In early October we were able to host Dio at our house for a week. While we have known Dio for over three years, we haven’t had a chance to get to know him so well prior. It was a great week that was low key with lots of planning and information.

We hosted a reunion dinner on Friday night with several people that had been to the Dominican Republic before and were able to hear better insight from them and Dio on how things work and what would be good for future groups going.

That Saturday was Rockbridge Church’s annual Community Fall Festival in town that we all spent the day at.

On Sunday we had our annual Chili Cook-Off with Dio hosting (and our amazing son in law Bailey jumping in last minute to judge). Nicki won best Vegetarian for the second year in a row!

Cyrus and Dio got to go shopping Sunday afternoon with the church youth group for Operation Christmas Child and hang with other teens.

Tuesday, we helped host ‘A Date with Dio’ at a local pizza place and invited anyone that wanted to know more about missions. It was a good turnout and more people in the community got to hear about the ‘why’ behind Pathway Dominicanas mission. On Wednesday there was a dinner with the team that would be heading to the DR in January 2024 and we were able to ask ALL the questions and talk about future projects and what our team would be working on.

Oh, and our grandkids Lainey and Braylon loved hanging with Dio and making his mother’s famous empanadas. Dio truly has a servants heart.