Our trip to the DR...

A lot of you may be wondering "when are you finally going to Africa? 17 day vacation in the Dominican?" I know I know but the main purpose of this trip was to be able to put all the things that we have been talking about and learning about from class into practice.  The long classroom hours on knowing God and His character, spiritual warfare, worldview, hot/cold culture climates, living in community, conflict resolution, and PRAYER.  This trip covered all of these topics and more.  As i stated earlier there was 11 of us who were a part of this team.  God picked each and EVERYONE of us individually to make up this team.  Together we were able to accomplish so many things but also were able to truly be Gods hands and feet.

Most of the mission trips I have been on have impacted my life deeply in some way, and this trip was no different.  Working in the community of Aguas Negras (translation: black water) I was able to build relationships with the people and really see the power and need of prayer. 

  

Above is my little amigo Daniel.  He had been playing with matches and ended up getting burns on his head, arms, and legs.  He started off very timid with us but day by day as we went back to change dressings and other times just to visit he finally started to open up to us.  By the time we left his mother was doing all the dressing changes and we were able to just come over to play.  I now have an even GREATER respect for child life specialists.   Another exciting adventure (for lack of a better word) that we embarked on was a little hiking trip.  6 of our team plus 15 teenage boys and 4 guides? decided to climb a mountain that supposedly would take about 2 hours.  Well long story short 3 and 1/2 hours later after getting lost for an hour and having to back track, going through a corn field, stepping on fire ant hills, going down 15 foot drops holding on to tree roots and getting covered in some weird oily plant; we did it!  We were all exhausted but it was such a great accomplishment for us all well besides the weird rashes that we all got up and down our extremities. 

   Over the 17 days that while in the DR we not only saw patients and went on  hikes but also were able to build shelves in the school, doors to the bathrooms, tables, kitchen counters, tile floors, painting, organization, teach first aid classes to boys and girls club, home visits, built walls, took down walls, put in A LOT of fans (yay Barry), worked in a health clinic, work in a feeding program, deliver rabbits and build rabbit hutches, trash clean up, paint houses, help prepare meals, etc.  I want to make a special note to those who did the construction projects and commend them for there patience, love, and drive to not only start and finish a project but also to be willing to teach some of the boys and girls even if that meant the project would take 3x's as long to finish.  

The relationships that we made with the "shoe shine boys", the families that we visited, the teachers of the school, the people in the community, and even in the lives of one another was so beautiful and definitely a gift from God.  

Now I am back in Texas and just tying together loose ends.  Myself and Leah will be leaving on Monday to meet up with Christina in Dallas and then on to Paris for our European adventure.  God has been so good to me throughout these past weeks and i know a huge part of that is because all the prayers and support you have shown me.  

Psalm 16:8 "I have the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand i will not be shaken."