High Five

There has been a multitude of things going on in my life and ministry lately. Rather than bore you all with a monologue explaining everything, I’ll briefly update you on 5 recent highlights and let the pictures do the talking.

1. Started meeting with my discipleship group this week-same girls as last semester! This month we will be learning what it means to be a disciple-learner of Christ.

2. Celebrated birthdays for the month of January and February. Leyla (our national director) had hers in January, so the students put together a very special gift for her. Some even gave some pocos palabras or brief words about how much she has meant to them. It was great to remember the impact this one woman has made on student’s lives at UASD.

3. We have students who keep returning to Night Vida! It continues to be a place where students are involved in discussions about their beliefs and can hear more about who God is.

4. Our Stint team met up with the El Salvador Stint team and staff for a midyear retreat last week. It was the perfect time to be encouraged, motivated, and energized by the community of the other Stinters. I was so blessed by how much everyone poured out into me that week and it definitely boosted my ability to come back to Santo Domingo and finish my Stint year well! (Pictures to come later)

5. Preparing to receive 50+ students from USC, Northern Arizona University, University of Arizona, and the University of Oklahoma for a Spring Break trip on the 14th of this month! Pray that God would give our team help organizing this and giving them direction for how best to use their time at UASD.

That’s all for now—thanks for checking in on me and I’ll continue to keep you posted!

So much good news!

I haven’t posted much this month, but in a nutshell, so many great things have happened for me personally, for our team, and with the ministry. Here’s a little recap:

In the beginning of the month, my parents came to Santo Domingo for a visit! It was so refreshing to see them and since it was my mom’s first time here, it was great for her to get to see where I’ve been living. The students were quick to welcome back my dad and I was impressed as my mom used her Spanish to introduce herself at the weekly meeting. What was perhaps the most encouraging part of their trip was when they participated in our team’s weekly prayer and worship time. My parents prayed over each of us and reminded us of the awesome work God is doing here. Sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to recognize those things!

The other great thing that I experienced was getting to go home for a quick 4 days to be a part of my sister’s wedding! It was a whirlwind experience, but so awesome to get to spend even more time with my family, meet my baby niece and brother in law, and witness the big day!

Finally, we experienced a lot of rockin’ things at UASD. We saw a student come to Christ during our weekly evangelism time with students, began discipleship groups with 15 students, and had students from our first ever leadership team conduct the weekly meetings! We are also become recognized on campus as Vida Estudiantil. A couple of students approached a small group of us sitting around one day and asked if we were the ones that had the weekly Bible studies and if they could join us that week. Cool!

Continue to pray for us as there is still much to be learned about our students and ministry at UASD. Pray for perseverance and a deepening compassion to drive us on!

First week back-Amazing!

What a great start to a new semester. We we reunited with our dear friends from Vida Estudiantil and planned an outreach to gather even more students to participate in our meetings. It’s really important for us to continue seeking new students for a couple different reasons. The first is that with UASD being so large (over 150,000 students on our campus), there are many students who haven’t been reached with the message of the Gospel. Also, as we’ve observed over the last few months, students who were strong leaders within Vida Estudiantil can come and go as they graduate or start working (we always accept their request to pray that they get jobs, but it’s bittersweet—and our loss—when they find one!)

The purpose of our outreach today was to meet and inform 300 students about Vida Estudiantil through giving away Survival Kits (Fundas Salvavidas). Our friend and long time member of Vida Estudiantil, Alvaro, gives us an expert explanation of what we did today (Might I say, his English is excellent! The subtitles are only there because there was a lot of background noise):

A student does a great job explaining our outreach today

Four students from Vida helped us accomplish our goal, and to our surprise and delight, three others that we just met today played a significant role in bringing their friends over to us. We met so many people today, my throat was sore! I never know what God’s complete plans are when we do these outreaches, but I’m praying that someone we met today will know Christ deeper as a result of their participation in Vida Estudiantil this semester. Can I dream a little more? That one of them is a future leader of the ministry, bringing even more into communion with God. Thanks for joining me in prayer since we’ve been here. Continue to pray that more people know Christ and that UASD is filled with true followers of Him!

Just a few more days

Finally, UASD will be resuming classes next week! We’ve been enjoying the period of rest, but looking forward to seeing our students every day and impacting their lives!

We had a great inter-ministry prayer meeting to kickoff the new semester. A missionary from a different organization invited the Stint team, Leyla (our Vida Estudiantil campus director), and our students to join him and students from his ministry to meet at UASD and pray over the campus. In explaining his reasoning for calling the meeting, he referenced Acts and how the believers would consistently gather together to pray in unison for their needs, requests of the Holy Spirit to work in their lives, and revival. It was such a cool experience to hear the prayers of students and directors alike, all asking God that students at UASD would be known as true followers of Christ and that more would commit their lives to spreading the Gospel. We prayed over each of the embajadas or “embassies” which are small seating areas dedicated to each pueblo in the Dominican Republic. There are about 50 of these areas where students from each community find comfort in being around others they can relate to. Then we prayed over the students who came to the meeting, who represent the student population, and that God would strengthen them as leaders in their campus. They also blessed us with prayers to continue with endurance the work that God has sent us to do.

Please join us in continual prayer for the students of UASD and the people of the Dominican Republic. Although many know God’s name, few truly know what it means to be loved by Him and to love him back. Pray that they know Him and that radical change in this country would take place because they understand His will.

Is It Really Winter?

I had another rare, yet powerful, reminder of how awesome my job is. As the spring semester at UASD is about to begin again on February 1st, our team needed to do some planning for upcoming events that would help grow the ministry. To help us get the creative juices flowing, we decided to take a planning retreat and explore another beautiful part of this country.

My sympathies for those of you who are reading this while looking out the window and waiting for the snow to melt, but how cool is this place?

We went to a very reasonably priced all inclusive hotel in Samaná, which is at the North East side of the island. We spent our mornings in prayer and planning, but afternoons enjoying our time as a team, which honestly did us a lot of good as we tend to work better when we’ve had a little fun together.

Some other treats were the hotel’s hot showers (a first in months!), air conditioning, and all you can eat buffets! I got to play croquet for my first time ever with the guys (I won, but I think it was beginner’s luck), do beach side step aerobics with Bri (which I was so thankful that she stepped outside her comfort zone to do with me!), swam, and kayaked our hearts out.

It’s been difficult at times to be away from my family, closest friends, and routines from home. But thank you God for providing pleasure in other ways—ways that many others don’t get to experience!

Great Opportunity

One of my good friends that I’ve made at UASD invited me to participate in donating toys to a local orphanage with a group she is a member of. I forgot how much I love little kids! They were so excited to receive the toys—and we’ll put a little bit of reality in here, some of them complained and wanted to trade for something different—but for the most part they loved it! We immediately helped them open up packages of dolls, racecars, balls, hula hoops, and more. I have to say the boys’ toys were way more interesting…remember those cars that you have to pull backward and the little clicky noise winds the wheels so that when you release it, the car moves forward? We had a race with those. Some of them wanted to show off how they could count in English and others just wanted to sit next to me.

“He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”  --Matthew 18:2-4

The Bright Morning Star

I happened to stay up until 7:30 am on New Year’s Eve, which means I got to see the sun rise. I can’t think of any time in my life when I’ve gotten to watch the entire sun rise…you know, to witness the change from twilight to sun completely up in the sky. Not for an Easter service or anything. So since I was up, and watching the first sun rise of the new year is actually a tradition in the Dominican Republic, I decided, “Why not?” even though the other girls were already sleeping.

On my balcony I was at first amused by the amount of cars pulling up to the side of the road to get a good spot by the sea to watch the sun’s first appearance over the horizon. A marching band came chiming down the sidewalk. Families and friends huddled together in anticipation to watch the sun peak above that turquoise line.

I kept looking at the sky, thinking to myself many times, “This is it. The sun’s about to rise any second now. Get a good look, because this is the prettiest it’s gonna get.” I told you before, this was my first sunrise. Little did I know it takes longer than 10 minutes for it to rise. But as I watched, I couldn’t maintain my surprise as the sky kept transforming into magnificent shades from violet, to coral, to peach. I even noticed that the moon shone so brightly at this time of morning, reflecting radiantly the nearing light of the sun.

And then I had the most beautiful moment I could have ever dreamed of to start 2011. As I gazed into the sky, I recognized God’s craftmanship, how he never paints the same picture twice, how he keeps surprising us with his glory by showing us more and more than we could have imagined possible. My breath was literally being stolen away from me as I watched John 12:46 take place before my very eyes:

I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.

Can’t you just see how he just chases away the darkness? That where he is present, he can’t help but shine radiantly? And at that moment, I was jealous of the moon, for I wanted to reflect the Son with as much splendor—small, compared to the space around it, but shining brilliantly in the midst of a wakening indigo sky:

I’ve always known that God best communicates his glory to me through nature, which probably explains why all these verses from Scripture kept popping into my head as I fixed my gaze on his canvas before me, a reminder of his faithfulness:

“Let us acknowledge the LORD;
   let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
   he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
   like the spring rains that water the earth.”

                              --Hosea 6:3

And while watching all the people near the coast, in eager expectation for this display of radiance, I wondered, “What would it be like if all God’s people waited on Him like this?” Think about it. Everyone, confidently, patiently, excitedly, coming together to celebrate His rising to conquer darkness. With music, and cheers, and gasps.

As the sun started to make it’s way up into the sky, it was like God echoing his words from Revelation 22:16 for those with ears to hear, “I am the bright morning star.” Jesus, our true morning star, rising from the grave to conquer death so that we might experience His glory with Him forever. Glory. Amen.

Just a Dominicanism

Since today is the day that the Dominican Republic is observing Dia de Los Reyes (basically day they celebrate the three wise men), I thought I’d give you all a taste of how Dominicans celebrate.

This video is a short clip of how our friends from church helped us celebrate Jimmy’s birthday. As a rule, no matter who or what the celebration is for, it pretty much is summed up in these 20 seconds. For some context, it’s about 10pm…at a Burger King…and some of the people that are celebrating with us don’t even know Jimmy:

Dominicans love to celebrate!

And we get embarrassed when the waiters come by to sing Happy Birthday at Chili’s…

San Juan

A couple of weeks ago, our team got to spend a few days visiting some students in their hometown of San Juan, a more rural city in the western region of the Dominican Republic. This was the first time we were invited to stay with families, one of which was Leyla’s mom’s house (Leyla is the national staff member in charge of campus ministry who we work closest with). This was also the first time being outside of the city life of Santo Domingo, where you can always hear honking horns and a blast of polluted air with the breeze. Needless to say, the trip was very refreshing.

Something that struck me as soon as we arrived was how common it was for people to greet each other. We spent the first afternoon of our time there going from house to house meeting different friends and family members that Leyla grew up with. We experienced the same thing with our other hosts in San Juan. We were taken on a couple of drives around the town and saw the crops (mostly beans and rice, which makes sense why that’s such a common meal here!) We were shown the local marketplace where you could buy all the fresh vegetables and grains that you wanted. It was such a busy place!We also spent a day El Campo (the countryside) which is a more undeveloped region of the city. A friend’s abuela made us a true Dominican lunch: rice and chen chen (cooked ground corn that looks like cous cous). Here the life is simple; people bathe in the river, get water from wells, and raise animals for food.  

 

 

 

My favorite parts of the trip were riding in the back of our friends’ truck on the way to El Campo, because the scenery was beautiful:

The sound isn’t great in some parts, but the scenery is awesome!

My second favorite part of the trip was being cared for by families. That is something I have missed greatly since being here. Leyla and her mom made us pancakes and shared their little members of the family with us (I miss seeing little kids!) and our friends’ mom treated us to hot chocolate after a cold night of being out exploring the town (cold being mid 60s, and yes, I felt cold!)

It was such a great way to be able to connect with students and Leyla more and I look forward to spending the next semester sharing more fun experiences with them!

2010 Reflection

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?

Going to Europe with my Daddy this summer!

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

Facing conflict resolution.

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

Becoming an auntie to Baby Aaliyah! Congrats Bebes!

4. Pick three words to describe 2010.

Unique, monumental, dynamic

5. What were the best books you read this year?

Tale of Three Kings, The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions, Every Woman’s Battle

6. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

Family, Lindsay, Megan, Jen, Bekah, the O’Landers, Kris, Regen, Kate, Hassy Posse!

2010 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

7. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

Graduating ASU and moving to the Dominican Republic

8. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?

I’ve learned to trust God for everything and rely on the truth of Scripture like I never have before.

9. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?

I’ve had to work at maintaining relationships from afar and starting over with making all new friends in the DR, which required me stepping out of what is comfortable for me.

10. What was the most enjoyable part of your work?

Making friends, talking to people about how God is working in their lives, living on a beautiful island with near perfect weather!

11. What was the most challenging part of your work?

Remembering that it is more than just a job and that I need to be driven from compassion, not performance. And speaking/listening in Spanish.

12. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

Netflix

13. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

Ice cream runs with the roomies, being goofy with Hassy Posse small group, sharing Jesus with people in the DR, playing games with my family, working out with Lin

14. A phrase or statement that describes 2010 for you.

But those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.  --Isaiah 40:31

Happy New Year! I hope you find many blessings as you reflect on 2010 and pray for more to come in 2011!