Visit from my Daddy/Thanksgiving in the DR

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!

What’s it like to Stint in the DR? Video now ready!

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!

Dominican Republic Stint Commercial

IKEA treat

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!

Sharing love for Christ…and chocolate!

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!

Does this mean I’m entering into the honeymoon phase?

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!

Lessons from the back of a classroom

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).

Big Team Changes

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.”