10. Our first day off from ministry was spent hiking to a beautiful waterfall – 2 hours there, 2 hours back – a relaxing way to spend our day off right?! It was, however, the first time since arriving in the DR where I felt cool and relieved from the heat and humidity.
09. These kids literally amazed me! Raul instructed us to reassemble and clean some old desks. The kids quickly took over the cleaning process. Without ANY hesitation, they took the sponges from our hands and got down to business! What work ethic!
08. I've been in a parade or two in my life, however, The Bible March outranked everything I've experienced. People were passionately waving their Bibles in the air, praising God and dancing throughout the streets, and praying for the Holy Spirit to move in Azua.
07. I celebrated my 27th birthday two days after arriving in the DR. My new family quickly made it special and unforgettable – cards from home, a birthday cadence, cake, and a mixture of water, egg, and flour on the birthday girl …
06. Playing in the rain with the kids!
05. We had the amazing opportunity to pray for a 9 year old boy with bone cancer. We prayed for God to show up and he did. God filled the boy with his Spirit – he felt goose bumps on his arm and heat from beneath his feet. The family came to church the following Sunday!
04. One of my teammates has the gift of feeling other people's emotions and pain. She felt pain in the back and a few moments later we made the connection that that back pain was Zanza's (our host mom). We asked if we could pray for her, she of course said yes. We prayed for her in English even though she speaks very little English herself. After we finished praying, she was crying because she felt the Holy Spirit come upon her. She was crying because of the burden of hosting team after team. She often puts walls up to separate herself from the missions teams because it's hard to allow people in knowing they will leave soon. We were honored that she let down her guard and opened up to us.
03. I was one of four people on an interview panel at church. We were asked questions such as: What's your favorite book of the Bible, favorite verse, favorite author, how many books of the Bible have you read, what happens when you don't read your Bible every day, etc. I was asked what my favorite miracle was. I said my favorite miracle was when Jesus fed 5,000 men with a few loaves of bread and a few fish. This was the same answer as the two people before me, but I said it was my favorite because I've seen God multiply food in my life. I recently went on a missions trip to the Los Angelus Dream Center and God did the impossible while I was there. We prayed for multiplication over food we were passing out to the needy and God did it! After sharing this story with the congregation, excitement rose, faith grew, and people were encouraged to believe God for the impossible!
02. This month we've worked with YWAM Azua a few times. Several nights ago, they opened up their facility to us and allowed us to have a time of worship and prayer on the roof of their beachfront property! There's nothing quite like worshiping the creator of the universe while overlooking such beauty! Three of my teammates were also mourning the death of loved ones. Quite unexpectedly, Raul and the church showed up. They had planned on having a Bible study that night, but felt like they needed to come pray for us. It was a perfect example of the body of Christ. The night ended with the 6 of us girls laying on our backs looking up at the sky – much to our amazement, we all witnessed a shooting star!
