Photos are posted!

If you look towards the top of the blog, you will see three tabs; home, about this blog (and our team), and Photos. If you click on the photo page you will see an album. Click on it, and you will be able to see all the pictures. :)

A Time of Lasts

It is now a time of lasts. Our last meals, last VBS, last time seeing the kids, last time in Redemption, last night sleep, yesterday was my last day being fourteen. It's a bittersweet moment. Though we all don't want to leave, we know it will feel good to be sleeping in our own beds in our own homes. Lying here on the morning of my fifteenth birthday, writing this before anyone else wakes up, it makes me think about how similar a birthday is to this trip. Children wait all year, and make lists of what they want and get very excited when it comes to be their birthday, but suddenly, its all over. This trip is similar, we've been having meetings all year preparing for this trip, and its been absolutely amazing here in the Dominican Republic, but today we are boarding a plane back to the US and our daily lives. Now before you get to alarmed, listen to what I have to say next; birthdays are short, but after that day, you don't just go back to being 14 or 5 or 43, you turn 15,6, or 44! When we go back to Howard County, we won't just go back to the way we were before, we will carry around the memories and experiences God planned for us on this trip!  Yesterday after pigging out at the lunch buffet, most of us spent our siesta in the crystal clear ocean. Towards the end, this little fish swam into John's shadow and just stayed there, swimming around in his shadow. After a while, the fish moved to Miriam's shadow, then mine, then Julia's, and Stacey's, making it's way around the circle. It must have really enjoyed Miriam's shadow, (or the taste of her feet), because it kept returning to her and biting her feet. The whole experience was one of the funniest things I've ever seen! I feel like I should have an intricate spiritual analogy for this fish, but I don't. :) Mabye you guys can think of one. Well, I'm going to go enjoy whatever time I have left in the DR, see you when we get back!

Last Work Day

It’s about 8:20am on Friday, our last work day. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been here 7 days, and in the same way it seems like we’ve only just arrived. The past few days have been amazing, the difference in the village is incredible! When we first visited Redemption, many houses were unpainted or stained with dirt, wood blocks attached to chains served as swings and had caused many injuries, the field that the children played in was tall and in disarray with mud puddles, rocks, and trash strewn about the grass. The basketball backboards were decayed and had no rims.

Now, the village is beautiful! There are concrete path ways leading the way to brightly colored houses, the grass has been cut and the trash and muck raked away. The wooden swings are now the traditional plastic swings you would see in your backyards! New backboards with rims were put up and mini soccer goals placed beneath them. Though these improvements are short-term, hopefully our impact on them, and their impact on us will be long-lasting.

In the time that I have written this, mosquitoes have attacked me, and I’m missing our team devotion so I have to stop, but hopefully I will be able to update later today after lunch, it all depends on the internet. I would post pictures, but they take too long to upload, but I promise to post an album when we get back home.

Rainbow Road

After

Thoughts from Lisa after day three:



Hola friends & family! 


Our third day here, & so many memories come flashing through my mind.  I wish I could share all the images with you! 


...A village with winding rows of cinder block gray, corrugated metal, laundry hanging between these homes that line narrow winding dirt paths or wobbly rocky sidewalks.  A stream running through that you definitely wouldn't want to slip into. 


Outside the village, rows of local comidas (small markets) & shops & colorful homes surrounded by high walls & metal railing protecting those inside.  Trees bearing all manner of fruit - outside just one small church on a rectangle plot of land half the size of my own yard at home - mangos, guava, cherry, bananas, avocado!  Other trees on the landscape sporting bright fushia plumeria or rich orange flowers.


Beyond the sandy beaches, the vibrant, sparkling aqua blues of the cool, gentle, rolling ocean.


And in the Haitian village & one Spanish church in the Dominican community - mothers, youth, children, toddlers, young men & women, & the older generation as well - brown faces with curious, sometimes tentative expressions that disappear behind warm smiles with a simple, "Hola!  Como se llama?  Me llama Lisa...encantada."


Connecting at this most basic level, with broken, sparse common language between us, I am reminded that we are all human. Created in God's image, we yearn to be noticed, to love & be loved, to be in relationship with others.  To know that the God of the universe cares.  That He notices.  That He might want to touch our lives, that He might want to connect with us.


I was humbled by the stories I heard today from mothers & grandmothers in the village gathered with a few women on our team.  After hearing about & witnessing the pain that one of the women on our team shared about the sudden loss of her husband, one by one, they stood & shared about their own losses & their daily sustenance by God's grace through Christ.  Each one, in turn, turned to our team member (now a dear friend of mine) & explained that they wanted to share their stories with her to encourage her.  They reached out & literally embraced her.  Now... just who was there to encourage whom?  That's how God works.  How His church was meant to be - encouraging, supporting one another...


...Today, a village witnessed how the church was meant to be.  They saw what happens when people, motivated by a desire to make this God known, get to work.  By the end of the afternoon today, & after just one day of work, looking outside the church building's open air windows, I could see soft pink with orange trim, light lime green with blue, & a rainbow of freshly painted houses lining the opposite side of the open space between.  And in that space the sight & sounds of dozens of children, laughing, playing, kicking a soccer ball, swinging high on the swings, living life to the full in the moment.


Around the corner, yes, the grayness persists.  But God was at work here today, as He has been since before our team arrived, as He will be after we go.


Thank you so much for making these kinds of experiences possible for my family, our team, this village & surrounding community.

~Lisa

Right: one of the houses before painting

A Relaxing Day

Today we had a break from work, and spent the time snorkling, swiming, getting hair braided, eating fish tacos, amd just hanging out at the beach. At first, I thought that the idea of a rest day was pointless and a waste of time, but after actually experiencing the heat and long work days, the break was well met!

In the morning, the adults sorted through the supplies we had brought while the kids went down to the beach. Dad, Kailey, and I, (Charis), rented snorkles and flippers, and swam out to a reef. The many different types of fish came right up to our faces, and the coral was beautiful! Everything we saw made me wish I had a waterproof camera! We met the rest of our team in the ocean, then jumped into the trucks and went to a Mexican place that was very similar to Chipotle, (but better!).
After filling up on fish tacos and burritos, we rode out to a more touristy beach where kite and wind surfers gave us a great show. Many people came  up trying to sell items to us and braid hair, but were mostly unsucsessful. The water was murky, and there were'nt many waves, but the scenery was beautiful and we all had a great time!

I know that this post sounds much more like vacation rather than a missons trip, but we all need rest! Tomorrow we return to Redemption Village! 

Work Day # 1 -Redemption Village

It's almost 10pm, and I know we're all looking forward to a good night's sleep. We had a tiring day in the sun, but we accomplished plenty! (Of course the hour break in the ocean helped a little bit!) In Redemption Village, we painted 5 houses, built backboards for the basket ball court, cemented pathways, had VBS with the kids, and the women on our team met with the women in the village. The children were eager to help paint, which added a little chaos to the mix, but in the end, we got the job done!

Later on, while the paint dried, Miriam and I walked through the village to the basketball court, bordered by a stream filled with trash. We ventured closer to the stream where a young boy stood in the midst of some banana plants. Disregarding the fact that he had no pants on, she picked him up and carried him around. Boys waded around in the murky water, seeming not to notice all the garbage they stood  in. Above the stream was some ruins, and Julia, one of the Sucher, (the missionary family we're working with), daughters told me what happened:
               Last year, the village flooded and four houses were destroyed. A newborn baby was lying on the bed and washed away. Along with her, a 2 year-old was also washed away, but the found three days later, and a 3 year old was badly injured.

Miriam and her little friend

Ruins from the flood

The story shocked me, and it really hit me how much uncertianty the people there deal with we are fourtunate enough to have stable homes and we generally have food on the table three times a day. Many of these children that we carried around didn't have both of their parents, if any. Though we are only here for a week, we're still enjoying the opportunity to love on the kids there and help out where we can.

Here at last

After many months of planning and packing, we are finally here, in the Dominican Republic! Our anxietey has melted away and we're settling into the flow of things.

Thanks to the Lord we had a painless flight, ( well as painless as a 6am flight with a 4hr layover in Miami can be), and all of our luggage made it here safely. We arrived in Puerta Plata at about 3 yesterday, drove through Redemption Village, and spent the rest of the day relaxing and unpacking at the hotel.

This morning we all woke up well rested, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast and gorgeous view of the ocean, (and we call this a missions trip?). Around 9am, we attended the church in Redemption Village. (For those of you who just started reading, Redemption Village is a community of mostly Haitian refugees. There are 2,000 people living in the very small village. They are the poorest of the poor and tend to be forgotten.) It was surprising to see how small the church was, and it stood out to me that there were very few men. The way the congregation sang and worshipped inspired me and kept me singing and dancing even when I didn't know or understand the words. After the pastor finished talking, and worship was over, our team went up and sang two Spanish songs, and a couple of us shared our testimonies. 

After lunch and a siesta spent on the beach, we drove out to Playa Laguna for a childrens' ministry. We painted faces, played with bubbles and frisbees, danced, sang, and shared a bible story. 

I know that by the end of the day, we were all exhausted,  but the Lord fills us up so that we would pour ourselves out again, so tomorrow we will be ready to serve him and his people once again! We will be working on restoring Redemption Village by painting houses, fixing a basketball court, mixing concrete, etc. Keep praying!!!!

I promise that I will post plenty of pictures tomorrow, and update as often as possible, (the internent is unstable, so we won't know what to expect). Feel free to comment with questions.