I am currently sitting in my new room!! Woho God sure knows when to give us what we need! It has been only a few days that I have come back from my first mission trip ever! I had the chance to travel to Los Alcarrizos, Dominican Republic for a week with a group of thirty college aged students from all over Georgia. Alongside the Real Movement and Lighthouse International, we got to build a water purification system for a community who used water to cook and drink from the same place they went to the restroom. It was an amazing opportunity to get out of our comfort zones of our bed and air conditioned rooms and go into a country we had no idea about. A country who was always humid, hot, full of mosquitos but full of people whose hearts belonged to Jesus! NOT even once when we were there did I see a Dominican look sad or mad about their circumstances. On the other hand they cheerfully played their music until 2am and walked around with proudly of who and what they were. All you could hear from every direction was “Dios te bendiga!” (God bless you) They loved where they were at and when asked if you could change something all they said was nothing because God gave me this! WOW what a humbling answer to a Latin American who is constantly wanting more even though he has more than enough.
Sitting here in my room is very hard. Its hard knowing that I am taking a warm shower while they take a cup and dump some frigid cold water over their heads. I am eating a warm meal while they might go days without eating three meals. I am here changing clothes while they go days and weeks with the same thing on. I am here doing what I love to do while they dream to become lawyers, teachers, and maybe even someone who just knows a bit of english.
Can you see where this is hard?
Its hard to go through pictures and see the face of my little Moses and his dad Ramon. A hard working man who says he works from 6pm to 6am making sure us Americans sleep safely instead of us doing that for him. A man who loves his family so much that he moved across the country to give them a glimpse of a future. A man who lost both his mom and dad and a man who we were the first to talk to after working there for 9 years! Ramon! I love you! I love your passion for life and your humble heart! Thank you for showing me what true love for family looks like! Thank you for allowing me to take a glimpse over your life and thank you for the midnight talks about life and how the States look like from my point of view. Thank you for taking your wife over and allowed me alongside Taylor to pray over you and your family! Thank you for raising a child with such a kind soul! I hear your laughs alongside your little Moses! I pray that we meet again one day and I cannot wait to hug Moses and give him many high fives and kisses!
Can you see where this is hard?
Its hard to sit here not knowing if Pedro will be able to finish off his school because his family can’t afford it. Pedro an 18 year old teen who is a humble and very authentic man of God. One who never stops working and one who helps those around him even-though he should be the one sitting down taking breaks. A young man who should not have to worry about where his next families meal is going to come from. Pedro I love you man! Thank you for the laughs and for changing my perspective as a young adult. Thank you, because of you I can say I have met a Dominican I can call my little brother. I miss seeing you asleep coming upstairs at 6:30am and I miss doing faces while we work in the scorching sun. Most importantly thank you for saving me at the waterfall!!! I hope to see you again soon but for now know that I am deeply proud of the young man you are! Keep striving to do your best! I can not wait to start sponsoring you and I can’t wait to see you walk across the stage as you pursue your dreams!
That week was the best week of my life. Waking up at 6:30am to have quiet time with the Lord and having worship with my team was such a growing experience. Never have I felt God so present than those times when we worshipped freely around each other.Yes we might of got a lot of mosquito bites and bedridden with sickness for half of the trip but I know that we would all do it again. The lessons we all learned while there, the blood, the tears and the sweat we all shed will never compare to anything. God chose each and every one of us, took us hundreds of miles away to see what true freedom in Him means.
When I sit here thinking of sitting on roofs and thinking of why these people are so happy with what they have, only one thing comes in mind. A lesson of freedom! Freedom that can only be found in Him! A freedom that my Dominican friends know and so desperately show in their faces! One that even-though we might not feel at times can be felt in our souls. You see God wants his children to be contempt with what they have. Why can’t we as Americans take a look at what we have and share it with those who so desperately need it? Why can’t we lay down a few moments of our time to share with the Lord? Why Lord, Why? Why can’t I be in the Dominican playing with my little friends? Why can’t I just worry about myself and not have to cry every time I think back at the Dominican? WHY?
Because we are all children of him which means we all feel love for one another!!!!
No matter the color or race- the love of God shines everywhere we go!!!!
So God thank you for allowing me to go on this trip! Thank you for allowing me to share memories with your children and my brothers and sisters! Thank you for giving me a heart for people and for taking me across the seas to show me my calling! A calling to freely give up art, give up my comforts and my friends to go across the world proclaiming you and serving your people!
Thank you Lord because you have chosen a sinner like me to serve your people! You died on that cross and called us to make disciples of every nation! I take this burden with open hands! A burden more beautiful than any other! A burden I cry upon every time I think of my friends back in the Dominican! A burden I freely carry for the rest of my life! Thank you God because of you I live in a country where I can dream bigger than I can imagine! God you are my first, you are my last, my future and my past! You have showed me what freedom is through people who have so little but make so much out of it! God thank you!!!
I might have left the Dominican but a piece of my heart stayed behind!
To my team- thank you for allowing me to cry openly when I needed it! Thank you for letting me be me and for allowing me to be the crazy David that I am! Thank you for your encouraging words and for being there with me while God pushed us all pass our limits.
I love you fam!!!
God I can not wait to serve your people in 11 other different countries! I can not wait to run after you and to find the secret places that you keep! Places that no man, drug or alcohol can take me to! Places only you know of but places you can’t wait to share with me! God you are what my heart runs after. You are everything my heart wants and needs! God I pray that I have faith in you as you provide for this trip! Even when I feel that the numbers won’t add up may I remember that my Dominicans see past numbers and only see miracles!
So God, my heart runs after you just like Judah!!!
P.S.: If you would like to donate for my next mission trip (World Race) please do so on this page! Thank you so much in advance! Praying that God will provide!
