A snapshot of the Dominican Mission Trip

So much happened in a short period of time it is difficult to put into words. Leaving for O’Hare airport brought excitement, wonder, and a little anxiety. While waiting to board our plane a gentleman asked about our group, our plans, our matching shirts, and said and amazing prayer over us to start our journey off. This moment truly showed me that God was in charge and my job was to simply follow the instructions He laid before me. In Miami we met a team going into the mountains a short ways from where we would be along with the team that was accidentally double-booked for the week we were to be in Jarabacoa. Hundreds of thoughts raced through my head about how God is using all these people and our small team of eight to show off iH  His amazing love. Finally; arrival in Santiago, Dominican Republic, an interesting trip through customs, and out the door to be greeted by our favorite Katie Green, who’s smile was also an amazing symbol of His love.  

After our first night’s rest in our week long accommodations we got up and went to church, the first real interaction with the Dominican people. Church was exciting and full of joy and praise, partially translated for us foreigners, and surround in love even if there were no walls around us. After the service we had a quick lunch (beans and rice) and then went to the Ark to play with the children. Here I found myself at a complete loss for words. They were all so beautiful, happy, loving, and full of joy, and many of them had come from nothing, the worst conditions imaginable in our society didn’t even compare to some of the stories of these earthly angels. We played trucks and with balls, some of our team went off to have coffee in one of the houses, and we all met back together with smiles and laughter as we played. The Ark is unique in the fact that, while an orphanage, they do not do any adoption of the children. Children are brought in from families who know they cannot provide for them, those who were abandoned, and those who were abused, broken, and even sold to live in one of nine homes with Dominican parents. There is usually between three to eight children in each home along with the house parents and their biological children. The design is simple in the fact that it simulates growing up with a stable family environment. We finished our first full day with dinner and ice cream with the team, Katie, Q, and Derrek and his family as they explained life in the D.R.

Q or Quentin was our personal translator for the week, he was on his last week of a several week internship in the D.R. and we were lucky enough to have him as part of our team. Monday morning is when our work started, digging ditches, tearing down a small building, lots of painting, and hand mixing concrete. As I looked around I could see our appreciation and joy for just being able to experience this kept us from really thinking about how difficult the work we were doing was. By noon we were exhausted but looking forward to the afternoon reward of lunch at the Ark and swimming in a waterfall high in the mountains. Lunch at the Ark was among the ultimate highlights of my trip. We finally got to see how our small monthly sacrifice was affecting Yasue, our sponsor child at the Ark. We got to have lunch in his home, with his family, including his biological brother and sister. We heard his story from the house mom, gave him Hot Wheels (his favorite toy) and then got to spend time playing with him. It did not matter that I could not understand him nor him understand me, our smiles and laughter were the communication God intended for us to share that day, and there was an abundance of it. The waterfall was amazing, we all experienced great joy while swimming there but the smile on my face was all about lunch, also watching my daughter and my wife jumping off the rocks behind the falls but mostly from our amazing lunch experience. Dinner and a recap of the day with the team finished our first workday and sent us all, even if the beds were sub-par, to a restful night’s sleep.

Tuesday brought on the next morning of work at Anija, the school we were scheduled to work at for the week. With more painting, some rough construction work, and preparing the ditch with cement framework to make a small wall we all continued with our hard but rewarding morning. On this morning I began to notice the team moving a little slower but still in awe of all that was going on. This morning also brought forth the first appearance of Presto the clown, as Jed put on his gear to entertain the children. With a great soup for lunch at Anija we then went to a small home/church for afternoon Vacation Bible School. Carmen our host was an amazing leader in this community and shares an exploding love for the Lord. We sang songs, learned a little Spanish and then broke into three small groups, one led by Carmen for bible stories, one for games, and one for crafts. The community children behaved a little different in comparison to the Anija and Ark children. These children come from off the streets around the church and some reflected the behaviors of the stories we had heard the day before of the children now living at the Ark. The craft section took place in the parking area of a cock fighting arena and games took place in a dirt field covered in broken glass and animal bones. This was a true culture shock for our team and each one processed it a little differently, adding in the fact that on the first day there were 48 children and only 2 translators. It was amazing for my daughter to see how these children live in comparison to her life here at home. The sun was hot, the children were more difficult to keep under foot, and the two men sleeping on the ground under a canopy at the fight arena made the afternoon that much more interesting. We were able to swim at our villa that evening before bed and process our day, feeling stressed but still blessed. 

Wednesday I was greeted with the pain of too much sun the previous days leaving me feeling ill and somewhat useless, I continued to work but at a much slower pace. VBS saw 15 more children than the previous day and a large group of men eerily gambling at the arena next door. Thursday we again put in more hard work, the second day in a row of making concrete by moving 10 wheel barrels of sand, 7 of gravel, and 5 and a half bags of concrete mix, hand mixed with shovels and moved to the wall form via assembly line and buckets. We had a total of 72 at VBS that day and this was the first time that I saw most if not all the members of the team worn out, beat up, and looking forward to going home. Even with these thoughts of exhaustion and stress all it took was one little thing to bring back our joy and excitement to be there, that night it was dinner and swimming with Katie and talking about how we have all grown so far. We also talked about how great it was to see the children at Anija so excited about water day, activities that children here stateside would consider boring like shampoo and water on a tarp to slide, a playground slide wet by a hose and filled with paint to slide down, and a tire obstacle course followed by a visit from the firemen and a large fire hose. It is about $40 per person to go to the water park here, maybe more and I have never seen anyone at Mt. Olympus have the fun that these children did. Tired, homesick, and feeling selfish, sometimes God answers prayers to show us what we need to work on tomorrow.

Friday brought forth our final day of work at Anija. We tore the form off to expose our new concrete wall, we did some rough framing and siding work on the shack we tore down to rebuild earlier in the week and we continued painting. Sayje ended up with more paint on her than on her project, which was followed by paint thinner to remove it, followed by tears because of the burning from the paint thinner, and ending with a laugh because Sayje was still a little red in places. We spent the afternoon at the river swimming and rock diving with Katie and all her summer interns. Jed and I panned for gold and found about 16 pesos worth maybe a little more, and we just enjoyed the afternoon. While it was not a really long stressful day as the days past many of us were back to that urgency to just go home. It was then, in my opinion, the grandest part of the trip happened. We were invited back to the Ark to watch Gran Circulo, a talent contest put on every Friday by the children of the Ark during the summer, and this was the last one of the year. There were dancers, and singers, and lip-syncing, and joy, love, and celebration like I had never experienced. This is already a long post and I could easily double it by telling you about Gran Circulo so I will just leave it with saying that God showed us our true blessings for doing His work all week and that He loves us so much to let us be part of this experience. If you want to hear more I would consider sharing all about it when you buy me coffee and Coffee Bean. That night we went to bed excited about our trip, still missing home but overjoyed to be there during all these moments.

Saturday we headed to the beach for a final day at an all-inclusive resort. We ate, and swam in the ocean, and went snorkeling around the reefs with hundreds of fish, and ate some more, and finished the evening watching a perfect ocean sunset. We were up at 3 to travel to the airport, ready for our trip to conclude, home in our own beds, and with our families. Fifteen hours later and we were there. I wish I could say this is where the journey ended but I truly believe this is where the journey began. Now that I am home I am thinking more about God’s plan for me, how so many around the world live on so little while I worry about how to pay for so much, how much I miss seeing all those children smiling, hearing them talk in a language I may never fully understand, and the deep relationships that were cultivated in such a short time that I know will last forever in His kingdom. I realize this post is longer than any others before and as stated above this is just a snippet of our 9 day journey. I hope that all of you who read this get the chance to sit down with one of us from this trip, with a friend who has been on one similar, or even go on one yourself because it truly transforms your life. Blessings my friends.

Almost Prepared

In 48 hours I will have completely left my little world, my daily routine, my comfort zone, and even my time zone to embark on journey sure to change my world view and my relationship with others and most importantly God. As my oldest daughter, my amazing wife, Holly, 5 others and myself fly into a foreign land most of us have only read about or seen pictures of, poverty beyond our scope of imagination, needs that are life crucial there that we take for granted as daily living here. I began today, nearly a year after starting this process of getting to go on this trip to feel anxious. The preparing has been quite a process and now that we are down to the last 48 hours of packing, learning a little Spanish, and praying for a safe trip I am left wondering what God has planned for me, will I be strong enough to endure what He has in store or being willing enough to let Him show me what needs to be done. Ephesians 2:10 says; “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Obviously H

His word says He has already prepared us so that we can walk the path He has chosen, to do the good work He has designed, but am I willing. As a drug counselor in a 12 step program one of the first things we ask of clients is, do you believe you are powerless and are ready to give up and let God do it?” I know find myself being asked that same question, and I believe I can truly answer, I can’t, He can, I’ll let Him. As we get ready for this journey I just ask my family and friends for prayers of safety and that we all leave with open hearts ready for full growth. I do not underestimate the hardships we may endure over the next week and I fully expect there to be many, I can only hope that as James 1:2-4 tells us we should consider our trials, our hardships pure joy as our faith is tested we shall grow in perseverance and begin to fully mature. How amazing would it be to fully mature in the eyes of God. To our friends and family I pray we come back changed in a way that shows the pure salt and light of Christ in our lives and it affects you lovingly and to the Dominican Republic Mission Team from New Life, 2013, God Speed.  

Losing myself

I have made a decision to change my life. This includes changing what and when I eat, when I go to bed and get up, how I treat my friends, family, and wife, how often I pray, and how much time I spend in God’s word. Over the last several days I have been inspired to do so and I know that this is the Holy Spirit telling me it is time, time to reset and reboot mind, body, and soul. So what’s the plan?

Well it starts by detoxing just like I ask people to do when they come see me at work. For the next 10 days Holly and I will fast, living only on juice from fruits and vegetables. This will not be an easy task for me, I dislike veggies and love meat but we are told in Mark 9:23 "‘if you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for one who believes." This fast will help detox and restart the body. I plan on pairing this with walking, swimming, and light workouts at the gym.

It has been said by many that if you detox the body the mind will follow, allowing you to think more clearly, balance emotions more rationally, and feel less depressed or anxious. I also intend to feed my mind with God’s word, useful information about mission work, and healthy readings. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” Seems like a pretty good reason to spend some time looking at it.

Proper rest will also help the cycle of rebooting happen. Going to bed earlier, getting up a little earlier is not only healthier but also increases metabolism. Plus God commands us to rest so that we are capable of doing the good work He asks us to do. Matthew 28:11-13 says “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Sounds like a good plan to me.

And finally I will do my best to change my attitude, treating others with kindness, respect, and love. I consciously do so already but sometimes when out in the world trying to be nice and kind I use up the energy I need to be superman for my family. They end up getting what is left of me instead of the best of me. 1Timothy 3:2 says “now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, and able to teach.” I would love to be these things all the time as I want to be the strong leader of this home and in our community, showing people God’s amazing transformative love.

Finally I know that all of this will take lots of prayer and even more faith. But I looked in the Bible and it seems faith can do anything if put in the right place, Jesus. Matthew 17:20 shows us this example, He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Jesus says we can tell a mountain to get out of our way and it will. This is what I need because those of you who have seen me lately know that I am the size of a mountain. I am ready to take this journey, a journey with my wife, my family, all of you, and most importantly my God.