It’s hard to believe I’ve only been in the Dominican Republic for a week! I have so much to catch y’all up on, but only a few minutes and very sketchy internet, so I’ll do my best. Let’s see… launch was quite an experience! It was a very intense 3 days as we prepared for ministry, but we were also able to have a great time reconnecting with our teammates and squadmates. We were blessed to stay in great facilities in Santo Domingo, and on our last day we all crammed into a few vans and went to the beach! It was a much needed time of fun and relaxation. Then, the next morning, teams began to move to our ministry sites.
God has placed my team in a pretty unique location. We are staying in Los Montacitos, a tiny village at the top of a mountain. It took about an hour and a half by truck to get up here, and we are about as cut off as you can be from the “real world.” The cell phone we have to keep in touch with other teams doesn’t get much service, there’s no electricity except a generator they use for church services, we’re sleeping in our tents, walking everywhere, we have no showers, our bathroom is an outhouse or the woods, and the internet I’m using is a little mobile broadband card we borrowed from a local, and even that doesn’t work very well. One of my teammates is the only translator because it is near impossible to get one all the way up here, so he has a huge job to try to translate for all 7 of us, every where we go. A couple teammates took motorcycles into San Juan to get groceries, and that will probably be our only chance to restock for the month, as it is difficult and expensive to find rides, not to mention, is an all day adventure. And yet, I couldn’t be happier.
If you know me well, you know how much I love the wilderness, and even more, how much I love mountains. Well, every morning I wake up to an incredible view. I get to see a side of the DR I’ve never experienced before, live about as simply as it gets, get in shape from all the crazy hills we climb everywhere we walk, interact with some of the sweetest, most welcoming people who know little but life on a mountain, AND in another week we get to go on a little backpacking adventure to a couple tiny villages where the gospel has never reached… wow. I am still in shock that this is life right now.
I think God has placed all of my teammates in this location fora very specific reason. I am still discovering some of the reasons he placed us here, doing these ministries, but the location alone is enough for me to feel so blown away by the love God has for me. It is a difficult month, and I’ve been wrestling with a lot already, but God chose to put me in a place where even when I am struggling, I can feel at home and have a constant reminder of how much he loves me.
I will share some stories and more about what ministry here looks like next time I’m able to get online, but I just wanted to let y’all know why blogs and e-mails will be few and far between this month, and give you a little picture of what life looks like here. I will post pictures once we get a more stable internet connection. Can’t wait to share more about this incredible village and everything I’ve been learning while we’ve been here!
