Well, the wedding is over and it was a beautiful one. I've been to lots of weddings but I don't always know the bride and groom the same. Either I'm friends with the Bride and don't know the Groom, or the other way around. But with Lisa and Wilby...it was special. I have a great friendship with both of them and was so excited when Lisa asked me to do her photos. I didn't have such a great experience with my wedding photographer and I was not going to let Lisa miss out on anything. I remember being so disappointed when I got my photos back and felt like my wedding day wasn't captured. So I put a lot of pressure on myself to make Lisa's special day last forever...through photos.
I had SO much fun and they were such great "subjects." The posed pictures even went super fast because Lisa wrote up a list of photos she wanted and we just went down the order, took the photo and moved on. It was incredibly organized and she knew just what she wanted...which made it easy on me. Here are a few of the photos from the wedding, I took over 500 so I couldn't post them all. Enjoy!
Had to post this one just because Landon was crabby all afternoon but when he saw Lisa he just kept giving her kisses...he loves her dearly!
You know when you look forward to something so much and it doesn't turn out to be what you thought it would? Well, that does NOT describe this week. The sports crew (I include myself because I'm a sports crew wannabe) have been looking forward to Indiana Wesleyan Men's Basketball trip all summer. And this week was everything we imagined and much more. There were several things that took place that no one could have controlled but the IWU guys just went with the flow. They did construction, they held a basketball camp for boys from The Hole, they played in a "young talents" basketball tournament and won the WHOLE THING...it was just an incredible week. To top it off Will, Audrey, Mike and I were able to see a side of this team that the rest of their campus doesn't. They were real.
One event that really stood out in my mind was on the first day the guys could have had some down time, about 2 hours, to relax before their first tournament game. But five of the guys said to Mike that they "didn't come down here to have a vacation, they came here to work." So Mike took them and they dug for 2 hours until it was time to shower and leave. When Mike told me what was going on I was just totally floored by the awesome servant hearts they had. Instead of rest, they worked.
To end their trip on a high note one of key people on their team accepted Christ. I wasn't there to witness it but it hit me just the same. This is why we do this. I've cried every time I watched their video, not because it's awesome or anything, but because God showed me some huge hearts, in some extraordinary men.
I always enjoy when Northeast comes down. In fact, Northeast was the first group Mike and I ever worked with as semi-staff. In March of 2006, we came down to the DR to check out the ministry and Northeast came down on our plane. We worked on the church in Guandules with them and Mike even translated the pastor's sermon after about 10 years without speaking much spanish! It was especially cool because several of those first team members were on this trip. It was a little reunion!
Northeast supports Rafelito and the church/feeding center in Los Guandules. When we are explaining to other teams about partnerships and what they are all about, Northeast is one of those groups that we use as our "ideal example." They partnered with Rafelito, then built him a church and feeding center, then funded and supported ALL of the children in that feeding center. And because all that is left is to support Rafelito and the monthly funding of the feeding center they have begun a new partnership with one of our pastor's in Haiti named Lucnel! How awesome is that! It was such an honor to work with this group and I am always encouraged and re-energized when they are here! (on a side note, the second song in their show is sung by a special musician. His name is Tim Braisted!!!! Mike's brother has his first CD out and the song fit PERFECTLY with this show.) ENJOY!!!!
Another group that was here this past week was a group from Garden Park Christian Church. They did construction in our neighborhood working on the houses of Luis Jimenez and Rene Rodriguez. This church is very unique in that they support one of our missionaries, Tim. One of the girls on the trip, Tim held when she was born! Tim's old youth pastor (who was not on the trip) had a great impact on Tim growing up and 17 years later, his church came on a missions trip with G.O.! Isn't God's timing amazing? These youth were very hard workers and unloaded and shoveled TWO huge piles of dirt as well as started digging the cistern of the new Hoya del Caimito church!
