Believe it or not, the Manna Team is already preparing for SUMMER! It seems so far off, but now is the time that we (meaning Tom) make our summer group special. Sunday the team is meeting to discuss intern applications and hopefully come close to selecting the interns for the summer. Why so early? you may ask. Well, the interns must have time to arrange their schedules and raise money so they can come serve for the summer. We are really looking forward to this summer’s program! The only sad part… We have had so many request to attend a week that we have had to ask our groups to only come every-other summer. This means we will not be seeing many of the friendly faces we are used to seeing each summer. We will also not be hosting the teens from our home congregation, Fairfax until Summer 2010. We pray that each group that doesn’t visit us this summer finds a place to serve this year. And we are counting the months until they can visit us again.

OK, tomorrow took a little longer than I though. If you are just now tuning in, scroll down and read the previous entry.

The following day, I went into town to pick up the receipt for the repairs Ruben had done. Ruben was not home so I spoke to his wife. She told me he would be back in a few minutes. It turns out that she is a city council woman in Rio San Juan. She is serving as the president of the city council. We visited for a while discussing things ranging from politics to humanitarian projects. I was supposed to have met her about 6 weeks ago because of some work we are doing with the mayor of Rio San Juan. She had a family situation an had been unable to make it to our meeting.

Ruben made it home and I got the receipt. I was treated to a nice cup of coffee and we continued our conversation. One of the local teachers stopped by and I got to meet her as well. By this time the conversation moved toward Christmas. I asked them what they usually do in town for Christmas. Mrs. Ruben told me that the city tried to get gifts for poor children in January. She said that maybe we could help with it. I told her about the Magi project and some of the things we have run into in the past. Ruben had move outside. When I left, Mrs. Ruben told me that it was a shame that we had to meet this way but that it was good to finally meet. The stated that God works in strange ways. As I left, I ran into Ruben outside (not in the same way that Cody did, thank goodness). He said goodbye and the he was sorry we had to meet under these circumstance but we would see where God takes our relationship.

So was it a hectic week? Yes. Was it a horrible week? Not at all. It was a good week. I did what I came to do. I meet people in Rio San Juan. Some are influential, some are just trying to scrape out a living. All are made in the image of God although they may not know it. As I drove out of town, not wearing my seatbelt as usual, Sgt. Doright had a checkpoint set up on the main road. A military person was there to support him. I got pulled over but when Sgt. Doright saw it was me, he signaled to the military guy to wave me on. It seems like Cody was pulled over that day as well. Sgt. Doright came to the window and asked him if that was his his wife and child with him. He chatted with them for a while and then sent them on their way.

We will see where God takes these relationships.

If you are just now tuning in, scroll down and read the previous entry.

After much discussion with Sgt. Doright, he informed us that if that is what we wanted him to do, he would only be able to provide a police report. It’s a novel concept for a police officer to provide only the services for which he is legitimately paid. Cody and I left with Sgt. Doright to find Ruben. Ruben quickly informed Sgt. Doright that he wanted to go to the police from the beginning. Sgt. Doright wanted wait until the next day to do the report but we convinced him to do it right then. Ruben needed to go pick up him the vehicle and Cody was planning to spend some time with his family away from the hustle (quite literally) and bustle of town. But as luck would have it, Cody did not bring his driver’s license or passport with him.

We agreed to pay Ruben the $15000 RD so that he could pay for the repairs to his vehicle even though we would not be able to complete the police report until the next day. While Cody was cashing a check down the Sgt. Doright approached us. He needed some money for taxes but was more curious about why we were going to pay Ruben the $15000 RD. We told him that we would be putting a claim to the insurance company with the hope of being reimbursed. He kept digging trying to figure out what the catch was. He did not understand how we were going to gain using the approach we were using.

By the time we made it back over to Ruben’s house, Hank and Ruben’s insurance agent were there talking to Ruben. The insurance agent confirmed that the insurance agency should reimburse Cody for the money he was giving to Ruben. Hank went on to tell everyone how we had refused to accept his proposal. He was not trying to point out our honesty but our stupidity. He was even telling the insurance agent who represented the company Hank had intended to defraud.

The next morning, we met with Ruben and Sgt. Doright to file the police report. As you can imagine, we sat in a drabby police station while Sgt. Doright plucked away at a typewriter. WRONG! We went to an Internet Center/Cable Company and stood at the counter and told the girl who was attending the place a business what to include in the report. As customers came in to pay their cable bill, report downed cable lines, and use the internet, she stopped working on the report to take care of them. As we waited we got into interesting conversations about politics, political boundaries, how Cody could not possibly be 28 years old, etc. We also discussed what the actual names of the streets were where the accident took place. I thought it was interesting that when Ruben and Cody were asked to give their version of what happened, it was actually based on consensus between everyone present. Needless to say, both versions of the matched and the girl behind the counter filled in all the blanks with the appropriate legal jargon necessary to make it all look real official. Sgt. Doright told us that she knows how to do these reports better than he does because she does all of them for him. When we finished and all the copies of the report were printed and signed, Cody paid the bill. Yes, Sgt. Doright had the girl behind the counter type all of his reports and then made us pay for it.

The story isn’t quite over. Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion.

This has been a hectic week. Some would say a horrible week but I don’t believe in those anymore. Let me tell you a little bit of what happened this week. The names have been changed to protect the gui.., ehhem, the innocent.

My co-worker (let’s call him Cody) was involved in a fender bender on Monday. Both vehicles were fully covered for this eventuality. I know you are thinking “so what’s the big deal; exchange insurance information and be done with it.” Well if that is all it took, God would not be able to work in unique and interesting ways.

The streets in Rio San Juan do not have traffic signs so it is hard to say who has the right-of-way. Cody, not being fluent in Spanish, quickly got the assistance of one of the locals we trust. He had pulled out into the intersection without looking closely and struck/was struck (that all gets a little fuzzy and perhaps academic since Cody is obviously a foreigner) by an oncoming vehicle. The Dominican driver (let’s call him Ruben) told Cory (umm, I mean Cody) that he did not want to get the police involved but needed assurances that Cody would take responsibilities for the damages. Cody, having been here a while knew he needed some kind of backup to this so he agreed under the condition that Ruben would go to our mechanic (lets call him Hank) first so he could get an idea of the cost of the damages. At that point, if he needed to get the police and insurance involved, he could still do so. They both took off to Hank’s. When Cody got there, Ruben was not where to be seen. Cody told Hank what happened and Hank told him that Ruben was his friend. At this point, Hank grabbed a gun, told Cody to get in the car and they took off to look for Ruben. Cody was a bit surprised but since Hank was not the most refined member of the community, he figured his friend was not either. They found Ruben, and Hank looked at the damages. He gave Cody an estimate of $3000 RD (about $90 US). Ruben had his own mechanic and informs Cody that he wanted to have the repairs done there. Hank also gave an estimate for the other car for $5000 RD. The total was $230 US. Fortunately, Hank did not have to use his gun.

(Fast forward to the next day.)

The cost of repairs to Ruben’s car was $15,000 RD ($420 US). When Hank found out, he was fuming mad. As a Dominican of Irish decent, it does not take him much to get that way. Hank, Cody and I (lets call me Tom) took off to look for Ruben. He was out of town so we looked for him the next day. He was still nowhere to be found.

The following afternoon, Thursday, Hank called and told me that he needed to talk to Cody and me. We jumped in the car and went downtown to speak to him. Hank told us that he had everything worked out but that it was going to require us to give him some money ($15000 RD) that we would get back in a few weeks. Hank had an estimate for repairs totaling $27000 RD and told us that he had filed a police report stating that he was driving the car and ran into a tree. His solution involved paying Ruben $15000 RD, putting a claim into the insurance company on an accident only involving the one car for more than 5 times the actual damages and using the money to pay for the repairs on both the vehicle, the deductible, and even a little extra in case the insurance company did not come through with 100% of the claim. I have never been part of insurance fraud that I know of in the past. However, something tells me that if you are going to do such a thing, $778.09 is not worth it. Of course, we told Hank that we could not do that. He was dumb-founded. How could we refuse the perfect solution? Our names were not even on the police report. After some discussion and delicate language to avoid using words like “liar”, “thief”, “fraud”, “conspiracy”, “accomplice after the fact”, especially not knowing the location of the gun Hank had grabbed a few days earlier, we told Hank that we wanted to file a police report with the actual facts. Reluctantly, he agreed and called the police. The Sergeant in charge of traffic in Rio San Juan showed up (let’s call his Johnny Doright). His first question was “What’s the problem? Hank and I had all this worked out.” We carefully had the previous discussion, this time knowing exactly where Sgt. Doright’s gun was.

Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story…

The truck is still broken down. The mechanic came by today and said that the timing belt blew while moving and there are some serious problems as a result. Please, pray that they can be easily (and economically) fixed and that we do not need the new engine he is predicted we will need.

They don’t really celebrate Halloween in the Dominican. But it snuck upon us like a scene in a bad horror flick. We were on our way back from town. Norm had asked me to drive Brian’s car back to the house for him. Tim was ahead of me. It was pitch black dark outside, no stars, no moon and pouring down rain. I catch up to Tim and the truck is not moving, it had come to a full stop on its own and the engine had shut down. Tim had the months groceries for the Children’s Home. So, I pulled Brian’s car next to our truck and loaded the groceries into it . I really needed to deliver the groceries immediately and didn’t want to leave them on the side of the road. I had moved Brian’s car so a passing car could go by, shut off the engine and checked to make sure that the truck was empty. We all load up into Brian’s car, happy that we had the second car with us and were not stuck. I turned the key and nothing… somehow Brian’s car was dead. We attempted to jump it with our truck, but the battery was not strong enough with our car off. We backed Brian’s car to the side of the road and the boys were off on foot to get help. Still dark, still raining and I am left alone in the car on the side of the road, on HALLOWEEN night. First I prayed somebody would stop and help. Then the more I thought about it the more every stupid horror scene I had ever watched as a kid came back to me… innocent girl stuck on side of road with serial killer slashing through roof… Girl stuck in car and blood y body suddenly slams against windshield, screaming and convulsing before dying. You name it I thought it. Suddenly, I see headlights coming my way. Is it Tim and help? Is it a friendly stranger ready to save me? OR, is it the evil unknown? I dare not get out and look. The car stops and somebody walks toward me. Relief comes when I hear a familiar voice call my name. The boys had walked and then hitched a ride to the Lamb’s house and returned to jump the car. We finally arrived home a few minutes later, soaked to the bone but baring no scars from our ordeal…

I miss the fall. The air turning cool and crisp. The leaves becoming beautiful shades of red, yellow and orange. We won’t see children dressed in colorful costumes or have trick or treaters here. Our next big holiday here is Christmas. The stores are already decorated for the season. I even considered buying a Christmas tree yesterday so the store wouldn’t run out before I got one. Christmas will come and go with no snow, no blazing fires. What will we get in the place of all these changes? RAIN, rain and more rain. We are coming upon the rainy season. It rains at least once most days, several times others and even all day and night on occasion. We are just at the beginning of the season, we will keep you posted on how we are surviving…

Sorry for the lack of posts. Tim’s parents have been visiting us this week. He has really enjoyed showing them what we do down here and telling him about our ministry. Tomorrow he heads off to the US to attend World Mission Workshop. If you live close to Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama stop bye and say hi! Lindsey will also be attending the conference so they will get to hang out together. They haven’t seen each other since July. It should be a fun time.

This weekend has been long coming. Tim makes multiple trips to Rio San Juan to work on the outreach center. He really wants to start classes soon. The problem… everything takes longer to get accomplished here. I have been going back and forth several days a week to help him and to run errands for the children’s home. I ventured up a 15 foot ladder yesterday to begin painting the sign on the building. It was definitely hard work. Did I mention I have an unnatural fear of falling. Every time the ladder swayed I had to fight the urge to run for the woods. The website is still not 100%. The boys have not had time to reprogram the picture and link aspect of the sight. All in all… very busy. Please, continue to pray for us down here as we prepare for the opening of the outreach center and pray for the Amy and Graham families as they prepare to join our team.

Our website got hacked by a propaganda group. Tim and Ethan are working on reloading all the programming and protecting the site. Please, be patient with us during this process. THANKS!!!