Our first official group of the summer ended a couple of weeks ago.  If our summer were to end right now it would be considered successful.  Fortunately we will have 5 more groups come down to partner with us and see how God is working in the Dominican Republic.  In just 4 short work days a group of students and adults form Austin Stone Community Church painted and organized the interior of our school.  In fact, they accomplished so much the first day we were able to split the group into two teams and send one group outside with Garrett, Riley and Miguel to work on the new school construction.  The week of construction consisted of filling all of the trenches for the school’s footings with dirt.  Due to a lot of evening rain we had sloppy days of shoveling mud.  However, in the midst of poor conditions and hard work we never heard any complaints.  Most days were full of laughter and great conversation.  While work was being done outside the other team painted our existing school to bring new life to the walls.  After they finished painting they spent a day cleaning and organizing all of our bookshelves and closets.  The school has now been rearranged to provide more open space and useable area. We can’t wait to get the kids back to school so they can enjoy the new changes.