Wow! I’m sorry it has been a while since I have blogged. The beginning of the race has been a whirlwind: a whirlwind of activities, ministries and emotions. We are in the Dominican Republic, working with Hope DR. Hope is an absolutely amazing ministry and what they are doing in Lajas, Mocha, and Santiago is incredible.
We spent the first 10 days of the race in the mountainous, jungles of Lajas. The Dominguez family welcomed 32 racers onto their beautiful land and home with open arms. We tented on the side of the mountain and spent the first 2 days lifting buckets of rocks to help finish an outdoor bathroom. We then spent the next 6 days working a teen camp. About 60 teenagers between the ages of 12-17 came and we had an amazing week loving them and sharing the love of Christ with them.
My team and team Alvah came to Santiago a week ago and have been teaching English camp at 2 different locations. My team is working in CienFuegos (a.k.a. the city trash dump). I am in love with the place and the kids we are ministering to. I will write a blog about it later because it definitely deserves its own.
So, I’m going to be honest. The world race is hard and I have already experienced a hundred different emotions; some good and some not so good. But the good definitely outweigh the bad and God never stops showing up. My team had one of the coolest things happen to us this past Tuesday. We were riding the local bus home from our ministry site when this teenage boy got on and began to sell candy. A few minutes later, this boy stands up on his seat and starts passionately speaking. Our translator, Junior, tells us that he is reciting Psalm 121. He has the attention of every single person on the bus. He then goes into John 3:16 and then on to Matthew 25. He then proceeds to tell everyone that he is not ashamed to preach the gospel and he hopes that everyone wants to see him in heaven one day. He then asks the bus if anyone would like to give his or her life to Christ. No joke, 7 people and the bus driver all raise their hands. He prays for them and then sits back down. We all just kind of look at each other with huge smiles on our faces and are like “did that just happen?” We ask Junior to ask him his name and how old he is. His name is Alginis and he is 13 years old. Kelly then asks him what his religion is and his response was read “John 7:38.” We all pull out our Bibles and this is what we read “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of flowing water will flow within them.” God used a 13 year old boy to call each of us out of our comfort and to be bold in our faith. I mean… I am on the race because I want to share the Gospel, yet I hesitate because of the way I might be perceived. Well that doesn’t fly with God and His message was clear as could be on Tuesday… “Be bold.” My challenge to all of you reading this is to also try and be bold this year. Who knows, it could be life changing.
Love to all of you,
Rachel
