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June Newsletter

SHANNON’S CORNER
June 2019

Summer Interns 2019
One day as I was outside praying for God’s wisdom and guidance, I glanced up into a tree and saw an air plant.  This plant reminded me that God is my Sustainer, which was a lesson from our women’s retreat last spring.  God’s peace and comfort came over me as I studied the plant realizing that God’s got this and all I need to do is just trust Him.  Unbeknownst to me that God was preparing me to completely lean on Him as my Sustainer through this summer.

Kaela giving trauma competent care training
This year for our summer internship program we were able to offer our interns if they would be interested in learning Spanish for either one or two weeks prior to our summer program.  We had two gals who did two weeks of Spanish and two gals who did one week of Spanish classes.  We all learned some in’s and out’s regarding what works and what did not work along with some expectations.  But overall the interns really did enjoy their time at language school and getting to know some of the Dominican culture first hand.

We have nine summer interns serving with us in four of our cities in country.  The first week, we had orientation with the interns. Three intense days learning about cross-cultural things, our ministries here in the DR, some of our policies, conflict resolution, self-care, self-awareness/identity, trauma competent care as well as getting to hear some testimonies of kids who have grown up in our program or are in the program. Then two days with
Marcie teaching "Tips for Teaching"
everyone who is working in the summer program as we learned some songs and games to use with the kids along with some helpful hints of how to teach and manage the kids and trauma competent care.  It was also a time of our interns getting to know some of their team whom they will be working with during the rest of their time in-country.  Then the last day of the week is a time of preparation in getting ready for the first week of summer program as well as settling into where they will be living for the summer.  This summer, we had Bill Dean from the international office in Valparaiso, IN and his wife, Cathy join us for the week of orientation since Bill is our new intern coordinator.

These last couple of weeks, I go around to our sites to check-in with each of our interns to see how they are adjusting, what they are learning, what God is teaching them, any issues that they are struggling or wrestling with.  It’s also been great to be able to talk to our directors of the sites and see how they are doing as well as our missionaries who are on site.

“You give me your shield of victory,
and your right hand sustains me;
you stoop down to make me great.”
Psalm 18:35
PRAYER REQUESTS
Praise the Lord for the birth of Ali Joy on May 26th!
Praise the Lord for the arrival of the summer interns and our time together during orientation week!
Praise the Lord for his strength and endurance to face the various challenges!
Praise the Lord for the government paving the road to Caraballo!
Pray for the Trautwein Family as Vic’s Dad is on hospice. His Dad passed away.
Pray for our summer programs around the country and our interns.
Pray for Malia’s health, wisdom and clarity for the doctors, wisdom, peace and comfort for Eric and Kindsey.
Pray for Alberto’s health as he needs to have a heart valve surgery soon.
Pray for our directors and house parents in all 3 residential programs for times of rest this summer.

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