So praises to the Lord I made it home safely late last night. To the best of my knowledge I don't have botchulism or any other crazy disease. I didn't break anything, lose anything, or have anything short of a perfect trip. I learned a lot and I think I was able to teach a few things as well. At the beginning of the trip I had said that I didn't want it to be about me, and it definitely wasn't. The Lord is doing great things down there and I was happy to be a part of them. I had said in the last blog that I would try to wrap things up in a more sensible fashion and now that I've had some more time to think and pray about it here goes.
The biggest thing that I got out of this trip was actually what the Lord had me preach and talk about on the radio. Don't worry about anything but chasing after God. Our clothes, our food, our money, all that other crap that tends up muck out our lives is of ZERO importance. The best story to go with that was of a man in muñoz (one of the villages) who has the nastiest cancerous butt tumor in the history of man kind. This guy cannot sit, he can only stand up or lay on his side. As you can imagine his health care sucks and his living conditions are on par with the pictures that I posted. This guy was not only leading worship on sunday night, He was dancing in the isles! If you looked at him you would think that God had blessed the socks off of his life. And he would think that too! Why?...how in the world can that be possible?!?! Because he is filthy rich in faith and the Spirit. He still eats, he's still clothed, he has a roof over his head, and yeah he's got next to nothing material wise. But he has abundantly more than he'll ever need in Jesus Christ.
You see, in God's sovereignty he chose some to have little in terms of material possessions and some to have much. But it became very obvious to me that those with few things tend to have a lot more faith. But we get so focused on the things that we question how God could allow them to have so little and how selfish those rich people must be to only care about themselves...we who are rich in faith, how selfish must we be to keep it inside the church walls and not share it with those who know nothing of the love of Christ...yeah I know, quite the challenge. But that's where God's heart is. Having His children back. Thank you all soooo much for all your prayers and support. You kids have been the best! Much love and God bless.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Heading Home
So in two days I'll be heading back to the states. It's so crazy to think that I've been here for over two week already. I've done my best to try to express everything that God has shown me while I've been here and what he's used me to be able to do. At this point I'm really just interested to see what God is going to do in the next few days. Honestly the least that I want to be able to do is go and see some of the people one last time before I leave. One really cool thing that I may get to do today or tomorrow though is go and see the waterfalls! I'm pretty sure that will be a pretty awesome experience on a selfish level but still a blessing none the less.
I've spent a significant amount of time with the family talking with them about what God has in store for their future. There's a few businesses that I think will really be able to make a difference here and I've been super happy to be a part of seeing those things coming to fruition. There's so much that's difficult down here in making a last difference because of the culture and the things that these people have to overcome. What the Jenkins are fighting for and what I've been so happy to help be a part of is making sure that these people always have their daily bread. There are always opportunities to help make things just a little better but if the communities can consistently make the money to have food on the table and the Spirit of God in their hearts then the work done here has been a success. That's what we hope these business can help do and where I feel that the heart of the Lord is right now. Hopefully somewhere in the future there will be a future opportunity to make a massive culture difference and alleviate some of the poverty issues but as for right now I know that the Lord in his sovereignty is working in great ways and I'm excited to have been a small part of it.
When you hear from me again, I will be back home with some closing thoughts about the trip in its entirity. But I need to spend some more time in prayer and just see where he leads my heart before I can entirely communicate what I think he would have all of us to do concerning the Dominican Republic, the people here, and what impact this has on my life and the lives of people around me. I appreciate all the prayers and support. It's really made this trip more amazing than anything I could've ever imagined. Pray the Lord continues to be with me in the next two days and that he brings me back safely on thursday. I love you all and can't wait to see you and talk to you more thoroughly about the whole thing. I'm sorry that my thoughts were so scattered today, it's been hard to really focus. But yeah, love you tons. God bless.
I've spent a significant amount of time with the family talking with them about what God has in store for their future. There's a few businesses that I think will really be able to make a difference here and I've been super happy to be a part of seeing those things coming to fruition. There's so much that's difficult down here in making a last difference because of the culture and the things that these people have to overcome. What the Jenkins are fighting for and what I've been so happy to help be a part of is making sure that these people always have their daily bread. There are always opportunities to help make things just a little better but if the communities can consistently make the money to have food on the table and the Spirit of God in their hearts then the work done here has been a success. That's what we hope these business can help do and where I feel that the heart of the Lord is right now. Hopefully somewhere in the future there will be a future opportunity to make a massive culture difference and alleviate some of the poverty issues but as for right now I know that the Lord in his sovereignty is working in great ways and I'm excited to have been a small part of it.
When you hear from me again, I will be back home with some closing thoughts about the trip in its entirity. But I need to spend some more time in prayer and just see where he leads my heart before I can entirely communicate what I think he would have all of us to do concerning the Dominican Republic, the people here, and what impact this has on my life and the lives of people around me. I appreciate all the prayers and support. It's really made this trip more amazing than anything I could've ever imagined. Pray the Lord continues to be with me in the next two days and that he brings me back safely on thursday. I love you all and can't wait to see you and talk to you more thoroughly about the whole thing. I'm sorry that my thoughts were so scattered today, it's been hard to really focus. But yeah, love you tons. God bless.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
How to save a life
So over the past few days I've continued to help out with English classes, we've been back to the hole of the pigs to play games with the community, we've spent some more time in Amistad playing with the kids and helping Blanco with his foster care system, and we've spent a lot of time looking into business ideas to help additionally fund the ministry as well as give the people here some more long lasting help and sustainability.
I can't tell you how hard it is to not just give these people everything that you have on you and then try ask everyone that you know stateside to do the same. And while that may seem like it would help, it takes so much more to really make a difference in their lives and lifestyles. This culture is SO selfish, and SO focused on right now. You can see it in the driving, you can see it in the spending habits, you can see it in the kids, in the way that everything works. There's next to no saving, next to no looking forward to the future, buidling towards better... When you give them a bag of things, those things are fought over, then if they can't be used right away they'll be sold for way less than they're really worth and the community benefits only a small amount. Now granted there are exceptions to that rule and a lot of times you are able to meet direct needs with what you give them. But in order to really make a difference, you've got to give them something consistently to to do that will help them continuously provide for themselves. Church planting and training of pastors, SOO important! English classes and other forms of job training SO important! And one thing that the ministry is really focusing on right now is getting these people some jobs so that they can take care of themselves and not always be looking to a white man for help.
Even creating jobs is super hard down here though, the pay is SOOOOO frickin little and the costs of living only slightly cheaper than in the US. It's been funny seeing what's cheaper here and what's not but in terms of things like food and clothes there's really not a huge difference. And as if things weren't bad enough for the locals, the Hatian refugues have even less! Some startling stats: an average monthly salary for a teacher here in Puerto Plata is 6-8 thousand pesos a month. That's two hundred american dollars A MONTH! Doctors, who are employed by the government, get paid about six hundred american dollars a month. I know of a graphic designer that does all the marketing in the DR for frito lay and disney along with some other big names that only makes eight hundred US dollars a month....what can you give to help when everyone is fighting for nickels at a time? What you give is the only thing of any value on this island or anywhere in the world, the love of Jesus.
I shared in the last blog the verse in James that says that the poor will be rich in heaven. And while that's comforted me some in terms of God's justice and sovereignty, the thing that God continually keeps reminding me of is the value of the gospel. Jesus Christ is so priceless! It's not simply that once upon a time someone far away paid the penalty for every wrong thing you'll ever do in life. It's that the God of the universe wants that much to have fellowship with you. That we're all precious treasure in His eyes, and you know what, and this seems messed up in spoiled America where we feel entitled to everything, but God doesn't care that these people are poor. Does it hurt him to see them suffering of course! But he doesn't care what material items any of us may or may not have. He wants our hearts and that doesn't come with houses and cars. I've seen more of Christ in the nastiest places that I've ever heard of than in most of the churches that I've been in in the US. THAT is what these people need and what will continue to hold them and keep them. If I can show them that through some silly songs, through some games of soccer, and handing out candy, then praise the Lord that I have that opportunity! It's been one that I'll never in a million years forget and one that I hope I'm not the only one learning from. Thank you sooooo much for your prayers and encouragement. Much love and God bless.
Prayer requests:
Blanco's school is having TONS of trouble because they have no funding to pay their teachers, Blanco is going to have to close the school and reorganize it a way that will better fit his budget. Pray that the Lord gives us all wisdom in helping that process move forward
Brad and Brooke have been under a lot of pressures of people from all of the place asking for money as well as losing a lot of stateside support. Pray that God will continue to give them wisdom concerning how to best utilize resources and continue to encourage them to not become weary or embittered.
There are several different business ideas that we have come up with one of which will have a HUGE impact on helping the ministry and a lot of different people that the ministry works with (including Blanco's school). Pray that God will provide the money needed to start the business, that there would be wisdom and organization in running it, and that it will be fruitful and bring glory to God through its sucess.
I'm leaving very soon and don't want to be distracted by my own emotional desires. Pray that God will keep me focused on what He desires.
I know that this was long but I thank you all for reading it. I love you and miss you!
I can't tell you how hard it is to not just give these people everything that you have on you and then try ask everyone that you know stateside to do the same. And while that may seem like it would help, it takes so much more to really make a difference in their lives and lifestyles. This culture is SO selfish, and SO focused on right now. You can see it in the driving, you can see it in the spending habits, you can see it in the kids, in the way that everything works. There's next to no saving, next to no looking forward to the future, buidling towards better... When you give them a bag of things, those things are fought over, then if they can't be used right away they'll be sold for way less than they're really worth and the community benefits only a small amount. Now granted there are exceptions to that rule and a lot of times you are able to meet direct needs with what you give them. But in order to really make a difference, you've got to give them something consistently to to do that will help them continuously provide for themselves. Church planting and training of pastors, SOO important! English classes and other forms of job training SO important! And one thing that the ministry is really focusing on right now is getting these people some jobs so that they can take care of themselves and not always be looking to a white man for help.
Even creating jobs is super hard down here though, the pay is SOOOOO frickin little and the costs of living only slightly cheaper than in the US. It's been funny seeing what's cheaper here and what's not but in terms of things like food and clothes there's really not a huge difference. And as if things weren't bad enough for the locals, the Hatian refugues have even less! Some startling stats: an average monthly salary for a teacher here in Puerto Plata is 6-8 thousand pesos a month. That's two hundred american dollars A MONTH! Doctors, who are employed by the government, get paid about six hundred american dollars a month. I know of a graphic designer that does all the marketing in the DR for frito lay and disney along with some other big names that only makes eight hundred US dollars a month....what can you give to help when everyone is fighting for nickels at a time? What you give is the only thing of any value on this island or anywhere in the world, the love of Jesus.
I shared in the last blog the verse in James that says that the poor will be rich in heaven. And while that's comforted me some in terms of God's justice and sovereignty, the thing that God continually keeps reminding me of is the value of the gospel. Jesus Christ is so priceless! It's not simply that once upon a time someone far away paid the penalty for every wrong thing you'll ever do in life. It's that the God of the universe wants that much to have fellowship with you. That we're all precious treasure in His eyes, and you know what, and this seems messed up in spoiled America where we feel entitled to everything, but God doesn't care that these people are poor. Does it hurt him to see them suffering of course! But he doesn't care what material items any of us may or may not have. He wants our hearts and that doesn't come with houses and cars. I've seen more of Christ in the nastiest places that I've ever heard of than in most of the churches that I've been in in the US. THAT is what these people need and what will continue to hold them and keep them. If I can show them that through some silly songs, through some games of soccer, and handing out candy, then praise the Lord that I have that opportunity! It's been one that I'll never in a million years forget and one that I hope I'm not the only one learning from. Thank you sooooo much for your prayers and encouragement. Much love and God bless.
Prayer requests:
Blanco's school is having TONS of trouble because they have no funding to pay their teachers, Blanco is going to have to close the school and reorganize it a way that will better fit his budget. Pray that the Lord gives us all wisdom in helping that process move forward
Brad and Brooke have been under a lot of pressures of people from all of the place asking for money as well as losing a lot of stateside support. Pray that God will continue to give them wisdom concerning how to best utilize resources and continue to encourage them to not become weary or embittered.
There are several different business ideas that we have come up with one of which will have a HUGE impact on helping the ministry and a lot of different people that the ministry works with (including Blanco's school). Pray that God will provide the money needed to start the business, that there would be wisdom and organization in running it, and that it will be fruitful and bring glory to God through its sucess.
I'm leaving very soon and don't want to be distracted by my own emotional desires. Pray that God will keep me focused on what He desires.
I know that this was long but I thank you all for reading it. I love you and miss you!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Frontline ministry
Wow so yesterday I really felt like a missionary. In the morning I sat down with one of the locals that works with us here, William, and we made lesson plans for the english classes this week. Then right after lunch we went down into town and I shared a devotional on the radio! It's really been amazing how God has enhanced my ability to speak spanish to where I feel like I could communicate anything in spanish without trouble :) After the radio, we went back to the hole of the pigs to establish a ministry in that village. We don't want to just hand stuff out to them and give them the expectation that the white man can provide for what they need. We would rather that they expect that we're going to come in there without any judgement and just spend time with them and share the love of Christ with them. There is stuff that will be given to them, but it would be best for that to come from the community pastor or leader and so we have to identify who that person is before we can funnel anything through him. But yeah, yesterday we brought some balls out there and jump rope, etc, and at first they had no idea what we were doing out there and so we tried to invite the kids to go play, P.S over half of them are Hatian. Most of them speak spanish but the kids only speak creole, thankfully William speaks creole as well as spanish and english, but yeah that was hard cuz the kids didn't understand who we were or why we were there. Well we got a few people out to the field and just started playing and it wasn't but 10 or 15 minutes before it seemed like the whole village was out there. There were just as many adults if not more that came out to play soccer which was super fun! and everyone else was hanging out and having a good time. I really think it was a great entry point for the ministry and we're gonna be going back out there soon to try to teach the kids some jesus songs and just have more fun with the whole community. We're planning on doing a similar thing in another village this afternoon so that should be fun. This village isn't as bad off and they already kinda know us because of of Blanco's foster ministry there so I'm hoping we can get them singing some songs and learning about Jesus :)
After we spent time in the hole of the pigs we went out to Los Cocos to teach an English class. Los Cocos is my absolute favorite village here. The community is very clean, and the houses all look nice. By nice I mean that that they look respectable and that the person who made it actually cared and took pride in their work. Even so, they're really just village huts made out of palms and other natury stuff. The people are very poor and don't have much of anything material wise but they're all soooo joyful and have tons of love for the Lord, and VERY eager to learn English! We meet in a church that one of the missionary groups that came down here built for the village and there's about 15-20 people from the village that come on a regular basis to learn. I had a lot of fun just working with a few of the villagers and helping them to really understand more about english and be able to use phrases like "could you meet me at 10:30". I was just so honored that God used me to be a part of the work that he's doing in that wonderful little village. The next step is going to be helping them get some little business started so that they can make more money to sustain their families and their village.
Aight well I'm gonna peace out, if you have anything specific that you want to know or you want me to talk more about just leave it in a comment and I'll try to put that in the next blog. Thank you guys SOOOO much for your prayer support I can feel it with me each and every day. Much love and God bless!
P.S I almost forgot to share this awesome verse that God encouraged me with this morning.
"Listen my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" -James 2:5
And it has been so awesome to see how rich in faith these people are :)
After we spent time in the hole of the pigs we went out to Los Cocos to teach an English class. Los Cocos is my absolute favorite village here. The community is very clean, and the houses all look nice. By nice I mean that that they look respectable and that the person who made it actually cared and took pride in their work. Even so, they're really just village huts made out of palms and other natury stuff. The people are very poor and don't have much of anything material wise but they're all soooo joyful and have tons of love for the Lord, and VERY eager to learn English! We meet in a church that one of the missionary groups that came down here built for the village and there's about 15-20 people from the village that come on a regular basis to learn. I had a lot of fun just working with a few of the villagers and helping them to really understand more about english and be able to use phrases like "could you meet me at 10:30". I was just so honored that God used me to be a part of the work that he's doing in that wonderful little village. The next step is going to be helping them get some little business started so that they can make more money to sustain their families and their village.
Aight well I'm gonna peace out, if you have anything specific that you want to know or you want me to talk more about just leave it in a comment and I'll try to put that in the next blog. Thank you guys SOOOO much for your prayer support I can feel it with me each and every day. Much love and God bless!
P.S I almost forgot to share this awesome verse that God encouraged me with this morning.
"Listen my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?" -James 2:5
And it has been so awesome to see how rich in faith these people are :)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Preaching to poverty
So I've been able to upload some pictures today, I'm gonna put a full album on facebook but I wanted to single out these because of how well they show off what I've been doing. The days are flying by while I've been here so I can't always remember everything that I've talked about. But over the past few days the things that have been the most significant were the trip to the dump and then preaching this morning. I want to thank all of you soooooo much for praying for me this morning. The service went really well, so well that they want me to me to give a similar message on Tuesday on the radio! Yeah, God is a little crazy. lol. Then again, there was some miscommunication and the translator never showed up, so if I can give the message without trouble this morning I guess the Lord can give again on Tuesday. Be praying for me though, that's gonna be Tuesday at 2PM and it's a station that all of Puerto Plata gets. Oh, I almost forgot, this is the church that I preached at this morning. It's small and beat up but full of love and passion for the Lord. That was a really cool first experience for me :)
The other big thing that happened in the past few days was going to the community down by the dump. In english it's called the pig hole. And that's not just what it's referred to as by people outside the community, people in the community know that that's where they live. I didn't think that it was possible to get worse than aguas negros (and you can see those pictures on facebook) but this place really broke my heart. This community literally eats out of the garbage landfill. They take whatever they can get from the garbage and really when you look at these pictures you'll see that they live IN the garbage. I can't express how horrible the stench was, it really made me question how God could allow such a thing to happen in this world. These are two pictures of two parts of the village, and this wasn't the worst that I saw.
The worst part about this is that they bathe in that river. While we were there, there was a guy who took a bath in the exact same spot that another dude had just cleaned his bike. It's water and it's all that they have to work with. The hardest thing about being there though was knowing that there's not much of anything that I can do right now to help them. They're almost all Hatian refuges that have no legal paperwork and therefore no way of getting any kind of salary job. They speak very little spanish if any and their mentality has to be changed before they can really rise out of the place where they are. When thinking about how hard it would be for them to get out of that literal dump and that most of them would never know anything close to even a sub-decent life I really had to pray to the Lord and ask how I could be so blessed and they so devoid of blessing. And what it all comes down to is God's power and glory. I learned more this week than ever that God really is all that we need. Us having more things than they do means nothing in the heavenly realms, all that matters is Christ. And God has already given them a lot of relief, they're all clothed with donated clothing and they have soap....I mean it's not a lot but it still doesn't matter, the fact of the matter is that with Christ they have every bit as much as we do. And a lot more grateful for it! We're very spoiled people, but God chose to bless us abundantly in terms of wealth and not them. Who can question his choice? All I can do is say thank you and share whatever I'm given the chance to share. And if given the chance, sure I'd love to come back and try to help them but I have peace knowing that God is sovereign even with them living in the dump...
Anyways, I'm sorry that this was long winded and disconnected I obviously have a lot on my heart and have a lot more to share than I can put on this blog. Thank you so much for your prayers and for taking the time to read this. I'm posting pictures on facebook as soon as I post this so you can look at those and see more of where I've been this week and what places God is working in mighty ways. Much love and God bless.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Slums, soccer, and spanish
So before I get lost in this post I wanted to first thank everyone for taking the time to read this blog, constantly keeping me in your prayers, and for the encouragement that you've left in the comments. As another quick note, the website for the water filter company is: http://www.filterpurefilters.org/ There's a cool video that shows how it works and they describe pretty much everything there. If you have any questions about how they're connected to the ministry here in the DR just put it in the comments and I'll try to get you an answer before I leave for the states.
So I have a lot to talk about so feel free to scan if you don't have a lot of time. Yesturday we went out to a community called munoz and just went and hung out with the villagers. I got the chance to play some soccer with the kids and with some of the adults. Being the only white guy meant that I didn't get the ball much but I feel like I did well. The time spent before the game was a lot more fruitful because I got to talk to several different guys about their lives and how Christ fits into that. It's crazy how saturated a lot of these communities are with Hatians, I haven't figured out how to tell the difference until they start talking in creole. It's super sad though how many of them have no place to live. Apparently a lot of the Hatian families will live in houses while they're being built so they never really have a permanent place of residence.
Living in half-built houses is actually really fantastic though compared to what I saw this morning. This morning we went to aguas negros (black waters). Which is one of the poorer slums in this area. I have some pictures that I'll hopefully get to post at the end of the week that give a better idea of this but my heart was completely broken over how bad the conditions are where these people live. It's basically a community of barren shacks amongst mud and trash that has washed up around the houses and in most places INTO the houses. The kids really don't have any toys, we were playing some games that didn't require anything like Simon says and run around in a circle chanting something that Micah didn't understand but even with that they seemed to be having TONS of fun. It completely blew me away how happy these people are even with as little as they have. There are several ministries that have started to work in that community and I guess it's been improving, though I would've hated to see it where it was. But it's clear that God is doing a great work there because everyone I talked with said that God had blessed them and that they were thankful for his many blessings....ridiculous!
We're gonna be going out tonight to do an english class in another community that I haven't been to yet and that should be pretty cool. It's been amazing how much spanish I've been able to speak while I have been here, I could've never imagined that I would be carrying on conversations about life and Jesus with random people in the streets and over games of Dominoes (which has been great) in complete and hardly broken spanish. I keep getting asked where I learned spanish cuz I can speak it so well, my family should know better than anyone that that's definitely not me, that's totally the Lord :)
Which speaking of the Lord and speaking Spanish, I need some serious prayer for this sunday! I was apparently volunteered by Edward, one of the Dominicans who works with the ministry here, to preach at a church this sunday morning. The church is basically a little shack but there are apparently like 75 attendants and I'm supposed to preach for 30 to 45 minutes. SOOOO exciting yet SOOOOOOO frickin scary. I'm supposed to have a guy to help translate if I get lost somewhere but I've got a feeling that I won't really be using him. To give you a little perspective on how big of a deal this is, I've never preached for longer than 15 minutes in ENGLISH and the last time I did a spanish presentation in college it was 10 minutes. lol. But God is the one who is in control so I know that He'll take care of it. I've already got my sermon outline so now I just have to work on getting it all straight and translating what I don't know.
Other things that you can being praying for: I've been staying at a local inn while Brad's kids have been doing their standardized testing and they play dominoes there every night. Well last night I played with them for about 2 and half hours and I'm probably going to be playing with them again tonight and hopefully some more throughout the week. I was able to talk to them a little about the Lord but I would love the opportunity to poor more of Christ into them. God has been SOOOO awesome in opening doors and giving me opportunities that I would've NEVER imagined, so also pray that he continues to keep my heart open and dependent on him and that I wouldn't shy away from what He's calling me towards. Pray also for the missionaries that I'm working with, they've been having a lot of trouble with getting water at their house and Brooke has been having super bad migraines. Pray also that the Lord continues to bless me with health, safety, and a focused heart. I love you all and am SOOO thankful for your thoughts and prayers. I hope that all is going well. God bless.
So I have a lot to talk about so feel free to scan if you don't have a lot of time. Yesturday we went out to a community called munoz and just went and hung out with the villagers. I got the chance to play some soccer with the kids and with some of the adults. Being the only white guy meant that I didn't get the ball much but I feel like I did well. The time spent before the game was a lot more fruitful because I got to talk to several different guys about their lives and how Christ fits into that. It's crazy how saturated a lot of these communities are with Hatians, I haven't figured out how to tell the difference until they start talking in creole. It's super sad though how many of them have no place to live. Apparently a lot of the Hatian families will live in houses while they're being built so they never really have a permanent place of residence.
Living in half-built houses is actually really fantastic though compared to what I saw this morning. This morning we went to aguas negros (black waters). Which is one of the poorer slums in this area. I have some pictures that I'll hopefully get to post at the end of the week that give a better idea of this but my heart was completely broken over how bad the conditions are where these people live. It's basically a community of barren shacks amongst mud and trash that has washed up around the houses and in most places INTO the houses. The kids really don't have any toys, we were playing some games that didn't require anything like Simon says and run around in a circle chanting something that Micah didn't understand but even with that they seemed to be having TONS of fun. It completely blew me away how happy these people are even with as little as they have. There are several ministries that have started to work in that community and I guess it's been improving, though I would've hated to see it where it was. But it's clear that God is doing a great work there because everyone I talked with said that God had blessed them and that they were thankful for his many blessings....ridiculous!
We're gonna be going out tonight to do an english class in another community that I haven't been to yet and that should be pretty cool. It's been amazing how much spanish I've been able to speak while I have been here, I could've never imagined that I would be carrying on conversations about life and Jesus with random people in the streets and over games of Dominoes (which has been great) in complete and hardly broken spanish. I keep getting asked where I learned spanish cuz I can speak it so well, my family should know better than anyone that that's definitely not me, that's totally the Lord :)
Which speaking of the Lord and speaking Spanish, I need some serious prayer for this sunday! I was apparently volunteered by Edward, one of the Dominicans who works with the ministry here, to preach at a church this sunday morning. The church is basically a little shack but there are apparently like 75 attendants and I'm supposed to preach for 30 to 45 minutes. SOOOO exciting yet SOOOOOOO frickin scary. I'm supposed to have a guy to help translate if I get lost somewhere but I've got a feeling that I won't really be using him. To give you a little perspective on how big of a deal this is, I've never preached for longer than 15 minutes in ENGLISH and the last time I did a spanish presentation in college it was 10 minutes. lol. But God is the one who is in control so I know that He'll take care of it. I've already got my sermon outline so now I just have to work on getting it all straight and translating what I don't know.
Other things that you can being praying for: I've been staying at a local inn while Brad's kids have been doing their standardized testing and they play dominoes there every night. Well last night I played with them for about 2 and half hours and I'm probably going to be playing with them again tonight and hopefully some more throughout the week. I was able to talk to them a little about the Lord but I would love the opportunity to poor more of Christ into them. God has been SOOOO awesome in opening doors and giving me opportunities that I would've NEVER imagined, so also pray that he continues to keep my heart open and dependent on him and that I wouldn't shy away from what He's calling me towards. Pray also for the missionaries that I'm working with, they've been having a lot of trouble with getting water at their house and Brooke has been having super bad migraines. Pray also that the Lord continues to bless me with health, safety, and a focused heart. I love you all and am SOOO thankful for your thoughts and prayers. I hope that all is going well. God bless.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
I'm here!!!
Hey everyone, so first off I just want to say thank you for the prayers. I got here safely without much trouble. Customs was easier than it should have been, I honestly feel like I could've brought anything I wanted into this country. The family that I'm working with is super fantastic, I'll try to post some pictures when I get the chance, I've been taking some pictures and I'll try to take more but those will probably be posted on facebook and maybe not until after I get back. We'll see. Today we went to Santo Domingo which was a super long trip but it was really special to see how the majority of the island and to be involved in the culture. I traveled with several Dominicans and talking with them was really cool because you could see how much they desired to serve the Lord. The things going on here are simply amazing because the government is so screwed up and people are trapped in these ways of life and the missionaries and local churches have done a fantastic job at being creative and reaching the people where they are and finding ways to try to make their lives better. Even so, the WHOLE island is SUPER poor! The average living conditions are towards the bottom end of anything that we would ever have in America and I honestly haven't even been to the bad parts of the country yet. We'll be doing some of that in the next few days and I'll try to share with you some cool stories from that when they happen.
One thing that we did today was we stopped by the place where they make the water filters. These filters are probably some of the coolest things that I've ever heard of and I kinda want one. Basically it's a pottery dome that has different sizes of stones, sand, and wood, that get finer and finer as you get closer to the center to filter out as much dirt and particles as possible. Then it has a carbon and silver center that purify the water that makes it there followed by another layer of the grain and such to protect the carbon core. The filter can clean up to 5 gallons a day and if you maintain it well (monthly cleaning and not breaking) it will last for a lifetime. Lifetime of clean water! What can be better? The fact that it's only 35 dollars! Pretty incredible. Now that's not something that a lot of these people can afford but it's a growing ministry and really promising for helping out the general health of the people here. I'll post some pictures when I get the chance and if I find out that there's a website I'll pass that on as well. But yeah, that's just one of the many cool things that God is doing here. The other thing that we did today was check out a business idea that may be able to get some of the locals some jobs and extra income. We'll see how the Lord provides in that area as time goes on.
Well anyways, I'll hopefully have more exciting stories to share next time but I just wanted to give you kids a quick update and say thank you for your prayers, I've been totally healthy and I don't expect to get sick at all. So thanks and keep praying. We're heading into the villages in the next few days so pray that the Lord uses us there, and then also pray that the Lord continues to help me communicate effectively in Spanish. So far so good, so praise the Lord for that. Ok I love you bye bye!!
One thing that we did today was we stopped by the place where they make the water filters. These filters are probably some of the coolest things that I've ever heard of and I kinda want one. Basically it's a pottery dome that has different sizes of stones, sand, and wood, that get finer and finer as you get closer to the center to filter out as much dirt and particles as possible. Then it has a carbon and silver center that purify the water that makes it there followed by another layer of the grain and such to protect the carbon core. The filter can clean up to 5 gallons a day and if you maintain it well (monthly cleaning and not breaking) it will last for a lifetime. Lifetime of clean water! What can be better? The fact that it's only 35 dollars! Pretty incredible. Now that's not something that a lot of these people can afford but it's a growing ministry and really promising for helping out the general health of the people here. I'll post some pictures when I get the chance and if I find out that there's a website I'll pass that on as well. But yeah, that's just one of the many cool things that God is doing here. The other thing that we did today was check out a business idea that may be able to get some of the locals some jobs and extra income. We'll see how the Lord provides in that area as time goes on.
Well anyways, I'll hopefully have more exciting stories to share next time but I just wanted to give you kids a quick update and say thank you for your prayers, I've been totally healthy and I don't expect to get sick at all. So thanks and keep praying. We're heading into the villages in the next few days so pray that the Lord uses us there, and then also pray that the Lord continues to help me communicate effectively in Spanish. So far so good, so praise the Lord for that. Ok I love you bye bye!!
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