"Random" Connections

This past week has been an amazing array of connections and introductions. I want to post an overview of them all for you.

Holy Week - Having just finished talking with Jose Abreu (Habitat for Humanity officer at the national headquarters here) the week before about a possible trip to Santo Domingo to present our community to their office, I sat in front of a gentleman on the bus with a habitat hat on. Being the inquisitive one that I am, I asked him about the hat. Turns out him and his wife had just done a habitat trip here and are friends with Jose...Imagine that!

Denice Colson - She pioneered a type of therapy that we use at our school. There is little/no empirical data to support it (other than testimonials) so I wrote her asking if there was any research to support the therapy. She wrote back the same day and basically offered to:
1. Work with us/me on a research project to collect data, which could lead to published research!
2. Come down to our school and do a training. It turns out that her brother-in-law is Dominican. Imagine that!

Community Meeting in La Quebrada - Tonight we had our long-anticipated community meeting in La Quebrada, more of an introductory thing to get to know the community better. Two days ago, I got the idea to invite Martin and Noemi, two Columbians who live and work here. Their church is connected with my contact in the community, so I thought they might want to be involved. The meeting went splendidly! The community is excited to get to work and eager for the groups. They have a burden for a preschool, as there are approximately 35 young children (under age 5) who just run around all day (some of them without real families.) It was almost scary how quickly the pieces started falling into place: Noemi getting excited about the project, buildings available for the short-term to run the school, people in the community with education backgrounds and the desire to get teaching certificates. We will see what God does with it!

Rick Mackey - So about one month ago, my cousin Dan mentions that he knows this guy who will be a missionary in the DR and I should get in touch with him, here's his e-mail address, etc. I forget about it for a month, but finally write him back. Guess where he's going to be living? In Jarabacoa working as a pastor and will be here this fall...Imagine that!

The God we serve is a great and powerful God!!!