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October Newsletter

SHANNON’S CORNER

October 2016

Thank you so very much for your prayers and contribution towards our missionary retreat!  God is so good and faithful and blessed our time at the retreat with fun, fellowship, team building, and resting in “green pastures” and “quiet waters.”  The theme of our retreat was Psalm 23, understanding what the Lord as our shepherd does for us.  One of the aspects of the retreat that stood out was hearing our fellow teammates’ testimonies.  Stories of overcoming drugs, drinking, depression, death of loved ones, anger, bitterness, resentment, self-reliance, entrapment, voicelessness, and financial strife.  Through the grace of God, His mercy and deep love He met each one in the midst of the circumstance.  The power of God restoring each one for the purpose He has for them in serving our kids here in the Dominican Republic.  It’s powerful.  It’s breath taking and inspiring.  God at the loom weaving the threads of our lives into a beautiful tapestry for His glory and honor.

It was a privilege to shower upon our missionaries and their families with small little gifts of appreciation and thank you for all they do here in serving our 1,900 children all over the DR.  Many also serve and work along side our amazing Dominican staff and families of our children.  I am thankful that you and I are a part of this team.

I have had some great opportunities to sit down one-on-one to talks with a handful of my teammates.  Getting to know them better personally as well as their ministries and the roles they have.  These times have been very rewarding to me because I get an inside glimpse of what they are doing in serving our kids, their families, and staff.  Also, I get to see how God is working in their own lives as they share.

I was invited to lead a Bible study with three other women.  It was an answer to prayer, being a part of a women’s Bible study.  Our study is the book, “Inside Out” by Dr. Larry Crabb.  It’s been amazing to hear how God is already using this study to show each one of us areas in our lives where we need to completely trust and depend on Him.  I really am grateful for this group of women and their encouragement they give me.

One of the areas of member care that I have been working on and researching material is in the Dominican culture and language.  One of the things I learned from my time at CIT is to learn as much as you can of the culture group you are serving.  Culture can tell you a lot about the reason why things are done the way they are.  About religious practices and even the words they speak.  The indigenous group, Taíno, originally inhabited the island of Hispaniola.  This is the people group that Christopher Columbus came upon when he landed on Hispaniola in 1492.  There are still many Taíno words that are still used in the Dominican Spanish.  The Spanish spoken here in the DR is unique because they use apostrophes in their words to take place of letters.  For example, in English the word “willing” some use “willin’.”  Some letters they just do not pronounce even though it should be pronounced in Spanish.  This can make learning the Dominican language a little more challenging for our missionaries to learn.  One of our Dominican house Dads brought this to my attention and now we are trying to come up with Dominican words and phrases that are common here to share with any new missionaries who arrive to the island.  Just one way to help equip our missionaries who will be living and serving in the DR. 

In the coming year we have one couple, one family, and three singles who will be joining our KAI family here in the DR.  Very exciting!  Each on is in a different phase of candidacy and it’s been great to be able to reach out to them.  Encourage them.  Give them some helpful tips.  Looking forward to being a part of their transition once they arrive to the island to make it as smooth as possible.  Many things will happen through experiencing it (good or bad) but making sure they have the tools to go walk through it and accompany them through the journey.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. 
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
He restores my soul, He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
Psalm 23:1-3


PRAYER REQUESTS
Praise the Lord for an amazing retreat with my fellow KAI missionaries!
 Praise the Lord for you!
Pray for God’s leading as I build relationships with my fellow KAI missionaries.
Pray for wisdom and discernment when I meet with each person.
Pray for two practical projects: making a cookbook for living here in the DR to give to new missionaries; for making a directory of all our missionaries and directors.
Pray that I will get to talk to all four of our missionaries serving in Constanza this month.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 1, 2016 at 3:05 PM

    Shannon thanks for sharing you experience. It is also to see how God is working in, around and through you. Blessings Pam

    ReplyDelete

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