“Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said…” Numbers 22:28
Our ministry in Cativo (up in the mountains) is so far my favorite. Yesterday me and my teammate JC walked up and down the streets praying and interceding for our teammates. In my mind, this meant I got to explore while talking to God, which sounded like the greatest time ever. So we went exploring and found a little river and climbed up a secret path to somewhere and found little hidden houses and we prayed for the people, the land, our teammates and translators…
The mountains we see on our way to Cativo
Now one thing to know about the Dominican Republic is there are wild animals everywhere. Dogs, chickens, goats, pigs, cats, horses, and donkeys all roam the streets freely. Another thing to know is that if you visit a travel doctor before you leave (like me and my teammate Sarah did) you will get an earful about not touching any animal because they can carry diseases or have rabies. Well, Sarah became our team travel doctor. She carries around her steri-pen, makes us wipe all water drops off our dishes before we use them and keeps us from touching animals… and that just happened to scare JC a bit.
The first day in Cativo, me, JC, and our translator got followed by a chicken and a dog… interesting. Then yesterday when me and JC were walking around, we got followed by a donkey. I named him Donkey (like in Shrek so you have to say it with an accent). When I say followed, I mean Donkey followed us up and down steep mountain slopes. One time we even went down to this little river and thought we lost him. But when we turned around there Donkey was standing in the middle of the water staring at us. At first JC wasn’t very excited about our new follower, but then we decided he was there to protect us (we didn’t know from what). Soon after that we thought maybe Donkey was going to talk to us. I mean God can do anything and He’s talked through a donkey before, so maybe God had something to tell us through Donkey. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but I don’t doubt that it could.
Me and JC after our adventure
The Domincan Republic has such amazing mountains and scenery and is full of entertaining animals. But most of all, it is full of welcoming people who will always invite you into their homes, find you a chair to sit in, offer to feed you, and give you some sugar cane. It is a beautiful place with beautiful people, but it is a place that needs hope. Hope that can only be found in Christ.
