What A Week!

What a week this has been so far! So much has happened in just the last few days but lets start from the beginning…

Saturday we took a day trip to Santiago, which was really cool just to get away form the house for the day and see another part of the Dominican that we really haven’t seen yet. It was raining though which limited our site seeing which was a bummer but we did get to do some shopping at La Sirena. This very large store reminds me a little of a Wal-Mart back home but in my opinion a lot better. The first floor, yes there are two stories, is a grocery store, and the second has everything else, cloths, shoes, electronics, books and all kinds of stuff. We bought a lot of much needed groceries for dinner making and such. To celebrate one month of being here we went to TGIF's! So good! I didn’t think I was missing American food until I was given the chance to eat it. This little outing was a great diversion for me for a while, I was really missing some people this weekend with TEC going on and all and wanting to be a part of it. Not a feeling I want to have anymore because it was really not fun, but a friend here reminded me that I am here and they are all over there, and as much as I think of them they still have there lives at home and stuff going on. It was a good thing for her to say to me at that point even if it was hard to hear. I know you are all keeping us in prayers and I thank you all for that!

Sunday was another relaxing Sabbath. Only got out of my PJ's to go to church in the afternoon, I am really starting to love the church that we go to here, the people there are so excited to worship the Lord and it show in the way they worship!
The first part of this week was relatively uneventful. Monday and Tuesday were as much at the norm could be at Genesis on any given day. Tuesday night we had our IBS (Intern Bible Study), which was awesome! It reminds me a lot of our Sunday group, All In, although nothing could replace you all who have been apart of that group this past year, it is nice to be able to have something like that here for us. These nights are always fallowed up with a game of Dutch Blitz! I was pretty proud of myself this night because I blitzed 3 times, which is defiantly a record for me since I am always in the negative, but because I blitzed 3 times I didn’t really care all that much!

This is where my week at Genesis got pretty crazy and we still have one more day left, crossing our fingers here! So Wednesday started out really good, I had a fun session with Alfri who is so cute, and then I thought that it would be fun to work with Henny, a really sweet girl in her own way but I love her to death! We were working with scissors and I was showing her how to use them and cut on a strait line and you know normal therapy stuff and she is doing great I am encouraging her to keep going and keep cutting and all of a sudden she takes her child's scissors and cuts right across her finger... so me not really a blood person, scrambles to find some gauze in the cupboard to put pressure on her poor finger which is now bleeding so bad... rushing her down the hall to find Amy, my hands and arms covered in blood but I am not really caring at this point because Henny is crying and looking at her poor hand like, ok so what are you going to do about this, come on now... Ends up she gets 5 stitches and comes back to school as happy as can be her finger wrapped up and waiving her hand in the air all happy, so good ending to this story. While Amy and Jeff, who took on the roll of ambulance driver, were gone to the clinic, Jordani fell of a swing and scraped his knee and hit his nose which took more gauze and band aids to fix up. So needless to say we went out for ice cream after school.

Today I was working with Maribel in the classroom, when another teacher came in saying that one of the boys, Jordani, had cut a classmates ear, Jonathan, with scissors. Really! So I don’t know how many stitches latter but he came back to school all bandaged up as well kind of back to normal he doesn’t really speak all that much but he seemed ok, we will see tomorrow. The kids were terrors today! You couldn’t turn your back without one of them doing something during our recess/ lunch break. So another day deserving of ice cream, only this time with Vicki. I love our talks, she asks a lot of hard questions for me to answer but she is trying to break me out of my shell which is what I need.

So yea one more day to what has become a long week, and then a three day weekend here as they celebrate there independence day! Don’t know what I will end up doing, there are some different things that have been offered or suggested, white water tubing which I will defiantly say no to, but thanks for the invite, a movie in Santiago which would be super fun, and I can defiantly stay here and get some reading done and enjoy the quiet. So we shall see.

Life is good here in the Dominican Republic!

Another One Come and Gone...

Tonight we said goodbye to our second outreach... This week went by so fast but I feel like I got to know the women that were assigned to Genesis pretty well. They were all so on fire for what they wanted to do here and I think that they all will leave with a little piece of them here and go with something that God and the people here gave to them. It is so great being able to see the changes in people in just a short week here, and I really should not be surprised because I can just look at my own life and see what God has done through this ministry here.

Wednesday we went to Melvin’s house for our "dinner in the community" night. Every time I go to his and his mothers house I am reminded of just how much I have and am humbled by what they have. You can see the love that his mother Gladys has for Melvin, and what Melvin has to share with you is just amazing! I have heard his testimony twice now and both times I have been moved to tears. He is a 21 year old who has CP and yet it doesn’t effect the way that he shares with people all of what God has done in his life and how this struggle has only made him and his faith in the Lord that much stronger. In the past few years he has written 12 songs all of which show a little piece of his testimony, it is so awesome!!!

I also wanted to share a little on a devotional that we had this week and again I have never thought of this verse in this way before and found it very cool! It is in Matthew 6:19-34 where it talks first of "Treasures in Heaven" and then "Do Not Worry." You can totally look at these two separately but when put together it becomes something completely different. And being in ministry and the mission field right now it kind of hit home in a different way. Where your treasures are there is where lies your worries... So how can your heart be in it, if it is with something else that you are worried about? And so how are we to go out and serve when we are always worried about whatever we are always worried about, relationships, finances, life in general, ect. So in taking the step to come here I put all worries aside I had thought and let God take complete control of some situations which was great but I need to learn to put all situations in His hands and not worry say about what I am going to do in August when I get home and let Him show me what that is in His own time.

So defiantly some cool stuff this week! I am excited for the next few weeks where we will have no teams here but will be ready for the next one to get here by then I think. I hope to have pictures up by tomorrow afternoon of this weeks outreach so cheek out Facebook for updates!

One Month!!!

So in DR time exactly a month ago we were boarding a plane to come here!!! That is such a weird thing to think about! So much has already happened here and I can say that I am completely at home and only missing a few things... mostly family and my awesome friends. Time is just flying by here and sometimes I have to stop and be like oh yea I am in a different country right now!

This past week was really nice we didn’t have any teams here so we went to our sites each day and I loved the one on one time that I got to spend with the kid for therapy. It is scary how much I am getting to know each of them and coming to love each of them! I don’t want to even think about leaving yet and it has only been a month... These kids keep me laughing but also their way of showing love and affection is so much deeper, they defiantly keep me humble...

I love it here, I love the people, I love life right now! I never thought that I would ever feel this way about life, being exactly were I was supposed to be at the moment I was supposed to be in! God is good, All the time, God is good!

Day 22!

Yet another beautiful day here in Jarabacoa and an even awesome day at Genesis if that is even a word I don’t know but it works for me! I have been kind of settling down into a routine with the kids and putting together a schedule for therapy and I like the rhythm that I am in right now, although it defiantly goes up and down with day to day occurrences. Please be praying for this little girl named Beranice at Genesis, she has a lot of home problems right now and we are super worried about her...

Ok so I have started to feel that a blog every day is kind of hard to do so I might be cutting back on them a little to maybe twice a week or so but don’t worry I will still be posting everyday happenings here in Jarabacoa! So until then!

Day 21

So three weeks today! And today was pretty great! It was my first day working without a team and by my self so I loved the one on one time that I got to spend with the kids today. It is so quiet around here right now and it is giving me a lot of time to think and reflect, (unless I fall asleep in a hammock, which happened today), which could potentially good thing, I like it!

So yea just a quick update today more to come later for sure!

Day 19 and 20!

What a weekend it has been! I absolutely love it here! Yesterday was a very relaxing day with the exception of our excursion to the coffee factory here in Jarabacoa...and were I stepped off the truck and rolled my ankle, it was fun lol. I fell kind of hard on my hand I guess and it is bruised pretty good and my ankle is a little swollen but its all good because I am in a beautiful place doing Gods work and life has never been better! I was able to catch up on some reading and quite time and nap time lol.

Jeff, Beth and I also went shopping because starting today we had, have, to make our own meals for the next week so we grocery shopping in Jarabacoa, kind of fun! And dinner tonight turned out great! We made spaghetti, it was pretty awesome if I do say so myself! We got some ice cream and sat in the park to eat it and I was like we never do this in the states! It was so cool to jsut sit there!

I love Sundays here, I probably say that every week, sleeping in a little getting up and sitting outside on the steps for a while taking some quite time and drinking some coffee before the day starts, it is so relaxing and so Dominican! I really hope that I will be able to continue this when I am back home! After seeing the Hume team off this morning we had a leisurely afternoon before we went to church where I understood about half of what was being said and could kind of see where he was going with his sermon for the other half which is an improvement for me!

This week is going to be so different with no team here but I am really excited to work with the kids one on one! So until tomorrow maybe lol I am kind of failing on a day to day blog but I will defiantly keep trying!

Day18

Today was and awesome but kind of a sad day here for us... The Joshua Hume team is leaving us early Sunday morning and it was there last day at sites. It has been great to see how they have connected with the people here in the Dominican Republic but it was really hard for them to say good bye just after the two weeks that they have been here. The banquet tonight was great and the media team that they had down here did an amazing job with there final video, you will have to cheek out there website to see if they put it on there to watch it!

Tonight Josh started a dodge ball tournament with the team that will continue tomorrow night, lets just say its kind of intense and fun to watch! Defiantly a highlight with this team, but there are way to many others to count!

I cant believe that we are closing out our third week almost, here in the DR it has been great so far and God has been teaching me a lot about myself and where he wants me... He is good!

Day 16 and 17!

So last night Anna Lanier spent the night (love her) and I didnt get the chance to write about how my day here was which, if we are going to stay consistent because we are, was awesome! If you saw my facebook I put up a lot of pictures of the last few days and of the kids at Genesis, I love them all and they make me smile and laugh everyday!

We also had our outreach night with the Hume team last night, where I helped out at Kids Club in the community of Mata Gorda! It turned out awsome and we had a blast playing with the kids and showing them our skits the team had prepared for them. A girl named Lacy who is part of the Hume team became really attached to a girl in Mata Gorda and vise versa. It was really hard to watch them and to see the girl get pulled away from Lacy so she could get on the truck to leave. I dont even want to think about leaving yet and I really dont have to but I can just amagin what it is going to be like and its not going to be fun. So with seeing that last night I am going to make the most of the time that I get to spend with everyone here and not take a second for granted.

Today was a great day as well, not a whole lot went on at school, just more loving and playing with kids!Also Beth is a lot better today after we figured out what she was sick from, an amiba of some sort we will say, but now Jeff is also sick with something we have yet to find out... I really hope I dont get something, it dosent sound pleasent at all and I would miss a day or two at the site and that would be no bueno! So keep us interns in your prayers, for health for sure,  and we are wineding down our first outreach here which was so much fun and I am going to miss these guys for sure!

Day 15!

So I have decided that I am going to start all my blogs with "So another awesome day here in the Dominican Republic!" because it seriously is! I really haven’t had a bad day, I mean some days I miss just hanging out with friends a few in particular you know who you are... lol but it is so awesome being here and I know I say this like every day but I know that I am right where I am supposed to be.

I love having teams here because we get to do all the activities that they get to do like last nights foot washing servant hood challenge, and tonight which was poverty night, where we eat a typical Dominican dinner of a family who cant afford much for dinner. And tonight we went on our prayer walk to the Los Higos community and were able to pray for the community and the work that SI is doing there and hopes to continue doing there. Its been great and every night I go to bed thinking I cant wait for tomorrow and what God will have in store for us next!