I am so sorry it has taken so long to write a blog update. Life on the Race has been unexpected, challenging but so wonderful all at the same time. I have been in the Dominican Republic for almost 3 weeks now & it has been amazing! In such a short amount of time, God has already completely knocked down some walls and is starting to radically change my life.
We are working with HOPE DR, a great ministry that is doing amazing things here. For the first week we lived in Lajas at the home of our ministry host, and lived in our tents on the property..flashbacks to training camp all over. Our first ministry job was building a bathroom by making an assembly line and hauling buckets of dirt up the mountain to make concrete for the floor. It was as hot, miserable and dirty as it might sound. But we were doing God’s work. The new bathroom was not only for us girls to use, but it was also for the 60 kids coming to a camp later in the week. I truly never thought helping build an outdoor bathroom in the Dominican heat could be so rewarding and humbling.
The following Monday was the start of Teen Camp. That afternoon about 60 kids between the ages of 12-17 arrived with a language barrier between us but so similar to all teens around the world with their insecurities, feelings of loneliness & walls built up all around them. The way the camp was set up it sounded super similar to a Young Life camp, which totally pulled at my heart strings. It was a rough and exhausting start to the week, but the presence of God was everywhere throughout the camp property. Even though I barely speak any spanish & few kids knew English, over the days I was able to share laughs, love & the Lord with many of the campers. Despite being sleep deprived, dirty and completely out of my comfort zone, it was the sweet moment of losing a piece of my heart as the kids drove away from camp Friday morning that made it all the more worth it. I think God was trying to give me a snippet of what this year is going to entail…and its going to be awesome!
My team & I were moved to Santiago this past week to continue working for HOPE teaching English. We got blessed with an apartment and travel by public transportation every day to the city of Cien Fuegos teaching English to children between the ages of 3-17 years old. Cien Fuegos is translated to 100 Fires and is the worst poverty I’ve personally ever seen, the houses border the city dump. Some of the kids are the same from camp the week prior and some we have just met, but still they are all stealing pieces of my heart & I get the honor of sharing the love of Jesus with them every day.
The journey has been unbelievable so far and still I am sometimes in disbelief God has chosen to use me to spread His light. But real talk, the World Race is hard. I am dealing with the unexpected daily. Just because I am a believer, or I’m doing good, doesn’t make me exempt from troubles. It says in scripture “The rain falls on the just and unjust.” In these first couple weeks, I have quickly learned when something unexpected happens or I find myself facing a crisis, not to automatically go into freak out mode or just fall apart emotionally. I have realized that moment is no surprise to God. It may be unexpected to me, but God know the end from the beginning. He has the solutions to my problems I haven’t even faced yet.
He has equipped me for this battle & every battle after, and He will go before me and make my crooked place straight. So instead of focusing on my problems, I will focus on God. I will focus on the fact that He is with me and He is walking with me guiding & leading me to a place of peace and victory. Im ready to fight any battle knowing who I have in my corner.
Thank you so much for all of the support that has gotten me to this point so far, it means the world to me (literally). I need $2,200 more to reach my next deadline. Please consider supporting me so I can continue unveiling what is in store for me around the world this year!
All in love,
Alexa
