I'm here!!!

Hey everyone, so first off I just want to say thank you for the prayers. I got here safely without much trouble. Customs was easier than it should have been, I honestly feel like I could've brought anything I wanted into this country. The family that I'm working with is super fantastic, I'll try to post some pictures when I get the chance, I've been taking some pictures and I'll try to take more but those will probably be posted on facebook and maybe not until after I get back. We'll see. Today we went to Santo Domingo which was a super long trip but it was really special to see how the majority of the island and to be involved in the culture. I traveled with several Dominicans and talking with them was really cool because you could see how much they desired to serve the Lord. The things going on here are simply amazing because the government is so screwed up and people are trapped in these ways of life and the missionaries and local churches have done a fantastic job at being creative and reaching the people where they are and finding ways to try to make their lives better. Even so, the WHOLE island is SUPER poor! The average living conditions are towards the bottom end of anything that we would ever have in America and I honestly haven't even been to the bad parts of the country yet. We'll be doing some of that in the next few days and I'll try to share with you some cool stories from that when they happen.

One thing that we did today was we stopped by the place where they make the water filters. These filters are probably some of the coolest things that I've ever heard of and I kinda want one. Basically it's a pottery dome that has different sizes of stones, sand, and wood, that get finer and finer as you get closer to the center to filter out as much dirt and particles as possible. Then it has a carbon and silver center that purify the water that makes it there followed by another layer of the grain and such to protect the carbon core. The filter can clean up to 5 gallons a day and if you maintain it well (monthly cleaning and not breaking) it will last for a lifetime. Lifetime of clean water! What can be better? The fact that it's only 35 dollars! Pretty incredible. Now that's not something that a lot of these people can afford but it's a growing ministry and really promising for helping out the general health of the people here. I'll post some pictures when I get the chance and if I find out that there's a website I'll pass that on as well. But yeah, that's just one of the many cool things that God is doing here. The other thing that we did today was check out a business idea that may be able to get some of the locals some jobs and extra income. We'll see how the Lord provides in that area as time goes on.

Well anyways, I'll hopefully have more exciting stories to share next time but I just wanted to give you kids a quick update and say thank you for your prayers, I've been totally healthy and I don't expect to get sick at all. So thanks and keep praying. We're heading into the villages in the next few days so pray that the Lord uses us there, and then also pray that the Lord continues to help me communicate effectively in Spanish. So far so good, so praise the Lord for that. Ok I love you bye bye!!