Who we are

We live in the Dominican Republic and work with Young Life International. Jake works at Pico Escondido, a Young Life camp that serves Dominicans in this country as well as work teams from the states. We are both currently volunteers with Vida Joven, YL in Spanish, and I (Kyla) am a full-time mom. We want to keep you informed about our lives and our ministry as well as share some encouragement along the way. Read more to find out what God has been doing in our lives!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Spreading the word

We had dotted all our "i"s, crossed all our "t"s, practiced our message, when all of a sudden it hit us: we had no idea what we were going to say the next day in front of Lifegate Christian School for their first chapel of the year.

The things we had prepared were nice, but not really the taste we wanted to leave in the students' mouths for the rest of the year. We wanted them to dream big, and to catch a vision for missions, and it was only by the Lord's hand that we were able to accomplish just that the next morning. He gave us the words to say, and by the end of chapel, kids were coming up to us asking more about our plans and telling stories of their own adventures in other countries.

This was a great chance to share with kids what we will be up to, because most of our meetings have been with aduts. We're more accustomed to working with youth anyway as evidenced by this picture of Lifegate students over at our house for a pizza/game night, with Jake in the middle, stuffing his face full of chocolate while wearing ski mittens in a frantic game called Menonite Madness.



Our meetings with adults have been going very well also. Last week we presented our vision in front of about 25 Lifegate parents, and the Lord brought in over $3000 in that one night alone. As of this morning, we have raised $20,015 toward our goal of $68,000. Thank you Lord!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

We've reached $10,000!


Just a quick update on fundraising: the Lord has brought in over $10,000 in monthly pledges and one-time gifts. Thank you so much to all of you who have given-we appreciate you. We still need to raise $58,000 for this first year, and we're confident that God has got a plan for that too. Here's a pic of us taking a break on Moday, kayaking the McKenzie with our friend Christian.