noche de albanza!!

Lately, God has been rockin my prayers. He’s good at that, being almighty and all :]

It’s been on my heart to be truly intentional at making an impact my last week here in San Juan and Barracones. I’ve been praying for guidance and a clear vision of what that looks like. And the past couple of days have been awesome! God has opened up my heart even more for the DR and this culture this week…

– Sunday we had a “block partyâ€� for the neighborhood. Our vision for it was more targeted towards forming relationships with the adults in the community, but God had other plans. We ended up cooking rice, chicken and juice for all the kidos instead. Not many adults/parents came at all, but I felt God moving in those little ones.

– Monday night, our translator Frank, invited us to his youth church service. It was basically like The Porch for you Watermarkians but in Spanish. They had a band and I even recognized one of the songs… How great is our God! It was such a humbling time to see how God is moving in the DR just like back home in the states.

– On Tuesday, a lady from the church we met the first week on a prayer walk named Francesca, asked Stacey and Dan if they would want her to teach us how to cook a traditional DR meal. It was amazing!! To see, watch, help and of course eat, yummm. It was a super fun day to spend with her family.

– Today however, was icing on the cake!! I got to spend some really good quality time with my amigos Nohemy (Naomi), 16, and Mari, 12. These girls have been bringing smiles to my face the whole time we have been here. We shared pictures of our families (Dan-they said we’re beautiful lol), helped cleaned dishes and talked about Jesus :]

We’ve asked some of the big kids to memorize John 3:16, and Mari was reciting it for me (yay!) when she handed me a piece of paper that said: “Jesus me ama. Y poreso muero en la cruz por mi pecado.� Which is: “Jesus loves me. He died on the cross for my sin.� wow. I just prayed right then and there for this little girl. She said she talks to her friends about Jesus all the time because it’s what we are called to do. Man, if I had only had a heart of understanding and love like Mari does when I was 12!

When I first met Nohemy, she told me she believes in Jesus but she’s not a Christian because she doesn’t go to church. This is a very common belief here in San Juan. Today when I asked her, said she wouldn’t go to heaven because she’s not a Christian, because she doesn’t go to church… you see the dilemma of confusion. I’ve been sharing with her that God longs for a relationship with her whether she attends church on Sundays or not. That we’re not saved by our works and deeds, but it is through our faith. That our salvation is a FREE gift. By believing with our hearts and confessing with our tongues that Jesus is our Savior is all we have to do. But also that through forming a relationship with Christ we begin to change our old ways of sin because we love our Savior. She said she understood. Well the other day Nohemy got a really bad burn on the inside of her foot from riding a motorcycle. She told me today that Jesus didn’t love her because He hadn’t healed her foot. My heart broke. We explained that that did not mean He didn’t love her and then prayed for healing. That through pain and endurance God changes us to be more like Christ. We prayed for Nohemy to have faith that she will be healed. Our God IS a healer and I know He heard our prayers.

Today was a good day and an even a better ending to San Juan. We have one more day of ministry tomorrow and then we leave Sunday bright and early at 5AM for Haiti. Blog on that coming up sooon… :]

**FUN sidenote: we had extra money in our budget so the past couple of days we’ve been able to afford the local transportation home from our ministry site instead of the 45 minute walk. And by local transportation I mean two of us Americans smushed on the back of a motorcycle bike. IT ROCKS. Nothing beats the cool breeze blowing in your face… despite the fact that you are squished up like a sardine to the Dominican man who keeps telling you you are beautiful when you are the dirtiest and smelliest you have ever been in your life. ahh life on the world race :]