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May Newsletter

SHANNON’S CORNER
May 2018

Beauty from Ashes
I recently had a conversation with someone who has gone through a very hard, hurtful and painful time for several years. This person shared with me how God has helped her to process through the hurt and pain.  Not an easy road.  But a necessary one in order to receive healing and restoration.  Yet, as she is sharing with me the various things that God has taught her and had her process and reflect on, I see a beauty.  I see peace.  I see Jesus. This is the part of my ministry that I love.  The part where I see Jesus reflected more boldly and brightly than before.  Jesus makes beauty from the ashes.

I got to hear four of our directors share their testimonies at our directors retreat.  It was awesome to hear how God had worked in these four directors’ lives since they were little girls.  Their childhood and upbringing were all different yet through the situations that they each had to face, the struggles and pain.  God brought all four of them to serve Him in our ministry working with children at-risk.  “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” (Rom. 10:15b).

I have been teaching Sunday school to the 4thand 5thgrade class more consistently recently. It has been a joy to be able to teach the various attributes of our Heavenly Father to them.  The majority of my class are kids from the Ark (children’s home) and I have a few who live in Jarabacoa.  Some Sundays it’s a struggle to get them to talk and answer questions and other Sundays they are in competition with one another of who will answer the question or read the passage of Scripture.  I have learned a lot from my class as well as getting to know them as individuals.

I have been participating in the trauma competent care training with the house parents, home directors, and some of ANIJA school staff as Kaela teaches us the various modules of the course.  The last couple of modules have taught me how important it is for a child to have a good connection with others.  This is how our Creator God created us – to be in relationship with Him.  How we respond to a child is also very important when they are not listening to us or not obeying.  These trainings have been not only informative but also challenging in how to implement them when this mentality is different that what we are used to doing or hearing or seeing.

This month we have had many celebrations.  There have been many birthdays both here in the Dominican Republic and I have many family members and friends celebrating birthdays and anniversary.  There have also been some baby showers and an adoption shower for our newest member in the Kids Alive Dominican Republic family.  It was fun to hear the story of how God placed adoption in the hearts of Paul and Marcie and after 10 years of waiting they have a sweet little girl.  

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”
Philippians 4:13

PRAYER REQUESTS
Praise the Lord for a wonderful time at our Directors Retreat!
Praise the Lord for Gabby’s time here in the DR serving as an intern!
Praise the Lord for placement of our summer interns!
Praise the Lord for how He carves out time in my schedule to visit with people!
Pray for wisdom and discernment.
Pray for the planning of our summer program and our summer intern program.
Pray for video conference meetings with our summer interns.
Pray for direction and guidance in how God wants me to serve our missionaries here.
Pray for my Sunday school class that they would really understand the truth and not just be head knowledge.
Pray for our schools, as they will be finishing on or around June 9th.

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