Jesus knows when I need a reminder of how cool He is and how much He loves me. Today I watched this message called Indescribable by Louie Giglio, where through looking at the awe-inspiring existence of our universe, we grasp how amazing it is to be called the children of its creator.
You can watch the series of clips on YouTube (5 parts of about 9 minutes each) here. I highly recommend it when you have the time!
This is a four minute video made by a videographer from Campus Crusade who spent the week with us here in Santo Domingo investigating exactly what our Stint team is here to accomplish and how we’re doing in light of that. Even if you read my prayer letters and know what’s been going on, watch it so you’ll have a better idea of our mission here.
Most final exams are now over at UASD and many students have gone back to their hometowns for the holidays. In the meantime, we are hanging out with those that are still around (we’ll even get to visit some of their families!), preparing for next semester, but most importantly, enjoying a brief period of rest and festivities.
This will be the first time each of us have been away from our families for Christmas. We’ve had to think outside the box for ways to make it special. Who says we can’t have a Christmas tree and fireplace?
And of course we put up lights for the atmosphere:Al
Although by daylight, you can’t really tell it’s December here:
Once a month, our team takes a day to reflect on what God’s been doing in our lives. This month, we decided that there’s no better place to experience God’s glory than at a 
Caribbean beach! We went to Playa Caribe, located just about and hour and a half outside of Santo Domingo. This was my first time outside the city unescorted by locals, so it was an adventure too.
My favorite thing about this beach are the waves. I had a blast riding them on boogie boards we could rent. Thank God I didn’t get stung by anything this time!
Something God reminded me of during my time with Him (which was awesome as I got to watch the waves and the horizon and crystal blue water that He created!) that He loves me with unfailing love. What a cool picture it was to meditate on this verse while sinking my feet into the sand:
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!Psalm 139:17-18
That there is nothing I can do for Him that will make Him love me more, not is there anything I can do that will separate me from His love. Having felt inadequate and discouraged at times, holding myself to my own standards of success, this was so relieving to hear. It’s been so tempting to entertain thoughts of who I wish I was like, who could handle this job more gracefully than I could, what I should be like. In His goodness, God gave me this reminder as if to say, “You are everything I could want in a daughter. Why are your thoughts so harsh towards yourself? I chose you because it brings me joy and glory to see you, specifically, carry the message of my Son to this place. Even if you stumble, I will lift you back up. There is nothing you lack that I can’t provide.” He is so good!
Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. I do have a good excuse though-my dad came to visit me last week! It was the COOLEST thing to be able to share my ministry experience with him and such an answer to prayer as he provided much needed love and support from home. It was so encouraging for me to have him by my side and to watch him interact with my teammates and the Dominican students. Sticking out like a sore thumb with his “gringoness” and not having much practice with the language, Dad was so brave as he marched onto campus with us everyday (sometimes with more energy than me!) and talked to students about what life is like here. How much does Jesus love me to send my daddy here for a visit like this!?
The best part is that he got to spend Thanksgiving with me and the rest of the team! We surprisingly had a pretty legit American holiday (although it was a little strange eating turkey while looking out the window at the Caribbean Sea!) We found boxes of stuffing, cranberry sauce, Dad and Jimmy cooked a juicy turkey, Rob made mashed potatoes (the good kind, not the box), and Bri satisfied those of us with a sweet tooth with candied yams (ok they were really a local type called batatas), and apple crisp. My favorite part of dinner was explaining to Leyla that the cranberries and pumpkin bread and yams weren’t quite dessert. She couldn’t believe that there was still more food!
We even got everyone to play a good 'ole game of holiday football! 
Other highlights from the week were going to see our first baseball game at Quisqueya Stadium (where Sammy Sosa and other stars got there start), trying new food with my dad (his favorite was a quipe which is basically a fried meatball), and attending a graduation ceremony for a few of our friends from UASD who finished a hard year of study in the English Immersion program. More pictures will be up on my facebook soon!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are watching God provide for your needs. Never forget to thank Him! Thanks for reading and keep praying for us as we finish out our first semester!
We had a visit from a CCC videographer about a month ago visit us in Santo Domingo to film a “commercial” directed towards students across the United States who are involved in Campus Crusade for Christ on their own campus. The goal in making this one-minute film is to get more laborers to come to the Dominican Republic to reach the thousands of unreached college students here. It turned out great and it was a ton of fun to make! Enjoy!
With seven more months left of my Stint year, I decided it was worth while to make my living quarters look more like a cozy bedroom and less like a place where I might pick up and leave at any second. I wanted it to feel like a cheerful sanctuary where I wake up excited for the day and relax before retiring from a long day.
The theme is based on my favorite flower: orchids! I was even able to bring comfort to my room with an ice cream scented candle—yum! Let’s hope that doesn’t attract the ants…
I almost didn’t buy this pillow, but I did a brief cost/benefit analysis and determined that the giddiness I would feel every time I saw it when I walked in my room was worth it.
Love black and white photos! Thought it would add a little sophistication to my bright green and pink room.
The finished product! I am love how it turned out—and it was fun for my housemate and I to get excited together as we now both have more personalized living spaces!
I had my second meeting with three wonderful girls from Vida Estudantil. In our time together, we discuss the foundations for our faith in God and the implications of what His son’s sacrifice means for our lives. It is such a joy and privilege to be able to go through this material with them because these students will be serving as the foundation for generations of students to come who will be involved in this ministry. We are praying that God would give them such a confidence in their faith and sound interpretation of concepts including the Holy Spirit, communion with God, and prayer so that they will be able to pass on this wisdom to the many students we are trusting God to bring into relationship with Him through Vida Estudantil in the years to come. So cool!
It was such a sweet moment sitting under one of the girls’ favorite tree, enjoying the nice November breeze, and laughing about how grateful we are that God thought to create chocolate just for our enjoyment! 
I suddenly have the urge to put up pictures of how beautiful of a country I live in. When our team was at briefing back in August, we were told that we would experience peaks and valleys with how in love with life here in a different culture. They explained to us that during the first two months, you will likely go through the “honeymoon phase” where you are thriving off of the newness and excitement of starting life in a new country. Well, I can’t say that I’d describe the first two months being in the DR that way (it was pretty tough!) But I’m glad to say that I think I ‘m starting to really enjoy myself in all areas—being a part of the team, getting to know students and witness to them, and learning the culture. Praise God!
So, without further ado, I will now brag about how beautiful this place is through pictures:
View from our patio of the Caribbean Sea. Granted, this is what it looked like during Hurricane Tomas:
Colonial Zone, where Christopher Columbus resided back in the day.
National Botanical Gardens
View from my bedroom window. Kind of reminds me of that scene in Aladdin…
And these pictures are just from places within a ten mile radius of where I live! We haven’t even been to a proper beach yet!
I got a little more insight to what student life is like at UASD today. I went with a student to a classroom where her friends were working on a commercial they had to film for their publicity class. The class was initially empty—no desks even! But then students started pouring in, then, as if by routine, went into another classroom to carry desks into the empty room. Later, as students were giving presentations to the class, you could hear the uproar of conversation going on in the classroom adjacent. One would usually just close the classroom door at this point—but there are none!
A student said something very profound today as she was sharing with me her story about her family life. She told me about how her parents divorced when she was 2 years old and that she never had a relationship with her father until she was 18. He re-entered her life then and maintained frequent communication with her. She really enjoyed being able to finally connect with her dad and was just getting used to talking to him on a usual basis, when he passed away a year later. This led her to question why God would let her taste something so great only to take it away from her. In the few years that followed, she has learned to look at the situation with an eternal perspective. Having believed in God at a very young age, she knew that it would be difficult for the non-believer to find credibility in her story. I have also wondered the same thing: How would anyone who didn’t grow up learning to love and receive God’s love take my word for the good things He’s done in my life? Her face full of joy, she tells me that while it still hurts at times to think of what she’s lost, she now has experienced God’s love and comfort in much deeper way. She knows what it feels like to question God’s justice, to be confused, to be desperate for comfort. This, she feels, not only strengthened her relationship with God, but strengthens her testimony to others as it illustrates God’s plan to restore all things.
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. –Genesis 50:20
Be encouraged by this student’s faith in the Lord’s intentions to bring upon us good things and not disaster. That “though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love (Lamentations 3:32).” How has God used the tragedies and times of difficulty in your life to bring upon good things? Have you yet to see the good come through? Then trust in His unfailing love which casts out all fear (1 John 4:18), promises us comfort (Psalm 119:76), and supports us when we are falling (Psalm 94:18).
One of our team members, Natasha was sent home today and will not be continuing Stint with us. You can read her own words from her blog here on why she had to do so. We enjoyed having her as a part of our team and will miss her dearly. It will be weird getting used to being a team of just four now. But we all know that this this the best thing first of all for Natasha's health, our team's, and the mission's. Please pray for her as she makes this transition back home and is working with Red River Region with Crusade on finding placement in their regional office.
Brianna is currently in Panama for a women’s conference that Crusade is hosting for staff members throughout Latin America. This will be a great opportunity for her to connect with other women, learn from their experiences as missionaries in other countries, and be encouraged!
Jimmy is finally home from the hospital—turns out he had pulmonary fibrosis—and is resting as much as he can. Thanks for your prayers for his recovery!
It feels like our team of five shrunk to two! Even though it’s weird without my girls in the house, I am enjoying the time alone to reflect, pray, and get re-energized.
As for follow up with the outreach from last week, I saw one of the girls that we met at our meeting this week! I got to talk to her after wards and hear about her walk with God. The students in Vida have taken responsibility for sharing God’s fame throughout UASD as they follow up with the 100 and some students we met and them email invitations to join us in community as we learn about God together.
God is truly at work here in the Dominican Republic. And it is for His fame and our joy that we live out 2 Corinthians 6:4 “In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.”
It’s official. Both team leaders have now visited “Hotel Hospiten.” Jimmy has been diagnosed with pneumonia—thankfully it’s not as bad as what I had so he should be out either this afternoon or tonight. As the Fall Visit people (Cayla, Lis, and Keith) have been here the last few days, this is just another bump in the road that they have been able to support us through. In honor of all of these things and what God has already been doing in the last 10 weeks of our stay here, we threw a fiesta in the hospital (which we keep calling the hotel) room with a cake:
God is good! Praise God that in the midst of chaos and change, He has been providing our team with the guidance, affirmation, and encouragement that was much needed to continue our work here. Praise God that Jimmy is getting the medical attention he needs to get back on his feet and back to work! We need him!
Above: In the hospital with Stint Team and Cayla, Keith, and Lis.
When I was told that a man named Keith Onishi, the CCC Campus Ministry Director for Latin America (pretty much the head honcho for university ministry in this part of the world) was coming to visit us in the Dominican Republic this week, I had a few expectations. I was told he had spent the past eight years living in Venezuela leading Stint teams and national directors in the mission. Expectation number one was judging by the last name, he's probably Japanese (are we sure this is the Latin America leader guy?) Expectation number two is that his Spanish is probably superb by now, given his experience in Venezuela. Now, I've already personally said this to him and he laughed, so I know it's ok so say out loud (or in blog or wherever this ends up), but when we picked him up from the airport, two things were confirmed: he is indeed half Japanese, but his Spanish sounds less like a Venezuelan national and more like I did in high school when I had to do an oral exam. In his defense, he totally understands Spanish that is spoken to him and can speak it clearly. It just wasn't what I had expected.
But the coolest part of this surprise was that I was able to actually believe him when he said every day it is by faith that he trusts the Lord to give him the tools he needs to do his job. He even shared about a time from his first year or two in Venezuela where he was listening to this student just pouring out his heart to him, telling him personal pains that he hadn't revealed to anyone else. He admitted that he actually only understood about 25% of what the guy was actually saying and felt like it would kill the mood to stop him and ask for clarification. Years went by and Keith was able to build a deeper relationship with this student and be a crucial part of his spiritual growth. Although it was embarrassing for him to ask the student questions about his personal life years later that he had actually already told him those things in that first conversation, he realized that what the student needed more than anything was to know that someone cared. That someone would represent Jesus in that moment and sit in the grief and pain he was going through and intercede with prayer. How precious is that?
Friends, praise God with me that He has--in his perfect timing--sent Keith and the rest of the Fall Visit team here to us now as an encouragement to our mission at UASD. This exact frustration of not being able to connect with students on heart issues for the language barrier had been wearing me out, causing me to doubt my ability to be an effective instrument of God. But to hear that the Campus Ministry Director for Latin America--a Japanese, English speaking guy with no previous life experience in the area--has been trusting God with His purpose in placing him in that specific position, and in the midst of that witnessing an abundance of fruitfulness result from that trust, fills me with hope that our team can do the same in the midst of our weaknesses.
Keith's visit also helped revive my heart for the ministry here specifically in the Dominican Republic/Latin America as he shared some ways that God has been moving here in the last few years. Just a snapshot of how God is working through campus ministry in Latin America:
Read more about Keith Onishi, his decision to follow the calling to Venezuela, and his ministry here. Pray for him, his wife, and three kids as they have just made the move back to the States this summer after 8 years of life in a completely different culture.
This song popped into my head today and can I just say, it’s funny how sometimes the songs you least want to sing are the ones you need most:
Up until the last week I really hadn’t experienced much homesickness. But this week, it hit me pretty hard. It’s probably a combination of being in the hospital without the family, being tired, feeling like I don’t know what I’m doing, and missing the easiness of some parts of life in the States that is contributing to this sadness. I know that “a cheerful heart is good medicine and a crushed spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22),” but some days it’s really hard to move past the flurry of emotions that comes with working overseas.
It was totally a God thing that I ended up watching the video for this song rather than just listening to it. There’s a part where they sing “This is how we overcome” and they make this “raise the roof” motion with their hands. At first this just looked silly to me and I wanted to laugh. But then I thought about what this posture means. It’s lifting your arms to God and with each pumping of the arms you’re pressing the praise back into His court. None of it belongs to me. And He is deserving of my praise regardless of the kind of day I’ve had. This is one of the weirder things I’ve done alone and I’m glad my roommates weren’t around when I gave it a try to see what it felt like. I felt awkward at first, raising my hands to God…by myself…in my room…watching a youtube video. But it was actually medicating as I began to think of more reasons that I could lift my hands in the air and praise my God in the midst of my homesickness. I’ve been able to bless people through prayer. I’ve received so much care from our church family and Leyla and Prospero. I am receiving peace that passes all understanding as I come before God and ask him to comfort me. I’m glad that God doesn’t ask us to forget about our problems and just move on. He invites us to lay our burdens on Him and find rest (Matt 11:28-30). Sometimes it’s hard to praise God when your sadness and anxieties are at the forefront of your thoughts. But try it—and watch Him turn your mourning into dancing!
You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever! –Psalm 30:11-12
The first Stint team, of first year Stinters, led the first outreach ever at Vida Estudantil today! It went really well and I want to praise God by sharing with you how it went!
In place of our regular 1pm Tuesday Vida Estudantil meeting, we empowered the students in our ministry to serve the campus in two ways. We had one team picking up trash nearby the Facultad de Arte and another serving up red punch and candy while students came to fill out Spiritual Interest Questionnaires. These surveys help us get an understanding for who is interested in knowing more about God and who would like to participate in our ministry. At first the students were a little shy as we asked them to go up to people and invite them over for free refreshments, but they ended up bringing over 100 students to our table in just an hour! We were able to connect with some of these students studying anything from publicity to medicine and personally invite them to join us at one of our weekly gatherings.
I got to talk with a group of three girls in their first year studying design, and while we didn't engage in a spiritual conversation, they seemed to enjoy the conversation and were already making plans to come together to a Thursday night meeting! Think of all the people that heard that there is a place where people can investigate God and learn how to share Him with the rest of the 160,000 students on this campus. I get excited when I think about who we may have met today that will be one of the forerunners of the ministry later this year. There could be someone who will help lead our ministry in serving the campus at large. There could be someone who will be a great teacher. How many of them will come to know Christ as their savior through conversations that result from this event?
Pray that God would help us maintain contact with the students who came today with interest in knowing more about God and how they can be a part of a community of believers who want to impact the campus for Christ! Pray that our arms would open wider to welcome these new students into our ministry and that Vida Estudantil would be a place where they receive care and spiritual growth. Pray for the Facultad de Arte (School of Art) and the people that spend time near the building. Ask God to place a curiosity about our group on their hearts, that they would see our compassion and love for one another and want to know more about the God that spurs us on to do it.
If you haven’t heard already from facebook, my teammates’ blogs, or elsewhere, I was admitted to the hospital on Sunday afternoon to be treated for pneumonia. It took a good six weeks to recover from it when I got it two years ago, so this time when I had bronchitis coupled with trouble breathing, I figured I should probably get checked up on. It was our first experience in a hospital in the DR. To be honest, I was a little shocked when they said they were keeping me overnight after taking a look at my “rayos x”: 
After taking some blood, giving me breathing treatments, and administering a shot, I was sent up to a room—which actually ended up being one of the most comfortable places I’ve been since living in the DR! It was air-conditioned. It had cable television. There was “room service.” It had hot water. There were no ants crawling around. My teammates were always taking great care of me and someone was always by my side—something I could definitely appreciate as it’s times like these when you wish your family could be around. N. even made sure to document the occasion:
Jimmy helping with the breathing mask Jess got locked in the bathroom!
I don’t think my team minded sitting in the room with me as long as there was cable tv to watch!
Yes, she even got a picture of me getting a CAT scan!
Mmm room service! I think the nurse thought we were a little goofy…
So while it was a little embarrassing to have my team nearby while I had to pee in a cup, hawk up stuff from my lungs, and breathe albuterol from a Darth Vader mask, it was certainly an answer to prayer from a previous week of getting some much needed rest. Ironically enough, the day before I was admitted, I was studying the different Greek meanings of the word “rest” used in the Bible. The word epanapauo means to cause one to rest (Luke 10:6), as opposed to the word anapauo meaning to offer rest (Matt 11:28). This trip to the hospital, although not ideal, was certainly a way for God to bless me by causing me to rest. Take a break from planning small group, take a couple of days to quiet your anxieties about team dynamics, escape the pressures of wanting to fit into another culture and rest. Jesus knew I needed some extra loving from my team, and even extended that by having our pastor, friends from church, and the students from Vida Estudantil visit me in the hospital with gifts and cheerful company. Family, friends from home, and even people I don’t know were praying for me as I took my 4 day sabbatical in Hospiten (name of the hospital). It wasn’t what I could have ever predicted, but I definitely felt God’s care upon me as I recovered this week. And I’ve learned next time to take the offered rest so I don’t have to go through the uncomfortable consequences of the caused rest!
I want to bring your attention today to a few people who are also working alongside me in ministry here in the Dominican Republic.
The first person I want to mention is Laura from my home church in Nevada who is using her personal purse making business to provide some of my financial support to be here. She really does make the cutest purses, wallets, and coin bags and it’s all from recyclable materials! Check out her site for Flat Tire Purses at http://www.shop.flattire.us/
Second is three of my teammates who also have blogs that you should follow for even more stories about what God is doing in the lives of students at UASD and in our crazy day to day happenings. Check them out:
Natasha--http://drnatasha.blogspot.com/
Brianna--http://diosesfieltodoeltiempo.blogspot.com/
Jimmy--http://jimmydavis5.blogspot.com/
Thanks to all for praying for the kickoff of our first Vida Estudantil meeting at night! We were hoping to see some of the contacts we made show up, but when they didn’t, we just went around the library (our meeting spot) and invited anyone and everyone to join us for our Bible study. It was exciting to see 15 people show up just from our invitation! R. got everyone to interact with each other through introductions and a fun game. L. shared with them who we are, what the mission for Campus Crusade is, and what we hope to see happen on their campus. J. led a discussion on John 3:16-21. The students weren’t shy about sharing with the group what stood out to them in the passage. We could have kept talking forever it seemed, but many students have classes right after our meeting.
After the meeting, I got to talk to a girl—we’ll call her Cathy*—who is very outgoing and sweet. We first talked about her major of marketing, then American movies, then she shared with me that she doesn’t really go to church or have a spiritual background. This surprised me because most people we’ve talked to on campus have some kind of experience with the church. I asked her to share more about her beliefs and I was later able to share part of my testimony about how I used to seek satisfaction in various places—relationships, image, attention from guys—but they all failed to fill that void in my life. When I started seeking God and asking him to meet my needs of companionship, affirmation, and attention, he didn’t disappoint me and for the first time I felt satisfied with my life. She said she wanted to live an abundant life and before I could even explain to her how one receives Christ, she told me that she just had in that moment! We prayed together and have made plans to get together next week. Pray for this girl and that she would begin to see God changing areas in her life, that she wouldn’t worry when she is met with doubts, but that she would know God deeply. Praise God!
While a couple of girls on our team were on campus today, a riot broke out. Guns were shot, rocks were thrown, and gas bombs were going off. Fortunately, they made it off campus safely and we stayed near our apartments the rest of the day. However it was unnerving to receive calls and texts from students in our ministry who were in buildings on campus in lock-down status, unable to leave until the threats were gone. While we still don’t know the main cause of the riot, we do know that these are not uncommon to UASD. In fact, the police are actually banned from being on campus due to an abuse of their presence in past situations. I happened to be running errands near campus and besides the noise from heavier-than-normal traffic on the streets I wouldn't have been able to sense the danger that existed just a street away. It’s sad that students are so accustomed to these types of things. They already know the drill: classes will be cancelled, some people might get arrested, life will go on tomorrow. I’m still unsure how to react to this situation, but praise God that everyone on the team is safe and that the students in our ministry are ok.
On another note, you can all be praying for a BIG thing that will be happening tomorrow: we will be starting the first Vida Estudantil night-time meeting! There is a huge amount of students that are free between classes at night and we found it highly necessary to reach these students by providing a place for them to come and investigate God through community while they wait for their next class :) We’ve already met a lot of students who are seeking God and are interested in joining our group through our night-time evangelism hours and are even bringing along a couple of students already involved in Vida Estudantil to help us kick it off. Pray that the students we invite will show up and that God will speak through us as we share the Gospel and encourage them engage in spiritual conversations as a group.
=My temperature the last two days. Thus I don’t have much to post besides some prayer requests that I have had lots of time to think about while laying in bed:
I know this must sound strange juxtaposed with my previous post—and this has been one of the most challenging weeks so far—but I really do enjoy my specific role on this team.
The five of us are each in charge of some aspect of the ministry, and I am responsible for making sure that our team is growing in our relationships with each other and with God. My weekly duties are to prepare for (or delegate the preparation to someone else) our team’s weekly events tailored to meet these needs: our team’s Wednesday night small group, Tuesday prayer and worship (where I get to lead by singing and playing my guitar!), devotional before our Friday staff meetings, monthly half day with the Lord, and team outings! B. makes sure that students in Vida Estudantil and those we reach out to during evangelism are being cared for and connected to others in the ministry. Besides co-leading the team with me, J. is also responsible for any team training that we may need to share our faith more effectively. R. is our team admin person who keeps us accountable for how we spend our time each week and gives us guidance as we create personal ministry goals for the week. N. uses her detail-oriented gifts to coordinate outreach events and as she is the most fluent in Spanish, does a lot of correspondence with the national staff.
I realized how it truly is a blessing to be able to serve in a position of your personal area of giftedness when I was talking with a couple of my teammates about spiritual gifts a couple of weeks ago. There are times when God asks us to do things that require us to serve in areas where we are not naturally gifted (for me, this would be public speaking or anything artsy). But when He asks us to serve in our areas of passion (for me, this is singing, connecting people, and encouragement) we feel inspired. There may be challenging aspects of serving even in your areas of giftedness, but for the most part, it comes naturally and we fulfill our desire to live with a purpose.
Don’t get me wrong, I still shake and tremble when I have to sing in front of my teammates, and feel vulnerable when I have to share a devotional that comes from something God had been showing me that week. I don’t know the first thing about what my teammates need to hear in small group. But I do know this:
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. –2 Corinthians 12:9
Praise God even as we are being stretched beyond what we ever thought we could be stretched and may it bring Him glory!
Hey peeps. Even though it’s been a three day weekend and I’ve been able to take my mind off ministry and relax, I am still feeling pretty drained. It’s been really hard to quiet my mind as anxious thoughts like “How can I build relationships with students in Vida Estudantil if I can’t understand Spanish very well?” “How can I encourage my teammates in their homesickness when I’m feeling it too,” “How can I share the Good News and tell students that God satisfies the longings of our hearts when there are many things that I am still longing for?” and “I miss my home church where they worship in English and I can understand the sermon and have conversations with people after the service without speaking broken Spanish and sounding dumb.” Gah.
Please pray not just for me, but for the other 4 members of my team; I know that some of them are experiencing the same anxieties. That we will not be led by our feelings but cling to God’s truth that says he will guide us, protect us, and do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.
This is exactly what one of the girls on my team said as I was being towed via piggy back for twenty minutes unable to walk on my own with 7 people following me laughing hysterically the entire way…
So, yesterday was a national holiday—Our Lady Mercedes day—and some people from our church took us to the beach. I have been living in the Dominican Republic for over a month now and up until yesterday I had yet to dive into the Caribbean Sea, so you can imagine how excited I was to finally get to play at the beach.
After the hour and a half drive to the beach, the very first thing I did was step in the water. We had a ton of fun throwing the Frisbee around, swimming, eating snacks and to end our day, four of the people from my team and one of the guys from church went for a nice long walk along the water. At the farthest point of our walk, R. and I couldn’t resist swimming in what was probably the bluest part of the water we’d seen so we hopped in for a while. Walking back to the shore, all of a sudden I feel a sharp jab in the bottom of my foot, not a poke like you’d feel if you had stepped on glass, but I definitely felt something forcefully thrusting itself into my skin.
You know those times when you just need a second to see if you’re ok, and you rest (maybe mutter a four letter word to ease the pain!), and then you can just move on? I tried that, and the pain was still worse than ever. I made R. carry me back to the shore, the others are looking at us like, “What is going on?” I am now laying on the sand trying to get a grip and one of the guys went to go get help. First glance at my foot showed an already bruised wound and a swollen foot. Not good. All of a sudden, the “help” starts squeezing my foot, pressing lime against it, and looking for remnants of sting ray stingers. I'm glad I can't understand Spanish very well, because the "help" also wanted to use his pocket knife to slice open my foot to be sure nothing was still in there.
Now, my mom was an E.R. nurse, so I learned not to make a big deal out of something unless it was extremely painful. This was exremely painful…an 8 out of 10 (10 being child birth). It started to get dark and the rest of our group would being worrying about where we were, so we had to start our way back. Thanks to our long walk, one poor guy had to carry me on his back for twenty minutes.
While my foot was in horrible pain, this was probably the funniest part of the day. I was so embarrassed that I was now being carried in my bathing suit by a guy I’ve known very briefly (oh, and who doesn’t speak much English). Ladies, imagine how awkward I felt when his friends encouraged him to run with me on his back…in my bathing suit!!! Gah! I had my girls stand behind me as much as possible to help give me some coverage, but I think this got lost in translation as the guy just kept on running. Then he asks me to itch his nose. My legs and arms are cramping from holding on to this guy for twenty minutes. And now the rest of the 15 people in our group are watching us approach in confusion. Fortunately one of them was a nurse and she cleaned it up for me. R. said that he’d been stung by a sting ray before and the only way to relieve the pain is by sticking it in hot water. Let’s just say the following 2 hours until we got home were nearly unbearable! But he was right, the girls heated up some water for me and the pain immediately stopped (If you’re interested, you can read about sting ray stings here).
Needless to say, our first trip to the beach was more exciting than we’d expected! But I still had a great time (especially now that my foot doesn’t hurt!) and now have a story that will keep our team laughing throughout the year (let’s just hope image of me on the guy’s back fades out of their memories!)
So we have a nickname for the pamphlets we use to share the gospel with people in the United States. An updated version of the Four Spiritual Laws, we’ve abbreviated Knowing God Personally to KGP. In Campus Crusade culture, we’d throw this term around pretty casually: “Did you use a KGP?” “Where can I get some more KGPs?” “Are we training others in the KGP?” I’ve gotten so used to this term “KGP” that sadly, I’ve nearly forgotten the essence of its existence.
I was somewhat warned before coming here that in order to do this ministry—leaving my home country and sharing the gospel with others in a different language full time with a team of people who all have different ideas and opinions—requires daily surrender to God and reliance on him to meet our needs. Let me tell you, I haven’t struggled in the slightest with coming to God as quick as I can to beg him for wisdom when there’s a disagreement amongst our team, boldness when I am afraid to initiate spiritual conversations with students, and insight as I’ve been leading our team’s weekly small group and devotional times. But I’ve often felt like an employee coming to God every second asking for him to show me how to do my job better and reminding him that if he doesn’t, we’ll fail!
A few days ago, as I was in the middle of one of my screaming for help sessions with God, I felt him leading me into silence. After an extended period of me saying, “But what about…Are you going to show me…When…This stuff needs to get taken care of today,” He reminded me that His number one concern wasn’t whether or not I have a topic to discuss at small group, or that I know how to guide someone on my team in settling a dispute with another teammate, or that I become some all-star evangelist. His number one desire is to have an intimate, growing, and passionate relationship with me. All else can fail, but at the end of the day, what matters most is Knowing Him Personally, and letting him remind me of who I am: His Beloved, His Daughter, His Delight.
This video excerpt from Francis Chan sums it up nicely:
…and other cultural differences
No matter how long you put it in the microwave, it just separates into a rubbery gunk. And speaking of microwave…
Wasn’t sure what was gonna happen when I pushed the “limpiar” button…is this a self cleaning microwave? No, that just means “clear.” Bummer ;)
Does frozen Captain Crunch taste better? Not particularly, but keeping our food in the freezer keeps the ants out!
Happy Saturday everyone and feel free to check out the other team member’s blogs at http://drnatasha.blogspot.com/ and now B has one too at http://diosesfieltodoeltiempo.blogspot.com/
After a week of decoding, our team was ready to start sharing our faith with students at UASD (pronounced “wahs”). Since we are all at various levels of experience with initiative evangelism, we spent the mornings equipping each other on how to use different tools to share the gospel including the Four Spiritual Laws booklets and Soularium (a tool that uses 50 interpretive photos to inspire spiritual dialogue).
On our first day of sharing, B and J went out and talked to Hector,* a student who considered himself a member of the Christian church but had never given control of his life over to God. While reading the invitation prayer to receive Christ from the booklet, he asked if he could read it again, this time from his heart. Praise God for revealing to Hector that he wants to have a personal relationship with him that will bring him true satisfaction in his life! Please pray for him this week and he finds community either through a church or Vida Estudantil so his relationship with God will grow.
A personal celebration comes from an experience I had today while bringing Esther* , a current member of Vida Estudantil, along with me to share our faith. We walked up to a group of three girls sitting near the English Immersion building (I was hoping this meant they might know some English!) It flustered me for a moment when I learned they didn’t speak English and I realized I’d have to take my first shot ever at initiating a spiritual conversation—and hopefully a gospel presentation—in Spanish! A great English speaker, Esther* was able to translate for me when my Spanish was lacking. As I got to ask the girls about their spiritual backgrounds, I learned that all of them believed that Jesus was God’s son but were not sure that they could be certain in their salvation through him. I got to share with them God’s grace in sending Jesus to die for our sins and that covers all of our future sins too. While they were not ready to receive Christ into their lives, it was a huge faith stretching experience for me to see the Holy Spirit allow me to understand their doubts and struggles with Christianity and communicate the basics of the Gospel!
While the title of this blog refers to what God has been doing in student’s lives on campus, the passage of Acts 2:42-47 has held great meaning to our team in the last couple of weeks. Only being introduced to each other one month ago, we are still learning how to serve one another in love, what personally uplifts us, and how to experience team unity. For example, something that I really miss from home that refreshes me is watching NFL with my family. It meant a lot to have the girls on the team say that if I teach them about the game, they’d watch it with me occasionally. Or committing to enjoy each other’s company through sharing dinner together at our weekly small group on Wednesday nights and lunch after our staff meeting on Fridays. Pray that we would continue to strive for authentic community and that we would prioritize our relationships with the Lord so that an abundance of love would overflow onto each other!
Exciting updates to come, but for now all I have to say is:
1. My teammates are in the process of creating their own blogs about how they are experiencing this trip—and N already has a great one going. Follow her blog here!
2. Please comment! It would really help me feel connected to my peeps at home to be able to read comments, brief or long, that can encourage, laugh at/with, and celebrate this year with.
Buenas noches!
The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in Him. –Nahum 1:7
I’ve mentioned the gua guas before—they’re one of the cheaper public transportation options and I can’t imagine why with 5 people crammed in each row meant to sit 4 and others standing in the front (this is the size of a large van by the way, not really a bus). Anyways, there does not exist some brilliant map of the routes these things take nor can you know what the “KM,” “19,” etc are supposed to be telling you about the direction they are headed in. There’s always a guy working for the bus who’s standing at the open door yelling sing-songy phrases in Spanish trying to get anyone on the streets (and I don’t think they care if you’re going in their direction or not) to get on their bus.
I have taken the gua gua three times now. The most recent adventure on these vehicles—of which I will always compare to the Knight Bus from Harry Potter in how ridiculous you feel riding it—was no different from the others. There I am, standing on the sidewalk, knowing that I need to go in “that” direction to some store on a street that I think I’m pronouncing the name right for, and it’s definitely not within walking distance. I have to try my luck on the gua gua. So one pulls up, and of course the guy has already been yelling yards away for us to hop on, not really caring where we are going. We ask if he’ll let us know when we need to exit when we’re as close to our destination as possible and though he says “yes,” I get the feeling that it’s not on his list of priorities and is probably likely to forget. So we ask the people on the bus if they know where we need to exit. By the way, I say we as if I was a part of this process. While my Spanish is decent, I can’t understand someone else’s to save my life, so I left this part to N and B. So here I am on this bus that just made a turn in the opposite direction that I think we should be going, with two translators who I’m hoping are asking the right questions, and all I can do is just sit there hoping that we’ll make it there somehow.
I don’t like feeling dependent on others. I hate the feeling of helplessness which implies incompetence. Not only that, but here I can’t even fake it that I know what I’m doing.
And then God speaks. As I sit in scrunched in between 4 people on this rickety bus, praying “God would you please help us get there ok and that we wouldn’t be taken to a place so far away that I can’t figure out how to get back home,” He says, “You might not be able to depend on these, but can’t you depend on me?” I realize that maybe I have been placed here in this helpless position to practice dependence through relying on others. That instead of being discouraged by my inadequacies, I can watch for God to step in and be my rescue. It’s a scary place to be, but won’t it be cool when I have a collection of memories upon which I can praise God for?
The first two weeks in Santo Domingo have been focused on getting settled into our new apartments. While most of our energy has been put into getting the basics (electricity, air conditioning, gas for the stove, cleaning supplies, food), we had our first staff meeting last Friday to discuss our goal for this week: meet as many students as possible and learn as much as we can about UASD.
We split our team up in groups and set out to answer these questions about the campus’ geography and social behaviors:
Our goal is to figure out how available students are to get together for small groups, discipleship, and campus outreach events. Some answers that surprised me:
Today one of the key student leaders of Vida Estudantil walked around campus with N and I to help us learn about UASD. It was such a privilege to get to spend this time with her. She has such a passionate heart for sharing the gospel with her peers. She has even shared it with full classrooms! If there’s anyone who will be able to help us learn how to reach students here, it’s her.
On another note…we had an interesting time trying to make Labor Day fun. I bought some break and bake cookie dough and a cookie sheet and brought it over to the boys apartment (the only ones to have a functioning oven) to bake them. As we went to turn on the oven, this is what we saw:
We took a guess that 350 degrees was somewhere in between the 3 and 4 mark, and this is what happened: 
However, we didn’t let it steal our joy! We each got spoons and scooped as much as we could that was edible. But our cookie craving got the best of us; we eventually found ourselves saying, “It’s not that bad if you eat it with the burnt side up!” 
While the focus of this blog is on what God is doing in my life and the lives of others through my year in the Dominican Republic, it would be lacking if I didn’t share with you some of the cultural “differences” (ok what I really mean is things here that make me go “What???”)
::Carros Publicos are shared taxis that follow a route along certain streets in Santo Domingo. For only 20 Dominican Pesos, you and 5 others can ride to your next stop (Note:these are compact cars! And to give you an better sensory picture, there is no air conditioning as you’re practically sitting on your neighbor’s lap!)
::Renting apartments is not easy. Not only do all landlords require that you pay 3 months rent up front, they also do not assume responsibility for the leaky air conditioning units and sink, lack of gas connection to stove, broken lock and key, and dancing washing machine. Hmm.
::Being a girl walking down any street means you will receive cat calls and suggestive comments from men. Fortunately we have 2 great men on our team who accompany us everywhere we go, but it’s still annoying.
::Don’t try to order a free cup of water from any kind of establishment. You’ll either get a weird look (because tap water here is not safe to drink) or just a cup with ice in it (which I’m still trying to figure out why the tap water in solid form is ok to consume…)
::It’s HOT here. And that’s coming from someone who’s called Arizona her home for the last 8 years. The humidity gets to you. I shouldn’t have brought my hair dryer. I am constantly sweaty and thus have no need to maintain the mane. Every time you feel a breeze though, it’s like a kiss from heaven.
::
It’s been a while since my last post…that’s because since then the girls have been living in our new apartment (yay!) but without electricity, hot water, or internet (one of which we will never have—hot water!) But I am totally amazed at how generously God answered our prayers to find a place. We have tons of space and a gorgeous view of the Caribbean Sea from our balcony! Thank you for praying that God would provide us with a place to call home.
So, besides figuring out how to accomplish more in daylight and without internet, what have I learned so far?
1. I’ve never played Frogger, but crossing streets in Santo Domingo is what I would imagine to be the most difficult level of the game. Cars follow no rules whatsoever and pedestrians certainly don’t have the right of way. I had my first experience on a “gua gua” (public bus) where you cram about 60+ people—so forget sitting next to the person you got on the bus with—and can easily be confused about your whereabouts as the driver takes whatever road isn’t full of cars trying to push their way through even if it means driving on the wrong side of the road!
2. Church here is a party. Our team attends Primera Iglesia de la Christianizacion Nacional where Crusade national staff, Braulio, Prospero, and Leyla, work out of. I was pleased to hear familiar tunes: “My Redeemer Lives,” “I am a Friend of God,” and “The Revelation Song,” but all in Spanish! There’s even a dance ministry who stand before the stage and praise God through movement. People aren’t afraid to praise God here and they do it with fervor. Now I just have to re-learn all the worship songs from the U.S!
3. The language barrier is a lot more of a challenge than I was expecting. While our team is blessed with 3 fluent Spanish speakers who have been so critical in helping us communicate with national staff, students, and taking care of day to day business, it has been a little frustrating not being able to understand important conversations, communicate my thoughts, and relying on others to help me. That last one is something that God is definitely teaching me how to do better and it even has brought me to a deeper understanding of how much I need to rely on Him. What this means for ministry though, is that I will need to find English speaking students to share Christ with and equip to share their faith. Please pray that God brings these people in my path, and also that He would do the same for the rest of my teammates.
4. God provides caretakers. Prospero and Leyla have been like family to us these last couple of weeks. Not only did they offer their help about things we should know about Dominican culture and the things God is already doing in their ministry, but they actually have spent sometimes over 8 hours a day helping us with our search for apartments, making dozens of phone calls to help us get settled in (setting up appointments to see apartments, setting up our electricity, fixing all the little things that are not working at our place). They are such great examples of loving others through acts of service. So for all of you who have been worried about our safety and being cared for, fear not and ask the Lord that He bless this lovely couple!
5. Lastly, I’ve learned that pioneering a STiNT team, especially never having done this kind of mission, let alone lead one, is tough and it requires me to confess Proverbs 30:1-3 “I am weary and worn out, O God. I am too stupid to be human, and I lack common sense. I have not mastered human wisdom, nor do I know the Holy One.” Talk about being humbled. Don’t misunderstand; I also know and am holding on to God’s promise in James 1:5 that He will give wisdom to those that have none. I have simply just been hit with the reality that all of my planning and knowledge means nothing and that if I want to see my team succeed in directing Dominican students to seek Christ wholeheartedly, I need to rely on His strength (Isaiah 40:31). Trying to give myself permission to say, “I don’t know,” asking for help from those that know more than I, or make mistakes has been a painful death to my pride…but I pray that I’m able to surrender daily to humility for the sake of God’s glory.
We thought we had found a place to call home, then thought twice about it when half of the group didn’t want to send pictures home or describe the place in great detail for fear of what our parents might think. While it was easy on the budget, it was definitely not the safest place for us to live, especially being “extranjeros” or foreigners (I still can’t get over that that word comes from the Spanish word “extrana” which means “weird,” so I can only infer what that means about us).
On the complete other side of the spectrum, though, was my experience riding the metro for the first time! It is very new and super clean. Many of the passengers are students which makes me feel more comfortable. Hopefully we can find a place closer to campus. Keep praying.
As promised, here are a few pictures. The first is of the church radio station…so cool! Then a pic of our team with Leyla and Prospero, Dominican Pesos, and my super tasty meal described in the previous post :)
Well, it’s about 2 am Chicago time…our shuttle leaves in about 2 hours. I can’t sleep, but it’s not so bad as Brianna can’t either. I’m not sure if it’s nerves, being tired, or excitement, but we’re pretty slap happy. It was a nice relief from the stress that this week has brought on. We’ve been receiving great coaching here at briefing, but it’s been a busy week. I’m sure things will settle down once we find apartments in country, but at the moment, I feel like I’m sprinting through a marathon. I know that being up this late is not really helping that, but I am pretty sure this is just one of those nights I’m not going to get much rest anyways.
We’ll be greeting at the airport by Leyla tomorrow and taken to a hotel where we’ll stay for a few days until we can find housing. I’m really looking forward to the lunch that Braulio has invited our team to the following day. We’ll get to meet others who will be working along side us in our mission and they’ll hopefully be a lot of help as we try to make Santo Domingo our new home.
Oh yeah, as this was my first time in Chicago, here’s a picture of our team during our free time (plus Joel, a friend from ASU who will be spending a year in East Asia)
Now that I am in Chicago at briefing, I have finally had the opportunity to meet everyone on my team! I’ll tell you a little bit about them so you know who you’ll be praying for this year :)
(Stole most of this from Natasha’s--of my teammates--blog…she wrote everyone’s biographies so well! I did write her biography though)
-- Jimmy (23) is from University of Arizona (Tuscon) and studied math. He went to DR for a summer project last year, so he knows the church leadership we are going to be working with and some of the students. He has amazing stories about how he got to share the gospel with students there... in a nutshell, the professors allowed them to take up class time, take the students outside, and talk to them... and then bring them back to class! How cool is that?
--Robert (23) is from Arizona State University (ASU). He has already worked for one year at ASU with Campus Crusade and for the last year and a half, he and I led freshmen small groups together. Rob answered the call to STiNT in DR at a training weekend in April. Rob had thought to continue serving at ASU, but the DR team needed another man (so Jimmy wouldn't be alone), so Rob stepped up. This story is super amazing too! God used crazy circumstances and calls to get Rob to commit to DR.
--Brianna (25) (pronounced Brye-anna--> the anna as in banana... she is very particular about this!) is a highschool Spanish teacher in Georgia. She has been teaching for 3 years and loves everything Spanish! She is the sweetest and most encouraging girl ever. And she laughs a lot. She likes to exercise (so glad to have workout buddies!) and I know that I’ll learn alot about how to share my faith in another language from her as she reads from and memorizes Scripture in Spanish!
--Natasha (21) is from Rice University in Houston, TX and received her undergraduate degree in biochemistry in just 3 years! She comes from a bilingual home as her parents are from Latin America, so she has excellent Spanish skills as well. She is creative, likes to cook (which I’m super excited about), and loves to dance. She’s very insightful and humble and I’m looking forward to learning from her tenderness!
--Jessica (Me, 22) is also from ASU and have had my heart set on serving in DR since November of 2009 when I heard about how fruitful that year’s summer project was (the same one that Jimmy went on!) While I’ve had 6 years of Spanish education, I am really excited to coming home fluent (hopefully).
Other people we'll be getting to know:
--Braulio is the pastor of the church that has played a critical role in casting vision throughout their community to reach college students in Santo Domingo. They have been praying Matthew 9:37, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few,” in anticipation of the formation of our team.
--Leyla has works for the local church we are working with and has partnered with Campus Crusade during last summer and this summer to reach out to students on campus. She will play an integral part in getting us up to speed on what the campus is like and what needs the people have.
--Prospero is Leyla's husband and a lawyer for the church. He is also involved in the ministry.
I will be leaving Tempe at 6 am tomorrow for briefing in Chicago! Please pray that my 70 lb and 50 lb checked bags get on the plane ok, my new Visa card works properly, and that we make it there safely! I’ve got to get some rest now, but I’ll say this: I can really relate to Owen Wilson’s character in Armageddon when he says, “It's like I'm 98% excited and 2% scared. Or...or maybe it's 2% excited 98% scared...I dunno, that's what makes it so intense!”
Great news! As of today, I am fully supported for this year of ministry! Praise God! And thank you all for your prayerful consideration to help me meet this need. Whether you gave $10 a month, $20, or $1,000, I couldn’t have done it without you. I thank you sincerely for your part in sending me. As I ponder your generosity, I am reminded of the believers in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5:
1 Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.
3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.
I’m in Phoenix now, saying goodbye to friends, then will be leaving for briefing in Chicago later this week where our team will come together for the first time! Keep us in your prayers. Please be praying that I enjoy the next few days with my family and friends and that I am able to leave bravely and step forward with courage!
A dear friend of mine makes the most adorable purses. I remember complementing the one she was wearing and was shocked to find out that she both designed and put it together herself, and even more surprised when I learned that it was made completely out of recycled bike tire tubes and other
refurbished materials! See for yourself how cute Flat Tire Purses are by clicking here!
The greatest part of her business is that 10% of the profits go towards missions. This year, she has chosen to support my ministry to students in the Dominican Republic through Flat Tire! So please check out www.flattire.us and share it with your friends and family!
While I still have 3 weeks in the states, I will be leaving my home in Vegas in 2 weeks to spend a couple of days saying goodbye to friends and family in Phoenix, then it’s off to Chicago for briefing where our team of five will unite for the first time.
For those of you who are keeping up with my support goal updates, you’ll be glad to know that as of today I am at 79%! My one time gifts goal is overflowing (praise God!), but I still need $600 in monthly support. If you know ANYONE who might be able to meet this need by pledging some amount in the next two weeks, let me know how I can reach them at Jessica.Wright@uscm.org.
On another note, I’m appreciating how God is spiritually preparing me for this trip. He showed me something encouraging today in Acts 15:1-21 about when Paul approached Peter, James, and John, requesting an alignment of belief that the message of the gospel was for both the Gentiles and the Jews. Clearly, Christ intended these “pillars of the church” to minister to the Jews. But the Spirit had other plans for Paul. A previous persecutor of those in the faith, God redirected Paul’s passionate hatred into a passionate messenger of the gospel—specifically to the Gentiles. To me, this so illustrates the body of Christ and how each of us was uniquely designed to minister to people and bring God glory. In the past, God has chosen me to be a witness to freshmen women at Arizona State University. Now, God has equipped and called me to minister to students in the Dominican Republic.
What are your unique gifts and how is God calling you to use them in carrying out His second greatest command: “Love your neighbor as yourself?”
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