?

Learning a New Culture

Josh Crabtree josh.crabtree@uscm.org January/February 2012
Friends and Family
January has been a fun month. Scattered throughout the month we were visited by friends or family from almost everyone on the team. The first week of February was also a time where we were visited by the El Salvador, Maracaibo, and Valencia STINT teams as well as staff members from the States for our mid-year retreat. This was a very encouraging time for everyone as we were reminded why we are here and also to remind us to remain strong as we finish the rest of our time here.
Left: Group picture with our distance coaches DJ and Alisha Bottom Left: Spending time at the orphanage Bottom Right: Enjoying Gods creation at Tres Ojos

Above: Spending time with students at an amusement park.

Prayer Requests: Praise: Praise God for a good start of the semester and being able to continue to meet new students, thankful for an encouraging visit from my parents and my brother, thankful that God has been leading us to students that want to grow in their faith Requests: Pray that God will continue to lead us to the right students to talk with on campus; continue to pray that the team will remain strong during the spiritual warfare that happens while we are on campus, pray that God will raise up student leaders for the weekly meeting on Thursday nights

Ministry in the DR The Spring semester started on January 16. We continue to have three different weekly meetings on campus along with the weekly evangelism time on Wednesdays. For the first few weeks of the semester, our focus was publicizing Vida Estudiantil. During this time we were able to meet a lot of new students and a few have even continued to come to our weekly meetings. One of the students that I have recently started to get to know has been Winser. He is a student that has only been to two weekly meetings so far but has shown a huge interest in wanting to know what it means to have a personal relationship with God and how to draw closer to Him. One way we have been serving the community has been going to help out at an orphanage that has around 20 children that are HIV+. This was a great time for us as we were able to show Gods love to these children who have been abandoned by their parents.