So here I am, one week left of month 2 and I’m just now getting around to writing a blog about month 1. My apologies! I’m learning that the internet overseas is never reliable (which has made blogging somewhat difficult). Nevertheless, I’m going to try to write a blog to help keep all of you at home updated on my travels!
So, Lajas. Month 1, my team worked with 5 other teams from my squad in this small mountain community in the Dominican Republic called Lajas de Yaroa. There we stayed with a missionary family and were involved with a variety of different ministries. Each week we had a different ministry – week one, my team worked on creating a curriculum for an English class where the teacher also incorporated teaching the gospel; week two, my team had the opportunity to love on the kids whose parents were missionaries that we were working with; week three, my team was able to walk throughout the community of Lajas while praying for the community.
To give you all a glimpse of what a typical day looked like for me, first we would have morning devotions where we would have worship and a message. Then we would eat breakfast – which more often than not was oatmeal. Then we would do ministry in the morning and then break for lunch – which was rice and beans. Always rice and beans. Then we would meet up for ministry again in the afternoon. Dinner later followed by nightly devotions.
Our living conditions, while rustic by American standards were top notch by World Race standards. We stayed in this cabin on the property and slept on mats on the floor. Honestly, it was pretty cozy…..except for the extremely large spiders and the occasional flooding when it rained. Our fellow roommates, the Lizards, while alarming at first later became a comfort to see because we knew that they were keeping the spiders away. The showers had one temperature – freezing. And the toilets had no doors. We all became real close real fast. Oh! And laundry! I never had to check the sky to look for rainclouds before I hand washed by clothes before. If it looked like rain, you might as well just wait until tomorrow because your clothes were just going to get soaked on the line.
While some of this might sound miserable, it was actually a great month! The culture shock became funny after a while. And I made some great memories that will make great stories later! Like the time I helped revive my squad leader after he passed out after getting injured during construction ministry, or the time when our Dominican bus driver who didn’t speak English randomly broke out singing Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” or like how I had to learn to improvise during my morning workouts and use cinder blocks instead of dumbbells.
Overall, month one was great. The Lord taught me so much about how to have a real relationship with Him and I know that it’s just the start of all the amazing things that I’m going to learn this year. I made great memories and really got to know my squad. I’m excited to see what else this year has in store!
