Hey ya’ll! This month has just flown by, I cannot believe it’s already the 20th of August! Speaking of the 20th of August, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!I think your like 40 today or something 😉 I have to give that shout out first, and then I want to say happy birthday to my Aunt Joyce, my cousin Elizabeth, and to Kendra’s mama Janet Floyd! We are missing your birthdays but have totally thought of you all week long, and even attempted to make a video for our parents with many different birthday messages….but in typical Kendra and Leah fashion, we didn’t leave enough time to finish it. But we love you and hope your days are great!
Meanwhile, in the city of San Juan. My team and team SOAR have been working in the slums of Guatcupita this month. This is a part of the city that is deemed unlivable by the government and the people still choose to build their homes here and raise their families in this community. The reason it has been deemed unlivable is because whenever they have hurricanes in the DR- about every 2-5 years, this land gets hit really hard and all the houses end up with significant damage and they basically end up having to rebuild everything they have worked for. Guatcupita has a reputation for being the worst part of town and people just don’t go down there.
But I believe that just because something has a reputation, doesn’t mean we have to believe it until we see for ourselves what exactly is going on there. And what I see in Guatcupita is: strength by people that have a lot against them and could easily choose weakness, kindness, hospitality, a searching for meaning of life, and a hunger for the TRUTH. 
The children are precious and beautiful…they aren’t really taught or shown what it means to be gentle and sweet as they grow up though. This has been hard to see the kids fight a lot and have attitudes with each other, but this really is the culture that they just grow up in down there. A lot of them don’t know Jesus, so without knowing Jesus, they don’t have the fruit that comes from that relationship and the Holy Spirit. I’ve realized lately that I was the same as them when I didn’t have the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in my life. I would pick fights, use angry words, give nasty looks, get upset easily, not respect people, and just not understand. And the sad thing is that I still do these things even WITH the Holy Spirit. I say all this because at first I was kind of appalled at this behavior that I saw as the kids would disrupt VBS with fights and disrespect us. Then while reading my Bible one night I was hit with these thoughts. Without Christ working in us and living in us we are exactly the same, and these children need to know HIM in order for fruit to be produced and lives to be changed. Much like the Holy Spirit has done and will continue to do in our lives as believers. We go through the refining fire and start to look more like Christ.
“But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard–things like affection for others, exuberance for life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”-Gal 5:22-23 (I’m learning a lot from Galations right now, I encourage you to read through it and see what God wants to show you too)
The cool thing with these kids is that they have really begun to have softer hearts and attitudes. They are learning to treat each other better (on most days) and our contacts have said that over the past few years the community as a whole has experienced this shift. We walk in there and have the opportunity to bring Christ’s light to this community as God and God alone gives us the kindness, patience, gentleness, love, joy, peace and self control to love these kids and show them the only example that they might see of the fruits of the Spirit.
On our first day we did a prayer walk through the town and just asked God to show us the spiritual climate of Guatcupita. There definitely is darkness there, but at the same time I just know that God is winning that battle there and will. You can feel God’s presence flooding this place and as we walk in there each day, we pray before we cross a bridge at the front of the village and I know that God is going in with us and before us and casting out all that darkness that may have been there from the night before. It’s real, we see it and feel it–but God wants those people and WILL fight for them!
A typical day for Team City Lights looks like:
Wake up at 7:00….or for most of us that love to sleep its more like 7:30
Grab some breakfast, and put on our yucky “Guatcupita clothes” (there are lots of germs there so we have certain clothes we wear there)
Leave by 8:05 to walk 30 minutes to Guatch.
Get there and pray, do VBS..play with kiddos, teach them bible stories, and just have fun enjoying there company. (Maybe break up a few fights and get slapped in the face 🙂
Half of our team and Team SOAR are working on digging a canal for the community that will help with the problem of standing water and mosquitos. This has been a big project and they’ve made awesome progress.
At around 11:00-11:30 we head back to our house for Lunch and a siesta time. Lunch is our big meal because we need this energy during our long days and walks.
We change and get cleaned up and just have a time of rest..time to eat, read, do laundry, or take a little nap.
Then at 4:00 we start our walk back to Guatch and do house visits and prayer with people in the community. We have built some really awesome relationships with people there, which will be hard to leave behind. They are being encouraged and prayed for and its been awesome to see God move in their hearts and see light on these sweet faces lately.
Then at about 6:30-6:45 we round up the troops to head home. We don’t like to leave later than 7 because the atmosphere down there really changes from 6 to 7 and it’s just not smart to stay later down there.
We walk back to our house, shower, eat dinner, have some family time, and try to fall asleep fast so we can wake back up and do it again 🙂
We have had two sabbath days where we can do fun stuff with our teams, rest, and get caught up on things which has been nice.
I have loved our ministry this month and look forward to posting another blog soon about our friend Diana, God is moving in this young woman’s heart and I’m excited to share this story with you all.
Once again Happy Birthday to all my loved ones! And thank you friends for your encouragement always.
