We have officially been in the DR for two weeks! Holy cow, time is flying by SO fast! So much has already happened, and it’s SUCH an adventure to be here.
We left Thursday, June 17, and at our stop at In n Out in Kettleman City (the best In n Out in the world), Ashey, Aliayh and Amanda surprised us (Matthew and I) with tickets to Disneyland for that evening! Best surprise ever? I think so. We only got to ride a few rides that night, but we went back to Disneyland Friday morning before we headed to the airport. We rode Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Matterhorn (twice) and Tower of Terror. When we finally got to LAX Friday afternoon, after a tearful goodbye, we boarded our plane to New York. After a 5 hour flight, we landed in JFK at around 11pm. We ate some super expensive McDonald’s and decided to take a taxi cab to Times Square, because we might only ever be in New York once, so we might as well do it, right? Our AWESOME cab driver was going to charge us $90 roundtrip, and started driving before we could tell him that we didn’t have that kind of money. We ended up cutting a sweet deal: $9 for a ride around the airport.
We spent the night on the floor at JFK which is not as fun as it sounds, and woke up at 5am to board our plane. It left 3 hours late, and by early afternoon, Saturday, we FINALLY arrived in Santiago. I was struck with heat the second I left the plane, but we were just so excited to be here, we didn’t care. As we came down the escalator, we saw people in OO shirts, and we knew that this was ACTUALLY happening.
We boarded a bus to Monte Cristi, and after 2 hours, finally arrived at our home for the next week. We all stayed in a ramada, which is simply some chain link fence material, with plywood around the perimeter and a tin roof. Picture a giant censor screen, and that’s what it was. Only fence material on the top and bottom thirds of the walls, so plenty of bugs tried to snuggle with us last week. We definitely found a giant wolf spider in the other girl’s ramada. I made friends with a cockroach.
We spent last week in Monte Cristi putting on a major VBS camp for over 500 children from the community. We held the camp at the orphanage/our volunteer space, Monday through Thursday during the morning. Amanda and I were on the arts and crafts team, and Matthew did snacks. It was interesting to kind of sit back and watch how things are supposed to run, but my favorite part was watching the children sing silly songs with motions like “Cadadia” (Spanish version of “Everyday” by Hillsong) and the Banana song (new fave!). It fills my heart with complete joy to see kids jumping and singing, and to see our twenty-something year old volunteers jumping right along with them.
I don’t begin to believe that I will matter to any of these kids. In fact, my prayer is that the kids we come in contact with would not remember my name or my face, but that they would simply see Jesus and remember HIS face. It’s a tough prayer, but we are constantly being reminded that this adventure is NOT about us. It’s not about our love, or our energy, or what we think we are capable of. We know that God has called us to be here. So it doesn’t matter what I think of myself, or the kids or this place. What matters is that these children and these people need to know the love of God, and it is my job to show them to the best of my ability. It’s sort of beautiful, to be used by God in such a way. It also helps that these kids are amazing and beautiful.
Last Saturday, we drove to Jaibon, our new home until August. Jaibon is so much different than Monte Cristi. We have actual BUILDINGS for our dorms, and mattresses to sleep on! It feels much hotter, dryer, and stickier here, and there are much more mosquitos and flies. But, it’s definitely feeling like home for us. Matthew sleeps in a tent with his new BFF, Collin.
This past week, we received new interns, and now the total number of volunteers who are giving up at least a month of their time is at 25 (and we are getting two new ones today!). I find that fact incredible in itself; that so many young people are willing to give up their time and energy and efforts to come here in hopes of glorifying God and making a difference.
This week, we split up into two teams putting on two separate camps at separate places, Amanda, Matthew and I were on one team with a church group from CO and a couple of other interns here, and I was part of the Bible team, while Matthew did recreation and Amanda did crafts. It was exciting for all of us to do something different and separate from each other and get to know new people. We planned and prepared for our camp in the morning, which only had maybe 60 kids altogether throughout the course of the week. We thought that it would be the same number at our camp in the afternoon at Esperanza. We were wrong.
Our bus arrived Monday afternoon at a school in a town called Esperanza. We stuck our heads out the windows and were greeted with 170 children waiting for us, eager to learn. Amanda was a bit nervous, as she only planned crafts for about 20 kids altogether. But God made a few pieces of paper feed 5,000 and somehow, every kid was able to participate.
This week, I led Bible group, and my job was to take a few heroes of the Bible and get the kids to understand that with Christ, we can do anything. We chose to tell stories about Jesus, David, Paul and Daniel, and by the end of the week, the kids had remembered the stories that we taught them, and the songs that we sang with them, and they UNDERSTOOD the moral of the stories and themes that we had been teaching them. They understood that with a faith in God, we can do anything.
They understood. They remembered. Holy cow.
I am going to write about myself for a second, and if you are still reading up until this point, I am so very grateful. I’m sitting here in Jaibon on a lazy Saturday, and I am in awe of the beauty that is around me. It’s in the greenness of the trees and the grass, the majestic mountains that we see anytime we drive anywhere, and the ocean. Oh, man. The ocean. If there wasn’t evidence to God’s glory all around me in this country, then it has been proven to me this week through the faces of these children. These beautiful, amazing, wonderful children.
I remember sitting in California before getting on the airplane and feeling like something incredible was going to happen. I get to go on a mission trip with my 2 best friends, and I am so blessed to even have this opportunity. To even be here. To be called to something this amazing. But I remember all the things we were scared of before we left. I remember wondering if I would get sick, or if the kids would remember my name. I know Amanda was worried about Spanish, and we all worry about our families and our lives back home.
But the incredible thing, is that none of those things matter to me anymore. It doesn’t matter that I am consistently sweating and exhausted and feeling sick to my stomach. Everyday, precisely when I need it, I am filled with the energy to fulfill my duties, and the joy that I find somehow radiating through me has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with me as a person, and everything to do with my desire to see people know and love Jesus. I have known what it is to be left behind by people who are supposed to love you. I have known what it is like to feel small and insignificant, and to be a failure. I notice so many of those feelings in the children here. Jesus changed my life. Jesus made me whole again. Jesus showed me what it was like to love a real love and be loved a real love in return. I completely and wholly believe that we can visit developing countries and throw money at all the problems and build buildings and clean up garbage but nothing will ever REALLY change unless people start knowing, loving, and following Jesus. My dream is to see a change in this country through the cause of Christ. Because it will last. And, selfishly, because this way, I’ll get to see everyone again in Heaven.
That is why we are here. It’s taken all of this time for me to really feel whole again. But I feel it here. I feel sick and itchy and sweaty. But I feel like myself. I feel like the person that God has intended me to be. I can’t explain it other than that. But I wish you all could feel it with me. It’s pretty incredible.
Please keep us in your prayers. As much as it really doesn’t matter, it would be nice to feel healthy sometimes, and to be able to get the rest we need. As always, we need protection. We need thick skin and soft hearts. We need knowledge, wisdom, discernment and an ability to translate all of that into Spanish on a regular basis.
And we need an overflow of God’s love. Every second. Everyday.
Love you all SO much. We miss you.
Team DR
PS. In CA, before we left, we were known by everyone at Remedy as the “DR team.” Since we signed up for our trip as “Team Remedy” (because Remedy is the one thing the three of us have in common), we are known HERE as Team Remedy. LOVE IT.
This past week, we received new interns, and now the total number of volunteers who are giving up at least a month of their time is at 25 (and we are getting two new ones today!). I find that fact incredible in itself; that so many young people are willing to give up their time and energy and efforts to come here in hopes of glorifying God and making a difference.
This week, we split up into two teams putting on two separate camps at separate places, Amanda, Matthew and I were on one team with a church group from CO and a couple of other interns here, and I was part of the Bible team, while Matthew did recreation and Amanda did crafts. It was exciting for all of us to do something different and separate from each other and get to know new people. We planned and prepared for our camp in the morning, which only had maybe 60 kids altogether throughout the course of the week. We thought that it would be the same number at our camp in the afternoon at Esperanza. We were wrong.
Our bus arrived Monday afternoon at a school in a town called Esperanza. We stuck our heads out the windows and were greeted with 170 children waiting for us, eager to learn. Amanda was a bit nervous, as she only planned crafts for about 20 kids altogether. But God made a few pieces of paper feed 5,000 and somehow, every kid was able to participate.
This week, I led Bible group, and my job was to take a few heroes of the Bible and get the kids to understand that with Christ, we can do anything. We chose to tell stories about Jesus, David, Paul and Daniel, and by the end of the week, the kids had remembered the stories that we taught them, and the songs that we sang with them, and they UNDERSTOOD the moral of the stories and themes that we had been teaching them. They understood that with a faith in God, we can do anything.
They understood. They remembered. Holy cow.
I am going to write about myself for a second, and if you are still reading up until this point, I am so very grateful. I’m sitting here in Jaibon on a lazy Saturday, and I am in awe of the beauty that is around me. It’s in the greenness of the trees and the grass, the majestic mountains that we see anytime we drive anywhere, and the ocean. Oh, man. The ocean. If there wasn’t evidence to God’s glory all around me in this country, then it has been proven to me this week through the faces of these children. These beautiful, amazing, wonderful children.
I remember sitting in California before getting on the airplane and feeling like something incredible was going to happen. I get to go on a mission trip with my 2 best friends, and I am so blessed to even have this opportunity. To even be here. To be called to something this amazing. But I remember all the things we were scared of before we left. I remember wondering if I would get sick, or if the kids would remember my name. I know Amanda was worried about Spanish, and we all worry about our families and our lives back home.
But the incredible thing, is that none of those things matter to me anymore. It doesn’t matter that I am consistently sweating and exhausted and feeling sick to my stomach. Everyday, precisely when I need it, I am filled with the energy to fulfill my duties, and the joy that I find somehow radiating through me has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with me as a person, and everything to do with my desire to see people know and love Jesus. I have known what it is to be left behind by people who are supposed to love you. I have known what it is like to feel small and insignificant, and to be a failure. I notice so many of those feelings in the children here. Jesus changed my life. Jesus made me whole again. Jesus showed me what it was like to love a real love and be loved a real love in return. I completely and wholly believe that we can visit developing countries and throw money at all the problems and build buildings and clean up garbage but nothing will ever REALLY change unless people start knowing, loving, and following Jesus. My dream is to see a change in this country through the cause of Christ. Because it will last. And, selfishly, because this way, I’ll get to see everyone again in Heaven.
That is why we are here. It’s taken all of this time for me to really feel whole again. But I feel it here. I feel sick and itchy and sweaty. But I feel like myself. I feel like the person that God has intended me to be. I can’t explain it other than that. But I wish you all could feel it with me. It’s pretty incredible.
Please keep us in your prayers. As much as it really doesn’t matter, it would be nice to feel healthy sometimes, and to be able to get the rest we need. As always, we need protection. We need thick skin and soft hearts. We need knowledge, wisdom, discernment and an ability to translate all of that into Spanish on a regular basis.
And we need an overflow of God’s love. Every second. Everyday.
Love you all SO much. We miss you.
Team DR
PS. In CA, before we left, we were known by everyone at Remedy as the “DR team.” Since we signed up for our trip as “Team Remedy” (because Remedy is the one thing the three of us have in common), we are known HERE as Team Remedy. LOVE IT.
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