Shannon's Corner

Transitions are a part of life.  Many of us may not like transitions because it means change.  Our 11 interns have all had to go through more transitions since arrival.  Let's take a look at what some of these transitions are and how things are going for our interns. Half of our interns are now living with Dominican families in the areas where they are serving this summer.  These families mostly speak only Spanish so our interns are hearing Spanish 24/7 and needing to think in Spanish and talk in Spanish more often than just at the school or children's home.  Our Dominican families provide meals for our interns, translating rice and beans.  But yet the interns are becoming a part of their Dominican family and getting a more hands-on experience of Dominican culture. The other half are living in an apartment with other interns and learning how to live and get around in their cities.  Their living environment can be in English as they are not livin...

Two days of all those who will be helping out with our summer program to come together from all 10 ministry sites for a time of fellowship and training.  There is between 80 to 100 people present for the two day training. What a wonderful time to come together in worshipping our Lord.  Singing praises to the King.  We were fed from the Word of God in Luke 2:40, 52 and Mark 10:13-16.  We heard three different testimonies from young people who grew up in the Kids Alive program and two of them are working in two different schools in our program.  The young gal who shared came to our program when she was 3 or 4 years old with her two older siblings.  Her parents were alcoholics and could not financially take care of her and her siblings.  She lived with her grandma prior but she was also unable to take care of her.  She came to know about Jesus through her various house parents and even her teachers as school.  Very thankful.  One young ma...

What a week it has been. All 11 of our summer interns arrived safe and sound to the Dominican Republic last Saturday even though they experienced some bumps along the way.  Sunday the interns got to visit some of the homes of our ANIJA school kids to get an idea of the community of at-risk children we serve.  My group was to see a boy who finished second grade but he was enjoying the afternoon at the river with his grandmother so we ended up visiting another child who just graduated from first grade at ANIJA. Graduating first grade is a big thing because the kids are able to read.  All the children write their own "books" that they read during graduation.  This year the theme was on fruits.  The little girl we visited wrote her "book" about grapes.  Later that evening, I shared a small devotion with the interns about how uniquely God has made them (Gen. 1:27; Ps. 139:13-14; Col. 3:12).  Our first session was to learn more about ourselves and how un...