Byker's Coast-to-Coast Summer Tour 2012

As promised, here's where we'll be this summer.  We'd love to see you if we're in your area!

June 5 -12 - Northern California

June 13 - 19 - Travel with Christen's family

June 20 - 25 - Northern California

June 25 - 28 - Fort Walton Beach, FL

June 28 - July 3 - Tennessee (Estill Springs / Manchester)

July 3 - 15 - Rockford, MI (and surrounding area)

July 16 - 20 - Philadelphia, PA

July 20 - Return to the DR

Email jr.byker@gmail.com or call (616) 780-7594 - we'll figure out a time to see you!  

In the Swing of Things

It’s been about two weeks since our last update – we really are trying to be diligent in updating our blog, but there is just so much to do that sometimes it’s hard to find time.  That reminds me of a quote I read this week in a book I’m reading by Chip Ingram called Good to Great in God's Eyes: “You’ll never have enough time in your schedule – you have to make time!”  Clearly, I need to make time to update this blog, so this is a lesson I am working to internalize. 

Rather than just tell you about what we’ve been doing this week, I am going to let some pictures (and captions) do most of the talking. 

Camping trip to "Spirit Mountain," Manabao, DR.  We stayed in these shelters last weekend on Friday and Saturday night with two other couples from school.  The view is amazing and we enjoyed a relaxing weekend.

Obligatory campfire picture.  We camped with Rob and Meghan (R) and Keith and Kerrie (L)



Christen enjoying the great swing at Spirit Mountain....



.....And the view while on the swing!  Amazing

This is the view from our bedroom door that we get to enjoy each and every morning.  I don't think it will ever get old!

This week, I want to share a bit about our work here so that you get an idea of what we do in a typical week. 

Christen has been busy teaching and is really getting into the swing of things in the classroom.  She is doing a great job with her middle school students.  The highlight of teaching science so far this year for her has been using soccer to teach students about the scientific method.  In addition, her 9^th grade health class has been a blessing in disguise (she wasn’t especially prepared to teach this class) as her students are engaged and interested in the subject matter each time they meet.  Overall, she really appreciates the fact that she can start each day by giving her students a big hug and spend time talking about what is really going on in their lives during devotions class. 

I’ve been working on numerous projects, but one of my main thrusts thus far has been getting the school’s peso account in order so that we can have more transparent financial statements and reports this year (and in the future).   Primarily, this involves ensuring invoices go out and payments are received for tuition, class trips, and other similar items.  In addition, we are working to improve the tracking and logging of expenses and other costs the school incurs for various reasons.  Since much of this has not been done in great detail, I spend much time trying to give more granularity to the income we receive and expenses we incur on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis.

Over 50% of the students at Doulos Discovery School are on need based scholarships, which means that their families are responsible for only a small portion of the monthly tuition payments and the rest is covered by donors who “adopt” a student for a year (or typically, for several years).   In addition to a portion of the tuition, parents are required to put in a certain number of hours of sweat equity at the school doing things like cleaning, repairing broken items, cutting the grass, etc.  

Because the school relies so heavily on donors to cover student tuition and educational expenses and desires to provide the best possible education with outstanding teachers, is not financially possible to provide salaries for the North American staff members at the school.  Essentially, Doulos has decided that their mission is to provide a quality education for as many students as possible, no matter their family’s economic situation and is trusting God to provide the teachers and funds to support them.  Therefore, each staff member (yes, including us!) is responsible for raising their own financial support to fund their being at Doulos (this includes all living expenses, flights home, insurance, etc.).  

In addition to accounting for tuition payments and other receipts at the school, I am responsible for reporting to each of the missionaries (staff members) at the school the status of their support account – or the status of the account that pays their salary & living expenses – funded by their supporters.  Eventually, I will also run the payroll system for all North American staff and generate financial reports for the board and other interested parties.

As you hopefully can see from the pictures and the narrative, we’ve been quite busy and are finally settled into a “normal” schedule.  While challenges obviously present themselves daily, we continue to trust God and strive to abide in His love whatever our circumstances.  We hope and pray that you are doing well! 

SDG

PS: For those of you who asked, we will take pictures of our house THIS weekend.  Sorry for the delay!

First Weeks: Part I

Welcome to our blog!  We've chosen to entitle it "Caminando Por Fe" which roughly translates into "Walking By Faith," which is what we believe God calls each of us to do with the lives He has given us.  Thank you first of all for being a part of our adventure in the Dominican Republic!  We hope to provide (at least) weekly updates on happenings down here to keep you up to date on the things going on in our world.  As always, we’d love to hear all about your lives as well!

Since much has happened since we left the States on July 24^th, this first post will be a summary of some highlights from the past two weeks.

We flew out of Nashville, TN at 9:40am after being dropped off at the airport by our good friends, Eric and Katie Neel.  They had been gracious enough to host us at their home for the previous three weeks, which made for an even more difficult goodbye with these wonderful Christian friends.  After a nearly three hour flight to Miami (which was fairly uneventful), we prepared for a six hour layover.  Fortunately, since Joe is technically still on active duty in the USAF, we were able to spend most of those hours in the MIA USO (military lounge) where were able to catch up on some much needed rest after a late night of packing on Saturday night.  We boarded our flight and upon takeoff as we watched the Florida coastline disappear at dusk, it really sunk in that we were leaving and wouldn’t be back in the US for quite some time! 

We arrived at the Punta Cana airport right on time at 9:30pm and waid in several lines before we could exit the airport.  The best part was that when we arrived at customs they were so backed up that everyone (including us with our 6 bags) were able to just walk through without our bags ever being checked.  This was truly a gift from God as much of our household items would have likely been taxed at 15% of their original value.  After making it through customs, we found our travel company’s desk and were quickly transported to the resort we would be staying at for the week (for those of you who don’t know, Joe hadn’t seen his family since arriving back in the States after his deployment to Afghanistan.  To make meeting up easier [and to celebrate sister Jennie’s recent graduation from Calvin College] the Byker family planned a trip to Punta Cana, DR in order to all meet up before we began our work with Doulos Discovery School).

The first time riding in a vehicle in the DR (especially at night) was quite an experience.  Small motorcycles (called “motos” here) are everywhere, often without any lights, signals, helmets, etc.  Safety is definitely an afterthought (if a thought at all) and the motos go where they please – rule of thumb is much like downhill skiing – you worry about what is in front of you on the road.  Needless to say, Christen was immediately uninterested in driving here. 

  We spent a fantastic week at the Iberostar Punta Cana hotel with the Byker family (Don, Donna, Sarah, Bruce, Eliana (our new baby niece), Sam, and Jennie) enjoying good food, great sun, the pool and the beach, but more importantly, each other’s company.  There’s much more from the week in Punta Cana that we could share, but the highlights were time spent as a family and rest & relaxation after a very busy month preparing for our move.

  After our restful week in the resort town (read, not the real DR) of Punta Cana, it was time to begin our trek to our new home in the mountain town of Jarabacoa.  To get from the far eastern coast of the island (where Punta Cana is located) to the central mountains of Jarabacoa we looked at numerous methods of transport including purchasing a car, taking a taxi, taking a bus, renting a car, etc.  After not having much luck with most of these options and hearing that we would have to transfer buses in downtown Santo Domingo (the capital city with roughly two million inhabitants) with all of our ten bags of luggage*, we opted for the shuttle contracted by the resort hotel.  While this was the costliest of the rent/taxi options, it was also definitely the safest for us during our first ever transport experience across the island.

The entire ride was incredibly interesting – from the stunning poverty of the village directly outside of the resort area, to the hustle and bustle of downtown Santo Domingo, to the impressive greenery and forests of the countryside.  While it was certainly very different for both of us, Christen experienced culture shock to a greater extent than Joe since he had just recently returned from his deployment to Afghanistan.   From Santo Domingo on, the drive started a gradual climb up into the mountains, until roughly 30 miles outside of Jarabacoa the roads begin their steep march up the mountainside and the going gets slow.  All told, the ride took about six and a half hours and at its culmination we were dropped off at our new school, Doulos Discovery. 

(Stay tuned for Part 2 to hear about our first week at the school and living in Jarabacoa)

*If you’re reading carefully you’ll notice that this increased from the six bags I previously mentioned.  We were blessed in that Joe’s parents were able to carry some baggage for us which prevented us from having to pay exorbitant shipping and/or excess baggage fees with the airlines.