Wow!! I’ll be heading home in exactly one month from today, and that blows my mind. This time has flown by, and I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything since leaving Costa. I’ll give y’all a quick rundown of what life looks like here, and I’ll post some more blogs soon about what the Lord has been teaching me.
We’re based in Santiago, Dominican Republic living on a Mission of Hope base. Mission of Hope began in 1998 in Haiti, and has since expanded to the DR. Their vision is to share the hope of Jesus and bring life transformation to every man, woman, and child. With MOH, we partner with local pastors to do outreach in communities, share the gospel, and just get to know the hearts of the beautiful people on this island.
Monday-Thursday we do ministry. We mainly do strategic ministry time (SMT), which is what I described above. Twice a week, we send a group of our squad to do manual labor. We’re currently building a house out of a shipping container for a man who works with MOH, so we take turns going to work on that for a break from SMT. Friday and Saturday are our free days, so we usually take a trip to the beach one day and rest the other. On Sunday our squad goes to church in the morning (which usually keeps us occupied 9am-1pm), and then a group leads a Bible Study at the church in the evening.
Other than going to ministry and church, what we do with the rest of our time is up to us! Here’s what my personal schedule usually looks like 🙂
5:45am – Wake up!! I share a room with my team, so I try to be quiet getting up this early. The sun doesn’t rise until about 6:15, so it’s always fun navigating the room and trying to get dressed in the dark.
5:50-6:30am – Work out time!! I workout with at least one of my squadmates every morning. We usually run about a mile and then do a HIIT workout. Earlier in our time here we were running a few miles outside the gates, but we had some issues with men catcalling and approaching us, so we decided to just stay on our base to feel more comfortable. 12 laps around the church is a mile, so I can’t do much more before I get bored and/or dizzy haha.
6:30-7:30am – Get ready & time with the Lord!! I use this time to take a quick shower (no hot water here sadly) and spend some time with the Father before breakfast! Once or twice a week our team makes breakfast for the squad, so I’ll end my workout a bit early to shower and be in the kitchen by 6:30. I’ll also use this time to do laundry every once in a while.
8:30-4:30pm – Ministry! Already described this one for ya!
What the rest of the evening looks like depends on the day. Once or twice a week we make dinner for the squad, so that takes up a good bit of time. We also have worship some nights, time to process the approaching end of the race, chores, fun philosophical discussions, or just time to play games as a squad. We also are blessed to have a pool on base so if it’s hot enough I’ll swim a bit before dinner.
Now onto a topic I know I’ll get asked about – food! We make all of our meals ourselves here, which means we get to decide what to make. We are given a food budget, we make a list, and we’ll go to the store once a week to get supplies! This has allowed us to have some comfort foods of home, while also experimenting a bit with recipes. We usually have eggs at least a few times a week for breakfast, and everyday we eat PB&J’s for lunch since they’re easy to pack. Other than that, who knows what the squad meal planners are going to come up with!
Well that’s pretty much it! Life here is so so good, and there is so much fruit coming from this season. Like I said, I’ll post another blog soon, but feel free to reach out if you have any questions. We have wifi pretty regularly here, so I can be reached on iMessage or WhatsApp! And, as always, I’d love to hear any prayer requests you have so I can be interceding for you.
Love you all,
Brook
