Hola amigas y familia! How many days has it
been? 4? I’ve got stories to last a month!
is right off one of the main streets in Santo Domingo. Even though we have beds here, I’ve slept in
my hammock every night so far-even for the stormy night we had (I draped my
rain fly for my tent over the hammock). Many other racers have made use of their hammocks as well. We’ve kind of set up a little city with all
of them… check it out!
of last-minute training/preparation and working to develop a few relationships
in the community. A couple days ago, my
team was walking around town and something led me to suggest taking a side
street for the first time. I don’t know
why I wanted to turn, especially considering there were a bunch of men on the
corner of this street just staring at us. We went down the street anyway and ended up running straight into a park
where we met about five Dominican men, all in their 20s. We talked, joked, danced, and played a little
bit of basketball with them. They even
sang us several hip hop song, which were in Spanish but sounded very good! (I really wish I was fluent in Spanish right
now… it’s very frustrating trying to communicate sometimes.)
Anyway, those guys were great. We’ve also gotten to know a young man, Willy
(14), who has been eager to hang out with us and lead us around the street in
his spare time. He’s taken a huge
interest in the walkie talkies I brought and asks to play with them pretty much
every time I see him now.
worked on a small video project, which we were supposed to finish the sentence
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” It
turned out very good and I’m hoping to be able to post it here soon. Today, we got to have some time to relax and
hang out on the beach. It was a very
welcome opportunity to 1. Just relax and not have something to do or somewhere
to go, and 2. Spend some time with the P-squad guys for the last time before
our teams split up and we go into our first ministry places.
Speaking of this, here is what my team has
been assigned! We are driving to Haiti
tomorrow, where we will spend the night with the other two or three teams that
will be traveling with us (the others will stay in the DR for the month, then
we flip-flop for month two). Our
ministry location is an orphanage in between Port Au Prince and Leogane with
about 35-40 kids. In terms of living
conditions, it’s going to be about as primitive as it gets… tents with very
limited power and little running water. Internet is going to be a decent drive away, so we’re hoping to have
access once a week by having our contact drive us to town. We’ve been told we’re going to be helping
with caring for the kids and running a vacation bible school for them! Since we’ll be living in the same area with
the kids, it’s going to be a crazy time for sure (glad I brought a soccer
ball)!
I also want to let you all know that our
race route has already changed! Instead
of taking off to SE Asia after Ireland, we’re going to stay in Eastern
Europe. Romania is still on, I think,
however we are no longer going to Turkey for security purposes. I’m not sure where we’re going just yet, but
they told us it would likely be one of the “ahs” (Bolivia, Bulgaria, etc). That obviously doesn’t narrow it down
much. Some of us will be staying in
Ireland for our ministry that month, though! Not sure who yet.
I know this is long, but I just wanted to
get everyone updated… I’m doing fine, by
the way! Very tired, but even more
excited about what’s about to happen. This is just launch week and it’s already been amazing! So far, I’ve only taken one shower (not
counting the ocean today)… but I figure as long as I don’t stink, I’ll be
fine. I’ll be sure to take another one
before we take off to Haiti.
I hope everyone is well and that you’re
prayers are not letting up just because you haven’t heard from me! Obviously, Haiti is going to be one of those
months where you may not hear from me that often, but know that no news is good
news for those kinds of months!
I’m leaving you with some Word that characterizes
what I’m doing here and what I hope we can all do in our daily lives. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 14-17, “In the
Messiah, in Christ, god leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory
parade. Through us, he brings knowledge
of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe
in the exquisite fragrance. Because of
Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on
the way to salvation-an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us
more like the stench from a rotting corpse. This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No-but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take
it to the streets to sell it cheap. We
stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say
it as honestly as we can.”
Please REALLY dive into this… it’s RICH! Love you all!
