After our first week running a teen camp in Lajas, my team was then sent to a smaller village on a mountain in Moca. The city of Moca is known for being a dark place and the family/community we were staying with recently had multiple members pass away. Despite this we were excited to see what God was going to do there. Our ministry for the next couple weeks consisted of having a morning and afternoon VBS for all the kids in the community (The morning for the younger group and the afternoon for the older group). We taught and sang songs, learned Bible verses, made crafts, had a Bible lesson, and had games. We focused on the fruit of the Spirit and presented one fruit each day. The kids were shy at first, but continued to open up more and more every day. Also, we were able to teach English as part of the VBS. Thankfully we have 2 teachers on our team who were able to make a lesson plan and head up that portion of each day. They did awesome! Everyday the number of kids in each session continued to grow. We even had to make a few adjustments to our plans to accomodate for increased numbers which was really cool. The kids were really responsive and so loving. I couldn’t even count how many hugs I received during those weeks in Moca. The connections we made through VBS resulted in the opening of multiple doors and hearts in other parts of the community.
Even though our pre-determined ministry was the VBS and English classes during the day, I found God pulling me to ministries in other ways as well. There was a baseball field/park just a 2 minute walk up the road where a lot of kids from the community would play. This is where I ended up spending the majority of my time in the afternoons and evenings. Naturally we played a ton of soccer and baseball, but just having fun with all the kids and interacting in broken Spanish was one of the best ways for me to connect with them.
At the end of the month we traveled back to our original location in Lajas. We had one last day where all the kids that participated in VBS (from the different locations that each team was in) came to Lajas for a celebration and final VBS activities. I wasn’t sure if a few of the kids I really connected with in Moca would be able to come, but to my surprise I saw almost all of them walk off the bus! It was awesome to spend the day with everyone and see the connections that the Holy Spirit had fostered between the other teams and the kids from their communities.
At the end of the day we said our goodbyes and I began to experience the sting of my first goodbye on the Race. I was of course sad that our time with them was over, but the more I thought about the past month, I started getting more frustrated and upset. I started thinking about all the questions and conversations I wanted and tried to have with each of them, but couldn’t because my Spanish wasn’t good enough. I started seeing all the soccer games, crafts, and English lessons as wasted time. Did I make a difference in this community at all? Can God use these past few weeks to transform lives? Why do you want me here, God?
As all these thoughts are running through my head, I just feel God bring me back to him. None of this is in my hands at all. Trying to take control and analyzing every situation is not glorifying to God at all. That is not what he has asked of me. He has called me to TRUST AND OBEY. In everything. When I decided to apply for the Race, that was just the first step of this 11 month journey of constantly saying yes to God and continuing to trust and obey in whatever was placed before me. This month in the Dominican really challenged the independent side of my personality and my need to see results. I had to entrust every relationship formed, every conversation, every bit of Spanglish I managed to get out, EVERYTHING to Christ. Let him do his work. I am called to be obedient and submit to whatever God would have me do, then pray for and allow his Spirit to work. I do not know what part or impact I may have in the lives of the people I encounter, but I do know who IS in control and who DOES have the power to transform. I am but a tool in the great Creator’s hand. The tool doesn’t tell the Creator what to make or how it is to be use. It is compliant in the Creator’s hands because He knows the final product and how the tool needs to be used to accomplish exactly what He has planned. That’s the cool thing. All we have to do is trust and obey. Trust and obey and leave the rest in God’s hands. There’s no safer place.
These next 11 months are going to be full of goodbyes. I already know each one is going to be difficult. Different people will touch my heart in different ways. Each person on our team left with different experiences and difficulties that we had worked through during the month. Some teammates had specific connections with neighbors, almost all of us dealt with sickness in varying degrees, and we also experienced some spiritual warfare. God is giving us so many opportunities to learn and grow in so many different situations.
So much happened during our time in Moca, but some of my favorite moments are just being present with the kids and not having an agenda for the time spent with them. I know God works through the most simple, small ways and after this month I don’t think I’ll be putting God and his methods in a box anytime soon.
Thank you so much for taking time to read what God is doing in the Dominican and in my heart. All of your support is truly appreciated and I can’t wait to see what God has planned next. Please consider supporting me financially as I have about $5000 to raise before my next deadline of January 1, 2015. Thank you again for everything thus far. Y’all are amazing!
