Grace family,This is RJ.  I left the Dominican Team and emailed all the parents to let them know specifically what their kids were doing and the amount of spiritual maturity the specifically demonstrated the first week I was there.  Ryan Knight's leadership on that trip demonstrates why he is on staff at Grace.I am in transit from Cambodia now.  I get to do the same things with the parents of student from there as well.  I Timothy 4:12 says to let no person look down on you because you are young, but to be an example to the believers in faith, purity, speech, and deeds.  I have watched for the past three weeks, our students and leaders not be looked down upon, but LOOKED UP TO by staff at these mission locations.  They have demonstrated Christ to other believers and the lost they minister to.Let me share a story from Cambodia.  We stayed in mosquito shrouded cots on the floor of cleared out classrooms in a village with no running water.  The bathrooms were what you would think.  The bathing took place in the river. Meals spent eating community style with Cambodians watching the largest gathering of white people they had seen.  All this with gusto, not complaining or trepidation.After finishing mixing over 1000 pounds of concrete, fashioning a wall for a water tank at a school of nearly 1000 kids, Cambodian children thanked us with sugar cane for the guys, and wove flowers into the girls hair.  They come running when we arrive and run as far as they can after our trucks when we leave.One man shared, since his church shut down in this Buddist country, he has not had any other believers to sing, study, or do church with.  Well guess what our priority became with this other believer?!  A group of PhD students from Stanford, working on research, asked how can you really know what you are supposed to do with your life after experiencing the conviction of these students!In the uncertainty of everyday life, our students have been steady on the conviction of serving well and faithful.  As I come home to preach all four services this weekend, I am, more than ever, convinced of the power of the Gospel being lived out through us being "vessels" for Jesus as the Body of Christ!  See you soon.

Buenos Noches! from the Dominican Republic.  It has been a successful 2 weeks and so hard to believe that in less than 48 hours we will be on our way back to California. This has been an awesome 2 weeks for me.  I have been serving at the Physical Therapy site and it has been a total blessing to serve everyday there.  God has really worked on my heart in affirming my passion for physical therapy and wanting to have a career in it.  It was awesome to get to actually get hands on with the patients; hooking them up to electric stimulation, giving ultrasounds, walking them through their exercises (i've gotten really good at counting to 10 in spanish) and learning to give massages.  Just being on the site and seeing the improvement in the people was awesome, but even more affirmation that I would like to focus on pediatrics as I helped a little boy, Luis, with his exercises and other components of his rehab routine.  I felt such assurance and affirmation that I am headed in the right direction school and career wise.

Mike Gaston   

Some of you may be aware of the weather situation in the Caribbean, as a tropical storm is scheduled to pass through over the next couple of days.  It has already passed the Dominican Republic, and Ryan tells us that it made no impact on the team – the rain that day seemed no different from the rain of all the other days!  

The National Weather Service predicts that the storm will pass south of Florida on Friday, with possibly some impact on the southern tip of Florida that day.  By Saturday noon, when our team leaves the DR, the storm should be in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.  We called American Airlines, and they assured us that no travel advisories have been issued, and that they do not expect any delays due to weather over the weekend on flights in and out of Miami.  We’ll continue to monitor the situation, but at this point, there’s no reason to expect that our team will have any problems returning home on schedule.  Please feel free to call me at the office if you have questions.

Hello there! Just a little update about how things are going here... I can't believe that our two weeks here in the DR are almost over. But man, its so cool to look back over the past two weeks and remember all the amazing things God has done in my heart as well as our students hearts. God is faithful. Each day as our kids come back from their individual sites, and as I get to visit them, its amazing to see their thought processes about God's heart for the world grow and change. God seems to really be grabbing my heart in this area as well. That I need to be using all that He has blessed me with for the furthering of His Glory and His name. This is a lesson that I pray God drives deep into my heart, so that as I come home I don't forget the faces here, the lessons that he taught me, and the promises I made to HIm.

Hey! It’s been really amazing here! The best thing that hashappened to me this week was on Sunday when the Lord got my attention and I ranback into his arms. The kids I work with at the Special Ed site, where work one-on-onewith them, are the most sweetest kids ever!!!! I’m really going to miss them!  My life has been changed now andforever!!  I’m really going to missit here! See you when I get home! ^-^*Katherine* 

Hey everyone, everything up here’s really cool, especiallythe weather; lots and lots of rain. It’s been tons of fun, we got to put up asort of carnival today for a bunch of kids; most exhausting feat of my life.The Physical Therapy site’s been pretty fun so far. Can’t wait to get home andsee you all soon!  ~Tawnie

First week has gone by pretty fast but it has been amazingto see all the work God has changed in me. I was put in the art site, which isa lot more fun then I thought it would be. We’ve painted a mural in ElCallejon, a small neighborhood near our base. The painting is scenery of ahillside, with a river and a cherry blossom tree, so it’s pretty awesome. Lotsof showers because lots of paint, especially on my pants. It’s awesome how manynew friends I’ve made over here in such a short period of time. I am also in agroup called kids club. Joe Bahr, Larry Chapin, others, and I are doing acouple skits for the little kids. If you’ve ever seen “Life HouseEverything-Drama” (YouTube it) we are doing that and I’m ‘Jesus’. We will besure to post the video on facebook. The food here is unbelievable. I have somany more stories I could put but I have limited time and space, but I’ll besure to share all my fun experiences this weekend when we come back.

Parents, siblings, and friends- I am alive and I miss youall!

What an amazing time in the Dominican Republic!  I am ministering on the Sports Site, which is led by Raul.  It has been a blessing for me to see how he has used baseball as a tool to invest and grow a group of local boys into men.  It has been quite some time since my last baseball game; however, Raul and the guys have been more than patient with me.  A typical day out on the ball field starts with a warm up, running some basic baseball drills, and then a practice game.  When we gather for lunch, Raul leads us in a devotional time.  Here is where his spiritual leadership and ability to connect with the guys shines.  Lunch in the Dominican would not be complete with a siesta.  Because we have had an unusual amount of rain, we have not always been able to play ball in the afternoon.  I quickly fell in love with dominoes, which we play at lunch or when the field is too wet for a game of baseball.

Hello Family & Friends!

This past week has been crazy.  Raining almost every day on and off.  God has been teaching me that giving isbetter than receiving.  He has alsobeen constantly reminding me that being there for friends even if they do notwant it is honoring to Him.  A fewother people plus my self have been having small worship times.  Praising God on my own free time has tohave been one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We took a hike to this huge waterfall down in this junglelooking canyon.  I do notunderstand how evolutionist can think that an explosion could create somethingso beautiful and complicated.Creation is just another thing that proves God’s power andexistence.  I am totally stoked tosee what God had in store for me this next coming week.

Hey mom and Dad, Jonathan, Ericca, Emma, and May!  I’m having a blast down here in the DR.It has rained hard every day, so we don’t get to play much baseball. Maybe nextweek will be different. Still, I have an amazing time playing dominoes with theDominican kids and playing 1 2 3 in the rain. It is a type of baseball gamewhere you move all the way through every position until you bat. My site haseaten with one family in their home and can’t wait to reach out to another family.My time with Jesus has been really valuable to equipping myself for his work.My faith in him is growing rapidly. Just tonight, a Spanish band played for usand was even better than English bands in my opinion. It was really cool tohear and know the same music though in different languages. I’m having an amazing time here, andcan’t wait to talk all about my experiences down here with you. See all of youin a week!  -Joe 

Hi everyone!  Ihave had such a great time here in the DR!!  I’m always excited to see what God has in store for meeveryday!   I have learned soooo much that I don’thave enough room to write it all!  lol  Anyways, I love you sooo much mommy and daddy and can’t waitto see you soon!  -Christina

Hi it’s Brian!I’ve been having a great time this island.  Construction is tedious but rewarding.  Though I am an Individual I’ve madefriends and had a great time with them.I met a man working on our site named Andree, I said my “five” Spanishphrases to him and at the end of the day we were friends and I “Dominicanhugged” him bye.  Thanks Mom forteaching me those Spanish words I’ve used them all!  Hi Dad!

Hello everyone, sorry we didn't get to blog tonight... We had an amazing opportunity to have dinner in town with a Dominican family. So each of us broke off with our ministry sites and were fed amazing food! I posted some new pictures though, so you can see what's going on on the sports and art sites! We miss and love you all! -Ryan

Hey everyone! I wanted to make sure that you knew, we now have a few pictures up from yesterday on the blog. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will find some pictures on my flicker account. I'm sorry about the slow upload of pictures, its take so long with the slow internet here!

Hi, I figured out why I needed a jacket. It turns out thatsince we are so high in the mountains we get a lot of rain. The rain is superweird but with even less warning and for a shorter period of time. Three orfour ten minute downpours and I mean heavy downpours is normal for Jarabacoa. I’mso excited about the rest of the trip. We had are first real day at theministry sites today. I’m working with the highest level kids at the specialeducation site. They are so amazing to work with. In the morning I worked witha girl named Melina. We were working on writing numbers and counting in bothEnglish and Spanish. At first she could barely count in Spanish and would onlycount in English when prompted to but as she got better she not only seemed tomaster it in Spanish but she began counting in English on her own with meprompting her. Then I helped her and another boy named Jeffery make cards withthe others in the class. Then we had recess an lunch and then more playing.Then we went back to class and the teacher, who speaks only Spanish (thankfullyI had an interpreter), helped me teach the class of five how to read time inEnglish. I happily did so but I was only able to get two of the kids to graspthe concept in Spanish and only one was able to get one to kinda get it inEnglish.  But it was stillrewarding and I can’t wait to go tomorrow. -Connor

PS As you can probably tell I’m doing fine and am startingto miss all of you.

I never thought the feeling of being back in the DR could beso great. The change in getting to see the completed physical therapy site thatI help work on last year is just up lifting. As well as the chance to just hangwith a group of Dominican guys and play baseball. I had always been told theywere good but it truly cannot be described by words, you will just have to comenext year to see for yourself.  –Garrett

Molly King   (7/13/10)

It’s so good to be back in the Dominican again! Back to thehumidity, the abundance of fruit, the warm, friendly people, and themosquitoes! (Minus the lastone…I’m hoping NOT to beat my last year’s number of bites, 67.)  After only a two-hour orientation withDr. Fernando Gonzalez, I already know I’m going to love working at thehealthcare site.  We had a patientwho was diagnosed with HPV and Fernando treated her while explaining to usexactly what he was doing.  I’llspare you the details, but I thought it was pretty great that he used our timethere to teach us about the medical field instead of just ask us to do stuffwith no explanation.  We learnedhow to take blood pressure and how to use the otoscope, and I was prettyterrible at both of those.  But atleast we have machines to take blood pressure in the States. Unfortunately, we missed all the birthstoday…Fernando performed three c-sections before we got there.  I reeally want to see someone givebirth!  The Grace team is waaydifferent than last year, but I’m trying not to compare.  It’s been fun, but it’s weird not beingthe biggest group here.  A groupfrom Virginia is larger than we are, and I haven’t had a chance to make friendswith them yet.  The two girls at mysite, Emily and Kariah (yes, Kariah), traveled here by themselves.  I’m really excited to see what God isgoing to do in and through our team this year; I know He’s got great things inmind! -Molly

Ciera Standifer  (Tuesday 7/13/10)

            Ispent most of today in orientation and trying to learn bits and pieces aboutthe culture here. I’m on the art site and the people I’m working with are sooocool!! The love for the people and the spirit of “teachability” (excuse my wordcreation) was such an eye opener. Our leader, Fran said that “are these peoplereally poor? They have everything they need…they just don’t know how to use itwell.” That sort of  changed myview about how I as a californian, we consider other countries poor…but theyaren’t always “poor” they just don’t have a ton of extra stuff to distract themor tear them away from the relationships. I’m excited to learn how to calm downand forget about the schedules that I find so necessary and learn to focus onthe people in my life. People always matter more than my time limits and I’mpraying that I’ll be able to take that knowledge home with me. God is alreadydoing awesome things with my heart and my mind and I’m excited to see what hedoes in my life over the next weeks! -Ciera

Monday July 13th,

Hi everyone! Ryan Knight here, and our first full day in the Dominican is almost done. What a great day we had.. From learning about the culture, eating some amazing food, to getting on our sites for the first time to meeting the staff and Dominican's we will be working with while we're here. I think after now having experienced their sites and knowing what everyone will be doing, our students are now excited to dive in and see what God does this week.

Each time I'm on a missions trip with our students I'm truly amazed at what great kids we have. They love to work hard, make friends, and you can really tell that the love of Jesus is the reason they do what they do. I'm really very proud. Tonight was culture night, which means some dancing, a dominican cup game, and we got to try some coconut juice and candy (yummmmy..so good!). 

Well I'm going to get off now so you can here from a few of our students, but we'll do our best to get back blogging here soon! I'll pass those comments along to your students tonight, and I know they would have me say that they love you and miss you all very much! Until next time, God Bless!

-Ryan Knight

We are at the base here in Jarabacoa and settling in.  Thanks for the prayers!

The DR team has arrived safely in the Dominican Republic!  We will now travel to the Students International base and rest up for tomorrow's orientation.  Pray for the SI staff as they teach, lead and direct our students.  Thanks:)

We have arrived safely in Miami!  Pray for us as we go through customs and make our connecting flight to Santiago.  The team is safe and anticipating a great two weeks!