November/December 2017 in Pictures

On January 1, 2018January 1, 2018 By MitchenersIn Angela, Photos of the Month1 Comment

Could the months fly by any faster?! November and December in pictures.

Freedom

Learning in PK3!

Zarett headed home for Thanksgiving Break

Back view of the two Freedom 8-unit apartments

Sometimes you just have one of those days

Miss Leah teaching letters sounds in PK4

Tickles from Miss Becky

Miss Jane talking with a mom about grades

Yuleisy and Rachel enjoying coffee at a Parent-Teacher Conference in Cabeza de Toro

Yummmm!

Heather and Abby prepping for Thanksgiving dinner!

Limbo with a twist – a Santa belly!

Ornery Neytan in La Varsa

We love getting together for our annual all-staff Christmas party!

Amanda is part of our chapel crew!

Students “bought” a gift for a friend at our Christmas store this year!

Laura has been assessing students’ reading levels

Praying for Miss Katy as she heads back to the States.

Sillies

Smiles from Angel as he reads a note from his sponsor

All business at the food table.

A fun game of “Design the Best Wedding Dress”

Third graders at a center

Gifts for Yuleisy and Solis

Leah and Milena

They could pose for the camera all day long.

Glamary organized a bridal shower for two of our teachers!

Our bus driver, Franky

Time to decorate the Christmas trees!

Our amazing principal, Toni, addressing parents at the Christmas program

Cute little greeters – Darla, Jorge Ariel, and Wilfred

Sharing the story of Christ’s love through song and a little drama

Our watchman, Lico

PK3 singing their songs!

The winning team with their “tree”!

Noah played the part of a worker who sneaked on the bus.

A dapper choir member

Leyton and his Kindergarten classmates

Family

One of the amazing views on our Thanksgiving retreat

Super-Caleigh!

Our intern Sanna!

We see motorcycles pushing other motorcycles all the time here. Two pushing a car, though? Impressive.

Our grinning girl.

Year-round grilling action is a perk of living in a tropical country

Christmas tree time!

Our “daughter” Yuleisy got married December 23rd!

A pretty little wayside flower

Merry Christmas from Leyton, Noah, and Caleigh!

October 2017 in Pictures

On November 1, 2017May 15, 2024 By MitchenersIn Photos of the Month2 Comments

Lots of progress on the second apartment building. A third floor has since gone up.

Emily interned with us a couple summers ago! So good to catch up with her

Orlando has made a special connection with Darwin over the last couple of years.

PK4 baseball fun!

Marcia enjoyed 4th grade camp in the afternoons

Samuel

Freedom missionaries spent a Saturday in Bejucal

Serving coffee

Trying some sugarcane

Becky swooped up Anyel’s little sister for some cuddles

Rachel and her stowaway

Ang’s buddy Frandy

Miss Sanna and Wilson

Paisley and Yesica

Wilnel works construction at Freedom, and his son Wilson is in preschool with us.

We worked with SCORE International to help rebuild Rosa’s parents’ house in Ramón Santana

A batey trip is never complete without a baseball game

A little Freedom frog.

About 240 October sponsor letters went out!

Ang was thankful for Krista’s help with the letters this time around!

This little one loves rocks and puddles

Sweet smiles from the quickly growing Caleigh-gal.

Trick-or-treat from our cowboy, clown, and Little Red Riding Hood!

August and September 2017 in Pictures

On October 1, 2017October 1, 2017 By MitchenersIn Angela, Photos of the Month2 Comments

Click the photos below to see some of the highlights from the last two months!

Our summer interns headed home!

So thankful for all the hard work that Sarah and the other interns put in during the summer months!

The 2 apartments and shop addition were finished!

Just in the nick of time for Austin and Laura Greeson, who have joined our full-time team!

Another shipment made it to campus!

Qtr 1 PT conferences

Becky talking with a young mom from Lima – she has 3 daughters in our school.

SonLight Power was able to come for a few days to work on the solar

Neytan just hanging around at recess.

The student body and staff having some fun singing at chapel

A church from the States blessed each of our students with a shoebox full of hygiene supplies and small toys!

Noah turned 7 in August!

Caleigh turned 2 a week later!

The boys had fun being paleontologists for a day – digging for dino bones

The new apartment building is quickly making progress!

Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the island. Maria left Ramón Santana severely flooded.

This home lost its roof/walls.

Jimena’s house was completely submerged.

Family of Desiree lives on this road. This is what the road looked like a few days after the flooding subsided.

The Freedom team spent some time helping clean up some areas in the small town.

Kurt working on cleaning up debris and trash.

We liked having Yuleisy around for a few days during the hurricanes/no school!

Our students enjoyed their field trip! The escalator at the airport was a brand new experience for them.

Checking out their first plane land.

Learning some new information at the San Pedro fire station!

July 2017 in Pictures

On August 1, 2017August 7, 2017 By MitchenersIn Angela, Photos of the MonthLeave a comment

A full and exciting July! Click the photos to learn more.

Chapel

Chapel’s theme so far has been “Love One Another.”

Our students practiced loving each other by praying for two schoolmates, Achuchu and Estaylin, who both lost their fathers recently.

Our intern Clayton has been such an amazing help this summer – in chapel and all around campus!

Miss Rachel and Miss Mery having fun singing our theme song, “Amar, Amar”

Ani praying with her classmates..

Entryway Paintings

Our intern, Lindsey, painted a scene on the wall of the entryway depicting Christ’s redeeming work on the cross.

Depicting the truth that we were dead in our sins.

Jason helped our students think critically about the artwork.

The mother of Albel (one of our 4th graders) was visiting school that day. She has had plenty of opportunities to hear the gospel. Another touch into her life that morning.

Sharing the Good News yet again.

We’re praying that all of our students walk with the Lord one day.

The New Playground

Short-term teams helped us finish the playground this month!

Our teachers took a morning to try out the new playground elements.

Everything seems to be in working order – even the zipline!

Interns Karli and Leah testing out the tire mountain.

4th grader Rosa helped pray at the Dedication Ceremony

Ready for some fun!

Brayan was part of the ribbon-cutting portion!

Yemely

Eliezer was all smiles on the monkey bars

Frailin

Interns

All of our interns have been such a blessing! Leah, Jordyn, Serena, Annie

Miss Annie spent her mornings in Kindergarten with Miss Flavia

Karli and Eliangel have built a special connection

Wilson and Faith swinging at recess

Jacob with PK4 student Solainy

Leah has been doing an amazing job leading the PK4 class! We will miss her!

New School Library

Miss Becky is a librarian in the States and graciously spent her week with us organizing our brand new library!

Lots of treasures for our kiddos to delve into!

Family

This little cutie is keeping us on our toes! She’s really been trying to “talk” recently.

Leyton is loving the new playground!

Our intern Jacob has been so good with Caleigh this summer!

Noah continues to learn lots of Spanish in 2nd grade! Here he is singing with his classmates in chapel.

Thanks for loving, giving, encouraging, and praying! On to August!

May and June 2017 in Pictures

On June 30, 2017May 15, 2024 By MitchenersIn Photos of the Month3 Comments

Our summer in pictures! Click on the photos to see a few snapshots of our furlough and the start to our new school year!

May furlough! We loved the opportunity to update our supporters and spend time with family! We visited Maryland, Ohio, and Indiana!

Noah enjoyed taking Caleigh for spins in the family wagon

Caleigh loved her trip to the zoo

Noah got to touch a snake – Leyton wasn’t too sure about it.

Indiana-bound! The boys thought it was cool to watch Memaw and Pepaw sing on stage one Sunday morning.

Thinking of my sugarcane fields even in the States – Domino sugar comes from the area where we work!

Back to the DR! Our Coaster bus broke down on the way back to Freedom.

The entire Freedom team visited our newest village, Bejucal, to get to know new students.

Book fun with Krista!

Flavia has joined the Freedom team as our Kindergarten teacher!

Jimary is one of our 1st graders.

The Freedom team praying together for the campus and the new school year.

The Salsbery family hit the ground running! Sofia was able to come play for a few days while her parents worked on setting up their house, car, and more.

Rachel is now working heavily with our Accelerate! classes. It’s neat to see this program grow and students receive specialized help where it’s needed.

Pam is hard at work treating lots of pink eye as we start the new school year.

First day of school for our new 3’s. Elizabeth was a bit tuckered out.

Smiles from PK4 student Klemily!

Mr. Kurt is now the Vice Principal!

The multi-use building is complete! Students love eating lunch here with their friends.

Our very first chapel!

We’re excited to see our students be challenged as they learn about the Lord this year.

Abby and Heather are back on the field after an extended furlough full of support-raising.

Miss Becky is doing such a wonderful job in pre-school!

Our interns are the best! They are taking on lots of responsibilities – and cuddles!

The footers are being dug for our second 8-unit apartment building. Caleigh loves watching the men work from our back porch!

VBS in Bejucal each week!

Keep praying!

March and April 2017 in Pictures

On April 30, 2017May 19, 2024 By MitchenersIn Dominican Republic, Photos of the Month2 Comments

Click the images below to check out some of the happenings of the last two months!

January 2017 in Pictures

On January 31, 2017May 19, 2024 By MitchenersIn Dominican Republic, Photos of the MonthLeave a comment

Another year has begun! Click on the images to check out some highlights from our first month of 2017.

The Suons have arrived! We are so happy to have Becky and her family working with us. She’s getting acclimated to school and learning Spanish with Maribel.

VBS in a new village – Behucal!

Here comes the multi-use building!

Pouring a ceiling on the kitchen end of the multi-use

Field Day! Yuleisy and Edward at the photo booth.

It has become a tradition – grilled hot dogs for lunch on Field Day!

Patricia having fun dressing up

Carmel Christian helped us with small groups during Field Day.

Caleigh and 3rd grader Marcia

One of our newer kindergarten students Jose Manuel praying with Miss Rachel

Noah loves to “play school” in his spare time. He’s growing up!

November and December 2016 in Pictures

On December 31, 2016May 19, 2024 By MitchenersIn Dominican Republic, Photos of the MonthLeave a comment

Another end to another year! How I pray that the Lord was glorified. I hope that our family looks to Him for strength and joy as 2017 begins.

14958977_10100942657653872_1849830470_ocrop — Our students visited the zoo this year for their field trip!

14975682_10100942658297582_158219258_ocrop — Checking out the flamingos

Our team enjoyed another Thanksgiving together as a group

Thanksgiving getaway! A great time of fellowship for the weekend.

We’ve been trying to battle a serious mold problem! Gross!

We finally took our new desks and cabinets apart and painted all the areas where the pressed wood was exposed. Yeah, it’s humid here.

dsc_0642crop — Miss Rachel and Miss Emma planned a 100th Day of School party for their kindergarten cuties

dsc_0673crop — Silly Jesús with his 100 Days crown

dsc_0605crop — Caleigh tested out our new LED lights for us

Scott confirmed that he was NOT pregnant. He battled some scary abdominal pain for a few days!

We thought for a moment that we may have had a case of appendicitis! Caleigh helped take care of Dad while he was on the mend.

God is so good. Katie brought us dinner one evening while Scott was sick!

Parent-teacher conferences in the villages!

One of our families in Cabeza de Toro made a Christmas tree out of green pop bottles!

img_7977crop — Our two-night Christmas program was a success!

dsc_1224crop — Noah helped his teacher Miss Mery pass out papers to the parents one evening at the program

dsc_1505crop — Our Freedom team! So thankful for these people!

dsc_1526crop — Staff Christmas party fun!

A church back home sweetly sent our family an entire suitcase of goodies for Christmas!

dsc_1827crop — We loved spending some time with Memaw and Pepaw over Christmas!

October 2016 in Pictures

On November 13, 2016May 19, 2024 By MitchenersIn Dominican Republic, Photos of the Month6 Comments

Another full month in the DR! Highlights: Day camp for 2nd/3rd grade and more construction progress!

dsc_9213crop — Third grade circling up for an afternoon of fun at their first-ever day camp!

dsc_9215crop — The kids enjoyed a group game where they introduced themselves with animal noises/silly actions.

dsc_9291crop — Guys and girls competed to see who could carry their volunteers the fastest across the human bridge!

dsc_9054crop — Enmanuel playing a game with his small group

dsc_9070crop — Marcia posing for the camera

dsc_9585crop — Fabiola coloring a picture after listening to the lesson

dsc_9620crop — We love these two! Thankful Rachel is back in the DR as a full-time missionary, and thankful that Katherine has been doing much better behaviorally in school recently!

dsc_0043cropcrop — Caleigh continues to keep us on our toes! We had a little milk mishap one afternoon.

We got in the Christmas spirit a little early when Dad found a couple of Christmas cookie box sets on super sale at the store!

The Pyle girls joined us for the making of some melty snowmen!

Rachel has been settling back in to Kindergarten! The kiddos have been learning lots!

Patricia showing off her writing notebook

dsc_0069crop — Just answering some emails with Dad

September 2016 in Pictures

On September 30, 2016May 19, 2024 By MitchenersIn Dominican Republic, Photos of the Month2 Comments

Three more months, and 2016 will be history. It’s funny how days seem long, yet the months and years just fly. At the close of each day, I fall into bed so very exhausted. But, the Lord! He’s so faithful and constant and near. As difficult and full as each day is, I’m thankful for His presence and strength. You can pray that our family would keep our eyes solely on our Jesus as we make our way through each day.

Enjoy some pictures of this past month in the DR!