my blog this week is a litttttle different than previous blogs:::
this one includes a collection of some of my favorite memories since my time here on the race!!!!
for each country, i’ve put together a section for:::
a kiddo i’ve gotten to know & love immensely
an example of ministry (scheduled or not) that i’ve done on the race so far
an overall favorite/funny memory
and ends with a sweet sunset from that very country !!!!!!!!
in better detail, here is some context to back up those sweet captured moments!
(the link is at the bottom of the page)
dominican republic – month 1
Stephanie!!!!!!
What a little lady she is!!! Someone i think about regularly, Stephanie is a 3 year old little girl that lives in the Dominican Republic. I met her at a children’s center that our ministry hosts began in a city called Santiago De Los Caballeros, about an hour away from Hope Mountain. Our hosts, Vicki & Ruben Dominguez began the children’s center because the children that lived all around the town struggled in more ways than one. Instead of school, they were digging around in dumpsters looking for food for their families and themselves, sacrificing education in order for something to eat. The Dominguez family, saw the need and took action. They built the children’s center with the vision of inviting kids to attend, providing them with free education, and a homemade meal before releasing them around 3:00. ground shaking!!!! truly. A blessing!!!!!!! lives changing because of the children’s center. hope & love & restoration being poured out onto the children of Santiago because the Lord laid something on the Dominguez family, and they acted out of urgency. Obedience. And because of alllll of this, I met the sweetest, most loving little lady at that children’s center on September 14th, 2017. A day i’ll never forget. A face i’ll never forget. In constant prayer over Stephanie, that she knows the Lord as she grows up. That she finds worth in who He calls her to be. & That she allows God to define her rather than any circumstances she comes to face in this lifetime. Praying big prayers over that little one. always.
Margo & Elva!!!!!
although cooking wasn’t necessarily “scheduled ministry,” it was still something I saw the Lord in so evidently. These women. Such powerhouses. Margo & Elva are the women that made all 3 meals for us, everyday we lived in the Dominican. They’re the ones that snuck me the leftover hot chocolate late at night when I came to visit them. They’re the ones that danced and sang around the kitchen with me as we made soup for everyone. Theyre the ones that helped my friends bake me a cake for my 18th birthday in the middle of a hurricane. That paid regular visits to us if we were sick or hurt. They are women that serve so selflessly. Love so immensely. & Treat people with such great hospitality. Walking examples of Romans 12 “Love in Action.” They’re women that have gone through heartbreak and calamity but still carry spirits of immense love and joy day in and day out. Women that make soup from bones. That turn nothing into something. Incredible women. This small clip is Margo and I cutting limes. Hundreds and hundreds of limes so that we could make their special limeade juice as a treat for 44 of us. Women I admire & look up to. Women i’ll never ever forget.
Adventure Day!!!
Adventure days in the Dominican were unlike anything i’ve ever done, or seen with my own eyes. The beauty that encapsulated us, the crystal clear oceans that so hospitably welcomed us into their warm waters to swim around and snorkel in was truly a dream. This is a small clip of the girls around me feeling “free & nice & happy,” as they all told me earlier on. Not surface level, “I’m doing okay today so Im happy,” but deep, and true, happiness. Freedom, as the boat we were in skimmed across surface of the Caribbean water. Nice feelings. & forever A moment i’ll forever hold onto, with alllll of my might.
Sunset!!!!
I’m going to leave this one for you to interpret for yourself. What do you feel, see, or think of when you see these colors. It was even better from the middle of the ocean with Taylor as we watched the bright colors fade to dark with the time that passed, but what does this one evoke from your mind? Leave me your thoughts below!
haiti – month 2
Abigail!!!!!
Oh man. Abigail, a firecracker. A little lady of enthusiasm and excitement. Shes loud, and strong. She’s beautiful & powerful. She dances like craziness, she loves; love. She’s a fighter. She fights for her family. It’s a beautiful thing. She and her brothers, they protect one another. They love one another well. Abigail is unlike any other 6 year old i’ve ever met in my life but the influence I see her having in life now and in the future is powerful. I think about her regularly. I miss her a lot. I miss her energy. She reminds me of fireworks, really. Booming with energy, sound and color. Abaigail, I learned a lot from her during the time we spent together. I learned about what love without boarders looked like. I learned about what it looks like to allow love to be a universal language when you step foot onto unprecedented ground. Love is familiar & recognizable. I found recognition in who Abigail is, the second I met her.
Gramoun!!!!
Supply & Multiply is the ministry we worked with and one of their main missions within their ministry is caring for the gramoun of the community (or elderly). They have a place called “Matthew 25 house” where a few of the granmoun live. It’s a place of love, and life. It’s a place where they’re well taken care of, it’s home. It’s incredible, the way that Supply & Multiply cares for and loves the community of granmoun. Especially in a culture that abandons the men and women of society as soon as they reach a certain age in life. It’s awfully saddening to hear that some of the men and women that live at the Matthew 25 house, were found in remote villages living in cardboard boxes among rubble and trash. But my spirit isn’t hopeless. With all that the wonderful people of the ministry do, I see the fruit of their labor. I see where the Lord is in all of this. I see where there’s hope and restoration in a society that forsakes the elderly. This video is of one of my team members Cat, holding the hand of a gramoun, as some of us danced around and ate lunch with them. We’d read psalms with them some days, and just enjoy time with them other days. I really loved visiting with them. Something I’ll also cherish forever and ever.
Tacky Prom!!!
HEPHZIBRUH!!!!!!! MY TEAM!!!! MY LADIES!!! One night in Haiti, my ladies, my wonderful ladies of haiti, decided we should throw a tacky prom without the other two teams knowing. We came up with games and activities, we created playlists and had dance battles. We laughed, and danced the night away, leaving the dance floor covered in glitter & sweat from all that went on, on that little side porch of our light pink house. One of my most favorite memories of Haiti. Just a snippet of what went on that night, but i’m sure you get the idea.
Sunset!!!!
Beach sunsets. one of my most favorite things about living in Haiti was having the beach within a five minute walk from our house. Especially when the colors of the sky were vibrantly pink and orange, or faded into one another. Gratitude runs deep for little things like that. Sunsets. Beaches. Beautiful beautiful things.
Botswana – months 3 & 4 !!!!!
fruit baby baby!!!!!!
my goodness. Fruit baby, her name wasn’t actually fruit. It’s something that sounds similar to fruit, so she got stuck with it. Never have a ever heard a laugh quite like hers. Never have I ever heard watermelon pronounced the way she does. In Botswana , one of the incredible women we were able to serve alongside was Arista!!! One of ma Willie’s daughters, aka our hosts! Incredible, powerful, women of faith. they are. truly, incredible. Artista, began children’s ministry after the Lord put it on her heart. She acted in obedience even though, at first, she didn’t even really like kids. Craziness how the Lord works in situations like that. Baby fruit, is one of the kiddos we met at children’s ministry these last two months. one of many guppies i fell in love with.
My time in Botswana was some of the hardest months of my life, you can read more about that in a blog I posted a few months back called “i’m just growing,” but anyways; Id been praying for the Lord to put some kiddos in my life that I could just love, and be loved by. He answered my prayers so graciously with the bright eyed, loving, and sweet beans of Botswana . Forever changed by the way I saw the Lord in who they are. Individualistic, unique, bubbly, fearless, compassionate, sweet, confident, little miracles. I love them. Just one of the faces of Botswana Id grown to love immensely, but there are so many others. this is: baby fruit.
Holes!!!!
Ministry consisted of a few different things, but this here video is a video of the incredibly strong, and capable Botswanan babes i got to serve alongside these two months. Here we are, clearing a piece of land, digging holes to build a fence; so that the family can begin building onto this land they’ve been given. We built a vegetable tunnel, the foundation for a little house, a fence. We planted all different fruit trees, and built barriers with trees we cut down in order to keep the goats out. We raked, and shoveled, and sawed. We grew, in a lot of ways. Never have I ever felt more confident, strong, and CAPABLE- than i did in Botswana . Amazing, truly – the way we were able to lay the foundation for something bigger than our imaginations. Praying over that land, the future teams and pastors that go to stay there, and over the incredible family, we were so graciously welcomed into our very first night in Botswana ; the Booyse women. Powerhouses. True true powerhouses.
Creative Birthday Visual Experiences:
In many more ways than one did we get creative in botswana. So many ways. Some of my most favorite memories on the race took place on that delta that you see lillabea and i dancing on. Including this very one. A friend of ours, turned 19 in Botswana and we weren’t there to celebrate with her, soooooooo!!!!!!! we made her a 13 minute video of us doing strange, random, fun things like dance on the delta, and dress up as granny’s!!!! & punch sausage fruits. It was strange. But hey!!!! like i said, we got creative. Creative Love, something I learned a lot on in Botswana .
sunset!!!!
some of the most beautiful sunsets occurred on the Botswanan delta. truly a gift to see the ways the Lord loves us in the colors of the sky. hallelujah to that.
i’ll keep this one short so that you can watch that video a few times over again, it really is beautiful.
with that—– SOUTHAFRICA!!!! IN THE MAKING!
this is just a video of a wonderful lady, Alina and I getting stuck in some trees as we went tubing down the river in Hiedleburg, SA today Jan 30th!!! Fun stuff!!!!
I really do hope you loved this blog/vlog and got a small glimpse of what it is i’ve loved about the race. it’s been an incredible few months so far, and i’ve learned more than i can put into words. really, looking forward to the months to come and all that the Lord has in store.
so incredibly thankful.
a lot of love coming your way, from me, to you.
xx d.
