Drawing to a Close

Today is our last full day of work. Tomorrow we will go the beach and to the market, and then Saturday we will return home. We all can not believe thatthe trip has gone this fast, but we are all looking forward to getting home and seeing all of you.

Bill thanks for the update on the Reds. Hopefully they pullout another one against the Braves today.

Thanks for all of the comments as well. I will pass them along. We have loved hearing from all of you. Everybody loves it when I come back from updating the blog, because they know there will be news from home. Let me try to take a few minutes to update how things have gone since I last touched base.

I think a good way to some up the past few days would be to talk about a couple other missionaries you might be familiar with. Hudson Taylor, served in China, and David Livingston, served in Africa, both spent a great deal of their lives in the mission field. Giving all they had to growing the Kingdom of God. They endured much and had more than their share of trials, but in the end of their lives both of them said, that they had never had to sacrifice. What they meant was that there was never a time in which they felt like they were truly sacrificing something to follow God. In essence, serving God no matter what the circumstance was altogether more valuable than anything else they could possibly do.

Our group has truly sacrificed a lot of comforts, and energy. They have also worked incredible hard inspite of being tired or worn down. However I bet if you asked any of our group if they felt like they made a huge sacrfice to go on this trip and "suffer" for Gods Kingdom they would say that it wasnt a sacrifice and that they would do it all over again without hesitation.

The VBSs have gone great and we hope parksides has gone well too. Yesterday we were at a place call Macoris. Some of the church workers told us how dangerous the neighborhood was at night. It was so sad to listen to them tell us how many of the kids in the room no longer had fathers because of neighborhood violence. It was our privilege to love on those kids and show them their Father God loves them as well. Ethan led the game time and Hannah E. helped. They did a great job with the spanish as well. Everyone got involved in just sitting next to students and doing the activities with them.

The house at camp is coming along as well. We have the roof framing up and it will likely get roofed today. Hopefully we will also be laying the concrete floors and finishing putting stucco on the walls. Its been neat and rewarding for the students to see the house come together.

We appreciate all of your prayers. Hope we can not wait to tell you all the cool God stories that are happening down here. We see God in all the things we do and all the places. Everybodies prayers have surrounded us in incredible ways. Please keep praying that we all have patience. This is the time of the trip where everyone is worn down and small things can quickly become big things. Pray that in all things we do not forget our purpose in being here. We are here to reveal Gods glory and grow His Kingdom. Pray for continued safety and also praise God for the many ways He has gone before us and kept us safe.

Let me try to share a few quick little things before I go back to the camp...

Everybody who had stomache aches recovered a couple of days ago and are back up to full steam

The Dominicans have taken to calling Mike EL TIGRE. Which is a big sign of street cred and is a cool story too

Today we do our last VBS and it is at the camp we are expecting almost 200 kids

We might be playing capture the flag tonight to teach the Dominicans a new game.

Everyone is healthy, but definitely tired. The bugs havent been horrible just big spiders, and suprisingly no one has gotten sun burned too badly.


To wrap this up you all need to know just how tremendous of a job our adult leaders and students have done. I have been su impressed with their attitudes and just how consistently they have all brought their talents to the table. I can not wait for all of them to get the chance to tell you all the great things God has done on this trip, and what He has let us be a part of. You all should definitely be proud of this group you sent down to Salcedo and the Dominican to Reveal Gods glory.

Thanks for all the Prayers and Sorry I dont have more time to tell more stories.

Dios Te Bendiga
Mateo

Un Otra Nota

Hey guys another update! I was going to update yesterday, but the internet is down at the camp so there might be a few less updates as a result, but I will try to be here as often as possible. The comments were AWESOME. I cant wait to take them back to the group, but PLEASE give me some good news about my Redlegs.

Denver, Blaire and McKenna are here with me. They told me to say hello and that they are having a lot of fun. Does anyone have a copy of the new Jonas Brothers CD for McKenna?

Alright on Sunday we played softball against the Dominicans. We went up 5-0 and lost the game in the last inning. We figured it would be good sportsmanship if we were true ambassadors and let them win. The second game we decided to make it even more lopsided and we lost 10-0. (do you believe us lol)

The youth service on Saturday night was incredible the dominicans worship was awesome and all of our students hit it out of the park. Church on Sunday was neat too. Steve did a great job preaching.

The house we are working on is coming along. When something needs 4 nails the dominicans onlyt use 1... maybe we put the roof on today and maybe do the floors wednesday or thursday.

Yesterday we had a group go do VBS a couple hours away. The ride was long and tiring but VBS went great and was a lot of fun. Hope thanks for praying so hard for us (everyone else too) the van got a flat tire and was able to coast into a tire shop on the way there. Yea God!

A couple more notes before our time runs out. Be praying a couple of us have stomache aches, but nothing serious. We are all tired and very sore, but no one is complaining and everyone is complimenting our gorup on their great attitudes and passion to serve. We have seen GOds glory all oevr the place, and we are doing our best to reveal His Glory as well.

We have seen a few tarantulas as big as a persons fist. When we find them Mechor takes gas and sets them on fire. Que Beuna! We also found a beetle the size of your ear and we put it in Brogans bed. Que divertido!

Alright I am running out of time. Be praying for VBS tomorrow and Thursday. Pray for our renewed energy and the people we will be serving. Safety is another good thing to pray for. Keep the comments up we can feel your love and prayers wherever we go.

There is also a frog loose in the girls room hopefully they find it... maybe it is a dominican prince. We had an awesome campfire last night as well it was something new for the dominicans.

Vaya Con Dios,
Mateo

PS: Denver tiene un gato en su pantalones!

Dominican Update

Well its been cloudy since we arrived here, but today it is going to be sunny and hot. Things have gone great. Thank you for all of your prayers. We have only had minor scraps and temporary upset stomaches. Our group has really meshed well with the Dominican students that we have met up with and are serving at the camp with us. Thank you for your prayers, we are really serving with one heart and voice.

You can keep praying for us. In our nightly devotions we are praying that God would help us reveal His glory to all people, and that we would also glorify Him. The further we get into the trip the harder this will become as we get tired and worn down. Keep up the prayers (We are counting on those prayers Hope!).

Here are some highlights so far:
The air port was great. We made all our flights with no issues. Praise God!

Kyle and Denver knocked a coconut out of a tree (they were really excited).

We are working on finishing a house here. We have also been painting, cleaning the camp, and catching a goat that has escaped.

Everyone has been awesome! The group is working so hard and doing a great job revealing God´s glory.

We played a game of volleyball against the dominican group and I am proud to say that the Americans won 25-18. I don´t know why they were so upset though (Just kidding we did win but it was a lot of fun for both sides).

Everyone told me to tell you all hello, and to keep praying for us. I am very impressed by our students and leaders. They are here for the right reasons and are embracing being a Kingdom worker.

A couple of small notes to wrap up:
-Andrea, Hannah is upset you didnt post who won So you think you can dance on this blog. She really wants to know

-Can someboday keep us up to date on the reds scores on here? We have been talking a lot of smack down here about our Reds and we need to know if they are backing that talk up.

-Feel free to leave comments about things going on in Ohio or any other things like that. We would love to hear it. We will try to post a few stories too each time we get on.

-So far we have seen a few Tarantulas, plenty of mosquitos, and lots of lizards. Pretty cool stuff.

Tonight we will be doing a Youth Presentation to a lot of the teens in the area. The Dominican Group will be helping us lead worship, and communicate to the teens. Monday Wednesday and Thursday we will likely be doing VBS´s in the surrounding villages as well.

Thanks for praying for us. Keep it up!

Matt

Tenga un buen dia y oran por nuestro por favor. ¡ADIOS!

Soon We will be on a plane...

In less than 8 hours and 35 minutes I will hopefully be boarding a plane that will take me on the first the leg of a journey that will end with us arriving at Centro Cristiano in the Dominican Republic.  I think the best way to describe what I am feeling right now  would be... Yo estoy on poco nervioso y mucho cansado. Basically, I am a little nervious and VERY tired. Its a good thing  I am not flying the plane tomorrow morning ha ha.

It is hard to believe that it was almost a year ago that a few of us started talking and praying about this trip. Now here we are in June getting ready to board a plane; a group of 36 adults and students. I am looking forward to seeing all of us grow as we are stretched by this experience. I am excited about meeting up with a youth group of Dominican Students that Brittany Orcutt has already been serving with in La Romana. This is going to be a great trip and I am so excited to see what God does through us and how He grows us. 

If you are reading this to keep up to date with the trip and to be praying for us, here is how you can pray for us  right now. Pray for safety as we travel. Pray for patience as we are tired. Pray that God goes before us and prepares the way for us. Pray for our hearts and the hearts of those we will be going to serve. Pray for our health. 

Our team verse for this trip is Romans 15:5-6.  The reason we picked it is because we have such a large group going, but we still want to be one body serving together. We also want to be united in service with the Dominican Youth Group we  will be meeting up with. The verse says, "May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Our biggest prayer is that this verse that Paul was inspired to write so long ago, will become our DNA as we try to grow God's Kingdom on this trip.

Alright its past my bedtime. Especially when I have to meet the rest of the team at church by 4AM (Is that Biblical???)

En servicio a Dios,

Matt