Big changes are coming for the Clay family. As most of you know, I (Adam) have spent the last 2 years serving as STEM Coordinator at Santiago Christian School while we all have been investing a lot of our free time serving the Haitian immigrant community with Jubilee Community Center. Over the last year, we have felt the Lord leading us to invest more of our time at Jubilee, so as of the end of this month, I will be leaving my position at Santiago Christian School so that we can invest more fully to helping make disciples and break the cycle of poverty among the Haitian immigrants and refugees living in Pontezuela. Breaking the Cycle of Poverty-"Teach a man to fish" You have heard the saying "Give a man to fish, and you will feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime." We've spent the last two years being part of the daily kids feeding program, providing bags of food, etc. but as we have worked in the community, one of the biggest things we are feeling lead to do is to not just meet needs, but walk alongside people to help equip them to provide for themselves. Diana and Avery have spent the last several months meeting twice a week with teenage girls from the community who are making necklaces/jewelry to sell. Through this time, they are able to build relationships with these girls with a focus on making disciples while helping them develop a marketable skill. Adam, Logan and Julian have been working to help get a computer lab set up for the community center with the plan of introducing classes where young men and women can get marketable skills like photo and video editing, office programs, web design, etc. Our biggest focus, however, will be on a Micro-loan/Business mentoring program...a program we are launching this week in the community that gives small loans of up to $250 to people in the community and mentors them to help them start their own businesses. Our prayer is that as we walk one on one with people to help them form business plans, budgeting, etc. we would be able to share the love of Christ and make disciples as we help them break the cycle of poverty through their new business. What does this mean for us? It means several big changes are coming this month. The biggest for our family is that we will be having to move to a new home. The current home we live in is part of Santiago Christian School housing. Finding a good house here is not easy, but the Lord was faithful in providing a home very close to the community center where we will be serving. We can actually see the community center from the corner of our neighborhood. We start our move on June 23rd. The next huge change is that we are having to find a new way to support ourselves and stay in country. As many of you know, we didn't do alot of support raising before coming to Santiago as the school paid most of what we needed to live. We have had some very faithful supporters over the last two years which has helped provide us about $600 per month in additional support to help supplement what we made at SCS. Since Adam is leaving Santiago Christian, we will be losing all of that income and health insurance. We are trusting for the Lord to provide for us as we transition to His new calling for us. While we are losing income, our expenses are going up.
How can you help partner with us? Prayer: Pray for our transition: Our family transitioned 2 years ago, and now we are transitioning again. We will be in a new house, new ministries, and the kids will be in new schools. Pray for Pontezuela: Pray for the people in Pontezuela that God would be made evident among them, and that the cycle of poverty that many are caught in would be broken Financially: Since most of our salary was provided by SCS, our current support level is only $600 per month. Diana and I have found part time positions working for Sevenstar Academy, a Virtual Christian High School out of Dallas which will help replace some of this lost income, but we still need your help to be able to stay longterm in the Dominican Republic. Working part time, we only need to raise about $2500 more per month. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us. A monthly or one time gift of $25 or $50 can go along way to helping meet our living, housing and ministry needs as we serve here in the DR.
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AuthorAdam, Diana, Julian, Logan and Avery Clay. Our journey of following Jesus wherever he leads us. Currently serving in the Dominican Republic Archives
August 2021
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