Brian Berman

One of my best friends...ever...is Brian Berman! Ever since I moved to Simi Valley Brian has been one of my closest friends. He was/is one of the adult leaders of the High School ministry at Discovery Church. Not just one of them but he was pretty much doing everything with the help of Cassie. (another leader) Brian was my sushi buddy, we would meet for lunch a couple times a month and talk about ministry, work, life and ladies!

Eventually, the subject of Brian doing ministry started to come up more and more...well this past fall Brian quit his corporate job and moved to the Dominican Republic and is a missionary with G.O. Ministries.

In March I went down to the Dominican Republic and spent a week with him and did some work on a church building and went to some feeding centers and did ministry at a couple of churches. What I saw was amazing! Brian has learned the language fast, he translated for me all week long, and he would tell you that he hardly know anything but God has blessed him so much. The Dominican people love him...everywhere we went people would smile and talk to him like they had know each other for ever...

If you get a chance you should check out his website and his ministry...and if you have a few dollars laying around...he is totally living on support for people like you and me...you can join my family and send him some "Love" ($)

Brian, I just want you to know we miss you tons (the church, kids, leaders)...and we are very proud of the work you are doing! We look forward to seeing you soon!

Dominican Republic Spring Break 2008

I am just now recovering from taking a team from our church to the Dominican Republic (DR). It has been a tough transition back...I still think about how no one has access to clean water, every time I brush my teeth...It is still a little weird being able to flush toilet paper...How complicated life is here in the USA compared to how simple it seems there...they have a very rich sense of community(I'm not talking about face book and blogs...they still hang out at the local store and in the streets and on their front porch)

I am very proud of all the students that went...I can't get over how hard they all worked and how freely they gave of their love to the Dominican people...One of them is going to do an internship there this summer and I know several others that want to go back...

I am always amazed by how much I "get" from going, when I start out planning on "giving" so much. You can see a video of our trip here: