This update has been a while in the making, but we've unfortunately had "sick week" in the Terrero household. I (Rose) came down with a bad cold on Friday, and spent several days mostly in bed. Miguel caught it just as I was getting over it and is finally on the mend now. The good part is that it happened the same week that FCA's Christmas break started! So, sickness aside, we've enjoyed being able to be home and mend without any worries that things were falling to the side as a result (except this post, of course ;).
2018 has been a tremendous year for us, with a lot of -traveling, -ministry advancement, and -church involvement.
- We've made a total of 4 trips stateside since this time last year!
Our first trip was to MI for Christmas and Miguel's first taste of all things America, including snow and everything related to a northern winter! Early on, we decided to spend the Christmas/New Year's season Stateside every other year and spend the alternate year here in the DR, barring any special circumstances, of course. Since Miguel had just gotten his residency approval paperwork, it worked out well to spend a little over a month for our first trip together.Because of the length of our stay, we got to spend a few days in GA as well, visiting wonderful friends and meeting new ones! Most of our GA family have been people who've been here on trips throughout the past 7 years and have gotten to know Miguel through ministry connections.
Our second trip was barely a month later as we headed to Orlando, FL to attend FCA's annual International Capacity Conference and once-every-three-years Realtime gathering with all of FCA staff and spouses. It was a full week of lots of learning, gaining ministry strategies, and connecting with fellow missionaries and people with a heart for youth and sports ministry.
Our third trip was the beginning of summer and right before our mission team season started. We were able to head to ND for 10 days to share with one of our main supporting churches, Northland Harvest Church, and give Miguel a taste of long summer days in northern USA.
Our fourth and most recent trip was barely a month ago, right over Thanksgiving. We absolutely loved catching up with friends and being with family in TX and making new connections and potential partnership opportunities in MD with Bay Area Community Church, as well as catching up with TCP, who is starting to make annual trips down here. I wrote a recap of the trip over on our Facebook page.
It's difficult to compare the trips since they were to different parts of the country, during different times of the year, and for different purposes and each was unique and special in its own way. The one common factor we took away from each trip was overwhelming gratefulness for the family and friends we have spread all over the US. AND on the flip-side, coming back home to a place where we belong right now and to people who pray for and miss us while we're gone. It's the best of both worlds, even if it does mean we're always missing someone.
An added blessing has been the generosity of churches and ministry partners who have made the trips possible through funding. At this point in our ongoing monthly funds, we would not be able to pay for all these trips on our own and we are so blessed by others' generosity and love for us, above and beyond what we have needed! Also, a big shout out to friends and family who have allowed us to invade their homes and spaces during our trips! You know who you are - thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!
- Miguel and I were talking about ministry the other day and reflecting on the incredible change that has taken place over the past two years since Miguel first started coming to Higuey in preparation to move up here once we were married. He first came knowing a grand total of 3 coaches. Two short years later and now he meets with 10-15 coaches weekly, 5 of whom are in his bi-monthly small group gaining tools to disciple their own teams, families, and influence other coaches. He visits an average of 3 fields every day, four days a week, to run devotional times (huddles) with the athletes and equip the coaches on-the-go, teaching life principles, Biblical understanding, and supporting them in any way necessary.
Every coach in Higuey, and many in the outlying small towns, know Miguel; he has visited their homes, knows their families, and shared in the their difficulty and joy. In turn, it is a weekly, sometimes daily, occurrence to have a coach show up at our home to see Miguel about personal, professional, and spiritual matters.
He has been invited to participate as a mediator in a group who is aiming to better formalize baseball in Higuey with the MLB since they know he doesn't bring his own agenda and is trustworthy.
We recently had another 3Dimensional Coaching workshop where 34 coaches participated in learning the fundamentals of coaching on a physical, mental, and heart level. These workshops are run by another of FCA DR's regional directors and have been amazing tools in helping coaches understand the impact they can have on an entire generation of their communities. Our prayer and aim is that the coaches learn to use this impact for good and to share the true hope of a future that comes in Jesus Christ.
On top of all this, we've helped host 8 teams for FCA DR and are already up to 10 teams for next year! I'll give a few more details on that below.
Then, of course, we have ATB and what that has added to our personal ministry. Recently, ATB staff was called in to assist in helping relocate more than 20 foreign women who had been trafficked. Without going into too much detail, this isn't the first time that a situation like this has come up and the government and assisting parties don't have any place to put the rescued women. This is precisely why we have created our Assessment Center model - but, we are still waiting for the paperwork to go through on the building the government is willing to donate to us. Involved in this recent case was an official who has access to the person with the authority to sign and release the papers on the building. Please be praying with us for this situation to be resolved and the paperwork to be cleared! Anyone who has done any ministry, business, or personal legal processes in the DR knows how long the paperwork process can drag out (sometimes for years). We will need discernment to know how long to wait until we should simply look for another option.
On another note, when we came back from our Thanksgiving trip, we were able to bring 2/3 of the donated Human Kindness Kits some of you gave towards. We are excited to have these on hand and look forward to being able to give them out in future cases!
- Something we've touched on several times, though not in great detail, and has been one of the most important factors in our married lives, is our local church. We strongly believe that the local church is God's design and the goal of any ministry should be to actively, beneficially participate in it's growth (in depth and width). The church we are a part of has been, in essence, a re-plant, and is still in it's beginning stages. It has been incredible to be able to see and participate in, from the beginning, how a healthy church lays its foundations, what biblical doctrinal guidelines are, and what is truly important - people.
We always encourage athletes to attend church with their coaches if they do not have one to attend and they're too far away from ours. However, we always invite them to come with us, when possible, and three of Miguel's youth have started attending regularly. One has gotten baptized and another one is considering taking that step as well!
Dinners with church friends are a regular occurrence around here. This dynamic group of people are the individuals who challenge us in our walk, encourage and uplift us in difficulty, and share in the joy of Jesus with us. Come visit us, and we'll take you to Thurs. night or Sun. meetings and you'll get to share in the warmth as well! The kind of friends who insist we share New Year's with them and call us family always welcome our visitors and groups with open arms.
As we wrap up 2018 and head into 2019, our hearts of full of praise and we love celebrating the reason for it all, Jesus Christ!
You might not be able to read the lettering, but I'm sure most of you have seen this news by now. We found out about our Mini T right after getting back from MD, and we are thrilled! Though not a complete surprise, in human terms one month later would have been "better" regarding ministry scheduling. My due date is early August, right in the middle of 3 large teams scheduled to come next year! We'll need some discernment in planning, but as of now, it looks like I'll be going Stateside in July and Miguel will be joining me as close to the baby's arrival as possible to plan for.
Because of this, one of our focuses will be having all the details in place for the team(s) Miguel will need to miss and training one more staff member the ins and outs of hosting the teams once they're on the ground. We also are not accepting any more team bookings for August!
We will also then need to spend several more months stateside as we will have at least 3 paperwork processes going after August.
The paperwork for Mini T alone will be more than usual as we want our kids to have dual citizenship.
The second paperwork process will be Miguel's residency status. Since we were married for less than 2 years when we filed, he was granted temporary status for 2 years, and come September, we'll need to begin the process of filing for the extension of full permanent status.
The third paperwork process will be to get started on my Dominican residency process. This needs to be started from the States and we've never been up there long enough, since getting Miguel's US residency done, to begin filing for mine. So far, residency hasn't been necessary, but we do need to pay an overstay fine every time I leave the DR, which adds up. And with adding a child, it will make things easier and more cost effective long-term to have my residency here.
These are the joys of international family life! When we got engaged, my bosses, who are Australian and American, told me, "Congratulations!! Welcome a lifetime of filing paperwork!" :D
Because of these processes, we'll have some costs above and beyond regular "adding a member to the family" costs and would appreciate your prayers in this area.
