For you, Lord.

What did I do today, you may be wondering? Let me tell you. I awoke at 9:00am (it was a morning/afternoon off), dressed, and headed down to the school where I met up with 3 other friends. We rode the 1.5 miles to a nearby river on motorcycles and hiked down to it. We walked to the first waterfall that's along the river; the waterfall I mentioned before with the 25ft. jump that I enjoy so much. We jumped once (I got "cool points" for my hang time) and proceeded to walk up the river...in the river. We climbed miniature waterfalls, fought the current, rocks, and the sandy bottom, until we reached the upper waterfall, a 60-70ft. thing of beauty that cascades down into a deep pool of blue water. Adjacent to the waterfall is a natural rock wall, and I ended up climbing a little more than halfway up (about 40ft.) without any equipment. I'd like to climb the entire way when I have more free time. After spending about 30min at the upper waterfall, we hiked back down the river and parted ways, agreeing to meet up 30min. later at a place famous in Jarabacoa for its burritos. A friend of mine and I rode into town on a motorcycle I'm borrowing from my boss who is currently in Europe celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary, ate, and then came back to Escuela Caribe and began work at the houses at 4pm.

Why did I feel the urge to write this in my journal tonight? I want to share with everyone in the States the possibilities that exist outside of your suburbanized, comfortable worlds. I'd have never known about them had the Lord not blessed me with this opportunity.

Things I currently do each week, or have already done, that I'd never have imagined myself doing were I still in the states: learning to drive a motorcycle, jumping off cliffs into a river, free-style rock-climbing natural walls, camping on an uninhabitated island for 2 nights, snorkeling in the Carribean, diving 10ft. underwater to the ocean floor searching for ancient treasure, watching American movies with spanish subtitles, speaking decent conversational spanish with locals, doing anywhere from 100-150 pushups a night, relishing hot water and electricity, picking fruit off a tree growing in my yard and eating it that night for dinner, cutting grass with a machete, sleeping underneath a mosquito net, being at liberty to take off my shirt without worry or concern, etc.

There are more, but I do believe those to be the most dramatic. I know my mom would freak if she knew I was doing half of those, especially driving a motorcycle and free-style rock-climbing. That's part of what separating from your parents is about, though. Identifying who you are. That's also what we try to instill within these kids by submersing them within the Dominican Republic away from their families. We help them to develop a sense of identity apart from what they know from home; most having previously identified themselves with abusive homes, drugs, alcohol abuse, violent behavior, etc. Here they learn to identify themselves with the Lord, independence, emotional maturity, discipline, and a productive work-ethic. They may not like it while they're here, but a vast majority contact the ministry 1-2 years after they've left praising the work the Lord did in them through their time spent at Escuela Caribe. I can happily say that, thus far, I am daily praising the Lord for the work I see Him doing in me already.

May you also be led by His will. May you find yourself somewhere you'd never have imagined, outside your comfort zone, daily challenging your adrenaline, your mind, and your spirituality. God bless.

I have much on my heart tonight. I was hoping to actually talk with someone, but seeing as no one is around I will blog instead.

It's 11:51pm here and I'm in the middle of doing my laundry at the bottom of the hill/mountain. About 30min ago I ran up to my house (Huyck House) to make a couple peanut butter and raisins sandwiches (a new personal fav...give it a shot) because I hadn't had dinner yet. While making the sandwiches the power went out. I fumbled around the kitchen in the dark, cut the bread and got everything together to make my way down the hill. I got outside and once I reached the pathway I looked up and my breath was nearly taken away by what I saw surrounding me. A few lights were on in the valley below from individual's generators; other than that there were no man-made structures visible by sight. Instead all I saw were stars...millions upon millions of stars. There didn't seem to be a single point in the sky where I could reach my pinky finger up and not block 50 stars from my line of sight. It was gorgeous. But the real treat...God's true treasure this evening...was the bugs. There is a bug here that is similar to a lightning bug; however, instead of it's light flashing on and off, the light from the bug remains on while it flies. As I walked down the hill, surrounded by dark gully's, ravines, and palm trees silhouetted against the starry sky, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of these bugs dancing in the dark in front of me. Several hundred speckled the pathway on both sides the entire way down the hill. My only thought was, "If there's ever a place to fall in love, this is it."

The next thing on my heart derives from my thought about falling in love. No, I'm not falling in love with anyone right now...except Jesus, of course. However, there is someone I'm interested in spending more time with. What's on my heart is A) I'm not here to meet someone and I strongly believe my main ministry here is entirely the kids...so is it even right for me to be interested? B) Am I ready for another relationship? Sure, I've grown since the last one...but still... C) How do I go about pursuing a woman in a Godly way? And, heck, how do I find out if she's interested in me while remaining Godly? What I mean by that is with Biblically based relationships, in my opinion, I, as the male, shouldn't ask until I'm 100% positive I feel it is within His will for us to pursue a serious relationship...AKA "courting". That requires patience and a strong prayer life, both of which I struggle with at times.

I have only been here 6 weeks. I may see her 1 or 2 times a week max; she teaches at a local Christian school in town and not at Escuela Caribe. Therefore, using your wonderful math skills, you can see that I haven't spent a ton of time with her. This post isn't necessarily about her, though. It's more about me reinforcing to myself that my desire is for the Lord's will and not my own. Were it my will I'd have talked to her about my interest 2 weeks ago and probably been upset and a little emotional to learn she didn't return the interest. I've seen the power of the Lord the past couple weeks in that my patience and unwillingness to "speed up the process" is...well, paying off. Nothing major, but little things have happened that I feel He had his hand on directly.

I am aware that those of you who know me well are most likely questioning my ability to be in a healthy relationship right now. Well, so am I. Which is why I am seeking His will, not mine. Whether a relationship with her comes to fruition or not is unimportant to me at this point, honestly. What is important is that His will be done, and I am seeking patience and emotional maturity so I may understand and be within His will in my interactions with her and thoughts about her. Any and all prayers along those lines to help me in this endeavor are extremely appreciated and needed. I also pray for someone or "someone's" to counsel and mentor me. Married men of faith are in abundance here; I pray the Lord will use one or more of them to keep me accountable and provide Godly counsel.

It's time for me to apply what I have learned and discuss it with you, giving practical examples of how He's working in my life rather than simply evangelizing by preaching what He can do for you. Hopefully you will see what He can do for you by knowing who I used to be and now who I am becoming evidenced by how I apply His love in my life. It's time for all of us to learn what it means to be in His will in our behavior and thoughts as He protects and nurtures us, rather than behaving like our greedy selves are accustomed to and then running to Him when we cannot handle the pain anymore.

God Bless.

Nothing wrong with a little male-bonding via IM...

GMANATTACK: it sucks i miss being able to call you
GMANATTACK: :-(
GMANATTACK: give me an e-hug
GMANATTACK: ::hug::
iliveinga11: ::hug::
iliveinga11: ha
GMANATTACK: i'm not going to lie that was the gayest thing i've ever done
iliveinga11: I don't doubt it
iliveinga11: I'm gonna save it and post it on my blog
GMANATTACK: SWEET

(ps. I am "iliveinga11")

See, he actually COULD call me if he were to look online for a phone card. For a $20 phone card you can call the DR (me) for over 800min. And for $169 you can fly round-trip from New York City to the DR on JetBlue. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you can fly to see me for a mere $169. Weehoo!

God Bless.

Posted by: Matt / 10:32 AM

An update on how things are here in the Dominican.

I have finally been assigned a particular house and therefore a particular group of guys. Since I've arrived I have been living in Thomas house but Groupleading in all 3 different male houses. My final house assignment is Huyck house, which is the house I was in my first 2 weeks on campus and the house I personally preferred. I feel grateful for the opportunity to work with those guys; they're very rowdy, like to wrestle, seem to trust me, and each one of them has his own significant issue. They aren't the cleanest house or the most well-behaved...but if that's the type of house I wanted then I'd be selling myself short of the growth available to me. They have real issues and they don't want to work on them; that's where I come in. The houseparents of Huyck are also great people who I feel I can learn a tremendous amount from. They have a very solid marriage and both trust the Lord a tremendous amount.

This upcoming week is Retreat Week, which is a week away from structure. The heart of the ministry is the structure it provides for the students to develop character and discipline; however, twice a year we break away from the structure for a week of spiritual enlightenment. We fly in a speaker from the US who speaks each night, similarly to a church retreat. Select staff members run workshops during the afternoons (I'll be running a baseball workshop, using my knowledge of the game to teach the kids here a thing or two), the kids are placed onto "Spirit teams" and compete against one another in morning and afternoon games, cleaning inspections, etc. From what I've heard Retreat Week is a tremendous week and one of the most spritually uplifting time periods here at Escuela Caribe.

After RW I'll be heading off somewhere in the Dominican with Huyck House on our housetrip. Since I haven't been with them much the past 3 weeks I'm not positive where we're going yet. Most housetrips go to the beach, from what I've heard. It's a week of relaxation for the house and a time to bond as a group. Instead of bonding through character development and discipline as they do during a normal week, they'll be able to bond by enjoying one another's company aside from the strict rules and regulations of life on campus.

I still weigh 180lbs...just letting you know my body has adjusted well to the food and I am eating enough, even though I am more active here than I ever have been before. I've stopped working out; instead I do pushups with the guys whenever they're given them as punishment. And that's quite often, btw. I easily end up doing over 100 each day. You may be thinking, "What?? This is the type of place that makes kids do exercises as punishment?" Yes, yes we are. They'll get anywhere from 2 pushups to 1000, depending on the severity of their behavior. Other exercises they're given are squat-thrusts, crunches, sit-ups, leg lifts, etc. The kids usually end up leaving Escuela Caribe completely transformed; mind, body, and soul. Mind = their thought processes. Body = physically much stronger. Soul = believers in a God, if not the Christian God.

I have found phone cards online that allow one to call from the US to the Dominican for around $.05/min. I have to say I'm a little disappointed nobody has taken it upon themselves to check on that...but it's nothing I'm going to concern myself with. I am here for a specific purpose and, quite frankly, being able to talk on the phone with friends from the states is not something I planned on doing when I came down here. It'd be icing on the cake, so to speak.
I received my golf clubs through the mail yesterday. My dad was gracious enough to send them down here to me. I went out this morning and played 9 holes. This course is extremely difficult. Extremely difficult. The greens are raised off the fairway anywhere from 4yds to 15yds high. If you can't stick your approach shot on the green, you're left with a difficult up and down to save par because the ball will roll so far off the green down the slope. In other words, if you don't have a good approach game, you better have an amazing short game; otherwise you're in trouble. I asked for my clubs because there are tournaments every 2-3 months at the local golf course that are apparently a big deal in the town. Locals come out to watch, entrants automatically get free drinks, a free participants dinner after the tournament, and a hat and tshirt. There are also cash prizes to the winners of each flight and they have a free raffle that all entrants take part in to win 4-wheelers, tshirts, gift certificates, free clubs, etc. The next tournament is the first week of November so I'm honing my game to hopefully be able to play well in the tournament. Oh yeah! The best part! The tournament winners get HUGE trophies! And allllll this for $1000RD (one-thousand pesos); or, in other words, about $28.

That's all I can think of for now. I am going to head up to the house and continue reading one of my many books I brought down with me. I've been a reading machine since I arrived because my mornings and afternoons are usually free. Hope everyone is fantastic. I miss you all!

Posted by: Matt / 5:40 PM