Fall Update

We are beyond thankful for each of you and your support during this crazy COVID season. We know that your continued support, love and prayers are a gift from God. We connected with some of you during this time, but we wanted to send out a summary of the last few months and ways you all can continue to pray for us. 

Spring 2020

Like most of the world, the DR shut down due to COVID. We spent a few weeks not being able to go anywhere except the grocery store or hospitals. The borders were closed to non-Dominicans and life slowed way down. Dave dove into professional development, helping raise funds for a food program to help at-risk families and trying to find ways to stay connected to the boys. Megan continued to support teachers as they were thrust into distance learning and “homeschooled” Josh and Cole. Josh and Cole struggled to adjust to the new normal, but loved having mom and dad at home.  It was a long three months, but God was faithful and we made it. 

June and July

Dave continued working on professional development, working with the food program and raising funds for the site and Ellian (assistant coach).  It was awesome to see how many people were willing to help support the site so that we were able to keep Ellian working at the site and continue to be blessing for Dave, Zurdo and the boys. 

Megan worked through most of the summer preparing for the upcoming school year. Doulos knew we had to be prepared for virtual, in person and any combination the government may decide upon. Megan led new staff training and all staff orientation. Most of these training sessions were via zoom. It stretched Megan’s coaching ability and was a great time of learning. 

Josh and Cole loved the summer life. We spent lots of time playing in the water, playing kickball and going on walks.

                                   

August

Megan started school August 17th. Megan provided professional development for the whole teaching staff alongside the instructional coaches. God has been very clear on what to do this year and she is thankful! 

September 

Dave was finally allowed to start practice again with a small group of boys. The fields remain closed so having the batting cage continues to be a huge blessing, bigger than we ever would have imagined.  

October

This month we have been blessed to have three weeks with family. We are spending this time relaxing, rejuvenating and connecting with family. 

                 

Current Life

Our family has been in quarantine for the past seven weeks. The Dominican Republic has asked the population to stay in their homes and only go out for necessities. We are allowed to go out and exercise, but should stay away from others outside our immediate family. The measures the government is taking mirrors other countries. Our quarantine is supposed to lift at the end of May. 

Due to the quarantine, Dave and I are both home. Our days are pretty repetitive, but good. I spend the mornings doing "school" with the kids while Dave works. He is working on further developing his Spanish, taking leadership courses, participating in staff development and reading about Dominican history. I spend my afternoons on zoom calls with staff, preparing training for next year and doing professional development. It has been a very sweet season for our family. The kids miss normal life activities like seeing friends or going to the pool, but they couldn't be happier that we are all together. Please don't let the photos fool you. It hasn't been all sparkles and rainbows each day. We have low days and we have high days. The kids love being together, but cry often because they miss normalcy. We are working on taking each day at a time. 

We are beyond thankful for God's provision and peace during this time. We know that many are struggling financially, socially, emotionally, spiritually and physically during this time. We continue to pray that we can be a light during a dark time. Please let us know if we can be praying for you or if you know of anyone who needs extra encouragement. We desire to use this time as a family to strengthen good habits and lean into the Lord. 

The last few weeks God has been teaching me about the Acts church. It was amazing. The church lived as one cohesive unit. They shared EVERYTHING and nothing was withheld selfishly. God has been showing me ways that I can be more like the Acts church. May we all use this time to show God's love to all those around us and be drastically different. May others come to know the Lord because of our extreme love for others in during a hard time. We can give all we have but remember, if we don't have love, it is useless!

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:3

Adams Update

Hey guys, 

I (Dave) hope everyone is doing well with all the coronavirus craze sweeping the world.  I have seen a lot of people on social media posting some really funny jokes, memes, gifs, etc that I personally find hilarious.  I have also seen others calling for people to take it more seriously. Personally, I think both sides are valid. This is certainly something to be taken seriously, but we can’t lose our sense of humor either.  Here in the DR we are starting day 3 of a 15-day nationwide quarantine in attempts to “flatten the curve”. Personally, I think they will end up extending it, but only time will tell. This means that we are to be at home and only out for essentials such as medicine or food. Schools have been shut down until after spring break.   As it can be a little frustrating at times not to be able to go out and do some of our favorite things (pools, rivers, waterfalls, etc), we are enjoying this gift of more family time and I hope all of you are doing the same. On the “keeping our sense of humor” part of things, here are a couple of my favorite jokes of the coronavirus: 

I also saw another one that had so much truth to it: 

So often, as Christians, we get so busy with our daily lives that we forget how to truly rely on Christ.  We start believing our own hype, listening to others build us up, listening to the world telling us how important we are, that we forget that we have little control over anything. We look to our own comfort more than we look to Christ.  Then something like the Coronavirus hits and we get a small glimpse of how small and out of control we really are when our “comfort” is taken away. As Christians we should always be striving to be uncomfortable in our faith. It shouldn’t take something like a virus to remind us how powerful God is and how powerful we aren’t. If we are truly seeking Him daily like we should be, we will always strive to be more like Him and be seeking constantly for ways to share His love and light with others.  We should never be content with where our own personal walk is or with how many people we have shared with. There is always a lot more work to be done in both areas no matter who we are.  

During this time, while some choose to live in a state of fear and panic, we have an incredible opportunity to live in the confidence in Christ.  This is such an easy time to show everyone how we are different from the world because we serve a God that is so much bigger than anything here. Talk with friends/family/coworkers/etc who don’t know Christ.  Ask how they are doing, see if you can help them with anything, even, heaven forbid, offer them a roll or two of toilet paper if they need it. When we can put others first during difficult times, we can really let Christ’s light shine through us. 

Please let Megan and I know if there is any way we can help you or pray for you.  Take advantage of this time with your family. We can choose to look at this as a huge inconvenience or as a blessing to connect/reconnect as a family.