May 27, 2024

Things are busy around here! In the blink of an eye another 6 weeks have flown by since our last blog post.  We spent April gathering together the needed documents to renew our Dominican residency status.  Since we were in the States last year, our residency status had expired and we were nervous that there may be some unknown charges or hoops to jump through in order to bring it current.  Surprisingly, the whole process was very straightforward.  After submitting all of our documents to the Migration online platform, we had a couple weeks of waiting and then we were assigned an in-person renewal appointment on May 13.  Thankfully the appointment was quick.  We renewed last year and the current year all at the same time.  We are valid Dominican residents through May 2025! After renewing this for 5 years (we are now in year 3), then we will be permanent Dominican residents. Thank the Lord for having legal residency status. 

May has been a month of surgeries.  We had several patients with surgical or specialty needs that we have walked alongside.  I accompanied one little girl and her mom to a surgical consultation.  This case was especially close to my heart as the little girl has a colostomy (exactly what our daughter had).  Though it has been almost 2 years since our Cami first got sick, the circumstances surrounding this new patient are eerily similar.  There I was standing in the same hospital complex, in the same consultation room, with the same surgeon that had actively saved our sweet girl’s life. Somehow I kept my composure as I silently thanked God for His endless mercy and prayed for the momma who is still in the middle of such a long journey.  Lord, have mercy.   Please pray for this family as well as three other pediatric patients that had surgery this month (for a cleft palate and severe burns).  

As the school year draws to a close, the Youth Outreach Ballet classes and the El Chivo Preschool are also wrapping up. Olivia’s ballet school will have their end of the year recital on June 2.  The very next day we launch into dance camps that will run for two weeks.  We have four interns coming down to help with the recital and day camps (think VBS meets dance camp!).  These interns are all close with Olivia, three of them are her sisters! Please keep us in your prayers as we host the interns and work with the campers. 

The clinic in Rosa La Piedra was painted this month.  We went with an eye-catching blue shade that is often used by medical clinics here in the DR.   We are also working with private donors to do a water filtration project for Rosa La Piedra.  The clean water source comes out of the ground at the top of a hill, not far from our clinic.  This water project will provide new tubing from the water source down the mountainside.  As the new tubing delivers water down the mountain, there will be four community spouts where people can access fresh, clean water.   It is an exciting project that will break ground this summer and be completed by the end of 2024.  More updates to come! 

By far our most significant challenge since coming back to the DR has been our ability to efficiently travel about the country.  Our vehicles are what one might affectionately call “clunkers” and can only transport 7 people at a time.  They are older (2008 and 2012) with their own sets of quirks that often seem to flare up when we are relying on them the most.  The St. Mary Pinckney Mission Team experienced this first hand recently.  The 2008 Mitsubishi Montero wouldn’t start after picking them up from the airport.  Thankfully, the team was very gracious and simply grabbed some food from inside the airport while they waited.  However, our mission drivers and staff were left sweating bullets while they tried to resolve it quickly and safely without a mechanic or full set of diagnostic tools nearby.  This is one of many examples demonstrating how our current vehicles are impacting our ability to work effectively.  Adam made a trip to the capital (Santo Domingo) to investigate all of our options.  After selling both vehicles, plus our savings, we will have USD $20,000 to put toward a new vehicle.  Our best option is a recently imported Hyundai Grand Starex model years 2019/2020.  We are launching a fundraising campaign to raise USD $10,000 to purchase this new vehicle that will serve a dual purpose: providing reliable transportation for our family in-country and supporting the varied needs of the mission.  Please consider coming alongside us and investing in the mission through this unique opportunity. Online donations can be made via PayPal here.  Donations can also be sent to 54 Coyote Court, Pinckney MI 48169 (checks made out to BBOH Missionary Support Fund).  We are forever grateful for the partnership and support that each one of you have shown us. 

​Together we can continue to make a difference here on the Haiti - Dominican border. 

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The clinic in Rosa La Piedra with a fresh coat of paint

May 2024 Medical and Veterinary Team from University of St. Francis

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Prayer intentions: 
-For health and safety of our family and staff (we recently were plagued by another round of amoebas/parasites, so emphasis on the health part please!)
-For peace and guidance through ongoing transitions
-For a successful fundraising campaign for a larger, reliable vehicle