Wow! My first blog post from the field. I have so much I could tell you all. I have been doing many things here and meeting amazing people.
The house we are staying in is very nice. There is a bed for everyone, showers (cold but still), indoor plumbing, electricity, a beautiful pool, an amazing rooftop area with a view of the mountains to die for, and a chef that cooks all of our meals for us! It is amazing!
We have ministry every day that ranges from property work to hanging out with people from the community. They make us coffee and buy us cookies. It has been amazing!
We also have off days where we relax in hammocks and nap and read books and just talk to the lord. It has been amazing!
We have “adventure days” where we go out into the town and be tourists. This past week we went to puerta plata and swam in crystal blue water and went on a glass bottom boat and snorkeled with schools of fish in a coral reef and drank strawberry daiquiris out of a pineapple! It was AMAZING!!!
All of this has felt…. too amazing….
Missionary guilt! I had heard about it but never really understood it. I was so prepared to be living in the worst conditions of my life, so when I got here and everything was, well, AMAZING I had a hard time adjusting. That sounds crazy but I have had so much guilt over fundraising for this and leaving people in the states. Mostly because I feel like I am on extended vacation. Don’t get me wrong on property days I am working my butt off, literally I have never sweat this much in my life! But I like manual labor and it’s a small price to pay for all of the amazing and beautiful experiences I am having with the people and land here. This life…. feels too good to be true! I am not supposed to be laying in hammocks, cuddling dogs, playing with local kids, getting waited on by the community, drinking out of pineapples on the beach, and making memories that will last a lifetime.
The missionary guilt is something I am still working through and will keep you guys updated on. For now, know that I am so incredibly grateful for each and every person who helped me get here and who is praying for me in this time! I am so abundantly blessed both in the US and here in the DR!
Prayer requests:
-continued healing for the host family who has been battling some illness
-provision for the little mountain town that contains lots of very poor families
-women in the DR caught up in prostitution and sex trafficking (3rd largest country in the world for it)
-men in the DR who are tied up in gangs
-provision for the end of my fundraising
-for the hearts and minds off all the people on the world race (this life is draining mentally and emotionally)
