and we popped the movie in. (the daughters are almost two and they are completely deaf) it was great. and now i'm back at beverly and dick's house. they are so great. there are fresh sheets for the couch and a pillow and everything is wonderful. thank you God for the blessings you have given me today. i pray that i find a way to pass them on to others. please never let the blessings you give me stay with me, but in all ways remind me that i am blessed to bless others. thank you for this ministry, for this weekend, for the sowers (i also pray that is how you spell their last name), and for you God.

thanks for reading, night

i can't feel my feet, all for 30 seconds of running animals

long, long, long, long day. i wore shoes today, and my feet feel even sorer. this was the big day. THE kentucky derby. 20 horses all running in one big circle. hundreds of thousands of people losing money. maybe a couple thousand winning their lost money back.

you know, it was very exciting today. what a big event to be a part of. vince young was there, john salley was there, numerous other "important" people were there, not to mention the queen of england. the historical race took place again and like always there was a winner. the race was exciting and the only people to miss it was everyone in the infield. the infield where once again i was working. the infield where most of the people were passed out by the end of the day. the infield where the crazies abound.

my booth was once again slow and boring most of the time, due to what i would call the police presence of the mobile headquarters in our area. me and a friend, jackie, took a walk half way through the day and ended up working in the crazy part of the infield. 3 hours of non-stop work. and then back to the first booth.

i am glad to be working for a cause. i love the people i am and will be working with. more than ever i am looking forward to this summer. i'm not sure if Will Partin is going to read this blog but in the small chance that he takes a peak i will keep my endearments for the man absent. no sense making him believe that i like him more than i like his wife. but they are a reason to look forward to this summer and why it's so hard to have patience.

i miss you all my friends. ever so much does my heart long for those who have been a part of me for the last four years. i have been split inside because liz and erin and maggie are in africa and i just imagine in my mind what they are doing and what they are experiencing. i think to all my friends in different states. how can i be whole without them.

thanks for tuning in. email me sometime.

brent

day two, i need to get shoes

wow, what a long day. with 11 races to serve during we entered churchill downs with a spring in our step. i learn that my assignment lie within the beast. i will work in the infield. the infield is, like it sounds, the field within the racing track. unfortunate the progression of sophistication takes a south bound turn when entering the infield. the upper class high stakes betting crowd that we leave behind is replaced with a throng that would make a nascar fan proud. also add a touch of sodom and gamorha (sp). luckily i was in an area close to the mobile police headquarters so the worst of the crowds stayed away.

the rain also acted like similar poles on a magnet with the crowds and for the first half of the day our job in booth 2 was pretty boring. having no wear to sit and nothing to do, both my feet and my knees started complaining after long. the long hours of drudgery had momentary interruptions as i took trips to the very dirty bath house.

it was a long day. it was a good day. it was exciting to be a part of something so big. the big race today was the "oaks" or "oats". i guess i'm not too sure. but there were so many people and so many bets i'm sure. ever so hungry and tired and sore, we had to wait to leave, wait to get home, and wait for the food, but after all the waiting, i sat down with very very good pizza and salad and had an incredible dinner with 3 very wonderful people. we had a good time.

so now, it's off to bed because i have to wake up in 6 hours to have an even busier day surrounded by even more people. thank you God for this opportunity. good night to you all.

the calm before the storm

okay, not true at all. the last couple days have not been calm. they haven't been busy, but calm wouldn't be an accurate way to describe them either. i actually have about a month to go before i depart for the dominican republic. this is my first blog post and i just want to get the word out that this is the way that everyone who wants to be in the know can stay updated.

this first weekend of May i find myself in kentucky volunteering my time working at merchandise boothes to raise money for go-ministries. merchandise boothes at churchill downs. i had my work cut out for me today. it was more of a training day but it was still busy. the phillys ran today and the races don't stop until after sunday.

thank you all for reading and thank you even more for supporting me financially and for supporting me with prayer. this will be a tough summer because of the extremes in which i will find myself. out of the country. away from my friends. with no usual amenities at fingertips. I know God is having his way with me, and i'm the better for it.