Ahh there is so much to say I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s think…well as Maria says, “let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” I recently discovered that my team shares my love for the Sound of Music…let’s just say we are already planning an awesome video that will go up soon I’m sure. I guess you could call us the Tharseo Family Singers.
So the beginning…this crazy adventure began when we left Chicago last Saturday at 2:20pm and got to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic at 9:40pm. By the time we got to the house we were staying at it was 2am. We spent a very restless night in San Juan. It was a good time for me to process though. I spent a lot of time that night journaling and praying for my team as well as our squad until the power went out at about 3:30am. I guess God was telling me I needed to get some rest before our orientation meeting in a few short hours. With three incomplete hours of sleep, I woke up excited for what the day would bring. When I received information about the ministry I would be working with the first month, the only description was “relational/hardcore”. It kind of became a joke in my squad because there was also no city name just “Haitian border”. I think all of us thought the same thing, must be border control. Just kidding it’s not, but I guess that just goes to show how little we knew about what we were going to enter into when we left San Juan on Sunday to head into the unknown, all 7 of us piled in a pickup truck.
When we reached the pastor’s house, we finally had a name for this mysterious city where we would be beginning our month together, Comendador, about 30 minutes from the Haitian border. The pastor’s family welcomed us with open arms and blessings. We met their 3 children, who so graciously gave up their rooms so that we would have beds to sleep on. They showed us around the house, including the BATHROOM! Let’s just say it was more than we expected and we feel so completely blessed that we have a shower that works between the hours of 7pm-12pm and even though there’s no hot water, it is exactly what we need after a long day of ministry in the island heat. I’m so thankful that I have some experience being outside in the heat because even though some moments feel like we will never stop sweating, it is bearable and there is always a nice breeze with the windows open in the house.
We have been showered with so many blessings. The family prepares all of the meals for us and they have introduced us to their community who has showed us so much kindness. It is amazing the impact a smile can do. We were working at a school in the beginning of the week, and at first all of the students looked as though they didn’t know quite what to make of us but as we began to wave and say hello, or rather hola, they would run up to us speaking in Spanish, which unfortunately we could only understand maybe every other word. We are so thankful that we have a translator that goes everywhere we do because these beautiful people know as much English as we do Spanish. Although there is a difference in the language, we can see so much joy and beauty within their hearts. There are so many stories to tell and as long as our internet holds out, I will be blogging very often! Thank you for all of your prayers and support thus far. We still have a long way to go and we feel God moving in this place. We pray we will continue to be vessels for Him.
