Off to Jarabacoa...

Currently Laura and I are waiting for our flight from Charlotte to Miami... We were able to check our bags all the way through to Santiago, which will save us a lot of time in the long run. We were definitely blessed by one of the airline workers who allowed us to check 3 bags that were over the 50lbs limit. Praise God for that! The only thing we had to take out of any of the bags was a bottle of shampoo (more of a "comfort" item that a nessity anyways!)... Everything is going smoothly so far we will give another update some time soon...

Jarabacoa Update (2 days and counting...)

Ok, so I haven't quite gotten down the idea of blogging on a regular basis, but here is a quick update anyways... Laura and I are in the final phases of weighing bags and packing into boxes the things that we wanted to take with us. We quickly realized as we packed our luggage that we have little or no room for many of the things that we were thinking we would bring along with us, I guess that is part of moving to another country...

We had an great time on Friday night with a number of friends and family as a sort of "good-bye" party here in Minneapolis. We both realized on Friday how blessed we are by family and friends, which makes it a bit hard for us to leave. Thank you to all of you who were able to attend, we will miss you all...

We fly out Wednesday morning at 7:00 a.m. with stops in Charlotte and Miami before heading to our final destination in Santiago, D.R. Please pray that everything with the flights would go smoothly, as we have only an hour between our Minneapolis to Charlotte, Charlotte to Miami flight. Lord willing, we will be in Santiago around 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday night, and then we have a 45 minute drive to Jarabacoa, where we will be living...

We also could use some prayer as we prepare to leave because we ran into some issues with housing. The lady who we were going to be renting from in Jarabacoa decided to raise the rent by 50% and for fear of being pegged as the Americans who "pay whatever is asked" I don't think we will be living in that house. Daniel Peterson, the new director of the school, has been searching for a new place for us to stay, which we are incredibly thankful for...

Laura and I have also registered for a few new services so that we can receive mail and telephone calls while in Jarabacoa. We are now members of MFI (Missionary Flights International), and they offer services that fly mail and packages to us every two weeks. The only problem with this is that they charge us, from the stateside address in Florida, at a rate of $1.50 per pound, That means that if you want to send us packages, just keep them on the lighter side. Anyways, here is the address:

Tim and Laura Stanley
Unit 3039-ECDR
3170 Airmans Dr.
Ft. Pierce, FL 34946

We also signed up for Vonage phone service, which allows us to have a phone number in the United States even though we are in the Dominican Republic. It will work through our DSL (yes, the D.R. has high-speed internet!) and will be register in Minnesota, so all the normal charges will apply for calling us, so if you have free long distance or live in Minnesota, you can call us for next to nothing.

Here is that number: 612-605-1137

Please call and keep in contact, it will be a blessing to hear all of your voices...

Getting ready to leave...

Laura and I leave two weeks from today and we have a quite a bit to do before then. We have been traveling for the last few weeks, spending one week in Buffalo and we are currently spending some time with Laura's family in Cape Cod. We will be in Buffalo for a few days after this Cape Cod trip and we will be back in Minnesota on Wednesday (July 23rd). We have a busy week when we return, with a going away party on Friday night, and many errands to do and good-byes to say. We are getting excited and more nervous as the time approaches for us to leave for the Dominican Republic. Continue to pray for us as we prepare our hearts and minds to move...

We have raised just over half of the funds that we are attempting to raise before leaving for the D.R.. Thank you to all of you who have committed to helping us in our ministry in one way or another, whether through prayer or financial support...