Quick Fix

This past month  has been one of the most intense months of my three years serving here in the DR.  One of the big lessons I have been learning is that the quick, American way of fixing things doesn’t always apply here. This has been a frustrating lesson to learn, but one that has taught me patience and made me trust in God more as things have not gone “my” way. Also further down, you can see some of the fun parts of this month including the parts of the visit of the Bethel Pilots and a planking video... Dominican Style!

Lesson #1:  Physical Abuse

Keysi is one of our varsity players. You may remember that Keysi shared her testimony in our states video about her biological dad abusing her mom when she was a baby.  What is not mentioned in the video is that since then, she has had a step dad who continues to do the same.  It came to a peak a couple weeks ago when her step dad beat her mom with a glass bottle, resulting in her mom having to get 25 stitches in her head and in her hands.  The more devastating result is watching Keysi try to deal with all this.  Within the 24 hours after the event, Keysi had two violent panic attacks in which me and 4 other friends had to hold Keysi down in order control her fighting limbs.  Keysi blames herself because she wasn’t there to protect her mom. She also blames God for letting this happen to her and her mom.

Quick Fix? 

Of course! Her mom went to follow a police report in La Vega (30 min away).  The police said they would come at 7 that night to arrest him.  Did they?  Nope.  Of course, everything in me wanted to go marching into the police station and get this guy arrested.  However, after talking with other Dominican staff, they all said that if we took that action on Keysi’s behalf, it would end up a lot worse for her in the end.  Even if we got him put in jail for a year or two, he would then come after Keysi.  Does the mom seem to care?  Nope. The other day, Keysi found a text on her mom’s phone addressed to the step dad saying, “Guess what?  Keysi is trying to get you put in jail.”  Real sensitive mom.

Another quick fix?

Yeah, get Keysi out of that home! However, Keysi loves her mom deeply and would never leave her mom alone.  She feels it is her responsibility to protect her mom, despite how insensitive she may be.  Please continue to pray for Keysi and her family.

Lesson #2:  Patience in Visas

Having collected all the paperwork for our visas (which is a ridiculous amount), we applied for our visas three months ago.  We had contacted the embassy numerous times and the responded the same, “we have a long list of people needing group appointments. Just wait.”  Yeah, uh huh. Finally this past week we received our date for our appointment, July 16.  Date of departure: July 25^th. 

Quick fix?

Well in America, all you need is a passport and a flight to get yourself to the DR.  Getting a visa to go to the states can be a nightmare.   For our group of 15 people, we need passports, letters of invitation, detailed itinerary, lawyer issued parent permission slips,  school issued letters of conduct, completed governement form (which takes about 2 hours per girl to fill out), $160 per girl to pay for appointment, and proof of financial support of the trip.  Once you’ve gotten all this information, there is still the possibility that they tell you no.   We have been told that we have a good chance of them granting us the visas because they are minors, female and it’s a sports team.  We were told that we shouldn’t buy flights before the appointment because of this possibility of them saying no.  Well, now since the appointment is so close to our departure date, we are looking into what we can do to get reimbursable flights. If you have any knowledge about that, let me know.  Please be praying that we are granted the visas and the girls do not get too nervous at our appointment.

Fun Updates

In other news, one of my dreams came true a month ago when the Bethel Volleyball team came with an outreach.  They were a huge blessing to me and my girls.

Pilots and varsity before their games in the capital 

Heather sharing her testimony and big sis translating

Pilots with the kids from Corocito

To read their blog about their time here, visithttp://pilotsinthedominican.wordpress.com/

We also had another high school volleyball team come from Chico, California.  It was a really neat thing to have a team that could compete against our varsity team.  In addition, they did a great job in sharing their testimonies and really being examples of what a Christian girl looks like.  Here is a fun video that we put together after they taught the girls the skill of "planking".