Our lives in the DR

I am just finally having a moment to write and update y'all on our lives so far. Since we have been here, we have been busy with figuring out where we will live, buying a car, figuring out our new jobs and meeting a lot of new people. Jake has been doing great in his new job. Last week was the first work team at camp and it was very busy but also a great week for him and everyone else. Also, two new interns arrived to work at camp and Jake has been busy hanging out with them and leading them.

I have also been busy. When we arrived, I wondered what God had for me here in this country. There was not enough work for both Jake and I at camp, so I started looking for oppotunities to be involved in this community. I wound up at Doulos Discovery School (http://www.ddsdr.org/), a place I had been considering working at before. Last year, when we visited, we came to this school and I was excited about the possibility of working here. I am working as an assistant in the sixth grade classroom and I also teach English/Language Arts as well as Art with the sixth graders. It has been a wonderful community to be involved in and the students are amazing. I love getting to share the Lord with them and seeing their smiling faces everyday. For now, this is where I am called to serve. I am learning more Spanish and getting to know the kids that I came to work with.

Also, I stay busy with Spanish tutoring five days a week. This has been busy, but it has been really good. Everyone says that the first two months are difficult, and that is definitely true. I have not found it easy to live here, but I have found that God is faithful through all of my struggles and frustrations.

I am excited to share more pictures once we have the internet at our house or when I am able to upload some pictures. For now, here is a picture of the sixth grade class that I work with and their teacher, Patrick. Thank you all for wanting to hear about our lives and for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

Love,

Kyla

Jake and I arrived in Santiago, Dominican Republic just a few days ago. We were pleasantly surprised that our boss picked us up at the airport and we had a ride to camp. We were not sure if anyone would be there, but everyone has been very helpful. We are staying with a family that we met last time we were here. They are so gracious to open up their home to us and to let us use their car! Jake has felt very victorious to be able to navigate his way through town and avoid hitting anyone, or be hit himself! It is quite dangerous driving around here and people are very unpredictable drivers.
So far we have been able to do a lot of things in this first week. We went to our first national staff meetting in the capital, Santo Domingo, it was an adventure in and of itself. Our friend's car was having issues on the way there and it ended up taking twice as long. As Jake and I are shopping for cars we are being very careful not to end up with a car that needs a lot of repairs. Anyways, it was a fun time to meet the other staff, they are so amazing; it was quite an honor!
Here is a picture of Dioni and I. She is an amazing person, she was one of the first student staff members in the Dominican Republic to work with Young Life, or Vida Joven. I am looking forward to getting to know her more, as well as other Dominicans here in Jarabacoa.

Thank you all for your prayers, emails and encouragement on this adventure.

Kyla

Happy Birthday Jake!

Here we are in Crystal River, Florida on our day off! It was Jake's birthday so we went snorkeling and swam with the manatees! It was soooo much fun, and unbelievably beautiful. Thank you Lord for such a great day.

Jake and I have one more week of New Staff Training and then we are off to the Dominican Republic!

(We are learning lots of great stuff and working hard during the week :)

Christmas times a comin'... and now it's gone!

Wow! The holidays really fly by when you are having fun. Jake and I enjoyed a wonderful Christmas this year filled with beautiful white snow and the reminder of the true meaning of Christmas-our Savior's birth. We tried to focus more on Christ-mas this year rather than consumerism. It is always a challenge not to get wrapped up in it, no pun intended.

We spent Christmas Eve with Jake's family celebrating Joel's birthday and going to a Christmas Eve service. Christmas day was spent trying to figure out how to give our anonymous gifts to each other without revealing who they were from. It was quite comical how long it took us to figure this out. Also, as pictured, Jake and I went snowshoeing with my parents. What fun enjoying a winter wonderland and spreading Christmas cheer with fellow snowshoers/skiiers. It was a blast and a fun memory.

May your new year be blessed, as it is already January, I can't believe how much the year is already flying by!

Speaking of flying, we are leaving in less than two weeks! Wa-who!!!

We bought plane tickets!!!

It's official: Lord willing we will be on a plane to Orlando on January 13th for two weeks of training, then leaving straight from there on January 28th to the DR.

ps. That's not a squirrel hanging from Jake's chin. He's just working on a massive gotee.

Thanksgiving with everyone!

Both of our entire immediate families converged on Jake's parents' house for an awesome time of fellowship, food and football watching.

Kyla's nephew Ezekiel

The sisters, Eryn and Eliza

The youngest, Ezra

Cross Cultural Orientation in Colorado

Jake and I went to our first Young Life International training November 6-11 in Colorado Springs. It was such a great time to come together with twenty other individuals who are serving all over the world with Young Life. The staff who shared with us were amazing and so encouraging as we learned about topics such as: Conflict Resolution, Language Acquisition, Cultural transitions, Donor Care, etc. We spent most of the day in a classroom-like setting learning from these staff members, and then at night we would relax and have fun together. Some of my highlights from this training were talking to other young couples like us and encouraging each other, praying together and laughing at some of the experiences we have been through so far. All in all, we were so thankful to have been a part of this training and to meet so many great people.

P.S. Jake made this video and it is awesome, you should watch it!