Good Evening my dear Grand Rapidians, as you may or may not know, i have arrive to you. Yes i am in the cold north, where the snow is flowing and my bones freeze. Allison and I are staying with her parents house, and we will be here until the 8th of january. if you wanna get a hold of us, you can call 575-7211.

we hope to see all of you soon!

we've missed you all and are looking forward to hanging with you all!

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, and now with you, a really tired, hairy funky looking dominican guy, who in his day off is in the office taking care of business!! (by business i mean checking my email, listening to music, and getting some info for one of the clubs at the schools) i should be done pretty shortly.

So anyway, i am still alive for those of you who have been wondering what's going on with me and why i haven't updated my xanga. As you may or may not know, when you live life fully relying on God, doing things that seem completely crazy, but you know are part of his will, things start to happen. both good and bad. the good things are that you start to be more grateful for the things God gives you (meaning that absolutly nothing you own is really yours, but you learn that it is only by God's grace that you have anything at all), you start to see life in a different way, you work your problems in a completely different way, instead of being depressed, angry, or just plain pissed when a difficulty arises, you learn to be more patient, calm, joyful, hopefull, and trusting. when the happens you start to see some amizing things.

Now some of the bad things about doing what God want's is that the enemy (Satan, forces of evil, lucifer and demonts, etc...) are not going to want you to do that or to grow in a better relationship with God or to do the things God wan'ts from you, because that means taking territory from them. When they decide they are going to TRY to get you, they first try suttle ways, like distraccion, taking you focus, making you tooo busy for the important things starting always with a relationship with God in which we everyday hear his voice and speak to him, then our families, and then our responsibilities. If the subtle way doesn't work, then they try a more direct and hard approach.

here is my story:

withing the past 2 or 3 weeks,  I have been stopped, fined and threaten by the national police of this country for going through a GREEN LIGHT (really they just stopped me to first harrass me and so that i could give them money), and because they suspected i had fire arms, which anyone who knows me knows i hate guns or anything doing with them. The funny thing is that one of the guys who stopped me, looked me straight in the eye and said: "I was going to give you a break, by Satan doesn't want you to have a break, therefore here is your ticket, and i'm taking your licence away!" crazy eh!!My Beautiful wife allison has been held at gun point and mugged more than once, and in one occasion she was mugged on her birthday.

now why do i tell you these things, and this apply more to my RUFUS people, because with all of this and many other attacks i have had, i can tell you i am the luckiest, happiest, and most blessed person in the world. Cause no matter what happens to me, wether they kill me or shoot me (and trust me i run that risk every week here, especially with the kids and the neighborhoods i work with) a statement keeps resounding in my head, the same one that was said by Job, when he lost everything, and was sick and was tempted to speak ill of God: "I KNOW THAT MY REEDEMER LIVES!!"

i just thought i'd share that with you all!

P.S. Allison and I where going to keep this a secret, but we figured we shouldn't anymore. My beautifull wife and I will be joining you Grand Rapidians next week, and we will be spending all of the holidays in the cold winter snow with you all!!

Currently Listening Strung Out in Heaven By The Brian Jonestown Massacre see related

Hello from the way down south my great norther friends. Is it getting cold there, you know there is still time to reconsider coming to the Dominican Republic with me, where it's still nice and toasty!! I apologize for not updating in such a long time, so much has happened. well first of all, i am finally moved in, i've been living in my apartment for 2 and half weeks!!!

well now the updates:

first of all Allison is pregnant!!.................................................... actually she's not, gotcha, but now that i have your attention, here's what's really going on:

- Allison is working in an afternoon school teaching english to kids, and in the morning she takes spanish clases in the university and then works at the hospital my mother runs, doing data entry for the accounting people.

- The campus life ministry is kicking off very well, we have two schools, and today friday we have our first kick off in which we will have a concert with 5 differnent reggeaton bands(reggeaton is the latin version of rap, with a fusion of latin rythms), this is the type of music most of these kids like, so we are trying to get their attention through it. The kick off for the other school is on tuesday the 25th of this month.

- I have the priviledge of having to work with two other staff on the campus life program here, their names are Claudia Quinteros and Fernando Moscoso (they are both originally from Peru, and have been living here for about 5 years) they have been incredible leaders, and have been ridiculously responsible and efficient. HECK, they even get to things on time, which most dominicans don't. I tell them to get to the office at 9am, they are there around 8:30 am, meanwhile i get there at 9, 9:15, etc.

- My wife and I have had the priviledge to volunteer with my church's youth group, which is going pretty well for being it's first year after many years of not having one. this youth group remind me of RUFUS because there's a girl that reminds me of abby, one that is gitty like rebecca, and another one that is the dominican version of Gonzo. Although they are not like you guys (rufiansm, which i love so much), they are pretty cool.

These are the biggest updates i have. I have been working my butt off and trying to get re established and stuff. i love you and miss you all, and i hope you are all doing well. For a certain someone who emailed me about temp jobs, the name is MANPOWER that's on broadmore and 28th.

Love you and miss you all

- Alex and Allison

Currently Listening A Types By Hopesfall Start & Pause see related

Good morning people from the web community! I greet you with warm feelings and with a succulent mango taste in my mouth. not like the Miejer type mangos that aren't ripe yet, I'm talking about juicy tropical mango's picked of the trees type. Stop for a moment and think about the taste .

Well my dear friends, I have more to tell about the things God has been doing in my family's life. First of all, Allison and I will finally be moving into our apartment this weekend. We will be cleaning and painting the place today. Besides the blessing of moving into our own place, God has been blessing the ministries that He has put in our hands. The Campus Life program in the city of Santo Domingo will start off with 4 schools with huge kick offs beginning in exactly 3 weeks. God has blessed me with a great Core staff, a few of them are originally from Peru, and have worked in this type of ministry in the capital city of Lima. Our Goal for this semester is to be able to present the message of Jesus to a crowd of 10,000 students, and have 100 students begin a relationship with Christ.

We still have a lot of work ahead of us, and we are still in the organizational process of the ministry, trying to take all precaution because this type of ministry has never been done in the Dominican Republic. What's kind of scary and exciting at the same time is that God has put us to work with schools that have at risk kids; and by at risk I mean, working with kids from the worst neighborhoods in this country, where most teenagers are in gangs, drug dealing, organized crime, and all kinds of stuff that's just intense. I know for there's a  possibility that I might be in danger, but as the blind man said when Jesus healed him and he was before the Jews, "all I know is that once I was blind and now I see." That's all I have to keep me from turning back on these kids.

Currently Listening Ocean Avenue By Yellowcard way away see related

Hooray for warm caribbean weather!!

I know what you may be thinking, ooh my goodness, why does Alex have another xanga site? well my friends as things in my life have changed very drastically so will my xanga site. In the past four months i've married (to a really hot girl named allison joy Denk), we've moved to the Dominican Republic, and we are starting Campus ministries in the capital city of Santo Domingo.(which is a pretty new type of ministry here). I am working with Youth For Christ Dominican Republic as their Campus Ministries Director.  sounds important doesn't it, well my friends it's a lot of work, which i enjoy, even though right now i'm just doing all the not so much fun parts of youth ministry like writting proposals, preparing training material, recruiting, writting the semester curriculum for the different clubs in the different clubs, and trying to figure out how to change the name of the club, because if i translated campus life in spanish it wouldn't be very relevant in our culture, because high schools are never refered as campus grounds, that's only for university. so if i named it Vida Campus, people here would think it's for university students.

Please keep us in your prayers, and don't be afraid to comment or email me (i would prefer that)