The End of the Beginning

 The last full day in the DR was definitely a memorable one.  In the morning we went to church at Nueva Vida in Jarabacoa. It was very different from the other churches we had been to.  The building had wooden pews, bathrooms, Sunday School rooms, and even a basketball court outside. This was the mother church that had planted the churches in Los Calabazos, Buenos Aires, and Boma, as well as two others. During the service we sang some worship in Spanish (words were projected on the wall so we could sing the words while having no clue what we were saying). We also sang a few familiar songs like Mighty to Save, so it wasn't all gibberish for us gringos.  We did the chair skit once again and Evan shared his testimony. We then listened to a very emotional and charged sermon about the three types of fear: panic, preserving, and reverential. The speaker often shouted and made wild hand gestures, and the church's translator attempted to mimic it for us. It wasn't quite the same. Stanley said afterwards that he could listen to this guy's sermons all day.  After the service we made a final trip to the supermarket and stocked up on food (particularly Florentinas) and returned to La Salle. We enjoyed a relaxed afternoon to pack and play some final Ka-Boom ball, which included Canadians this time. Before dinner we headed over to the Mackey's to help organize everything we were donating and talk to them about their ministry.  It was cool to hear some of their stories and how the Dominicans can teach them just as much as they are teaching the Dominicans. After having the last supper, it started to really hit us that we were about to leave. We had some team time upstairs, where we sang some worship (in English!) and did a really cool candle ceremony thing where we discussed how God has spoken to us while on the trip. The emotions were already starting to show, and then came the foot-washing.  The tears rained down then in many of us, and the translators seemed especially hit. We closed with some more worship and then had some fun for the last two hours we had with our translators. We signed the translators T-shirts and had some dance lessons. I learned how to do the Spongebob. As each translator had to leave, they were bombarded with hugs. Soon only Daniel was left.  We created a tunnel for him to bike through and then ran after him for a few yards. A silent salute marked the end to an awesome sendoff. It would have been so much more epic if Daniel hadn't shown up the next morning to go with us to the airport…

                The Lucky Charms I had bought at the supermarket tasted especially homey Monday morning. It was probably because we found out that the box came from Minneapolis. Talk about foreign. By nine we all had our bags ready to go and lazed around for the next two hours until it was time to leave for the airport. We passed some riots on the way there, which caused Rick and Daniel to leave quickly after dropping us off at the airport. We all got on the plane and, fast-forward 10 hours, landed in Minneapolis. It was an awesome trip and no one wanted it to end. We all miss the translators and the trip in general a lot. Thank God for Skype. God taught us all a lot on the trip, and hopefully we are now ready for the real challenge, back in the States.

Some of Evan's Photos of our trip

We Made it and are all home.

I will let John do some final thoughts but we made it home and be sure to keep reading for some updates and reflections from the trip.

darin

Last night was the last night

Last night we had a great team time of encouragement and worship.  We said goodbye to our translators and now I sit and type this from a bench in the Santiago Airport while John mooches food off of someone in the food court.  See you all real soon!

Darin

July 9, 2011

July 9, 2011

Yesterday we said goodbye to a village, but today we got to go somewhere new. Our destination: Boma, the site for many Calvary construction projects. The road to Boma becomes very rough, so the team had a good 35 minute hike up and down hills and over a river. Rick has a 4-wheel-drive Jeep, so he took Josh and a few others with him directly there, which happened to involve driving through the river (gnarly!). The rest of us crossed the country-style land on foot, passing by cows that lacked manners and crossing another freaky hanging bridge. When we got to Boma, some of us played with the kids while the rest of us talked to the teens. Kaylyn and Ben shared their testimonies for the teens and then we headed out to play some games. We started with baseball, gringos (us) versus Dominicans. We got slaughtered. Last I checked the score was 20-3, with most of our points coming off of Darin’s 2-run homer. After shaking off the humiliation of a sound defeat, we tried again with soccer. This time, the gringos decimated the Dominicans. Rick didn’t like how lopsided it was, and told our best players (Daniel and Rovian, both translators) to play goalie, but we were still winning. Then Rick and Stanley joined the Dominicans, and they grabbed a few points before we called it quits. We returned to the village and enjoyed lunch at Boma. It was fantastic, and Rovian filled his plate at least three times with rice and beans. We then bought some paintings the kids had been making and headed back to La Salle for some down time. Excluding a game or two of Ka-Boom Ball (I had sorely missed it the last few days), it was very mellow at camp up until supper.

After we ate, we headed off the Buenos Aires for the Evangelistic service. It began with a test from God though. We arrived just as it started to rain. The downpour halted our plans of having the service at the butcher yard, where Catholics and non-Christians were more likely to show up. After praying about it, we decided to settle for the church building, knowing it would hurt our numbers. We had some good Spanish worship, followed by testimonies from Erin and Josh. Darin then told not only his story, but also told God’s story, using John 3:16. The message was awesome, and Darin actually spoke slowly for once. He asked if the Dominicans would like to accept Jesus into their hearts, though I don’t know if any openly did so. What I do know though, is that God can still use Darin’s message and the service as a whole, even if we never find out about the impact. It reminds me of one of our devos, which discussed serving without recognition.

We closed the night with a little more worship, including Open the Eyes of My Heart. I usually try to keep myself out of the blog, but I must say it was awesome to belt out the lyrics to that song in English while little Rafael belted them out in Spanish beside me. So cool. Pray for the continued impact of the service and pray for a strong finish for the team. (By the way, this blog may sound like rambling, as a group of shirtless guys wrote a song about me blogging and sang it to me while I tried to write this. My apologies :P )

July 8, 2011

July 8, 2011

Today, we went back to Buenos Aires again for the kids program. We switched things up a little bit this time though. Josh and Evan ran the whole program, leading worship and organizing the whole show. Darin stayed in the background as much as possible, and the Dominican woman who usually runs it told the bible story (this time it was Noah), but otherwise stayed out of the picture. We played games with them as usual, but the crafts never made it back from La Salle, so we all circled up and told each other about our lives and asked the kids about Jesus while trying to help them straighten out their philosophies about God. Darin was impressed with our flexibility, and we finished off the morning with testimonies from Ben and Paul. After resting up at La Salle, we headed over to Los Calabazos one last time. We had no idea what we would do, and left it up to Julito to tell us what he wanted us to do. Kaylyn, Allison, Abby ( one of our translators), and Meredith worked in the kitchen making supper, while Paul, Jordan and I played basketball with some of the kids. After we lost by one point, we joined the rest of the team in a greenhouse weeding green pepper plants. We tried to stress relationships while working and had some good conversations. Before we climbed the 202 steps out of Los Calabazos for the last time, we enjoyed a delicious dinner there, Julito’s treat. It was sad to leave such cool place with some awesome people, but we can still pray for their community. Tomorrow we are going to have an evangelical service at Buenos Aires. Pray that the service really impacts those that show up and that God can speak through Darin and whoever else talks there. 

July 7, 2011 Welcome to Paradise

Welcome to Paradise

Imagine those prize puzzle trips on Wheel of Fortune, complete with white beaches, beautiful blue water, and mouthwatering food in abundance. Now picture our team in the video clip. Although I’m sort of exaggerating, that was how it felt today, going to the beach. It started out with 3 hour ride on a bus that looked like it was just yanked out of India. We took a few Dominicans with us, including Alex, the pastor at Buenos Aires. Many of the kids were very shy and the day’s challenge became getting them to open up. Language barriers were a pain as usual. When we got settled on the beach, we were introduced to Big Mama, who Rick knows and who “took care of us” while we were there. She made sure to crack everyone’s neck before we got going and sometimes provided random massages. The day was mostly spend snorkeling, swimming around, riding the pathetic waves, building sandcastles, burying Paul and I, and eating awesome food. Josh and I showed one of the Dominicans, Fernando, how to build a sandcastle, and Ben Mannenbach discovered a crab in the sand when it pinched him. Before we left, we all made sure to waste a small fortune on some souvenirs, some of which are quite spectacular. The bargaining that took place was fantastic and refreshing (Stanley and Oscar are pros), and we later found that most of what we bought was cheaper than the breadsticks on Pizza Hut’s menu. As we left the beach, our only regret was that no one took ANY pictures of the paradise. Evan failed us (Just kidding). As previously mentioned, we completed a crazy good day with a trip to Pizza Hut. I was shocked at the elegance of the restaurant, as well as how much better their pizza is here than back home. I plan to complain to Pizza Hut as soon as I’m back. All in all it was a great day, and we got a chance to not only get to know some kids from Buenos Aires better, but also got a chance to catch our breath after many exhausting days and sleepless nights. Pray for endurance for the team in our last few days here in the DR.

A New Blogger

July 6, 2011

Note: I (Alison) took over this blog today because I wanted to blog!

This morning, we went to Kid's Club in Buenos Aires. We sang a few rousing rounds of worship songs, impressively all in Spanish this time, also allowing a few of the kids there to lead as well, and Carol (the church pastor's wife and teacher for Kid's Club) taught them the story of Abraham. One of our own students (Meredith) also shared their testimonies of God's work in their lives. The inside group worked on helping the students to draw and color pictures of both their family and their story, or of the Abraham story. The outside group played games out in the church yard, the same as what we had done on Monday. Things went smoothly and I believe that the kids learned from and enjoyed the lesson today.

When we returned, we were treated to yet another delicious Dominican lunch, and given further instruction for what we were to do that afternoon. The activity that was planned was called "Listen to the City", something that Darin had done previously at the high school mission trip to Seattle a couple of years ago. We were instructed to observe the city of Jarabacoa, and to see the people with God's eyes. It seems like it was a really incredible experience for our team and really taught us a lot about people—the most prominent lesson from this seemed to be that we needed to observe and see needs and pray for needs in our own cities. That evening, we went off to Buenos Aires once again to do door-to-door evangelism at places of Pastor Alex's choosing. When we had our pre-visiting discussion, Alex told us of a family that recently suffered a loss. So we spread the Gospel to the local homes and then met up at a service for the man who died at his mother's home. His mother was a Christian, and friends with Alex, and she wanted the group brought to share the Gospel with the family who was going through the typical 9 days of mourning. We performed the chair skit, Stanley and Colleen shared their testimonies, and an elder from the church preached an incredible message about God's love and desire for us to come to him. As a result, about five or six, including a youth we were familiar with, came to Christ. Amen! Please pray for the family as they mourn their loss and that God's peace will be with them, praise God for these new Christians ("the angels are having a party in Heaven!" as was stated by a few members of our team), and for continued support of both of these groups so they may grow closer to God in this time of difficulty and transition. Also, we are going to the beach tomorrow! Pray that God will be glorified even in our time of fun and relaxation!

--Alison 

Mountain Top!

July 5, 2011

Mountaintop Experience (literally)

Today we climbed the mountain Mogote. Darin didn't exactly explain the intensity of the climb when he lightly suggested we work out before this trip. It was insanely steep, with 4 foot deep crevices running along the "trail" we were following. We took around 50 Dominicans with us, with the idea of getting to know them, but nearly all our energy was used to keep moving. It took the group from 1 and a half hours to 3 to summit Mogote, where we enjoyed ham and cheese and ketchup sandwiches for lunch. Josh travelled by mule up the mountain on a longer, less steep trail, taking 3 and a half hours to summit. All of the Americans were drenched in sweat at the top, especially Darin although he was one of the first ones up, but the Dominicans somehow didn't seem tired. One kid had on a winter coat and 3 backpacks in Caribbean heat. And he didn't break a sweat. After spending some time on the mountain and praying over the city in both English and Spanish, we began our descent. Daniel (one of our translators) ran down the mountain in the superhuman time of 20 minutes. I tried to keep up with him at first, but later gave up. Evan and I were the next people down from the mountain, but it still took us 45 minutes. After the climb, the entire team was covered in mud, sweat, and a little blood, so we showered, ate dinner, and relaxed the rest of the evening. Tomorrow we will do another kids club at Buenos Aires and then do a "watch the city" thing, as well as evangelism in the evening. Pray that Christ's love would be revealed to the Dominicans and that God uses us in awesome ways. Also continue to pray for the health of our team, following a rigorous climb.

--John

 

 

Be Still and Know That I Am God

Update for July 4

The Pancake breakfast on the 4^th of July was a welcome surprise. I guess pancakes are so good that no culture can resist them. Shortly after breakfast, we left for Buenos Aires. There we helped out with a Sunday school type program (on a Monday) and taught the kids the story of Jonah. They got a chance to draw the story on paper and then tell it to the class on a felt board. We also played lots of outdoor games with the kids, and never saw a limit to their energy. During these activities, Erin was able to bring a young girl to Christ! I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet, but from what I've heard it was an awesome God moment and Daniel (a youth from Jarabacoa translating this week for us)  got to help translate the conversation. After returning to La Salle for a while, we left for the river. We didn't take any Dominicans with us and didn't plan on ministering to anyone really. Darin said our plan was to "do nothing in order to do something better." We all split up on the river and had some alone time on the rocks around a waterfall. Well more accurately, we prayed for a full hour. It was an awesome experience, just letting God have an hour of our lives to tell us what He has to say and allow us to come clean with Him about, well, everything. The hour "felt more like 20 minutes" according to Ben Mannenbach and I agree completely. Some of us worshipped, some read the bible, some basked in the beauty of God's creation, and others just stayed in the quiet presence of God. That evening Rick challenged us that if we are to take anything from this trip, we should try to integrate this kind of slow-down-and-pray session into our schedules back home. Pray that we can pull that off and that we don't become too distracted when we come home.

We also had Dominican guests at Camp La Salle. These guests work with a program that combines medical practice with evangelism. Vanessa and Fernando shared how God has lead them through their lives, even when they didn't know what they were supposed to do. Their stories are inspirational, and their love for God is intense. Pray for their organization, as well as Vanessa's baby that is due this week.

Tomorrow (likely today by the time you read this) we take on a mountain. Pray that the expedition goes smoothly and that the Dominicans we take with us will be receptive to God's call.  This is being used as an outreach to the local teens and last we heard there were nearly 25 (or more) coming with us.  This is a first for this area and we hope to model it to be a lasting idea, investing in the youth.

 

--John

A day in the life of Meredith.

Hola, que lo que monstros?

Today I, Meredith, woke up at 4 in the morning not feeling to hot and when I ate breakfast I felt worse. So, I am skipping out on the activities with the group so I can make sure I feel 110% tomorrow for the climb at Mogote. The Group went to Buenos Aires this morning and are on a hike to a waterfall right now. They are going to go across 3 swinging bridges! Please pray for their safety and also for them to not get distracted as they have quiet time on some rocks. You are probably wondering if I am all alone at the camp, but the gracious Mackey family invited me over to their house so I wouldn't be alone. Their home is very beautiful! Ben is playing his PSP and Elena is hanging with me. Later we are all going to do devotional because I am missing the hike and the quiet time. I have become very good friends with Ben, Elena and the translators; Melissa, Abby, Rovian, Oscar, and Daniel. They have been teaching me alot of Dominican slang. Well please pray that I feel better and also pray for the rest of the group to not get sick. This is the time when people are most likely to get sick. I don't want anyone to have to miss out on what God has planned for us as a group. Keep reading the blogs and praying for us and the churches. The churches here are praying really hard for our church! 

Hasta Luego! Yo espero que estes bien.

Meredith

Two Days of News!

July 3, 2011

Update for July 2

Don't Start Thinking We're in Argentina…

                  Day 3 started bright and early with some papaya for breakfast. There were some mixed feelings about that. The rest of the morning was spent once again at Los Calabazos.  Our first goal was to round up as many villagers as possible for some bingo.  We used the bingo to teach the village kids some English and to learn some more Spanish ourselves.  We used art and song to teach English as well.  Each person drew a picture of something that we then put up on the felt board that we showed them how to make. 

Some of our team were out in the community like myself (John), Paul and Jordan to help some of the teenagers that had to work. We ended up hauling away mud blocks from a swimming pool-sized pit. We found out that we were making a fish tank for Los Calabazos to hold catfish and create a sort of hatchery. It was refreshing to be able to help them out in a physical way and show them the love of Jesus. Erin, Josh, and Allison also had a similar opportunity, planting tomatoes (a very tedious job).

As lunch time drew near, we all climbed the 202 steps out of Los Calabazos and returned to La Salle briefly before going somewhere new, Buenos Aires. This town is more urban than Los Calabazos, and has a larger church building. We arrived in time to help with a kids program and played with the kids, meanwhile teaching them bible stories through crafts. We returned to Buenos Aires after dinner for a youth group (more teenagers this time) and shared some testimonies (Josh and Kaylyn).   The ministry known to many Calvary folks as The ARC is where we held this youth event nite and there were many that showed up.  We also taught them some games from Timber Bay and they taught us some of their games. Today we really started to establish relationships with some of the Dominicans. Pray that those relationships grow over the next 9 days and that they open doors for us to share our faith. And praise the Lord for translators!

--John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update for July 3

Todos Para la Gloria de Jesus (All for the glory of Jesus)

Today we got a double dose of church with some flex time in between. The morning service was in Los Calabazos, and was full of both English and Spanish worship, as well as testimonies from Kamaria and myself (John). It was so cool to see how enthusiastic the leaders in Los Calabazos were when they worshiped. When we sang Amazing Grace in English, I think I saw some teary eyes from one of them, and he couldn't even understand the lyrics! After the service we had some time to hang out with the kids and let them use the cameras and the guitar, as well as entertaining Elvis, a mentally retarded Dominican, but with fun personality. Lunch in La Salle was followed by some intense Ka-boom Ball, the team-invented sport that is just awesome. In the evening we left for Buenos Aires and participated in their church service. Probably the best moment of the day was when the entire room was singing Nothing but the Blood of Jesus in both languages! Bilingual worship is spectacular. The night also saw testimonies from Jordan and Colleen, as well as the chair skit, which had also been performed in Los Calabazos.  We saw some familiar faces from yesterday, namely the goofball Benito, as well as many new faces that we are creating relationships with. Pray that the teenagers from both communities can join us for our mountain hike on Tuesday and for the continued health of the team. We're ¼ of the way, with zero illness! Hallelujah!

 

Many Thanks!

This is Rick! Becky and I want to thank you for sending such a great team! Today they ministered in two services - Los Calabazos and Buenos Aires. They are a blessing to us, the churches, the translators and the communities that they go to. They did have time to type their Blog message before I had to go but let me share some prayer requests:

Pray that God would pull down the walls that keep Dominican youth from turning to Him.

Pray for an evangelist service that we will be having on Saturday night.

Pray for the health of the team. Sometimes after about 4-5 active days, people start to get sick.

Praise God for His work in our lives, for the opportunity to be used of Him and for His strength which carries us.

Thank you for your prayers!

Bridges - July 1, 2011

Hey ya'll this is Josh subbing in for John as he is practicing our skit! Today was the first day we really went out into the community and interacted. In the morning we talked culture with Rick and Becky, you'd be amazed at all the differences. Dominicans are incredibly people/relationship oriented. Then after lunch we met up with our interpreters, all kids our age and younger, and journeyed to the small community of Los Calabazos. After a harrowing trip down many steps (202 to be exact) into the valley we arrived at the small village. Rick gave us a tour and then gave us an opportunity to cross the raging river on a small rope bridge! We were apprehensive at first, but in the end we all stepped out of our comfort zones and crossed it. Little did we know, that was the easy bridge to cross. The harder bridge to cross was more metaphorical as we had to step out of our comfort zones again and reach out to the Dominicans. We played some ball, and then had some rousing games of dominos! Finally, we had to leave them. Upon reaching camp again we made up a crazy game called KaboomBall! (Don't be surprised if it goes international) and then had some good team time singing songs and having our hands anointed with oil.

Now as we head to bed, we go with the thought in mind that we've crossed the bridge, we've bridged the gap between us and the Dominican teens, creating a lasting relationship that will hopefully lead to more ministry opportunities! Goodnight from noisy Jarabacoa!