The DR :]

      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.

Beautiful baby.