“How do you think a missionary knows when it’s the right time to leave? I don’t think I will ever feel like God is calling me away from the Dominican Republic.” I remember asking this question to other fellow missionaries about two years ago. I have always felt that I think God specifically designed this job with my name on it. For the past 7 years, I have had the privilege of working with Dominican girls using the sport I love most, volleyball. Is there any job better than that?
Despite my love, and maybe potential bias, for what we do here, Breddy and I feel God is calling us to move back the U.S. We are thankful to have worked with Students International using our passion for sports to minister to kids in the community However, we feel like things are at a good place for us to step out. One of my girls, Mabelis, started in the program when she was 8th grade. She has been serving as my assistant for the past couple years and is now more than ready to take over. Mabelis is about to graduate college and plans to use her psychology major to continue helping other young Dominican girls. If you are interested in supporting Mabelis, please email me at jessgatesdr@gmail.com and I will send you the information.
As much as we love this place, we feel peace about our decision to return home. Plus, our new baby Jaylene, needs to know her crazy grandparents! Upon our return in November, I will be taking a permanent substitute position in a Spanish immersion school, teaching science. Breddy also has potential work lined up as well. Please pray for our family in this transition. This place is very much our home and I know it will be tough to leave the people who have become family. We are thankful to have a home church to go back to and we know our “new” family ready for us with open arms. Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support for so many years.
We are still in need of a couple one-time donations to help cover our returning flights. If you would like to help us out, please visit this link to send a donation.
In other news, things continue to run as normal! We are now holding tryouts for our freshmen, JV and varsity teams. The picture below was a rainy day so not as many girls came but on our 3rd day of tryouts, we had over 35 girls!
And... if you were wondering how Jaylene was doing... she is doing great! She will be 5 months old soon. She loves blowing bubbles and smiling at whoever walks by. It has been such a joy to have her in our lives. Check out her skills in the video below!
Jaylene at each month
