My first experience outside of the country was walking up to a guy in the airport and asking “ Hey, how are you doing?’, and Him simply responding with a smile “ Hola, como esta?” It was like one of those HOLY MOSES this is really happening moments. You know all the time we meet people from all around and some who don’t speak any English it was odd being the one in their shoes..I do believe on my team I was the one who spoke the least Spanish and it was frustrating. At times when everyone else knew what was going on, I had no idea. In ministry some of our team members would be caring on conversations with the kids and I could barley ask them their names. However, somehow by God’s awesome power I was able to build a relationship with a little girl named Esmeralda, Meraldy for short. I was able to talk to a lady named Gladysis for a little over 3 hours, and she spoke no English. But we connected and we communicated. They didn’t do it, I know I didn’t do it. God has a crazy way of doing things, and it’s SOO awesome!
Ministry there was different. We weren’t able to just put together a VBS and do skits for the kids or share our testimonies in the church on spot. We didn’t have the opportunity to lead people to Christ. We didn’t have a chance to do a lot of deep spiritual stuff that we all wanted and craved. It was hard. We had a routine VBS every morning which our host family led and we just kind of played with the kids. When we first got there the kids were SOO rough especially the boys. They would get angry at one another and literally beat the mess out of one another. They would throw stones at each other when they were mad. They didn’t act like little kids. They were violent. By the end of our time there, some of the worse kids were actually playing like kids. It was awesome to be able to see the change. On the last day I was able to play catch with 6 of the kids none of them fought over the ball; they laughed and took turns and threw it to one another. When they would notice one of the kids hadn’t had a turn to catch in a while they would throw it to him or her were on the first day they would have just grabbed the ball and ran. It was great to see that change.
At the VBS I met a little girl, Mereldy. The first day of camp I noticed her standing alone and I walked up next to her and held her hand. She looked up to me and smiled and at that moment she stole my heart. This little girl is so precious. She is 6 years old and has brothers and sisters. Her favorite color is blue and she LOVES to dance. And she is kind of shy, like me. I miss her so very much. She was my baby in the DR. I love her so much.
During our debrief we met a lady named Andrea she was from America with the Peace Corps. She had stepped on glass and gotten stitches so she had to stay at the hostile where we were. Our group met her the first day there, but I didn’t get a chance thanks to Dramamine and a lovely migraine; I slept for the evening. Well later during our stay she came out I didn’t know who she was, but God told me I needed to pray for her. Of course I argued with myself, I didn’t even know her name! But it was one of those feelings where I couldn’t even sit still in my chair. I told Christina and David Matthew what God was telling me and they urged me on. So me and Christina went and prayed over her foot. She went back into her room and we went on with our day. The day before we left me and Kara were having our one on one and talking and Andrea came and sat with us. We talked just the normal stuff then she started asking some pretty deep questions, and it opened up an amazing opportunity of ministry we were never expecting. God spoke through Kara to Andrea stuff that I really believe He wanted her to hear about the freedom of Christ and He confirmed Himself in Andrea’s dreams. He was reviling Himself in her life and it was like one of those oooooh my! Moments for her. And it was awesome to be a part of it. Also she told me how much it meant to her that we had prayed for her and her foot. So that was pretty awesome. Andrea.
This trip was also an opportunity to learn about some really awesome stuff like prophesy and the holy spirit and so much more! It was awesome getting to get a different view into things, and an opportunity to figure out what I believed. This trip has taught me a lot about who I am and what I believe. I don’t have it all figured out, but it’s a good start. This trip was very different than what I had expected but I got so much out of it!!
Just some of my favorite pictures..
Mountain view down the street.
He is so precious.
Beautiful.
Jose, he was so cute and so funny.
I love this picture. The little baby, Alexander is learning how to walk and his big brother is helping him.
I noticed something about my short-term trip. Basically, we planted seeds, loved kids, ran pieces of the church service, but didn’t reap the harvest or see the fruit.
I wish that I could tell you that I saw people healed or come to Christ, that I saw demons cast out or bodies raised from the dead. The truth is: I didn’t see any of that, but I still saw God. He didn’t show up in the ways I expected, but I knew He was there with us.
I would pray in the mornings, “God, show me something big today. Use me to heal people. Let me see people come to You.” To this, He responded, “Not today.” I believe that He wanted my faith to grow.
The first day I was gone on the trip, I read a letter from one of my friends. It said, “If you ever feel inadequate, just read Hebrews 11.” This is what people call the Hall of Faith. (And if you haven’t read this passage before, please stop and read it, otherwise the rest of this won’t make sense.) God definitely was speaking to that friend on my behalf, because it was something I held onto all trip.
Verse 13: “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it…”
These people had faith, despite the fact that they weren’t seeing what God had promised.
Verse 27: “It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.”
What if I stopped praying to see physical things, and started praying to see the unseen – people’s hearts, the enemy’s plans, how God is doing miracles where I can’t see them. Lord, give me spiritual eyes to see the unseen.
At this point, I could tell you one example of what I did see in the Dominican.
One of the first days with the kids, we witnessed the boys being incredibly aggressive with each other and with the girls. For the next few days, we prayed and prayed for this to stop. We began to see the boys being less aggressive and start acting like kids! Praise God that there was change there!
I saw so many other things too and God is still revealing them to me. “Look where I was in this situation,” He reminds me. He also tells me that even thought I’m not there, He still is. He’s still working in their lives, doing things I can’t see.
Now, all I can do is pray.
I pray in faith with the confidence that what I hope for will actually happen.
Here are some pictures of the kids I pray for in faith. I ask that you pray for them as well - not only the ones you see here, but also the ones you don't see.
Our time in the Dominican has been different.. We have been working with a woman that is set in the ways she does her ministry and already has it some what established. Her heart is great and she loves to share The Gospel with children..
We join her in her ministry everyday and make ourselves available to her for whatever need she has. Basically, up to this point we have played with a lot of kids.. We love kids and we love playing with kids.
However, we would love to be ¨doing¨ the spiritual ministry side of things and so as a team we have found ourselves a bit discouraged. We want to be leading the Gospel presentation and talking to kids about the love of Jesus.. Not just playing with them.
This trip has been all about us learning to let go of ¨control¨and learning what it looks like to just be in the moment and make ourselves available even if it doesn´t look like what we expected. God is teaching us things about ourselves and our personalities in this. It is good.
With only 3 days of ministry left in San Juan, we are excited to finish strong and are being open to whatever He has for us in these last few days.
Yesterday we traveled to the mountains, which are about a 40 minute drive from San Juan where we are staying. It was a day of fun and ministry. There was another American team there doing medical work and when we arrive we greeted them and then went down to the local river were we got to swim for a while with some village boys, then we ate lunch can came back up to the village to do ministry. A couple of the girls were drafted by Pastor to do medical paper work… which consisted of getting the names, and problems form the patients waiting in line. The rest of us went to do children’s ministry; we played games with them, sang songs and then pastors wife told the kids about Jesus, and handed out Spanish bibles.
Today we had a day of pouring into each other in the morning, taking time to pray over one another and encourage each other. It was needed and refreshing. In the afternoon we took part in a church service in Las Matas De Farfan, and it was fantastic. Kayli, Morgan and Christina lead the service in worship, we are all amazed at the talent the Lord has given them. Then I gave the word and we had a time for the congregation to respond. All of us were standing at the front of the church and basically told the people that if they had any need to just come up and let us pray over them… and it was so good. We had entire families come up to get prayed for, as well as the lone kids that come to church by them self. It was Amazing to see the girls step up and pray for everyone, and you could see the life in the peoples eyes as they were prayed for. God is good.
First day in San Juan. Today is the 22nd and it was our fist day in San Juan. It was a little slower start than we expected but was nice because it gave us some time to rest after our 18 hours of travel to get here. We spent the morning praying and walking around the town visiting with kids, and after lunch we prepared a little for children’s ministry that we will be doing in a couple days. In preparation we wrote a drama/ bible story, and Christina and Morgan spent a while translating it while the rest of us figured out games and songs. In the afternoon we went to our Pastors house which had been flooded by the rains, and washed out the mud from all the rooms. Kayli and Nikki were super fast to go and clean up the master bed room and Brittany worked on getting all of it from the living room out of the house. It was a day of watching our work come to fruition, and it is a GREAT way for all of us to start the DR. All of the girls are talking about how much they love the culture and people. We are all happy to be here and I will update again soon.
We completed our first full day of training camp today! We have been doing team builders outside and having indoor sessions with the Ambassador staff all day. The Georgia sun is VERY hot, but we still had fun outdoors today ; ) We are applying sunblock and staying very hydrated.
David Matthew and I absolutely love our team of 5 girls and we are absolutely excited about what God is going to do through and in us in The Dominican Republic. I have a really great feeling about this trip! Our team seems to be getting along great and we are all ready to minister together. We are to attend breakfast every morning at 7 am and we do not stop until 10 pm everynight.... Obviously, good things take long hours.
We just wanted to update the blog with a little bit of information just to keep all of our blog readers informed. The girls say Hello and they love you, to all of their friends and family!
I am personally overwhelmed that God love's me so much to trust me with 5 of His amazing daughters. So rest assured that your girls are being taken care of. Their leaders already love them : )
With all of that said; Georgia is great... But, we are all SO ready to be in The Dominican Republic already..Where the sun is even hotter...
Keep a look out for more blogs. We will be updating you on our week and our ministry when it begins! Thanks!
Everyone is here… healthy, safe, and excited! We ate a delicious dinner and now are gathered for worship. The energy in this room is incredible. It’s a wonderful thing to see a room full of teenagers sold out for Christ!
We’re gearing up for our first Training Camp of the summer. Leaders are now arriving, excited about what God has in store. We cannot wait to see what God does in the nations this summer!
This is the biggest year yet for the Ambassador program! We have 176 students, 45+ leaders, a serve crew numbering close to 30, and AIM staff Don Rock, Connie Rock, Kristen Torres-Toro, Amanda Bryant, and Traci Derington.
Remember, when you get to the airport, go to the Atrium. Look for the dinosaur statue. That’s where we’ll be. And we’ll be easy to spot. All of your leaders and the AIM staff will be wearing these shirts, as modeled by some of the serve team, staff, and leaders below:
You know all the time we meet people from all around and some who don’t speak any English it was odd being the one in their shoes..I do believe on my team I was the one who spoke the least Spanish and it was frustrating. At times when everyone else knew what was going on, I had no idea. In ministry some of our team members would be caring on conversations with the kids and I could barley ask them their names. However, somehow by God’s awesome power I was able to build a relationship with a little girl named Esmeralda, Meraldy for short. 
I was able to talk to a lady named Gladysis for a little over 3 hours, and she spoke no English. But we connected and we communicated. They didn’t do it, I know I didn’t do it. God has a crazy way of doing things, and it’s SOO awesome!
When we first got there the kids were SOO rough especially the boys. They would get angry at one another and literally beat the mess out of one another. They would throw stones at each other when they were mad. They didn’t act like little kids. They were violent. By the end of our time there, some of the worse kids were actually playing like kids.
It was awesome to be able to see the change. On the last day I was able to play catch with 6 of the kids none of them fought over the ball; they laughed and took turns and threw it to one another. When they would notice one of the kids hadn’t had a turn to catch in a while they would throw it to him or her were on the first day they would have just grabbed the ball and ran. It was great to see that change.
Our group met her the first day there, but I didn’t get a chance thanks to Dramamine and a lovely migraine; I slept for the evening. Well later during our stay she came out I didn’t know who she was, but God told me I needed to pray for her. Of course I argued with myself, I didn’t even know her name! But it was one of those feelings where I couldn’t even sit still in my chair. I told Christina and David Matthew what God was telling me and they urged me on. So me and Christina went and prayed over her foot. She went back into her room and we went on with our day. The day before we left me and Kara were having our one on one and talking and Andrea came and sat with us. We talked just the normal stuff then she started asking some pretty deep questions, and it opened up an amazing opportunity of ministry we were never expecting. God spoke through Kara to Andrea stuff that I really believe He wanted her to hear about the freedom of Christ and He confirmed Himself in Andrea’s dreams. He was reviling Himself in her life and it was like one of those oooooh my! Moments for her. And it was awesome to be a part of it. Also she told me how much it meant to her that we had prayed for her and her foot. So that was pretty awesome.
Andrea.
Yesterday we traveled to the mountains, which are about a 40 minute drive from San Juan where we are staying. It was a day of fun and ministry. There was another American team there doing medical work and when we arrive we greeted them and then went down to the local river were we got to swim for a while with some village boys, then we ate lunch can came back up to the village to do ministry. A couple of the girls were drafted by Pastor to do medical paper work… which consisted of getting the names, and problems form the patients waiting in line. The rest of us went to do children’s ministry; we played games with them, sang songs and then pastors wife told the kids about Jesus, and handed out Spanish bibles. 
