June 19, 2014- Lexi- City Beautiful

Hola! ¿Como te llamas?

Waking up at 3:30 AM Wednesday morning, I wasn’t sure what to expect heading down to the Dominican Republic. This was my first mission trip (with many more to come) and my first time going out of the country. Once we landed in Santiago around 12:30, I was in awe right away. This place captured my heart in the blink of an eye. We met the pastor’s family and some of their friends who would be taking us to all of our destinations — and they were the kindest people I have met in my life. We then headed over to La Islita (the Little Island), which is where we will be staying for these 14 days. We “unpacked,” had lunch, and bonded. After that we went to exchange money and go to the pastor’s house to email family members. Then somewhere along all that free basketball tickets to their professional team found their way into our hands. We ate dinner and were off to the game! That was an experience and such a blessing in its self to see the people do what they love, watch sports. We then came home and went to bed and everyone was out cold by 10:30. The next day the fun began. We all were up and ready for the day by 7:20, went and had our alone time with God until breakfast at 7:45, and left for VBS by 8:30. The drive was miraculous; God’s work in nature is truly wonderful. Once we got off the bus, kids came running and didn’t stop running until 4 PM. We sang songs in Spanish and talked about how much Jesus loves us. We then started to build the wall that will be going around the school. It wasn’t what I thought we would be doing, we had to take down 3 trees and pull all the roots. We ran into TONS of fire ants, worms, and spiders, but that’s all just part of it right? It was hot and we were sweating the water out we had just drank, but it was the best time of my life. To hang out with all these Dominicans ranging in various ages was one of the best feelings of my life. Of course I never took Spanish in school too seriously, so I can’t speak much. I did the best I could and still happened to have kids leached onto me all day just because the hearts of these kids are bigger than anything in this world. We all made a BEST friend here already and it’s only day 1!