Howdy From El Rancho Lembert...

Howdy everyone!  Chris is outside playing baseball with our boys and three Dominican boys that came up the mountain.  I thought I'd take a minute to say hello while we still have this borrowed modem dongle and it still has a few hours of time left on it.

Word has gotten out that "Americanos" are living in Senor Franci's house and Dominican boys have been traveling up everyday to visit.  It's a good way to both learn the language and also develop a relationship with some of the children in the community. 

We are getting more adjusted everyday and the Lord has definitely given grace when needed.

Many have asked what we need, and right now we really have no "needs".  Wants are another story, but it's hard to be too picky when you are living in the midst of people who have nothing and think you are rich.  Truthfully, they are right.  I am rich.  Blessed with "things" for sure, but most importantly an heir to the riches of Christ Jesus. 

If anyone does have a desire to help with physical items, Sister Truel and I would like to try to work with some of the Haitians that live near us in Polo.  They basically have 1 running faucet between 8 families, go to the bathroom in the woods, have a dirt floor and own nothing but maybe a set of worn clothing.  Little dollar toys like rag dolls, jump ropes, flip flops, markers, notebooks and anything like that would be great for the children.  I thought towels, blankets of any kind, and washrags would be a nice gesture for the women.  They sleep on cardboard boxes and will often beg for them.

Chris would like to start going with Bro. Darren into the mountains to work with the Haitians and a gift of any kind helps to soften their hearts.  Most of them cannot read, so building a relationship with them to be able to preach the word of God is on our hearts. 

Chris was able to go into the capital and bring back bread, eggs, small garbage bags and some other household items.  I have never been happier to see sliced, American bread before in my life!  I literally hugged the box of garbage bags.   I know it sounds funny, but if as an American I can be so happy to get a box of garbage bags, imagine how grateful these Haitians who have nothing would be to get ANYTHING at all.  Sister Jennifer said they will sometimes come out to the road and just ask them for anything, just something.  One little boy just wanted a soda, never having had one. 

I'm not writing any of this to try to make anyone back home feel guilty for being American.  On the contrary, I think the Lord can use those who have to be a blessing to those who don't have.

Ideas for cheap things are Dollar Tree and I also thought of Oriental Trading Co.  I tried to shop online myself, but the internet connection is too weak for me to load pages.  One page can take 5-15 minutes to load. It's very hard to get anything not text based done here. 

For the Domincan children, they LOVE baseballs and gloves.  If anyone wants to keep an eye out at thrift stores for those things, they would be of great use.  Just while I was typing this one of the little boys was asking if we could give them a glove.  We allowed them to have 2 of ours to play at with at school.  Baseball is a huge thing here.

Thank you to our home church for the box of food!  Until we get a vehicle, boxed and canned food is what we are subsisting on.  Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.  We'll try to keep you posted as much as possible on everything here. 

At this time, for us to be able to receive any shipments, everything must be weighed and $1.50 per pound must be paid to Missionary Flights International.  This is due to the fact that we are using another missionary's mailing address and his mailing account.  If the senders of the package do not pay for the box, the fees will get charged directly to them and not us.  We realize this is asking a lot, but until we are established, there's no other way to get mail to us. 

We are in the process of getting our own address, and will let everyone know when this is accomplished.

 Instructions are as follows:

1.  Get box ready and weigh it.  Take poundage x's $1.50.  For example, if you box weighs 50 pounds, a check would need to be made out to Missionary Flights International for the amount of $75 to cover the cost of MFI delivering the box to us in the Dominican.

2. Send a check for the $1.50 a pound fee to Missionary Flights International.   Be very sure to mark that the check is for Darren Truel in the notes section.  Address is as follows:

MFI
3170 Airmans Drive
Ft. Pierce, Florida 34946

3.  Send box through your choice of carrier to the following address:

Darren Truel
3170 Airmans Drive
Unit # 4019 - CMBH
Ft. Pierce, Florida 34946

* Fed Ex Ground is probably the cheapest way to send heavy boxes.  From SC, a 50 lb. box costs approx. $28 to send to Florida.   The USPS also has flat rate boxes for around $14 that may work for smaller things. 

**  To make things a bit easier to tell whose mail is whose, you may write "Weltin" on the bottom or sides of the box.  Thank you!

Anyway, I better be going.  We have Dominican services this evening.  Pray we would learn the language quickly.

PS - El Rancho Lembert is the name of the house we live in.  Franci Lembert is the name of the gentlemen who rents this house to us.  He is in the Dominican military and does security detail for the ambassador to Spain.  He and his wife Galena (Jay-Lane-uh) have been very good to us and we thank the Lord for their willingness to let us live in their house.