The Barnabas Foundation...

The surgery went very well yesterday. There was only minor discomfort. The worst part of it was riding to and from the capital- we spent nearly 5 hours traveling for a 10 minute procedure!  What amazes me is that less than 24 hours after the surgery, I am feeling perfectly fine (minor headache) and have 20/15 vision (as compared  to 20/100 at this time yesterday).  And the procedure just took about 5 minutes per eye!  Bascially, after the computerized test was done on my eyes, they made a small incision on the skin of my cornea, lifted the resulting flap back, beamed the laser directly onto my cornea for about 2 minutes, and then closed the flap back, washed my eye with a sponge, and then did the next eye! And I left the surgery room seeing as if I had my contact lenses in or my glasses, with just a little blurriness due to the anesthesia!  Like I said, it is amazing what technology can do!  The doctor told me this morning at my follow-up exam that even after 12 years of doing the surgery, he remains competely amazed at the process. Yesterday he saw me with 20/100 vision, today I have 20/15 vision and he looked into my eyes and couldn't even see that a surgery had been done! 

The only draw back to this is that I now will need reading glasses along wth the rest of the folks in my age category! 

I am going to try to stay quiet this weekend and hopefully catch you all up on some ministry developments from this past week.

Where do the weeks go? I wouldn't have guessed it had been a whole week since I last updated!  This past week has been a busy time with getting my medical clearance work done- and out of that came the opportunity to have the eye laser surgery done. I am leaving right now for Santo Domingo where they will do the surgery and I should be home by 4pm. Keep me in your prayers if you happen to check this! I will write more tonight!

I wanted to let you know that if you have an aol email address, for some reason all my emails are being sent back. It must be some sort of problem with my server. Wierd! I will try to get it fixed but in the meantime please know I am trying to respond and can't!  If you have another email account I can send something to, please let me know.  It is only aol accounts that are coming back undeliverable.

It is amazing how quickly this new house has become "home." Oreo doesn't even like to get out of the car at the old house, and if she does, she lies outside the gate! I spent one day this week fixing up my flower beds- it was a fun experience- my two neighbors and I went to the "vivero" (nursery) which made for a fun outing.  I have enjoyed getting to know them. One is from Bogata, Colombia.  Last night they invited me to their friday night Bingo- it was an interesting evening, meeting professional folks from here in Santiago. They have formed a foundation, each paying $15 dues per month, plus the proceeds from their bingo games to benefit older folks who have need of medicine and other basic necessities. I also met another Colombian lady and we had an amazing conversation about faith issues. She is extremely well read and has gone through a lot of personal suffering.  I don't think she is quite a believer yet, but she is on the road. I was pleased to see that my work in Human Needs opens the door to witness and reach the professional class. She shared last night she doesn't like evangelicals with all their talk and dancing, etc., but she was impressed with my work on behalf of the needy- she felt like that was "real religion." Pray for continued opportunity to share and witness, that she and others may come to a genuine faith in Jesus.

They're married! We had a wonderful time Friday night at the rehearsal dinner and as we cleaned up, the snow began falling. It was a BEAUTIFUL snow- large, soft flakes. It snowed all night (it made it fun trudging in and out from the RV where I was sleeping.)  It snowed ALL day Saturday, right up until we left for the wedding.  All together we had about 5-7 inches of snow. As we left, the sun came out which helped considerably.  The ceremony was beautiful, and then we had a great time at the reception. It is hard to fathom that my first nephew that was born when I was just a sophmore in college is now a married man! We are happy for them, they seem like a wonderful couple, complementing one another. 

It has been a real treat for me to be here and a part of the festivities- I miss too many family events!  Now that the wedding is over, attention will turn to other things. Since I have been home, our whole focus has been getting ready for one thing and another. (We are getting ready for the brunch- all the families on both sides have been invited to get together this morning. The bride and groom are leaving for Kansas around noon.) 

I am hoping that history will be made today as the Patriots run the table!! We are set and ready to go- cokes, chips, big screen projection, all the Giant fans outside (no just kidding!)

It has been a good day- we worshipped with all our friends in Los Santos, Villa de Yaque, The Hole and visited our folks in Guayacanal. Today starts the Caribe World Series which we are hosting here in Santiago (we won last year!).  It is also the first Sunday of Carnaval which means endless parades and traffic snarls. Between that and the political caravans, the roads are quite an obstacle course! But, we had a good day of worshipping and sharing. Wayne and Bryon had great messages to share which I think hit home for people. 

And like I said before, now it is all about 19-0, Patriots over the Giants- World Series and Super Bowl for New England in one season... more later....

It is always interesting to come back home and discover what new thing will go wrong! This time, I discovered that the batteries for my inverter had died and had no hope of being brought back to life! Many of you know that we experience frequent and extended power outages here in the DR- thankfully my neighborhood is better off than most.  When the power goes out ("se fue la luz") we have a back-up system (inverters and 12 batteries) that kicks in and can provide us usually 8-10 hours of power until the power comes back on. It is especially important for me right now because my outdoor security lights and gate depend on that back-up! Otherwise I might come home to a very dark neighborhood and driveway, getting into my house! 

Well, before I left I noticed that I didn't have much back-up time and when I got back I realized I had NO back-up time. As soon as the power went off, I had no power! Thanks to your generous support all year through the Cooperative Program and your support of the December Lottie Moon offering, my supervisors were able to approve my purchasing 12 new batteries yesterday- a cost of $1200!  I went to bed last night with the security lights working and feeling safe and very appreciative of our Southern Baptist churches who take such good care of us while we serve on the mission field!!

By the way, I am also enjoying a new SUV thanks to your generous support- the missionary for whom it was purchased was reassigned to another country so they gave it to me (2006 Hyundai Tucson) and will retire my old one (remember it had that terrible run in with an 18 wheeler?). So thanks again! 

It has been AWESOME to be back in San Jose, sort of remembering the streets where I used to walk so much! During our year of language study we don't have cars (a good thing) so I spent a lot of time on the buses and walking.  Yesterday was encouraging as we met some of the missionaries studying Spanish in preperation for their assignments- God is so BIG and His Kingdom is like none other because the people He has called to serve Him are interesting and uniquely gifted and bring such diverse experiences to the present task. I am not sure why I am here, but I am thrilled to be seeing what is in process with this group of missionaries.

I was also reminded how many needs there are- there aren't enough hours in the day to pray for them all! As you think about all the missionaries today, please say a special prayer for all those around the world who are trying to learn the language of their people in order to be able to share and disciple them. It is a TOUGH process and many things distract: family illnesses or crisis back home, health issues on the field, discouragement, and frustration to name just some. Thanks for praying for them!

We continue to have meetings and activities with our two ladies who are in charge of the language learning process- it is exciting as we develop an enhanced plan to help ALL of us become better language learners/speakers.  We finish up these meetings tomorrow and then I have the opportunity to spend some time with my friends at the church I attended here and also check out the water projects that are in place here in the city. I am really pleased to have this opportunity to see how they are working and impacting the community. 

Thanks for your prayers, remember to pray for our language missionaries today as they struggle through grammar class and talk to people in their new language!