Vida Joven Video

There is a great new video about Vida Joven Dominicana, Young Life's field ministry in the Dominican Republic. Vida Joven is doing great ministry to adolescents in the Dominican Republic. It's under five minutes long, and will give you a much better understanding of YL's ministry in the DR. Enjoy!

 

Young Life Dominican Republic from W. Ashley Maddox on Vimeo.

Daniel Liam Clifford Aguilar

Daniel Liam Clifford Aguilar

At 3:15 pm on December 19th, our son Daniel was born. Mother and son are thankfully very healthy. Daniel tipped the scales at 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Childbirth is a fascinating, traumatic experience. We are grateful to have a good team of medical personnel in Santiago.

This was a slightly different experience than David's birth. David's birth went about as smooth as possible. While there were no serious complications with Daniel, there were several little things that added up. Each thing made it a little bit more complicated and costly. One of the hardest things for me as father came after being told that there was a membrane that had closed the passage inside his left nostril. While fairly common, the ENT specialist was called. Her solution was to take an instrument the length of my new son's forearm and shove it up his nose. That was not fun to watch. While it seems a bit barbaric, Daniel appears to be no worse for wear now.

Now begins the post-birth legal process in order to claim Daniel's citizenship in the three countries he has rights to: the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and the US. The Dominican birth certificate process went much more smoothly than with David. After only four hours of waiting in lines, it was done. Next we will go to the US and Guatemalan embassies. The US government has a very poetic name for this: "Consular Report of Birth Abroad". That means a full day in Santo Domingo and listing every international trip I have ever made in my entire life. After serving in the Peace Corps and living in the DR for 15 years, that list is pretty long. Once we have Daniel's CRBA, we can apply for a passport, which necessitates another day spent at the embassy. Fun, fun, fun!

In the end, we are thankful for a healthy baby, thankful for the blessings of triple citizenship in wonderful countries, thankful for a blue passport that will let him travel about anywhere he wants.

Fall Fundraising Trip Schedule

Below is a calendar of key activities during our trip to the US this fall. Please contact us for more details if you would like to be a part of any of these activities. We would love to see you. Unless otherwise noted, all activities will be in Winston-Salem, NC.

Growth Camps vs Fundraising

In the Fall each year Pico Escondido hosts Campamentos de Crecimiento - "Growth Camps". The purpose of these is to be a follow-up experience for all those kids who made commitments to Christ during summer outreach camps. Pico has groups at camp almost every weekend throughout the year now, and we try to give each group excellent service, yet our primary focus is on providing a place for Vida Joven (Young Life's direct ministry in the Dominican Republic) to minister to teenagers. Unfortunately for me, I will not be able to be present this year.

As a North American, I am not to be a financial burden on the local ministry. This means that I must fundraise in the US to cover my salary and benefits. Since I had to be at the Young Life Camping Summit in VA November 4-8, and a prohibition on women traveling in the last month of their pregnancies (our baby is due December 27th), we decided that we needed to be in the US from November 1-25. This means I will miss all three growth camps and the YL International Schools outreach camp. Fortunately we have a great staff at Pico who will serve our field ministry well in those activities.

Rebe Goes to Denver

Rebeca's Perspective
 
In my last two jobs I have been surrounded by great coworkers whom I got to see on a daily basis. In the first one, because of bad traffic and the fact that I lived out of town, I was most likely to be at the office every morning 45 minutes before my schedule started. There were a couple of us who found ourselves in the same situation, so I had this routine of hanging out and catching up with the rest of the staff before 8am hit. Every Thursday, we would get together and have breakfast - "paches", the traditional Thursday tamale that's cooked every week in Guatemala. We would share about our families and lives, read the newspaper, etc. During the four years I was there I developed deep friendships with these folks. Then, once I started working with Young Life, I worked from home but one of my roommates worked with Young Life too. Our boss lived two blocks down the street. So, I had a solid staff community who knew me well and whom I grew to love. Now I work for Young Life as an administrator for the Central American region, but we live in the Dominican Republic. I work from home, in a foreign country, and none of my coworkers lives in the same country as I do. It takes me about half a day and two planes to get to any of the people on my team. Needless to say, sometimes I feel isolated; sometimes I feel as if nobody I see on a regular basis knows or gets what I do, and sometimes I also feel a little bit out of the loop.

So, I was really excited when I got an invitation to be part of the Young Life International South (iSouth) meetings a couple months ago. iSouth is the division that includes Africa, Asia/Pacific, Central America, and Latin America. I work with a lot of these folks, but have probably seen them in person only a handful of times. All our interactions are via email or skype. It was the first time I was going to these meetings, and even though I had little knowledge of what to expect, I was just glad to meet with folks from all over the world who have the same heart and similar jobs. However, all my excitement got mixed in with anxiety. For this trip, I couldn't take David, our 13-month-old son. I am thankful that working from home has allowed me to be close to David, and Young Life has given me such freedom to take David on business trips with me during his first year, but he is now over a year, and not exclusively breastfeeding anymore, so it was time to take the plunge and leave him here. I was torn.

Now that I have lived through the experience, I think I was really wrapped up in the fantasy that I mean everything to this boy. But the reality is that all of us who live in this house love him and know him well. Roy is an excellent dad, and Sami is a sweet uncle, and David loves them both. And we've also been blessed with two friends who help us take care of him - Yudi and Rebeca. So, I packed up my suitcase, and we made a plan. Rebeca would come Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in the mornings while Roy worked from home, and Yudi would come watch him in the afternoon while Roy went to camp. Saturday was a little easier, and I would come home that night. And after the plan was made, I was able to realize another part of this trip: I was going to be on my own, for four days! I was especially excited when I found out my roommate wouldn't be arriving until the second day. A room, A BED, just for me. I couldn't wait. I had so many plans for that first night. The reality was that I drove to the airport at 6am and didn't get checked into my room until midnight. I was so exhausted that I was only able to fall asleep watching VH1's 40 Most Shocking Hollywood Breakups.

But after a good night's sleep, and some yucky hotel coffee (what can I say, I'm spoiled... Roy makes great coffee), I was ready for the day. The meetings didn't start until noon, so I was able to meet with some family friends I hadn't seen in more than eight years who happen to live in Denver. We had a great time catching up. The YL team had a time of fellowship together, reports on how the Lord has been blessing the ministry in so many different countries, a time to celebrate what God has done, and also planning time for the year to come. It all felt like a whirlwind, but I was glad I was there. Baby Clifford #2 and I are already booked for a trip at the end of February 2014. Here's a picture of our group.

Happy First Birthday!

On August 26th, our son David turned 1! On Sunday the 25th we had a small party to celebrate, inviting some of our friends who had young kids. Among the participants were his grandfather (Rebeca's dad) and great grandmother, who traveled from Honduras to spend a week with us to get to know David. Jeremias made a big piñata in the shape of a "1" in honor of the occasion. It was a big "hit" (ha ha ha).

Birthday boy gave a valiant effort

Others thought the game a bit childish

Others had fun trying, but didn't make a dent

Finally the designated hitter was brought in and candy was had for all

We are very grateful for David's presence in our life, his health, his sense of humor, and his explorer's nature. We look forward to seeing him grow up!

Nicaragua Trip

The last week in August we were privileged to be able to visit Nicaragua. Rebeca was part of the leadership team putting on the YL Central America Area Director's Retreat at Young Life's La Finca camp. I used frequent flyer miles to go along and visit with our dear friends Joey and Sara Espinoza, who were previously with us at Pico Escondido, and are now at La Finca. Since I have been asked often to lend my camping experience to the Central America region, it was also great to see many of the people I have worked with and also get to visit La Finca for the first time. It was a wonderful trip.

 

After a very busy summer, I needed a break, and while keeping up with a toddler 27/7 is not necessarily physically relaxing, the change of pace from running a camp was a great mental break. Joey and I were also able to escape a couple of times to go on mountain bike rides through the beautiful mountainous terrain of northern Nicaragua. This is coffee country, and the huge trees shading the coffee plants and the abundant rainfall make for a beautiful ride. Joey and Sara became very close friends of ours here in the Dominican Republic. It was sad to see them leave last year, but great to know they would continue helping Young Life camps in Latin America progress. Joey is project manager for the next phase of development at La Finca. 

Joey, Risa, Micah, and Jace Espinoza with Rebeca and David

La Finca sits at about 4000 feet of elevation, which was a nice cool break from the Dominican Republic. David loved exploring camp and taking long naps in the cool mountain air.

Enjoying the cool of La Finca

So while it looks like we just found a tiny body, David was rather enjoying napping in the grass.

Thank you, Joey and Sara, Harold Amador, and the rest of the Vida Joven Nicaragua team who made us feel so welcome. We look forward to our next visit.