"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

Ephesians 5:1-2

We are back in the Dominican Republic after a wonderful visit to the States. This time was different because we didn't travel, but instead took some time to re-charge and fill up before participating in a summer that will require a lot of "pouring out". It's on our hearts to share a particular moment with you all that really reminded us of the lifestye we're called to live.

On May 8th, 2010, Will's sister, Lucy, got married to a man named Rory. The wedding day in itself was a time of celebration, but beyond that, the focus of their wedding gave us something to celebrate that lasts longer than a lifetime. The scripture they chose to read that day was from Ephesians 5:1-2: "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." After hearing this scripture, we looked into the footnotes of our NIV Bible and it says that the "love" Paul is referring to in this letter is "a love that goes beyond affection to self-sacrificing service." It's so easy to sit at a wedding and focus on the affection part of love and forget about the self-sacrificing love displayed by Christ as he came and made the ultimate sacrifice for His bride, the church. We are so grateful that Lucy and Rory remained focused on the love Paul talks about in Ephesians. Their first act as a married couple was to serve communion to each other and all those around them. They went beyond looking into each others' eyes with affection and rolled up their sleeves and served "the church". Thank you Lucy and Rory for your faithfulness to the gift of marriage and the example of true love that God has given to us.

This was a great reminder of how we're supposed to serve in a self-sacrificing manner all those that we come in contact with this summer. We have the privilege of hosting multiple short-term mission groups for 10 straight weeks this summer. Please pray that we too will stay true to the love that Paul is speaking of. Let us all strive to be imitators of God!

Lucy, Jack and Rory Lekites

G.O. Team G.O........We did it!!!

Please click on the "Run With Purpose" page on the side-bar to see how the wonderful day un-folded.
Thank you to all of you for your support!!

His Blessings Overflow

It's been a blessed winter/spring here in the Dominican!

These past three months have been a whirlwind, my how time passes by so quickly.
When we arrived in January, it was full force Haiti relief work at a hangar in the Santiago airport. Will spent many hours coordinating flights, pilots and locations to drop supplies in Haiti. Thanks to all of you who so generously gave! G.O. was able to send hundreds of thousands of pounds of food, tents and medical supplies to Haiti.

His blessings overflow.

Will on the tarmac at the Santiago airport

Audrey has been training for the past three months for the Derby half marathon that takes place on Saturday, April 24th. She has been doing an ongoing fundraiser asking people to pledge per mile to help support her and Will's mission work in the Dominican. She has a purpose to which she runs! (see page on side bar for more info). Thank you to all of you who have so generously given towards this cause. Your giving continues to amaze us. Thank you for allowing our God to work through you!

His blessings overflow.

Audrey running through the country side in the Dominican, one of her favorite places to run.

Will continues his discipleship with the Sports Outreach crew. They are working through the Theology of Redemption. The focus of this study is how God is using His son and His followers to redeem and restore His Creation. The guys continue to grow as a group in unity!

His blessings overflow.

The Sports Outreach crew (missing one, Gamaliel, who assists Jose Luis with baseball ministry)

Audrey's sister, brother-in-law and niece came to visit for 10 days. It was such a wonderful time of fellowship! It had been close to 4 years since Audrey's sister had been here. It was so fun getting to show her our life in ministry here in the Domincan.

His blessings overflow.

Audrey's sister, brother-in-law and niece in the feeding center in The Hole

One of the most special highights of these past 3 months was our home church from Louisville, KY, St. John United Methodist, coming on a mission trip. They helped build the Central Church which is going to be such a light in the community. Thank you to all of you for your love, encouragement and prayers. We couldn't be more blessed to have such a precious church family!

His blessings overflow.

St. John United Methodist Church in the Dominican Republic

His blessings overflow.

We leave for the states tomorrow (Tuesday) and plan on spending about 3-4 weeks there visiting family and friends, fundraising, having staff meetings,working the Derby as a G.O. staff and enjoying Will's sister's wedding! When we return at the end of May, we'll be gearing up for a busy summer with lots of teams traveling down for mission trips. Ready, set, G.O.!

Please continue to pray for continued growth in our individual walks with God. Thank you to all of you for your continued support. We are humbled by your love!

In Him,

Will and Audrey

A Beautiful Partnership

The mission statement of G.O. Ministries is "to partner with Nationals through short-term missions". It is so amazing to see first hand the beauty of a Partnership.

Brian and Melissa Hyma (Audrey's sister and brother-in-law) partner with Felix Florentino. Felix is a hard working Dominican man who works on the construction team for G.O. Ministries. He helps build churches, feeding centers and homes. He is a tender-hearted Christian man who strives daily to become more like Christ.
Because of this partnership, Felix is able to do full time ministry and does not have to scrape by trying to find a second job to do on the side to support himself. Felix has recently made some tough decisions that go "against the culture" to set himself apart. He has couragiously stepped out on faith to show his love and committment to walking side by side with our God!

Brian and Melissa were here visiting last week and were able to spend some sweet time visiting Felix and encouraging him in his faith, his work, and his decision to live a life pleasing to Christ. Thank you Melissa and Brian for your gracious hearts and humble spirits!
Felix was also able to meet his "sobrina" niece for the first time. Nora Kate Hyma! Nora is truly a special gift from God. Brian and Melissa adopted her into their family a little over a year ago. Felix prayed without ceasing while the adoption process was taking place. He was nothing but smiles when he held her! He saw God's faithfulness directly in front of him.

In saying all of this...you can see why I say this is a "Beautiful Partnership".
Thank you God for your beauty and for your unconditional love for us!

Nora Kate with her "tio" uncle Felix

The Hymas with Felix on a Sunday afternoon playing softball

Wave 3 News in Louisville, Kentucky, came down to the Dominican Republic and did a story on G.O. Sports Outreach. Take a look at the video below. The news crew was down here with us for a few days and got some great coverage. The old basketball videos are a little funny, but they did a wonderful job highlighting sports outreach.

Why do I Run?

Please take a moment to click on the link on the side bar called, "Run With Purpose". There you will see the purpose as to which I (Audrey) run.

Thank you to all of you who pray for us, encourage us and love us.

We are humbled by the sacrifices that you make by GIVING. May God bless you as you have so richly blessed us!

Blessings,

Will and Audrey

Will and Audrey before running the 10K in Santiago, Dominican Republic

During our hours spent out at the Santiago airport for Haiti relief, God has given us opportunities to meet some incredible people. Some came to help because they heard there was a need. Some came because they were looking for an adventure. Some because their boss said so. Some aren't sure why they came....but they did. Even though they all may have had different reasons to give of their time, plane, and finances, one thing remains the same; they came and helped meet the needs of a starving, devastated nation. It is truly an honor to work alongside so many people that have a heavy heart for men and women they had never met. We thank God for giving us a first hand experience of how the Body of Christ works. It has come together and performed in a way that brought about unity amongst strangers. Thank you Jesus for placing these pilots in our lives, they've impacted us greatly! These wonderful people have given so much of their time, some have donated their own planes and have paid for their own fuel to get relief supplies over to the Haitians who so desperatly need it.

For that, we are grateful!

Todd Scholten, Mark Linsley, Roger Powers, James Powers

The gentlemen above are from Grand Rapids, MI. They work for L-3 Avionics Company. Their company drove a semi truck to Florida with supplies from our Louisville warehouse then used their King Air aircraft to fly supplies from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, to Santiago, Dominican Republic. They made many many trips back and forth. They are all such sweet spirited, humble, Christian men .

To them, we are grateful.

Scott Dorfman

Scott Dorfman is a pilot and plane owner from Atlanta, GA. He was so so gracious with his time and finances. He was a marathoner in his trips back and forth from Haiti. He didn't stop! Every time he returned from Haiti, he had a story to tell about his encounters with the beautiful Haitian people. We so enjoyed his stories and pictures. Thank you Scott for your heart.

To him, we are grateful.

2 pilots (black shirts) John and Chris

There aren't words to describe John and Chris. They are pilots from Boston who came to fly their company plane for relief efforts. They impacted us so greatly because of their enormous passion to get the job done. They were true servants and we will forever have a special place for them in our hearts. Thank you John and Chris!

To them, we are grateful.

Richard Wod and his wife

Richard Wood is a pilot and plane owner from Vancouver, Canada. He was such a blessing to be around and brought such joy to all situations. He as well was very gracious with his time and finances and worked unbelievably hard to get as many supplies over to Haiti as possible.

To him, we are grateful.

There are so many more pilots that have come and gone that gave so freely of themselves. Thank you Spencer, Scott, Eric, Andy, Patrick, Ryan, Bernie, John, Kim, Tom, Phil, Frank, Steve, Steve, Steve, and Steve :)....and many more!!

The days continue to pass by, the Haitians are still greatly effected by the earthquake, and pilots are continuing to show up with their planes ready to serve.

To all of them, we are eternally grateful.

Two New York Times Reporters came to visit our warehouse here in Santiago. They produced a story on all that is going on with the volunteer pilots using their planes to take food and doctors to Haiti through G.O. Ministries.

Please click on the link below to see the video! After clicking on the link, you will need to click on "In Haiti, Help from Above" in the column on the right.

Front: World Americas Playlist - Video Library - The New York Times

In Him,

Will and Audrey

Incredible! God is so incredible! It has been nothing but pure joy watching the Body of Christ work as it should to restore His people and His creation.
The G.O. Help Haiti operations are running smoothly. We feel so blessed to be a part of these God moments that happen on a daily basis!
In a time of desperation and crisis, it's mind blowing that there are so many stories of victory and lives being changed. We look forward to the time when we get to share them with you all and give praise to our Savior.

We have been given a warehouse at the Santiago airport where all of the donations are being stored. Supplies are being bought by the truck loads thanks to all of you who have donated to the G.O. Haiti relief fund. The warehouse is being run by the missionaries with G.O., several of the Dominicans that work for our ministry and some volunteers.

Will and Ken (G.O. Missionaries) planning where to send planes filled with food, water and medical supplies.

Our make-shift office in the warehouse

Pilots from all around the world show up at the warehouse in Santiago eager to help. They are all so gracious in donating their time, planes and fuel. We load them up with food, medical supplies and sometimes doctors and relief workers, then send them to one of the locations that we are working with in Haiti. We communicate with the organizations in Haiti to let them know that supplies are coming. They wait there in great anticipation until the supplies arrive. We have been able to take almost 30,000 lbs. of cargo on a daily basis over to Haiti! This operation has been running for almost 3 weeks now. We will continue sending supplies into Haiti as long as the resources are still there and as long as God continues to bring pilots and planes our way.

plane getting ready to leave for Haiti

supplies ready to be loaded onto a plane

Sitting on a mountain of pasta getting ready to go to Haiti. Thank you for your donations!

Richard and his wife, volunteer pilot that flew his plane for G.O. help Haiti relief for a week. He said that this was the "best experience of his life". Thank you Richard for helping us get supplies to Haiti!

God continues to provide us with strength as the days at the airport are long! We are grateful to Him for that. We are completely driven by His love, hope and promises. We're in complete awe of Him as He has His hand in all of this. We pray that all those affected by this earthquake turn towards our King instead of rebelling against Him. There have been wonderful reports of Haitians worshipping God in the streets throughout the day. Please pray with us that the people of Haiti seek Him and find Him and that the world doesn't turn a blind eye.

Your help matters.

Please continue to give at http://www.gohelphaiti.org/

Love,
Will and Audrey

Drew Moore has been serving with G.O. for a week to help us get aid into Haiti! Thanks Drew! Check out this video & his call to action- How will YOU respond?

G.O. Help Haiti- Drew Moore Responds to the Haiti Earthquake from Jackie Perez on Vimeo.