I know this blog is very overdue! Wifi is quite limited here where we are staying!
Location: Lajas, Dominican Republic
Ministry: Hope for the DR
Currency: Pesos
Toilets: actual toilets that even flush… When the water is running… No toilet paper down the toilet though!
Showers: cold showers when the water is running.. Otherwise bucket showers
Sleeping: dorm style with bunk beds for all 21 of us in one big room.
When we first arrived here on the 10th we had orientation for the first few days. It was a great time to adjust to the beginning of World Race life. Ministry is Monday through Friday with Saturday designed to be an adventure day and Sunday as a rest day.
There are three teams from my squad here at Hope for the DR . The three teams are spilt up into three different ministries within Hope: door to door evangelism, children’s ministry, and woman’s ministry.
My team (above) chose door to door evangelism for the first two weeks of ministry.
Yes, this was intimidating at first and it made me quite nervous but I came on this trip to experience and learn about the Lord in new ways. When asked which ministry my team would like to do, all 6 of us wanted to say no to evangelism. After about a whole 30 seconds of deliberating, we decided evangelism is what we needed to do. My team of 6 is incredible y’all. We are all ready to learn without hesitation, love unconditionally and are open to opportunities for the Lord to use us in ways we didn’t know we had in us.
Going door to door these past two weeks we have had the chance to really pour into the community and also have them pour back into us. The people here are so welcoming to invite us in to their homes, serve us coffee and share about their story.
If you allow, I would like to share a story with yall. How one home visit in particular will forever be engraved in my heart. It was with a woman named Carolinda.
Carolinda was very open and transparent about her life story. About her past and how the Lord came into her life when she needed him more than ever. How he wrecked her life in the most beautiful way and that it has been the best thing to ever happen to her. She then asked us what we thought the characteristics of a Godly woman should look like. A teammate of mine read Titus 2:3-5 aloud.
Carolinda talked about how she hopes to do what we are doing; evangelize to those in her community. she then said how she knows she needs to change the way she dresses, how she needs to first be Baptized, and how she needs to make her home more presentable before she can share about Jesus and what he is doing in her life.
Here we are sitting in front of a woman who has an incredible story and shared how intimate her walk with the Lord has been, yet she believes she needs to have it all together before she can bring others to Christ.
As she was speaking, it really resonated with me and few others on my team that the way she feels is quite close to how we feel about going door to door sharing about Christ or about coming on the World Race in general.
That we are not adequate and that we still need to meet some kind of check list before having the ability to share Christ’s love to others.
And here is Carolinda speaking out of a place of vulnerability. I very clearly felt the Holy Spirit speaking through her…but yet she thinks she needs to be at a place of perfection according to the worlds standards.
We asked if we could speak affirmation over her. How the Holy Spirit is already using her, he has equipped her and transformed her ashes into beauty. When I felt the Lord tugging at my heart about what to say to her, it started to bring me to tears. I looked at Carolinda and it was like our translator wasn’t even there. We didn’t need to know the same language to experience together what the Holy Spirit was doing in that moment. I locked eyes with her as tears began to roll down her face.. I told her that her story really resonated with me, that I can relate, and that I hope when I share about Christ with others that I look like her..She looked so much like Jesus in that moment y’all..
We left her home knowing that God designed that moment for us all to meet. That she poured into us way more than the 6 of us combined thought we were going to pour into her.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I wish I could update more often but the wifi situation is quite stressful and the days are seeming to just fly by!
love and miss you all.
J
