Today (September 12) marks a year since I moved to the DR!
Wow. One whole year. A year of witnessing the Lord’s faithfulness and grace. A year of growing deeper in my relationship with the Lord. A year of being uncomfortable, but trusting in the Lord’s plan for me. A year of living in an answered prayer that I, my family, and my friends prayed for for over 3 and a half years.
At church last Sunday, one of my friends asked me, “So what are your plans?” referring to how long I plan on staying in the DR. My response to him and to anyone else who asks is, “I plan to be here as long as the Lord will allow me to be.” He responded with, “Wow! That’s great! What do you love so much about living here?”
I love the pace and priorities of life here. I love how community-oriented and caring and giving and hospitable this culture is. I love how love is an action here.
Let me just give you one, very recent example. I’m the only American staff member here right now. Kelsi & Sarah, as you likely already know, are back in the States visiting family while we have a few weeks without teams. The other day, “cayó un agua fuerte” (a heavy rain fell) as they often say here in the DR. The guesthouse courtyard and the street outside turned into a lazy river! Luckily, water didn’t get inside the guest rooms or the kitchen/dining room. So, after it finally stopped raining, I went to check everything out and move some stuff around outside so that it wasn’t sitting in standing water. Trudging through dirty water and not being able to do anything about it can be very frustrating. But it’s the moments like this that I will savor now and cherish for the rest of my life. Lots of my Dominican friends were texting me asking me how everything was going at the guesthouse since it was raining so hard. Hector, Adia, and Monchy texted me saying that they were coming over and I tried to assure them that there really wasn’t anything that could be done that night until the water receded. However, each one of them showed up, despite me telling them that everything was okay and there wasn’t anything to be done. The next day, several of our ministry assistants showed up to help scoop water out of the pharmacy and the street by hand, clean up the debris, clean the mud out of the street, and clean up the tool shed. A few neighbors and our day guard were there to help too!
I can’t write this without tears coming to my eyes. Packing up my life to move to another country was hard. So many hard things have happened this year, but the Lord has been so, so sweet in each of the hard moments. It’s still so hard at times – being away from loved ones back home and continuing to adapt to a culture that’s not your own. But in the last year, the Lord didn’t just give me friends to pass the time with while here. He gave me a family. Adia and Monchy adopted me into their family when I first came back in 2020. They will forever be my Dominican parents. Hector has been a great friend since I met him in 2020, too, but he has become more than a friend. He’s become my brother. So many of my friends here have truly become my family and that just goes to show that the Lord knows what we need more than we do. When I prayed for “community” the Lord did me one better. He gave me a family to love me and care for me when I can’t be with my own family.
I am so thankful for the support of my family and friends back home in being here and I’m so thankful that technology allows us to stay connected even when we’re separated by distance. I’m thankful for their intentionality in staying connected with me in non-traditional ways, because it isn’t easy. I’m thankful that my dad has sent me a text, without fail, every single night that I’ve been here saying, “Good night, I love you.” I’m thankful that Snapchat allows me, my mom, my sister, my grandma, and my aunt, to send videos and pictures of the things we’re doing so we can be a part of each others’ everyday lives as much as possible. I also stay connected with my closest friends through sending Snapchat videos of random things we’re doing throughout the day. I love being able to still feel like I’m not missing out as much while I’m so far away.
It’s so sweet to have family in both places. The Lord is so good!
What I’ve been up to over the past few weeks:
The first two weeks without teams, I dedicated my days to doing some things around the guesthouse I don’t always have time to do: general maintenance, getting things fixed, organizing, taking the trucks to be washed. Hector and I are trying to get our drain fixed so the road doesn’t flood almost every time it rains!
The following week, Bianca and I visited each of our sponsor schools (2 in San Juan, 1 in El Cercado, 1 in Elias Piña, and 1 in Santo Domingo) which was an incredible experience! We baked cookies, brownies, and cake pops for the teachers to celebrate the start of the new school year. We also took each of them a bag of items such as children’s Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and cough drops that they may need to use for their students throughout the year that Kelsi packed for them! Visiting each school just made my teacher heart so happy. I got to see my friends Georgina and Cristina in action! I had an exceptionally great experience at our school in Santo Domingo. It was my first time there and only my second time meeting the director. She was so happy to have Bianca and I there. She took us into each classroom, we met pretty much all of the teachers, and listened to students recite the verse of the week: Ephesians 5:15-16. I am so inspired by the passion of the directors of the schools we partner with and the incredible work they’re doing at each of their schools. I’m so excited to be able to work closer with them.
Outside of working, I spent a weekend at a conference with my friend’s church in La Cuaba (which I’m really not exactly sure where that’s at on the map!). The theme of the conference was “Arraigados” (rooted), based on Colossians 2:7. It was basically a Dominican summer camp! Haha It was a really cool experience and it was so incredible to grow closer with friends and meet new people, too! I also LOVE watching my friends’ worship dance group and they performed several times at the conference!
I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to start hosting a bible study with friends here at the guesthouse. Last Friday, we studied Ephesians chapter 1 and it was a great discussion! I’m excited to discuss chapter 2 this week! I’ve also been helping on the planning end of our youth services on Saturdays at church. This new series we’re doing is on the attributes of God and I’m really excited for it and praying that the students are really impacted by getting to know His heart!
I’ve also gotten to go to El Cacheo some more with a group from church to do some kid’s classes in that community! Last week we got rained on, but it was a lot of fun!
Prayer requests:
- Safe travels for Sarah and Kelsi as they make their way back to San Juan next week!
- Physical and spiritual rest for all of us and our ministry assistants as we prepare to host teams again this fall
- Discernment, wisdom, and strength
- Bible study group – deepened relationships with the Lord & grow in community
- Christ-focused mentality for all of our team, especially when we’re being pulled in so many different directions while doing ministry