November Outreach

We just completed the final outreach of 2008! It has been a year full of students coming to Centro Especial Genesis to bless and learn from us! We have loved having all of you.

This final outreach was a busy one! We hosted a team from Riverbank and another from The Chapel. Thanks to both churches for sending a team. We hasted 2 participants at Special Ed and one at Developmental Therapy (note the new name!)

Jordan, Denise, and Gwen did a great job of jumping in and building relationships with the kids. It was a joy to have all three of you at the site!!! We also welcomed a number of visitors including the Art Site (thanks for coming to play), Pam and Delora from the SI home office in CA, and various group leaders. Thanks for participating the the Lord's work at Centro Especial Genesis!
Gwen enjoying the love from Daniel Polo

A visit from Amy Babb and art site participants to lead an art activity

Jordan with Daniel Polo and Leonela

Denise with Rances

Student Awards

This school year we have started a good behavior/homework completion program. Our goal is to encourage the kids to behave during class and to do their homework each night at home. If they complete both tasks for the month then at the end of the month they receive a prize and a ribbon. Their names are also placed on a certificate that hangs in the office for the next month, recognizing their achievement. Join us in congratulating this months winners: Nelito, Mildred, Angelica, Madeline, Jonathan, Patricia, Candy, Omar, and Manuel Andres

All of November's winners!

Candy is so proud!

Nelito receiving his award!

Dia de La Raza

Dia de La Raza directly translated means "Race Day". It is the day here in the DR that they celebrate their racial roots. There is not one specific race here in the DR. The majority of people here are a mixture of Taino (the indigenous people group), Spanish, and African. The story goes that Columbus (Cristobol Colon)arrived to the New World on October 12th. He and all those with him came to the island bringing their culture and their diseases. The slave trade also eventually arrived and thus the 3 cultures celebrated. The Tainos eventually died out leaving no indigenous people group here on the island, but the are still remembered on this day.



The poster announcing America's discovery. Can you still name the 3 ships?



Worship time during the festivities...notice all the kids dressed as "tainos"



Patricia came dressed as the Queen of Spain.



Lizbeth in her native taino costume



Manuel the conqueror!



Nelito and Darwin

Wheelchairs

Sorry for the long delay in posts. It has been a busy month getting the school up and running again for the new school year. At times it can be difficult trying to meet the physical needs of all the children and at other times, like today, i can be pure joy. Yesterday we received 4 new wheelchairs in the mail...good thing we didn't have to try to stuff them in a mail box. Today Vanesa and Laura received their much needed (and anticipated) new chairs from Joni and Friends Wheels for the World program. Enjoy the photos.

Laura in her old chair

Laura in her new chair

Vanesa in her old chair


Vanesa in her new chair

WE'RE BACK!

After a much needed and appreciated month off, the children of Centro Especial Genesis are back in class. We started back on Tuesday September 9th. We said goodbye to Samuel, Miguelina, and Argenis at the end of August and have added 2 new teachers to our staff. With new teachers comes new classroom assignments, and so far the kids seem to be doing well with their new teachers and classmates.

Carmelina has our most advanced class this year with: Leonardo, Madeline, Juan Carolos, Geronimo, Vanessa, and Jeremy.

Next in line is Neli (one of our new teachers) with: Laura, Melina, Manuel Andres, Vladimir, and Daniel Polo.

Lourdes has with her: Wilman, Giselle, Darwin, Omar, and Alejandra.

With Margarita (our other new teacher)we have Candy, Patricia,Jonathan, Omar, and Henny.

And finally with Maribel and Angie we have Rances, Mildred, Franklin, Leonela, Raymundo, and Angelica.

Enjoy the photos

Outreach 7

Outreach 7 was another large outreach and a great way to end the summer. The girls we had with us from Turlock, Raisin City and our independent friends Vicki and Katie were such a blessing. Katie is a speech therapist and was a wonderful help in evaluating the kids speech abilities, and educating the teachers on things they can do to help their classes run more smoothly.

This group, as the last one of the summer, had the "privilege" of helping us end out the year. They helped us plan and prepare for the last day of classes and then helped us clean up afterward. From cleaning up the outside of the school to scraping glue off of desks and walls (yes walls)they had wonderful attitudes and servants hearts. What a blessing.

We have now finished our first week of "summer" vacation and have 3 more to go. That means there will not be a lot of posts in the next month, but pray with us that the kids not only enjoy their vacation, but that they remain safe and well cared for in the mean time.

For all you sponsors, this "break" gives me an opportunity to update our files and send out new photos. I will be joining forces with our ladies in the home office to update the sponsorship files and our roster from the school. It is possible for some of you that your sponsor child will not be continuing with us in the fall as we have had a lot of changes in our enrollment. We will notify you individually if that is the case and offer you the opportunity to help another child within our school. We have several new children starting in the fall, so please be praying for them and if you have friends who want to sponsor a child please point them in our direction.

Thank you all for all of your prayers and donations over this past summer, we could not do what we do here in the DR without your help!

Outreach 6

This past outreach was once again busy busy busy! We hosted a much smaller group this time with 2 students at special ed and 3 at therapy. During the second week of the outreach, we held a VBS for the kids at the school. We were able to have 4 "stations" for the kids to rotate through including: sports, crafts, music, and Bible story. During VBS week we also had a birthday party and a trip to the swimming pool!!! Enjoy the photos

Happy Birthday Madelin, Miguelina, and Lourdes


This is what happens when kids get cake without being at a table with plates and utensils


Vanesa during music time


Craft time at VBS

Dinner in the Community at Darwins...special ed group

Outreach 5

Amazingly another outreach has come and gone. This outreach brought old friends as well as many new ones. Brian, Megan, Kelly, John, Lourdes it was great to see you guys again. This group of students worked very hard from swimming at the pool to cleaning the yard to endless diaper changes. The PT and Special Ed groups seemed to meld into one and form one large super group!!! We had such a great time with the students representing Bethany Reformed Church, Hopewell Reformed Church, Messiah College, and the Duyst team. Thanks again for all your hard work over the last two weeks!!!!!



The beautiful ladies and gentlemen from special ed: Kayley, Kristen, Paige, Fausto, Kaelie, Jessica, and Travis (i apologize if any names got butchered in the spelling)



The wonderful PT crew: Amber, Katie, Jess, Amy, Laura, and Amy

One more update

Hey for all of you with facebook out there...Centro Especial Genesis now has its very own facebook group. We will post from the updates from here on the group, so just check in every once and a while!

Attention Sponsors

Sponsors, please remember that we would love to have a photo of you and your family! A couple of photos have arrived, but we would love to see all of your faces on our new bulletin board. Please send your photos to:

Amy Green
Unit 3022-SIDR
3170 Airmans Dr.
Fort Pierce, FL 34946

Thanks again for making Centro Especial Genesis a reality for our children!

Outreach 4

Another outreach has come and gone. With this outreach we marked the middle of our summer here and are now on the countdown to our fall vacation! This past group was made up entirely of high school students, full of energy and ready to serve. This team brought 4 students to special ed and 4 to physical therapy. They served in the classrooms, played at recess, helped clean the yard, and helped with out "spa" day.

Unfortunately at various moments, one or more of the students were not feeling well and we do not have any photos of these 2 groups at the school, but thanks again to Bakersfield Christian High School and the youth from The Chapel in Canton, OH.

Enjoy the photos of "spa" day


Well its not a foot bath but it will do!

Alejandra getting the royal treatment.

Jonathan was patient, but not overly excited.

Candy loves her newly painted nails

Vanesa getting ready for her pedicure

Outreach 3

We are almost halfway through our summer here. Its incredible how fast time flies. This was a very busy outreach for us. From "field day" to clean up day, we kept this last team busy. Thank you so much girls for all your hard work. This last outreach was made up of teams from Sonoma State University, San Fransisco University, and James Madison University. Enjoy all the photos!

Special Ed team(the guy in the green shirt on the end is our new intern Travis Gerig who will be with us for the rest of the summer...Welcome Travis)



Physical Therapy Team

henny all dressed up for the day

the big race

more of the race

bobbing for wiffle balls


face painting


more face painting


cleaning the school lawn

Outreach 2

Time is flying by at Centro Especial Genesis this summer. We have just finished with our second team of the summer and things are going well. Our Physical Therapy site received a shippment of donations from Cascade DAFO, a company that manufacturs foot splints for special needs children. They have been such a huge blessing. Please take a couple of moments to view the videos in this post. Our last group came to us from Boston University and Grove City College. 4 you ladies made special ed their home for 2 weeks and 4 more were at physical therapy. Thanks ladies for all your help!!!! You made a HUGE difference in the lives of our students.

Outreach 1

Summer time has arrived at Centro Especial Genesis, signaled by the arrival of the "americanos" (no offense to those who live in central and south america...you are also americans!)

In the special education site we were blessed to have one student during this outreach. Melisa came to us from Bethel College, but was born and raised in Honduras. She speaks fluent english and spanish and was a huge asset to our ministry. Here she is with Jeremy(one of our newest students)



In the physical therapy side of things, we received our summer intern (with us for 10 weeks)...her name is Jess. Welcome Jess! We had 2 students in physical therapy, Knox and April.


(April, Knox, Jess, Amy (PT site), Melisa, Fausto
This was a wonderful outreach and we loved watching the kids and "americanos" interact and learn from each other!